Lesson Learned - Life on Board (sea days)

Your daily life on board is made up of several main factors that impact the success of your cruise:

• what you do,

• who you spend time with

• where you "live"

• Your attitude

Below, I've tried to address the top three and the benefit of packages. Your attitude, however, is between you and you. It is a choice, everyday, whether you find things to complain about (it ain't hard) or you look on the bright side. Not preaching, just sayin'....

What You Do

We are creatures of habit and so it shouldn't be surprising that even on a cruise, we fall into a routine. Knowing this and being fairly certain I wouldn't be the exception, I was very intent the first week or so to try as much as I could before I "settled in" on what my routine would be. And I would recommend that to you. A cruise like this is an exceptional opportunity to try new things, develop new skills, become a new and improved version of yourself. So read the daily patter that lists all there is to do. There are art classes, seminars, port talks, game "clubs", poker tournaments, ping pong, pickleball, quizzes, Bible studies and more. This list is extensive.

If you dont see one you like, work with the cruise director to create one. There are many passenger-lead activities, like morning tai kwan do and walking groups. Several retired teachers assisted a mom homeschooling her 3 children. That was a win-win-win. My wife dabbled in water colors, a medium she hadn't tried before and really liked it. So much easier to work with than oils and cleanup is a breeze. Here are a few of her paintings.

But I'm ahead of myself. The day naturally breaks itself into 3 parts, after breakfast, after lunch and after dinner. For me, after breakfast was set aside for "me" time. I worked at my consulting practice quite a bit in the mornings but I also read, exercised and penned my blogs from the prior day. The afternoons were social time including cards with friends, gambling at the casino, and hanging out on the Lido deck enjoying the entertainment and a drink (or 2 or 3). The evening entertainment was split between the theater, the bars and the casino. Regarding the Evening Entertainment , there have been about a dozen shows I would classify as spectacular. All the folkloric shows that had dancing, singing and costumes (4-6), acrobats (2), singers (2-3) and instrumentals (2-3). With only 2 exceptions, the remainder were good, including a few magicians, a few comedians, a few ventriloquists and a few impersonators. The 2 exceptions on the negative side would be that

• none of the production shows were spectacular and there were very few shows in total. Not even 1 per week, and a couple were repeats so we skipped. That was candidly disappointing. We used to really look forward to the production shows on other cruises.

• And there were 2 middle eastern style folkloric shows that were just chanting. I'm sure they were authentic and I'm sure they were performed well, but there were no explanations of the art form and so it was difficult to appreciate something so foreign to us.

If you frequent the 7:30 show, get there at 7. It gets crowded quickly. The 9:30 show is rarely full.

Who You Spend Time With

There are 2000 people on board who are potentially your new best friend. They have a wealth of knowledge to share about everything and anything. Don't just settle (leave it to chance) for who you get matched up with in the dining room. Though that's one good way to meet new people, it's completely random.

"Make a list and make it happen", is a phrase I coined years ago. It's true here as well. The Facebook page is a wonderful way to find others with similar or new interests. For example, I'm a woodworker enthusiast. I have a little Etsy site and actually sell quite a bit thru it. But my type of woodworking focuses on rustic, refurbished, repurposed and reimagined pieces. For example, here's a garage-sale-find bed frame I turned into a hall bench (before it was painted).

My biggest seller is a tic tac toe toilet paper holder. Don't judge 😉

So I put out a request on the Facebook 2023 WC page for other woodworkers to get together and share their experience and talent. Several guys and one woman met several times to discuss everything from fine woodworking (Bill's expertise) to knives with wood handles (Gary's specialty). We discussed table leg joint options and sliding barn doors, wood turning and selecting the right wood. I learned A LOT. I think they did too. The point is, branch out.....you literally have nothing to lose.

We also put out a request for others who play Hand & Foot, our favorite card game. We found several couples who loved the game as well and even a couple who wanted to learn. That couple, Scott and Anita, have turned out to be our best friends on board. We do a lot of dinners and excursions together and of course, play cards most afternoons. We also learned a few new card games from other folks around the ship.

Packages

The packages you buy will impact how you spend your time on board. Internet packages, drink packages, dessert packages, spa packages, and more. Princess provides many ways for you to spend your money. But here's what I learned. While the packages are overpriced, we're glad we got a couple of them. The drink package is a great example. We're not big drinkers. But when we felt like a drink, it was nice to just order it without the "cha-ching" factor of a la carte pricing. Otherwise I wouldn't have ordered an $18 glass of $7-wine simply on principle. The other benefit is very few charges hitting our folio, so it was easy to manage. On a 111 day cruise, you should check your folio weekly at a minimum. Otherwise you forget what you had to be able to dispute it. We had countless erroneous drink charges on our folio, both drinks we legitimately ordered AND ones we didn't. The package made it easy to fix. They simply had to remove any and all drink charges.

Also, regarding packages, know what's in your package. Our drink package highlights that you're entitled to as many as 15 alcoholic drinks per day valued up to $18 each. But we found out it also includes specialty coffee (mocha Frappuccino skinny latte double frothy, etc). It also includes 8 bottled waters/day delivered to the room (including Perrier), it includes milkshakes at the ice cream bar. It does NOT include custom blended vegetable/fruit juices except fresh sqeezed orange juice. So it's a lot more than you think.

Making a house a home

We really didn't bring anything to make our cabin feel like home. That was a mistake. The walls are metal so you can use magnets to display pictures, calendars and maps. One guy had a 3x5 ft map of the world on the wall that he used to track the ship's progress. The door is also metal so you can decorate both sides. Some people re-decorated their door at each holiday or major event. Here are some favorites from an earlier post.

So in summary, this is your home for 4 months. Take time to settle into a schedule, decide which packages will make your adventure more worthwhile, branch out, find people who make you happy, make your stateroom homey, order the bathrobes, bring pics of the grandchildren, laugh loud and often, stay out late, sleep in, take naps, order room service (it's free too), try new things, order the extra drink, eat dessert first and have the time of your life.