At Sea

             On Sunday, 22 Sep 2013, we awoke to the shaking of our bed about 5:30 AM, after setting our clock back by one hour on Saturday night.  The Captain’s channel on our TV called it “very rough seas” with 12- to 18-foot waves.  Being on the Lido deck (14) and fairly near the front of the ship, we feel all of the “bumps.”  For most of the day, the water was running in rivulets down our balcony window, though it probably was more from splashing and mist than from rain.  During a calmer period after 10:00 AM, we went down to breakfast.  Later, the very rough seas returned; and we discovered it was more comfortable lying down than walking around, and napped again.  In fact, we didn’t even go down for lunch – and when Jesse misses a meal on a cruise, you know that something is amiss!  However, we took only some Di-Gel before meals, just to remind our food to go in the right direction.  During dinner, ocean waves continued to crash against the ship, a few times all the way to the top of the window near our table.  Later, we tried to dance to Latin music for almost an hour, even though dancers were often laughing as they stumbled across the floor when the ship rolled.

            On Monday, 23 Sep, we had again set our clock back one hour the previous night.  Being on the port side of ship and heading west, the sun should have been shining on our balcony for much of the day.  But today the sky was mostly dark and cloudy, though the sea was calm.  For a short time, the sun appeared so that we could see the rocky, steep, and bare Aleutian Islands in the distance.  At one point, we just happened to see a group of whales in the distance from our balcony.  Before lunch, we attended a Cha Cha dance lesson in the Club Fusion.  Most of the rest of the day we spent napping and watching movies on TV.  After the formal dinner, we danced for an hour in the Club Fusion.  Unlike last evening, tonight the dance floor remained relatively unmoving beneath our feet.

            On Tuesday, 24 Sep, daylight broke with overcast sky, a rolling sea, whitecaps, and rivulets of water running down the balcony window again.  With all of the ship’s lurching and rolling, we decided to skip the Merengue dance lesson and lounge around the cabin all day, except for breakfast and lunch.  Louise and Ralph had decided to skip dinner with the group and attend a comedy show instead, so we were able to talk more with Francisco and Marlies.  They told us that they live in western Austria, not too far from the Swiss border and that this is their second marriage.  (It is Louise and Ralph’s second as well.)  After dinner, we danced again for an hour in the Club Fusion.  The sea had calmed down quite a bit by then to “moderate,” so that dancing wasn’t too difficult.

            We awakened the next morning to Thursday, 26 Sep 2013.  Since we had crossed the International Date Line during the night, we had completely lost Wednesday, 25 Sep (in addition to setting our clocks back an hour again).  An Australian couple (from Queensland, near Brisbane), Graham and Wendy, joined us for breakfast.  Later that morning, we attended a Salsa dance class (part I).  Although we didn’t learn anything new, we enjoyed the dancing opportunity.  After dinner with all four of our tablemates, we danced for 2-1/4 hours before retiring.

            On Friday, 27 Sep, we again slept longer due to setting our clocks back again (as we have every night since we left Anchorage).  Now, our clock was 8 hours (plus one day) earlier than CDT in the USA.  The sea was still a little rough, but not too bad.  In fact, by 9:00 AM when we had returned from breakfast, the sea was “slight” (1.5-4 ft.), the smoothest that it had been for most of the time since Anchorage.  Someone told us that it had snowed in Anchorage.  We were glad that the snow waited until after we left.  The outside temperature onboard was only 47.5⁰, about the same as it had been every day so far.   First, we walk across the open deck, and then a covered deck, for the short distance between our cabin and the buffet, where we eat breakfast and lunch.  Each of these two areas contains a swimming pool, plus hot tubs.  At first, the pools had no water in them, but some of the hot tubs were usable from the start.  Two people were in one hot tub on Thursday when we passed it.  We would like to use a hot tub in the covered area, where it is warmer, but afterwards we would have to walk through the cold area in our wet suits in order to return to our cabin – and it was too cold until Saturday.

We had been sailing in the Bering Sea; however, the Aleutian Islands were now behind us and, by today, islands off the coast of Russia became visible.  Small birds, apparently nesting on the nearby islands, skimmed the surface of the water near our ship.  Walking on the north side of the ship from our Salsa dance class (part II), we saw one island, larger than the others, with glacial snow on its mountains.  Not too far away, but out of our range of vision, a large peninsula (Kamchatka) juts south from Russia.  We were passing the chain of islands running from Kamchatka to Japan, and the sun was finally starting to shine for the first time in many days.  At lunch, we joined Louise and Ralph, along with another quite elderly gentleman who lives in Colorado.  The other gentleman entertained us by telling us about an 8,000 square-foot house that he purchased in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1968 for $39,000, and later sold to a family with 12 children before moving to Kansas City.



Dinner Table

Before dinner and in formal attire, we attended the Princess Captain’s Circle Members’ cocktail party, where we danced to Superfly band and enjoyed complementary cocktails and hors d’oerves.  For dinner, the menu included lobster.  And, when seconds were offered, Sally was the only eager taker at our table.  Afterwards we danced until 9:45 PM, first to the Superfly band and then to the Electrix Duo.

Wheelhouse Bar

The morning of Saturday, 28 Sep dawned bright and clear.  In fact, it was also much warmer.  Again, we slept longer due to setting our clocks back.  At breakfast we were joined by a couple from near Auckland, New Zealand, Bryan and Bernie, whom we had seen on the dance floor.  He owns and operates big construction equipment and she owns a hair salon.  Frequent travelers, they have achieved Princess Elite loyalty level.  We attended a Tango dance lesson and learned a couple of new dance steps; hopefully, we will have an opportunity to try them out on the dance floor before we forget them.  For lunch, we were joined by a couple from near Vancouver, Canada, Dwayne and Carol, who discussed the benefits of their universal health care system.  Later, after locating the laundry room on deck 12, we decided to do two loads of laundry.  (Currently, we still have only Platinum loyalty level, but after another 12-day Princess cruise following this one, we will reach Princess Elite loyalty level and get our laundry done for free!)  After enjoying dinner with all four of our tablemates, we danced for 1-1/4 hours before retiring to our cabin.