We are now on our fourth sea day out of five as we head to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was a partly sunny morning when we woke up at about 7:00 AM. Of course, waking up and getting up are two different things, so we slept in a little longer before we actually got up and started getting ready. Today we are going to the Enclave, which is part of the Lotus Spa on the ship. One of our bartenders, and friends on the ship is Jason, and his wife Aretha is the manager of the Spa. Jason has been trying to get us to go to the Enclave for a complimentary visit for the entire cruise, and we were waiting for a sea day to go and try it out. The Enclave is a special area of the spa where there are several steam rooms, a sauna, a warm water pool with jets, and several heated tile warming beds, as well as specialty showers and some small waterbeds. It is for total relaxation, and is normally a separate charge.
First, I went and got our usual breakfast sandwiches form the International Café. It was much more relaxing to eat in the room than to fight the crowds and table shortages in the buffet like we did yesterday. We had told Jason last night that we expected to be at the Spa around 10:30 AM, but we were ready and headed down there at about 10:00 AM. Unfortunately Aretha was not there, and no one there knew about us coming, so we headed back to the room to wait until 10:30 AM and try it again. This time, there was another person manning the desk, and she knew we were coming and had the special entry cards ready for us when we arrived.
We had worn our bathing suits because we were not sure how it all worked. They gave us an entry card key, and a special waterproof bracelet for a locker. I headed to the men’s shower /change room and Stephanie went to the ladies shower/change room. The lockers were electronic, and inside was a nice robe and some sandals. We both changed, well just took off our coverups and shirt, and met outside and then entered the Enclave. Jason had showed it to us before early on in the cruise, but it was still a little intimidating to go in, we had to figure out all of the amenities once we were inside. There were two different aromatic steam rooms and one sauna. There were four different showers, with differing temperatures from hot to cold, with adjustable shower and rain heads. The heated tile and concrete benches were really nice, they were curved to a body shape.
Once we figured it all out, it was really relaxing, they were playing Zen music, and no one was talking, it was designated as a quiet area. There were both orange infused and cucumber infused drinking water stations, as well as cold face cloths in a refrigerator. The heated pool was fairly large, but not that warm, and the jets were not really that functional as compared to a hot tub.
We stayed about 90 minutes, and then went into the change rooms to retrieve our shirts and coverups from the locker. I guess that normally, patrons wear their regular clothes to the change room and then put on their suits there and utilize the lockers for storage. There were also showers, although only one regular and one wheelchair accessible shower was in the men’s room.
Overall, it was a really nice experience. When we exited, Aretha was there and had put little blue stickers on our cruise cards, and told us to come back anytime we wanted, and we surmise the stickers will get us in anytime we want. We had thought it was just a single time experience, or we would have done it sooner in the cruise had we known it was for multiple complementary entries. We are probably going back tomorrow, our last sea day before Halifax, and on Friday, our last sea day before we arrive in New York.
We went back to the cabin and changed into regular clothes for lunch. We headed up to the buffet for lunch, and once again, had a hard time finding a seat, people were just there to sit and watch the ocean go by, clogging up the tables for those who wanted to sit and eat.
After lunch, the sun had come out, so we headed to the Mermaid bar by the pool to find Nemo, the bartender there. We had missed him on several previous times we had come by over the last few days, he must have been on break. Nemo was there today, and we spent some time talking to him before he went on break. Then we headed to the Outrigger Bar at the stern, and it was really nice there, the breeze was minimal. We had a couple of beverages there and ran into Bill and Terri, a couple we have talked with several times on this portion of the cruise.
From there, we headed inside and ran into the gym folks doing their foot analysis for special support device from Good Feet. We did the analysis, and it was very interesting how these inserts stabilized your stance. However, we balked at the $199 price tag without doing some additional research.
We headed to Crooners for a drink, and did some research on the inserts, and found that most people suggest using that money to go to a orthopedics specialist for real improvement.
Stephanie needed her afternoon nap, so we headed back to the cabin so I could write this post. I did call mom using WhatsApp, and it actually worked well. We did not try the video call, just the voice.
Tonight is the last formal night of the cruise, and also is the Captain’s Farewell Party in the Atrium. We will be going to the party, but do not need to partake in the free cocktails since we are on the drink package.
After getting dressed, I headed down to Vines to get a seat before all of the commotion began for the Captain’s Party, which started at 7:00 PM. Stephanie was still getting ready, but we wanted to make sure we could get seats at the bar, the service is quicker there than at a table, and we get to talk with the bartenders there, Fidel and Joseph. The crowds were not to bad yet for the Captain’s Party, and we were eventually able to get seats at the bar, but had to wait for a couple of people to leave first. There was a group who were obviously not attending the formal event, they still had casual clothes on and had been there when I had arrived. We had some wine and tapas The tapas were quite good tonight and included a scallop and some bacon wrapped chicken pieces on a skewer.
We had already decided that we were going to Alfredo’s for dinner, so after the crowds thinned down from the Captain’s Party, we went upstairs to get a table. We specifically asked for our favorite waiter there, and he was able to be our server even though the table we were seated at was not in his area. The restaurant was not crowded, and there were more than enough servers for the people eating there. It was lobster night in the main dining room, so most people opted for that, making it nice and quiet in Alfredo’s. We split a pasta dish and a pizza, it was more than we needed or wanted to eat. We have been skipping lobster night on the last few Princess cruises, the cold water lobster tails are tiny and generally overcooked and are not good at all.
After dinner, we headed to Crooners for a couple of drinks, and ran into a couple we had met at Bellini’s the other day, Nancy and Dave. They stayed for a drink or two, and then left. Then Bill and Terri showed up, and we had a couple of drinks with them. We were tired, and probably a little dehydrated from the time we spent in the Enclave, so we called it a night at about 11:00 PM
We had planned to try and stay out late tonight, especially since we get another hour back on the clocks. This will be our last night to have fun without having to get up early for the next port call in Halifax. But, we were just too tired. We did start a movie when we got back to the room, but as usual for our movie watching, we only lasted about 30 minutes before we were falling asleep.
We may have some late night fun on the night after stopping at Halifax, since it is a sea day the following day, but it depends on how tired we feel after the day in Halifax.
For Halifax, we have been in contact with our friends there, Barb and Mike, and they are taking us sightseeing, and then to their house for a Lobster lunch. It should be good weather, the remnants of Hurricane Florence, which had been out in the Atlantic and moving up the coast, will be on a more southerly route, and will miss Halifax. It will be good to see Barb and Mike again.