Lessons learned, love shared: Golden Princess to Hawaii 3/27/13

[terrific_surprise]

After getting ready for our day while watching the Wake Show, we headed out the door toward the buffet at about 8:30 am. But first we stopped for a photo of the birthday decorations on our door (a photo I had neglected to take on embarkation day, which was her 50th birthday).

 

We only had time for a quick breakfast. We needed to make sure that we made it to Vines by 9:00 am so that we could get our free tickets for the orchid lei making class.

 

By the time we arrived at Vines, the line was already long, but it became much longer. A lady in front of us was very upset that someone had told her to wait in the wrong place and the member of the CD staff who was giving out the tickets was criticized by some for being "too military" about it (but I think they did a reasonably good job handling the mob). When we finally got to the front of the line, tickets for the first two days of the class were gone, but that wasn't a problem. Saturday afternoon seemed to be a good time for us to make our orchid leis. (Obviously, if someone wants to ensure that they will get orchid lei tickets for the first day, they should plan to get in line much earlier than the announced time.)

 

Putting our tickets in a safe place, we went up two floors to the Promenade Deck, then we walked to the Wheelhouse Bar to take a look at the heirloom leis for sale. There we saw Leialoha and Dave (aka Elua) for the first time. At this point they seemed somewhat stressed in dealing with the crowd, but our Cruise Critic friend "silverbird" greeted us there and briefly introduced us to Dave. (Silverbird has apparently known Dave and Leialoha for years, beginning back when they were based in Florida.)

 

We encounterd silverbird often throughout the cruise, but somehow we never got around to taking a picture with her until the last day, when we were about to disembark:

(I'm not using her real name here, because I'm not sure if she wants to remain simply "silverbird" on CC. Of course we didn't call her "silverbird" when we saw her on the ship.)

 

Terri and I decided to make our own kukui nut leis (at $15 each), so we picked out a selection of nuts, shells, and beads, put them in a basket, and sat down to thread them on to the ribbon which was provided. Mine was mostly gold, while Terri's was mostly pink and blue.

 

 

As we sat down to begin making the leis, Terri noticed tears in my eyes. When she asked "why are you crying?" I pointed to two young girls nearby who were making their own leis, suddenly realizing how much I missed our sweet little 7 and 9 year old girls (the youngest of our 11 children). For us, two weeks was a long time to be so far away from our kids.

Edited August 15, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[vent1020]

VERY well written. I am thoroughly enjoying your experience.

[partybarbie]

I've been on six Hawaii cruises and have never been to a lei making class. Your pictures and story make it sound really fun. I am going to make a point of taking a class on my next Hawaii cruise. Lesson learned. ;)

[terrific_surprise]

(Thanks, vent1020 and partybarbie! It is truly gratifying to know that these "lessons" weren't for my benefit alone.)

 

When our leis were completed, we decided to go up to the Lotus Spa, trying one more time to get the tenth and final stamp on our "$1000 Treasure Hunt" cards. This time they didn't refuse to stamp it, so we brought our completed cards down to the drum which had been placed in the center of the Piazza. (But before I put my card in the drum, I remembered to try a little trick my grandfather taught me, which he claimed increases the chance of getting picked in a drawing.)

 

After a little more wandering around the ship, checking out our new surroundings, it was soon time to head back to Wheelhouse Bar for the ukulele class. Although we were on time for the scheduled 11:15 start of the class, we were among the last to get ukuleles and we had a hard time finding a place to sit. (So, if you plan to take a ukulele class, I would recommend that you plan to come early.)

 

Dave Soreff (of Elua) did a great job of making the ukulele class fun yet serious, even though it was such a diverse group, with some participants having no previous musical experience and others being experienced musicians.

 

One of the first things Dave taught us was to strum with the index finger, which to me (having just a little guitar experience) seemed counterintuitive.

 

That first day I think we learned three simple chords, but within minutes we were all making beautiful music, strumming a Hawaiian song (or more accurately, according to what Dave taught us, a "hapa-haole" song, which I think would be the proper characterization of every song we eventually learned).

 

Every day at noon, the Bridge would interrupt our ukulele class (and presumably other activities throughout the ship) with an announcement. Dave would typically find some humor in the Bridge's "word of the day" and smirk and gesture mockingly when the navigational details would always conclude with the obvious statement "...which puts us in the middle of the Pacific Ocean."

 

After ukulele class, we decided to try the "pub lunch" in the Crown Grill. I tried the "bangers and mash" (sausage and mashed potatoes) while Terri had the fish and chips (which included "mushy peas" she didn't seem to relish).

 

For dessert, we enjoyed the bread and butter pudding:

 

The treasure hunt drawing was set for 1 pm, so after lunch we headed for the Piazza, where I left Terri while I brought some things back to the room (not minding the extra walking like she would). I got back to the Piazza just in time to hear the first prize winners announced -- but before I rejoined my wife, something at the International Cafe caught my eye, so I decided to get in line for an additional treat while the 17 winning cards were drawn out of the drum.

 

Suddenly I heard a familiar name -- mine! I had won something! My International Cafe treat could wait! For a few seconds Terri became frantic, thinking that I had not yet returned from the room, but she was soon relieved to see me come to the front to receive a certificate for my prize. I had won the Reflections DVD -- which was probably the prize I would have wanted the most! (Soon Terri would come up with an idea to make the prize even better.)

Edited August 16, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[terrific_surprise]

To celebrate my DVD win, we headed up to the Lido Deck where I enjoyed a slice of pizza from Prego Pizzeria and a chicken burger. (Yes, I realize that my pub lunch hadn't even settled yet, but hey, we are on a cruise, right? For me, unlimited food is one of the biggest reasons to cruise, but my wife sometimes had to help keep me from going too far overboard.)

 

Noticing that the movie Pearl Harbor (with Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale) would be showing on the Movies Under the Stars screen at 3 pm, we looked around for some available deck chairs. Most of the deck chairs were not occupied by people, but the many lonely towels and blankets sunning themselves without human companionship made it hard to find two adjacent chairs for us to use. Eventually we located two chairs with a good view of the screen (after I think we got enough guts to move a blanket). But even though the sun was shining that afternoon, it was cold enough that Terri needed a blanket.

 

We knew that we wouldn't get to watch the entire movie (because we had other plans for the afternoon), but for us it would be enjoyable just to watch the first few minutes, because it hadn't been long since we watched the DVD of the whole movie at home as part of the process of preparing for the cruise. The first few minutes of the movie would be sufficient to re-trigger those memories.

 

Terri had heard about the drinks available through the Ultimate Kid's Package (UKP) and wanted to purchase it for my enjoyment. (I'm much more of a drinker than she is -- but don't get the wrong idea: my favorite drink is tap water. She, on the other hand, will usually just have a few sips of whatever she is drinking.) While the per-day price of about $8 seemed to me to be a good deal, the total price tag of just over $100 was more than I would have sprung for without her prodding. When I realized that we could pay for this with the onboard credit we had received (by re-booking the cruise during a pre-Christmas sale), I decided to go ahead with it. But while I had meticulously researched many aspects of the cruise, this drink package was something I hadn't researched, so I wouldn't realize until after the cruise that I had missed out on some of the drinks I could have ordered, or that I could have ordered the drinks in larger sizes (typically the glasses they served the drinks in were quite small by my standards).

 

From then on, getting my money's worth out of the little UKP sticker on my cruise card became another obsession at times (but perhaps not quite to the degree experienced by the couple whose CC review inspired much of this cruise experience). That obsession began with a virgin piña colada. Even though it was a cool (Terri would say "cold") afternoon on the Lido Deck, that just seemed like the appropriate drink to start with.

 

I hope I don't get anybody in trouble by saying this, but it was not unusual for the beverage server to offer to bring both of us a drink (even though I was the only one with a UKP sticker on my card).

 

The UKP deal included a nice clear plastic cup with a lid and a curly straw. The cup was decorated with colorful fish, along with the Princess logo. I chose not to use the cup, instead saving it to give to one of our children after the cruise (it is now used every day by our 12 year old son).

 

While Terri reclined poolside (not getting much sun, due to the blanket covering her), I excused myself for some private business. I told her that I needed to get on the Internet, which really was true (but it wasn't the whole truth). I also wanted to make a special purchase of charms at the Meridian Bay boutique, but I didn't want her to know (yet).

 

Unfortunately, the ship's Internet connection was not functioning that day, but that gave me more time to finish shopping for charms. A sign outside Meridian Bay advertised that with the purchase of seven(?) charms, I could receive a free Princess ship charm. In addition, I had a coupon offering 10% off if my total purchase was high enough. I asked the shop clerk if I could combine both offers, and was glad to hear that it wouldn't be a problem. So after purchasing just enough charms to ensure that I could take advantage of both offers, I hurried back to my wife, who was still by the pool covered with a blanket.☻

[Mrs.C05]

Enjoying your review!!! Can't wait for more!

[terrific_surprise]

After watching just a few minutes of Pearl Harbor, it was time to find our way to the Hearts and Minds Chapel, high above the Terrace Pool at the aft end of the ship, where the Princess Pop Choir rehearsal was scheduled to begin at 3:15. Initially I wasn't thrilled with the idea of being a part of these daily rehearsals, but this was something that my wife Terri wanted to do, so I reminded myself that this cruise was supposed to be for her, not me. Eventually I was glad that we took the time to be a part of this small group, as it was the source of some of our best memories from the cruise.

 

The director of Princess Pop Choir was none other than our Deputy CD, Marahscalh! He was faced with no easy task. As a singing group, we were (how can I put this delicately?) past our prime, and at times the prospect of becoming a real "pop choir" seemed ridiculous. But Marahscalh was undaunted, refusing to give up his goal of not only ensuring that our unified voices produced a harmonious sound but also adding choreography to create a visually appealing performance. At times Marahscalh's eyes would grow wide with exasperation at our gaffes, but he was always eager to give it another try, and he never lost his smile and his sense of humor.

 

There were no tryouts; from the start it was evident that we all would be fully accepted without hesitation. One of the choir members had difficulty walking and speaking, but her presence was always welcomed, and in the end I'm sure that all of us in the Princess Pop Choir considered her to be "the life of the party," as she added her own special touches to the songs. (At some point she acquired two pineapples, putting "Mr. Potato Head" faces on them, and they could be spotted in special places throughout the cruise, even making an appearance on the Wake Show.)

 

A couple of times during the cruise, our rehearsals seemed to disturb the residents of the adjacent suites, but we tried to ensure that the door to the hallway stayed closed to minimize the noise level.

 

For our first rehearsal, we worked on the song Oh What a Night, which seemed to me to be strangely appropriate. Although Terri and I had learned about the song's seedy (but apparently fictional) backstory when we saw a production of Jersey Boys a couple of years earlier, for me the song was directly related to Terri's 50th birthday, because I had considered making a special birthday recording of this same song, changing the lyrics along the lines of "...late in March of 1963" to refer to the night of her birth. (This was just one of the ways I planned to commemorate her birthday which never came to fruition, along with other related ideas such as changing the lyrics of "Sherry" to "Terri, baby... Terri, won't you come out tonight." I hadn't told Terri about my scrapped plans for these songs until after these rehearsals began.)

 

As the rehearsal ended at 4 pm, we quickly excused ourselves, needing to make our way immediately to the front of the ship for the Captain's Circle "Party," which was scheduled to begin at 4 pm. I didn't realize until we arrived at the crowded Princess Theater that I had forgotten to bring the coupon which would have entered us in the prize drawing, but we may have been too late to get entered in the drawing anyway. (Besides, what would have been the chances of winning twice in the same day?)

 

The party began with a brief show from the small Princess orchestra, then a few Princess singers appeared, rising up out of the floor. But the highlight of the party was when CD Gavin Chandler introduced Captain Nicoló Bommarco, who said in his heavy Italian accent "welcome to the beautiful Island Princess -- oops!"

He quickly apologized, "Sorry, I have been on the Island Princess for four years." As he touted this itinerary's "many relaxing days at sea," Terri was already starting to feel a bit seasick, wondering if she could handle all of the sea days.

 

Although others here on CC have said that these parties are just extended commercials for the Royal Princess, I don't recall that being true in our case (but perhaps we missed something at the beginning). From what I recall, it was just some brief entertainment, followed by the Captain's welcome, followed by the prize drawing. In less than 30 minutes, it was over, and we were on our way, with two free drink coupons in our hands.

Edited August 16, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[partybarbie]

Love reading about your cruise. I feel like I am right there with you. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with us on CC.

[silverbird]

It is fun to re-live the cruise through your review. We have two more booked and hope that they are going to be as much fun. I am looking forward to reading more. Hugs.

 

I prefer to remain anonymous -- at least for the time being.

[terrific_surprise]

After over eight hours away from our new "home," my wife Terri was ready to go back to our cozy room. On our way, we stopped by the International Cafe for some small treats, including pistachio pudding.

 

Terri rested for a few minutes, hoping that her slight seasickness would subside before she needed to get ready for dinner. Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to do a little work on my computer (including jotting down the notes which eventually became this review). I still couldn't access the ship's Internet connection.

 

At about 7 pm, a little less than an hour before our "late traditional dining" time, we left our room to do some random exploring of some of the fun spots around the ship. When we passed the Meridian Bay boutique (with its sign outside promoting the Princess ship charm), Terri wanted to go in to look at the charms! :eek: But when I was reluctant to do so, she seemed to understand why and didn't press the matter. (I had given her a charm that morning, which I explain more fully on my "Cruise Rituals" thread. I don't intend to digress too much on this thread about the specific charms.)

 

When we finally made our way to the Canaletto Dining Room and found our table, our tablemates were already seated. We dined at a table of six, with two other couples. All four of them were British, but one of the couples had moved to the United States decades ago. We were immediately pleased to find that we had been matched with such pleasant dining companions, and looked forward to the coming days of interesting conversations.

 

Of course we apologized for missing the first night's dinner, explaining the circumstances surrounding Terri's lost ID and our exhaustion after sailaway. One of our tablemates had also lost her ID, so she could sympathize with our situation. She encouraged us to contact the bank about the cards which were also contained in the lost wallet.

 

According to our tablemates, we had missed some excitement earlier in the day when some dolphins were sighted playing in the ship's wake.

 

Soon the head waiter, Albuquerque, came to our table to talk to us. "This is the best the sea has been in four seasons," he crowed. "Usually there is no sunlight on the first day out." Even with all of his bravado, Albuquerque didn't convince us that he was painting an accurate picture of our situation. On the contrary, it seemed that the ship had begun rocking more when we arrived in the dining room.

 

Terri ordered the fettuccine Alfredo as an appetizer. Here's what it looked like:

 

I ordered the fettuccine Alfredo as an entree, having read here on CC that the entree portion would include the Parmesan bowl. But when our pasta bowls arrived, I initially thought at first that the Parmesan bowl was missing from my entree. Here's what mine looked like:

 

Only after I began eating did I realize that the Parmesan bowl was actually there, hiding limply under the fettuccine. It definitely was not the crisp Parmesan bowl I was expecting.

 

In addition to the pasta entree, I had ordered red snapper as a second entree.

Our waiter seemed a bit surprised when I ordered two entrees, but he quickly took my order without complaint.

 

By the time Terri's entree arrived, she was feeling too seasick to eat, so she asked our waiter if any ginger was available. The look on his face showed that he had never been asked that question before, but he said he would check with the kitchen. Soon he returned with a large raw ginger root! (I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture.) Terri cut a small slice out of the ginger and ate it, leaving most of the large root on the plate. The raw ginger was a bit too strong for her to take much.

 

In spite of Terri's feelings of seasickness, she was enjoying the conversation with our new tablemates, so she didn't want to leave the table. She probably also didn't want me to miss dessert, which (I think) was key lime pie:

 

We didn't consider any activities after dinner, but returned to our room because of the way Terri was feeling. I didn't even realize until I looked back through that day's Princess Patter in writing this review that we missed two opportunities to hear Elua that night! They had provided their Hawaiian music in the Piazza at 6 pm and 9:15 pm! We had eagerly anticipated the opportunity to hear them in person, so I'm mad at myself that we missed out on these performances. (I remember wondering why they weren't performing or teaching hula classes that day.) Somehow the announcements of the Elua performances became lost for our eyes in the sea of text in the Patter. (Perhaps it would have helped if Elua events were tagged with a logo, like the Movies Under the Stars events.) But it wouldn't be long before we would get to experience in person the captivating music we had been listening to in the weeks leading to the cruise.

 

More photos of what we experienced on this first sea day of the cruise can be seen at this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94965522@N02/sets/72157633289657771/

Edited August 17, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[terrific_surprise]

It is fun to re-live the cruise through your review. We have two more booked and hope that they are going to be as much fun. I am looking forward to reading more. Hugs.

 

I prefer to remain anonymous -- at least for the time being.

 

I'm glad I didn't accidentally reveal your identity, silverbird, but it was nice to be able to include your picture

[cr8tiv1]

Aloha -

 

Thanks for your updates. This was such a marvelous cruise that I am enjoying the revisit.

 

I decided I wanted to try a low/no salt dinner very night. Albuquerque brought me the next night's menu each and every day. He is such a nice person. He would often strongly steer me away from entrees that would be too salty, even without the salt. Of course, I had to have my fix of seafood and there was no way around it since these creatures lived in salt water.

 

Looking forward to your next installation.

 

Renee

[Bucky3]

Thanks for the great review, and we're looking forward to more! Our anniversary is March 26th, and we were celebrating our anniversary on the Star Princess March 26th sailing, so you watched "our" ship as it sailed away to Hawaii, Samoa, and Tahiti on a 28-day cruise! And it was WONDERFUL! We have taken the Golden to Hawaii with Elua onboard, and they are the best!

[terrific_surprise]

Aloha -

 

Thanks for your updates. This was such a marvelous cruise that I am enjoying the revisit.

 

I decided I wanted to try a low/no salt dinner very night. Albuquerque brought me the next night's menu each and every day. He is such a nice person. He would often strongly steer me away from entrees that would be too salty, even without the salt. Of course, I had to have my fix of seafood and there was no way around it since these creatures lived in salt water.

 

Looking forward to your next installation.

 

Renee

Thanks, Renee!

 

That reminds me that I should have mentioned the impeccable service in the Canaletto Dining Room on the Golden. (Sometimes I'm a little too quick to point out the negatives and forget to mention the positives. Sorry about that.) While I assume that a high level of service at dinner is probably standard throughout the cruise industry, when we went to dinner on the Golden it seemed like we were treated like royalty.

 

I have never once in my entire life experienced such a high level of service in a land-based restaurant.

 

Our waiter, Ram, would not only pull out our chairs but even put our napkins on our laps (although that was a bit too much for me -- I often tried to put my napkin on my lap before he had a chance to do so). As he handed us our menus, he would always tell us which selections he recommended (I took his recommendations about half the time).

 

I tend to be very thirsty when I am dining, and Ram and his assistant (can't recall his name at the moment) always promptly refilled my water glass.

 

I'm sure that much of the credit for this high level of service goes to Albuquerque. In addition, he was very friendly and often stopped by our table to chat for a while.

 

(Sorry that I haven't posted anything yet on our next sea day. I had originally planned to post one update for every day of the cruise, but obviously this review is going to take much longer than the cruise itself!)

 

Tim

Edited August 18, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[terrific_surprise]

Thanks for the great review, and we're looking forward to more! Our anniversary is March 26th, and we were celebrating our anniversary on the Star Princess March 26th sailing, so you watched "our" ship as it sailed away to Hawaii, Samoa, and Tahiti on a 28-day cruise! And it was WONDERFUL! We have taken the Golden to Hawaii with Elua onboard, and they are the best!

 

While we have watched ships sail in and out a few times now, watching you sail away on the Star was definitely our most spectacular experience so far. Maybe our emotions made the experience for us bigger than real life, but it just looked so amazing -- it seemed that some of the lights on the ship were twirling around, and the shimmering reflection on the water further augmented its appearance. There must have been a great sailaway party going on up there.

 

I don't think we even realized at the time that you were sailing beyond Hawaii to Tahiti! That is the cruise we have been dreaming about now (though I'm not sure it will ever happen). It's nice to touch base with someone who experienced this cruise!

[Bucky3]

[quote=terrific_surprise

I don't think we even realized at the time that you were sailing beyond Hawaii to Tahiti! That is the cruise we have been dreaming about now (though I'm not sure it will ever happen). It's nice to touch base with someone who experienced this cruise!

 

I hope you make it one day. Although Hawaii is still our very favorite place, the South Pacific is special and we loved our cruises there. Looking forward to your continued reviews!

[terrific_surprise]

Our second night on the Golden Princess was a much different experience from our first. It felt like we were going through a storm, with the ship moving forcefully from side to side.

 

Hoping that the middle of the night would be a time when the ship's Internet connection was not in demand, at about 2 am I went to the Internet cafe to try to get online, but found again that the connection wasn't working. The lack of Internet access was becoming very frustrating, because I was hoping (among other things) to send a message to our bank notifying them about the lost cards. If someone was making fraudulent charges on our account, it could seriously impact the rest of our cruise (although I did have some reserve money that would not have been impacted if our account was compromised).

 

At about 6 am, stepping onto our balcony in the darkness, my wife Terri noticed many white caps on the water. Looking forward to daylight after such a rough night, she suggested that we go out to watch the sunrise.

 

With the ship heading southwest, we needed to go to the aft end of the ship to look toward the east over the ship's wake. The trip from our room up one level to the Terrace Pool was quick and easy, but it was too windy and rainy to stay by the Terrace Pool.

 

Looking for an indoor place to watch the sunrise, we naturally headed up to Skywalker's, high above the Terrace Pool. Planning to start the day with some reading, we brought along a Bible and the day's Princess Patter.

 

 

I opened my Bible at random, discovering that it was turned to 2 Kings chapter 4. I began reading about how a prophet told a woman that God would bless her with a child after many years of barrenness, and how when that same child, her only son, became deathly ill years later, she hurried to find the prophet. Being asked if it was well with her family, she answered "it is well" (at the very time that her son was dying)!

 

This immediately made me think of the hymn "It is Well With My Soul," which was written on a ship by a man who was grieving over the tragic deaths of his daughters at sea. The words of the hymn "When sorrows like sea billows roll; it is well, it is well with my soul" seemed to be just what we needed to hear to put our small troubles in perspective.

 

True, our cruise was not turning out to be the perfect dream we had imagined. But even in the midst of the storm, we had no choice but to acknowledge how greatly God has blessed us.

 

Soon the sun broke through the clouds:

It appeared at the time that we were leaving the storm clouds behind. (Then I found an opportunity to give her another charm, depicting the Princess "seawitch" logo, which I explain further on my other thread.)

 

After spending over an hour in Skywalker's reading the Bible and the Princess Patter, we headed to the buffet. Our stomachs had not done well after our first sea day, so we both decided to start the day with a simple meal of oatmeal and orange juice. The orange juice was so delightful that our server joked that he picked the oranges upstairs and squeezed them himself! (Unfortunately we typically had trouble getting the servers' attention for juice refills at breakfast.)

 

After breakfast, we headed back to our room to watch the Wake Show.

Edited August 19, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[melody hounddog]

Really enjoying your detailed review. Love the pictures as well. Thanks for posting!

[terrific_surprise]

After returning to our room to watch the Wake Show, we tried to give ourselves (and our stomachs) a gentle start to the day by staying in our room (sometimes stepping on to our balcony to watch the waves and white caps from our balcony). Elua's "word of the day" on the Wake Show was "`A `ole pilikia," which means "no problem." Although it never became part of our vocabulary, it seemed quite appropriate for the day.

 

 

At about 11 am, we finally left the comfort of our room, browsing various places such as the "Holiday" sale in the Bernini dining room, before retreating again to our room. (This was normally the time we would have been in ukulele class, but due to its overwhelming popularity, the introductory ukulele class was repeated on the second day, and those who attended the first day were asked not to come on the second day.)

 

We had circled various events in our Princess Patter such as the Sushi Buffet (which certainly would have been for my enjoyment, not Terri's) but still being somewhat uncomfortable with the ship's motion, we decided to forgo these events so that my wife could save her strength for the hula class, set to begin in the Vista Lounge at 1:45 pm. Even then, we rested a little too long, so she missed the first few minutes of the class, where Leialoha was teaching the basic steps of the ancient form of hula. It was only at that point that we realized that we had missed the first hula "class," as Leialoha referred to hula steps she had taught on the day the Golden Princess sailed away from San Pedro.

 

Although several men participated in the hula class, that really wasn't something I wanted to consider (though I did enjoy watching some of it).

 

(Terri is at the far left in this photo; Leialoha is at right, mostly hidden.)

 

When I saw that the movie Lincoln was showing in the Princess Theater, I decided to take in the beginning of the movie (knowing that our schedule wouldn't allow me to watch it all). Being fascinated with anything relating to Lincoln, I unfortunately found it too difficult to break away from the movie, and when I finally returned to the Vista Lounge at 3 pm I found Terri sitting alone waiting for me, a bit frustrated that I had left her waiting for so long.

 

Our Princess Pop Star rehearsal was set to begin in just a few minutes, so we hurried up to the Hearts and Minds Chapel, where our group began practicing the song Waterloo (which I once again found to be personally significant, as the lyrics "knowing my fate is to be with you" reminded me of the way young Terri insisted that someday we would be married, in spite of the way I resisted her claim -- and the happy day that I met my "Waterloo" by deciding to resume our relationship). With the ship bouncing around as he tried to teach us the choreography for the song, Marahscalh laughed, balancing on one foot as he exclaimed "this is like surfing without getting wet!" He went on to say that the seas that afternoon were the roughest they had been for weeks.

Edited August 20, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[terrific_surprise]

After the rehearsal, Terri wanted to hurry back down to the Vista Lounge, because a game show "The Blank Game" was about to begin and she wanted to be there early so that she could try to be a contestant. I, on the other hand, had no interest in being on stage. She got her wish, being seated on stage with two other panelists (one of whom, Rosarita, was a member of the CD staff). Those of us who were seated throughout the Vista Lounge organized into teams, as we tried to guess how the on-stage panelists would fill in the blanks.

 

I joined a team which included the husband of one of the other panelists, so I think we had an advantage in guessing how our wives would fill in the blanks. Although most of the "blanks" seemed designed to make contestants think of risque answers, usually the various answers people actually provided were mild. But I didn't anticipate my wife's bold answer to the game's most provocative question, which was something like "When Jack and Jill booked a balcony on the Golden Princess, they decided that they would ________ on it at least once." I have no idea what I answered, but my wife's answer is burned in my memory: "make love." (I have probably never been so pleased to get an answer wrong, because it obviously put a certain fun idea in my head -- or more likely, brought it out from the shadows where it had been hiding since the day I booked the balcony room.)

 

In the end our team tied for first place (in spite of my wrong answer). As a prize, Terri got a deck of cards (as a second choice, she could have selected a fan).

 

Our team also included an interesting couple who told us they had traveled before the cruise from Vancouver BC all the way to Los Angeles on Amtrak. They said they loved the 36 hour ($900) train ride which preceded their cruise. Although I don't think that we would ever be willing to spring for that price tag, I couldn't help but imagine taking the train to Vancouver to catch a repositioning cruise back to Los Angeles.

[terrific_surprise]

After the game show (at about 5 pm), we retreated to our room, only to find a card on the door indicating that "to respect our privacy" the steward did not make up our room, but that we could page him to request service. However, the card didn't provide his pager number! (Having been gone from our room for hours, we clearly had not been in the room when the card was put on our door, so there was actually no "privacy" to protect -- unless he had already been warned about my wife's answer at the Blank Game and assumed that we would immediately put her words into action.)

 

At this point, Terri wanted to stay in the room again, feeling too queasy to walk around. But she encouraged me to feel free to explore the ship while she stayed in the room. In addition, she wanted me to find the answer to the Wake Show's morning question (which in this case was the identity of the ship's godmother). We didn't realize yet that Wake Show answers wouldn't count if they weren't in by noon.

 

Later I went up to Sundae's on the Lido Deck to use my UKP sticker to get a free strawberry shake. I noticed that the shakes seem to be made with hand-scooped ice cream, in contrast to the ice cream cones which were made with soft serve (which tasted to me like ice milk). Frankly, I wasn't very impressed with the quality of anything Sundae's had to offer. It seemed to me to be about like what I would expect from McDonald's.

 

The pools were drained and cordoned off, apparently because of the rough seas (although I later noticed that the Terrace Pool was not drained). I briefly went up the stairs to glance at "Princess Links," but it is now just a flat artificial grass floor, with no miniature golf course.

 

At some point I happened upon the little rest room hidden away on the port side of Explorer's Lounge, and was surprised to notice that the cleaning staff checked this out-of-the-way restroom at least once every hour! For the rest of the cruise, I made it a point to notice how clean the public restrooms were, finding that these same high cleaning standards were apparently followed throughout the ship.

 

As I passed through the Piazza, I was amazed watching the champagne waterfall being built, as crew members (apparently undaunted by the constant rocking of the ship) skilfully balanced champagne glasses on top of each other, never letting a glass fall to the ground. (I couldn't help but wonder if they use some kind of adhesive.)

 

Briefly visiting the Internet cafe (which was empty except for a crew member), I was informed that the Internet had not been working all day, and there was no prediction for when it would resume.

 

I stopped by the International Cafe for a bowl of cream of asparagus soup and tiramisu, along with a glass of ginger ale for my wife. (I noticed at this point that the soup pictured at the International Cafe did not represent the actual soup of the day. The same soup, which looked like something with jalapeños, was displayed on their sign throughout the cruise, although obviously the soup changed daily.)

 

Intending to head back to our aft room, I soon found myself at the Princess Theater when I expected to be seeing Club Fusion. (Normally I have a great sense of direction, even onboard a ship, but somehow I had become disoriented.)

 

When I finally found my way back to our room at about 6 pm, Terri was laying in bed, telling me that she felt like she was on the Roaring Rapids ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain. (Well, that's one of our favorite rides there, so that must be a favorable comparison, right? Hmmm....)

 

Terri had wanted to see the champagne waterfall (having fond memories of the champagne waterfall on the Sapphire Princess), but she still didn't feel up to it, so in her absence she asked me at about 7 pm to go down to take some pictures.

 

Little tuna snacks were being distributed, along with champagne and mimosas (which both tasted the same to me). During the champagne waterfall a string quartet provided beautiful music, although I must confess with embarrassment that in my mind it created an eerie scene. (Ok, why am I thinking about the Titanic?)

 

I went up to the Lido Deck to see what was going on, stopping briefly to watch the live scenes of the champagne waterfall on the Movies Under the Stars screen. Unfortunately there was almost nobody else there to watch it, but using MUTS for live events like this seemed to me to be a great idea (though it seemed to me that it was only occasionally used this way).

Edited August 20, 2013 by terrific_surprise

[t60]

snip...

As I passed through the Piazza, I was amazed watching the champagne waterfall being built, as crew members (apparently undaunted by the constant rocking of the ship) skilfully balanced champagne glasses on top of each other, never letting a glass fall to the ground. (I couldn't help but wonder if they use some kind of adhesive.) snip.....

 

We were told the rims and bottoms of the glasses are smeared with a little sugar syrup to keep them in place

 

Sandy in Spain

[terrific_surprise]

Intending to head back to our aft room, I soon found myself at the Princess Theater when I expected to be seeing Club Fusion. (Normally I have a great sense of direction, even onboard a ship, but somehow I had become disoriented.)

I guess I was more disoriented than I realized: Club Fusion is on the Sapphire! On the Golden it is called Vista Lounge. (Even after being on the Golden for a while, I guess the Sapphire was still on my mind. I guess the first time is always special.)

[caribill]

I briefly went up the stairs to glance at "Princess Links," but it is now just a flat artificial grass floor, with no miniature golf course.

 

 

That is why it has been renamed "Lawn Court" insteads of "Princess Links."

 

I suspect actual use is very little.

[terrific_surprise]

Terri had asked me to go to dinner without her, and to pass along her apologies to our tablemates. When I arrived at our table, nobody else was there. Our waiter, Ram, promptly greeted me and gave me the special menu (it was the Captain's Welcome Dinner). I informed him that I would not be staying for dinner, but I just wanted to stay long enough to inform our tablemates of our absence. Ram talked me into having an appetizer while I was waiting, so I ordered the crabmeat and Monterey Jack cheese quiche. This seemed to be virtually the same item available at the International Cafe and the Horizon Court buffet -- but the presentation is better in the dining room. (I noticed various other times that menu items seemed to be shared between the dining rooms, the buffet, and the International Cafe.)

 

Waited for our tablemates gave Ram and myself the opportunity to talk a little. Ram informed me that he remembered Terri and me from a previous cruise! There was only one possibility: in 2010 we cruised on the Sapphire Princess to the Mexican Riviera. Ram said that he was in fact on that ship during that time. However, he went on to say that he worked in the Savoy Dining Room on the Sapphire, while Terri and I dined every evening in the International Dining Room during that cruise. Eventually I asked if he sometimes worked at the buffet during that cruise, and he said that he did. I'm not sure what made us so memorable in the sea of buffet diners (I assume it wasn't anything bad, because he seemed pleased to see us again).

 

Ram also said that the sea we were experiencing that day was worse than it had been for weeks (confirming what Assistant CD Marahscalh had told us earlier that day). Ram's assistant went on to say that the sea was affecting many crew members. "They're not seasick," he insisted, "but sick in the head from the sea." (I'm not sure what exactly he meant by that, but he sounded quite serious.)

 

As I continued waiting, having finished the delicious appetizer, Ram recommended that I try the French onion soup, so I once again relented.

It was served topped with what seemed to be cheese bread (which the menu called a "crouton"). Some people might not like soggy cheese bread on French onion soup, but I enjoyed it.

 

After I finished my soup, Ram recommended that I now try the beef medallions entree. But by this time it was after 8:15 pm, so I excused myself, telling him that I needed to get back to my wife. I assumed that the roughness of the sea was too much for our tablemates (and I noticed many empty seats at other tables on my way out).