Day Three: At Sea!

Day Three:  At Sea!

It seems our cabin is overly creaky with some added popping noise while we sleep.  The ship is only going 17-18 knots or less.  The seas are slight though I haven’t checked the ships channel to get the accurate reading.  When we hit a nice swell the extensive creaking and popping is actually waking us up every now and then.  

We finally wake up late in the morning.  That’s what sea days are for.  We get ready for our day of lounging, but we have to leave the cabin so Elie (our steward) can freshen our cabin.  As I open our door to leave, Elie has planted his cart outside our door and he greets us with a smile.  We exchange our “Good Mornings” and I insert our “Cabin Needs Refreshing” card into our key slot.  Just in case he forgets.  He smiles again.  

Elie is from the Philippines.  Elie is a nickname that his supervisor suggested he use.  His real name is quite unique and very, very long.  It’s still early in the week and early in our cruise adventure, but Elie is warming up to us.  Whenever he sees us walking back to our cabin, he quickly walks to our cabin door and opens it for us.  Such a gentleman.  On Sunday when the TVs were sitting in the hallway, Hubby being a funny guy, told Elie to ship it to our home.  Elie quickly responded with “Why not take it now?  I’ll take one end and you grab the other.”  At that point, I knew all was good in our cruising world.  I’m looking forward to see what these two wise guys come up with in the next few days.  I’ll be sure to report back.  

I ran into our Canadian friends.  We saw them at our Muster station and I find out there cabin in on Deck 15 (Lido) and they are almost directly above us.  During our sail-a-way on Saturday, they looked down from their balcony and saw this guy with a green hat.  Yes, that would be Hubby.  I’m sure we’ll run into them tomorrow while in St Thomas.  

In our cruising world and adventure, it’s about meeting people from all over the world.  Not only our fellow cruisers, but the cruise staff as well.  So far we have met the staff from Anntonina from Ukraine, Matthew from Canada, Teddy, Bella, & Elie from Phillipines, and Vivianno from India.  

I mentioned Teddy.  I have story to tell.  We met Teddy today by mistake.  Our mistake.  We had a lazy sea day of lounging followed by a late lunch around 2pm.  We had a reservation for a Maitre’D wine tasting in the Island Dining Room at 3pm.  We arrived at the door around 2:45pm only to find the doors closed.  I could see people sitting inside.  Teddy shows up and with a smile and says the wine tasting is done.  I look at him thinking he’s kidding and I say to him “it can’t be we just got here and I have an invitation”.   He mentions to me “did you remember to set your clocks forward last night?”  Oooops, no we did not.  No worries.  There will be another tasting next sea day.  

Later at night and after we watch a movie on the upper deck at MUTS, we head to the Market Place for some fruit and dessert.  We are sitting at a table and a gentleman dressed in a dark suit comes up to us and says “I know you two!”  I look up and it’s Teddy.  He has the biggest smile on his face.  He says he will come look for us and invite us to the next tasting.  Now, that’s service.  I’m sure he won’t let go of the look on my face from earlier in the day when I forgot to set my clock forward.  

Speaking of clocks.  Or Fitbit devices.  Or gadgets that keep time.  All of our gadgets and devices are set automatically to the time zone we’ve chosen on our devices.  As in “New York”.  I pulled out my iPhone (Airplane mode with WiFi turned on) and checked its settings.  Yep, “Set Automatically” is turned on (green) and “New York” is selected.  I turn off the setting and manually look for and select “America-St Thomas (AST)”.  At that point I also look up some other islands we will be visiting to make sure they will be in the same zone.  Then I’m able to change the actual time and move it forward by one hour.  

I also looked in my Fitbit application for settings.  Sure enough “Set Automatically” is turned on with “New York” selected.  I do the same for my Fitbit.  I sync my Fitbit watch with its iOS app.  I also help Hubby make the change on his iPad and his Fitbit as well.  All is now better in our cruising world.

So for my fellow cruisers, remember to take your gadgets off auto and manually set the time to ship’s time zone(s).  

Okay back to our scheduled program.

Since we had a late lunch, we decided we would have dinner at Vines and well that means Sushi!  It’s formal night and we dress accordingly or almost.  Hubby doesn’t want to wear a jacket.  Nor a tie.  Okay a polo shirt will work fine.  

We find a table in the middle of Vines on Deck 5.  This is where we meet Vivianno from India.  We order a bottle of wine to go with our light meal and have them store the bottle for us for another time.  The Sushi and Tapas are complementary.  We can order all one type or choose from the variety they have or try all.  On the tapas side I heard chicken wings, shrimp wrapped with bacon, pate, and one other item I forgot.  For Sushi, they offered Yellow Tail tuna, Ahi Tuna, and California Roll.  No GF soy sauce here and I left my GF packets in our cabin.  Lesson learned and I’ll be carrying my packets in my camera bag.  

While we’re people watching from Vines and enjoying our meal, the crew starts to setup the wine glasses to build the champagne fountain.  A couple next to us asks if I could take their picture for them.  Of course I would be happy to!  So I move them around Vines (away from the windows as the bright sun was creating havoc) and show them how to pose and ten pictures later we are done.  Hubby mentions to them I’m a photographer as they are reviewing their pictures and they are happy to have chosen the right person.  Glad I was able make their evening enjoyable.  

Several pieces of Sushi later, we decide to check out the upper decks and settle in for a movie on MUTS.  The upper deck lounges have new soft furnishings as well.  The padded loungers are extra comfy.  The Pizza guy comes by and offers to get us some slices.  No thank you maybe later.  The Popcorn guy provides us bags of popcorn.  We are ready for our movie.  

When we are back in our cabin for the night, I scan our Princess Patter to see when and where we’ll dock.  We sail into St Thomas around 1pm and we’ll dock at Havensight.  We have to be back onboard around 8pm.  Looks like we are leaving port an hour early.  Good thing I checked.  I’m hoping to resolve my blog issue while in port which requires a good WiFi connection and I might have to sweet talk one of the bartenders on the island to login for me.  We’ll see.  

Caribbean Princess - The Sea Days and Beaufort Force Scale

I’ve been meaning to do a post in regards to what our sea days looked like on a cruise ship.  During this cruise adventure, we felt a lot of motion on the ship and experienced a range of motion not felt before.  We were able to see a glass or mirror-like flat surface on the water to the extreme where we could see large waves/swells.

Princess provides us with a “log of the cruise” for each leg of our cruising adventure.  Each day the Captain reports distance traveled, speed, sky, temperature, and wind.  I was more interested in the wind and decided to do some research on what’s called the Beaufort Wind Force Scale.  The scale is based on a scale of 0 to 12 and relates wind to observed conditions at sea or on land.  In our case, we are interested in sea conditions.

Here’s a summary of our sea days and what the log captured based on the Beaufort scale.  Now remember we were on a 14-day cruise (B2B) and came back into FLL on Day 9 of our adventure.  Here what the log captured:

FIRST WEEK

Day 2 Sea Day:  North Easterly Beaufort Force 5
They describe this as a “fresh” breeze with winds at 17-21 knots or 19-24 mph.  Wave heights 6-9 ft.  Moderate waves of some length and many white caps.  Small amounts of spray.

Day 3 Sea Day:  North Easterly Beaufort Force 5
Another “fresh” breeze day.

Day 7 Sea Day:  North Easterly Beaufort Force 6
This is described as a “strong” breeze with winds at 22-27 knots or 25-31 mph.  Wave heights of 9-13 ft.  Long waves begin to form.  White foam crests are very frequent.  Some airborne spray is present.

Day 8 Sea Day:  Northerly Beaufort Force 5
Another “fresh” breeze day.

SECOND WEEK

Day 10 Sea Day:  West North Westerly Beaufort Force 9
Do you see the number 9?  That is considered to be “strong/severe gale” with winds at 41-47 knots or 47-54 mph.  Wave heights of 23-32 ft.  High waves whose crests sometimes roll over.  Dense foam is blown along wind direction.  Large amounts of airborne spray may begin to reduce visibility.




Day 14 Sea Day:  South Easterly Beaufort Force 2
Considered to be “light” breeze with winds 4-6 knots or 4-7 mph.  Wave heights 1-2 ft.  Small wavelets.  Crests have a glassy appearance and do not break.

I know on this day the Beaufort scale was much lower as the sea was like a mirror and sometimes I saw ripples that had an “appearance of scales” in the water.

Day 14: Our Last Sea Day...What a Difference!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Here are two pictures at sea, taken a few days apart.

This was Monday @Sea:


This is today, Friday @Sea:


What a difference a few days make.  Let’s try that again.

Monday @Sea:


Friday @Sea:


The water is so calm we hardly notice the ship is moving.  It is so peaceful and quiet.  We are enjoying our sea day immensely.  I am enjoying it more when I’m not packing.  Yes, it is taking me an extra long time to pack three suitcases.  Sigh!


Sometime during the afternoon, Hubby and I hear a noise that grows louder and louder.  What on earth?  It’s an F-18 jet that does a “fly around” the ship.  Yes, you heard me right.  Not a fly over, but a fly around.  It wakes up anyone who is taking a siesta/nap and brings everyone in their cabins out to their balconies (if they have one).  I grab my camera, but it is too late.  The jet disappears quickly.  Was that a training exercise?  Where did the plane come from?  At this point we are sailing somewhere north of Cuba.  Our fellow balcony neighbors to the left and to the right and up the upper decks are having conversations and making speculations.

In the early evening Hubby and I walk around the ship and chat with a few crew members.  We meet up with Carmen in the boutique shop and chat for awhile.  We head over to the Photography shop and find Kirsty and we share with her the beautiful places on the islands we visited so she will know where to go next time.

We head back to our cabin as I have to do a final pack and place our luggage in the hallway before 8pm.  We head up to MUTS to catch the last part of the Jack Reacher movie.

We’ve had a wonderful cruise to some of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean.  We had many “first” experiences which made our adventure more enjoyable.  While we are sad to leave the Caribbean Princess, we know we’ll be back with a new adventure soon.  Tomorrow is disembarkation day and we have another adventure in Fort Lauderdale to look forward to.

Day 10: Oh What a Day at Sea!

I do not remember when this bad weather started.  All I know is I woke up around 4am after the Caribbean Princess hit a huge swell and well the ship landed in the water with a huge shudder.  Our cabin was creaking quite a bit.  The hangers in our closet were quiet, because I remembered to squish them all together with clothes hanging on either side.  So no jingle and jangle.  Just creak and more creak.

Hubby opens our balcony curtains just slightly and mentions to me that he sees lightning.  Sleepy-eyed I grab a GoPro and my iPhone (because I have it conveniently nearby) and try to document the adverse weather we are going through.  Hubby was not kidding about the lightning and failed to mention about the thunder which made me jump when I first heard it nearby.  Wow…free entertainment on the ship.  This is another first for us experiencing the “thunder and lightning” on a ship.

We were lying in bed and you could feel the ship swaying to and fro and side to side.  Sleep hits us with a vengeance and then we wake up when the ship hits a swell.  We go through this several times and eventually wake up around 8am.  Extremely tired.  We grab a quick breakfast at the buffet and head down to IC for some coffee.  Fellow passengers are out and about.  Like us, many are walking around trying to keep our balance and not run into each other.

Back in our cabin, safe and sound, we are camping here for the rest of the day.  By 11am, the Captain is talking to us in our cabin (you know it’s a must hear announcement) and talks about the adverse weather condition we are experiencing.  No kidding!  We are sailing around 17 knots with winds of 45 knots across the upper decks.  The seas are “rough” (translation: 8-12 foot swells).  We will be going through this for the next 10 hours.  He is telling us to hold onto railings and be careful when opening and closing the exterior doors.  Yes, the heavy doors will slam shut quickly.  I have first hand experience with this 3 years ago on the Caribbean Princess when we were in the Gulf in bad weather.  I was coming inside from the Promenade deck and the door almost slammed into my DSLR.  Lesson learned…take pictures from the safety of our balcony.

The Captain continues with his talk and tells us he will be back with an update later today and enjoy your day on the Caribbean Princess.

Well, I know for a fact that the weather will get worse before it gets better.  Before the Captain made his announcement, my stomach was starting to feel queasy.  I did not say anything to Hubby.  I kept myself busy with blogging, reviewing the hundreds of pictures taken, watching “chick flicks” on TV, and tidying up the cabin a bit.  My queasiness left after awhile and my hunger pains began.  That’s when I looked at Hubby and noticed he was a bit out of sorts.  I made two trips down to IC and brought back to our cabin, ginger ale and tuna fish sandwich.  Hubby was not interested in the sandwich.  Really?  He did take the ginger ale.  So I ate his sandwich.

By mid-afternoon, I am cranking out the blog posts in a chatty sort of way.  Hubby is lying down on our couch and watching the rough swells go by.  The weather is getting worse.  I decide to take a break from sitting and swaying and head down to mid-ship deck 5 to see how the ship is moving.  Trust me when I say I had a hard time walking down the stairs from deck 9 (our cabin) to deck 5 (Plaza).  I know I do not like touching the banister (other people's germs), but I had to…to avoid slamming against the stairwell wall.  For that matter…slamming into other people on the stairs.  By the time I get down to deck 5, I am laughing and giggling.  You’ve heard me say, that I enjoy the ship’s rocking and rolling.  I am enjoying this ride!

Mid-ship is no better than forward or aft.  Deck 5 (the lowest we can go without being in the crew’s quarters or medical center) is no better than our cabin deck.  In summary, there is no place to go in the ship where you will not feel the motion.  There were still people milling around.  Like me, I suppose they were feeling claustrophobic in their cabins and hoping things were better on deck.  I make my way up to Deck 7 (Promenade) to chat with Carmen (South Africa) in the Effy jewelry shop.  She and another lady are manning the shop.  Usually there are four of them, but the other two were turning blue and had to go back to their cabins below.  I can not imagine that decks 4 or 3 are any better.  

Where is everyone?

I make my way over to the Photography Shop and see only two Princess photographers manning their venue.  I ask a technical question and get an answer for our GoPro Hero5.  The young lady was talking so fast and I assume she was not feeling too well herself.  I leave her alone with her misery.  I had mine earlier and did not want to participate again.

As I make my way around the ship, I was expecting to see “up-chuck bags” placed around the ship.  Not that i need one, but I remember reading a friend’s blog as she described traveling across the Trans-Atlantic.  I guess crossing the Atlantic into the Caribbean Sea does not count.

Hubby and I are feeling the worst part of the ship’s movement by now.  (Remember I mention go through the worst before it gets better?)  The swells are huge and I’m guessing 15 feet.  The ship would hit the swell and for 5 seconds you could feel the “float in air” motion, and then the huge shudder when the ship lands in the water.  This motion and feeling goes on every few minutes.  We are half way through the 10 hours.

The Cruise Director makes an announcement.  The Caribbean Princess dancers have postponed their show tonight and reschedule for tomorrow night.  Interesting.  Tonight is formal night.  No high heals tonight.  Since we’ve started our B2B (back to back) adventure, this is our third try to get dressed up and actually participate in formals.  What do we do?  Nothing.  We are in t-shirts and shorts and flip-flops.  I make a mental note to not bring formalwear next year.  That’s 20lbs (clothes and shoes) of wasted space in our luggage that could be used to bring back Tortuga rum cakes (vanilla, coconut, chocolate, lime, chocolate chip).  I know I’m forgetting other favors.  This is what happens when you are in cruise mode…forgetting things.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention something.  See?  During my mid-afternoon (walk like a drunk without the alcohol) trips around the ship, I noticed the Captain was having a busy day.  He had three (3) weddings he officiated!  Yes, he was busy marrying young couples off the ship.  The first one I came across in the Piazza.  Naturally, I stood on Deck 7 and took a shot while the couple was on the atrium stairs.  The bride was wearing a full and flowing white gown.  It was more of a “street photography” moment.  Then I noticed the Princess Photographer stood in the same spot I was just at and started taking pictures.  I wonder….

I was walking by Crooners Lounge and saw another bride chatting with her attendants.   This bride was wearing a light colored non-traditional gown.

The next bride I saw was walking down the hallway on deck 9 (Dolphin) near our cabin.  She was wearing a gorgeous slim fitting gown covered in embroidered lace.  Really beautiful.

I’m not sure how the Princess Photographers took pictures during formal night.  Especially if they are posing folks on the stairs in the Piazza (atrium) or posing cruisers on a stool with a pretty backdrop.  I forgot to buzz or take a walk around the ship in the early evening.  I was thinking of them.

Around 9pm, the weather was taking a noticeable change for the better.  The seas were calming down and so was the wind.  Again, I have no idea how long we endured this adverse weather, but it was at least 18 hours from our 4am wake up shudder.

I will be back to post pictures for this post when I can.  In the meantime, I need to get blogging about our Western Caribbean ports.  Stay tuned!

Day 7 & 8: Sea Days, Laundry, and Other Activities!

(In order to catch up and keep up, I have combined the last two sea days into one post.  I can do this, because we are camped out in our cabin for most of today.  We just hit a 20 foot swell and all the drawers in our cabin flew open.  Also, Hubby poured a glass of wine for me to calm my nerves/stomach (which is made of cast iron I am told).  My wine glass started to slide across the table and I caught it in time before it dumped its contents on my MacBook laptop.  I am not kidding when I say this is a “first" adventure for us in really rough waters and this is our 18th cruise with Princess.  So many first for us on this B2B cruise!  We thought our last Caribbean Princess cruise out of Houston (2014) and the Gulf of Mexico was rough…that was mild compared to what we are going through right now.  D and M, be thankful you are not on this cruise with us.  Hubby really means this!

We are not alone this afternoon.  There are two other ships in the not too far horizon.  A Carnival ship and a Royal Caribbean ship.  Good thing I brought our binoculars with us.  I was watching the Carnival cut through some swells, but they are going at a slower pace.  So our Princess Captain is not alone.  Remember when I mentioned in an earlier post that it will get rougher before getting better?  I think we’re going through the rougher stage now.  )

Back to our Sea Day post.

We left Bonaire around 5pm.  An hour and 25 nautical miles later, the Captain makes an announcement that we will be turning around and heading back to Bonaire.  We have a medical emergency.  A crew member has fallen ill and the doctor onboard has made a decision, they can not do anything more for the crew member and she needs to be hospitalized.  Before the announcement, I noticed we had slowed down.  The Captain slowly turned the ship around on the port side and quickly cruised back to Bonaire.  Two hours later and it’s completely dark outside, we could see the lights of Bonaire.  I walked around the Promenade deck to see if the Captain was going to drop a tender, but there was no activity.

I wandered up to our cabin and stuck my head out of our balcony.  I could see the Pilot boat from Bonaire following us.  I grabbed my camera, because that’s what I do…capture the moment.   I try not to hang over our balcony as I could see the Captain standing on the bridge.  Remember, we can see up to the bridge and they can look down on us.  So watching my P’s & Q’s, because I do have them, I carefully lean over and take a few shots:


This is an incredible feat.  The crew lowers the ship’s tender door on deck 4 while the Pilot boat tries to keep up with the ship.  We eventually slow down to a stop so they can offload the crew member safely.  Do you see how dark it is?  I watch as the Pilot boat speeds away:


By the time the Caribbean Princess starts up and then turns around to head out, I noticed the Pilot boat has reached land.

The next day (day 7: sea day) we learn the female crew member has stabilized and is in improving at the hospital in Bonaire.  I know Princess will take great care of her during her recovery.

We are recovering from our three day port intensive adventures.  Hubby is a bit under the weather and is in nap mode most of the day.  I spend some time in the morning reviewing all the pictures taken and then go out in search of well, more food.  If you notice by now, there are hardly any foodie pictures.  That’s because they are all on my iPhone.  Another camera device that I need to collect pictures from.  Don’t worry.  I will devote a whole blog post to the culinary delight on the this ship.

Tonight (Day 7) is the last formal night for this cruise.  What do we do?  Laundry!  I don’t mind this task as everyone is getting dressed up and we’ll be the only ones in the Laundry room.  

There are two sets of Maytag washer and dryer:

Sink basin:

 

Swipe your cruise card to get tokens.  One token for washer and one for dryer.  Another different token for powder detergent and for fabric softener.  You can get both tokens at this machine (touchscreen):  

The machine containing the powder detergent and fabric softener:  

It’s 40 minutes for the washer and 45-50 minutes for the dryer.

There are two iron stations:  

Including warnings:  

We decide to go up to deck 15 and watch a movie “Keeping Up With the Joneses”.  I keep an eye on the time.  I leave Hubby at MUTS (Movies Under the Stars) and go down to our laundry room to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer.  I head back up to deck 15 and stop in the Buffet to pick up some desserts and carry them over to MUTS.  This really works out well as the Buffet and our laundry room are located at the back of the ship but on different decks.  I don’t mind as this helps me maintain the minimum of 10,000 steps a day routine.  Burn baby burn!

I pick up the dried clothes and drop them off in our cabin.  I run back to deck 15 and stop by Scoops (ice cream place) and pick up two packages of popped corn.  I get back in time to see the end of the movie with Hubby.   I’ve learned to multi-task while on the ship and still spend quality time with Hubby.

Yes, the sea days are a blur.  We can do a lot or do nothing.

(I need to stop here and leave the cabin for a bit.  I’m getting claustrophobic and need to stop looking out the balcony and see all this wave action.  I’ll be back)

On the last day and last sea day of our cruise we continue with our R&R part of the cruise.  We have a few things scheduled.  I meet up with D and M for the Culinary Demo show in the Princess Theater.  An hour later we are on a tour of one of the ship’s galley.  In one area they are working on today’s desserts for the dining room.

Hubby and I meet up with D and M later in the afternoon for BOGO.  D and M will be leaving the ship tomorrow and was working on their packing skills for a few hours.  We invited them to the PEL or Platinum and Elite Lounge drink specials and pre-dinner hors d’oeuvres.  

Mango margarita (BOGO$):  

We had another appointment to attend and was late getting to the Voice of the Ocean in the Princess Theater and it was packed.  Instead we went to Explorer’s Lounge to catch the “simulcast” of the show.  OMG.  We were definitely spoiled by the singers (fellow cruisers) on the Regal Princess last year.  Still it was a fun show and Samantha, who I wanted to win, won by 52% of the votes.

The last show for our evening was the International Crew Show.  This is a unique show as the Caribbean Princess is the only Princess ship to host this special event.  We were not disappointed.  The crew did a great job entertaining us with their songs and dance numbers.  Really talented crew members onboard this ship.

While waiting for the International Crew Show to start, we entertain ourselves with balloons:  

We had smooth sailing the last two sea days in contrast to the first two sea days earlier in the week.  We had a great time sailing on my second favorite ship and visiting the southern most Caribbean islands.  We are resting up for our next adventure.  Hint…Western Caribbean!

(I will be back to add additional pictures when time allows).  Thank you for your patience!

Day 3: @ Sea...still (Part 1)

Happy Sea Day!  We got some sleep.  We woke up to some rougher waters.  Rough as in we’re not heading to the gym anytime soon.  I did manage to get in some planks and stomach crunches/twists and push ups while in our cabin.  Gotta keep the metabolism going and burn, burn those pesky calories.  

On today’s morning agenda is a GoPro session in the Wheelhouse Bar on deck 7.  We head up to the buffet and have this…my four basic food groups:

(be back with a picture…placeholder)

Here is Hubby’s food groups:

(placeholder)

We quickly ate our breakfast and headed down to International Cafe (IC) for some more skinny mochas.  Hubby scopes out their menu and they have Double Chocolate Mochas on the menu.  I remember that coffee drink from last year!  We’ll start that one tomorrow.  I forgot to mention that we have two coffee cards left over from the last two cruises.  I gave D the newer unpunched card from the Regal and we had a used one from the Ruby.  Old cards can still be used to get the fru-fru coffee drinks.  

I noticed a sign in the Piazza and walked over to it.  We have a group onboard called the Baltimore Baseball group.  On the board was a list of closed events the group will participate in today.  Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this.  

We head over to the Wheelhouse Bar before 9am to attend the GoPro session.  JB, from South Africa, is one of thirteen photographers onboard the Caribbean Princess.  He is our host today.  He briefly talks about the GoPro and accessories and we watch a few videos on its use.  There was also a technical video which I took explicit notes on and will use to configure Hubby’s new GoPro 5.  I will have to set aside an hour in my busy schedule today to play with the new camera.  Life is rough, isn’t it?

I’m feeling spunky today and so I assume my blog post will start reflecting that as well.  I am now officially in cruise mode.  Later I will take my camera with me and go exploring new sites/events on the ship.  It’s still windy out, but the temperature has warmed up significantly.  I have to remember to tie my hair back so as not to scare my fellow cruisers with my wild wind-blown hair.  

Sorry for the “placeholders” above.  I have pictures scattered between my Fujifilm X-T1 camera and my iPhone 6 and transferring to my MacBook Air.  Thank goodness for Apple and “air drop” capability.  I am trying to get this posted before I run off for the next onboard adventure.  Okay and trying not to spend too much on my laptop either.  

Here’s what the seas look like today:

A lot more white caps that we can see as far out as the horizon.  More motion and bouncing and well, you get the idea.  Hubby and I love this!  Other cruisers, not so much.

I’ll be back….

Day 2 - @Sea

Hubby and I both had a rough night of sleeping.  While we enjoy the ships’s rolling that supposedly lulls us to sleep, we had a difficult time with the hangers clanging together in our closet.  It reminded me of wind chimes that were way off key.  So at various times throughout the night and into the morning, we would wake up and then go back to sleep.  Every now and then the ship would hit a swell and then drop like a “thud” into the water and the hangers would really clang louder.  Oh, did I mention our cabin is located forward?  That’s why we feel the “thud” more.

Since I was up early this morning, I continued with our cruise blog updates.  Reviewed additional pictures I took and then waited for Hubby to wake up.

I wanted to add that the Internet and WiFi connectivity in our cabin is fabulous.  Not lightning speed great, but fast enough for me to upload all the pictures I’ve posted so far.  We must be close to an access point.  I must remember to look up at the ceiling in the hallway the next time I leave our cabin.

After Hubby woke up, we had 3 choices for the morning:  workout in the gym, get coffee, or eat breakfast.  The latter sounded like a better option for us and on our way to the buffet we ran into D who had finished shooting hoops somewhere on deck 17.

I must say the food in the buffet has improved since the last time we were on this ship three years ago.  I had my basics:  scrambled eggs, potatoes, small yogurt, smoked salmon and capers, and a slice of pineapple…still careful not to fill my plate.  Hubby has oatmeal, smoked salmon and capers, and a fried egg.

We tried to wake up with some skinny mocha from the International Cafe coffee bar, but it didn’t do the trick.  So instead of fighting the sleepiness and being lulled by the ship’s movement, we decided to have a lazy/down day.  Our gym time was pushed back several times.  The day was a warm 81 degrees but you could not tell as it was a windy day and we could not sit on our balcony.  The sun had made an appearance on the other side of the ship (starboard) and we had hoped it would appear on our side.  No such luck.  Not today.  Maybe tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon we caught up with D and M in the Piazza (deck 7) and decided to watch the football game on the outdoor MUTS screen on deck 15 midship.  We were able to snag four loungers  and watch the Packers vs Cowboys game.  Somewhere during the second quarter, my eyelids were getting heavy and my rear end was getting stiff sitting on the lounge chair.  I mentioned to Hubby we should go to the gym since everyone is watching the football game or getting ready for formal night.

So off to the gym we go on deck 16 forward.  We almost had the gym to ourselves.  We each staked out our own treadmill and hopped on.  OMG!  I had a slight problem trying to do a fast walk while the ship was cutting through the water.  I forgot that we were all the way forward on the ship.  I looked out the window to get my bearings and saw that the treadmill and myself were on the port side, but close to the center.  It did not matter I could not keep a straight walk on the treadmill.  Every now and then Hubby would hear me giggle as I tried to walk without holding onto the handrail.  Still, we managed to get in 20 or so minutes of fast paced walking.  Okay, I made sure I burned the equivalent calories to the bowl of hot, crispy, tender french fries I had earlier.

We did most of the circuit weight stations and I then moved onto the dumbbells which proved to be quite an interesting feat while I was standing.

Hubby and I headed back over to MUTS to see the last minute of the Packers/Cowboys game.  Oh my!  The score is tied?!  Did we miss something?  Our fellow cruisers were heavy on the Packers side.  Every now and then we would hear the weak Cowboy fans cheer.  Still a good game with some incredible catches.  Yeah, I won’t mention the missed ones….

As you can see we opted out of doing formal night.  It was a last minute decision and since we started out with a lazy sea day it just felt right to end it that way.  We still  have two more formal nights to go.  It’s not like half my suitcase was devoted to formalwear.  I just bring one fancy dress (lightweight) and then other fancy tops with black pants that can be swapped around and even worn on casual evenings.

Cruising is great.  You can participate in most of the activities on the ship or do absolutely nothing.  It’s your choice.

We set our clocks ahead one hour this evening and it’s lights out by 9:30pm (or 10:30 if clocks were adjusted).   Zzzzzzzzzzzz…..

Saturday-Day 14: @Sea and the Last Day of Our Cruise

In my mind, this day and the last day of our wonderful cruising experience was the hardest.  I tried to fill my day by attending different events...crammed into one day.  You think I would have learned by now, but I don't.  It's not that easy.

So, I dutifully pulled out all three suitcases from under our bed.  Hubby retrieved all his clothes except what he will be wearing tomorrow when we disembark and piled it on our bed.  It took me awhile to figure out how I packed the three cases when we left home a little over two weeks ago.  The three suitcases each weighed in around 41 lbs at the airport.  That was my target this afternoon give or take a pound or two.

My past packing experience showed I can take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours to complete.  Depends on how motivated I am and also the weather.  If it's sunny and warm, the packing takes longer because I can find a million and one things to do outside in the sun on the upper deck.  If it's chilly, windy, and rainy outside...well you get the idea.

I was stalling all afternoon.  What?  You're hungry?  Sure...we can go and have a late lunch.  Put a few more things into the luggage.  It's 3pm?  We need to hurry to the Grapevine Wine Tasting!  A few more items go into the luggage.  I need to run down to deck 5 and get some tip envelopes.  Eventually the packing is done by 6pm.  I place a Princess tag on each piece of luggage and Hubby places them outside our stateroom door.  The crew will stop by and pickup the luggage to be placed in storage until the ship docks in Ft Lauderdale.

It was sad to see our stateroom looking so bare:

The only items left in our closet?  Clothes to wear tomorrow and important documents and jewelry in our stateroom safe:  

A few toiletries needed for overnight which will be placed in our carry on tote bag:

I'm going to miss this shower/tub and the hot water:

The last items to pack?  All my gadgets!  I've learned over the years to keep them all in the desk area.  My laptop, cameras, chargers, extra batteries, media cards, Instax printer, and cables were stored in the desk drawers.  I haven't had any issues with missing items plus all my gadgets would not fit in the stateroom safe.

Here's Hubby reviewing the videos he made with his GoPro.

As we walk out of our stateroom, we noticed our luggage was gone.  That's when it hit me...this was our last night on the ship.

We make our rounds on the ship.  We spend very little time outside on the upper decks as it was very chilly and windy.  We do stop by to see Marvin in the Pastry Shop.  He was sad to see us go.  He spends extra time chatting with us even while he's handing out desserts to the other passengers.  We mention to him that my aunt and uncle will be on the Regal in February and to look for them.  Marvin  thanks me again for the pictures and the envelope we gave him.  Sigh!

Marvin gave me his last dessert from his secret fridge:

Saturday-Day 14: @Sea and What a Difference a Week Makes

Exactly one week ago, we were at sea.  On a Saturday.  Here's a picture of what the ocean looked like:

Calm, huh?

Here is what it looked like today:

I was watching a cargo ship in the distance:

Here it is kind of parallel to the water:

And then kind of...well, do you see what I mean?  I was wondering how bad their motion was on a smaller vessel.  

We kept on going...rocking and rolling:

I'm sure it looked much worse on the lower decks...looking out the windows.