Ponta Delgada, Portugal

Well, that was a bumpy night. Our clothes hangers have been dancing and singing for the last few days as the ship has been both pitching (front to back) and rolling (side to side). Lots of creaks and groans as well. Then last night I got up to get a glass of water from the bathroom. We can’t leave the bathroom door open this trip because it slams closed from the movement. So I stood outside the bathroom to fill the glass, thinking I was holding the door open at the same time. No, the door took me out. Stumbling back to bed from that, the ship lunged and threw me against the desk. When I grabbed the desk for stability I knocked off the silverware that had been sitting on the corner. I knew better than to walk with forks and knives around the floor so I had to wake hubby up to turn on the light. He made some grumpy kind of noise when he turned it on. I found all the silverware, placed it back on the desk while balancing my glass of liquid, and told him thank you. As I let go of the desk to take a step forward on my way back to bed he turned off the light. As I had already started walking in the very dark inside cabin I tripped on the leg of the chair and ran into the wall. At least I had something to lean on. Oh, my. What a night.

So I was ever-so-grateful to get onto dry land today in beautiful Ponta Delgada, Portugal.

 We stayed in the harbor/marina area. The day started out beautiful! But it turned rainy after a while.

 

We did get a small bite to eat and enjoyed the views.

Crepes and ice cream and chocolate and whipped cream.

Coca Cola not from the US.

Even watched locals swimming in what had to be a some chilly water.

This is our last port and we’re headed into six straight sea days. Hoping for smoother waters (the captain just said no way) and no more bathroom doors knocking me silly, silverware spread on the floor during the middle of the nights, and being body slammed into walls. A girl can only hope.

Crown Princess Sea Day

The ship has finally calmed down this afternoon after some rough times. I heard from our crew member buddy that the medical center has been packed with sick crew members. They've enjoyed a summer of smooth sailing and for many this is their first transatlantic in open waters. Several were worried about the ship movement and had to be reassured it was normal. They were dispersed a couple anti-nausea pills (some required injections) and sent on their way. Our buddy, after taking his meds and a nap, felt much better. Glad things have calmed down for all.

We found out from him that he was offered a promotion and asked for it to be delayed until after our cruise. Why? Because he knew two things:
1. We don’t eat in the dining room.
2. Even if we did, in his new position as junior waiter he wouldn’t be able to find time to talk to us because he would be so busy.
While I’m happy we are getting to see him and visit with him, and it makes me happy he was so looking forward to seeing us, it makes me a bit sad he (temporarily) passed on the opportunity.

It got me thinking. Why is it that we avoid the dining room? While we ask for a two-top, those are limited and sometimes we have to share a table with others. It’s at those tables where a hierarchy is formed and dominance established within the first few minutes of the conversation.

Let’s say we all start with 100 points. Let’s see how things go for us.

Passenger: Where are you from?
Us: Idaho.
We automatically lose 10 points because they assume we are potato farmers. (We aren’t.) Hubby and I both taught in rural farming communities and wouldn’t consider farmers less worthy than someone else, but this is a cruise ship and others do.

Passenger: Is this your first cruise?
Us: No.
No points lost.

Passenger: Do you cruise a lot?
Us: Sometimes we say yes or some or enough. But we lose another 10 points because the passenger goes on to tell us about how they’ve been on 16 cruises and they are elite and all the special privileges they get with Princess. Privileges they assume we don’t get. (How wrong they are.)

Passenger: How many cruises have you been on?
Us: Again, we usually say some or enough. We again lose another 5 points because since we don’t give out our number it is assumed we haven’t been cruising nearly as much as them.

Passenger: What do you do?
Us: This can go any number of ways. If we say we’re retired and they are retired, they tell us we are too young to be retired and lose 5 points. If we say we’re retired teachers we lose 10 points because we were teachers and they were something much more important than us. If we say retired and they are still working we also lose 10 points because they talk about how their business is just booming and how they can afford to go on any cruise they want.

Passenger: What kind of cabin do you have?
Us: Since we usually say inside, we lose 5 points because they are in a mini suite or suite or balcony. We lose 10 points if they tell us how they never stay in anything less than a mini suite.

Passenger: What’s your favorite cruise line?
Us: Princess. Lose 5 points because their favorite is an upper echelon cruise line we’ve never been able to afford.

Passenger: What’s your favorite cruise?
Us: We talk about how we love both Alaska and the Caribbean but it’s hard for us to choose a specific cruise. We lose another 10 points because we didn’t mention their favorite, whether it was South America or Asia or Australia or wherever.

Passenger: Have you done river cruising?
Us: No. Lose 5 points because they do river cruising and it is so much better than whatever the current cruise is that we are on.

Passenger: What are you doing in xyz port?
Us: We usually say we haven’t decided. We’ll probably wander town and get something to eat. Lose 5 points because we didn’t prebook an expensive private excursion.

Passenger: What’s your favorite part of cruising?
Us: We always say the crew. We realize we’ve lost 20 points when we see how they treat the waiters and junior waiters during the meal. We see how curt they can be to them when they didn’t receive the proper silverware, or the course timing was off, or the meat was undercooked. If they knew our relationship with the crew, how we treated them and how we spent time in port with them, we probably would lose even more points.

Passenger: What did you think of the comedian/show/musical group last night?
Us: We didn’t go. Lose 5 points because aren’t involved in the same activities they are.

And thus they are at the top and we are at the bottom. Repeat this on enough cruises and you get tired of always being the loser. So yeah, I’m good with the decision not to eat in the dining room.

We didn’t always skip the dining room. We always ate there and didn’t mind sharing tables. Didn’t even mind all the questions. But as we traveled more and it became clearer to us what the purpose of the conversation was, we started pulling back from going in there.  Ever so often we give the dining room another chance thinking the outcome will be different. And it never is. But here is the thing – we’re not at the bottom of the totem pole. Most times we are the one at the table with the most days or most cruises or most ports visited. While we will never be a winner of the I’m-more-important-than-you game, we are at peace with who we are. And with what we know. And with what we represent. And we aren’t going to give anyone the opportunity, through the standard cruiser questions, to put us at the bottom.

While many of those travelers at the table would most treasure their picture with the captain, we have another photo we most treasure. It is a blurry one taken many years ago on this very ship. It’s where our love of crew all began. Rushi, Neville, Sundar, Sid, and Victor represent why we cruise and who we hold dear. We've followed them from ship to ship, added in dozens more like them and have followed those new ones from ship to ship, and will keep booking cruises just to see them.

I’ll answer questions from them and others like them a hundred times over.

Our original gang. 

We'll have some extra sleep coming up tonight as we set the clocks back another hour and then we're off to Ponta Delgada tomorrow.

Crown Princess Sea Day

Today’s post will be a short one. We had a pretty bumpy ride last night and an even bumpier day. All open decks are closed and the captain told us to secure our belongings in the cabin. Hubby has a hard enough time walking when seas are calm so movement like this makes it impossible for him. We would typically at least make our way to the Piazza to sit where the ship is a little calmer, but it has been crowded down there this trip. In fact, in the Patter there was a notification telling passengers to move along after you’ve finished your refreshment to allow others to sit. So we are just spending the day in the cabin instead. I’m not feeling so great anyway. Remember last week on the Los Angeles to Rome flight when I went on the record to say if I got sick it would be because of the flight attending who was coughing in his hand as he was pouring the drinks, including my water? Well, it happened. It started a few days ago and today I’m in a full-fledged cold.

So I guess that’s it for the day. Other than an FYI – did you know that trying to concentrate on words on a computer screen during rough seas is just like trying to read a book when riding in a car? Makes ya a bit sick.

Until tomorrow…

Crown Princess Sea Day

If you’re counting, this is actually sea day number two. The first one occurred because of missing Toulon (weather), so this voyage will have ten sea days total. The only other port we have left on this trip is in the Azores, a port we’ve missed on previous trips because of weather. We will cross our fingers that we have that one available to us. If not, oh well. You don’t do a transatlantic sailing if you don’t like sea days. I do like my sea days. I’m guessing most people on here right now do too, especially with the huge variety of activities planned each day. We have plenty of movies, trivia, and dancing. Pickleball and book clubs and guest lecturers. Game shows and production shows and… penny whistle instruction? I can’t say I’ve ever seen penny whistles on a cruise ship. (If I did, I wouldn’t know it – I have no clue what they are. I’m guessing a musical instrument?)

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!

Barcelona, Spain

While most of yesterday we had pretty smooth sailing, occasionally we had some bumps in the night last night. It wasn’t enough to make things uncomfortable, but enough to know something was happening out there. Then when I tried to get out of bed in the night to go to the bathroom and got tossed back onto the bed I figured we weren’t going to make it into Barcelona. I checked the TV and it said 48 knot winds were hitting the port side of the ship. So I gave up trying to get back to sleep and headed up to Horizon Court to get some work done. I planned on walking the Promenade deck (starboard side) to get there so I could get some fresh air but it was closed off because of the weather.

But we did make it into Barcelona. Had beautiful sunny skies, even. It was a bit windy and chilly to be riding the top level of the hop-on, hop-off bus. (Well, it is November.) But I needed to take one for the team.

The bus couldn’t have been any easier to find. Right before leaving the cruise terminal there is a stand selling shuttle tickets to the city.

Such a beautiful terminal.

Operating from 9 am to 9 pm the shuttle was 5 euro for the roundtrip ride. Large coaches, like tour buses, were used. It dropped off at the World Trade Center which is near the Columbus Monument. But if you were taking the hop-on, hop-off bus it was maybe 50 steps away from the shuttle drop off. The hop on bus route was number five on the orange route, but you could also use it to connect to the green route. We paid 30 euro for me and 25 for hubby as disabled and over 65 receive a discount. Each route takes about two hours and we did both. Me, upstairs, freezing my everything off and hubby downstairs nice and toasty. While our tickets allowed us unlimited ons and offs for the day, we just rode the loops.

We saw so much! There is no way I can get all the pictures posted, so I’ve chosen just a few. Barcelona is a beautiful city and a place we would want to visit again if given the chance.

The city

Barcelona beaches

Sagrada Familia

Look at the top

We were out after dark

It was a great day. Tomorrow is a sea day, the first of three in a row, and formal night.

Fidget Activity Mat Ideas - Tutorial Tuesday

It’s tutorial Tuesday and today’s tutorial is a bit different. If you’ve been a long time reader you know sewing projects for charity has been a big part of how I’ve spent my days over the last several years. This past year I’ve veered away from my sewing-for-good projects. And I realized I missed it.

So when my husband mentioned our neighbor was looking for something for his wife who just recently went into a care center, I knew just what to do.

Looking for more sewing and crafting projects? 
Click here to see all my tutorials!

Today we are going to make a fidget mat. These mats help soothe the anxiousness that comes from patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s. They also are helpful for kids with autism.

Usually when I do these tutorials I give you directions on how to complete every single step. Today I’ve got a couple of specific measurements for you, but otherwise I’m mostly going to walk you through my process.

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

You can find the video directions for the homemade fidget activity mat right here:

Toulon, France Turned Sea Day

Hello from what would have been Toulon, France! Most excursions we were interested in had something in their description that deterred us from taking them. This tour involves extensive walking over uneven and cobblestoned surfaces. Not recommended for guests with limited mobility. So we were going to do what Pescado Amarillo did last week, which was to take the water taxi to Toulon and catch a trolley tour. (Read about her adventurous day in the middle of a flood here.) But as soon as we heard the announcement coming from the captain being broadcast into the cabins we knew what was going to be said. We wouldn’t be visiting France today. Even with the assistance of tugs, we weren’t able to dock in the 50 knot gale force winds. So we had a bonus sea day.

While many people may have been disappointed, we were actually okay with missing the port. While we’ve never been to Toulon before, we have been to LeHavre, France where I was able to head to Paris and see all a tourist would need to see and hubby was able to head to Normandy Beach and see all a history teacher would want to see. Plus he (well, we) needed a rest day. This past week has been physically hard for him a bit a stressful for me. While we hadn’t planned on staying in the cabin all day, that’s exactly what we did. We were so tired we didn’t even eat. Now that’s tired! There was a new Patter of activities distributed to keep these thousands of passengers busy today. And we didn’t even look at it.

We did drag ourselves out to the Promenade deck to get some fresh air before dinner. The seating on the Promenade deck on Crown Princess is mostly wooden chairs and benches with no cushions. There are a few cushioned seats but very few. While we don’t smoke, for those that use the Promenade smoking section, you’ll be happy to know there are actually a couple chairs there for seating.

Most chairs are like these.

A few are like these.

The seas look relatively calm tonight.

I’m pretty sure I heard the noontime navigational update mention we are expecting more 50 knot winds tomorrow in Barcelona. Now if we don’t dock there I might just be a bit disappointed.

See you tomorrow (hopefully) from Spain.

Looking for the entertainment for this cruise? It’s right here: