The BobLog, Monday, January 12, 2004.

This is our first full day on the Grand Princess ship.  I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night due to the rocking of the boat, and the creaking noise of the room as everything was shifting.  We ate a late breakfast (tried to get in as much sleep as possible), and played a game of shuffleboard.  Unfortunately, we had the wrong side of the disks facing down, and there was quite a bit of drag, so that mom had to start up further.  After we were done, we discovered this, and almost shot the disks into the ocean - it was so easy with the other side facing down!
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Today we were at Princess Cays (pronounced KEYS) island, and I decided to check it out.  Mom stayed on the ship, and took in a Floral arranging class.

They took us ashore using the lifeboats, called "Tenders".  Was pretty neat to see how they let them down from the ship into the water, as they are normally stored quite high.
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The Island was mostly just for the tourists, but was still fun.  I played some volleyball, and walked around the place.  Weather was sunny, and in the 70s.  The water was so extremely clear!  I had forgotten to bring a hat, so I picked one up on the Island.  Got a little burn from not using any sunscreen.
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View of the island, the game,, and our ship:
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There was a guy playing music with a small Yamaha keyboard, using mostly the auto-accompanyment.  I have never heard the automatic stuff played so well!  He was doing a great job.
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Here's a nice view of our boat, where you can see the remaining life boat tenders:
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Mom went to an art show, and I stayed in the hotel processing digital pictures and recording the calypso band prior to dinner.  These guys were playing on one of the top decks, and we passed by them each time for breakfast.  They were great.  You could hear them outside on our deck, in the distance.
(Click HERE to listen)  This is what they sounded like in person, through my poor mike: (Click HERE to listen)
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We went to dinner, and sat with our usual crew:
Ken (from Arizona, pictured with Mom), Marty & Shela (From New Jersey),
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and Joe & Kathy (from Denver, CO):
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As usual, Marty kept the conversation rather interesting with his views on Women. Heh  (This picture makes him look bad, he really was a funny guy!)
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After dinner, we went to see a magic show.  The guy seemed like he had a little too much sugar, but was very entertaining.  Cute show.  After that, we rushed over to a show in the Princess Theater (on the other end of the boat) with a lady singer named Jacqi Michaels.  She was excellent, doing her renditions of Celine Dion, Ella Fitzgerald, and more.  Real talent.  We were able to sit down almost right away, as a lady was just leaving.  (All of these shows are totally packed.)  Unfortunately, the audio reproduction was pretty sorry - the mixer didn't know how to mix a live band.
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On our way back, we stopped by a lounge where they were doing line dancing.  It was pretty funny seeing this older lady (pictured in the center) really getting into the dancing!  We talked to her later, and found her name was Millie.  This was the first cruise she had been on, and she was having the time of her life!
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After that, they had 3 people from the audience do impersonations of Cher: a guy and two girls.  The guy was a real ham, and won.
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We went back to our room, but not after first going for a snack.  There we saw our friends Linda and Leo.  We had them sit with us.
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After our snack, I went to the Internet Cafe to see if I could send anything out, but was unable.  Went to bed around 1:45AM.

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