20240423 (24th here) Sapphire Princess South Pacific Cruise Day 20 - Sea day - sickness, smoke, and soggy

Sapphire Princess South Pacific Cruise Day 20 - Sea day means dripping ceilings, smoke, and continued illness

We awoke to a new time zone, thanks to last night's loss of an hour. Who knew how much excitement would come?

Before I get into that, this is Saju.

He pours our morning Diet Coke and lunch drinks. I have never seen him without a smile on his face and a friendly, "Hello, Garry. Hello Arlona! The usual?" He gives every day a pleasant and upbeat start and we're lucky to have him on this cruise.

As we went down for breakfast, we walked past room C-303, just like we do multiple times every day. Today, they had new decorations - a trash can and a "wet floor" sign.

Why? This.

Water was streaming out of the overhead can light just outside the door. It was coming out so fast, it only took me one try to get the photo. This continued for most of the day.

As we were sitting and eating breakfast, the P.A. system came alive with "Medical emergency, deck 11, fire zone 4". Wow - yet another medical emergency. Shortly after that, the Captain came on and explained that it wasn't a medical emergency. What had happened was that fire zone 4 - a specific area on floor #11, was filling with smoke. Wait, what? The #1 safety issue on a sailing vessel is fire while at sea. Yikes!

He continued, explaining that it appeared to be a minor issue and they were investigating. He continued making announcements over the next 20 minutes or so, updating everyone as soon as he knew something worth reporting. For us, this was a breath of fresh air. Some cruise lines keep situations close to the vest, leaving passengers guessing. (Are you listening, Viking?) Princess has a policy of transparency and Captain McBain follows it. He said that the best guess was that an air conditioning unit's drive belt probably failed, causing the smoke and he would update us when he knew more. A few minutes later, the initial guess was confirmed - an air conditioner failed on deck 12, causing the smoke on deck 11. In the grand scheme, it was a minor issue and was resolved by mid-afternoon. Some folks were without air conditioning for about four hours, but there were plenty of places on the ship where they could be comfortable.

The Captain also updated us on the illness situation. He expects an uptick over the next day or two as is typical after a port day, but the cases are well-managed and are resolving as expected. They continue their Level 3 protocols, continuously sanitizing public spaces and removing any utensils handled by guests at the buffet, having the crew dispense the food.

The Captain's announcements, while timely and informative, weren't enough for some passengers as members of our trivia team saw several passengers out on the deck, huddled together, life vests on, shaking from terror. I expect that they are first-time cruisers. It's too bad they were so scared even though the Captain explained that it was a minor maintenance issue that presented no safety concerns.

This morning's trivia was brutal. We scored 11/20 - ouch. Our progressive noon trivia went better with 9/10. We won the afternoon trivia scoring 18/22, winning against another team in a tiebreaker.

(L-R), Team AFT - Pam & Jeff (Texas), Arlona, Cheryl (Florida), David & Trisha (Alaska)

The close, but no cigar answers:

• What year did the Boston Tea Party take place?
• We guessed 1774 - it was 1773
• What is the capital of the Central African Republic? (obscure trivia to be sure)
• Bangui
• What year did Amazon.com start selling online?
• 1995
• What was Patty's last name in Grease? (Patty? Who?)
• Simcox
• What is the atomic number of Antimony? (Anti-what?)
• 51
• What is scaup?
• A type of duck
• What official language was used in England for over 300 years (not English)?
• French
• What country borders Sierra Leone to the north?
• Guinea
• Where was the color wheel color TV invented?
• We had this before but forgot - Mexico
• The name of what animal is the Aboriginal term for "no water?"
• Koala, as they get all their nourishment and fluids from eucalyptus leaves
• Where was the Battle of Waterloo fought?
• We guessed France, but it was Belgium
• What is the rarest color of a diamond - yellow, blue, or red?
• One team member insisted the Effy store on the ship told her yellow - it was red
• How long did it take Michaelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel? (this was the tiebreaker)
• The other team said 12 years, and we said 8 years even though Arlona lobbied for 4 years - it was 4 years and we were closer, thus the win

Arlona continued her ukulele lessons.

When she puts her mind to something, she kills it. I'm looking forward to the final concert.

We had a couple of birds flying along this afternoon. One, a white one, was so far out that I couldn't get a usable photo or identify it. This one was flying somewhat closer - still too far for a good photo. I think it was a shearwater, but don't quote me on that.

We spent some time reading on the balcony this afternoon. We're sailing east toward French Polynesia so our room on the starboard (right) side of the ship faces south at the moment. Late in the afternoon, we sailed into rain but the sun was shining brightly to our aft. What did that mean?  A rainbow, right off our room - it seemed almost close enough to touch.

Tonight was scheduled as a formal night, but for some reason, they changed the plan last minute, moving the formal night to tomorrow. We reviewed the menu in the main dining room and were underwhelmed with choices. We decided that since Princess dropped formal night tonight, we would drop it completely. We stayed in our casual clothes, went to our favorite bar, used the OceanNow service in the Princess app, and ordered dinner to be delivered to the bar. A club sandwich on rye for me and a chef's salad for Arlona, plus a piece of chocolate cake to share. Perfect.

We stayed for a music game where the host played a song to a point and then gave three choices for the next line of the song. We only missed two and had fun trying to figure them all out.

Given that we had a 23-hour day today, we were both a little tired and decided to head to the room. Arlona ran up to where a movie was being shown and grabbed a few bags of popcorn for us to munch. I worked on this blog as she started her next crocheting project - a phone purse.

Tonight, we will complete our final full-day time travel as we cross the International Date Line for the last time on this journey.

We will jump from UTC+13, where we are 17 hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast, to UTC-11, where we will be 7 hours behind the U.S. East Coast. That means that tomorrow will be April 24th again for us. No new Wordle for a day. Heavens!

From then on, we will just slowly lose four more hours, one hour every two or three days, before we reach Los Angeles on May 7.

For now, we continue sailing easterly for the next three days, arriving in Papeete, on Tahiti, French Polynesia on Saturday, April 27.

We're hoping for a day tomorrow with no dripping water and no smoke.