Since today is a sea day, we had the chance to sleep in a bit, which was so great, and today is "explore the boat" day.
Outside every stateroom is a mailbox, and every day there is mail, which I loved. Coupons and offers for the various stores and services as well as a 4 page "newspaper" called The Princess Patter, which gave all the news and info of what is happening that day. It was oddly exciting to check my mail every day. Also a morning show show called "Wake Up" every day with the cruise director and his assistant cruise director telling what was going on that day. They were both Canadian and really funny. Told a lot of stories with Canadian terms and innuendos.
The TV had quite a few stations, which surprised me. 4 news stations, MSNBC, Fox News, BBC and another one. I tried to not watch any of that....the one time I checked, Trump was on all 4 stations and I didn't need to see any of him on my holiday. There was also the Discovery channel, HGTV and Animal Planet. Two sports channels and four movie channels. Also 2 channels that showed reruns of Big Bang Theory, Friends, The Office and other G-rated shows. And of course web cams and other boat related things. There was plenty to watch if you were sick or just needed some time to rest.
The Princess line is the actual line that was used on The Love Boat, and thus they also had a channel that showed Love Boat reruns 24/7. They used a lot of the original cast in various advertisements for the boat, explaining how to get around and how things worked and so forth. It was massive cheesiness but hysterically funny as well. I got a huge kick out of it.
We went to the buffet breakfast this morning and I had my Nescafé. 😕. We decided to start our exploration at the top (deck 15) and work our way down.
You could play chess or checkers.
You could go to The Sanctuary, which was an adult only/positively no children or teens area, which would certainly be a fabulous spot during summer or Xmas etc. As I mentioned we saw virtually no kids, so we only checked this out the once.
Also up here was a basketball court and a mini golf course, neither of which we utilized.
There was a small smoking area where the wind was so strong that I almost felt sorry for the smokers.There may have been a huge fan somewhere, I'm not sure, but it was crazy windy. They huddled together like survivors of a storm, puffing away. So glad I'm not a smoker. Smoking anywhere else on the boat was strictly verboten, other than a tiny corner in the casino.
Deck 14 was The Lido, where all the outdoor fun was. Three hot tubs, a shower and the pool as well as the burger place, the pizza place and two outdoor bars as well as a free ice cream and milkshake place. The TV screen showed not-yet-released "Movies Under the Stars" at night. The staff line up deck chairs with pillows and blankets and provided free popcorn. The new Jurassic Park was one movie. It was a lot of fun. During the day they played things like "Grease", "Footloose", "Coco" and other Pixar/Disney type movies with lots of music that got everyone in a good mood
Lunch time! We went to the Bordeaux and he had mussels for a starter, a Philly Steak Sandwich and a fruit tart, and I had mussels, a Cobb Salad and a pear-walnut turnover. Delicious. It's interesting to watch the servers (almost all men, I think I saw two women the whole time). They carry massive trays of dishes and they swoop and swerve around each other like a well-oiled machine. It's almost like a ballet. We never saw a single spill or trip. I treated myself to a cappuccino, $3.50 (US$), but worth every penny.
Then we went on the long, long hike to our room and got our towels and sunscreen and swimsuits and went back up to 15 where we had discovered a small splash pool that looked out the front of the boat. You had to walk through the smokers and up a flight of stairs (so I guess it was actually a secret deck 16) There was only ever 5 or 6 people there, it was like it was our own secret gem. I didn't take my camera that day, but here's a photo that I took on another sea day, the only bad weather day we had.
The deck chairs were all tied together with a huge ratchet strap, and none of the other people there had a clue how to work it, lol, so Steven unratcheded (is that a word? I think not) the straps and gave everyone a deck chair. It was super hot, so we didn't stay long, but we came back frequently. We went back to our room to change, the steward had been and made the beds....no towel animals on this cruise..😟. But he left a bucket of ice every day, sometimes twice a day, as well as fresh towels twice a day. He was in our room as much as we were I think.
We went and had ice cream (I feel pounds accumulating already, and it's only Day 1) Discovered another swimming pool with more hot tubs, this one was under a roof, so no direct sun.
Behind this was the spa, which looked pretty amazing, I think they had at least 20 kinds of massages and treatments, plus a hair salon, a mani-pedi salon, and an acupuncture place as well as a foot specialist. I utilized none of that. The thought of strangers touching me makes my skin crawl.
Returned to our room to find this on the bed, with a note that said "Happy Cruising!" I'm not sure who it was from. But they were tasty! (They weren't just sitting uncovered, they were on ice with a cover over top.)
Tonight was formal night if you wanted to go to the sit down restaurant. There were two formal nights out of the ten. Steven did bring a pair of dress pants and a nice shirt and I brought a dress, highly unusual for us, but we thought we might want to check out one formal night. If you didn't want to participate, then the buffet was where you went. They wouldn't turn you away if you wore shorts or capris, but they encouraged everyone to dress up and not ruin the fun for others. The amount of tuxedos and Hollywood-style sparkly gowns was amazing and it was fun to see. The ship's photographer took a lot of time posing people and taking pics of them all dressed up on the stairs. You'll notice we are not there, I hate having my picture taken.
Dinner: He had a duck appetizer, for the main he had beef medallions and for dessert an amazing chocolate-raspberry mousse affair. I had a fruit cocktail with a coconut-pineapple sauce, lamb chops with mint gellee and the same dessert. We had an Irish cream after dinner, and were pleasantly surprised when we were told we could keep the tiny shot glasses which had the Princess logo etched on them, and then we went and changed....we are not formal folks, especially on a holiday.
We decided to check out the casino, which was nicer and bigger than I expected. Over 100 slot machines, and blackjack and poker as well. We walked around and I spotted a machine I had never seen before, called "Crystal", which is my lovely daughter-in-laws name, so I decided it was a sign and sure enough, within the first $20 I won just over $200 US. Hooray! I cashed out, as I know when to fold 'em. The cash goes right on your Princess key card, and the next time you play, it's there. If you choose to cash out literally, the casino hostess will give you actual cash, but I knew I'd play again another night, so I left it on my card.
It was just after 9PM so we decided to head to the theatre and see what tonight's show was, hoping it was not another cheesy magician. It was a song and dance show called "Encore", which was just fabulous, but to Steven's horror and dismay, it was mostly opera and Broadway show tunes. I loved it, and we sat with our mob friends and enjoyed the show. (Well, she and I did, I don't think the guys did)
The show ended at about 11 and tomorrow was an early morning so we headed to bed. The engine vibration was as annoying as ever and I woke frequently throughout the night.
Good night.
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