Jan
1
New Year’s at Sea
Filed Under Panama Canal 2009
8:46PM
At Sea, along the northern coast of Colombia
Happy New Year! What a packed 24 hours it has been. Yesterday, on New Year’s Eve, I spent the day taking it easy. I attended a couple of trivia sessions, including one where my team won baseball caps. Good prize as I forgot to bring a hat with me. I spent yet another afternoon sunning before retuning to the room to shower and dress for our second formal evening. Just as in Alaska, Dad rented a tux from the ship for his formal wear. Before dinner, we attended a special cocktail event for members of the Princess Captain’s Circle, passengers who have completed more than one cruise with Princess. Free cocktails were handed out while the band played music. After awhile, Mariano Manfuso, the captain of our ship, spoke greetings to us. Then the top three most-traveled passengers were recognized. Number one was a couple who is currently on their 49th cruise with Princess for a total of over 560 days at sea! Crazy. At dinner, we requested a small six-person table so we could have a more intimate conversation with whomever we sat with. Two women from Canada joined us, and we all enjoyed an excellent New Year’s Eve dinner.
The evening entertainment featured a woman who spent her career on and off Broadway. She presented songs by famous women, including Tina Turner, Patsy Cline, and yes, even Celine Dion’s “Titanic” ballad. I thought I might puke when she announced that last one, but the live band had a nice arrangement that wasn’t so cheesy. We still had three hours to kill before ringing in the New Year, so we went back to our stateroom to relax. We were surprised to find a bottle of champagne in ice and two trays of assorted cheeses greeting us. Earlier in the day, our toliet leaked a few times, and it didn’t leak just clean water. It stunk. So our steward and a maintenance person had to come take care of the mess and finally fix it. The steward and his boss apparently schemed and left this surprise as a way of making up for the inconvenience. I suppose it doesn’t hurt that Warlie, our steward, and his boss are both Filipino, but all of the crew on board are very accommodating and always in pleasant moods. I can never fully describe how funny they can be too. So, we killed time with some bubbly, tasty cheese, and TV.
Around 11:30, we headed for the Universe Lounge, located in the aft of the ship, to check out the big band scene. Balloons were everywhere on the floor, and more were stored on the balcony level to surely be released at midnight. After peeking in, we went up to the pool area on top where the majority of people were gathered. A live band was playing music, hats and noise makers were being handed out, champagne was being sold, and excitement was in the air. Father Time and Baby New Year were making the rounds together. A projection screen was set up which displayed the time (EST) and countdown. At ten seconds to midnight, the captain led us in counting down, and at zero the ship blasted its horn! An exciting touch as we sailed through the darkness. Everyone went crazy and blew their noisemakers, a few kids jumped fully clothed into the pool, and the band struck up “Auld Lang Syne.” After taking it all in, we headed to bed. However, our cruise director informed us today that the party up top lasted until 3am, and the dance floor below wrapped things up around 4:30 this morning. Uff da! Me, I was up at 6:15 to catch the beginning of our trip through the Panama Canal!
I’ll upload more photos to Flickr at a later time.
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Kat – You sure are diligent in sharing your trip. We did the canal trip some years ago when I retired. A long 2o day September of Hollandd American repositioning from Vancouver to Florida. It rained during our passage through the canal. We returned from Anchorage where we spent Christmas with our daughter’s family. Enjoy the rest of your cruise and enjoy the new year. – Paul
Hi Katherine! Oh my goodness, your cruise sounds like something out of a movie – even the “stinky toilet scene”!! We’ve been following your trip and we’re glad you’re having a good time. Your description of the Titanic song “I thought I’d puke” cracked me up – you’re so elegant in your command of the English language!! However, you’re SUPPOSED to have a shipboard romance – ditch the folks!! D&L
Paul, you’ll have to transit the canal again someday and hope for better weather. We were lucky to have sun!
Laurie, HAH HAH on the shipboard romance.