Princess Cays – Surprise Sea Day

This morning we wake well rested.  I have been having trouble sleeping lately and last night was a well-earned sleep.

People have been asking me about my ankle.  Well I am happy to report it is doing very well.  Since I just got the air cast off two weeks ago. 

Initially it was not very strong after not really needing to use the muscles around the ankle much.  On the last cruise I tried to be good and suffered when I walked too much.  But as the cruise went along and I would swim and use the Enclave to exercise my foot it got stronger and stronger.  

I know I am doing better when I can now overtake people along the Promenade when just a short while ago people were overtaking me.  

Yesterday I logged over 15,000 steps and it was a little sore and swollen but feeling good.  I also can take the stairs more now without doing the hoppedy hop step.  I look forward to getting back to a normal life – but not too soon, I want to enjoy the vacation first.  Thanks to all who wrote kinds supportive messages, I really appreciate it.

The sun is streaming into the cabin.  There are a few clouds in the sky but they don’t look menacing.  Bernie comments that it looks a bit choppy with swells as we get closer and closer to Princess Cays.  He wonders if we will get to Princess Cays after all.

Well of course soon thereafter Captain Nash announces that they are assessing the situation to see if it is safe to operate the tenders.  About 10 minutes later the announcement comes on in the cabins that in fact the Captain and the Bridge Officers (trust me they do not make this decision lightly) have made the decision to cancel the stop in Princess Cays.  The swells are too high (1.5 meters) and keeping the ship in position and the loading and unloading of tenders in those conditions is just not safe.

 

I know there are many on board, and probably at home being arm chair Captains (with their “knowledge” or so called “knowledge”) but until you are as experienced and actually hold the responsibility of everyone on this ship you have no right to say anything.   Although I would of loved to have gone ashore at Princess Cays, I will still have a great day on board.

Also I am pretty sure that most on board respect the decision and will still have a great day.

We are still trying to get our mini bar changed out. It is impossible to get thru to bell box.  We have been on hold for 15 minutes two times before just hanging up.  I may ultimately just get our cabin steward to arrange it.  And later we leave a note for the steward and he takes care of switching out the mini bar.

One thing I again noticed in this new cabin is the shower curtain desperately needs changing.  I really notice the smell of mold as soon as I would go in the washroom I could smell it and I could not handle the smell for long.  My sinuses immediately start to flare up.  It was so bad that I had to take the shower curtain down and put in a bag to contain the smell.  

Ironically my husband does not smell a thing, but that sometimes happens, he smells things I don’t and I smell things he does not.  But mold is my thing and my allergies kick in and the last thing I want is to have to deal with an attack that usually takes days to settle down.  Our previous cabin also had an issue but it was nowhere near as bad and could manage it.  I don’t know how often they change out the shower curtains and wash them but it clearly is not often enough. 

We keep busy all day playing games – Suduko, came in second, music trivia – didn’t suck but didn’t win, lunch was in the horizon court.  Captain made a joke that there are a lot of hamburgers to eat up since stop in Princess Cays was cancelled. 

A new revised Patter is delivered to the cabins, but one thing with the Princess at Sea you can see an updated events schedule right away.

Back in the cabin after dinner and the cabin steward has taken care of everything.  He is good. 

Tonight we shower and change and then head to the Elite lounge – but it is busy.  There are definitely more seasoned cruisers on this voyage.

For dinner Bernie suggests Ocean Terrace and I agree.  We sit at the Bar and enjoy the lobster, tuna poke, and some sushi.  A very good meal and at a reasonable price.

Lots happening tonight and we partake in the Yes No Game Show.  Well I signed up, Bernie watched.  And I lasted this time!  Kimmy and Nathalie do a great job hosting this event.

After the game we make our way to the Princess Theater for Alfred and Seymour who are a comedy duo.  Their show is fast paced, funny and high energy – we liked it.

First Sea Day Evening

Observations from today:

• There are a lot of new cruisers on this trip – well not like the 7 day voyages but more than what I am use to on these 10 day cycles.
• The ship does not feel crowded at all. 
• The demographics seem younger too with a few kids.  
• Someone told me 36 kids are on board but I can not confirm that but I have seen a few but not many.
• The ship looks great!  A bit of wear and tear that comes with being in use every day of the year but I do see the crew working hard all the time to keep up with it all.
• I noticed that now the elevator banks have each bank on their own call button.  So at a bank of four elevators the two on the port side are controlled by the button between the elevators, and the starboard is controlled by the button in between those two elevators.  Makes sense!  And since I have to use the elevators a lot because of my ankle I have found them rather easy to get – unless of course it is right when a show gets out.  But overall I think it is working fine.

After getting ready for the evening we decide to head down to the Elite Lounge which is in Club 6.  It sure feels weird to be here without Roy and Sandra. 

We sit down and immediately see William the bartender is still here!  So nice to see him again.

We order two Boulevardier and when they come we realize we ordered the wrong drinks as soon as we see them as they are a dark color.  

Realizing that this is Roy’s favorite drink.  Maybe he was channeling us to enjoy them.  But we are not into Rye so we look around and see a man nearby is enjoying them so I get up and take them over to him and say “enjoy compliments of us, and our mistake”  he was very happy.

So back to ordering the right drink and we did – the Floradora is our favorite and is made with Gin. 

The staff here are so good and it is busy in here. 

The drinks featured on the Platinum/Elite/Suite menu are:  Boulevardier, Mayan Mule, Port Lemonade, Tito’s Fresh Mint Lemon drop, Bacardi Limon Mojito, Floradora, Cherry Blossom Garden, Deep Sea Martini.  Cost of each is $6.50

Around 7:30 we head up to the Horizon Court for dinner.  

Tonight, the feature menu is Brazilian Night.

A Buffet Steward comes by and is so happy to see us.  He remembers us from last Fall and also from last April.  I feel bad, because I don’t remember him.  But I certainly will remember him now.  Bernie says he remembers him as he served us in Alfredos in the Fall. 

We also had a lovely chat with Denis from Peru about his amazing country.  He is heading home soon so he is quite excited.

After dinner we wander down to Princess Live where Bernie takes part in the Logo trivia and ends up wining a coaster.  Me I wander down to the Atrium to get a drink and chat with Felix and Faralel from Vines. 

I want to partake in the Yes No Game Show and we arrive and grab a seat.  Nathalie and Kimmy are hosting and have to say I absolutely adore these two Aussies.  So much energy and so kind and welcoming.  You really need these assets to be a good Cruise Staff member.  Making everyone feel like they are important and that they are going to have fun.

I did get called for the Yes No Game and I lasted 2 min 18 seconds.  Nathalie got me!  I said YES.  It was fun and heck I will never see these people again.  Only one person made it passed the 3 minutes.  And then our friend Min was chosen to question Nathalie and try and get her.  And he succeeded! 

Also tonight Comedian Hypnotist Kellie Karl was in the Princess Theater – friends attended and she was even hypnotized.  Way to go Paula.

Time for bed.  Clocks go forward an hour today as we head south and east.  My ankle is quite swollen.  It does hurt because of the swelling, and can’t even get my foot into shoes so I am wearing my flip flops around.  I need to try and stay off it more tomorrow.

January 19, 2015 Sea Day

After a great sleep I wake and Bernie heads down to get our coffees.  Back in the room we both watch a funny movie called Austinland.  I love this interactive TV feature on board.

I head down to the International Café to relax a bit and do some reading and then we head to the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet that was well attended.  Even the Captain came and chatted to us.  I laughed when the first thing he said was “I know I know this ship needs a midship stairway”. That got a good laugh.

Like on every cruise I want to try something new on each voyage.  Today is the day… they are offering Steel Pan Lessons as a part of a Mardi Gras celebration.  So I head to Club 6 to try my hand at it.  Trevor is coordinating this and his patience is needed.  There were about 30 of us and we actually learned a few things.  We meet again tomorrow for our next lesson.  

For lunch I headed up to the Horizon Court for a quick bite to eat.  I love the layout of this buffet, so easy to get around and lots of seats. 

This afternoon was a blur but if I have to remember it was spent relaxing and catching up with good friends.  We ran into Jim and Lynne who we have sailed with often and we must of spent two hours with them catching up.  

Tonight’s dinner is Crown Grill so we head back to the cabin to get ready.  We start with brambles in Crooners Bar where a great bar waiter has been serving me all day, first in the IC and now in Crooners Josey is his name.  Very attentive and such a joy.  And those Brambles were perfect.

We head to the Crown Grill with Paul and Yvonne and are sat in Degan’s section.  Now tonight is what we expect from the Crown Grill.  Service, food, and atmosphere were top notch.  We had even the hostess come by to ask to refill our wine glasses.  Our head waiter came by to ask how everything was too.  Excellent night!

Oh I should mention that we tried to change out our mini bar.  We called at 9 am and he did advise that it would be later in the day.  No problem, but by 5 pm it still had not been changed.  So I call back and they apologize and promise to do it right away.  After dinner when we return to the room at 11 there is a note that they misplaced the original change order and asked us to call them to coordinate it.  So I call and right away they come and replace it.

Tonight Lisa the CD and her Deputy Simone are hosting the Yes No Game Show, I did get called up but didn’t last long. But I did have fun and that is what matters.