Twenty Four Hours on a Cruise Ship as a Non-Drinker and Show Hater

A day at sea means different things to different people…

We cruise for the ports, not the sea days. In fact, when my husband and I embarked on a ten day Caribbean adventure, we almost dreaded the days at sea. The only reason we decided to subject ourselves to floating in the middle of the Atlantic for 48 hours straight, was because we could get to a number of exciting ports in a short amount of time.

We thought, if we can just get through the first 24 hours, the rest will be “smooth sailing” if you will.

You see, most cruisers look forward to sea days so that they can drink with abandon while taking in one broadway-style show after another.

Neither my husband nor I drink, and in more than 30 years of marriage, have never seen one live show together, and we’d like to keep it that way.

Our Day begins at 7 a.m.

We make our way to the main dining room where we grab a table near a window. Nothing but blue ocean beyond. That sounds wonderful in theory. But in reality, we are wondering what we are going to do all day.

24 hours from now we will arrive in St. Thomas. It can’t come soon enough. I already see passengers enjoying Mimosas and Bloody Marys. Maybe that is how they plan to spend their day?

We have different plans. After polishing off the delicious French Toast in short order, we head to the walking/running track on the top deck. Most cruise ships have them, but on this Princess cruise, we are lucky because the trail runs all the way around the ship, instead of simply halfway.

We don’t count our steps as we usually do at home because I don’t want our walking to get too monotonous, in case we have to do it all day! After strolling for about two miles, we decide to go to Deck five where the International Cafe is located.

We find a seat near a stage and order a couple of frozen coffee drinks. As much as we hate shows (neither of us can sit very long) we happen to witness the beginning of a presentation on birding. As I watched the lady with the parrot and listen to her talk about all the feathered varieties, I became enthralled…My husband as well.

We watched and listened for more than an hour enraptured in the whole idea of living with a bird and watching them from afar. I even contemplated adopting one before my husband nixed the idea!

By now it was 11:30 and time for lunch. We head up to the pool deck (because everyone else is at the buffet) and grab a hotdog for hubby and a veggie sandwich for me.

By now, sitting and watching the waves in the distance, surrounded by nothing but blue is actually rather relaxing. Maybe the rest of this day won’t be so bad after all.

We chat it up with an elderly couple also from Florida, about their cruising adventures. They have a whole bunch more than we do under their belt, so we learned a lot.

Relaxing and People Watching

We found that sitting by the pool and watching people walk by was rather fun. We didn’t even feel the need to head back to the track until late in the afternoon.

By then, the sun was setting. Watching this spectacle while strolling a winding track was delightful. I would recommend it to anyone.

After finishing our two mile jaunt it was time for dinner at the buffet. I love cruise ship buffets because you can sample a little bit of everything. Fine, if you like the five course meals in the main dining room, but they are a little too much for us. (We’ve never gained even one pound on a cruise.)

And it’s nice because most people go to the main dining room for dinner, so the buffet was sparsely populated.

After grazing on everything from taco bites to grilled Mahi Mahi, we were full and decided to head to the pool deck and watch a movie on the big screen. We didn’t know what that night’s feature was, but who cares? You’re on the ocean, with popcorn in hand. Does life get any better than that?

Realizing that when we wake up, the ship will be docking in St. Thomas. And we were worried about how to pass the time?