AT SEA

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Sunny, a few clouds, about 82 F, mild seas--we are headed toward Trinidad

I love having the balcony door open all night so we can listen to the waves as the ship glides through them and see the stars and the moon all night (if it is a cloudless night).

This morning we awoke to room service again! Tim spotted flying fish off the balcony. We prepared quickly for the "beach" only one deck up--aft. Our cabin is midship, which is quite convenient. That area was windy so I went to the main pool area to read for a while before heading to the port and shopping show. This was an introduction to the next ports of call (TRINIDAD, ST. VINCENT, ST. KITTS, ST. THOMAS, LA ROMANA, GRAND TURK) and we picked up a few tips.

After my lunch of a cheeseburger and fries and Tim’s sautéed chicken, we had little fruit tartlets for dessert. Tim finished Crichton’s Prey and started Timeline, also by Crichton.

I met with a group of amateur photographers in the Wheelhouse Bar to discuss our cameras and favorite photos so far. The group, mostly CC people with a range of abilities, is very helpful. On another note, I have had a few issues with connecting to the Internet. For the most part I am in our cabin writing this blog, but today I needed help connecting—it ended up being a matter of a few settings on the laptop.

Tonight was a formal evening, so we dressed with glimmer and glamour for dinner. We met our group at the lobby bar at 8 p.m. Our CC friends are camera buffs as we are and everyone was taking photos (10 people) of each other. The camera flashes made us look like movie stars.

Manuel, our headwaiter from Portugal, is very tolerant of everyone’s antics. He brings at least three or four extra shrimp cocktails for the men, and makes sure they have all the entrees they want. Tonight I enjoyed veal scaloppini, which was excellent. The green salad with pine nuts was very good, too. Princess’ menus are a little different in that there is an appetizer choice, soup or salad, and then the entrée. One can break that into four courses if one wants, but our table usually limits it to three courses before dessert. Dessert tonight was fabulous and will make our culinary delight of the day.

After dinner everyone rushed to change out of the formal clothes so we could go to the Movie Under the Stars (MUTS). Tonight’s 10:30 feature was Mamma Mia with Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep. I was very surprised that Tim and the other men agreed to this activity. Our cushioned lounge chairs and blankets were on the deck just above the pool deck and we had a great view of the screen and the stars. Some men did fall asleep in the comfy chairs, but most stayed awake and most enjoyed the movie. We returned to our cabin about 12:30 to get ready for our tour of Trinidad on Thursday.

Culinary Delight of the Day:
*Cassata alla Siciliani—an ice cream trilogy (layered flavors of vanilla and raspberry) with candied fruits—sort of like a gelato/ice cream mix;
*Frutta e Frutti di Bosco Gratinati—fruit and berries in Sabayon gratin with a pistachio biscotti.

Tim’s Takes: After viewing Mamma Mia, Tim said he would never look at 007 the same way again.

A note for our granddaughters B and B: There are only 13 children on this particular cruise, but they are enjoying themselves—there is a special children’s pool, too.