At Sea Day – Pure Bliss with a Bit of Grumpy Thrown In

As you know from my earlier blog I did not sleep well cause of the mattress and the tossing and turning and my aches and pains.  So I was a little grumpy and needed some space, which isn’t always easy to do on a cruise ship.

Bernie is dealing with the mattress issue with our steward.  They are going to look at adding padding and/or possibly changing the mattress.  I miss our old room, or at least its mattress.

So I head down to the Piazza to enjoy my latte (with a cool Princess Seawitch created in the foam by Ryan).  I write my blog and read for a while before heading back to the cabin.

When I arrive in the cabin there is a surprise for me.  Bernie bought me my early Valentine’s present a 50^th Anniversary Princess charm for my Pandora bracelet.  It helped that I led him into the shop and pointed it out and said that is the one I want.  But hey I have the best husband in the world. To see more Princess 50th Anniversary items click here.

Lunch is up in the Horizon Court with the sushi buffet (but there are tons of other options if you are not into sushi).  We sit with Jim and Lynne and catch up on what they have been up to.

I should add that they had the Wine Tasting today at 11:15 today (this is the one that you get to go to with your elite status and costs $9.50 per person if you are not elite).  But we missed it again, sadly we did not make it to any of these wine tastings this voyage.  We tried but with too much wine consumption last night and little sleep we are just not up to it.

The weather is nice, not too hot, muggy and very windy.  Seas have been affected by this wind too and we do notice some light movement on board that continues most of the day and into the evening.

So it is after lunch and we are both in the cabin, we watch a great movie called One Good Lie.  We are so tired and we need a nap.  When I wake I am feeling a lot better and the bed has an added pad on it and it is a bit better.

We head to the Elite Lounge to meet up with friends and we run into Alice and meet her friends who she has talked about for a long time.  After a lot of laughs we decide to head in to see the comedian Phil Tag.  When his show starts we laugh a lot (we have seen him before but he had a lot of new material) and it was good to laugh. 

When the show ends it is hard to get out of the theater.  I am shocked to see people lining the corridors on both sides and near the elevators and into the hallways.  This is crazy!

The show doesn’t start for another half hour!  There is lots of room in the theater.  What is worse is it is hard to clear the theater because of all these people.  Sorry I just don’t get it.  My advice, take a seat somewhere and wait for the crowds to exit then head in and grab a seat. 

It is time for dinner and we walk into the Symphony Dining room.  We take a seat at our table.  Daniel and Inna welcome us and open up our champagne for us as we raise our glasses to toast another great day.  We love dining just the two of us most night.  It is time for us to reconnect and talk and share and feel the love… sounds like an Elton John song.

The dining room is not as crazy as it was yesterday but Daniel’s section is busy but things seems to be better spread out in the dining room. 

We had a great meal.  The food on board has been fabulous.  I love the variety and quality.  Sure sometimes things are not always to my liking but hey even at home I make things that are not always to my liking. 

We stroll out of the dining room, feeling good.  We run into Michael the Hotel General Manager who is out checking out things.  I am impressed cause I see him clearing some cups left on a table.  I comment “oh did you get demoted” and he smiles and says “it is teamwork”.  I think this is why this ships shines and the crew work so well together.  When you can have the big boss cleaning a table to help out you know you have someone who understands. 

Lots is happening around the ship.  Team Rootberry is performing their juggling act in the Atrium; MUTS is Guardians of the Galaxy; Treasure Quest Gameshow; Martini Demonstration; Karaoke; Ballroom Dancing with the Royal Showband in the Atrium (which I have to say in the Atrium is stunning to watch); The Yes/No Gameshow; and Rock and Roll Night in the Vista Lounge.

But we are wanting to check out the Into the Flow Fountains show.  But we head up in our bathing suits and sit in the Jacuzzi up on deck 17.  Now how cool is that, well actually hot.  We cuddle and watch the MUTS screen and the trivia and try to answer the questions.  When the fountain show starts we face the show and get sprayed with water from it.  It is fun!  I feel like a kid and I feel great. 

Life is Good.

Saturday May 11 - At Sea

We have a restful sleep and are awake early but anything past 3:30 is sleeping in for us as that is the time our alarm usually goes off at.  We awake today around 6 and we both comment on what a good sleep we had. 

It is overcast outside, and foggy and in the distance I can hear the fog horn - since we have a more aft cabin it is less noticeable, but for those up front you would certainly hear it.  Looks like it is either raining slightly or there is spray coming from the ocean.  But we don't care we are on a ship and we don't have to work.

We tune into the morning show and it is nice to see Richard Joseph the cruise director and he is even doing wake show questions.  

After a quick glance at the Patters we see that Zumba is happening at 8 am and I force myself to get up and head to it.  I loved doing it on other ships and want to see how this ship compares.  First it is held in the Universe Lounge (which has a much larger area to work with) and Eve is hosting it and she has a huge following from the Panama cruise and we get into it.  It went on for 40 minutes and we all worked up a good sweat.

I wander down to the coffee bar where of course I run into Bernie who is sipping his tea.  I get my latte and relax for a bit, and I swear an hour passed in a minute.

After a quick shower I need some food but it is pretty much lunch soon so I hold off and head up to the Horizon Court for a bite.  

There is a Holiday at Sea sale today and I pop my head in and I am surprised at how quiet it is, but I am sure with the 700 in transit from the Panama many have already done their buying.   

I wish I could say we did something exciting but we really didn't.  We just relaxed, read, had coffee, chatted with passengers and well that is about it.    Oh we did run into Joel the Executive Chef down in the International Cafe and we caught up with what has been happening with him.  

We decide to head to the Grapevine Wine Tasting and are sat with six other people and we had a nice afternoon there, but it was all the same wines.  Really enjoyed when the Emerald had a few different wines to try.  

When we get back to our cabin we see that they have delivered some chocolates and chocolate covered strawberries courtesy of Executive Chef Joel.  How sweet!  We decide to enjoy our champagne tonight before dinner in the cabin and it goes very well with the chocolates.  Thanks Joel!

Tonight since we are not that hungry and since we had a nap after that champagne we decide to head to the 7:45 Spotlight Showtime featuring Comedian Phil Tag.  We rarely go to the early show and we are shocked when we walk in at 7:40 that the place is PACKED.  We are told by the staff that it is okay to sit in some of the rear rows that are reserved for those with disabilities.  So we take a seat and the show starts very soon after. 

I am impressed that Richard Joseph the CD actually came out on stage to do the introduction.  That is one thing I was disappointed with in Lee Childs, he prerecords his intros and only makes a physical appearance at the end.  So thank you Richard we liked seeing you prior and after the show.

The comedian Phil Tag had his moments but all in all it was 45 minutes I would of rather have been doing something else.  Bernie liked him more than I, but humour is such a personal thing so give him a chance if you run into him on board.

After the show we head into the dining room for dinner and agree to sit with others.  We are sat at a table for six with two other couples, one from Alberta and one from California.  We enjoyed each other's company and getting to know each other better. 

For dinner I had the French Onion Soup to start and it was okay, very salty (which seems to be a trend on this ship), a nice salad, then for my entree I had the Pad Thai and it was good (but too salty again).  I opted out of the dessert and got my cheese plate instead.

One thing we notice is the menu is a combination of items from other menus.  Like they had escargot and then other items that are normally on different menu nights.  Guess with this three day repo they looked at what they could put together and made up new menus for it.  

We wander the ship dropping in on various venues to see what is happening but nothing really grabs us.  We are in bed at 11:30.

Other things happening tonight; MUTS is showing Life of Pi (but the weather really made this impossible to enjoy); Rock and Roll Night in Universe; Music and Dancing with Phoenix Rising; Dan Hodge in Crooners and Light Jazz with Celine DeeAz Quartet in Bayou Bar.