I’m sitting in the café, blogging and drinking coffee, and people-watching. I am right next to the bar. It’s around 10 am.
The Homesteaders have already been here for hours. These are the people who occupy the tables by the windows and sit there all morning working on their computers, reading, or holding court with their friends.
The Jimmy Buffetts are starting to show up at the bar. They are easy to spot because they are dressed like Jimmy Buffett (and they are around his age): sandals, shorts, t-shirt with a surfing logo or a Hawaiian shirt, baseball cap, sunglasses and a croakie. They often order tropical drinks. Hey, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right?
The Chatty Cathys come in and suddenly the quiet mood of the café changes to a controlled hubbub. They lean over and start a conversation with people at the next table. Everybody shouts a little bit, because they are talking to another table, so we all get to hear the conversation.
The Mimosos drift in and out in pairs. These are couples who walk up to the bar and order mimosas or Bloody Marys. Fun times.
It’s possible to get a couple of credits’ worth of medical school just by sitting here and listening for a few days.
We were fortunate to be invited to the Most Traveled Passenger lunch. Traditionally, the 40 passengers who have sailed the most days on Princess get invited to an elegant lunch with the captain and other officers. Due to COVID, the officers did not attend the lunch today. We sat with two very nice couples, one from Seattle and one from Florida. The food was delicious and beautiful.
On our way into the luncheon, one of the ship’s photographers took a photo of each of us. It was printed and gifted to us before the end of the lunch. I took a photo of the photo.
We like going to the Captain’s Circle Cocktail Party because you always get interesting pieces of information. This evening we learned that there are 599 Elite level passengers aboard, and 8xx Platinum level. This means almost 50% of the passengers are are repeat passengers belonging to the highest two loyalty tiers. These are the folks who love cruising and are thrilled to be back again. Like us. I may complain a lot about Princess, but there really are a lot of things they do very well. (That’s why it’s so frustrating and irritating when they do something that is really stupid.)
We also heard a little bit about the show we are going to tonight. It’s called Rock Opera, and it’s a new show Princess developed during the pandemic. It’s had great reviews. I’m not sure whether it’s on all the Princess ships, or only this one, or only a specific class of ships with a certain kind of stage. Something tells me it is only on this ship at this time.
The show premiered 6 months ago when this ship was launched. The same cast has been performing the show for 6 months and tonight they will give their last two performances. Only the lead performer will continue with the show. A new cast will take over on the next cruise. We are excited that we will see the late show tonight. Knowing it is the last show for this cast, we expect to see an exceptional performance.
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Rock Not-pera
The theater is packed for Rock Opera, and the excitement is palpable. Everybody has heard how good this show is. Maybe some members of the audience have already seen it.
Finally the curtain goes up. We get through the opening number and one more number and then the house lights come on and the curtain closes. An announcement is made that there will be a short break while a piece of equipment is being reset. The cruise director comes down to the front of the house and tells a few silly jokes. He explains that the stage lift is not functioning properly and they need a few minutes to work on it. After about 15 minutes we are told that the show has been cancelled. They are going to try to reschedule it for later in the cruise if they can resolve the problem, and if they can find a time to show it.
These things happen, especially on a new ship. But, color me disappointed.
The color of the water is: slate blue, with an undercurrent of frustration.
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