March 11, 2019 - Sea Day- Monday, Day 64

March 11, 2019 - Sea Day- Monday, Day 64

Today is a sea day on our way across the South China Sea and through the straights to The Philippines. This view of the sea from our stateroom window is typical of what we have experienced for almost all of this voyage. We can only remember a few days when we ever saw whitecaps.

Our port will be Puerto Princesa. We visited here last year. This is where Alice and I got our first haircuts on shore. Those were so short they lasted until we got home. This time we are still growing out from our haircuts in Colombo, Sri Lanka, but we may get our hair cut here anyhow just for old times sake.

This morning we had a mandatory temperature check. It was administered by Philippine officials onboard. No one with a fever is allowed to disembark in The Philippines. We passed the test.

The dining room featured a brunch today. Usually brunch is only served on sea day Sundays. Since this is only 1 day later they changed the schedule. Imam, our waiter, noted that we needed to be finished by 12:30 to get to the port talk. He expedited our delicious meal, and we exited on schedule. We are really going to miss the servers who have befriended us.

The port talk for Puerto Princess was short and sweet. There are only a few sights to see in town. The others outside the city do not interest us. We will not mind walking to the places we saw last year. Then we will take the free shuttle to the mall where the barbershop is located.

After the talk we attended our complimentary wine tasting. We sat with a very nice Australian couple who boarded last cruise. They are sailing home to Brisbane. They live just 2 hours south of the port. The 4 wine offerings came from the new stock (17,000 bottles) taken aboard in Singapore. We tasted 2 whites and 2 reds. The star was Estancia Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a full bodied but very smooth wine. Alice and I marked it a buy when we get home. I have already checked Binny’s online. They have it for $11 a bottle compared to $29 here.

The dinner menu was a welcome repeat of one that we enjoyed 2 cruises ago. We varied our choices and had another delicious meal.

At 8:00 it was “Five Decades of soul classics, past and present, brought to you by 4 fantastic performers from the world of London's West End musicals. Be prepared to have your socks knocked off with amazingly unforgettable music and sure-fire entertainment from Soul Music's Golden Era.” They delivered as advertised.