Sunday, January 26, 2020; Los Angeles to Puerto Vallarta At Sea Day 1
It was sure hard getting out of bed this morning for breakfast, but we managed. Being on the Marina deck, just below the buffet does have it’s disadvantages. During the day, we don’t hear any footsteps above, but every time someone rolls a cart through the buffet, it sounds just like the rumble of a distant thunder storm. We heard it a couple times during the night, but fortunately, it was a rare occurrence. What was more noticeable is a low frequency vibration that makes the glasses on the minibar rattle all night if we didn’t dampen them with the napkins. Fortunately, the bed is comfortable and dampens out that vibration.
We had breakfast in the dining room. Blending Betty’s food and feeding it to her does take a lot longer than just scarfing down breakfast, so we ended up skipping the morning Trivia.
We did do the Bullseye simulator, which is a small room adjacent to the basket ball court with a screen, video projector and PC with a software shooting simulator. They have a shotgun wired to the PC which has the weight of a real shot gun, but no recoil. They take six people into the room at a time, who take turns with the single gun. We each took a calibration shot, and then got to shoot at 10 practice targets and then 10 clay pigeons. The practice targets (grouse and rabbits) are a little easier to hit than the clay pigeons, which soar pretty fast, but Ben managed to get all 10 grouse and 8/10 clay pigeons.
After doing the shooting simulator, we took advantage of being on the sports deck and walked laps to work off some guilt, and then met up with the family and took over Mom duty for a while. We stopped at the International Cafe to start on our coffee cards and sipped espresso drinks while and let Betty watch the Cha-Cha dancing lessons going on in the Piazza. We then met the family and did Mid-Morning Trivia as a team. It was a new quiz for us. We came in second place by one point. We had picked the wrong cathedral in London where Princess Diana and Prince Charles got married. Nobody knew what synthetic fabric was invented by Dupont in 1958.
We then went for lunch in the dining room. Our waiters from the last cruise, Milosh and Mario, recognized us and were both very welcoming, wheeling Betty into the dining room and asking about our kids. We explained that last cruise we brought our kids, but this cruise Betty brought her kids, who were us.
Ben and Janet then gave Betty a shower and put her down for a nap. It seems everyone needed a nap due to the time change and sleep deprivation associated with the early morning flights to get to LA.
Ben and Franklin hit the adults only pool area in the Retreat to soak in the hot tub and swim.
All too soon, it was time to get ready for our first formal evening. We found a spot just outside the Casino to take a family photograph with Ben’s new mirrorless camera, and we had our waiter snap a photo at the dinner table before we got it all messy with food. Surprisingly enough, no professional photographer stopped at our table to offer to take pictures during this formal dinner.
The Princess Theater featured the Production show “Colors of the World” which showcases music dances from around the world. We have seen the show many times. The cast had not changed since when we saw it with our kids over the New Years’ holiday cruise, but the male singers had a better performance tonight. We ended up sitting down on the main floor, a bit too low and close to the stage for our tastes because you couldn’t really see the footwork of the dancers but we could see their facial expressions better.
After Colors of the World, Janet and Ben did a trivia game, teaming up with a young couple from Grand Rapids Michigan and won a bottle of champagne and T-shirts. Meanwhile, David had put Betty to bed, while Franklin had his audition for “Voice of the Ocean”. There were 22 singers auditioning, but only seven were selected by audience voting at the end of the auditions. Franklin was not one of the finalists.
Ben and Janet ran into Franklin at the International Cafe during their late night “Soup” run, and got the low down on the Voice of the Ocean from Franklin. Then it was time to retire.
The demographics on this trip were a bit different than during the holiday season. There were a lot more Canadians on board over the holidays. For this cruise, it seems that 75% are from California, and there are fewer than 20 passengers each from other countries including China, Australia and the UK. The ship is a lot less crowded than it was during the holiday sailing, but there does seem to be more wheel chairs, scooters and walkers. A lot of the passengers from California are taking advantage of last minute fares, which were as low as $500 for an inside stateroom.
Tomorrow is a second full day at sea. We are hoping to see some more fresh trivia games to challenge us.
