Thursday May 30 – At Sea

What is the meaning of “Elite”?  Because we have done a number of days cruising with Princess, we are classified as Elite.  This entitles us to having our fridge stocked with alcohol, canapés on formal nights, a certain amount of free internet, first access to the tenders at ports that require this mode of transport and best of all, Princess does all our washing and ironing.  Usually, on a cruise of 2000 people there would be fewer than 100 passengers that are elite.  However, on this cruise, there are 800 elite passengers.  We were told that our washing would take 72 hours to return to us, but we have often found that it is back within 24 hours, despite the huge numbers eligible for the service. Tonight, we were invited to the Captain’s cocktail party.  Once, he used to have these parties in his cabin for the elite passengers.  On this cruise he had four parties with 200 at each and needless to say, these parties were not held in his cabin.

We sailed around Sri Lanka today and had another 25 hour day.  We are now 5 hours behind Melbourne time.

We watched a 1950’s movie, Pillow Talk, with Rock Hudson and Doris Day.  Amazingly, neither of us had ever seen it.  We thought it was very well written and the colour was vibrant.  Quite a risqué movie for its time.

Tonight, we had a comedy vocalist, Dianne Cousins, for our after dinner show.  She was an older woman with a powerful voice but I would have preferred just the vocals without the comedy.

First practice for the choir in the Vista Lounge with us all in our correct places. We also learnt the Viennese Waltz from Josh and Fiona.