With a fair bit of fog mid Atlantic, the focus is on what is happening indoors with plenty of spare deck loungers for a change. (Pic) A cooked breakfast yet again which is not exactly doing the waistline any favours, but trying to rely on a very light midday meal is proving tough. We’ll just have to accept that on arrival back in Auckland, our friends won’t recognise us. The day after we arrive back will be our stretch yoga class - but the major evidence of stretch will be around our middles.
Just for a change, after the midday coffee, there was a dance session with the Princess orchestra at 2pm to look forward to, and Sarah didn’t disappoint. Quite a few couples took advantage. Afterwards, a late light lunch (cream of cauliflower soup and a bread roll) before the relaxing cabin session reading and Codeword puzzles for me, Mahjong patience on the laptop for Paula. We also caught on the TV, the previous day’s lecture by Graham, a former UK Protection Squad Police Officer, who protected Maggie Thatcher, then Salman Rushdie and Tony Blair. Very interesting but the live lectures clash with trivia. We also watched Lyn Hurry’s informative lecture on linguistics and the English language.
Afternoon trivia was in the cramped and totally unsuitable Wheelhouse Bar, but we still didn’t win, with 11/20.
The early show was duo, Nolan & Emmanuelle again, in the Vista lounge. A good show but Emmanuelle would have been better doing without the gimmicky piano, playing from an upside down position. She is too talented to need gimmicks.
We were really looking forward to dinner, as our Head Waiter had arranged a chicken curry for us. As it was French night, we all had the duck pate, then I had the famous and substantial French onion soup (with more than one delicious, fresh, still warm, bread roll) then out came the chicken curry. Wow! A small mountain of rice, naan bread, poppadums, a sharp and fresh onion/tomato/cucumber salad, cucumber raita, a massive plateful for me, as it just happened that I was the last to be served and he just kept piling the curry onto my plate. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it. No room or desire for a dessert. A great meal. Thanks Vasco.
On to the Production show (not for the first time), Shimmy. One of the more enjoyable shows in the Princess repertoire and we were happy enough to see it yet again, as the Atrium deck 7 evening entertainment (sic) does nothing for us.
Interestingly, we (along with several other regulars, particularly the dancers) are now beginning to doubt our decision to do the full cruise next year, as although there are some new ports, the atrium evenings are now so lack lustre compared to the earlier cruises (pre 2013 for us), that much of the enjoyment of the evening shipboard life has disappeared. We made so many friends through those fun atrium evenings with Alan and Alana, that maybe we were just spoilt.
Up to now, we hadn’t even considered cruising with anyone other than Princess, but maybe time for a change, as the 2015 Princess round the World is well sold out, so they probably wouldn’t take any notice at all if we complained anyway. Others have complained.
Once again, clocks back an hour tonight, but at least the weather has improved and deck 7 is open again.
Saturday July 19th
No problem sleeping, even after that massive meal last night. The extra hour is mucking up the body-clocks a wee bit, but we are coping.
Today, I thought I’d cut back on breakfast, with just tinned apricots and a couple of prunes. The aroma of freshly cooked waffles attacked my senses and also seemed to attack my resolve, as I succumbed to a waffle (only one…) but as there was no Nutella today, I just had to make do with maple syrup and whipped cream. It’s really tough at times.
As is usual on a sea day, trivia in the Vista was packed and we were joined by another passenger, Sam, who added value, as he got two answers that we wouldn’t have got. We didn’t get the Kiwi question either (what is the only Kiwi native mammal excluding man?). With a score of 16/20, we were somewhat surprised to be equal winners – along with 7 other teams!
We considered that as the question was a year, that there would be another tie breaker – “In what year was the movie, ‘The Jazz Singer’ released?” Woohoo! I knew that, as it was mentioned on page 438 of the book I have been reading for the last few weeks – and I am only up to page 480. Much to our surprise, we were the only team to get it right!!!! So the ‘Curry Munchers’ had their maiden win, so we can now relax, happy that we won on a day when there was plenty of competition, so not exactly a fluke.
A celebratory deck 5 drink (coffee or hot chocolate, not champagne) before checking out the ‘massive 3 hour shop sale’. Quite why anyone would pay $8.95 (reduced from $16.95) for three tiny pots of kiwi jams is beyond us. Or how about $8.95 for a coffee mug from the 2013 Sydney/Venice/Sydney cruise?
Paula did manage a couple of tops, but won’t of course wear them on the ship.
Back to the cabin for a while and then Paula opted for the Welsh violinist, Chris Watkins, accompanied by the choirmaster and pianist, David Crathorne, whilst I maintained a quiz presence. Sadly, it was in the Wheelhouse bar again and poor Basil struggled with the numbers - and also some of the pronunciation. We didn’t win of course, but weren’t too worried.
Chris Watkins’ hastily arranged extra concert drew a full house in the theatre and gained him a standing ovation – so I am told. Such a nice guy and always so very friendly when we have met him outside of the theatre. His final concert is tomorrow night and is bound to be another full house. He may well be one of the few entertainers to finish with 10/10!
We had our USA immigration letter giving us a report time and it looks very much as though they will have immigration face to face interviews done promptly, as the last scheduled time is 9:00am.
Another good dinner with the surf and turf for me. Steak was spot on.
The late Princess Theatre had Travis Turpin again. An enjoyable show, but probably not as innovative as the first show and it only had a couple of vocal impressions. He is a good singer and pretty impressive on piano and guitar.
An interesting chat afterwards with Cruise Director Mark and Deputy Matt, then we were joined by Chris Watkins – who treated Paula to a dance in the corridor before he left to do a show for the crew.
No clock change tonight and one more sea day before we hit land. Thankfully, the sea is now much smoother and the weather mild, so the sun loungers will be filled again and things will return to normal cruise mode.
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