Dec. 6 at Sea then Princess Cays Dec. 7

Aren’t sea days just the best.  I know lots of people don’t like them, they say they get bored but I don’t ever recall getting bored on a sea day.  The key to them is relaxation, no rushing, the time is all yours.  Do what you want.

 

I head out to get a latte and a tea for Bernie and we enjoy them on the balcony.  Later Bernie heads up to the horizon court for breakfast (he loves his oatmeal) and brings me back lots of fruit and cottage cheese.  Ahhh nothing better, breakfast, latte and reading a good book.  In fact I am almost finished my second book.

 

There is another Zumba class today with Mark and thankfully it is scheduled for the Club Fusion and it went so much better, lots of room, and it was air conditioned.  Lets hope this is a regular thing.  After Zumba I head up to the gym for a further workout and meet up with Bernie who is there doing his physio and then cardio.

 

After showering we head up on deck to enjoy the sunshine.  The weather is perfect, not too hot, a nice breeze and a few clouds to keep us cool.  But don’t be fooled that sun is strong and we both have at least 30 spf on to be safe, but we both have good color already.  Lunch is burger/fries for me and Bernie opts for the hot dog and fries (regrets it later and advises me to keep him away from hot dogs from now). 

 

The crew host pool games and volleyball, and there is an ice carving demonstration too.  The band Fusion plays and life is great.  After three hours we know we have to get out of the sun, especially since tomorrow is Princess Cays and another sun day.

 

Every day I pick up the Sudoku puzzle in the library and I have a stack of them so I am doing a few of them this afternoon, a little harder to do now that I am enjoying a vodka and 7. 

 

Tonight is the second formal night and we are participating, a rare thing for us.  We are dressed to the nines.  We stop for a drink in the Atrium bar, I can say the Captain’s Bounty is a great drink, four different rums!

 

We meet up with our friend Al for dinner, we are sat at Ciska’s section again with Terasita.  It has been a long time since we have had this menu.  I start with the shrimp, scallops, crab appetizer which was okay, a little too salty and didn’t finish it.  I had the endive salad and Bernie had the roasted tomato soup, which he raved about.  For my entrée I had the lobster and shrimp and it was just right, cooked to perfection, again a little too salty for me but that seems to be the norm on board.  I will say I have had a lot of seafood this voyage and every single item has been cooked to perfection.

 

me and Ciska

Al, myself, and Bernie

After dinner we head to the Explorer’s lounge to catch Justin Flom’s act.  http://justinflom.com/ He is a magician/comedian, very young guy who has his lovely wife in his act.  It is sad that the ship keeps spelling his name wrong.  Loved his opening video, his ring trick, and then his final trick with music and turning cards over (have to see it to see what we are talking about, check out his website and he has youtube videos too. 

 

It is now late and we are beat (yeah really).  Tomorrow is Princess Cays and the final day on board for many people, but from the sounds of it there a lot doing back to backs.

  

Princess Cays

Can’t help but get woken up by the anchor going down and the tenders being put in the water.  But knowing that my day will be spent on the beautiful island makes it worth it.  Bernie delivers a latte and some fruit and we relax.

 

We head to the tender around 10 am, we join a group with tender tickets #3 and a man was a little annoyed at us as he thought we butt in.  He is not aware that as an elite member you get priority tendering and all we have to do is head to the tender station from the ship, note priority tendering doesn’t work from ashore though.

 

We head to our favorite location on the island, way way to the left near the cabanas.  Lots of people don’t head that far out as it is a ways away from a lot of things but it is quiet and we like it.

 

Bernie right away heads into the water to do some snorkeling, he loves it he says and he has noticed the coral has really grown.  We enjoy barbecue lunch of burgers, ribs, salads, chicken etc.  It was the perfect day I didn’t want to head back to the ship but at least I know we will be back here in 10 days.

 

We are torn, dinner tonight is Landfall menu, so so for us and since we promised to go watch the last production show with Al in it which starts at 8:45 we are torn of what to do.  Do we go to the dining room or do we go to the Café Caribe.  I don’t want to eat early so we head up to the Café Carib which is the first time we have dinner up there, again another oddity this voyage, normally we eat about half the time in the dining room, half the time in Café Caribe, but this voyage we have mainly dined in the dining rooms or the specialty restaurants.  Tonight’s theme up there is Creole, the pepper pot soup is very good and I had turkey with a piece of chocolate cheesecake for dessert.  We noticed another familiar face, Roy our head waiter from our first Panama cruise is now a supervisor.  He was an excellent waiter I am sure he is an excellent supervisor too.

 

We quickly head back to the cabin to pick up Jasper and the camera and see we have a message on the phone, we listen and it is Cesar from the boutiques.  When we bought our watches we entered the draw (with the Passport to Savings Booklet) and Bernie’s name was drawn.  He is excited as he has won a watch, then I hear it is a woman’s watch, and now I am excited.  It is a beautiful Citizen’s watch.  Thanks Princess.

 

Bernie being presented his prize, a Citizen watch from Cesar

Jasper relaxing before his big performance with Al

Al is performing tonight and he taking Jasper up on stage with him, of course Jasper needs to clean himself up first for the big performance so we get him and then meet up with Al for him to take charge of the moose.  The show opened with Justin Flom again http://justinflom.com/ , he was very funny tonight and then he picked me to go up on stage to assist with a trick.  Well I could explain the whole event but I’ve been sworn to secrecy!  Truly I was blown away and was very impressed by Justin and his magic.  I like it, it is fun, it is lighthearted, it is young (not the old tricks you have seen forever), he has music, and he adds comedy and it is a breath of fresh magic.

 

yup me on stage with Justin

Al is the next act http://alkatz.net/ and again have to say I liked tonight’s show even better.  The crowd around us was laughing their head off.  I like that he doesn’t particularly make fun of a group of people, just people in general, and no one is safe, not even his friends.  Jasper is sitting on top of his cds on the stool, standing proud and Al even mentions him.  How cool Al for including our travel mascot in your act.

 

check out Jasper up on stage, and oh yeah Al too

The ship is quiet tonight, Princess Pop Star is happening in Club Fusion but we are so tired, with little sleep last night and no nap today my day is off.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day with arriving in Fort Lauderdale early and the masses getting off.  I have heard there are 170 people doing turn around!  Wow that is the most I have ever seen.  It is making us wonder about when we want to get off.  Normally we go with the turn around group and then leave the ship later and return in the afternoon but something tells me it could be a long turnaround, normally it is a half hour maximum, but could be longer tomorrow.

 

We have invited some neighbours over for drinks for sailaway tomorrow along with Al so we have to stock up for that.