After a low key sheddies meet (just 3 of us) we headed for the Marquis dining room for a traditional Pacific Circler’s pirate gift exchange at 10am. For those not well versed in this system, each participating couple or person wraps a gift, with a value of less than 10 dollars and places it on a table, getting a numbered raffle ticket in exchange. Once the system kicks off, a number is drawn out of the hat and that ticket holder can choose any wrapped gift from the table. They have to unwrap the gift and show it to everyone else present and they then draw out the next ticket. The holder of that ticket can then pirate the first gift and that person chooses another, or they take another unwrapped gift.
After the first fifteen or twenty gifts had been unwrapped, no gift was pirated. Then it all changed and the fun began. A paperback book, written by Janet – and signed, was pirated (Outback Nurse). Then a couple of miniature spirit bottles was pirated. Then the soft toy monkey we’d donated was pirated.
From then on, the book was pirated the most, changing hands at least a dozen times, including the very last draw, the monkey just a few behind. A lot of laughs with donations varying from the useful (USB sticks), to beauty products (camel milk soap!), edible (we managed to acquire a box of Tasmanian fudge), to the educational (various crossword and adult colouring books), to the (possibly) useless pink handcuffs, willy warmers etc. This went on until11:40, so no morning quiz.
Up to the buffet for a Thai chicken curry (a small portion just to keep me ticking over) and the ship’s lemon squash.
Ukulele class again at 1:15.
I tried queuing to see the IT manager but the queue was right out the door at 2pm, when the desk opened, so I tried again later, also with no success, as the queue was so slow moving, as people queued up, seemingly for lessons on how to use their tablets. Frustrating.
Afternoon trivia was, according to Whitney, fairly easy. As the saying goes, “Yeah, right!” That being the case, it should come as no surprise to find out that it was our lowest score ever - and the winners only managed 15. Whitney was genuinely surprised that we didn’t think it easy.
I tried again at the IT desk at 2 minutes to 5pm and finally got an answer, “Yes, the ship was experiencing email problems…” Quite why, after 5 days of it, they hadn’t:
a) Put a notice on the IT desk or the Customer Services desk
b) Announced it on the TV Wake Show
c) Put a message on the ‘Sun Princess’ website home page, which we all have to go to, to log on
d) Printed it in the daily Princess Patter
is inexcusable, in this age of communications. By now, I had ‘lost/wasted’ 135 minutes trying to upload blogs or even simple emails. It is rare that I really complain, but later, I did pass on to Cruise Director Mark my disappointment that the lack of communication was very disappointing - and he agreed.
Pre-dinner show was the unique ‘Symphony of The Shadows’. No, nothing to do with Cliff Richards’ original backing group, but two Italian guys in front of (not behind) a large screen, which showed a mix of clips, pictures and a plain background, whilst they created a variety of shapes in front of a spotlight, using mainly their hands, but also a few stencils and minor props. An excellent and very original show with a bit of humour thrown in. Whether they have more than one show in their repertoire, we don’t know, as they only performed the one show.
At dinner, we traded Garry and Jo for Dave and Sandie – it always was our intention to have the ability to mix the two tables. Roast lamb was nice.
After dinner, we wandered along deck 7, chatting to Mark, just as Trevor Knight’s show started (we’d seen him before and many Australians have seen him so many times, that the theatre wasn’t full anyway). We also chatted to the junior/assistant cruise directors Bethany and Whitney, who have become best buddies since meeting for the first time on this cruise. Nice girls who seem to have settled in very well.
We learned that the Channel 24 (sports channel) costs Princess $35,000 a month – FOR EACH SHIP! That is a fair bit per passenger, just for one channel, so Paula returned to get her money’s worth, by watching more Wimbledon.
Land tomorrow and no rush for us, as the shops don’t open until 10am and we have opted for the $8 shuttle there and back. When the temperature is around 30 degrees, we find that is the safest option, especially when we haven’t been to a port before and haven’t found a tour that appeals.
So, the real cruise begins for the Australians as this is their first overseas port. They are also excited/worried about the Australian elections tomorrow.
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