Friday, January 8, 2016

Friday, January 8, 2016

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2005. We took Mattie to Boston to visit Peter's parents and as you can see there was snow on the ground. Something that intrigued Mattie. Mattie loved to build, walk, and play in the snow and he had a way of encouraging you to play along!




Quote of the day: I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's. ~ Henry Moore

Today we anchored off the shore of the Bahamas. In order to get to shore, the ship's life boats, otherwise known as tenders, were used. Though these are not small boats, from this photo it looks like a little cork in the water. 

Trying to move 3,700 people from our large ship onto tenders and to shore is a logistical nightmare. Fortunately we were planning on staying on the ship today because we were able to secure deck chairs in the ship's sanctuary. In addition, the tenders take you to Princess' private Bahama island and since we have been there before, we did not want to venture ashore. It was the right decision apparently because people were frustrated with the tender service and then once on the private island there were an inordinate amount of flies. Flies everywhere! These flies were so aggressive that they managed to fly all the way out to where the ship was anchored and were flying about the decks!

A view of the Bahamas
from the ship!

We spent part of the day today in the ship's Sanctuary. You need special reservations to stay in the Sanctuary. There are only 50 special deck chairs here and if you stay in the Sanctuary you have access to all kinds of services. Such as high tea! But the wonderful part of the Sanctuary is it is quiet. You don't hear any loud noises such as music, outdoor movies, children running around and the list goes on! However, trying to get a chair in the Sanctuary is virtually impossible! These chairs are assigned on the FIRST day you board the ship. You can't pre-book chairs. So on the first day of the cruise, you literally have to run to the top deck to talk to the Sanctuary staff about getting a chair. Though we were like the sixth group to stand in line for a chair on December 30th, we weren't able to get chairs, accept for the last day of the cruise. This is because passengers who sailed on the prior cruise and remained on the ship for our cruise were able to secure chairs before December 30th. So by the time we got on the line, over 40 chairs were already spoken for. Needless to say, this is one of many things that is stressful about cruising, and you really need to know the little tricks to get your needs met in a crowd of 3,700 people! 

While in the Sanctuary today, we heard and could see osprey
flying over the ship. 

The sun shining on the water made the water look just like glass!

At the end of the day, we saw this lovely Mattie sun slowly dropping into the water. 

The sun setting..... a sight we will remember as we are headed back to DC tomorrow and will be back to the perpetual cold and grey weather.