After three days on land in New Zealand, it was time to return to the water, with three sea days before we arrive in Sydney. Thus far, the sea days have been a mixture of some really interesting activities – trivia, shows, lectures – and some that are entirely skippable – carpet bowling, bingo, and something called “fab abs”. Overall, we have found plenty to keep us occupied, even if that simply means sitting on our balcony and reading. I have already finished three books on our vacation, and I am well into my fourth. With seventeen hours in the air ahead of us, I am very glad that I filled my Kindle with library books before we left New York. With no early shore excursions, we appreciated the opportunity to sleep in, then grabbed our traditional buffet breakfast and wandered down to the Cabaret Lounge for our first activity of the day.
In the Lounge, we found the main restaurant maître d and executive chef hosting a cooking class, where they demonstrated how to prepare pasta with a spicy sauce, pan seared scallops, and black forest cake. Everything looked – and smelled! – quite good, and the pair of hosts had some pretty funny banter that kept things entertaining. I was most looking forward to the last part of the activity, when the restaurant staff took us on a tour of the galley. I had participated in a galley tour on a previous cruise with Disney, and I find the behind-the-scenes activities to be very interesting, especially on longer cruises. On the Ocean Princess, the gallery is actually comprised of two levels, with a staircase for going down, and an escalator to take you back up. We saw the areas for preparing baked goods, sandwiches, vegetables, meats, fish, beverages, etc., and we were happy to see Chester, our assistant waiter in the main restaurant, showing guests around. After more than two weeks on the ship, we have grown very fond of many of the crew members.
Today’s specialty lunch in the Panoramic Buffet was Mexican, which sounded better than its execution. Unlike California or Texas, New York is not known for its Mexican food, but we do have a few local spots in Brooklyn that we quite enjoy. This buffet was a little soggy and underwhelming. Oh well. After giving our food some time to settle, Ann Taylor and I burned off some of the chips and guacamole in the gym, and then took the early afternoon off to relax in the room. Later, we made our way back to the Cabaret Lounge, where we saw the Ocean Princess singers and dancers in another behind-the-scenes activity. They told us about the audition process, their contract length (six months!), learning their routines in Los Angeles, and all of the other cruise activities that they lead. Without another dedicated set of staff on the small ship, the Ocean Princess dancers are also responsible for running trivia, karaoke, and a host of other events around the ship. It sounds especially tiring, but most of the dancers are in their early 20s, so they have great energy levels.
After lunch was a miss, Ann Taylor and I were looking forward to dinner, and the main restaurant did not disappoint. They offered a strawberry sorbet to cleanse the palette between the appetizers and main course, and Ann Taylor enjoyed it so much that she politely asked for another four scoops for dessert! After this morning’s cooking course, I ordered – and thoroughly enjoyed – the seared scallops, and found the pine-orange sorbet to be a very refreshing dessert. We continued to catch up with the Canadian couple at our table, and it is strange to think that we will only share a few more dinners before we each head our separate ways. They will be spending another two weeks in Hawaii after the cruise, while Ann Taylor and I will need to return to the real world. We still have another three decades or so before we will be able to take multi-month vacations.
Speaking of Canadians, this evening’s performer was a comedian from Toronto, and he was easily the funniest comic that we have seen on the ship. Again, the bar for “funniest comic” has been rather low, but we both laughed out loud at a few of his jokes. Half of our entertainment continues to be watching the reaction of the audience. I also realized tonight that between the Disney Cruise comedians, who aim for a younger crowd, and the Ocean Princess comedians, who aim much older, I have yet to be part of the target audience for a cruise ship comedian. Perhaps I should take better advantage of the comedians in New York when we return home. With tonight’s trivia focused on sharks – yes, seriously – and no karaoke, we made our way back to the room and set our clocks backward one hour for the overnight time zone change. We will do the same overnight from tomorrow to Friday, as we reach local time in Sydney, which is currently nine hours behind (or fifteen hours ahead) of New York. It will certainly take some time to readjust when we return home, but we are very appreciative of the relaxation offered by three sea days, which are very much helping to keep us well-rested for that transition.