Tuesday, April 12

Tuesday April 12^th,

This is the first sea day of this leg. We decided to have coffee delivered to our room and we went to breakfast later than usual. Much to our surprise loads of other people had the same idea. There was a line up outside the Concerto Dining room. We were seated at a table for eight, one couple from Boston, one from North Carolina and one from Missouri. We were outnumbered for sure. In spite of accents we had good visits.

After breakfast we went our separate ways. I checked out the Fruit and Vegetable Carving. Then I went to the Spa to make appointments. I use my gift coupon and get my nails done at three tomorrow afternoon. I have made an appointment to get my hair done on Saturday morning.

Then I went to the shop and bought a carry- on case. We know we will need one when we come to the end of this holiday.

I stopped by the vegetable carving demonstration for a few minutes

I brought that back to the room and then I took our disembarkation papers and went to customer service. We have arranged to get a Princess transfer from the ship to the Fort Lauderdale airport. I wondered if we could do that since we are not flying. The rental car office is at the airport so we will be able to get the transfer after all. That is a good thing because finding a cab when there are so many ships in port is a real nightmare.

That worked out well. I took some more pictures and came back to the room. Olivia was here cleaning so I sat on the balcony and waited for her to finish.

Ken arrived, he had been topside and the crowds made him appreciate our balcony that much more. We are slowly coming to the conclusion that these BIG ships are not for us. They are grand and they are beautiful but they are just too big and have too many passengers. We are so happy to have the mini suite. It provides a sanctuary, an escape from the crowds.

With that in mind I went up to Horizon Court and picked up a sandwich for Ken and some taco chips and salsa for me. That was lunch, we did not need much since we had a late breakfast. I did have to eat something so I could take my pills.

We are sailing past Cuba today. It is quite hazy so you can’t see much. But Ken did spy a nice tall while light house using our field glasses.

Canapes arrived at 4:15 and we had a glass of our Zinfandel. We are just about at the end of that bottle. We will have to open our Robert Mondavi Chardonnay  for the next formal night.

Tonight is the Commodore’s champagne waterfall. We will pick up a glass of champagne and head for the theatre to get a good seat for the show. Tonight it features Stephanie Parker. We do not know her.

We have been trying to take in a Waterfall Fantasy but it has always been windy topside or it has been happening while we are in the dining room. I hope we get to see it tonight because it is very calm right now. But because this ship is so tall you just don’t know what the evening will bring.

Dinner was very good as usual. Again the forth couple did not appear. There was another Norman Love dessert tonight. I think it was the best yet.

We roamed up and got a glass of champagne and then went to the theatre, Tonight the  performer was Stephanie Parker and she did a tribute to Whitney Huston. She was very good. Apparently she used to be one of the Princess singers and dancers and now she is a solo performer. That was very nice to hear.

After the show we came back to our room to change out of our formal wear. We headed for deck 18 to see the waterfall fantasy. At first we were not sure if it would happen because of the wind but we were not disappointed. The waterfall show was done to Michael Jackson music and it was spectacular.

Our final stop was to Horizon Court for lemonade and a cookie.This is the first time we have done that and usually we do it every night.

Tomorrow we dock in Grand Cayman at seven and the clocks change and hour overnight. We will be only 2 hours different from Pacific time, we will be on central time. We have a beach excursion booked and a wakeup call for seven.