Days 15 & 16 - Yes, still at sea.

Well, it does seem rather a long time at sea so no wonder selling the first leg from Sydney to Dubai is a struggle.  But at Dubai, apparently, they are ten cabins short!  That usually means that some people won’t be joining, will get a full refund - and no doubt a free cruise in lieu.

We have decided that maybe, heading north to Darwin, may be a preferred option to begin this sort of trip after all, but for those living and boarding in Melbourne and Fremantle, obviously more attractive.  I think it was either one hundred or maybe more, who hopped on at Melbourne and a further 300 in Fremantle.  The problem is that so many days are spent at sea and in the early stages, it was also very cold.  Heading to Darwin means warmth quite quickly and also extra ports of general interest.  It would probably worthwhile having a stop in north Queensland on the way to Darwin.

We left Fremantle Friday May 29^th, we hit Columbo after 7 days at sea (and there could be minor issues there) followed by a further 4 days at sea before an overnighter in Dubai.  No wonder so many people wanted to join at Dubai and get off in New York.  By far, the most popular segments of the whole cruise.

Wednesday June 3^rd was our (free) wine tasting.  I only went, as traditionally, you came away with a free shot glass – but that seems to have been dropped, despite the obvious opportunity to make the Princess 50 year anniversary, a bit special.  The wine tasting started off with – Asti Spumante!     Wow!  I’m no drinker, but the same cheap bottled bubbly we used to give race winners, precisely because it was then just about the cheapest bubbles you could get.

The white Burgundy, neither Paula nor I liked. The Rosé was so-so – we’d cope if we were dying of thirst, the light red (whatever it was) we both liked and needless to say, I passed on my heavier red to Paula, who also ended up with Alex’s glass.

We wobbled back to the cabin before afternoon trivia, which we didn’t win, before getting ready for formal night number two.

Having had the lobster tails many times before, I knew that even with roasted monkfish, it wouldn’t be any better than an entrée sized portion so I had it as an entrée.  The piece of monkfish was little more than bite sized with the lobster tail, a small dollop of creamed potatoes and asparagus, covering barely a quarter of the plate.

So, it was the chateaubriand as the main - and very nice it was too.

On to the production show.  As mentioned before, these are not Princess dancers or shows and this one was “Variety”.  We were all blown away by one of the female singers – Lauren (she was the one we’d met in the buffet just over a week ago).  The three female and two male dancers were also pretty good, but as last time, zero stage props or backdrops.  Although the performers were excellent, the rather lack lustre costumes and scenery were a disappointment.  

Unlike all previous cruises, we had to make a choice between the production show, or Danny McMaster’s second show.  We weren’t told then (in the Patter), that the production show would be repeated the following night otherwise we’d have gone to see Danny McMaster.

As it happened, we caught the last 5 minutes of Danny’s show – and found that it too, was repeat of what we’d seen before, as was his first show.  The packed audience loved it anyway.

 

Thursday 4^th of June, was a relaxed sea day and we even opted for an earlier lunch, as we’d arranged to have dinner with Alex & Teri, which meant eating a bit earlier.  A high protein light lunch of pork spare rib (just one) some deep fried chicken (just a little) and roast turkey (just  a slice) with a spoonful of something dark green, which could have been kale, silverbeet or something from that family.

We were still grinning at Jill’s morning trivia typos by the time we appeared for afternoon trivia.  She put it down to compiling it at 1am… 

“In what film was the dog’s name ‘Ernestine’?  (We think that should have been Einstein…)

“What is the capital of Chilli” (She corrected that to Chile by the time she got to the answers).

My favourite however was,  “What was the album ‘Born In the ___ - by Bruise Springsteen’?”

Jill is a pocket Liverpudlian with the traditional scouse sense of humour and happy to laugh at herself.

Her afternoon “World Cruise” trivia was a real killer and we managed just 3 points - and didn’t get the bonus 5 points either.

In contrast, we managed a 19/20 for the normal afternoon trivia with Kelly and would have had 20 if Alex had been a bit more confident! We didn’t get the tie breaker anyway as 5 teams managed a full house of 20. Our new USA friends were a lot more useful for this quiz!

We managed our first swim and spa out on deck 12.

After a shower and change, we headed up on deck for the Captain’s Circle welcome, with loads of free drinks this time.  One person on our table  (who we hadn’t met before) was knocking back the red wine faster than most people drink water – or beer.

During the socialising time afterwards, Cynthia from Customer Services came over for a chat.  Are you ready for this Ros & Jo?  She said during our chat, that dealing with our group two years ago, was an absolute delight and by far and away, the best group she has ever dealt with – and I really think she meant it too!  She also said to tell you that Jo, you talked her into buying the ‘team’ camera…

The most travelled passengers were recognised, and winner by a country mile, was a character we have seen on just about every cruise – blond haired Steve.  He has done 2,065 days with Princess!!! That is the equivalent of almost 6 years – and he isn’t even a pensioner yet.  By the way, the average age of passengers on this cruise is just 70.

Sarah and ‘typo’ Jill from the entertainment staff also stopped by our table for a chat.  Unlike three others on the team, these two work really well in getting to know passengers.  They happened to mention that they had their auditions together, had their first days on the same ship at the same time and have been best buddies ever since.  Jill has even offered to meet us in Liverpool when we are there on the Royal, as she will be on leave.  Pretty good for someone who didn’t even know our names before tonight.

We then stayed out for a buffet meal with Alex and Teri, outside on deck 14, watching the moon rise and some fantastic sunsets on the big screen.

Then the deck party started and the volume of the early recorded music was cranked up, so we left.

Much of the talk has revolved around Columbo (Sri Lanka) as apparently, not only are they expecting high temperatures, but also as yet, we don’t know what our dock is. That could mean that for those not on a Princess tour, a potentially tough day.  Unlike last time,  when there was an organised shuttle to the dock gates, we gather that due to some sort of union aggravation, there will be no shuttle and no taxis on the wharf either.  As we could be anything from 1km to 4km from the gates, we visualise many people staying on the ship and probably a fair few suffering on the way out or back.

This isn’t Princess’s fault but could severely jeopardise the viability of future calls.  Perhaps as well we did a city tour in 2013, even though that wasn’t exactly smooth, either for ourselves or those on another tour. Hopefully, this can be resolved by the time we arrive.

We’d retreated to the atrium and the regular performer, Derek Floyd, was in the Vista doing a Lionel Ritchie show.  The lower level pianist slotted in with background music, but we called it a day and Paula watched the tennis on sports Channel 24 (channel 42 on our TV!).

One more day at sea before land and we shellbacks cross the equator overnight, so the crossing the equator ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon – with a pirate drill in the morning at 10am to look forward to.