Day 2
November 30th: Sailing on the Coral Princess
Bob: Being dead tired, we slept almost the clock around and ended up having a late breakfast before walking a couple of miles on deck (2.8 circuits of the Promenade Deck per mile). It was already fairly warm on deck at 9 a.m., but we figured that we were in the tropics and it would only get hotter and more uncomfortable on deck as the day progressed. Quite a few folks were already in the pools or resting on the deck chairs in the sun despite the early morning hour. That was quite a contrast with our last transatlantic voyage (Wanderung 18) during which most folks had prudently stayed indoors while we were at sea! |
Monika: It is nice to have the first day of a cruise as an "at sea" day. You can get to know the ship in a peaceful way. We woke up late (for us) and headed for the breakfast bar. All Princess ships I have been on have very nice breakfast bars with lots of variety. This one was no exception, they had scrambled eggs with mushrooms beside the normal scrambled eggs, and even eggs benedict beside the custom-omelet man and even a waffle baker. Besides this, their breakfast rolls are up to European standards. So I enjoyed my breakfast. After that it was important to do some walking. We did one loop of the sun deck where we actually could walk all around. But it was getting hot with the sun starting to beat down on us. So we went down to the official lap deck, the Promenade deck where 2.8 laps equals 1 mile. Here we did not have to take steps up to the bow, instead the bow was completely enclosed. This saved us from the wind buffeting we got on the Crown Princess, but it was a little less fun. But still, it was enjoyable walking. We did 6 laps ( 2 miles) and since I was wearing sandals, we decided to call it a morning. Afterwards we retired to our room to read and write since there was nothing much going on. |
Bob: The "Princess Patter" schedule of events didn't hold anything of interest that morning, so I spent my time starting the journal while Monika read a bit. After a quick lunch she took "Baby", our notebook computer, to write her journal while I worked on some of the Mensa book of Crostic Puzzles I had brought along. We had to cut that short to join about 30 other people for line dancing in the Universe Lounge at 1:30 p.m., and as usual I started to work up a sweat by the end of it. My problem is simply moving a large, awkward body with all the steps and motions just takes more energy compared to folks who have those little, compact bodies, and after 45 minutes I was really getting hot. Fortunately we had a break before the Meringue dance class at 2:30 p.m. so I could cool down a bit. And as it turned out Meringue requires much smaller steps and motions than line dancing so I didn't heat up so much. |
Monika: However, after lunch we were kept busy with line dancing, ballroom dancing - the meringue - and finally a port lecture on Guatemala and Nicaragua in the Princess Theater. The dancing was in a small lounge cum theater with a large enough dance area for everyone and the music was at a reasonable volume. So it was a lot of fun. Of course, we again learned the Electric Slide line dance and a couple of others. Since we had done these before it was a lot of fun, and actual exercise. |
Bob: Then we hit the port lecture for Guatemala and Nicaragua up in the Princess Theater that was located on deck 7 forward. The bulb on the projector had just burned out, so the lecturer, Robert Raincock, essentially had to ad lib his presentation, which he did very well. Some things, like avoiding using common U.S. gestures, I knew from my exposure to cross-cultural psychology, but other things, like the current pickpocket techniques or novel money-changing scams, I was not aware of. I also did not know the Guatemalan folks were basically of Mayan extraction whereas the Nicaraguan population were mostly Spanish and Mexican, which led to noticeable differences even between those two Central American cultures such as the aggressive sales techniques to be expected in Nicaragua or the shyness of the folks in Guatemala. One caution our lecturer gave was basically NOT to take our passports ashore with us, but rather the Coral Princess ID card plus some form of official photo ID such as a driver's license. Apparently, U.S. passports are a hot item and go for about $500 each on the black market, whereas driver's licenses are both less useful to a thief and easier to replace. That was a different mind set because Monika and I are both used to European countries for which the official U.S. passport is the ONLY acceptable form of identification, and to be caught without it ashore would render you quite helpless in many countries. |
Monika: The port lecture was in the Princess Theater, where unfortunately the projector did not work. But the lecturer had an interesting and funny way to him and so we did learn a little about the two next ports we are going to visit. |
Bob: Although we never made it off the wait list for early seating, we went ahead at 5:30 and had dinner in the "anytime seating" Bordeaux Restaurant. We were seated almost immediately and had a wonderful meal at a table for two in the back. Besides our normal soup appetizers, we each had half a serving of filet mignon and a chocolate-hazelnut soufflé for dessert. I asked whether the Nutella ice cream, which I had never had, would be offered again on the trip, and when the server said it would not because they change the ice cream flavors every evening, I opted for a scoop of that also, which turned out to be excellent. We had our pictures taken by a ship's photographer on the way back to our cabin and then put up our feet until it was time to see the evening show, "What A Swell Party". A cast of 4 singers and 12 dancers, evenly divided along gender lines, put on an energetic set of song and dance routines using Broadway and movie tunes from the 40s and 50s. I particularly liked the male and female lead singer pair who were tall, thin, and quite acrobatic in their performances. In fact, I thought they danced as well or better than the professional dancers in the troupe, which was surprising because "singers who also dance" don't usually dance all that well. The young woman, also was able to project a variety of emotions with her facial expressions and body movements, so she really seemed to be a triple-threat type of sing+dance+act performer and that was really impressive. We both agreed the other male lead singer was quite good, whereas the other female lead singer was not quite so good. I couldn't tell if her voice was simply somewhat shrill or whether they had just over-amplified her microphone and I was reacting to the sound levels when she sang. In any case, it was a very good performance and a nice end to our day at sea. |
Monika: We had been wait-listed for the first dinner seating and did not get a letter to tell us we made it, so we had to go to the "Anytime" dining room. We had not made reservations, but it seemed that if you want to eat at 5:30 you really did not need the reservation. We got a nice table for two and had a wonderful dinner. The evening show was the first production show and I was quite favorably impressed. The four lead singers did an excellent job and the dancers were the usual energetic group. The show revolved around the theme of a party at a country estate and half the singers and dancers were guests the other half servants. The setting was a staircase either inside or outside the house, and the pit in the front was even used as a swimming pool. The whole thing was really well put together and choreographed. I had a lot of fun. My new camera has a "low natural light" setting which decreased resolution to 3 megapixels but collected the light for the picture so efficiently that it required only a short time exposure. In the end the pictures came out quite sharp and I was very happy with the result. |
