Santa Barbara, California

Hello from a cool, drizzly, dreary and kind of depressing looking day in Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara is a tender port, meaning we anchor offshore and use the lifeboats to send passengers back and forth. 

Since I’ve been here plenty of times and done all I care to do (Ed and I even walked 7.5 miles here once), I had already decided to stay on the ship today. 

After a highly unsatisfying breakfast (bad food, bad service) I went straight across the deck over to the gym. I realized I really wasn’t feeling it so I turned around, went to the elevator, and headed right back to my cabin. Kicked off my shoes, cracked open the balcony door for cool fresh air (and sea lion singing from the buoy), covered up with a blanket, and watched a selection of movies for the day. Dirty Dancing, My Penguin Friend, Barbie, Back to Black. Princess has a large variety of free on demand movies you can watch in your cabin.

I don’t know how many they have but I’m guessing it’s over 100.

I skipped lunch because I knew I was having a bigger dinner at Crown Grill tonight. (Technically I didn’t skip lunch. I had a cup of M&Ms while watching movies. What was I thinking?!)

Also I should have thought through my choice of food at Crown Grill a little better. 

Shrimp cocktail appetizer

More shrimp and Seabass just like I had yesterday at lunch

Keylime pie bar for dessert was a little too citrusy
when paired with my lemon drop martini

Every time I cruise for a long period of time, at some point I hit a wall. The combination of the last three days, along with the weather, may have made today the wall day. Tomorrow we’re in LA (technically San Pedro) where I’ll see if I can break out of this funk. See you there.

Sea Day

Welcome to the first sea day of just two on this seven day cruise. It’s a cool and cloudy one as we slowly sail our way towards Santa Barbara.

View from the promenade deck

Since I skipped breakfast my first order of business today was the slot tournament at 9:00 AM. The players with the top 60 scores moved onto the next round and I landed at number 66. Darn. And the top prize for this tournament is $10,000! Oh well.

To kill some time after the tournament, I used the $400 in free play the casino gave me for this cruise. You have to run it through the machine and play the entire $400 but you get to keep the winnings and, lucky me, I walked away with $400.41. Pretty unusual to be able to get back that high of a percentage.

Then to kill some time before the Most Traveled Guest luncheon I sat outside, tucked away from the wind, and watched part of Moana 2.

Lunch was the exact same menu as last cruise and I again chose the sea bass. I didn’t take a picture of the fish this time since I did last time so instead I took a picture of the seafood trio starter and the dessert. I’m not a big fan of chocolate, but it sure was pretty.

Oyster, crab, tuna

Beautiful chocolate

I watched a movie in the afternoon during my phone calls with my daughter and hubby and came away not understanding the movie. Not like I can’t watch it again. Then off pre dinner drinks where I tried a sour apple martini. 

After two sips I wasn’t a fan

Tonight was formal night and I went to dinner at the time I was told, 7 PM. But my table was occupied and the only other table to accommodate me was squished in with another. I don’t do squished so I decided to go up for pizza. Still in my nice clothes, freezing on deck, I had a slice of vegetarian and pepperoni. 

Probably better than formal night dinner 

Not wanting to get any colder, not wanting to go to the casino, and not wanting to be around crowds on formal night I came back to the cabin at 7:30, the earliest I have this entire trip. 

Off to Santa Barbara tomorrow. See you there.