World Cruise - Day 33 - Feb 14 - At Sea

Sunrise is rather cloudy this morning due to Tropical Cyclone Jasmine:

Patti, the pigs in Fiji were penned to be fattened up.  So I guess in addition to fish and coconuts, pork is probably the other mainstay food.  Also, Sara bought the cookies on the island, we weren’t allowed to bring anything ashore.  But I guess they were still enough of a treat that the kids were flocking around her when she was giving handouts.

I said yesterday that we are bypassing Tonga due to Tropical Storm Jasmine, I guess it is more correctly referred to as Tropical Cyclone Jasmine.  The seas are rather rough today as we head further south, moving out of Jasmine’s path.  It will continue to get cooler the further south we go (a tough concept for those of us in the northern hemisphere), so Fiji will be our last balmy port until we reach Sydney on Feb 26.  Then we continue moving north again and cross the equator a second time as we head toward Cairns (north coast of Australia), then Guam, then Japan.

Krissie did another painting yesterday, this one was of the island off the starboard side of the ship (she calls it “Fiji’s Turtle Island”):

She didn’t like that one as much, so she put it on the mirror low by the cabinet.  She used up all of the white in the acrylic set, so on to the next type of paint, oils.  We will need to get a supply of white in water colors, acrylics and probably oils at one of our stops.  She likes painting with oils and is already about half done with her first oil painting.

We are decorating our room with Krissie’s pics and some of the other stuff we have been accumulating on the trip, just to spice it up a bit.  Most people hang things on their walls with magnets, since the walls are all magnetic.  It’s interesting to see other rooms and how they have decorated.

It’s strange to think that it’s Tuesday here, but it’s Monday back in Seattle.  Kinda hard to get your head wrapped around that, especially since we were several hours behind Seattle as we made our way across the Pacific and now we’re 21 hours ahead.

Krissie and I went to Zumba this morning, then I went to ping pong, then we both went for a walk on the track.  Krissie usually walks for about an hour, I’m doing well if I can keep up with her for a half hour.  She’s a real power walker, passing almost everyone (although not everyone—there are a couple of really tall guys with long strides who do walk just a little faster than her).  The walking this morning was challenging given the movement of the ship, both forward and backward and side-to-side pitch.  It was like walking up and down a hill and sideways (and with wind blowing at you, then behind you) changing up every few steps.

The Pacific Princess Choir sang today at the renewal of vows ceremony up on the pool deck:

Chuck and Lorraine did the renewal of their vows today:

Jackie and Terry are celebrating their 25^th anniversary onboard.  This world cruise was their 25^th anniversary gift to each other:

We were discussing last night at dinner with Chuck and Lorraine what we wish we had brought and what we wish we had not brought.  Pretty much everyone liked what they brought, although Krissie said she brought two pair of shoes that she didn’t really need (imagine that—Krissie with too many shoes?).  The one thing I wish I had brought would have been my snorkel gear.  My thinking was that the number of times I would have used it would have been minimal and that I could probably just rent the equipment instead.  I could have used it in Hawaii (at Waikiki Beach) and in Fiji so far and we will have more stops along the way (including our dive in Cairns).  

Tonight at dinner they had the sensational eggplant parmigiana again (it was Italian night).  We had it on the first segment and it was wonderful.  We all commented that you could make an entire meal of just that appetizer.  They bake it and it’s wonderful.  Order it if you are ever on a Princess ship.

Beautiful sunset tonight, lots of clouds and lots of colors:

I like how the light of the sun lit up the cloud above it in an almost perfectly straight horizontal line in this shot:

The show tonight is the production show, Shake, Rattle and Roll, an appropriate title for the way the ship is moving while we are on the outer edges of Jasmine.  It was wonderful! 

James and Ketsia dressed up as Sonny and Cher for one number:

We love the way the singers and dancers are not only great singers and dancers, but also are very visible for other events on the ship.  The dancers also help out with the different activities on the ship, so we’ve gotten to know most of them on a personal level as well.  They are all really nice people and the ship feels very personal and comfortable.

Tomorrow is sea day #2 of 3 on our way to Bay of Islands, New Zealand.