Barbados – February 11, 2015

We wake and turn on the Wake Show.  We really miss Lisa Ball, she was such a great host.  She worked so well with Toby (Simone prior) and DJ Shea.  It just isn’t the same with Peter Tredgett. 

He isn’t the our cup of tea and that is all I will say about it.

We dock only at 9 am so we decided to go to the dining room for breakfast.  The first time we have been there for breakfast.  It is rare I am up and dress and presentable in time to get to the dining room.  Plus the buffet is so good on board and it fast.

So Concerto dining room is open for breakfast and we get a lovely table for two right by the window.  We enjoy a leisurely meal and we discuss what we want to do today.

Originally we were going to head back to the beach and Lobster Alive (located right beside the Boatyard).  But it is busy and we are really trying to try new things this voyage. 

Earlier in the cruise we had asked Trevor Cole the Steel Pan player who is from Barbados and he recommended trying out Weiser Beach Bar on Brandon Beach which is relatively close to the pier. 

So we slather on the sun screen and gather our beach gear.  We head off the ship around 10 am and walk thru the port building (oh we are docked the furthest away again with two other cruise ships in port – Carnival Valor and a Silverseas ship).  We are going to take a taxi to the beach but we always walk thru the parking lot past the taxi vans and out the port.  Taxi drivers are right at the gate and offering rides.  Bernie asks a guy for how much to Brandon Beach and we are offered $4 per person, originally it was $5 but he quickly said $4.  It isn’t really far and at home it would be about a $15 taxi ride. 

We are dropped off right at Weiser Bar, which has drinks, food and there is someone there that you can rent chairs/umbrellas from.  But we want to walk and check out the beach further.

We walk for about a half hour, the whole beach is so quiet that it is rare to even see people.  Occasionally you will run into a couple or family on the beach but then it is a long distance before someone else appears.  We walk past homes and keep walking for about a half hour where we decide to put our towels down under some trees for shade. 

It is HOT at least in the 30s and the winds are high again.  

Right away we head into the water and we lounge around and relax.  I did do a bit of snorkeling but with the high winds the water is not as clear and there is no real reef here so I just checked out some small fish.  It is the perfect beach day.

After about 3 hours we pack up and start walking back.  Another half hour walk back to Weiser’s bar and we decide we could easily walk back to the ship.  We walk up onto the road at the end of the beach and there is the Mount Gay Rum Factory (which you can tour).  We walk to the round about and then go to the right and then we are on the main street near the pier. 

We head to Rolli’s restaurant which is right near the port gate.  We were here last year and fell in love with their famous drink “Corn and Oil” can’t recall what is in it but I did take a picture of the menu so will report back.  But if you like rum you will like this and quite reasonably priced and oh free wifi!

Now I am not doing well… the walk from the beach (about an hour in total) was not comfortable to do in beach wear.  Also the heat is high and I haven’t drunk enough water.  When we get back to the port building all I want to do is get into the cabin.  The heat is affecting me to the point I feel nauseous and I can’t seem to cool down. 

As soon as I am in the cabin I get into the shower and cool off.  I should know better, after having heat stroke a few years ago I seem to be affected by the heat and at work in the summer I take steps to ensure I stay hydrated, I need to do the same when on vacation. 

We have a nap in the cool of the cabin.  We sail today at 6 pm and it is so great that we were in port for the whole day.  Normally we leave early.  I am really liking the order of the ports and the times in ports this leg.

Down in Vines for pre dinner drinks we order a bottle of wine and Frankie and Ryan take such good care of us.  We really appreciate all they do. 

The Atrium is getting busy, the International Music Event is happening soon.  It is a great show not to be missed, but we have seen it twice now and we have other plans.

Dr. Dylan Belton, so happy to see him again

Tonight we are honoured to be asked to join some of our friends.  Dylan is heading on vacation at the end of this voyage and coordinated a lovely diner. (in total we are 12) and we enjoy an amazing meal.  Lots of laughs, excellent wine, and great food, probably some of the best food I have ever had.  Thank you chef David! 

When we say goodbye we stroll back to the cabin and we feel so blessed.   Vacations are not only about the places we visit, the passengers and being together.  It is about the relationships we have developed.  We don’t take any of it for granted, and tonight it has grown even more.  Of course invites go out to get in touch with us when they come to Vancouver. 

Lots of other things going on tonight:  Texas Hold’em Players; The Magic Hotel Starring Master Illusionist David Cats; The Alphabet Trivia Gameshow; MUTS – The Maze Runner; Vista is showing The Equalizer; The 60 Second Challenge Gameshow; TV Theme Trivia; Fountains are showing “Into the Flow”; Karaoke Madness; and DJ Shea is in Club 6.

They have Scratch Card Tickets where you can win up to $100,000.  On sale is the new GoPro Hero4 Silver for $399.  Drink of the day is the 24K Gold Margarita.  The Spa is offering the Top to Toe includes a muscle melting full body massage, soothing foot and head massage plus a spa facial 75 minutes for $139.  They are also doing a free technology workshop where you can learn about smartphones (great idea).

St. Kitts – February 10, 2015

We are awaken by the sound of a knock at the door.  It is 7:15 and one consistent thing is room service always comes early.  We asked for 7:30 – 8 but it always is early.  So plan accordingly.  Then they were missing an item and we had to track the room service attendant down to tell her, surprisingly she asked “do you want me to get it” ahhh “yeah”. 

Today we are heading back to the beach club that we went to the last time.  Carambola Beach Club which is located on South Friars Beach.  We are a group of 9.  Lew from the roll call coordinated the day.  He made a reservation for the 9 of us, which was a very good thing because the port is busy today! 

We are docked at the main pier beside a Costa ship.  A Royal Caribbean ship is at the older more industrial pier.  The Seadream Legend 2 is tendering people into the small dock at South Friars Beach.  And there is a Seaborn ship also in the harbour.  I have never seen it so busy here.

We meet in the International Café as a group and head ashore together.  As soon as we get to the main gate taxi drivers are trying to get our business.  We agree to go with one guy but then he says to hold on and wait.  Nope we don’t want to wait, so we all head outside the gate into the square.  Right away we meet Tony and he takes all of us right away to his van.  Price to South Friars (and all spots on the island) are fixed priced of $4 each person. 

The ride is not long and when we arrive at the beach club there are a few people in line.  Problem is that the staff have not arrived to take payment and start the computers.

I am not sure why they would not have them starting early considering how many reservations they have and all the ships in port.  Some of us head out to the beach to pick out chairs while our partners wait to pay.  Price is $10 per lounge chair and $10 for an umbrella.

But again it seems they are not expecting the crowds.  The one beach guy is running around like a fool trying to get umbrellas up and cushions for the chairs.

We are now settled, our view is the water with the Seadream ship.  The water is very rough today, and the waves are crashing against the beach.  Much rougher than last time. 

I went snorkeling, actually followed Bernie and wow I saw a turtle, actually snorkeled with him for about five minutes.  When I turned around to head back to the beach it was a struggle cause of the current and the winds.  But I made it but if you are not a strong swimmer be careful.

Sea Dream Yacht

Back on the beach we relaxed, swam, walked, had a nice meal, and slept.  We just wish it wasn’t so crazy busy.

Beautiful view - Caribbean on the right, Atlantic on the left

Port stores

All aboard is 3:30 so we arranged for Tony to come back at 2:30 but he sent another driver Greg to pick us up.  No problem we got back to the pier at around 2:45 and we did a bit of shopping and then back on board. 

Trevor plays at sailaway

Nevis on the right

Sailaway was stunning and we are excited to see we are sailing past Nevis and we usually go the other way.  So we head up on the top deck to take some pictures and listen to Trevor Cole play his steel pan. 

Tonight is the German Buffet night and since we didn’t make it to it either of the two earlier cruises we are not going to dress up for dinner.  We start out with a drink in the Platinum/Elite Lounge cause I love me a Mojito to start the evening. 

The food up in the Horizon Court is amazing.  The sausages, the schnitzel, the spätzle, the stew, the salads… oh and so much more.  We finish off our meal by sharing a Black Forest Cake.

We partake in some Beatles Trivia, then down to Vines to watch Rootberry juggling act and to finish off our bottle of wine.  Federico joins us for a glass and we get to meet Mathew who just joined this sailing as the Future Cruise Consultant. 

Oh I forgot to mention the funniest comment we heard today.  We are in the midship elevator and we get off on deck 7 and as we get off this woman says “does this elevator go to deck 6?”  I swear you can’t make this stuff up.  I really wanted to say, oh sorry it only goes to odd numbered decks.  

We wander around a bit and check in on the “where am I” trivia.  We actually don’t do too bad.

But all I want to do is go back to the cabin and watch a movie “The Other Woman” on the comedy section and we are laughing our heads off.

What is happening on board you say?  Lots:  Country and Western Night; Production Show What the World Needs Now; MUTS is showing the Hundred-Foot Journey; Country & Western Trivia; Line Dance Classes; Hollywood You?  Gameshow; and the regular musicians.  

Fort Lauderdale February 7, 2015 Beginning of Next Leg

We wake early.  Almost always impossible to sleep in on turn around day.  We toss and turn a bit and we agree we should get the wash in early and done early.

The laundry is located close to our cabin and it is quick and easy to get tokens for the machines since you can scan your cruise card and then charge it to your account. 

With the laundry in we head up to Horizon Court for a small bite to eat.  The place is busy, but because of the better layout it flows so much better and seating is not really a problem today.  Staff quickly ask if we need juice, coffee or tea and replenish the glasses too.

We know there are a lot of in transit passengers today (in transit means passengers are staying on for the next leg too).  I have been told it is just under 400 passengers.   

Today we have the option of heading off at any time and going ashore but if we head off any time we need to wait until around noon when all aboard is made open to come back.  Oh course we can stay out longer as long as we are back before sail away.

Today we also need to change cabins.  We booked a guarantee so we were lucky enough to get the same cabin for the first twenty days, but have to move two cabins down for the next ten days.  We still have the same steward and the layout is the same.  It is also an obstructed balcony view but this really has no obstruction at all, in fact we can see the water quite clearly.  Very nice and no complaints about the cabin.

One thing we noticed is the light just above the bed that comes on when you also turn on the closet area light.  In our old cabin the light above the bed shone bright and we thought that was odd since if someone wanted to discreetly get dressed the light would wake the person in bed.  The new cabin has a light that comes on in the cabin too, but it is by the balcony door and doesn’t disrupt the person sleeping so much.  Then it dawned on me, the other cabin had an upper berth so it could not put the light by the door where the berth was in the ceiling.  The new cabin light layout is much better.

We clean up the old cabin, pack up things on shelves into bags and then when the new cabin is available (Jenny cleaned that cabin right away, she is a dear) we move items by going back and forth.  We are able to just remove the drawers and exchange them with the empty ones with no problem.  Jenny’s manager comes down to help us move, he moves all the items on the hangers to the other room and we thank him but we are able to move everything.  In total the change took about a half hour and it was helpful to do some cleaning up too.  Things got packed away that we don’t need any more or haven’t used.

I decorate the cabin door with a Valentine’s Day theme and finish off the laundry.

As in transit we need to meet in the Princess Theater at 10:30.  Today with more ships in port (six) it is going to be slower than last turn around.  Last turn around we were the only ship in port and it was quick, in fact they called us to the lounge early to go off.  Today when we make our way to the Princess Theater there are still passengers on board in some of the lounges. 

We take a seat in the theater and wait for about a half hour.  At 11 we are led out to the gangway where we bing out on our old card.  The staff (aka Golden Girls) he chants “single file, hold on to the railing” as we head down the escalator (I think it is the same guy who has been manning that escalator for the past ten years).  In fact whenever we use an escalator at home Bernie chats the same thing now.

We are filed into rows of seats and we wait.  The ship needs to arrive at a count of zero passengers before we can go back on.  Also they need to get a custom agent to look at our passports and there are still lines for customs for passengers coming off.  Normally we go thru the customs agent’s booth but today a single agent comes to us and we are asked to open our passports to our picture page and all we do is show him and we are led back on.  Very easy process but today it is long.  In total it was just under 1.5 hours, but this is because of the number of people staying on and the busy day in Port Everglades.

Originally we were going to walk into Fort Lauderdale and pick up some items but I really don’t feel like it.  I don’t need anything important.  Bernie needs a new toothbrush but I tell him for just that we can pick one up in Calypso Cove.  

We are needing to head to the cabin and relax and enjoy the calmness of the ship before everyone gets on.  When I suggest to Bernie that we go to Alfredos for lunch I barely have the words out of my mouth when he is saying “yes”.  He loves Alfredos especially the Royal Pizza.  Of course I got the Sangria and Bernie got the Blue Moon Beer.

It is getting busier on board and there are a few places I want to check out that we normally can’t see.  

Oh I forgot to mention that before we got off this morning I went around and took pictures of quite a few different cabins, including the ones that my Facebook fans from my page requested.  I really like the layout of the inside sideways cabins.  Also loved the full suites forward too. Here is the link to the pictures of the cabins.

Will post all the pics on my fan page when I get home.

So back to our day after lunch.  I want to see the Spa and the Enclave and oh my yes it is beautiful and I wish I could justify the cost of a pass but at $200 for the ten days I just can’t afford it.  I would rather do something else.  In fact we signed up for the Ultimate Ship’s Tour that is $150 each and is more our style. 

I head up to the kids club to see that area.  On the first day before sail away you can check it out.  Gee I wish I could be a kid again.  They have really done an excellent job with this area.  Again I took a ton of pictures but will have to wait to post until I get home.

Up on the top decks I tour the Sanctuary and the Cabanas they have up there.  I think the Sanctuary is a great idea and it does look relaxing up there.  We use to go to the Sanctuary all the time but have stopped when they raised the price.  Cost is $20 for half a day or $40 for a full day.  You can buy a whole cruise pass for a discounted price of $300 for ten days. 

Okay we are both hitting the wall now… we need a nap desperately and the Muster Drill is about to happen so we crawl into bed and try to nap.  But we are woken by announcements in the cabin by Captain Dino.  Now as handsome as he is, being woken by him thru a P.A. is not how I dreamed it would happen.  Don’t tell Bernie.

We enjoy a lovely sail away from the port in our cabin.  The horn blasting the beginning of the Love Boat. We are happy we are on for another leg.

Bernie grabs the coffee card and we head down to the International Café for a tea and see Trevor Cole is playing his Steel Pan in the Atrium.  What a lovely way to begin a Caribbean holiday.  Trevor says hi to us and we shake our booty to the tunes for a second.  What a great ambassador to Princess Trevor is.  In fact after his set he joins us in Vines for a chat.  He shares pictures of his beautiful wife, his home and his son.  It is always great to connect with the crew, their friendship to us is always a pleasure and we treasure them. 

We dress for dinner and head to our “regular” table.  Daniel and Inna are there to greet us but they are packed.  For the life of me I can’t figure out how they assign the tables.  Seems he gets all the tables.  The section behind us and the one behind Bernie are not even half full but Daniel’s section keeps getting filled. 

Inna and Daniel can handle it but they are so busy.  It is nice to see the head waiters helping out and Franco comes by to say hi and he fills our water glasses and we ask if he could get the white wine to top up my glass.  I feel bad for Daniel, he is so busy he is not able to give the service that he would like to the tables.  But he does shine and once first course and drinks are set on all the tables he regroups and the flow is better. 

After dinner the band New Deal is performing in the Atrium.  There is a large group of dancers on board and the Atrium dance floor is busy with dancers.  The dance floor is large (certainly bigger than the Wheelhouse bar on the Crown Class ships) for dancers.  I grab Bernie’s hand and we dance a bit but boy we are nowhere as good as these dancers around us.  Our friend Rick would love this voyage.

We take a seat in Vines to chat with Ryan and enjoy a glass of wine.  It is late and we are ready for bed. 

Although sleep does not come well for us.  The mattress in this cabin is bad.  It is hard like a rock and you can see that it has seen better days or many larger passengers.  I wake every hour or so in pain on the side that I am sleeping.  I roll over and wake again in agony from this bed.  In the morning I am tired, grumpy and when I look at the mattress I see that mattress is sagging and they have added a pillow top padding to it but something needs to be done I can not handle nine more nights on it. 

I get dressed and drop something to help my aches from the bed and Bernie informs our Cabin Steward that we need a new mattress.  I will keep you informed as to our request.

Movies this voyage are:  Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; Edge of Tomorrow; Get on Up; Guardians of the Galaxy; Saving Mr. Banks; The Giver; The Hundred-Foot Journey; The Maze Runner.

Princess Theater is showing the same production shows; Spectacular; What the World Needs Now and Colors of the World.  We still haven’t seen What the World Needs Now so will get it in this cruise.

The All Inclusive Drink Package is very popular with many people getting it.  For $49 per day plus gratuity you can get unlimited beverages that are under $10 and includes coffee drinks, water, soda and wine/beer, oh and of course cocktails.

First Sea Day – But Boy was it a Busy One

After another restful sleep I am shocked to wake and see that it is already 8 am. I am sleeping like a baby – these beds are divine. 

The only thing that usually wakes me the sounds of the ship wakening around us and I know it is time to get up. 

I head down to the Promenade and stop in at the Princess Live bar that serves cappuccino too. Bernie orders a tea and when it is presented to him Bernie asks for milk to add to his tea, the bartender Martin says “sorry we are running out of milk and it is only available for the coffee drinkers”, we look at him thinking “are you serious” and then he smiles and we laugh! 

Too good! Again this crew is amazing. We sit with Nancy in the Atrium for a bit before heading to the Princess Live Wake Show taping. This is the first I have sat in on the entire show. Toby really shines this morning and even though I am missing Simone, Toby is wining my heart. 

Toby does some trivia questions and one of the questions was who was the original God Mother of the Royal Princess and I know that so I put my hand up and answer --- I know you all know so I won’t say here……. What you are not sure?

It is Princess Diana. I win a bottle of champagne (well it says champagne but I decide to give it to this couple nearby instead). 

The Live show was a fun thing to watch, it is very professionally done and it is neat to see how it is done too. 

I loved that the Maitre D’ Fabio and his assistant and some of his head waiters are there. He explains about the dining venues and we especially love that he talks about the dress code. YES no shorts in the dining room, no hats, and proper attire please. If you want to wear shorts and such there are a lot of places you can go to get food and be comfortable, but the dining room has a dress code and nice slacks and a shirt are required. 

Our Cruise Critic Meet and Greet is happening now in Club 6 and it is very well attended. All of the officers attended and the Captain said a bit and he is so personable. Then Michael the Hotel General Manager introduced the rest of the officers. We really appreciated all of them coming out for this and answering some of our questions. We mix and mingle for a bit and we get to meet Jake from the band “New Deal” and we comment how much we really have enjoyed their music on board. 

Melissa and Jake from the band New Deal

I forgot to mention that I had tried to get in to see the internet manager today but every time we have gone by there is a long line of about ten to fifteen people deep and I really don’t want to wait. Bernie’s account still has not been reset so that I can get a new package for him, every time I go to the page and ask to add minutes to get the 250 minutes it only comes up with buying more. I had no issue with my package, and it is strange why his was not reset.

 

Seems many are having problems cause the line never dies down and when we come back for his afternoon hours it is still a long line. We give up and decide to just write him a note and he can deal with it later. 

Boy it is already noon! We wanted to head to the perfume shop to stock up on some items. Kylle from South Africa has been so great. The other day when I bought those travel perfume holders that you can refill he helped us so much with different scents that I might like that I wanted to buy some perfume today. So in we go and again Kylle is so helpful. So helpful that we are buying five bottles and with the extra discount from the coupon book and our elite discount we get them for a great price, certainly cheaper than home. 

We had arranged to meet up with Kathy from my Facebook page “Cruising Princess Cruiseline With Vickie” for lunch. At 12:15 we all met and Nancy from San Diego joined in too and we had a great table for 8 and we spent the next hour getting to know each other face to face. 

It is so nice to meet many of the people who are on my page and contribute to its success. So after lunch I make an attempt to head to the cabin to rest but we run into Paul and Yvonne and we then head to the Gelato bar with them. 

Did you know you can use your coffee card for a sundae? One punch! Oh this is going to be bad for our waistline. 

Paul had made reservations for the Crab Shack for us for today but we agreed to change it and we are now all going on the first of February. Fingers crossed that is not the night of the Wine Maker’s Dinner. 

The time is now almost 6 pm, and I didn’t get a nap in…. so I am going to have to wing it with no nap, but I am aiming for an early night. Tonight is the best night to hopefully get to bed early cause Trevor Cole is playing in the Wheelhouse and hopefully won’t go too late so the room will be quieter. But I have my noise cancelling ear phones if necessary (no picture will be provided of this sight).

Princess Cays – Sort Of

We were warned that the potential of high winds could prevent us from tendering for Princess Cays and when we awake to the sound of bing bing bing, and we know that our stop has probably been cancelled.

We can see the beach in the distance and it is very windy and we know that Princess takes safety very seriously so for everyone’s safety the port stop has been cancelled.

 

Of course we hear many people state their disappointment and it is a great stop but a day on this ship, I think is even better. 

Right away Lisa Ball the cruise director comes over the loud speaker to announce a new Patter will be delivered to your cabins as soon as the printer gets it done up.  The schedule on line will be updated quicker and we run into both Simone and Lisa on the Promenade deck and the Atrium handing out paper copies of the new Patter too. 

I am very impressed at how quickly the teams come together to deal with a missed stop.  Events are added throughout the day.  Dining room hours for lunch have been added.  Menus for both the dining room and Horizon Court have been created and right away the food starts to get prepped. 

Now you might think that the menus for both dining areas would just duplicate what was going to be served ashore at the barbecue.  NO…. I am thoroughly wowed when I see the food in the Horizon Court.  The variety and quality is astounding and I know they have worked very hard to make this happen.

Okay back to our morning.  We were okay with staying on (as if we had a choice) but we were not sure if we would of gone ashore anyways.  But this is the first time we feel the crowds on board.  Up in the Horizon Court for breakfast.  It is crazy, but not so much getting the food but finding a seat.  I will say that this ship handles it better than other ships we have been on though.

Lisa is holding her Life At Sea Lecture as an added feature and the place is packed.  People are really interested in ship life and the break down of who reports to who.  I saw this lecture last year and really enjoyed it. 

We head to Princess Live to try out a new activity called Digital Scavenger Hunt.  Geoff and Daniel hand out a paper with a list of places each team has to go to take picture with a team member doing something in each location. 

Some of the places include; chapel, skywalk, duplicating the Titanic scene, on a bike in the gym, shuffle board game, picture with a crew member from Europe, etc etc. 

It was a lot of fun running around the ship getting these pictures and we tied with another team and got water bottles.

Oh this reminds me.  This morning I made a point of carrying out my stainless steel Canadian water bottle to encourage myself to drink more water.  I must of put it down somewhere and totally forgot it.  The next day I went to the Purser’s Desk and it had been turned in (don’t think anyone would want a used water bottle).

Bernie is eager to watch the end a movie he started the other day and I head out and read and then get a late lunch. 

Our last steel pan class with Trevor Cole is today.  We are all doing much better but I am a little nervous about what is going to happen tonight for the grand finale.  We are not totally sure when we play but we are told to be in the Atrium for 8:45 and we should find out then.

We are meeting up with friends tonight for dinner (Todd and Pam, and another couple that I sadly have forgotten their names).  Our hope was to meet up at 6:30 and head in for dinner but the big downside about Anytime is it really is not Anytime.  If you want to eat at 5 to 6 you are good, but anytime between 6 and 7:30 forget it.  Even when we were contacted the first day to see if we wanted a reservation for anytime we are told 5 or after 7:45 (gee that is almost a three hour difference).  So when we are on board we try to go with the flow and just accept 7:45 – 8 pm for a table or else we eat elsewhere.

So when we meet up both dining rooms have said 7:15 – 7:30 for a table.  We are sat at a table in Symphony for six.  The dining room is full with most people just finishing up.

They come out and do the Baked Alaska parade.  So our waiter is busy with the other tables and the parade.  We sit for about 20 minutes before we even get an order and even to order wine. 

It appears to us that he didn’t have an assistant or if he did they were busy elsewhere.  (maybe they were busy singing around the dining room). 

The food was good though I had the watermelon salad and then the Tom Turkey entrée.  Bernie had the mussels and the fries which were cold so the waiter got him some hot ones. 

Sadly I had to leave dinner cause I had to meet the group for the Mardi Gras festivities at 8:45 so I skipped dessert and Bernie found a spot to record the event.

We gathered just beside Vines.  There are decorations around the Atrium.  It feels like a real festive mood.  We are told how the evening will progress and we cross our fingers it will work out. 

The Royal Princess band plays a song to get the party started, then we are lead to the tables with our pans.  The music starts and the flash mob comes out to perform lead by Simone who is really getting into the spirit.  We all tap our sticks to the beat.

Trevor leads us in playing and gee if we don’t actually sound good.  Sure there were a few mistakes but nobody listening can tell we messed up.  After we play the drumming group play and then we came back in.  Bernie got the entire thing recorded and it is just below.

In the end I am glad I did it, it was something different for me to experience.  I got to meet a bunch of new people and I had fun.  Trevor did an amazing job, so patient, so laid back, he made it fun.  There of course is some areas they could of improved on.  Often equipment was not set up when we arrived.  And every time Trevor had to set things up (sometime with help sometimes not) and this took away from him teaching us.  So normally the first ten minutes was busy getting the pans set up when I think talking to the group about the event and going over things would have been more beneficial. 

We take a seat at Vines for some wine.  Ryan welcomes us and right away our wine is brought over and while we are drinking a glass of water is put in front of us without asking.  He is so good, he is kind and very helpful and the fact he knows what we like and recommends wines we may be interested in if we ask. 

Trevor and I

Simone and Bernie

Simone Smith the Deputy Cruise Director comes by and she is dancing and everyone around her is enjoying her antics.  That woman is always smiling and so happy.  She is a joy to be around and lifts everyone’s spirits.  I know I would seek out a cruise just because she is going to be on it.  She heads home tomorrow, but she is so dedicated that she has agreed to take some training in Fort Lauderdale before her flight.  

Apparently she is heading to the Crown and we are happy cause we are hoping to board the Crown in the Summer.  And since the Crown will be in dry dock in Victoria we are hoping to head over to Victoria for a few days to see some of our friends who will be on board too.  Yes Johannes and Claudio we are talking about you.

We finish our wine while chatting with Trevor and Lisa and Simone.  Our aim was to head back to the cabin but we only go up two decks and Kory Simon is playing so we find a seat near Dave and his wife and we each order a martini.  I had this great grapefruit martini… oh I think I found my new drink.

Josy knows how to shake it up

Back in the cabin we see that Jenny our steward has put out the breakfast room service card.  This is nice, cause sometimes when we have done a turn around this is not offered but think this is a good option for tomorrow and fill it out.