Day Twelve - At Sea - Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from the middle of the Atlantic!

Today would start (of course) with breakfast in the dinning room (love the poached eggs on English muffins) followed by the craziest progressive trivia ever!  Steph must have knocked a few back last night to come up with these questions.  All of them where True or False.  Things like: “In Georgia, is it illegal to tie your giraffe to a light pole?”

The answer is true, believe it or not.

The rest of the questions were just as intense!  We finished with 10 out of 20 correct and felt we escaped unscathed!

We met our friends Mike and Kathy for lunch in the dinning room.  For whatever reason, the service today was super slow!  I ended up having to scarf down my sandwich to get to the spa in time for my hair appointment.  First World Problems!

We joined the “Thanksgiving” trivia at 4:15 and didn’t do so well.  It didn’t matter, the questions were crazy and we laughed a LOT!

We were at cocktail hour early this evening, enjoying the company of Leslie and Sybil, part of our morning trivia team.  Before we knew it, it was time for Thanksgiving dinner.  Today, the cooked 175 turkeys onboard.  So glad I didn’t have to do any of the clean up!

Tonight’s music trivia was “TV Theme Songs.” Drives me crazy to hear an old theme and know that I know it and can’t pull it out of the back of my brain!  Theme from the “Rockford Files” did me in!

We stayed for the “Passenger Feud” game (not a personal favorite) and it was finally time to call it a night.

Thanks for following along!

Day Eleven - At Sea

Another sea day?  Must mean breakfast in the dinning room followed by cruise long progressive trivia....BOOM!

I was able to spend a fair amount of time in the casino today, as it didn’t take me as long to lose as it normally does.  Guess we can call that a win!

I did stop by the Spa and make an appointment to get my hair done...why not treat myself!

Dinner was excellent.  We have the two best waiters ever this cruise!  Jeck and Diego are darling.  They always seem to know what we want without us having to ask. That’s always impressive.

Tonight’s music trivia was Broadway, a personal favorite.  We played with an excellent team and actually won!  Go us!  So. Much. Fun.  

Several times though out the day, our Cruise Director, Alex, told me that I was going to dance tonight at his completions “Do you want to dance?”  I let Alex know that although, the list of things that I’d do to embarrass myself was pretty short, dancing was at the top of the list.  Alex said, no problem, you can be a judge.  And, so, I did. I was the ‘guest’ judge at tonight’s competition in the Piazza.  And what a hoot it was!

The last dance was ‘interpretive’ and they played the theme song from “Titanic.”  You can only imagine the stillness that ensued from the three remaining couples.  I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. In fact, all three of us were laughing so hard, we couldn’t even give our comments at the end!  

Played a fun music trivia at 10:00 and then called it a night.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

Thanks for following along!

Day Ten - At Sea

Day ten?  How can it be day ten?  Before we know it, they’ll be throwing us off the ship...

Started the day with breakfast in the dinning room (so much more civilized than the buffet) and followed that with our progressive trivia.  We really are finishing pretty respectively, we will have to see on Saturday how we faired overall.

Stopped and made a deposit in the casino before wandering the ship a bit, stopping in a few of the stores to gander, not purchasing anything.

At 11:30 we hit up Cruise Director Alexander’s “Pop-up Music Trivia, 101 songs in 30 Minutes” in the Piazza.  Again, so much fun!  Loved the variate of music and nailed my five songs.  BOOM!

Sweet mamma ran into our table mates, Connie and Bruce, and Connie bestowed upon us their invite to tonight’s Captain’s Circle Party.  Just not their bag, and we were more than happy to represent.  This cruise, there are more Elite Passengers (1575) than any other.  Also, 1059 Platinum.  They’ll be having SIX Captain’s Circle Parties for all of the Platinum and Elite Passengers.  Breakdown of the top three most traveled passenger:

3rd most traveled: 1537 Days
2nd most traveled: 1578 Days
MOST TRAVELED: 2114 Days (Go Joyce!)

Time for more sustenance (free drinks can only take you so far) and we enjoyed a lovely dinner in the dinning room.

Back for my nightly music trivia.  This time, British music.  Our team wasn’t able to get all of the answers, but enough to finish in first place. Go us!

8:45 Brought us to the Marriage Match, always a good time to watch. On the Sky, it’s held in the Vista Lounge (more seating than Princess Live). We were all the way over on the right side of the stage and really weren’t able to see much.  While we did enjoy it, wasn’t the best we’ve ever seen.

We skipped the “Tricky, Twisted Trivia” and opted for an early bed time.  This relaxing stuff can be exhausting!

Thanks for following along!

Day Nine - At Sea

This will be a short post for today...I didn’t sleep a bit last night and have had a headache most of the day.

I finally got out of bed at 7:00, there wasn’t much of a point of staying in bed any longer, hadn’t managed to sleep one bit last night.

I meandered and wandered the ship until our daily progressive trivia at 9:45.  Today’s theme was “entertainment, movies and TV” which is totally my wheelhouse.  Our team scored 19 out of 20.  The question we got wrong:  “Which artist had number one hits in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s?”

Care to make a guess?  Our answer was Tony Bennett.  The correct answer was Frank Sinatra.

After trivia I needed sustenance so I stopped at the IC for an almond croissant.  Yummy, yummy in my tummy, tummy.  That would see me through until I could graze again...

I made it back to the cabin at 11:30 and sweet mamma had just started watching the movie “Yesterday.”  I’d already seen it in the theater, but I LOVED (CAPITAL) LOVED that movie.  It was great fun watching her have fun watching the movie!

Nap time followed and before we knew it it was time for the Captain’s Circle Party.  We were joined by our new found friends, Diane and Paulette and enjoyed some lovely drinks (free, of course, the best time) and delicious canapés.

After the party we headed to dinner and then it was time for another musical trivia.  This time, the theme was rock and our team ROCKED IT  for the win.  Yeah us!

Following trivia we stayed for the “Frustration Generation” gameshow.  They divide the audience into different generations and the groups have to answer a series of questions.  I may have been pulled up on stage, and may have made a huge fool of myself.  But, what happens on the ship, stays on the ship.

After the gameshow I headed back to the cabin for a good night’s sleep.

Thanks for following along!

Day Eight - Sea Day

We gained an hour last night, but that still made getting up at 7:00 this morning tough. I was tired, and still sore over the missing goods.  

We got ready and headed to the dinning room for breakfast. Have I told you how much more civilized the dinning room is than the buffet?  Have I told you recently?  And btw...the food is just better.  Poached eggs and fruit for me, fried eggs, bacon and stollen for sweet mamma.  I think we’d now be able to make it until lunch.

And then, I was that person...you know....THAT person...the one with a stupid, petty complaint.  Head hung in shame, I stopped at the customer service desk and complained about my stolen strawberries and cookies.  I mean, really, those strawberries were worth a virtual fortune! The ladies at the front desk got a good giggle, then I was on my way...

At 9:00 we headed to the enrichment lecture - “Thanks for the Memories - with David Wiemers.”  David is a former writer/producer from Hollywood and shared his memories of working and his friendships with folks like Tony Randall, Bob Hope, Ginger Rodgers and Mary Tyler Moore, just to name a few.

At 9:45 we were once again at Progressive Trivia.  Today’s theme was “food.”  Now, you’d think with all we’ve eaten, just on this cruise alone, we would have cleaned up.  We had to settle for 10 out of 20. I don’t see any trivia crowns in our future!

At 11:30 it was time for Cruise Director Alexander’s “Pop-up Music Trivia” in the Piazza.  Once again, if you had Stanley bear, you had to give the name or artist of the song he played.  I got Stanley first, and thank GOD someone shouted “High School Musical” out or I would have been dead meat.  He had a seriously eclectic group of songs for today’s trivia!

We just grabbed a bit in the IC for lunch (Muffuletta sandwiches, they were ehhhh) and we were joined for lunch by our progressive trivia team mates, Sybil and Leslie.  Always good conversation and a lot of laughs.

When we came back to the cabin, this happened...

Yes, all was right with the world again.  We once again had our precious chocolate covered strawberries and enough peanut butter cookies to last the week.  Guess it was okay to be THAT person, if only for a moment...

Nap time followed (are you getting the theme of this vacation) and before we knew it it was time to head to happy hour.  Tonight we were joined by our new friends, Pam and Mike. Sweet had a great time and agreed to meet tomorrow night for the Captain’s party.

Dinner was lemon sole followed by soufflé... both excellent. 

After dinner we headed to “Disney” trivia.  We played with a great group of folks and finished in second.  If I’d only spoken up and said I thought one of the songs was sung by Donny Osmond we would have tied for first.  Who’d of thunk it?

We stayed and watched a new show, “Can You Survive.”  It was okay, not our favorite.  

Time to call it a night...got to rest up for another sea day tomorrow.

Thanks for coming along!

Day Seven - Madeira

We woke to amazingly, wonderful, fantabulous weather this morning.  The sun had finally found us and was beaming brightly from the sky. I told my sweet mamma she wouldn’t need her jacket, but did she listen?  Nope...but she did bring her handy, dandy Princess bag to carry it in when she figured out she’d be too warm with it 😜

We decided to skip breakfast this morning and instead just headed off the ship.  We picked up the Princess Shuttle ($13 per person r/t into town) for what we were told was a 20 minute ride. It was less than 10 minutes, and totally walkable.  Live and learn!

We wandered around and enjoyed beautiful Funchal.  What a lovely, lovely little town.  We perused the shops and enjoyed a craft fair in the downtown park.  We both picked up a few trinkets to take home.

We settled in a corner cafe/bakery for sustenance (lemon meringue tart and a delicious Portuguese pastry) while we ate, drank and people watched.  It was a calm, relaxing (some may even think boring) yet perfectly perfect day!

We headed back to the ship and (you guessed it) Alfredo’s for another delicious pizza lunch. After lunch, we wandered downstairs to the IC.  The God’s were smiling on us and we were finally able to locate PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES!!!  If you’ve ever cruised Princess and tried their peanut butter cookies, then you know they are the BEST.  We took 4 to go!

When we came back to the cabin we found that the casino had delivered a beautiful plate of chocolate covered strawberries.  This is the first sign that you’ve lost too much money.  They are amazingly delicious strawberries that cost a virtual fortune.

You guessed it, it was nap time. Followed by cocktails and yummy dinner (deep fried basa fish for me, followed by and amazingly to die for vanilla soufflé with chocolate sauce).

Sweet mamma headed to the theater, after dinner, to see the comedian.  I headed once again to Princess Live, for more music trivia.  Tonight was “Divas through the decades.”  A super nice group invited me to join them and oh my goodness did we have capital F fun!!!  One gal and I knew every artist and only missed one song title.  The freaking Spice Girls will be the death of me.  I didn’t like them when the were around and I certainly don’t like them now and the song title was “Wannabe” and I’m sure now I’ll never forget it.  We scored a 39 out of 40. TAKE THAT SPICE GIRLS!  Winner, winner, chicken dinner.  We were the champs!

At 8:30, sweet mamma joined me for the “Pick One” Game show.  It’s really just a serious of weird facts.  It was okay, not great.  We had a terrible finish, but enjoyed ourselves. Mamma headed back to the cabin and I wandered a bit before I headed there myself.

I got back to the cabin and after washing up and getting ready for bed I decided I’d have one last peanut butter cookie before bed (after all, it’s vacation).  And that’s when it happened

I realized the cookies AND chocolate covered strawberries had been stolen.

They were gone...gone, gone, gone.  Disappeared...missing...stolen.

Not really stolen, but we realized the cabin steward must have disposed of them.

My precious strawberries and cookies were gone.

It’s wrong...just wrong...so, so, so, so, so wrong.

I finally fell in bed, hungry, tired, besides myself with grief over the loss.  I didn’t know if I’d make it....

Tomorrow, I’d have to start the “Great Peanut Butter Cookie Search” all over again.

Thanks for following along...

Day Six - Sea Day

Finally...a sea day...a much needed respite from all of the crazy running around!  It was time to have a vacation from our vacation!

We started our day with breakfast in the dinning room...much for civilized and much better food that the buffet!  We both had eggs, and once satisfied (at least for a couple of minutes), we headed to Princess Live for the first round of the cruise-long progressive trivia.  We are teaming with an adorable couple, Leslie and Sybil.  They are great fun, and not super competitive, and we had a wonderful time.  Stephanie, from the Cruise Director’s staff, is our hostess, and she’s adorable!  Each day will be a different “theme.”  Today, we started with animals.  We finished with a slightly okay (maybe not respectable) 14 out of 20.

A little wandering and we made it to the Piazza just in time to find two seats (using the term “seats” loosely, we were sitting on the edge of the fountain) for Cruise Director, Alexander’s, 30 minute pop-up trivia.  And oh what fun!  He throws Stanley Bear to you and you have to answer five questions.  The fun part, everyone shouts out the answers.  He enjoys it when we cheat 😜.

It was rest time, and after our naps we headed to the daily happy hour (mamma needs her cocktail).  Again, lovely company and conversation with new friends!

Dinner was uneventful and not very memorable. Princess has made some changes to the menus, and I haven’t decided yet if I love them or not.  The food has been very good, just not the same menus I’m used to.  Being a creature of habit, I enjoy predictable.  This too I will learn to live with.  The mango/pear/Prosecco cold soup was excellent!

The music quiz tonight was golden oldies, and I wasn’t a lot of help.  Just not my genre, but great fun none the less!

At 8:30 I met sweet mamma in Princess Live for the “Sky’s the limit” game show.  Contestants were chosen from the audience and paired with members of the cruise staff.  A word was shown on the screen, and the cruise staff member would bet how many the person could get.  Example, the word was “milk” and the cruise staff would would bet their partner could name 10 different types of milk.  A super lot of awesome fun.  Impressive when Steph was able to name 20 US states...she’s Canadian!

It was early to bed tonight because tomorrow will be our last stop before the crossing, Madeira.  Looking forward to visiting another new place!

Thanks for following along!

Day Five - Lisbon

When we woke up we were thrilled to finally see clear skies.  Lisbon, here we come.  A quick snack in the IC before we headed off the ship.

I don’t know what the deal is with Lisbon, but it’s a LONG walk from the ship to the terminal.  I mean long!  We finally make it out of the terminal and walked through a huge barrage of vendors trying to sell us tours.  We had pre-booked the hop on hop of trams, and needed to make our way to a certain point.  And that’s when our plans came to a screeching halt.  We learned that the trams were not running.  

We decided to make our way back into the terminal where they were selling tickets for the HoHo bus.  Not so fast...they wouldn’t let us back in and said we had to go to the other side of the building.  From there, up an escalator and in through glass doors. And again, everything came to another screeching halt.  As this was the first time the ship had docked in Lisbon, the terminal had no idea what to do with the medallion and made us wait, and wait, and wait. It was thirty minutes before we made our way back downstairs and were able to talk to the HoHo folks.  We also checked out the Tuk-Tuk tour and decided that’s what we really wanted to do.  160 Euros later we were booked on a three hour tour.  Yes, now I’m even reminding myself of Gilligan’s Island!

We walked outside (Deja vu) and met our guide, Alvaro.  He was a super nice 25 year old student who does tours to support himself while he finishes his degree.  When we finally figured out how to get into the Tuk-Tuk, we we on our way to Belem, the oldest part of the city.  

Alvaro told us we needed to try the famous Portuguese danish and we had to get it from the oldest bakery in Lisbon.  He got us the “Pastel de Nata” from the one and only Pasteis de Belem.  And what can I say?  It was amazeballs!  It was almost like a cheese danish wrapped in crispy filo dough. It had just come out of the oven and it was ooey-gooey delish!  We topped it with some powerdered sugar and cinnamon.  It was the bomb!

 

A few of the sights from Belem!

We left Belem and headed for the old city.  Let me tell you, we were SO glad we’d chosen the Tuk-Tuk.  A - It’s just fun, B- it can get you places that buses can’t!  

Some of the sights along the way!

Our view from inside our Tuk-Tuk 

 I just thought these were so darned cute!

April 25th Bridge - We call this the “Molly” bridge...my daughter’s birthday is April 25th!

Alvaro took us to the highest point in the old city.  The views were fabulous!

What a great use for old jeans!

We enjoyed our time exploring the old city and before we knew it it was time to head back to the ship.  Our three hour tour was done, and thankfully, we hadn’t been shipwrecked anywhere 😜

Once on board, we headed to Alfredo’s for sustenance.  We hadn’t eaten since breakfast and were starving.  Once our appetites were satiated, it was time for a nap.  Isn’t that what cruising is all about?  Eat, sleep, repeat...

5:00 arrived and it was time for happy hour. Sweet mamma can’t live without her daily “Chairman of the board” drink!  We met some nice folks, enjoyed great conversation and then it was time to head to dinner.  Again, eat, sleep, repeat...

Dinner wasn’t anything to write home about...except for this amazing pineapple with candied pistachios.  I could have eating like 45 of these things!

After dinner I headed to Princess Live to enjoy some “Silver Screen” Trivia.  The team I played with did quite well, and we finished in second place.  Go us!

Exhaustion won over, and I headed back to the cabin and called it a night.  Tomorrow would be a much needed sea day!

Thanks for following along!

Day Four - Cadiz

Today we woke to chilly, rainy, down right yucky weather.  I rolled back over and went back to sleep. We were here two years ago and there was nothing I was dying to see. This was going to be a port day turned into a sea day!

Sweet mamma headed to breakfast while I began to wander the ship.  Up until today, we hadn’t been above deck 8.  Today that would have to change.

We met for general knowledge trivia at 10:00 (didn’t fare very well) and then began to explore the ship.  To begin, we went straight to the top, deck 18.

Not much to see on 18, but there was a good view of the Retreat Pool. The Retreat Pool is the adult only area on the s

Made our way around the Retreat Pool and found the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is an adults only area that you must reserve and pay for.  I believe it’s $40 a day or $20 for a half day.  Cabana rentals are more money.

The door to one of the Sky Suites was open so I was able to sneak a quick picture.  Honestly, the living area looks quite small!

We made our way down to deck 16 (Lido deck) and checked out one of the main pools.  Not much activity on a cold and rainy day!

Did manage to sneak in a quick picture of Cadiz!

Cold and wet we headed back inside.  We walked through the casino and grabbed a couple of photos.

When we finished our “tour” it was time for some sustenance. We headed to Alfredo’s to chow down on some more of the yummy pizza.  We ran into our friends, Mike & Kathy and enjoyed a great lunch and a lot of laughs!

Nap time followed and before we knew it it was time for cocktails.  Sweet mamma has never missed a cocktail hour.  I had this...don’t know what it’s called but it was yummy!  I just call it “Blue Drink!”

Special night tonight, as I’d make reservations for us to enjoy the Crown Grill.  The Crown Grill is the specialty restaurant that serves very good steak.  We both had the fillet, which was excellent!  I also had the to die for French fries.  Seriously, these things are AMAZING.  In our typical fashion, we also tried three different desserts.  Why not?

 Apple Rhubarb Cobbler

 Salted Carmel Cheesecake

Chocolate dessert that for the life of me I can’t remember the name of.  It is a Norman Love creation

Honestly, all three of the desserts where, meh....nothing to write home about.  My mom really enjoyed the cheesecake, but we both agreed the cobbler was more crust than anything else.  And the chocolate dessert had grapefruit in it.  No offense to Norman Love, but I think he missed the mark on this one.

I attended a music trivia after dinner.  We didn’t win, but it was a respectable finish! I think we lost by only 1.

We made our nightly deposit in the casino and called it a night. Tomorrow is Lisbon and I’m really looking forward to seeing it for the first time.

Thanks for coming along!

Day Three - Malaga

The ship arrived around 9:30 this morning in Malaga.  We met our tour group in the International Cafe (IC) and walked off the ship together to meet our guide.  We had booked a tour of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, a two hour drive from the port.  

I visited Spain as a high school freshman (eeeek.....1980, that was a long time ago) and still remember how amazing the Alhambra was.  I couldn’t wait for my sweet mamma to see it!  A plus was we were getting to tour with some of our favorite cruise friends (Kathy, Mike, Lew & Nan).

We stopped half way to Granada at a rest area to use the facilities (potty time) and pick up some snacks.  Leave it to an American...my sweet mamma bought Pringles.  Other picked up potato chips and Oreos 😜

When we finally arrived in Granada we were spit up into three separate groups for the tour.  Our guide, Daniel, was amazing. Seriously, one of the BEST tour guides we’ve ever had! He speaks four languages and knows the history of the Alhambra like no other.  Just fabulous!

We walked, and walked, and walked, and climbed stairs, and walked, and walked and walked...and a picture is worth a thousand words...so here you go....

See?  Like I said...amazing, fantabulous, beautiful...running out of expletives!

Back on the bus for a 45 minute stop downtown Granada for tapas and cocktails.  We had a large platter of different Iberian hams, sausages and cheese....and then these delicious potatoes.  These Spaniards can cook potatoes like no other...m-m-good!

Back on the bus for the ride back to Malaga...and everyone was exhausted.  Our bus guide, Rafael, had told us on the way to Granada he would give commentary on the way there and be quiet on the way back, since he knew we’d all be tired.  Well, Rafael lied.

Blah, blah, blah, blah blah...he didn’t stop talking.  ALL THE WAY BACK TO MALAGA!

At one point, Lew, told me to ask Rafael “If the rain in Spain fell mainly on the plain”

My response:

“Why don’t you ask Rafael when he’s going to stop talking since he promised me a nap on the way back????”

We finally were back at the port at 7:15 PM.  Long day...

I should mention that we did see the late Paul Allen’s yacht, Octopus, docked across the harbor from the Sky in Malaga.  Wow...it’s amazing!  Oh, how the other half lives...

Photo credit: Google Images

By the time we got back on the ship we were hungry (can’t imagine why, we’ve eaten non stop since we arrived) and super tired.  We met our friend, Nathan, and Alfredo's, and enjoyed some delicious pizza and wonderful company!

Made our nightly deposit in the casino and headed to bed...

Next up...Cadiz

Thanks for following along!