Monday, September 15 - Day at sea

Monday morning we woke up pretty early – with the 3 hour time difference we were still living some where between the ship’s/Alaska time and the time back home. When we woke up we discovered that the Cruise Director did a morning show every day that went over the details of the day and gave other pertinent information. We watched JJ every morning and often referred to the information he gave. After the crazy year and half that I had it was so great to have someone tell me what to do, where to go and not to have to make any decisions. I think the most difficult decision each day was what time to go to dinner.I had ordered breakfast the night before to arrive around 8:30 so I could eat before the massage, but woke up early enough to run upstairs to the horizon court – which is the 24 hour buffet. They had a big pot of oatmeal, and that is what I ended up eating every morning for breakfast with brown sugar and raisins of course. On Monday I brought it back to the room so that I could get continue to get ready. We then went upstairs to the Lotus Spa. They led us into the nice waiting room where we filled out a bunch of information. Long story, but two week prior to this I flew home from New York City after the conclusion of the bike tour. For some reason, which I still do not know why, after I got home my right ankle and foot started swelling quite badly. On the Saturday between the trips, I went into the doctor’s to get it checked out was immediately sent to the hospital to have an ultra sound to make sure I did not have blood clots. Thankfully I did not, so they put me on water pills and the swelling went down. The first day of the cruise I noticed my leg beginning to swell a bit again, so I put that on the form. My masseuse was Wandi and she was from South Africa. She was very nice and we chatted a bit. Our cruise was the last one before the boat went on dry dock so the majority of the staff had 3 weeks off after us, including Wandi who was going home for the time. She was both excited and nervous. Wandi did a good job giving me a massage, and I have had no trouble with my foot since then. Of course as with all the other massages I have had I was left with some bruises. It is crazy how easily I bruise. After our massages, Shan and I went back to our room to get ready for the first of our Cruise Critic gatherings.

Cruise Critic is a website I found at some point early in my cruise planning/research. On the site you can join a roll call for your cruise and get to know people online before you leave. I really enjoyed getting to know this group in the weeks and months prior to the trip and was looking forward to meeting them in person. We met up in Skywalkers and walking in was reminiscent of my summer on the tour. I walked in and said Hi I am Erinn and the whole group was like "Hi Erinn – so good to meet you." I so touched when one of the couples from St. Catharine’s brought me some news paper clipping from when the tour went through. We sat down to chat for a while, but it was pretty rocky up there and Shannon was really feeling it. She went back to the cabin to lie down and I stay up there. I think I was there for over 2 hours. It was so great to have a group of people that I ‘knew” on the ship for the week. After the cruise critic gathering I went back to the room to see how Shan was doing and then grab a bit of lunch before our Pilates class. Now neither one of us had done Pilates before, and Shan had never even done Yoga. I had at least done that before and knew not to go too crazy or else I would be very sore. Shan on the other hand gave it her all. Now for those of you who have not done Pilates, there is a far amount of balance involved. It is not such a great idea to try to learn these positions on a rocking boat. I spent half the time laughing at myself and was not taking it at all serious. I think Shannon was trying to impress the cute instructor. After word Shannon needed to take a nap. Here she is recovering from Pilates.



Next we needed to get ready for the 1st formal night.

The rest of Sunday September 14

After we sailed away Shannon and I went off to explore the ship.

This is Skywalkers – the night club/disco what ever you want to call it. Some one was thinking when they designed the ship. Skywalkers is on a deck of it’s own suspended a floor above the top deck of the ship. It has a walkway leading up to it with a people moving up the middle. I enjoyed taking that up. Shan preferred to walk. The only flaw in the design is that there are no bathrooms up there, you have to go back down to the deck below.

Skywalkers offered great views and during the day it was often empty. We went up there during the sail away to watch for awhile. Shannon decided to take this picture of me relaxing. Just as I am saying don’t get my feet in there. We also sat and relaxed by the indoor pool for a while. Sadly it was too cool to spend much time by the outdoor pools.
At some point during the afternoon we finished unpacking and getting our room set for the week. Around 5 pm we headed up to the Lotus Spa where they were giving tours of the spa and at 5:30 raffling off certificates for services. We figured we could sit through the sales pitch if it meant winning something. Sadly we did not win anything, but we did decide to sign up for pilates on Monday our first sea day and spinning on Friday our second sea day. Neither one of us had ever tried pilates or spinning, but that was our mantra for the cruise – lets try new things! Of course it helped that one of the fitness instructor was pretty cute – just ask Shan about him. After the giveaways we deiced to schedule massages. That was one thing we had both talked about doing on the cruise, but had not fully decided on. Unfortunately there were not too many open spots left, but we were able to get appointments on Monday at 9:00 am.

After we left the spa we decide to go get some dinner. We had anytime dinning which meant we could eat in one of two dinning rooms anytime between 5:30 – 9:30 pm. We went to the Portofino dinning room – not sure why, I think it was the first one we found and there was not a wait. Once we were seated Shan let the waiter know that she has a shellfish allergy. He went to get the headwaiter; Andrew who put Shan on his list of food allergies and told her to ask for him as soon as we came in each time and he would make sure her food was prepared separately. I have to say I was impressed with Princesses handling of food allergies, my nephew has a peanut allergy, so I have seen restaurants handle it both good and bad. I would not hesitate to recommend Princess to anyone with dietary concerns. Here are Shannon and I at dinner.
We sat with three other couples that night. I think two of them were from Seattle or had lived in Seattle and the third was from Portland. They were very nice and the conversation never lagged. I had some sort of pasta that night – I don’t remember exactly what kind it was. The food was good and so was the service. No complaints. After dinner we wondered around the ship a bit, stopped in at the different lounges to hear the music, looked around the casino and then went to the 10:15 Welcome Aboard Show. It was at the show we found out the person who had walked by during the muster drill was the Cruise Director JJ. Over the week, JJ became a source of entertainment for us, the inside joke, the diversion, and our source of amusement. Anyone who knows me well knows I often find my comic relief in this fashion. The Welcome Aboard Show was good, it had a sampling of the shows to come, including the comedian Steve Moris who made me laugh a lot at his musical parodies. I will never sign little bunny foo foo the same again. (Yes I do often sign this song, I know lots of 2-3 year olds).

After the show we headed up to bed for the night.

Getting on the Star!!

The Star Princess was docked at terminal 30 and we had to go through the whole boarding process. Here is our first view of the ship.

We got into line and dropped off the majority of our luggage. Then we proceeded into the building to fill out some paper work ensuring we had not been sick recently. Then we waited in line until we could check in. The line kept moving, and we really did not wait that long, it just felt like it since we were so excited to be there. Once we checked in we moved toward security with a quick stop to get our first of many professional pictures taken. I was carrying our large bouquet of flowers and they were included in the picture. As we entered the ship they took our picture, a mug shot, as we swiped our card for the first time, this was for security reasons. We were finally on the Ship!! We decided to go to our room first and drop off our carry on luggage and get a vase for the flowers. When we booked the cruise we book a guarantee cabin – which as the name suggests, we were guaranteed a cabin on the boat. We joked about how we were sure we were going to be on the lowest deck, under water, in the crew quarters, but we were pleasantly surprised with out assigned cabin. We were in Baja 416 – which is on the 11th deck. The 11th deck was mid way between the Lido, deck 14, where the food court, pools and decks were located and the Promenade, deck 7, where the theaters, lounges, and shops were located. Our cabin was mid-ship, port side, basically in the middle of the ship down the left hallway. We were just around the corner from a set of elevators and a staircase. It was a great location, and if we had booked it originally, it would have cost us both several hundred dollars more.

When we entered our room, we met our room steward, whose name escapes me. He introduced himself and asked if we needed anything. We asked for a vase and he quickly returned with one for our gorgeous flowers.
Look at how pretty they are.
Only $10.
I enlarged this picture to hang up in my house.
We then wondered around the ship for a short while. The passenger muster drill was at 3:30 pm and we had to be in our rooms to get our life jackets. When we got back to the room our luggage was there and we started to unpack while we were waiting for the drill to start. Princess handles the muster drill nicer then some other cruises, they just have you go up to your muster station, not out on the deck by the life boats. They also have the room stewards go through the rooms to make sure everyone is there instead of doing a roll call. They also only have you put on your life jacket and then take it off, not stand around in them. Our muster station was in the hall by the picture gallery and Wheelhouse Bar. When the announcement was made, we headed down there and waited for the instructions. While we were standing there, the cruise director, walked by. It was the first time we saw him and I have to admit I thought he was pretty cute. We did not know at the time who he was, but soon found out.

After the muster drill we went up on the deck for the sail away. It was such a beautiful day, near 80 degrees and sunny. Here are Shannon and I on the deck.
Here are some pictures of the skyline of Seattle as we sailed away.
This is the building we went through to check in, and go through security.
At the time of Sail away the Seattle Seahawks were playing the San Francisco 49ers. As we went by we could hear the roar of the crowd. More pictures of the skyline.

Notice how short the space needle is?