Going on a cruise sounded to me like a recipe for a Covid disaster. But it's been 3 years and therefore it is time for me to accept the pandemic is now endemic. I did keep my mask handy and used it indoors whenever I wasn't eating. I appreciated the many hand washing stations outside of dining rooms and restaurants on board as well as the hand sanitizer dispensers throughout the ship. I stayed healthy; that's the bottom line. The best itinerary at the time we wanted to travel was on a Princess Cruise.
The embarkation phase of the cruise was the smoothest and quickest we have ever seen. No lines, short wait, easy-peasy. They medallion system on a lanyard around our necks worked relatively well. Mine didn't always register right away when I was trying to use it so I had to wiggle it around the sensor a bit more than Mark did. But it was convenient to have it as our ID as well as our payment method. Of course, there was an opportunity to purchase a necklace, bracelet, watch band for it to make it more elegant. We chose not to do so! :-)
The Enchanted Princess is a beautiful ship and we really enjoyed our time on board playing trivia as often as possible, continually meeting new people as our partners and often getting close but never actually winning. The Piazza (left) was at the center of the ship and was where we waited for our room to be ready, where I learned some Merengue and line dances, and where we walked through on three different floors whenever we were going from one end of the ship to the other.
On the first day we enjoyed the sail away party, dinner in our dining room (Almalfi), an opening show of comedian John Evans, and a game of Yes or No which I participated in and made the whole 3 minutes without saying Yes or No so we won a bottle of champagne! :-)
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| Inside of the sanctuary |
The second day of the cruise featured a stop in Marseille, France where there were transportation strikes happening. This resulted in us walking many miles from the ship to the city and taking a Uber or Bolt back to kinda sorta near the ship, but needing to walk a long way from where we were dropped off. For me, this detracted quite a bit from my enjoyment of this port. We did of course see the synagogue; a worker there let us in, and we got to see the sanctuary which was beautiful. We also passed the Cathedral of the Major which was very impressive looking.
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| Cathedral of the Major |
Back on the ship, we played music trivia with Glen and Michelle from Sheffield. I stayed for the game show Majority Rules which Mark insists is actually Plurality Rules. He joined me halfway through and helped me do better than I would have! It was fun. The musical show was called 5 Skies and was really creative and well done. We loved the effects and costumes and the actors, dancers, and especially the singers were phenomenal. Mark also enjoyed the cute baby sitting in front of us who kept looking at Mark and pointing to the stage.
For Shabbat, Mark led the service which took place in the wedding chapel. There were about 25-30 people there, mostly Israelis. We became friendly with Hazel and Dany Perez and spent time with them later in the cruise. There was also a person there with a Bay Area connection but Mark did most of the chatting with her so I don't remember any more. The Enchanted Princess crew provided kippot, prayerbooks, challah, and wine for Kiddush. Mark adapted the given prayerbook service to make it shorter and more enjoyable for people, incorporating both Hebrew and English elements. It was lovely.
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