Today is the first of two glorious sea days. I LURVE sea days. I get to sleep in, I get to putter around all day, eat as fast or as slow as I want, and since there's nowhere I have to be, I'm in a completely relaxed frame of mind.
I wake up from my surprisingly comfortable bed (seriously - it's a full sized twin size bed, if that makes sense. The mattress was thick and firm, my blankets were generously sized enough to be comfortable, and it was SOOOO much better than the crappy sofabed at the Marriott).
My dad always gets up super early. He's just an early riser - and once he's up, he wants breakfast. So he woke up my mom...way too early on vacation...so they could go and get breakfast. He's codependent and can't hang by himself, he always makes my mom eat with him. By the time I wake up, they were gone, and as I got ready for the day (packing my tote with my kindle, tablet (has my magazines and movies and shows downloaded on it) and my phone (games) along with a bottle of water and a cardigan), they came back. I moseyed my way to the buffet by myself. Unlike my dad, I can eat alone. In fact, there are a lot of days I prefer it. I get to eat at my own speed, and do so with no judgment from anyone else looking at the immense amount of food on my plate while reading a good book. As an antisocial introvert, it's the best!
Princess' buffet is miles beyond what we had on Norwegian during our last trip. The bacon was never soggy and weird, but always crisp - they always had tater tots, and their breakfast sandwiches with fried eggs and cheese were so good. Basically, it was an egg mcmuffin...but with a fried egg! I just stuffed that puppy with some bacon and I was in food nirvana.
I find a quiet table off to one side of the buffet and settle in and have a lovely breakfast accompanied by my kindle. I literally fantasize about mornings like this - sleep in, eat lots of delicious food without having to make conversation while reading a good book, and just mosey around all day napping and reading and eating. Best!
After being stuffed from breakfast, I head to the indoor pool (Lotus Pool), which is my favorite place on ANY ship. You get to sit in the shade or in the sun...but you also get air conditioning! Winning! Also, indoor loungers are always way nicer than outdoor ones, and it's so. much. quieter.
I find a shaded lounger facing the water - perfect. And I read. Then play games on my tablet. Then I read more. I'm pretty sure I ended up falling asleep for awhile too. That's okay, because half the people at the Lotus Pool are just napping.
I was so full from breakfast (and I ate it so late) that I snacked my way through the day without actually really doing a sit down lunch. And because the line for dinner the night before for 5 pm was so long, we called and made a reservation this time. So we had an early dinner at 5 pm.
Because I'm dumb and didn't take a picture of the menu, I can't remember these dishes - but this is what we ate:
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| something fried! |
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| something not fried! It looks like scallops in a citrus dressing |
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| Okay, Grace had this. Those little balls were just dough. She was...not impressed |
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| dad's shrimp cocktail. That he had EVERY DAY. |
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| I'm pretty sure I got this - I think it was some kind of chilled cherry soup |
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| this one I remember! Grace got the pulled pork. She liked it. |
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| mom got the fish. I don't think she was thrilled |
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| Dad, Ed and I got the NY Strip. It wasn't as good as the prime rib, but I remember it being pretty tasty. |
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| our waiter was awesome - and he even took a (poorly lit) photo of us! |
I had read that since the Island Princess had been butchered (😢) and they added waaay more cabins but took away public space to do so, the theater gets super full and to show up WELL before showtime to even be able to find a seat. So right after dinner, we hauled ass to the theater to see On the Bayou. We got there a good half hour before the show, but it was filling up quickly, and we ended up towards the front and off to the side because everything else was full at this point. We were just lucky to grab seats together. Even 15-20 minute before the show people were milling around trying to find single seats, and there were always rows of people standing in the back of the theater to watch the shows. We learned to grab our tablets/books/phones and head to the theater 45 minutes to an hour ahead of showtime and just sit.
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| this man is totally ruining my shot of the stage! He just stood there and wouldn't sit down because he was saving seats for his party -_- |
The show was awesome. There were 4 main singers - two males and two females - a bass, a tenor, an alto and a soprano. 3 of the 4 were awesome. The soprano was an Asian female (I think she was a Filipina) and while her voice was good overall, she didn't have a lot of power behind it and she came off a little...reedy sometimes? She was drowned out by the other three who had phenomenal voices and she was at a disadvantage. But the show was great. The great thing about this cruise? They had songs my parents knew. My dad had THE BEST TIME. The dancers were fantastic - so was the production value. They really put on excellent shows. So we made sure to make time for each one and didn't miss any of them.
After the show we went back to our rooms. I'm a homebody. And I'm lazy. There wasn't anything scheduled that I wanted to do, so I just wanted to shower and relax in the cabin - maybe read, watch sports or a movie, and play some games. I clearly live a very exciting life. Even on a cruise.
Because I opted to sleep on pullman, the seating area was left intact, and my dad and I would sit under my bed to watch sports together - like it was a clubhouse 😄. It was actually cozy and awesome. We'd stick our feet up on the chair or the table, eat snacks at yell at the TV, because we had ESPN and there were live sports on every night. Bliss!
My mama is not into sports at all, so she was on the other side of the room watching whatever shows or movies were playing on other channels. Princess did a really good job with the entertainment - there were a variety of shows and movies for everyone, as well as ALL the news channels. Because I wanted some privacy I had put up curtains for my side of the cabin at night (I took them down every morning because I'm not that weird). This also served as a buffer for my mom so if she wanted to sleep while we were watching football or basketball, it wasn't too bright - though it was still loud.
Do you admire my $8 shower curtain from Amazon along with magnetic hooks I stuck on the ceiling? It wasn't entirely opaque, but it gave me a sense of privacy, and as an introvert, this was sorely needed. I didn't want or need to be isolated, just enough space for some time to myself, and my parents are very good about not just barging over to my side of the room when the curtain was up, so even though we stayed in one room, it never felt crowded.
Meanwhile, while I'm admiring my cheapo curtain and taking photos of it, my dad is still watching TV on the couch under my bed.
And that's how our first sea day ended. I'm pretty sure my parents ended up napping the day away (I think my mom was still exhausted from Thanksgiving) while I napped, ate, and read my day away. And ending it with sports and then some HGTV while falling asleep too? PERFECT sea day.
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