Florence the Zebra takes on the Panama Canal and the Island Princess!

JF - retired RRT · March 6, 2017

Oh this is so frustrating! I'd like to say it's a secret code, but after checking and checking and fixing my first couple of posts, I thought I had it fixed, but I was obviously lulled into a false sense of security. I don't know why it does that - it looks good, and then when I preview post it changes all the words to join them together. Aargh. Can I blame Florence? She's not a great editor.

I think I know...it's the Helvetica font. On my computer ALL of the words run together...likethis,andIcan'tgetittostop.

Try using a different font. ;)

jennybenny · March 6, 2017

Happy to see that you, DH and Florence and back at it again! :) Happy Cruising. Looking forward to Florence's adventures.

bluenoser2 · March 7, 2017

February 19, Sunday. Atsea

ry%3D400

I have yet to find Atsea on the map, but we were there four times on this trip. (Pause for your groans. I totally deserve it. With the spacing problems I've been having that wasn't even funny. :()

After a somewhat not-so restful night’s sleep (no one’s fault) we were up and about at various times in the morning. The Mr. gets up ridiculously early to have his morning walk – usually in the pitch dark. I get up for nothing pitch. We had left the tv on channel 42 (view from the front of the ship) to be our window. We actually found it to be a little too bright so this would be pretty much the only night we used it. The Mr. was known to start quietly turning it on in the mornings that I wasn’t getting up early enough. That wasn’t normally a problem.

Up to the buffet where I had a made-to-order omelette served to my table that was lovely. The orange juice was warm, but I had no complaints otherwise. There was just enough time for me to limber up by jogging back to the cabin, brushing teeth and heading out on to lido deck for Zumba!

I had promised myself that I would do at least one new thing on the ship that I’ve never done before and since I had just started doing Zumba in the privacy of my own home (curtains drawn) I thought I was ready to take it to the next level. Apparently, the next level was a little more than I could take. See, I’m used to doing exercises in the winter to just warm up. Literally. I have a cool house during the day (frugality reigns) so my Zumba-ing keeps me a little warmer in between hot flashes. On the Island, I was thrust into a Zumba routine at 9:00 a.m. in 80-degree weather…. plus, humidity! I didn’t last for the whole thing – kudos to all who did – I am humbled.

ry%3D400

As soon as The Mr. showed up I made apologetic murmurs and raced to his side where he said “Hey, I was going to take a picture of you” at the same time I was loudly sayinghow sorry I was to be keeping him waiting and simultaneously directing him away from the Lido pool area.

I had planned to at least show up for the CC meet and greet scheduled for 10 a.m., but the heat! The sweat! If any of you are reading this, just know it was to your benefit that I did not show up as I was. (I WAS NOT COMPLAINING about the heat…. I could never do that in February.) Anyway, I totally forgot about it in my frantic desire to find my swimsuit and get into the coldest pool available. This was another first. I was the first of our couple to use the pool. I am generally a distant last place. I enjoyed my swim in Lotus Pool as not another soul was using it, and then,feeling totally refreshed, enjoyed lounging about around the pools for the rest of the morning.

ry%3D400

Lunch at Horizon – love the salads, and The Mr. loves the burgers from the grill. And another opera slice? Don’t mind if I do. Thank you. That done, we felt it necessary to do some walking, so it was down to the Promenade deck for us.

ry%3D400

We didn’t mind the incomplete walkway area – it was pretty easy to navigate the 180 degree turn at one end and reverse direction. We can give tutorials on how to do it, if anyone has problems with it. The only concern was one of etiquette….what is the proper amount of recognition one must give oncoming walkers? I mean, the first time you nod and say hello. The second time meeting that same person, a nod suffices, perhaps a small smile of recognition…but then what? Does one begin to ignore the other, or strike up short conversational bursts? A dilemma to be sure. We soldiered on.

Then it was time to go deeper in our explorations, so we hunted for the elusive secret decks. After a few wrong turns, we declared the mission a success, finding the decks at the front on two levels, and one at the back. Ah you say, which decks…well if I told you they wouldn’t be SECRET decks now would they. You can twist my arm. I’d give at the first threat of withholding chocolate.

All that physical activity brought about a nap for The Mr.and a search for tea and (oops!) a scone as well in the buffet, for me. (I never did try teatime in the MDR, it’s not The Mr.’s ‘cup of tea’ so to speak, and I wasn’t quite ready to go it alone this time round.)

The intrigue of our first couple of days were the numerous phone messages we began getting from “David”. We did not know a David. There was no way for us to tell David he was calling the wrong room. We were NOT John and Mary, and while we were sorry about his lackluster performance in the Casino, and his wife’s malaise, we did not know how to assist. My only hope is that poor David wasn’t feeling ignored by John and Mary, who were not getting those messages and probably not meeting him at any of the places at any of the times he was suggesting. I would have, but using “David”, “my room” and “your room” as clues proved too much for my amateur sleuthing abilities.

ry%3D400

(Look! Sunny skies, and no one in the pool! They hadn't found it in Atsea. Yet.)

ccastner · March 7, 2017

Following. Enjoyed your posts so far!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

caribill · March 7, 2017

We had chosen, as we do on every cruise we have been on, Anytime Dining. We like to eat early anyway, and since our home time zone is an hour ahead, 5:00 feels like 6:00 to our stomachs, and we just headed to the dining room right away. We snagged a table for 2 upon arrival.

Just for 2?

Was Florence dining in a specialty restaurant that evening?

Bruinboy · March 7, 2017

What a GREAT review. Your sense of humor is beautious to behold. I just have to remember not to drink anything while reading. I hate it when what I drink suddenly comes out my nose.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

bluenoser2 · March 7, 2017

Just for 2?

Was Florence dining in a specialty restaurant that evening?

GetAttachmentThumbnail?id=AQMkADAwATMwMAItOGZhNS1mMzZkLTAwAi0wMAoARgAAAw9SBGgm2AdKiQ1LfL%2BeJG4HAH47DQmndFZLl2VzP6VFO0kAAAIBDAAAAH47DQmndFZLl2VzP6VFO0kAAUbPr00AAAABEgAQAFlrARiHZu5Iu%2BaqRSzSeVM%3D&thumbnailType=2&X-OWA-CANARY=gpWDMWU52U2Lep2q5Pur81Bx3V1lZdQYj5tnGV49763f8wMUEb-pWnS7FnM4toOKH7ogMRbKFno.&token=3c7d5732-5471-4871-9a6e-ce44c2d0b826&owa=outlook.live.com&isc=1

Florence isn't a big fan of the dress code for the MDR. She chose to eat in the room.

bluenoser2 · March 7, 2017

Formal night awaited, so we primped and went down to gawk at people. Another “new thing to do on the ship” for me, was to not bother with ANY photos this time. Less stress, and I didn’t have to work out any muscle kinks later from the awkward positions photographers love to inflict on their subjects. Ohhhhh....I get it - work out the kinks....the photographers are in cahoots (did I actually use the word "cahoots"? ...uh oh, I've become my mother) with the Spa staff. Work out the kinks with a nice little massage after.....hmmmm. Not falling for it.

The lineup for anytime had begun in earnest already, so we joined the crowd. Tonight we were seated near the back of the dining room and watched as the place filled up quickly and more or less completely. We had a leisurely dinner beginning with the duck breast app for me, while The Mr. happily savoured the crab quiche. We both ordered the beef medallions for our main, and, in spite of my mother’s voice whispering in my head “finish the meat”, I could not finish my meat. It was delicious but I am definitely not used to eating that much protein in one sitting! We finished off the evening with the Norman Love dessert of the evening – a chocolate/raspberry something-or-other. (This is why I take pictures….they’re worth a lot more than my thousand words.)

ry%3D400

Following dinner, we headed up to level 7 to secure a spot overlooking the champagne fountain, and struck up a great conversation with a couple from Michigan. They had already seen the 5:45 showtime presentation of “Bayou” and proclaimed it excellent, we shared our menu choices for dinner with them, and once the champagne was served, I grabbed my mimosa and we were off to fight for a seat in the theatre.

ry%3D400

No, no, we did not fight for a seat - we are Canadians after all and there was no hockey involved…. but we do like to have an aisle seat and there was a perfect chair right behind the seat with yellow caution tape all over it (or was that crime scene tape? No matter –it meant no one sat there so The Mr. could have a good view). A little tip – since the main walkway to get to the theatre takes one to the entrance on the right side, we always went further over to the left side where less people had tried to get seats. At half hour before the shows it always looked lopsided – the right side was almost completely full and the left had many openings. By 20 minutes before the show it didn’t much matter.

The show must have been very good – The Mr. managed to stay 99% awake for it. That doesn’t sound like much of a compliment, but it really is – coming from the guy who gets up at 5:00 a.m. for his constitutional (in the pitch dark as you will remember).

The night was still young, but we were getting older by the minute. We trotted off to Explorers to see about seats for the comedian, but alas, the seats were already occupied,and we hadn’t thought he was THAT good to stand for, so we, not wanting to waste any opportunity, chugged up to our room, changed, grabbed a coke and got to the pizzeria before it closed. We took it inside Horizon to eat, and uh oh. There was the smell of garlic……which led us to the “action station”where they were sauteing shrimp. In garlic. Insidiously. What could we do? We sampled the insidious shrimp. And you know what that meant…..garlic. Shrimp. Now we needed something to get the garlic taste out of our mouths, and the only thing for that was….well The Mr. chose fruit. How healthy. Wait. He en-robed it with chocolate from the fountain. I went for the simpler route. I chose a piece of chocolate peanut butter pie already plated. Because when I go on vacation, I want to do as little food preparing as possible. And to have to dip fruit in chocolate? Myself? No sir. Not me.

That was definitely enough food for the day. Time for some of that free platinum internet before nodding off for the night. (It was pretty darn slow internet – but I’m going with Atsea not having the best reception. Yeah. That’s it. I am NOT blaming Princess. G’night.

GetAttachmentThumbnail?id=AQMkADAwATMwMAItOGZhNS1mMzZkLTAwAi0wMAoARgAAAw9SBGgm2AdKiQ1LfL%2BeJG4HAH47DQmndFZLl2VzP6VFO0kAAAIBDAAAAH47DQmndFZLl2VzP6VFO0kAAUbPr08AAAABEgAQANcM0T6615hJt2uJBUKChcE%3D&thumbnailType=2&X-OWA-CANARY=SkFNgI-4AEejUc3_NsJ2CfAlN3lpZdQYC8S0KEkMDzf77E2940eHy0FU113xj8Z5PZMgHwh4sbE.&token=12675379-2702-4cdb-8d25-f6b8acf81aa3&owa=outlook.live.com&isc=1

Good thing we cleansed our garlic palates in the buffet. Florence was scarfing down the pillow mints.

bluenoser2 · March 8, 2017

Monday, February 20, Atsea again.

Feeling strengthened by a great night’s sleep we set out to find what other treasures Atsea had in store for us. Beginning with cautiously attempting the Eggs Benny in the buffet. It was actually pretty good! Score. Then there was the cinnamon raisin bread. Fail. I should have stuck with my chocolate Danish. Lots of people were up at 7:30 with us, but there was no sense of crowding, pushing or shoving. Morning people are like that. Sometimes. If they've had their caffeine. Or chocolate.

Donning my ball cap and walking shoes, we hit the promenade,The Mr. for the second time – isn’t he just the sweetest? After our jaunt, we watched a bit of the Norman Love Chocolate demo in the atrium from the 8th level which was the only place we could find to gather. The demos are pretty hard to see if you want to be on the same level –some can sit on the stairs to watch but we chose the birds’ eye view.

ry%3D400

We wandered off partway through and checked out the obligatory $10 sale. Tempted by nothing there, we visited the shop and purchased our ship magnet. Thank you, Princess, for not changing the style of your magnets too much. That other nameless ship last year had such awful magnets, The Mr. went home and made one for that voyage himself. That wasn’t us being thrifty. That was us boycotting poor workmanship. Well, maybe it was a little thrift. Mostly workmanship.

A change into pool-wear was accomplished (much easier when one isn’t soaked with sweat I was happy to discover), and we grabbed a couple of loungers at the Lotus Pool to read. “Read”for me apparently means sleep. Whatever. Makes the novel last longer.

ry%3D400

Lunch was soon upon us, so after a quick jog back – all the way back to our room and back for something or other – The Mr. got in line for his burger while I went to “just check” on the buffet offerings. What? Mac and cheese? Sliders? I’m in. Not only that but there was apple cobbler with warm vanilla sauce for dessert. Really, I could just tip the warm vanilla sauce over into a cup and have that. Alone or on top of anything. Doesn’t matter. Good lunch.

After some leisurely regrouping, we decided to see what the chances were of scoring a lounger by the Lido pool. We did it! Victory was ours, because unlike the first morning when few had discovered the delights of the pools, EVERYONE had found them now and were “reserving” (see how polite I’m being?) their places. We don’t need a lot of sun for very long so we happily took up residence poolside for a bit. The sun was hot, the pool was cold. What more could we ask for?After just the right amount of sun, we gave up our chairs to let someone else feel lucky.

ry%3D400

And now, a note about Anytime. I don’t want to complain, because I’m a half-full glass kinda gal. But this cruise has driven me to consider the Traditional dining option. There were four different lineups that no one could figure out – Assigned dining, Club Class, Reservations, and the leftover-Anytimers. No one knew what line to get in, and it amused me to see those who actually had reservations push ahead to make good and sure they got their table. We chose to stick with true Anytime dining, and took our chances each night. The Club class area that was reserved in the dining room very rarely had anyone in it for the time we dined, so it seemed a bit of a waste of real estate to me (and to those standing with pagers outside the dining room!). But the special

tablecloths and napkins were quite lovely.

Tonight we were given table #35 – which is nowhere near #31 as I found after confidently beginning to traipse to the back of the room again before being summoned by The Mr.’s little whistle that he does just for me. This was an interesting experience. Our poor waiter had so many tables so soon in the evening – there was no time to flex and warm up, and I think his assistant was just learning the ropes. There was a kind of frantic energy about him and we were starting to feel his exhaustion! He was eager to take my order,but I hadn’t even read the menu yet. Appetizers came in the wrong order, one course I got, but since The Mr.’s Fettucine wasn’t ready yet, he had to just sit there, as did I when I stubbornly refused to eat without him. (He could have caught up easily I know, because I AM the world’s slowest eater, but it was the principal of the thing.) It didn’t much matter because after tasting the soup I had ordered, I chose not to continue with it. However, the Steak Diane was lovely and once again my mother’s voice in my head “you didn’t finish the meat.” I did what I could! The great thing about being a grown up is that even though I didn’t finish my meat I could have dessert. (Can you tell what generation I’m from?) And a lovely dessert it was. Another Norman Love Chocolate Journey whatchamacallit. All chocolatey and caramely. The Mr. declared it the best dessert of the cruise.

ry%3D400

That evening’s showtime was Duncan Tuck. We enjoyed his music and his comedy, staying awake to prove it. That was supposed to be the entertainment for the evening, but we ended up creating our own marathon of sorts, as we made our way (without elevators) to our room,to discover that The Mr.’s keycard wasn’t working, down to 5 to get a new one, back up to 10 to make sure it worked, up to 14 to procure towels for our excursion the next morning, down to 10 to put them in the room, back up to 14 for a wee snack before bed and back to 10 for a well deserved rest.

And my thought for the day? Dining room lineups bring out the worst in people. Or is it lineups bring out the worst people? Hmmmm….you decide.

swingphi · March 8, 2017

Thank you so much for your entertaining and informative review. We are leaving in three weeks on the Coral and I am so ready to go. Your photos of the desserts leave me speechless. Looking forward to your next post. Btw I totally understand escaping the snow having lived in Illinois for over 30 years.

JF - retired RRT · March 8, 2017

Monday, February 20, Atsea again.
And my thought for the day? Dining room lineups bring out the worst in people. Or is it lineups bring out the worst people? Hmmmm….you decide.

Your spaces between the words is much better.:halo:

perfect match · March 8, 2017

I am delighted to find Florence the Zebra cruising again! Of course, Marla, I'm delighted to see that Florence decided to allow you and the Mr to accompany her, especially since I doubt that Florence's hooves would allow her to type this review very well. We are currently booked on a 10 day parital PC cruise on the CB next year, so I can't wait to see what adventures Florence manages to get herself into on this sailing. :D

easyboy · March 8, 2017

Really fun reading your review!

Retiring cajun · March 8, 2017

Welcome back Florence[emoji3]