Day 10 - Tue - 11/11/2025 - At Sea to Southampton = Day 1

 Today started on a somber note as today is Remembrance & Veterans Day on the ship.  We skipped breakfast and attended the 9am Remembrance & Veterans Day service.  Staff and passengers read poignant poems and readings pertaining to the celebration.  The Last Post was played on the trumpet followed by a minute of silence, another playing of the trumpet "The Rouse" and a singing of Bring Him Home by Matthew Stott, a staff member and West End Singer), and followed by three more readings.







Afterwards we enjoyed breakfast and chatted with a couple from Calgary..  They, too, observed that the service gaps we observed, they were observing also.  


At 11am there was a 2 minutes of silence observed.  I was out on the pool deck and the only sound was the sloshing of the water in the pool.  It was a pretty powerful statement to see all standing in remembrance for 2 minutes.

Sue Beard gave her last port talk of this her current contract.  It was on Southampton and gave me the idea to go to Winchester to see the historic cathedral where Jane Austin is interred and see the table from King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.  This would be on our turnaround day in Southampton.  


She was followed by David Walsh, a sports journalist who doggedly pursued Lance Armstrong, a "winner" of 7 Tour de France cycling races.  He uncovered Mr. Armstrong's doping addiction which led to the rescission of his medals and ban from the sport. Despite confessing on the OPRAH show about his drug issues, when pressed by Oprah about apologizing to Mr. Walsh, he said he would.  But he never has.

His 40 minute lecture without notes was one of the best I've seen on a ship and clearly the best on a Princess ship.


Afterwards I went to a Mockingbird afternoon performance in the Vista Lounge.  They performed covers of Eagles music and it was really good. I then returned to the stateroom to catch up on my blog entries.  With the 5 back to back port days, it's really hard to keep them current. Fortunately my memory is still pretty good and I can keep details in my head before I get them written down electronically in Google KEEP.  After I compose them in KEEP, I copy them to my actual blog.  Each one is a labor of love and I find myself referring back to them when on subsequent trips. 


Tonight was a full evening of entertainment.  Because of the full ship, they decided to have the cast perform 3 shows of the ROCK OPERA show at 6, 8, & 10.  We decided to skip dinner and go to the 6pm performance which was not full.  It was terrific and 3 songs from THE GREATEST SHOWMAN are at the core of the performance.  We then joined a very long line for the Captain's Circle cocktail party which thanks all of the guests who are Platinum and Elite.  It takes two parties to have enough room and we were in the second group.  At the entryway, I was able to express to the Captain my appreciation for his speaking the noon announcement.  I also spoke with the Cruise Director, Matt and Alistair Inch, Hotel GM, and they indicated that the ship is entirely full this voyage at a little over 3,600 guests and the repositioning cruise count is a bit smaller with far less Brits on board.  The party was okay, but very crowded.  The d 'orves servers were totally overwhelmed.  Mockingbird performed background music and the Captain gave a short speech.  One of the funny parts of his speech was that when he travels as a passenger on Princess, he has the lowest class status even though he is a full Captain in the Princess fleet.  Even his wife and daughter are Elite!  We didn't win the drawing for the champagne, butt that's okay.  We did each enjoy a free Coke Zero.


Since the refreshments were so light, we decided to have a late dinner of sushii at the Ocean Terrace sushii bar.  It was really good sushii and the seafood ceviche was one of the best we've ever had.  Afterwards we attended the comedy set of Geoff Boyz from Scotland.  He was really funny and clean humored.  Following this I went to see the 10pm performance of ROCK OPERA before returning to the room to update this day's blog entry.  Angela stayed in the Princess Live lounge to sing karaoke.


Tomorrow is another sea day and it also will be packed with lots of entertainment in the afternoon and evening.


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