Life on the Sun (Princess that is)

Life on the Sun Princess is sweet. First thing on my agenda each morning, after waking up, was walking on the deck for an hour. Here I rubbed elbows with the other "walkers" all of us trying to make up for the desserts that we had the day before. An hour of quick walking on the Promenade Deck equals about 3 miles. Some folks go to the gym everyday, but I liked being in the great outdoors where I could see and feel the ocean "up close" and perhaps catch sight of a whale or flying fish or maybe an albatross!

After my walk, it was time to clean up and go up to breakfast on the Lido Deck in the Horizon Court Buffet. Here I was greeted with thousands of choices to tempt me from my regime. I was successful in savoring fresh melon, pineapple and yummy yogurt each morning for breakfast. Other folks were leaving the buffet line with hand crafted omelets, heaps of bacon and piles of hash browns, while some stuck to cereal. No matter what you wanted, it was in the breakfast buffet.

After breakfast came the decision of what to do for the next two hours before the next "feeding" at lunch. The ship was filled with possibilities ranging from ballroom dance, bridge, golf, lectures, cooking demonstrations, bingo, crafts, to reading, embroidery, to that old standby of sitting on the pool deck enjoying the sun or swimming laps, to soaking in the hot tub...and so much more. There was also the possibility of just "loafing" as one passenger called it. She enjoyed sitting and looking at the folks and talking to people.

Some folks enjoyed a game of Trivia which seemed to be available three times a day. What started out as a minor game, became very tense after 30 days onboard the ship. The prizes were monumental too. For each winning segment, a coupon was given to the first place team. When ten coupons were won, they could be traded in for key rings or caps. I don't think they played for the prize as much as for the fun of it.

We were usually found in the Princess Theater where the lecturers "performed." Each sea day the 5 lecturers traded times to talk about their various topics. Chet was surprised by the following he had...about 400-500 passengers came to his lectures each day.

The lectures were a great way to meet people on the ship. Sometimes we would form dinner groups and continue talking through dinner an beyond.

After a hard morning of lectures or play, it was time for lunch. We had a choice of going to a formal lunch or back to the Horizon Court Buffet. We chose the buffet again. My lunch was simple, salad and a dessert. If I planned to fit into my clothes, I needed to eat stuff that was going to be good for me and not too fattening. As with breakfast, the luncheon bar was wonderful too. Late in the cruise we discovered that hamburgers were made on the poolside deck, so we had burgers a couple of days.

In the afternoon, we had to make more choices as to what we wanted to do. The morning choices were still available and usually a few other "things" popped up to spend our time. Life was never boring. Oftentimes we read or I would work on my pictures as I was determined to learn how to use Photoshop Elements better.

At 3:30 the dessert bar opened on the Horizon Court Buffet and if we were in the mood for more food, we often made the "arduous" trek to the elevator that took us to the 14th deck for fresh cookies, home-made ice cream and lots of other delights.

Then came cocktail time...then dinner. We always had dinner in a formal dining room where Alberto, our Head Waiter, made sure we were fed well (as if we had not been fed all day). Again, the choices were always good, but after a few days of 5 course meals, I decided that maybe 3 courses were enough...as long as one of the courses was dessert.

Dessert on a cruise ship is always a treat and the Sun Princess desserts were not an exception to that rule. I soon remembered that Princess' chefs made an excellent souffle, so every time souffle was on the menu, I had one...and 2 times when it was not on the menu, I had one. Alberto is a good head waiter!

After dinner came evening entertainment. Again, there was a range of choices from gambling at the casino to dancing, to live entertainment or viewing a recently released movie in one of the theaters or having after-dinner cocktails with your new friends. If there was live entertainment, I was there, so most of the time you would find me enjoying the dancers, singers, comedians, and magicians. The ship's dancers and singers were quite good too.

After the entertainment, there was still time to dance or talk or walk outside on the Promenade Deck...and there were always little cozy places where you could sit back and listen to the music. There's always music somewhere. I particularly enjoyed the pianists who played every afternoon and evening.

Finally, after a long, hard day of serious leisure and wonderful food, it was time to turn in and be rocked to sleep by the Pacific...and get ready to start another day on the Sun. Life is good on a cruise.

Then, all of a sudden reality hits...and we have to disembark the ship and leave our sheltered little cocoon! No longer are we rocked to sleep at night in the arms of the ocean; no longer do we have breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner at our beck and call; our own steward, Fernando, does not keep our cabin tidy; no longer does Alberto see after our every dining need. We are on our own...and that is where we are right now. We are "on our own" in Sydney, Australia. We are coping with "real life" as there are many things to do in Sydney. On the otherhand, we are also counting the days until we board the Pacific Princess in Tahiti in mid-December to start the decadence all over again!