20240503 Sapphire Princess cruise day 30 - Sea Day

Sapphire Princess South Pacific Cruise Day 30 - Sea Day #5 back to L.A. - Wow - just wow

OK - I just have to share this. I'm not what I would consider lazy, but I do enjoy relaxing. On this cruise, while Arlona has been taking the stairs, I have been taking the elevators. In the past few months, I have developed arthritis in my left knee and even three flights of stairs, up or down, get my knee throbbing. I'm looking into some treatment so I'm not looking for suggestions here - just explaining. The reason is that today, I witnessed laziness so impressive that for me, it has set a new standard. This was the pinnacle of laziness - a Supreme Lazy, if you will.

Here's a look at the forward elevator bank. The forward stairs are behind me and you can see the four elevators, two on the left and two on the far right. 

Let's call the elevators 1, 2, 3, & 4 from left to right

This is not a wide space, perhaps 35 feet from the center of elevator #1 to the center of elevator #4. 12 paces, 15 if you take small steps.

Here's another view from the ship's map in the Princess app.

You can see elevators 1,2,3 & 4 - a couple is standing at the xx and I am standing at the G

The down button was pushed when I walked up. I was going up so I pushed the up button. A moment or two later, elevator #4, on the far right, lit up with a down arrow, sounded the "ding" and the door opened. I was going up, so I wasn't getting on. The only other contenders were the couple, and given that the down button was pushed when I got there, it seemed likely they wanted to go down. But...they weren't moving. So I asked them, are you going down?  Seemed like a logical question, right?

Her response was, and I quote..."I'm not walking all the way over there!"

Huh?

I said out loud that nobody was coming so the friendly folks on the elevator that were holding the door knew they could continue their journey downward. The door closed and the other half of the couple, the man, went and pushed the down button again. They wanted to ride the elevator down, but apparently, only the elevators immediately in front of them were acceptable as walking 30 feet to catch the other elevator was too inconvenient. Keep in mind that they were mobile, not using walking aids or mobility devices.  Congratulations on setting a new standard for the lazy in the world to aspire to!  

The Captain gave a talk about Antarctica this morning. They expected high attendance so trivia was moved from 10:15 to 11:15. We didn't attend as Princess only offers a drive-by visit and since we've already been to Antarctica and put actual boots on the continent, we figured it wasn't worth it.

We came close in the morning trivia missing by only one, and we scored a perfect 10/10 in progressive trivia at 12:15. We're in fifth place there and are still hoping to sneak into fourth or possibly third, but we're running out of days.

Afternoon trivia was, in a word, brutal. Here are today's failures:

• Where would you find the Copacabana beach?
• We thought Cuba, but it is Rio in Brazil
• What is a group of Rhinos called?
• A crash - we've had that before, but the recall wasn't there
• What country replaced their Lev with the Euro?
• Bulgaria
• When did the 8 Years War begin?
• 1568 - we had no idea what that even was
• When did Guinness start brewing beer?
• 1759
• How many candles are lit during Hanukkah?
• 44
• Where is the smallest volcano located?
• Mexico
• By area, what is the fourth largest U.S. state?
• Montana
• What country produces the most cocoa?
• We assumed Mexico, but it turns out that it is the Ivory Coast - they along with Ghana produce more than half of the world's cocoa

Once again, we hit up the Trident Grill for lunch.

It is near the pool on Deck 15 a little forward of midship

They offer burgers, dogs, street tacos, chicken sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, and loaded fries

We enjoyed burgers for lunch at the bar with our bartender buddy, Saju as they conducted the sailing trials in a boat-building competition. Three teams competed by floating their creations around the pool - it was fun to see the entries as we competed in something like this on a previous cruise.

This elaborate entry, Sapphire Princess Wannabe, easily won, even though it capsized right at the end

The weather today took a slight downward turn with high winds, solid overcast, and moderate waves. The ship crashing the waves combined with the rush of the wind made sitting on the deck mostly a futile exercise, so we popped back in the room, giving me a headstart writing this entry today.

We were uninspired by tonight's menu plus we weren't really hungry. We opted to grab a small sandwich plus some chocolate cake from the International Cafe and eat them at Explorers. We wanted seats for a show later tonight so we got there early and had a couple margaritas while waiting.

Assistant Cruise Director, and a favorite of ours, Bernardo, stopped by and said "hi". He's a great guy, a mechanical engineer by training, smart, funny, and engaging. We're hoping Princess sees everything he brings to the table name makes him one of their next Cruise Directors.

We played a music game, naming artists and titles of 70s & 80s music.  While we scored 36/40, one team had a former DJ and they were perfect. It was still fun and a great way to pass the time.  Until what?  Assistant Cruise Director, Javier (Javi), was scheduled to perform a one-man show tonight.

Javi is quite talented, specializing in beatboxing, acapella singing, and guitar playing, all while using a looping recorder. He will lay down a beat track using his beatbox skills, then record accompanying harmony tracks, and finally add impromptu lyrics and melody. It was engaging, unique, and very entertaining.

Tomorrow is day 6/8 of our return to San Pedro. Arlona, along with all the ukulele gang, plus the hula dance class will perform a show tomorrow afternoon in the Princess Theater. It should be epic.