Sunday, March 31, 2024

Happy Easter! It was special to celebrate Resurrection Sunday on this Sun Princess cruise ship today. Last year, we cruised with Celebrity Cruises on St. Patrick’s Day and they had fun cakes and decorations on the ship, so we expected that Princess would do something similar. And they did. There were lots of activities planned for passengers — kids and adults alike.

First, the morning started with a church service. Surprisingly, there aren’t huge gathering places on the ship, so I knew it would be hard to get a seat in the Princess Live! theatre where the church service was being held. And, I was right. The Easter service began at 9:00am, and most of the chairs were filled by 8:30am when we arrived. It was standing room only with more people filled into the hallway behind the theatre. In the end, Andi and I ended up giving up our seats to an elderly couple standing behind us with canes.

The service was simple and non-denominational. The assistant cruise director leading the service admitted that she wasn’t a minister — just a big fan of Jesus — and said she was honored to be asked to lead the Easter service today. Clearly, Princess had only expected a few people to attend the church service when, in fact, over 200 people gathered together this morning. Kind of a miss on Princess’ part, if you ask me. I hoped no one was turned away from celebrating the resurrection of Jesus because there hadn’t been enough room to gather. It would have been much more accommodating for people if the service had been held in the Princess Arena.

That said, it was a wonderful way to start the day in song and worship with those in attendance. Afterwards, our family went to breakfast at The Eatery (which is similar to the ship’s buffet-style restaurant). There weren’t elaborate cake displayed like there had been on Celebrity last year, but there were beautifully-decorated chocolate eggs on display throughout the restaurant. They were so detailed and really neat to admire.

It’s always interesting to see how other cultures celebrate holidays. In Spain, Portugal, and Italy, we’ve seen giant chocolate eggs being sold for weeks. Many of them are Kinder Surprise Eggs with a toy inside the chocolate shell. No Easter baskets, crosses, or bunnies — only chocolate eggs. I would have purchased big chocolate eggs like this for Tory and Aden, but I didn’t know how I would get them on the ship without the kids seeing. Andi and I searched for small Easter candies when we were in Rome on Friday, but we came up empty-handed. We ended up buying the kids some regular gummy candies and suckers instead — not Easter themed, but I knew they’d still be happy & distracted by everything else happening on the ship.

After breakfast, Aden wanted to go to the Neon Grove Tween Club on the ship. Tory decided she’d go as well, but left after about 30 minutes. She’s really grown up a lot since our cruise last year, and isn’t as interested in the kids games & activities on the ship. Aden, on the other hand, is having a blast playing playing foosball, air hockey, Minecraft, etc. with all the other 8-12 year olds on the ship.

In our stateroom, Tory watched our home church’s online Easter service with Andi and I. Now, it felt like Easter to me. I wished we could have been there to experience the service in person. Attending our church is one of the things I miss most when we’re traveling.

Aden returned to the room when the morning session of Tween Club closed at Noon. Together, the four of us went to lunch at The Eatery. It was a beautiful, sunny day but it was chilly & windy outside on the decks as the ship traveled through the Western Mediterranean.

Andi and I are trying to workout everyday on the ship, so we went to the gym after church. We each lifted weights and attended a Stretch Lab class afterwards in the Wellness Studio.

After lunch, the Princess Kids Club hosted an Easter egg scavenger on the ship. This was a really fun way to meet other families on the cruise as kids & parents worked together to find hidden egg stickers on Decks 6, 7, and 8, and 9.

From 2:00pm-4:00pm, the Princess Kids Club hosted an Easter Fun Fair in the piazza of the ship. There was a DJ, games, glitter tattoos, and face painting. Aden had a blast dancing and playing games with all his new friends. Tory was a little more reserved, but she enjoyed the glitter tattoos and games, too.

The ship staff clearly put a lot of time and energy into the planning of this event, and it was well attended. In all, there’s about 200 kids on the ship. It seems like most families are from the United Kingdom, but Aden’s also met kids from Dubai, Australia, and Canada.

For dinner, the four of us ate at Horizons Dining Room. My entree wasn’t as tasty as last night’s roasted chicken, but it was still really delicious and our service was excellent. In Andi and I’s opinions, that’s one of the best aspects of cruising — the service is top-notch, and the staff are all so friendly.

There’s so much entertainment happening on the ship from live music, outdoor movies playing on the pool deck, games, comedy, and presentations. Aden wanted to go to the Silent Disco after dinner, so the four of us made our way to the piazza. I’m always surprised how well attended every event is, too. There were at least 40 people there dancing the night away to music playing through their headphones.

Aden went to the evening session of Neon Grove Tween Club while Andi, Tory, and I returned to our state room. We decided to skip the music performance in the Princess Arena tonight, opting to snuggle up in our beds and watch TV instead.

Tomorrow we arrive at our first port of call — Gibraltar, United Kingdom.