Tuesday January 20 – At Sea

We wake early and end up dressing and heading out.  For me it is down to the International Café for my latte and I enjoy the yoghurt parfait and for Bernie it is up to the Horizon Court for his oatmeal.  When Bernie joins me later I am finally able to get my blog up on line, yeah!!!  So I have decided to write each day and then try and post it, but if I can’t I will just catch up later.

Timothy and Brian sit for a while and we catch up with them.  We sailed with them many years ago on the Grand and then two years ago we were back on together on the Emerald.  Now Timothy is on my fan page and contributes there often and was so happy to hear he would be on again.  Those two know how to travel, they work hard all year and this is “their” time to rejuvenate. 

At 11 the second class for the steel pan is being held at Club 6.  When I arrive most of the group is there and Trevor is welcoming all of us.  Sadly the pans were not there yet and so the class really didn’t start until 11:15 but I was glad to see that the group all worked together to set up the pans so we can get the class started.  Today there were quite a few people (8) who were here for the first time.  They did not know any of the notes so they had a big learning curve. 

Everyone tried to help each other and Trevor was so patient and his time was limited but we did manage to learn four more notes (sort of) but we really need more lessons.  This is only the second cruise that they have done this so they are still working out all the kinks, but if you get on I encourage you to try it.

They also are doing a drumming circle that is also having their second class today in Princess Live and that involves percussion instruments.  Maybe next cruise one of us will try it.

Bernie meets up with me and we head to the pub lunch (they held it yesterday too) in the Wheelhouse/Crown Grill.  The menu is a little bit different than yesterday, today it is breaded shrimp, fish n chips, chicken curry and a few other items.  I did take a picture of it so will post it when I get home.  Bernie had the fish n chips and I had the chicken curry.  Gisela, but she goes by Gigi served us.  We sailed with her in South America last year and we catch up and take a few pics together. 

I direct Bernie to shops on board to check out the 50^th anniversary items.  Again I took a bunch of pictures of most of the items.  One thing I do need to buy is those small perfume holders that you can fill with your own perfume.  They sell them in the perfume shop and Kylle from South Africa helps us and recommends some cologne that I end up loving and will probably buy. 

We take a seat in Vines to catch up with Ryan the bartender there.  Ryan and his wife Rhea are both on board, we remember them from the Emerald a few years ago.  What a lovely couple and it is so nice to find out how they are.  Their beautiful daughter Rhyean is now 3!  We remember when she was born! 

I love the picture screens in the photography department, but I laugh when I swipe my card and our embarkation photos come up but also another couple’s pictures come up too.  The face recognition obviously thinks this couple is us, but gee they don’t even really look like us.

It is going to be a very very lazy afternoon, we are both tired and we relax in the cabin watching tv, reading and napping.