Weather - partly cloudy, 24°C. Sea conditions, seas slight to rough 1.5m - 2.5m swells, windy but the ride was pretty good really.
The day was spent mainly getting to know our way around the ship. Getting orientated was not as hard as I thought it would be, and although there were 2752 passengers (48 nationalities) most of the public areas did not feel crowded at all. The lifts were a nightmare the first day only, as people were getting lost. After that using the lifts was a breeze.
Cruise Critics has a Meet and Greet in the Skywalkers Lounge at 11am which was well attended by the members and the crew. The Cruise Director spoke and introduced all the officers, who were mixing and mingling with everyone. It was most pleasant, but the Captain did not attend and the nibbles that were being supplied by Princess never appeared and KiwiPete had ask to have the bar opened, so that was a bit disappointing, but did not diminish our enjoyment.
After lunch - in the Savoy - a traditional Pub Lunch, we decided to check out the paintings that were to be auctioned in the Art Auction at 2pm. Can’t say there was much of interest, but we were curious, so decided to attend the auction. We were all given free champagne, and the Auction was started. We thought the total concept was a real ‘crock’ and were totally amazed how people were so taken in and bought pieces, mostly limited edition prints (not that we were told how many prints were in the limited edition runs!) and a small number of originals. But the auction process was a ‘joke’. Certainly not the place I would be buying art work.
5pm saw us open the wine on our balcony, and watch the world go by with Julie and Dave, who have an inside cabin across the hallway. This became the norm each evening before dinner. We decide early on to dine around 6 to 6.30pm each night as the restaurants were reasonably quiet, and by 7 - 7.30pm people were being directed to other restaurants or given pagers, and then wait in one of the lounges. By day 5 we found this worked to our advantage as we could get seats early in the lounges or the theatre for shows after dinner.
After dinner we watched the Champagne Waterfall in the main Atrium. It was interesting as the ship had a bit of a bit of a rock on! Lots of photos were being taken and Capt. Bob Olliver did a welcome speech. The ship was beautifully decorated for Christmas, with most staff wearing Santa hats. Many of the staff really got into the spirit if Christmas, singing and ‘HoHoHo’ing!
General photos of the ship:
General photos of the ship:
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