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We were all hopeful that we were on the downside of COVID-19. The Delta variant was waning, more people were getting vaccinated, normal life was resuming. I was even able to spend a week on a cruise ship.
Then the Omicron variant of COVID-19 erupted.
Just in time for Christmas.
Waiting for my second flight at DFW
But I had already made plans for Christmas – Dec 22 to 25 with Jett’s siblings in Austin, then fly back early on Christmas Day to have dinner with my sons in Ft Myers. It was a risk to travel, but as I am fully vaccinated, I judged that the risk was minimal. So on Dec 22 I flew to Austin via Dallas/Ft Worth. The flights were smooth and, more importantly, on time. While people were pretty good about wearing the requisite face masks on the plane and in the airports, social distancing was practically impossible – there were a LOT of people traveling. Both planes were nearly 100% full.
Unloading bags at DFW
This had nothing to do with COVID, but I was amazed by the number of ground crew who were involved in unloading the baggage at DFW: 7 (you can see only 5 in the photo – 2 more were out of frame to the right). Because DFW is such a huge hub for American Airlines, bags for passengers changing planes had to be distributed to 4 different terminals. I think this used to be done “automatically” by a very complex system that never worked right. I think they have given up and the sorting is now done manually as the bags are unloaded from the plane. A failure of technology remedied by hiring more humans. The Luddites would love it.
I arrived 20 minutes early, but sister-in-law Christine was there to meet me. We spent the afternoon shopping and having lunch before heading back to the Austin airport to collect brother-in-law Ray and his wife Kim who were flying in from Boston. They, too, were a few minutes early and rush hour traffic into the airport was horrendous, but the timing worked out perfectly as Ray and Kim reached the curb just as we pulled up.
While air travel during Omicron was indisputably risky, the airlines performed well. If we don’t get infected while in Austin then our Christmas journeys can end happily.
On Tuesday this week a cold front came through Ft Myers. It didn’t get a lot colder, but the front produced some bodacious winds. The forecast was for “gusts to 40 mph” but I am sure the gusts were much stronger than that – my estimate is 60 mph. Enough to rock the RV. I had to pull the awning all the way in. There was even a tornado watch and some reports of a minimal tornado touching down in Ft Myers south of me. But I never got a tornado warning.
Yellow hibiscus
What I did get was some incredible cloud formations and a beautiful sunset. The best one is above, but there were others. A nice reward for enduring a nasty day.
I am going to throw in a photo of a yellow hibiscus that I took a day earlier. Not a perfect picture as it was overcast that day, but the yellow is still vivid.
When the exploding tire took out the right rear quarter panel, I knew that repairing it would be difficult as the truck is 17 years old and parts are difficult to obtain. The GMC dealer in August told me that just one part was available in the US – in Nebraska.
Well, that part is no longer available. Attempts to locate even used parts have been unsuccessful, as have attempts to locate an entire replacement bed. The Geico-approved repair shop told me yesterday that they were unable to repair the damage and I should talk to Geico to see if they would total the truck.
I am not quite prepared to do that yet, but that option is looming large. I don’t know what I would be offered if the truck was totaled – probably around $10K. Even a used truck will cost me over $30K so I am looking at spending around $20K that I really don’t want to spend. But other options – like coming off the road – don’t appeal to me very much.
I think once Christmas is past then solving this particular problem will be #1 on my To Do list.
Meanwhile, the truck’s A/C has failed and it seems to have sprung a slow leak in the power steering. I don’t think either problem will be difficult or expensive to repair but I canceled the scheduled repair work because why put money into a truck that may have to be totaled? But those problems increase the urgency of solving the overall Truck Problem.
Carl and I joined Bobbi and Patricia for breakfast for a final time together, followed by some goodbye hugs. Then we waited for our color (Gold-5) to be called. And waited. And waited. Seems there was a problem with the new facial recognition software in customs.
We had been told by our dinner neighbor that ALL passengers would have to get a rapid COVID test to exit the ship. We were skeptical as no such announcement had been made. But Carl called the Guest Services desk and they confirmed the rumor, saying the EVERYONE would be given a free, rapid test after clearing customs. I was still skeptical as the logistics of testing 2,000 people would be daunting.
We finally got called, exited the ship, made it through customs… and saw about a dozen people in line at a testing area. Everyone else just walked on by. Clearly, COVID tests were NOT being given to everyone. I fault Princess on this one. When asked a simple question they should be able to provide a simple and CORRECT answer.
Finding the bus to the parking area, getting the Corolla, paying the balance, driving back to Carl (who was waiting at the ship, with the luggage) was all done pretty swiftly. It could have been even more swift if I hadn’t gotten lost in the port.
Loaded the luggage and drove 2 hours to Naples. Dropped Carl off, then drove to Lehigh Acres to pick up Rusty. He didn’t recognize me and barked at me. Or maybe he recognized me and was just letting me know that he preferred to stay. In any case I got him and took him home and once he was back in the RV he seemed pretty happy.
Next up: fetching Frank, my younger son, from his hotel. Why was he in a hotel when he was supposed to be in his brother’s guest bedroom? Long, sad story involving, not surprisingly, beer.
I had planned to loan the Corolla to Frank but when I started the truck I realized that I had a big problem: the power steering was malfunctioning. Driving that beast of a truck without power steering would require superhuman strength. So I took the Corolla to pick up Frank and grabbed a quart of power steering fluid on the way back to the RV. After putting about a cup of fluid into the reservoir the truck’s power steering was, once again, functional. I took a short trip later in the day to confirm that. But the power steering clearly has a leak. I will need to deal with that. Soon.
Frank stayed with me overnight. Why? Again, a long, sad story involving, not surprisingly, beer.
Ok, let me give a wrapup of the PCL2 cruise.
The central question was: would I enjoy a cruise without Jett. The answer was a resounding YES. I had a grand time, assisted by having a congenial travel companion and meeting some very fine people.
The questions I had about how the cruise would be different due to COVID were answered thusly:
How full would the ship be? About half.
What COVID protocols would be in place? Strict use of masks in elevators and public spaces, except when dining. Strong encouragement to wash hands at entry into the buffet.
What else was different? The shows were shadows of the large-scale productions I expect on a cruise. There was just one “production” show and that was pretty small. All other shows were basically lounge acts: single vocalists and a magician.
Other observations:
The Sky Princess is a beautiful ship which, while constructed in 2019, had a “new ship” smell. I don’t think it was used at all last year so this may have been one of its first journeys.
The onboard internet was a joy. It was, hands down, the best internet service I have ever had on a ship. I didn’t use the streaming capability, but the fact that I could have streamed live shows aboard a ship at sea is incredible.
There were NO children aboard. I have been on cruises with few children but never on a cruise with none. Zilch. Zero. I don’t know why this was so as we saw lots of children from other ships in St Maarten. Did Princess discourage children (who might not be vaccinated)? Don’t know.
I didn’t do any excursions. I was traveling with a man who was too mobility-challenged to do most excursions, but it didn’t matter. I have been to St Thomas and St Maarten before and wasn’t terribly interested in doing any of the excursions there.
I saw very little of this ship. I usually spend one day at sea wandering around, getting a feel for everything the ship has to offer. I didn’t do that this time. Not sure why. Maybe I saw this cruise as more of an experiment than an adventure.
The bottom line is that I enjoyed the week very much and am glad I went.
This was my first cruise with back-to-back days at sea since the transatlantic crossing (TC1). I enjoy days at sea, so there is no problem with having two of them in a row. It just means that I am going to eat more than usual (a fine beef bourguignon for lunch and mahi mahi for dinner). Carl and I attended two trivia contests where we did okay but didn’t win and a word game called Word Tennis where a category is given and the contestants have to quickly provide instances of that category. For example, if the category is “superheroes” (as in the photo) then the instances could be “Superman”, “Batman”, “Wonder Woman” and so on. The contestant who fails to provide a unique instance in a timely fashion loses.
I did poorly.
Dinner was a hoot. Carl and I dined with Patricia and Bobbi, two women from Fort Lauderdale who were traveling together. We had met them at dinner a few days earlier and had been trivia teammates quite a few times. We decided to dine together on the final night of the cruise.
Trivia buddies – Dick, Carl, Bobbi and Patricia
And I am glad we did.
Bobbi’s Bunny Bow
Carl hitting on Bobbi
The conversation was so lively that the woman at the next table jumped in several times because she was so enthralled by our chatter. Among other things Carl and I learned that Bobbi had been a Playboy bunny starting in 1959. She demonstrated the Bunny Bow for us. She was nearly 80 and Carl and she really hit it off. The photo of them holding hands looks like Carl is proposing. He isn’t, but they sure had a connection.
A wonderful way to end the cruise.
Well, it didn’t quite end there as Carl and I went to the casino for one last try at fortune. Carl ended up breaking even for the trip. I ended down $300. A woman playing a slot machine near the roulette table won $1100. I could only admire her good fortune as I had none of my own.
This day at sea was very relaxing. I spent some time on the balcony, reading, but the main features were the 3 (count ’em – 3) trivia contests, the formal dinner, the Thursday Night Football game on the big screen under the stars and a late night at the casino. I also got some very nice sunset photos, two of which I have included here.
We (Carl and I and friends Pat and Bobbi) did well at the morning trivia, coming in third out of about 20 teams. The topic was “Where am I?” and the answers were all cities. If we had been just a bit more knowledgeable about Brazil we would have come in second.
The most entertaining contest was the midday trivia which was entitled “Terribly Twisted.” The contest consisted of video clips from commercials from all around the globe and the challenge was to pick the product being sold from a multiple-choice list. The commercials were hilarious and we actually did quite well – a tribute to our twisted minds, I guess. We teamed up with 2 women from Oregon who apparently were as twisted as we were. We didn’t win but we did better than I expected.
Dinner was formal, with broiled lobster tail, Beef Wellington and several other elegant dishes on the menu. I had escargot to start (quite good) and Beef Wellington as the entree (also very good but not as good as the ones I made many, many years ago). I wasn’t going to have dessert, but the waiter forced a Pistachio Dome on me – a chocolate-covered chocolate mousse with a pistachio center. I ate it all.
Football under the stars
I went to watch the NFL game on the big screen. It was a blowout in the first half with Minnesota leading Pittsburgh 23-0. It turned out to be a competitive game with Minnesota winning 36-28, but I went down to the casino instead of watching the second half. I could have saved $50 by watching the entire game. Down $200. Carl, however, won about $100 at roulette.
We docked near Phillipsburg but we never made it into the city so I will just say that we visited St Maarten.
We had no excursions planned for St Maarten (or anywhere else) so we weren’t affected by the cancellation of all cruise excursions to the French side of the island. We later learned that some of the French residents were upset about mask mandates imposed from France and were striking – with some minor violence – in protest. The real risk, we were told, was that the border between the French and Dutch halves of the island would be closed and excursions could be trapped in the French area, unable to return to the ship.
The port area in St Maarten
Getting buzzed in St Maarten
But all we did was wander around the port shops, consuming some tropical drinks. Carl got a bit buzzed so I let him sit while I went in search of some duty-free alcohol. I found a 1-liter bottle of Absolut vodka for $18. I think that is about half the price of the same bottle in Florida. Now I have to find a way to use it.
Two of the other ships in port, as we departed
The port area was busy. No surprise as 6 very large cruise ships were docked there. Phillipsburg probably would have been wall-to-wall tourists. I don’t think I missed anything by not going into town.
The highlight of dinner was a porcini mushroom soup. Delicious. And for lunch – after I reboarded the ship – was a Serbian bean soup that was just spectacular. Whoever does the soups on the Sky Princess really knows his craft.
Not so spectacular – at least in a good way – was the trivia, where we again did poorly, or the casino where we both lost money. I am now down $150. So much for my wish of paying for the cruise with my gambling winnings.
I had a real breakfast, then Carl and I went down to participate in the morning trivia contest and noticed that Christmas decorations had been put up while we slept. These people never sleep. We did badly at trivia so we went ashore.
The Sky Princess, in St Thomas
The port area in St Thomas is like any other port in the Caribbean, with about a hundred jewelry stores and not much else. We decided to take a $4 taxi ride into the city and we were unfortunate in that we were assigned the Taxi Driver from Hell. He whizzed us through the port area like he was in a video game, then hit a curb at the end of the ride, causing one of the passengers to bang her head. Carl and I escaped without serious injury. And what did we find?
A hundred jewelry stores and not much else.
We did stumble across the birthplace of Camille Pissarro, the French/Dutch impressionist painter. And there were some alleyways that were quaint, but difficult for Carl to navigate with his walker. I think we spent less than an hour in the downtown area of St Thomas before heading back to the ship.
Entrance to the birthplace of Camille Pissarro
Carl, navigating a quaint alley
We made it back in plenty of time to attend the 5:15pm trivia session and again got our asses kicked. How many strings in a grand harp? You didn’t know it was 47? No, you can’t be on our team.
For the first time on the cruise we dined with other passengers. We were fortunate to get a very pleasant younger couple from Montreal and two women from Fort Lauderdale. A lively dinner. I think we have some new cruise friends.
It was Italian Night. I had the lasagna. Very good.
We spent several hours in the casino with Carl winning about $150 at roulette and me losing my entire $50 investment on the slots. But a $50 loss over 4 days ain’t bad.
Not much happens during a day at sea. In this case the “not much” consisted of eating, having a very poor pina colada by the pool, losing the rest of my winnings in the casino, doing very poorly at trivia (though, in my defense, I arrived late and teamed up with a couple who had already provided enough incorrect answers to guarantee a loss) and read on the cabin balcony. But there was one major highlight…
The Patriots defeated the Bills 14-10. The game was televised on the ship’s cable system. The win puts the team solidly in the lead for the division championship and also makes them the favorites to get the one first week playoff bye. That victory made it a very good day at sea.
Princess, like most other major cruise lines, has its own Bahamian island. This makes a lot of economic sense as there are no docking fees and all souvenir shops are run directly or indirectly by the cruise line. They have a captive audience for a day, while providing the illusion that you have visited the Bahamas. Well, I guess you have, but not a part of the Bahamas familiar to any Bahamian.
Sky Princess from the beach
Princess Cays is a nice little island, with lots of beach chairs (mostly unoccupied because the ship was only half full) and lots of opportunities to rent snorkel equipment or cabanas. There is also a large tent which provides a free lunch of hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, chicken, ribs and all kinds of side dishes. No cruise passenger need go hungry on Princess Cays. Nor aboard the ship, for that matter.
NFL by the pool
Carl and I wandered a bit, ate lunch and I stuck my toes in the water, all before 1pm. We then returned to the ship.
Surprisingly, there is no dock at Princess Cays so we had to board a watercraft to get to the island. It was a short trip – about 7 minutes. The trip back was aboard one of the ship’s tenders, the boats that serve as lifeboats in an emergency. I suppose it is a good idea to take then down for a spin occasionally, to make sure they are still operational.
We played trivia again and did terribly this time. I watched some of the 4pm Steelers/Ravens game on the big screen, then went to the Solos meeting and again failed to meet future a wife. Dinner was a seafood medley for me, which was very good, and a prime rib for Carl which was a disaster. It looked like a piece of chuck steak that had been trampled by a Cossack and drowned in gravy. Disgusting. How can you mess up a prime rib? He traded it in for a Caesar salad.
Substitute vocalist
After dinner we spend a bit of time at the casino where Carl lost $100 (don’t worry, he can afford it) and I won $50. It won’t last, of course, but a winning night is always nice.
The entertainment was a young man who sang a variety of show tunes. He was a replacement for the female vocalist that was scheduled but who had lost her voice. I don’t know how good she would have been but the replacement was terrific.
