EMERALD PRINCESS AT SEA

Friday, January 3, 2020

Aboard Emerald Princess—At Sea

Sun

74F, feels a lot cooler

What a lazy day! Days at sea are days to relax and do nothing! Croissants and coffee arrived in our room at 8 a.m., a delicious wake up call. Because of a time zone change, we set clocks forward an hour, so now we are only two hours from EST.

There certainly are lots of things to do every day, e.g. today: Lion King (2019), Avengers: End Game, dance aerobics, Tai Chi, seminars on cooking, jewelry, dancing (merengue & ballroom today) how to look 10 years younger, trivia games, basketball shootout, golf chipping challenge, concert, bingo, a poolside music and that is just some of the activities for morning and afternoon.  We did none of that.

We visited a Cruise Critic Meet & Greet and talked with a few other people, from Illinois, Buffalo, and Florida—all sorts of people cruise! Some of the ship’s officers answered questions. I was able to speak to the Customer Services Director about the email offer of an inside stateroom. He told me that the ship had been oversold and everyone wanted a balcony or suite, but many inside rooms were empty. We would have been able to keep our onboard credit (from Tim’s military and as a shareholder), but we would have lost the travel agent’s credit. I asked if they provided marriage counseling when couples disagreed about such an offer-he laughed. From this conversation I learned that if we get the offer again, we should call and get the specific details.

By the way, Tim’s purchase of Carnival shares about 15 years ago (Carnival owns Princess, Carnival, Holland America, Seabourn, Cunard, AIDA, Costa, and P & O ships) has paid for itself many times over with onboard credit and discounts).

Tim had lunch at the World Fresh Market, a buffet that would appeal to those who want to eat healthy, vegetarians, and vegans, as well. However, most of the items are not Janie friendly, so I ran to “Slice” (same deck-aft) and got two pieces of pizza. Another couple from Oakland, CA, joined us. It turned out he was a retired Oakland firefighter and the brotherhood played out yet again! 

(The ship's officers mentioned they are very proud of the new concept buffet--still too fancy for me)

Dinner: Baked potato soup and crabcake quiche-the best items tonight, both appetizers.

After our two hour dinner, we rushed to the Movie Under the Stars to see Ad Astra with Brad Pitt, Tommie Lee Jones, and Don Sutherland, a long long two hour movie. Under a half moon, we were a little cool, but the popcorn was good!

TK's Takes: The movie was OK. The room service coffee looked more like weak tea.