Day 3 at sea

After our lovely day at Princess Cays, we went back to the ship, enjoying a great meal in the Michelangelo dining room, and going to the Princess Theater for a great show. As night fell, however, the seas got really rough, and our sleep was serenaded by huge groaning sounds below our cabin. The ship rocked and rolled and groaned all night and into the next day. All day Tuesday the skies were stormy and we watched waves that were classified as "rough seas" according to the ship log on the tv in our cabin. In fact, the seas were so rough that all the water sloshed out of the swimming pools and they closed them down. The photo on the left here shows what a fully booked cruise ship can look like on a rough sea day. Not a soul in sight! Everyone was inside, enjoying spa treatments, shopping, eating, and casino fun. We had most of the outside decks completely to ourselves.

By evening, when it didn't get any better,they canceled the show that involved dancing by the Princess Dancers and substituted a comedy show instead. Turned out great, actually, because the comedian was hysterical. It felt great to laugh so hard that my cheeks hurt. He was truly funny, and without being one bit dirty either. It was so much fun.

As any cruiser knows, it takes almost the entire length of the cruise just to find your way around the ship. On this day we discovered that the hallway outside our stateroom led to one of our favorite little places to hang out on the ship, the International Cafe on the edge of the central part of the ship called the Piazza. Our cabin was on deck 5, toward midship, and that turned out to be really handy. Lots of activity centers around this area, and the spiral staircases wind up 2 more floors to the Promenade deck 7 where there are more shops and bars and restaurants.

This little cafe, however, was a nice place to be, especially since the seas outside were so rough. I'm glad I finally decided to put on my patch. Last night I tried half and this morning I added the second half. Now I don't have to fight that seasick thing all the time. I had a great cappuccino, a pretty one with lovely swirls in the foam, and some kind of delectable chocolate dessert. Across from our little table, the chefs did some demonstrations of ice and vegetable carving. Hmmm, so when I get home I will create cute monkeys from pineapples? Maybe not. LOL.

We spent a few minutes on the internet, which isn't cheap on board, and not always a reliable connection. They have packages, and I settled for one that gave me 100 minutes for 55 bucks, but it was amazing how fast that went. Not sure it is really worth it, but having my own laptop was much nicer than trying to use the Internet Cafe across the piazza which was almost always very busy.

All in all, it was a nice day,with time to actually relax a bit and explore the ship. The Crown Princess is huge, and has many levels, and we discovered, many steps and hidden nooks. It isn't quite as straightforward as the RC ships we have been on in the past. In order to really get around, you have to be willing to do a lot of climbing. Especially when my favorite place on board was usually the very top of the ship on the Sun Deck number 19 I think. It was fine for us, but we thought about people we know who might not like all that stair climbing.