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 This is the sunrise around 5:45 this morning. (I wouldn't get a lot of good sunrise pictures since, for a good part of the trip, our room faced west as we cruised northeastbound up the east coast of New Zealand.) Today we'd be at sea all day heading for Hobart, Tasmania. |
 Steve loves to play pickleball, and Teresa and Mei-O play too. They figured in order to get a court (there was one set up on Deck 17), they'd have to show up early. So they did, at a little after 6:00 AM, they found the court empty. It was wet, but they were still able to play a while. In the meantime, I walked around the ship (I stayed nearby at the rear of the ship where the pickleball court was), even went up to Deck 18, one above the pickleball court, and took a few pictures. |
 Pickleball continued for about 1½ hours, then everyone decided we needed to go have breakfast! I only got a picture of my breakfast: smoked salmon, onion, tomato and some cream cheese, to put on a roll (they still didn't have bagels on the buffet line, but these rolls turned out to be really good substitutes), along with a hash brown and some smoked white fish. Most mornings my breakfast was this, and I really enjoyed it. |
 At 10:00, it was time for 45 minutes of zumba on the Piazza (0:24) on Deck 5, but because of the crowd, Mei-O and Teresa joined in (with others eventually joining them) from Deck 6. |
 Back in the room so Mei-O could rest a bit before lunch, I noticed land in the distance. The ship's route would take it south from Melbourne through the Bass Strait to get to Tasmania along this route down the east coast. I don't know if the land was part of Tasmania already or maybe just some island we were passing along the way, but it was interesting to think that we weren't way out at sea far from anywhere. |
 Then it was time for lunch. Along with some kind of beef (a lot of it looked the same, just with a different name each time it was served), the seafood gumbo was pretty. good. Here are some of the other things we had, though I'm pretty sure we had a lot more that I don't have pictures of. I mean, c'mon, this was an all-you-can-eat buffet! |
 So why the picture of the sea? Here's the story. Mei-O and I were sitting out on our balcony when I spotted some dolphins (or porpoises, the Tasman Sea has both) playfully jumping right to left (in the opposite direction the ship was going) in and out of the water. I shouted out to Mei-O and pointed them out to her, then tried to get my camera out to take a video. I clumsily pulled it out of my pocket and quickly started recording, even before I pointed it out to the water resulting in this video (0:05). As I raised my camera to point it to where I thought they were, I accidentally hit the stop recording button. I quickly realized that, and started recording again, getting this video (0:11), but the ship had proceeded forward, and they disappeared behind it out of camera view and out of site. Quite upset with myself, I pointed my camera randomly at the water (0:22) hoping to maybe see some more, but alas, there are no dolphins on any of the clips. But... Mei-O's excitement is (at least for me) proof that we saw them! From then on, whenever I sat out on the balcony or stood looking out over a ship railing at the sea, I had my camera in hand ready to capture some dolphins at play. But, alas, we never saw any again.😢 |
 Before we headed out to see tonight's 45-minute show in the Princess Theater on Deck 7, we took a quick selfie with the boundless sea in the background. As we walked towards the theater in the front of the ship, we stopped to watch some dancers below on Deck 5 on the Piazza, got a cool view of the casino on Deck 6, and took a few pictures of some of the art that would be sold/auctioned during the cruise. |
 If you didn't get to the theater early, it was hard to get good seats, especially, if you're like us, if you want an aisle seat. But we still got an okay view of Nathan Foley, a vocalist, putting on a pretty good show. And if I haven't mentioned it yet, the Princess Show Band that provided the music for all the entertainment every night was just awesome. |
 After the show, we headed to the Symphony Dining Room all the way at the other end of the ship for a late dinner. Here's tonight's menu. Mei-O started with another not-on-the-menu garden salad (different every time!) and followed it with the "Grilled Barramundi", while I started with my favorite French onion soup, then scarfed down the "Tuscan-Style Beef Striploin Steak, Chianti Red Wine Sauce". One of us had this interesting dessert. It all looks so good, but I can't remember whether all this stuff was actually good or not. |
 This is the last picture I took tonight. It's a "Back to the '80s" party up on Deck 16. Since we were up on Deck 16, I assume we were headed for the Horizon Bistro for some post-dinner "snacks", but I don't have any pictures. Then it was off to bed to get a good rest for tomorrow in Hobart, Tasmania. Next Top |
