private island

Now, where was I? When last we met, it was just after sail-away and I was happily at sea. I had a late afternoon nap. Then Sam came to wake me up to get ready for dinner. We had Anytime dining, so we went to the Da Vinci dining room and took the first available table. I had a British couple to my right. Then, to their right were two men together, from Phoenix. Sam had a couple from the USA on his left. The British couple and the two men barely said a word. I kept trying to pull them into the conversation, but they would answer whatever question I asked, then they would clam up again. The couple to Sam’s left was very talkative, however, so the meal was not a complete bust. The food was mediocre again. I think that Princess has really dropped the ball when it comes to food preparation in the main dining rooms.

After dinner, I went on back to the room and settled in for the night. My sinus infection is really kicking my butt and I wanted to take some medicine that I knew would knock me out. Sam went out with his friends and was out until the wee hours of the morning. I am so glad that he is having a good time!

Day One of our cruise took us to Princess Cay, the cruise line’s private island. It is a beautiful little island, which I saw only from the ship because after I got a pedicure, I gratefully claimed my padded lounger up in the Sanctuary and settled in to read and snooze. I mostly snoozed all day. At lunch, I ordered a hot dog and French fries, which was just what I wanted. It was delicious. I read most of one book on my Kindle. The Sanctuary is so quiet. My lounge chair is very close to the massage cabana, so I enjoyed the soothing music that was being played for the massage client. Sam went ashore and hung out with the friends he met at the Cruise Critic meeting.

That young man is a marvel. He makes friends so easily. He finds something in common with every person he meets. This morning at breakfast, we joined a Hispanic man at his table. Soon, we were joined by his friends, an African-American couple who are newlyweds. The husband is in his 60’s and the wife is in her 50’s. They told us about their courtship and how they fell in love. She has two older children and she has an 11 year-old daughter, who was with them. We had wonderful conversation with them. The wife, Gloria, said that she hoped we would meet again. I told them that the odd thing about being on cruise ships is that once you have a conversation with someone, you then see them over and over and over again and each time feels like you are greeting dear friends from years gone by. True to form, we have seen them several times since and have even exchanged Facebook information so we could become FB friends.

That evening, we went to dinner with Sam's friends, a young couple from Ohio. We were seated with two other couples. A Russian couple who emigrated to the United States about twenty years ago sat to my right. To Sam's left was a young couple from Colorado who were celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary. The Russian couple live in Phoenix. Since Sam and I lived in Phoenix for a few years, there was much to discuss. And since my mother and sister live in Colorado, we had quite a lot to discuss with the younger couple too. It was a fun dinner.

After dinner, we attended a stage production featuring Motown music. It was positively frightful. The entire cast was Caucasian. At one point, one cast member came very close to being in blackface. I was horrified. I kept looking around to see if anyone else was offended. I wondered how any African-American people in the audience might be reacting. At the very least, I am quite sure they were all in agreement that White people should not put on a show featuring Motown music. Those poor kids just had no soul! And quite a bit of the music was in a key too low for the main singers to hit the lower notes. The band was great, however!!!

After the show, I went to bed because it was past my bedtime.  Sam went out with his friends again. He was out pretty late and told me later that he had an absolute blast.