Monday, January 27, 2020; At Sea, Los Angeles to Puerto Vallarta Day 2
Franklin and Betty got off to a late start so they had breakfast in the buffet while the rest of us met at 8am in the dining room and then attended the 9am trivia. There was an all new trivia that proved quite challenging. We ended up with a score of 15, while the winning team had 19. There was a disproportionate number of Australian sports related questions- specifically snooker and cricket, which left us at a disadvantage. Did you know what country invented Chinese Checkers? Probably not what you think.
After trivia, Ben hit the fitness center and Janet took a nap. The ship was doing maintenance on the balconies, painting rusty spots and replacing wiring to heat detectors, so we had to keep the curtains drawn. Outside, the weather has brightened up considerably, and for the first time during this cruise the sky was clear and blue. The temperature actually got above 80 degrees outside.
We got everyone together at lunch and then attended the 2PM Beatlemania trivia as a family. This trivia had more detailed questions about the Beatles in addition to the usual name that tune type of question such as who was the inspiration for the song 8 days a week, and what was the secret motivation behind the song Norwegian Wood. We won that trivia, and ended up with matching Princess T-Shirts for the whole family.
We ended up sticking around for the 4PM general trivia, which was in the same venue. This was another new trivia, which was a welcome challenge. It turned out to be pretty tough. We scored 12/20 while 3 teams managed to tie with 13/20. Which fruit has more genes than a human- tomato, grapefruit, banana or orange? What is the name of the little dot above a lower case i or j? All three teams had the same answer for the tie breaker which was Which network show was the first to show an inter-racial kiss on TV? The host ended up giving away 18 wine bottle stoppers to the 3 teams for that.
Janet and Ben got to enjoy a specialty dinner at the Crown Grill, compliments of Princess Cruises CEO Jan Schwarz. Ben had emailed her with comments regarding the direction of the Princess fleet because they had announced that following completion of the Royal Class of ships, a whole new generation of ships was in development, and that they would be the largest ships on the sea. Ben was concerned that restricting the fleet to commodity mega ships would not be an effective pathway to a profitable future with all the cruise lines cranking out mega ships for the rapidly saturating Caribbean and Mediterranean markets. He was hoping Princess would work on diversifying their fleet with smaller more luxurious and more special purpose ships, including expedition class ships to serve destinations like Antarctica and the Galapagos. Viking has recently announced two expedition class ships for that purpose, and they will certainly be high profit margin ships. As a token for their appreciation of our input, they gave us free specialty dining vouchers for this trip. We had an excellent meal. Janet had a Fillet Mignon and Ben had a delicious Beef chop, which is a rib eye steak still attached to the bone. The steak house sides were quite good- portobello mushrooms, garlic fries and grilled asparagus. Even the creamed spinach was delicious.
Janet went to the comedian Carlos Oscar, whom we had seen on the earlier cruise, but Janet had slept through most, if not all of that act. It was standing room only for the early show, and Ben was falling into a meat coma from the Steakhouse dinner and martini, so he retired to the room for a nap. Janet reported that it was indeed the same show, but it was funnier because she was awake this time.
After the comedian’s show, we went up on deck to watch the Movies under the Stars, which was going to show Jo Jo Rabbit, a movie nominated for this year’s Academy Awards for best picture. It is directed by a Maori who has made quite a name for himself with quirky and funny movies. This one features a young antagonist who is an aspiring Hitler Youth, whose imaginary friend is a hilarious version of Adolf Hitler. We ran into Franklin who was going to do the Discovery Star watch program at 10PM, which was going to start about 20 minutes after the movie started. When we got up on deck the water fountain show was still going on- something we have managed to miss entirely on most of our Royal class cruises. This one featured James Bond themes and was elaborately produced with sequences on the Jumbotron screen that looked like real James Bond opening sequences, but shot with Princess Production dancers in silhouette.
We started watching the movie, but found that it was too hard for Janet to follow the dialog because it wasn’t loud enough, and there were no subtitles. We usually prefer to watch movies at home with subtitles on. We’ll definitely watch the rest of the movie in a venue with subtitles, because what we saw in the early part of the movie was quite funny and innovative. We ended up joining Franklin to check out the star program. When we got there, we found Dave in line as well, but there was a huge turn out. They use audio headsets to provide the narration, and get everyone up on the top of the sports deck. Then they turn out the lights on the back of the ship so that the stars can be seen. They are quite nice but the exhaust plume from the ship’s stacks obstruct about 25% of the sky, and coming from a rural area, we can see the stars just as well from our yard when the sky is clear. The program was very brief and provided a cursory introduction to the night sky. We imagine it would wow people from Los Angeles who have never seen stars in the sky, but I guess we really haven’t missed out on much by not having done it on any of our earlier cruises.
It would be interesting to do a total solar eclipse cruise at some point in the future. We had looked into possibly booking next year’s total solar eclipse off the coast of the southern tip of South America, but it would conflict with our plans to do a Christmas cruise with the kids next year.
Coming back from the sports deck, we took a swing through the buffet to wind up the night with some fruit before bedtime.
The captain did come on the overhead speakers earlier in the day. That usually isn’t a good thing. He announced that there was a medical emergency on board, and that the ship was now moving at flank speed towards Puerto Vallarta so that it can conduct a medical evacuation. It is fortunate that because of where we were, the only alternative was to go faster to our original port of call and arrive a few hours earlier. Usually these evacuations mess up itineraries. I guess it’s a good thing that good quality medical care in Mexico can only be found in tourist centers. So we will arrive early tomorrow morning and disembark the medical emergency, but will still have to wait for regular hours for customs and immigrations to clear the rest of the ship for disembarkation. This is the port of call where you can see the Walmart from the bow of the ship. We don’t have any excursions booked, and will most likely just see what we can see while pushing Betty around in her wheel chair. There are no wheelchair compatible excursions on this itinerary, which is quite a contrast to the Alaska cruises where wheel chair compatible excursions at all ports of call is the rule.
