Sea Days Mar 10 & 11

 

The first two days of the cruise we were at sea, sailing towards St. Kitts. 

I was up relatively early on the first morning and captured a few photos of the sunrise. It was cloudy that morning, so definitely not anything spectacular and it was well above the horizon before much of the sun showed itself.

One of our fellow passengers had planned a meet-up for the solos at 10:30 but no one else showed. I did have the Cruise Critic meet-up and that was much better attended. I know 75 had signed up for it, but I don't think there were more than 40 in the room. 

The officers in attendance gave a short bio of themselves (the greet part) and opened the floor for questions. Mostly they are generic and simple questions, but the first one was asking about the shareholder dividends and when the company might start paying them again. I thought the officer did a good job of explaining dividends will be provided again when the cruise line is profitable without saying those words. The cruise industry was virtually shut down during the pandemic and it has been a slow build-up since. I should note, I don't earn shares in Princess so have no skin in the game - it just seems to be common sense to me.

After lunch, I took a walk on Deck 7 (Promenade) taking some wake photos including the one at the top. It was quite windy so I settled in to read but found myself nodding off so headed to my stateroom for a short nap. At 3 p.m. I attended the first (and my last) enrichment talk about the Bermuda Triangle. It wasn't the subject but the presenter that delivered the talk was worse than some of my university professors. Rambling off topic, skipping through slides, and not offering opportunities for questions were just a few of the annoyances. 

Later, I attended the solo's meet-up in the Adagio. We all went off in different directions for dinner, but I did run into the pub crawl group later in the evening. They were on their second stop and headed for the third. Linnae, one of the solos decided to leave the pub crawl and go with me to the comedian's show in Club Fusion. Robbie Printz was voted Princess Entertainer of the year this past year and did not disappoint. In fact, I went to the show again the next night too.

Our second sea day, I visited with the Knitter's and Knatters group, though I hadn't brought a project with me. It was the first time I had run into some one from a former cruise. Denise from Ontario had been on the Alaskan cruise in May 2022 as well. I also spent time at the Terrace pool and on the Promenade deck reading. Trivia was held at 4 p.m. in the Explorer's Lounge, and while I did not join a group, I tried answering the questions on my own. I stuck around for the Future Cruise director's discussion of tips to earn on-board credit. I quickly discovered it was mostly an up-sell event.

After the solo meet-up, another solo, Marilyn and I went to one of the main dining rooms for dinner. Other than one guest who never shut up, it was a wonderful meal. She even answered questions directed to her husband, though I did manage to ask one that he responded to so I know he was capable of speech.

I don't often take photos of my meals, but this Mahi-mahi was amazing.

Sunset that evening was spectacular!

I ended the night at the comedy show with a couple of Cruise Critic members I'd met earlier. Back at my stateroom I had an unfortunate discovery - I'd been charging my Kobo and somehow it had factory reset itself. Who am I kidding, I probably touched something I ought not to have but it was a bummer as I was in the middle of a good book.

This photo is of the job my steward did to cover up the motion light in the closet area. It kept it from turning on, most of the time, though at random times of the night it would still light up. 

I know there are people who dislike sea days, I'm not one of them. I do enjoy being able to relax and do as little or as much as I like to do. 

Next up - St. Kitts