20 down and 8 to go...where has the time gone???

We’re 8 days to the end of the cruise and the second of 2 "at sea" days before we arrive in Adelaide. I have to say, the polish is wearing off of the "at sea" days as there’s little we haven’t done or tried after 20 days on board the ship. Yesterday was spent with me applying for a job. As we get closer to the end of our holiday, reality is starting to set in, and my mind has been inching towards what needs to be done back home. I’ve been keeping an eye on the on-line job banks and found one that I was interested in. It’s as a Divisional Training Officer with the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires...and surprisingly enough, it’s in Saint John...and more surprising, bilingualism isn’t mandatory!! I sent off my resume yesterday, so hopefully I’ll hear something back from them in the next little while.

Today Kier and I competed in "The Fantastic Race", which is the Princess’ answer to The Amazing Race. Unfortunately, we finished 4 out of 5 teams...I guess after 20 days our competitive edge has become a bit rounded...




Kier competing one of the challenges
in "The Fantastic Race"
sure, to you it looks like eating an ice cream...
to us, it was one step closer to VICTORY!!!


We’re looking forward to going ashore tomorrow and experiencing Adelaide and all it has to offer...the Migration Museum, the Rundle Mall...and of course, a casino, where I’m hoping to regain some of my Bingo losses!!

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY: Traveling with all these experienced cruisers has proven educational. A couple of people have told us this trick that we’ve put into practice. We went to the Purser’s Desk and asked that the automatic tipping be removed from our on-board account as we were going to do our own tipping. (For those of you unfamiliar with cruising, they charge your on board account $10/day/person for tips). In the past, we’ve just gone with the flow and left it to the end of the cruise, but what we learned from the experienced cruisers is that you will get even better service if you do your own tipping, and you start by paying and "advance" midway through the cruise. It makes sense too. If you wait to the end of the cruise to tip, then you don’t benefit from any little "extras" that may come your way from your room steward, or your waiters. We decided to give it a go...now, mind you, the only thing we’ve noticed so far is that we seem to get an extra ice bucket delivery in the evening. I guess we don’t notice any big service increase because we’re such "low maintenance" cruisers to begin with. Oh well, maybe it’s time to call for a little room service...