When we’re at sea, deck 5 is really only the second deck above the water level. Passengers never really see decks 1 through 3, which are engineering, crew quarters, and galley. Deck 4 is the medical centre and tender embarkation, although on Princess they refer to the lifeboat/tenders as “water shuttles”. All of that is to put into perspective that when a wave this morning came to the top of the window beside Ted on deck 5 as he enjoyed his morning coffee, it wasn’t THAT big.

Okay, it was pretty big.

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En route to the destination talk about Lisbon, I walked past one of the morning activities (passengers folding towels!), and got to the theatre just as the morning’s aviation-themed speaker was wrapping up.

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I quickly decided that I’d be catching the destination talk later on our stateroom TV. The ship was just rocking WAY too much for me to be comfortable sitting in the theatre, even medicated. Despite missing the talk in favour of lying down, I managed to rouse myself 90 minutes later to stagger up to deck 16 for a couple of slices of poolside pizza.

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It was breezy and chilly (15°C/59°F) – both of which bizarrely seem to help me feel better – with the servers all wearing jackets, and everyone slip sliding due to the ship’s motion and a slightly damp deck surface. The pool deck on this class of Princess ship cannot be covered, so aside from a couple of folks in the hot tub, it was pretty empty up there. The noon hour ice sculpting demonstration was cancelled; you simply can’t have people wielding sharp tools on an already wet and swaying deck!

One of my favourite things about cruising is getting to meet new people, but that can also be a downside if, like me, you’re not willing to be dismissive or hurtful, and can’t extricate yourself from a very loud, disjointed, one-sided (but good-humoured) “conversation”. The afternoon I’d hoped to spend quietly reading while listening to the live music on deck 5 was instead spent listening to multiple and repeated anecdotes about a slightly older gentleman’s very dysfunctional family and friends. There were moments when I could hear duelling banjos in my imagination. When the gentleman finally paused for a breath, I politely excused myself, having done nothing more than nod and smile during over an hour of non-stop narration. 🙄

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The news in North America today was all about the solar eclipse, with a “path of totality” arcing from Mexico through Texas to the East Coast of Canada. Friends in Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick should all experience complete darkness for a few moments. From our location in the Atlantic, the most we’d be able to view was a 50% shadow, although we expected to notice a distinct darkening of the skies at around 4:40 p.m. I stayed in our room, but Ted ventured up onto Deck 17 to see if he could get a photo, and got two pretty good ones considering our cloudy skies. Total eclipses aren’t all that rare (occurring every 1 to 3 years), but it is rare that one is so clearly visible in North America.

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Eclipsing all of that (groan), today was our 46th anniversary, or – as Ted helpfully reminded me – the 16,802nd day of our married life. We celebrated with dinner in one of Regal Princess’s two speciality dining rooms, the Crown Grill, which specializes in steak. Our Princess Plus package includes two speciality dining meals on this cruise.

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Because it was our anniversary, Princess had a special dessert for us: a chocolate and chocolate mousse mini-cake topped with chocolate glaze, and “boxed” in thin sheets of decadent dark chocolate. Delicious!!

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Piannist John Bressler was tonight’s main-stage entertainment, and he provided a terrific end to our day.

Here’s John’s rendition of Memory, from Cats:

Then it was back to our room to watch the NCAA basketball game (a young Torontonian is making his name at Purdue) while I prepped today’s blog.

Clocks advance again at noon tomorrow.