Friday, March 27, 2020

January 1, 2020 – At Sea – Pacific Ocean – Partly Cloudy – 76F

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The rough seas we were warned about never got to the intensity predicted – the ship did move a lot during the night.  Still, I managed to get some sleep.


I was up in the Horizon Café at 7:00 AM and found a seat in the back annex. Today, with the exception of the coffee not being hot enough, the breakfast all came together – the waffle was crisp, the cottage cheese and sour cream were cold, the jams were tasty and the scrambled eggs just right.  It is difficult to get hot coffee from those dispensers.

Midmorning, I was in the International Café getting my iced latte and going over my talk for this afternoon.

We managed to take the mandatory iconic picture of Ellen on the deck.


Because there was no soup for us in the International Café today, we had lunch in the Da Vinci Dining Room.  I had the mozzarella sticks, a green salad, and the pasta oglio.  The lunch was OK.

My talk today – “Forensic Detectives: Identifying the Famous and Infamous” – is at 1 PM in the Princess Theater.  I caught the tail end of Sharron Faff talking on Volcanoes and was able to set up pretty quickly. Today, for some reason, the projector needed no adjusting.  The audience came in a little late (probably had to leave after Sharron and then return) and the turnout was just about the same as yesterday – about 40 to 50 percent full (hard to estimate because the people were scattered around the theater).  I think people enjoyed the talk, which ran about 48 minutes.

Ellen was not feeling well – not over her sinus thing – so she stayed in the room while I went up to Deck 15 Aft to read.  It was beautiful up there today and I finally finished “Dark Sacred Night”.  Harry and Renee got their bad guys and worked together pretty well as a team.  The next book will be another team up format.

A bonus was a rainbow shot from Deck 15.


Dinner was a little crazy tonight.  There was nothing for us in the Dining Room so we checked out the buffet.  There was nothing there either but I had my salad up in Horizon Court. We then went to Alfredo’s Pizzeria, where I ordered a Vegetariana Pizza with extra sauce (like I did the other night).  The pizza guy forgot the extra sauce so the pizza came with a bowl of sauce, which I put on top of the pizza.  Not quite the same.

We sat closer to the front for “Stardust”, the first production show, so I could take some pictures and see the dancing.  We have seen this show on every Princess Cruise and the dancing is always very good – the singers tonight were from Alabama, Hungary, and Los Angeles (the fourth singer had her song cut and wasn’t introduced). The guy from Alabama did a nice job on his songs.  The show ran exactly 30 minutes and three of my favorite songs were cut (“Johnny Angel”, “Mr. Sandman”, and “Que Sera, Que Sera”).  However, they did "It's a Good Day",


"Mambo Italiano" medley,


and the finale, "We Will Have These Moments to Remember".


They also used a track for some of the numbers.  Even so, I still liked the show especially the dancing.

We are back in the room now.

There was some excitement today – while I was up on Deck 15, the Captain came on and said there was a medical emergency and a Coast Guard helicopter would meet the ship and medevac a guest in a few hours. To get to the rendezvous point, Grand Princess went from 11 knots to 20.6 knots, which increased the rock and roll, especially the roll. Parts of the ship were sealed off and we saw the chopper come in around 8:30 PM and I am assuming that the rescue went well and the guest will be getting the medical care he or she needs.

Clocks go back an hour tonight.

Seas are smooth.

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