Thursday, May 31, 2018
One of the reasons we booked this particular cruise is because the last two days, returning to Ft Lauderdale, are days at sea. No ports, no packing beach bags, no busses or crowded beaches, just relaxing on the ship. Sea days are our favorite days.
This morning we even slept in a little; eventually making our way to the coffee shop and on to breakfast. There is a special “everything is $10″sale this morning and we wander through the offerings. We still have non-refundable cabin credit to spend so I don’t feel badly for choosing two small zippered cosmetics bags and a very cute little sling backpack. I don’t wear makeup; we will use the bags when we travel. They are the perfect size for keeping chargers and cords organized in one place and rounding up small stuff that seems to always migrate to the bottom of our bag. The little sling backpack? Well, I’m a sucker for cute bags. $20 poorer we go back to the cabin to drop off our goodies.
Time to get some exercise. Jeff debates whether to go to the gym or to walk and we decide to walk around the Promenade deck together. We are aiming for at least 5 miles. We set our fitbits and start out. Very soon, too soon, my fitbit buzzes that we’ve walked a mile…in 6 minutes? I don’t think so! I look at the mapping and see that though we are walking a big circle, the fitbit is keying off the ship’s position. It thinks we are walking in a straight line (apparently we have untapped potential and can walk on water!). I turn my fitbit tracker off and set it to just count steps. Around and around, up and down the steep metal stairs. The ocean is very calm and there is a gentle breeze. This is much more pleasant than the other day when the wind was so strong. We hit our 5 mile goal and decide to keep walking another 10 minutes to make an hour and a half of exercise. Very nice.
Let’s see…breakfast, shopping, workout…time to relax for a bit. In our cabin we sit out on the balcony, Jeff is reading while I write. After a bit we go inside where I turn on the television (we are on vacation!) to see if there are any movies we’d enjoy. Oh boy! Jurassic World is available. I recently watched the previous 3 Jurassic Park movies, but we don’t own this one. Jeff and I get comfy and start watching the movie until, about half way through he asks me to pause it. He is going to look for snacks and soon returns with my favorite, guacamole and chips. (He had taken a zip lock bag with him and that’s what the chips were in.) Yum!
Tonight is another formal night so we get cleaned up and pretty much wear the same outfits we had on for the first formal night. There is a special, invitation only “Captain’s Circle” gathering tonight – it is to recognize people who cruise a lot on Princess. We are in the second seating and ours doesn’t start until 7-ish. At the event, Jeff and I sit with another couple who are quite fun. Amy and I are having champagne and it seems that our glasses don’t get even 1/2 empty before the waitress delivers another. The captain and a hostess announce the people on board with the most days on Princess…of course, all three couples are from Florida. The four of us decide that they should also have awards for people who do not live in Florida to make it really fair. There is music, free drinks and good conversation, but soon it is over and we make our way to dinner.
We share a dinner table tonight as well and join to other couples who are very fun. Tonight’s dinner is a special one as they have lobster and beef wellington. As a committed vegan (and allergic to shellfish) neither of these options sound at all good to me, but I have a yummy dinner as I watch almost everyone at the table order 2 entrees so they can have ‘surf and turf.’ Jeff was the smart one, though. He asked just for the meat from the beef wellington, so he didn’t also have the side dishes. We both splurge and have dessert – creme brulee for him and XX for me.
We return to our cabin, change clothes, pour ourselves some wine and stand out looking at the ‘just past’ full moon over the ocean. Gorgeous!