We got an hour back last night and after a very restful
night and the extra hour we feel almost human again.
You can feel the vibe on board wrapping up the cruise. I heard that there are just around 450 doing
in transit (staying on board for the next voyage). So all the others are getting their luggage
tags, disembarkation information, lines at the Purser’s Desk are long with
questions. I will add that many of the
questions that people have for the Purser’s Staff can be answered in the paper
they deliver to your cabin with the disembarkation information. So read that first before heading down to the
desk and save yourself some valuable vacation time.
We relax in the cabin for quite a while, reading, watching
tv, doing Sudkoku puzzles, and even writing the blog and actually being able to
post it with my computer if I move the laptop to the floor in front of the cabin
door. It must be the laptop issue cause
I can access the wifi pretty good with phone and tablet from cabin but signal
with laptop is not as good. Maybe if
someone can answer why here that would clear things up for me.
When we do head out we see that Crissy The Captain Circle
Host is in her office and we stop in to say hi.
She says “hey where were you last night, you weren’t at the Most
Travelled Cocktail Party”. No… we say,
we didn’t qualify. She says yes you did
and shows us the list. We did qualify
and we weren’t even at the bottom. I
tell her we never got the invite. She
apologizes and feels bad, it must of got lost somewhere. No worries we tell her, we are totally
fine. She pulls out the next sailings
list and says “okay here you are on the list for the next one, we just make the
cut off at 488 days” and the next sailing it will be a luncheon.
I also want to say thanks to Sharon/Bruce and Peter for
their lovely comments that I just approved for the last post about Remembrance
Day. Yes I agree there are very
wonderful people from all over the world and then sadly ignorant people too
from every part of the world. It is too
bad she just was not open to the answer instead of being defensive. But overall we have seen many wearing
poppies, and they are from many different nationalities.
This makes me stop and comment on the makeup of the
passengers. I am actually surprised at
the makeup. My first thought when we
booked this voyage was that the passengers would be mostly very old – cause how
many working people get that much vacation.
I really anticipated mainly British, Canadians, and Americans. But I have been wrong. There are many younger people, lots of young
couples. A few on their honeymoons. A handful of kids – maybe a dozen, and they
are young kids that are too young for school.
A few babies – so cute!
There are many Americans and Canadians and British, but we
have met people from Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, India, large group from
Korea, China, Argentina, Peru, Brazil and Japan. It has been lovely to sit with some and learn
about them and even the language barrier seems to disappear when you are at
sea.
There are many first time Princess Cruisers on board, and
even more Gold/Ruby too – and it warms my heart to see so many experiencing the
joys of cruising.
Although this makeup is nice now I feel it could change on
turn around day for the crossing, but hey I have been wrong before – oh don’t
tell my husband that though.
We get a notification in our cabin about the Venice Water
Shuttle service that Princess offers.
You see we arrive on Thursday at 1 pm.
The first leg goes until Friday at noon, then the second leg starts at
noon and we don’t set sail until Saturday at 1 pm (I believe off hand without
checking paperwork).
Princess is offering a shuttle from close to the pier to a
stop close to St. Mark’s Square (Maritime Station). The cost of the shuttle is $29 US per
person. It is good from when we dock
until the next day at 12:30. For us in
transit folks we got notification that if we still want the shuttle for the
first day of the next leg it would be another $29 US fee per person.
This can be a good option for those who want simplicity and
just want to get right to St. Mark’s Square.
For us though this would not be worth it for us. We want to go along the Grand Canal, we also
may need to take the valparetto to other areas.
So we are considering the 48 hour transit pass that you can buy once you
arrive for 30E each. Note the cost of
each valparetto trip is 7E so all we need is to really do just over 4 trips in
the three days.
They are doing the big Onboard Outlet Sale where everything
is $10. I stop in but I don’t really
spend much time and walk back out soon thereafter. I do head up to the Calypso Cove and I do buy
two tops that are discounted already and then add the 10% elite discount,
yeah. Bernie picks up two Tommy Bahama
t-shirts and I buy a Princess 50th Anniversary Key Chain and two 50th
Anniversary Mugs for our friends. Note
if you buy three 50th Anniversary items you get an extra 10% off.
After a relaxing morning we both agree we should head back
to Alfredos Pizzeria and we are seated at a lovely table with a view of the
water – it is a very nice day out there, sunny but windy – which can make it
cool.
Marvin is here to serve us again and a short while later
Bonnie and Jim come in and we invite them to join us.
After lunch I wander around and Bernie heads back to the
cabin to read. I love just
wandering. I grab my camera and chat
with people I run in to. I do stop in
the Casino for a bit, I haven’t been in here as of yet so I have to make my
donation.
I set up my pin with my card and load $20 into a poker
machine. The couple next to me are
playing and the man turns and says “are you Vickie” yes I am… and we chat for
quite a while and I have lost my $20 and put in another $20. When I end up with $22 I decide it is best to
just cut my loses and cash out.
Back in the cabin around 2:30 I call my friends John and
Karin and head up for a visit. They are
just one deck above us and I stop first at the Wheelhouse right at 3 pm for a
drink for the Happy Hour, buy one get one for $1.
Well sitting in the cabin we chat, laugh, catch up, laugh
some more, drink and around 4:30 Bernie comes up too and we repeat! This is really what cruising is about. Great friends you meet and it has been so
nice to reconnect with them. We sailed
with them for the first time many many years ago and sailed a few times after
that and we keep in touch but to actually spend so many days at sea together
only makes me smile. Cheers Karin/John!
Well after a long afternoon we are having to get ready for
the Captain Circle Party. There are two
parties tonight one at 5:30 and ours at 7:50 (strange time, but hey we are
good). We dress and head to Explorer’s
lounge for the party. They have a roped
off area to welcome us to the lounge and it looks lovely and special. The officers are right there to welcome us
all. The lounge is full but it appeared
that everyone was accommodated. Crissy’s
Mom is on board and we ask where she is so we can join her as she is sailing by
herself and Crissy is busy working. We
sit with Maureen and get to know her better.
She is a proud Mom and she should be Crissy does an amazing job.
The Captain is quick and the whole party is done in around
20 minutes. The Most Travelled Couple
Mr. and Mrs. Stein have 1,698 days!
After the party we head to the Wheelhouse Bar with Crissy
and Maureen and enjoy a cocktail and great conversation.
It is now 9:30 and we haven’t eaten dinner yet so we head up
to the Horizon Court for dinner.
We had good intention of heading out later and seeing the
show On the Bayou but we feel the need to reconnect with the bed and get a good
sleep. Might be all the drinks we had in
the afternoon that may have had something to do with it.
I really wanted to see the singers and dancers on board
before they got off but sadly we just didn’t swing it. The new dancers and singers are already on
board and they are doing handover. We
will have to see the show next sailing I guess.
Things happening today:
Zumba, Culinary Demonstration, Trivia, Texas Hold’em, Bingo, Pub Lunch,
Matinee Movie Run All Night in Princess Theater, Accordion Class, Movie Poster
Trivia, On Deck for the Cure Walk, Art Auction, Ballroom Dancing Swing and Jive
in Wheelhouse, Veterans Get Together, Destination Expert Talk about Venice,
Maitre d’Wine Club, Afternoon Tea, Afternoon Movie Skyfall, Singles Get
Together, The Sound Of Music Pop Choir Performance and Friends of Bill W
Meeting.
Tonight’s Events:
LGBT Get Together, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel on Muts,
Ballroom Blitz Dance Date, On the Bayou Show 8:30 and 10:30, Marriage Match
Game Show, Who Sang What Love Edition with a Twist, 50th Anniversary
Gold Balloon Drop Party at 10:45 and then Dancing in Explorers.
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