One we were ready we headed down to the main atrium where the Captain’s Gala Welcome Cocktail Party was taking place. During this time the Captain speaks and introduces some of his key staff including the cruise director. After that we went to the dining room. We sat on the same side of the dinning room as the night before. The other people at our table were three ladies who all worked together in a post office in California and a couple. It was another fun dinner time – I think I had pasta and some yummy dessert.In the evenings there are photographers set up in the lobby where you can get your pictures taken. On the formal nights there are a ton of different backgrounds to choose from, Shan and I took a few different pictures. Then we decided to take some our self.
Here we are together
One of our self portraits
Shannon by the wall
Me by the same wall
After we took some pictures we wondered around the ship for a while and ended up in the Casino – we both played and lost $10 on the penny slots. Then we decided to check out the Princess Pop Star competition – this is Princess’ take on American Idol – as a karaoke contest. At first no one wanted to sign so Meg, from New Zeeland one of the cruise director’s staff started signing New York, New York with audience participation. Then this girl from Texas got up to sing Sweet Dreams (are made of these) by the Eurythmics – she did a good job, but she had such a strong accent it sounded a bit different. The funniest thing about her performance was a lady in the audience who was way too into the song, she was chair dancing and shaking her head all over the place – which earned her the nick name of crazy Eurythmic lady from Shan and me. Next a guy got up and wanted to sing Behind Blue Eyes by The Who, but the only version the had was the Limp Bizkit version, which the man had never even heard. I am pretty sure Shan and I were the only people in the audience who had heard that version. He did okay considering the circumstances, but we did laugh a bit. Then Judy got up and sang something, I forget what, but she was really good singer. Then a younger guy sand Sweet Caroline – which I enjoyed.After the Pop Idol Shannon and I made our way over to the Theater for the big show of the evening. The show was “Cinematastic” which was a movie themed show. The shows were one of times you could tell Princess caters to an older crowd – the newest movies they used the music from were Ghost and Titanic. During the show one of the funniest moments from the cruise occurred. At one point the show does a three song tribute to Mary Poppins. During the first song I could tell Shannon was agitated about something. I was thinking she was sea sick or not feeling well from dinner, I was slightly concerned when she turns to me and says “I ride the bus everyday with Mary Poppins, that is no Mary Poppins.” I laughed so hard, I still laugh when I think about it. We both thought the show was pretty good and we enjoyed it. I was happy when near the end of the show JJ walked by me to go up on stage as the MC.
After the show ended we decided to go up to Skywalkers to see how things were up in the disco. There was a small crowd of people up there. We went and sat down in an area where we had the great view the day before. Soon after we arrived the DJ Tony came up to us and said hi. We didn’t think too much of it at first, but soon Tony was spending more time talking to us then he was being a DJ. One funny thing that happened was that Tony had turned on some new fog machines and despite telling the bridge he was going to do it, they were all in a panic thinking Skywalkers was on fire. I dance a bit, but Shannon doesn’t like to dance (who knew?) so she and Tony chatted a bit. Crazy Eurythmic lady was up there and I actually danced with her a bit. Then there was jean girl (a girl wearing tight jeans) who starting freaking me and I decided I didn’t need to dance anymore. Plus it was getting pretty late so Shannon and I decided to leave. We probably stopped at Horizens food court to grab some food – it became a nightly tradition.
The next day we were headed to Ketchikan and our first excursion – Zip lining!
I do have to say the staff was doing everything they could to make the lines go as fast as possible they had people bagging in the self check out lanes – including the store manager – kudos to his great example.
