Last night’s production show was especially more exhilarated as it is their last performance on this ship and everyone gave them a standing ovation… P was able to snap a selfie with them as they line up to say goodbye at the exit..
We really appreciate every single crew and entertainer on this ship doing their best to make this cruise magical
The risk of piracy…. Horn of Africa is considered as high risk area for piracy… But someone in the know told us that pirates had no interest capturing cruise ships since they do not want to be in charge of feeding so many people 😆… They rather deal with cargo ships… That surely makes us feel very safe… So the eating goes on since it is our biggest defense against piracy.
A passenger on the ship drew pictures and put a limerick/poem at the back and send it to the cruise director who shares it with us almost daily…. Cheers to creativity!!
Woke up to this gloriousness….
The ship is turning southwest towards Cape Town…we had circumvented half of the globe now, but few stops on this 1st half with many sea days…. The second half will be different, once we hit the Mediterranean it will be port stops almost every day, we will be yearning for sea days in between just to give ourselves room to digest what we had experience….
We got a new captain in Mauritius, the old captain’s contract is up…kind of miss the old Captain Cataldi who is from Italy…. He is relatively young and we always see him around, at the plaza or the buffet, very unassuming and amicable…
I am sure the new captain Paul Slight from Wale is going to be great as well…. Princess hires amazing people who always seem to enjoy work and make sure passengers had a great time…
Speaking of that, Ladies and Gentlemen.. The King is alive!! Elvis is in the building 😎…..tonight’s performance at the theater is by a talented young man name Dan Middleditch whose rendition of Elvis and his songs is spot on, his charisma and energy mirrors Elvis’s and he brings the house down…. I actually saw him at the buffet this morning saying hello to everyone and thought why is Elvis at the morning buffet, am I awake ?!
After 7 sea days across the Indian ocean, we are excited to be on solid ground today. … Because after this, 5 more sea days…
We decided to take it very easy, not join any excursions, just be on our own and explore….
First stop is a beach called Mont Choisy…. There are many beaches but our taxi driver helped us pick one and it’s a beautiful one…. Not too commercial not too touristy
People here mostly speaks French and then English… Lots of soft spoken people and a lot of Indian, Chinese and creole influence… When we pulled in the Port we were surprised to see many Taiwanese fishing boats at the harbor flying Taiwanese flag! Apparently Mauritius is an important international seaport base for Taiwan… Traffic is very congested in the city area
Fresh seafood meal and mojito for lunch….. There are many sugar plantation on the island and the major ingredient of Mojito is rum which is made from sugar molasses… Thus mojito is big here
We checked out their central market and lots of fruits look familiar….. Love how they carve mini pineapples that are palm size into a swirl
Now we cannot visit Mauritius without mentioning the dodo bird… It went extinct since 1681 due to over harvestation but somehow the memory of these adorable birds lives on and grew strong…. Now it’s the national mascot and ambassadors of Mauritius… In the city, almost Every where you turn there’s either a statue of it or a merchandise of it….
Goodbye Mauritius…
Thankfully no cabin fevers yet…. How can one get bored when nature puts out spectacular shows daily …
We managed to know 45 fellow passengers name out of around 2000 on day 41…already a record for us and for someone who are both really not very sociable… Cant help to seek comradity and connections with others, after all we are “on the same boat”!!… That said. So today is especially ” chatty” for us. In the morning, ran into Tiara ( one of the amazing resident singer on the production show), thanking her for her great performance.. And later chat with our cabin attendant Grandeur from Philippines about bats (apparently our encounter with one the other day excites him), and then while we are at the stairs we met Grant the Royal butler from England that we mentioned from 3 days ago and chat even more, from his busy schedules to the Queen’s coogis, and then while we are at the excursion desk, Jessica the amazing ship destination expert (she’s from Australia) praise the shirt P bought in Figi… And all these before lunch and they are either crew or entertainers… We did not even add in fellow passengers that we ran in and talk to and wave to….. Cruise ship living put you into a special laboratory situation where you can experiment with different sides of you. Super fun!
In order to keep us busy, many activities has been arranged and R had selected to do ukelele and flash mob dance practices and performance, yes, they want to schedule performances for everything you learn on ship… Many hours were spent on rehearsing and practice…. Although quite exhausting but fun for sure…..we need a vacation from our vacation….
Looks like we passed through stormy seas and the sun and humidity is out in full force
And then we were told that we might cross path with space debris within the next 24 hours… How exciting 😜
Some fun things going on in the ship
One of the enrichment class today is a talk by a Former Butler to King Charles III…. Heard he is also going to do classes on etiquettes…. Someone asks him what is a day like in the royal palace and he said it’s kind of like on the ship.. Preparations for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and midnight supper 😆…. We really felt treated like royalties on Princess Cruises
Another sea day… Nothing much to share, only the spectacular show put up by the horizon.. So here’s more pics of sun and moon and clouds
“I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at ALL”
… Joni Mitchell
Meanwhile someone is having a little fun with deck towels
There’s a new enrichment talk by a Captain Chris Rigby and he had 10 sessions prepared to talk about the history of Aviation…. Great presentations!! Today’s topic is his analysis on what he thinks happened to flight MH370…. Cant wait…
Almost full moon again…
Below are two shots from today at the same time
Moon rise on the right of the balcony