Days 11 & 12 - Starting a 7 day run of sea days into warmer weather.

It is always difficult to know what to write on sea days, as obviously, each passenger, potential passengers or even those who shudder at the very thought of being cooped up with 1500 Australians(!), has a different slant on things.

We know that some have a totally wrong perception without even experiencing a cruise and equally, there are those who enjoy short cruises, but wouldn’t entertain the very thought of 100 days at sea and vice versa.

As we often say when chatting to people, the dynamics of a 7 day cruise with every day (or almost every day) in port,  is a totally different experience from the longer cruises, where there are plenty of sea days to get to know other passengers.

Many ask what on earth we do all day (and night) so this is an abbreviated sample of published activities, taken from just one daily newsletter – the Princess Patter:

·         Stretch class – (I’m tall enough already…)

·         Tai Chi – unhosted

·         Christian fellowship/ bible study – unhosted

·         Mah-Jong

·         Zumba – extremely popular on every cruise to date

·         BYO craft group

·         Table tennis - doubles  competition

·         Beginners bridge

·         Arts and crafts  - Quilling etc

·         Dr. Bob & Bill W. Meeting – unhosted.  (Not 100% sure what that is but others know…)

·         Enrichment lecture – “The Search for HMAS Sydney” – hugely popular with standing room only as this is part 2 of about 10 lectures.

·         Meet the Customer Services team – a nice touch this – Angus and Cynthia, well known to previous cruisers.

·         Morning trivia

·         Arthritis  - ain management through acupuncture lecture (read, sales pitch…)

·         Secrets of reflexology

·         Carpet bowls – not as popular as it used to be, but still popular.

·         Line dance – also very popular

·         Texas Hold’em   - $1/$2 no limit cash game in the casino

·         Scrabble players get together

·         Detox for Health and Weight loss – no comment as we don’t attend, but we could point to others who probably should…

·         Enrichment lecture: The story of English – one of Lyn Hurry’s series.

·         Shuffleboard tournament

·         Mongolian buffet (select your own raw food and the deck 14 outdoor grill chefs cook it.)

·         Snowball Jackpot Bingo – enough said

·         Afternoon chordal melodies (whatever they are) by the orchestra’s talented guitarist, Kyle

·         2010 World Cruiser’s get together

And that little lot is only up until 12 noon!  If people can’t find something amongst that list they could enjoy, then maybe cruising isn’t for them.  Bear in mind the afternoon and evening programmes are also quite extensive. There are also many unofficial activities such as cards and chess plus the usual spa pools and swimming pools, a well equipped gymnasium, a fair sized sports court for tennis, basketball, cricket etc.  This is not a Princess promotion, just the reality of one aspect of life on board. 

Generally, we find ourselves chatting during and after any activity – especially eating or having a coffee.  It suits the more gregarious of course and we have lost count of the number of couples we’ve chatted to so far and we are only a few days into the cruise.

The other question that often crops up is that surely, with 1800 passengers, it must be crowded and you must queue for everything?  Well, no.  Of course, there will be queues at tender ports to and from the ship, which is to be expected.  Crowded? Cold sea days tends to keep people indoors so yes, it might be a little difficult to find a seat in the public areas, but with both the theatre and the Vista lounge able to cope with over 500 people, plus the other indoor public areas, including the buffet, casino, pizzeria and even the dining rooms, there are times when you wonder where the 1800 other people actually are. So far, the longest queue at the buffet has been 4 people queuing to sanitise their hands and the longest wait for buffet food has been 3 minutes to get a couple of poached eggs.

 

So what were we doing for the first 2 days of this run?  Basically, trivia and eating, but we finally caught up with Teri and Alex, just before (oriental) dinner.

The late show was, yes, you know who.  He has been on every single Princess cruise we have done so far with the singular exception of the Baltic’s Cruise last year.   Same songs, same patter, same jokes.  Bayne “yes, that is ma’ real name” Bacon. He was on in 2011 so by now, you’d expect a varied act, but no.  Not at all. Four years and 7 cruise segments later and the act is identical.  It is a bit of a shame really, as he is a good entertainer.  We could probably cope with the same songs, but not the same jokes each time.

Day 2, a slight change to the schedules with an earlier trivia at 10am (which we still didn’t win of course) then for the first time, we sat outside on the loungers, though we were in the shade.   

I tried to copy a file from my laptop or a memory stick onto Rob’s i-pad, but without success, even though the lap top did recognise the i-pad.  We have left Rob to find out where and how to slot in a micro card which is the next option.

There is now a cruise long trivia and we had our morning team but the bonus question worth five points was “What is the population of Thailand?”  Nope.  We didn’t know either.  (We were only about 33 million out…)

The late show was a tall Maori singer, Russell Hamilton.  A great voice but he broke his show up by inviting 4 members of the audience up on stage.  With 4 mikes set up, the inference was that they would have to sing, so the take up was very slow, but we eventually ended up with 2 ladies and two gents.

The mikes were just a prop, as the four had to perform a series of actions for the chorus. One of the guys was one of those really into the spirit of it (he may also have been lubricated with a spirit or two beforehand…), mucking up the actions then going off on his own little tangent with the free dance section.

A lot of fun with a very appreciative audience making a good show overall.    

Afterwards, we wandered through the casino and recognised a very familiar voice at the roulette table.  From the 2011 cruise, it was French woman, Cecilia, who was a star of the indoor bowls and also sang beautifully at the talent show.  Like so many others we have met, she and her hubby have had a tough time since we last met, but good to see her again.  

Anyway, to happier things.  Funny of the week – so far.

Cruise Director, Dan Falconer, who is doing a very good job, closing the late show in the theatre:

 

“Tonight is pensioner’s night in the casino” (Huge cheer from the audience.)  ”Three prunes in a line -  then a rush to the craps table.”