Friday, November 29, 2019

Sea Day, November 29

Today held a couple different firsts on this trip. One was that I stayed in my swimsuit. All. Day. Long. I needed to work on the Christmas present to myself (a tan), there were no movies to watch in the cabin (TV is out again), and I was trying to avoid the Black Friday sales (on the ship).

We’ve been on many a ship during Thanksgiving before, but this is the first one where I’ve noticed Black Friday sales. Not advertised on TV, but in the Princess Patter. You could shop for apparel in the Pacific Moon Dining Room, get in on the jewelry sales at the Effy Store, and get discounted treatments and products at the Lotus Spa. Doesn’t the language make you want to grab the cruise card and start swooping up the bargains?
 “Don’t miss the opportunity of taking an extra 25% off already reduced prices – no exclusions.”
“The Biggest shopping holiday of the year has arrived with bigger discounts than ever before so don’t miss out.”
“Visit the Lotus Spa for the biggest savings on products and treatments.”
I do have to admit the sale in the Dining Room was just a bit tempting. We’ve been wearing the same t-shirts on cruises for two years now. That’s almost 200 days of the same clothes over and over and over. They’ve seen better days and some items will be left behind before we head home. But being poolside won out over a new cruise wardrobe. Having to experience crowds swarming around the clothing racks and tables like moths to a flame? No thanks.

Another first - we didn’t even go to breakfast today. On this trip we’ve been skipping dinner so we find ourselves hungry for our 6 AM breakfast. But there was no appetite this morning because we did Thanksgiving dinner last night. We had the traditional meal, with E grabbing some extra so he could have his additional Thanksgiving Day tradition – a turkey sandwich made with leftovers. A roll and turkey from the buffet. Mayonnaise and pickles from the grill out by the pool. Tucked in the fridge for a special midnight snack. A pleasant side effect of not being hungry early? Sleeping until 7 felt oh-so-good, especially since we had to set the clocks an hour forward again. (We now officially have a 12 hour time difference from home.)

So a late morning led to a get dressed and head straight to the pool day. Watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s, on a sunny day by the pool, while cruising the Indian Ocean? Yep. I spent the full day there and got plenty of laps in. The swimming must have worn me out because I fell asleep in the lounger. Thank goodness for the Mission Impossible intro playing in the late afternoon movie or I probably would still be sleeping there.

I kind of wish I was. I was hungry by that point and stopped by the buffet on the way back to the cabin to pick up some tortilla chips. As I grabbed a super-hot bowl (just out of the dishwasher, I’m guessing), the tower of bowls came crashing down onto the hard buffet floor. Did they make a terrible racket? Oh, yeah. Could they just drop there and sit? Nope. Might they break in half? Nope. Those sturdy plastic bowls decided they should shatter into dozens of pieces. Thanks to the scalding hot bowls meeting the cold hard floor I made quite the mess and all eyes were on me. So embarrassing.

In other news, the hoses that were staged on Promenade Deck as a precaution against pirates have been taken down. Tomorrow is another sea day and I’ll tell you all about the Pirate Drill then.

Also, no pictures today either. I ran out of Internet minutes several days ago. Thankfully E is letting me tap into his but with several more sea days ahead of us I have to be careful in how I use them.