As expected, a really good sleep, but we had to be up fairly early - but we beat the 7am alarm.
The ship berthed on the port side and in the past, I always stated whether or not we had a Vodafone signal. What we didn’t know then, was that for each day we connected (we are on Pre-Pay), a $5 charge applied, plus the cost of any texts. So, we are now only contactable by email!
There was a port shuttle bus to the gate where there were taxis and there may also have been a shuttle to town, but whether that was free or not, we didn’t find out.
A light breakfast plus a decent coffee. We still cannot understand how it is that on the smaller, older, Sun class ships, you can get a barista coffee in the buffet (logical) and at several other places throughout the ship, yet on this class of ship, they even hide the espresso machine behind the bar out by the pool, so unless you know where to look, you wouldn’t be able to find coffee on deck 15 at all. Weird. Gone from the buffet is the serve yourself apple juice/orange juice/lemonade machine. Penny pinching again?
The Sun Princess, with its updated Horizon Court buffet seems to work so much better than the buffet on this ship. A common and justified complaint is that the food is rarely hot enough. No excuse for baked beans or canned tomatoes, as they cannot be ruined by keeping them hot.
We headed for ‘Club Fusion’ for 8:50am for a 9:15 coach trip to Ghent. Last time we did Bruges, so this was a good option, but a little further away. Our coach guide, Sophie was a good guide and spoke excellent English. When she explained that it is normal for school children to learn a second, third or fourth language by the time they are 18 and the reasons, it all made sense. Belgium is a small country and borders Holland and France, so Dutch and French are natural. Another border is almost in Germany so German is the other logical option followed by English, being the almost universal second language.
About an hour’s drive to Ghent on a Sunday with not a lot of traffic.
As we stepped off the coach in Ghent, we met one of our NZ race series drivers, the former Ferrari driver, John Honore and Glenys. That was a nice surprise, having boarded without knowing anyone else.
After a (free!) comfort stop, we hopped onto the canal boat where our captain/guide was Astrid. What a great guide she turned out to be. As is often the case, a great guide just adds so much to the tour and a bad one ruins it. She was informative, spoke well and was funny. We absolutely loved it.
Astrid’s commentary was not only funny, but very informative and interesting. Regular blog followers will know that I rarely mention the historical, geographical or economic history but the second last photograph shows a statue of a male about to dive. On the opposite side of the canal was a statue of a female, representing the confluence of the two canals. It seems that much of the canal building here was in order to avoid Antwerp and various taxes. Also of interest was the historical relationship between breweries an the church. The breweries either directly or indirectly, provided much of the finance for church building and in the case of one church, there was a falling out part way through the building, hence no spire!
The trip was split into two parts and we returned to base with about 45 minutes of free time, so with John and Glenys, we opted for the same establishment as Sophie (guides always know the best places) and we ordered a Belgian waffle with cream and warm cherries. Bliss – apart from the fact that we shared one and it was so nice, I could have eaten a whole one. The coffee was a cappuccino with cream and was also delicious.
Another comfort stop and we returned to the canal boat with Astrid again for the shorter second leg and to our waiting coach. There were just 2 Princess coaches on this tour, Bruges being the first option for many. We reckoned this was just as good as the Bruges tour by walking and canal and maybe even better, so for future Baltics cruisers, a bit tick from us. The weather was kind to us once again, which is perhaps as well, as the boat was open.
We were back at the ship by about 2pm, which suited us just fine. We hit the International café in the atrium for a nice soup and a panini.
An afternoon in the cabin relaxing (and blogging…) and we didn’t bother with sailaway as there wasn’t much to see anyway.
At dinner, there were just four of us. Thankfully, the other two were Sheila and Alan. Somehow, I doubt the other two will reappear.
The late show was Steve Larkins’ ‘Mercury Rising’, tribute to Queen and Freddie Mercury. Although we had seen Steve (a Kiwi) before, we were sitting well back in the theatre but this time, the only spare seats in the whole theatre were on rows one and two. Being so close, gave us a totally different perspective (literally) as we could clearly see the various facial expressions – of which there were many. The Princess orchestra, well half of them (no brass) were brilliant, especially the lead guitarist, Miguel, added to Steve’s own vocal and instrumental soundtrack. I was never a Queen fan in period, but I really liked Steve’s show – a lot. I know that some of the die-hard Freddie Mercury fans on board aren’t keen, but others claim it is one of their favourite shows. Unusually, I’m raising my mark from last time, to a 9.5. Yes, I thought it was that good.
A sea day tomorrow, so no doubt we’ll head for trivia and then the Cruise Critic meet and greet so no need to be up early, especially with another 11:30pm bedtime. We are already 1 hour ahead of British Summer Time, so just 10 hours now behind NZ, with more clock advances to come.
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