Two Sea Days

One of the best parts of cruising are sea days.  That past two days have been filled with sun, mid 80 temperatures and smooth seas.  We can sleep in as late as we want.  There are no death marches and we have a chance to meet and talk with so many new people.

There was only one task that needed to be accomplished.  Since we had $950 of shipboard credit and nothing to spend it on, we needed to withdraw it from the casino.  Usually, we go to the slot machines and charge money to our cruise card to play the games.  Then we withdraw the money back to our card, and cash out.  This way we can get all of our cruise credits back in cash and into our pockets.

On Australian cruises they only have penny slots. We have spent two evenings, following dinner and two shows, going to the casino.  For 30 minutes Rose, Suzie, John, and I have laughed and had such fun playing the penny slots.  It is such a stupid game that it makes you laugh.  There is no reasoning of why you win.  The many paths to win are totally unknown.  The machine just makes noise and you win.  We would win a little and lose a little.  At least we have the common sense to quit after a few dollar losses. the fun we had was worth a $3 loss and we accomplished what we wanted to do.  We withdraw about $300 each evening.

John is more than half way through reading his first book.he is truly enjoying sitting in the horizon, drinking tea and reading.  I meet up with him for lunch and then it's back to his reading and I'm back to being in the sun or pool.  I hate to say it but the sun is so hot that I'm having difficulty laying out in the sun for more,than a half hour.  Most of my time is in the pool talking with the Australians.

The heat and humidity is unbelievable. It makes the weather in Florida during the summer seem cool.

On our second sea day we decided we needed to practice our snorkeling for the Great Barrier Reef and the Papua New Guinea Islands. With all our gear the four of us headed to the pool by the spa. When we arrived the pool was wall to wall with adults. Slowly John put on his gear and got into the pool. The pool was silent and all eyes were on him.  Everyone was so happy when he was successful at snorkeling. Then most people left so there was more room for all of us to give it a try. Everyone was very successful right from the start but me. My mask wasn't tightly fitted so water came in. After some adjustment, I'm able to do it. We had a great time talking to the Australians in the pool. 

It has been great the past two days.  The food and entertainment has been so enjoyable. Things are different on this ship compared to others. The refurbishment of the ship has made us believe that this is one of the nicest of all of the Princess small ships.  The best part are the new luxury mattresses. The beds are actually better than our bed at home.  Maybe we are just exhausted from all the death marches that any bed would feel good.