But we are boring sea day people. I usually write and hubby hangs with the crew. Like I’ve mentioned before, these last couple months have been tough on him and he hasn’t been his same fun-with-the-crew self. I’m hoping he’ll soon get his chattiness back and get back out there. Since I’m on my own today, no more talking about hubby. Let’s just get to business with things I’ve noticed about the ship. (Sorry, no pictures today. Trying to conserve my internet minutes.)
- I miss the food choices the Caribbean Princess had with their World Fresh Marketplace buffet, but I am enjoying the extra seating they have here. On Caribbean Princess the back sections of the buffet had been replaced with the specialty dining option of Planks and Steamers. Seating was available to all during the day there, but at night the area was dedicated to the specialty options. Here the back seating is always available. Yay!
- While the food options here are the same choices we’ve seen on other ships (not Caribbean Princess and Royal and Regal – those are different), I do like that they are allowing entrance (and exit) from both ends of the buffet. Other ships have required you to enter on one end and exit on the other which creates a huge backup. While it gets busy sometimes in the buffet here, I haven’t yet seen the huge line stretched way outside the entrance. We’ve also had theme nights that have been listed in the Patter. Italian night in Livorno, Italy; French night when we were scheduled to be in Toulon, France; Spanish night for Barcelona.
- Gelato is available at the International Café for $3.50. I think it used to be $1.50 so the price has clearly jumped a bit.
- They’ve replenished the library for this voyage. I thought I heard them say they added 500 books, but now the library is empty again. On the Wake Show they said some people were taking two or three books and have asked folks to only take one at a time. Starting today they are doing a couple different books for book clubs. When the Patter states, Grab your copy of the first selection of the voyage before they are gone. Books issued on a first-come first-serve basis I know not to get into the middle of that crowd. So I can’t report what the books are they are using.
- So many Elites onboard meant we received the notification about laundry taking 72 hours to be returned. We’ve been doing our own laundry on all our cruises this year so we’ll probably keep doing it. I love our Purex 3 in 1 sheets! And just as every other cruise when we receive the 72 hour notification, we didn’t even come close to making the cut for the Most Traveled Guest luncheon. The cut off was 638 days. We’ll need at least a good couple more years before we close in on that number. Anyway, I’m totally fine with not being in that group this trip as I’ve seen a few well-traveled folks who have been quite curt with crew. Don’t need that negativity around me.
- For those who have been wondering, yes, I’ve still been leaving encouraging word money pockets every day. I just haven’t been taking pictures this time around. They are mostly being left in the sugar containers somewhere on the ship. They fit perfectly in there! And if you were on the shuttle in Barcelona yesterday you just may have been sitting near one.
- I’m not posting the Patters, but I am keeping them until the end of the trip.
Tonight is formal night and since we didn’t bring formal wear we’ll probably just grab something from the buffet or get some pizza or whatever. We try and stay away from the indoor areas on formal because we aren’t dressed up. We know our place. However, we were in International Café at 4:30 pm and can tell you the line for dinner started at 4:34. Guess some people like standing in line.
I’d like to say we’re off to somewhere tomorrow, but we’ve got two more sea days before we get to our next (and last) port. Not sure what trouble I might get into (or stay out of) tomorrow. But, bonus – we get to set our clocks back an hour tonight. Woo hoo!