Musin' on Crusin'
You always run into unique people, like the woman in the elevator who said that someone smelled particularly fresh that morning and started sniffing everyone. Fortunately we only went two floors so we escaped before she got to me.
The captain endeared himself to me during the lifeboat drill. He said the reason there are so many intestinal problems on cruises is that cruisers are a filthy, filthy lot and we should wash our God damn hands every now and then. I may be paraphrasing a bit, but that was the gist of it.
I endeared myself to the crew when I called to complain the safe in our cabin - I mean suite - didn't work. It said to slide a credit card or driver's license to lock and unlock the safe. I tried two credit cards and my driver's license. I slid left. I slid right. It didn't work. Maintenance showed up and I showed him the problem by using my driver's license.
He said, "Your card's upside down. The magnetic strip has to be facing up."
Next time you call tech support and they lead with, "Are you sure it's plugged in?" you can thank people like me.
Suites are nice on a cruise ship. We had five floor-to-ceiling windows and the double doors to our expansive balcony also had floor-to-ceiling windows. It made me think back to our cruises where we debated if it was worth the extra money for a porthole versus drapes covering a blank wall. We used the walk-in closet, the double sinks in the bath and the TV's in both the living room and bedroom. We didn't use the Jacuzzi tub. We also used the priority boarding. It was nice bypassing the serpentine line waiting to go through security to go to our own x-ray and metal detector. I'm not sure they were even plugged in. We just breezed through. This was our first, and probably last, experience with livin' large.
Cruise ship food, like hitting every bar in town, is not condusive to dieting.
People on cruise ships like to share complaints with others on cruise ships and I find it highly entertaining. Some folks complained the foghorn blasting once a minute (as required by maritime law) in thick fog was disturbing their rest. If you cruise you need to recognize that the itinerary described in the brochure is merely illustrative of what could happen. Weather, mechanical problems, and other issues will alter things. Although events involving flames or the underside of the ship being exposed to sunlight cross even my line. You have to be able to roll with the punches. Of our four destinations, three didn't go as planned. An ill passenger being offloaded to a US Coastguard vessel at the entrance to Tracy Arm Fjord changed things. Rain and rock slides shutting down both the rail line and the only road to Skagway changed things. A passenger being airlifted out by a Canadian Coastguard helicopter on the way to Victoria changed things. Juneau went off without a hitch. C'est la vie.
I'll probably put up a few more Alaska pics if I can find the time now that I'm back in the hectic Ocean Shores lifestyle.
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