Dec. 14-16 Days at Sea

Dec. 14-16 – At Sea

We’ve had three days at sea, and they take on an atmosphere of their own. Everyone is a captive audience and depending on one’s ability to be self-entertained it can be heaven or hell. The ship does its best to keep people constantly amused with such fairly inane activities such as: golf putting skills; ping-pong competitions; bingo contests; sari wrapping courses; bridge, computer or painting classes; enhancement lectures, wine seminars and on and on and on. There are those passengers who join into almost any activity and those of us who do absolutely as few as possible.

If one wants to be alone (a la Greta Garbo) with a book or Kindle, an IPOD, a crossword puzzle or a Sudoku, there are many hidey holes where you won’t be persecuted by microphone-bearing cruise entertainers – there’s the library; the large lounge on the 10th floor overlooking the bow of the boat; one’s own cabin or comfortable deck chairs located all over the ship. The key is to plot out your day based on the schedule of events which is published the evening before and left on your bed to examine. If something ‘grabs you’ from the day’s plan then the rest of the day is based around it, if nothing ‘floats your boat’ then it’s just a matter of deciding where to park yourself between meals for the maximum of comfort.

Note: Here's what's amusing. On this cruise at least twenty other people have some form of e-book and the cruise director noted that there was an interest in the topic. So on one day's calendar of events was an entry saying "Kendal meeting". We knew it couldn't be about retirement homes in NH, so we went and found ourselves as instructors as well as participants. If this crowd is any sampling, the e-book is going to be very popular. On a cruise like ours it was essential for our days at sea and I am eternally grateful that both of us had one for those quiet moments.

For those of a more social nature, there is always someone to chat with, play with or dine with. For those of us who want to fantasize that all these people aren’t on the boat and that this is our private yacht, there are opportunities galore to retain that fantasy.

There is one gentleman on board whose wife is a participant in almost any and all activities, he however is holed up in his cabin watching endless amount of DVD’s – of which there are over 600 to chose from; there are a group from Istanbul who play endless amount of backgammon on the pool deck with cigars in hand; another group are in the card room playing Mah Jong; there is a klatch of women who get together to needlepoint in the mornings; and then there are always the sun lovers who from early morn to setting sun are oiled, greased and ready to be broiled in their deck chairs.

By now we have ‘sussed out’ our fellow passengers, the potential for activities, and the nooks and crannies and we’ve made our choices in all categories. For Bob a sea day is one for watching the sea, reading in the library or lounge, or chatting with our buds. For me there are bridge lessons, reading, crosswords or naps.

Evenings have taken on a sort of routine as we shower, get into our dining duds and join ‘our gang’ at the Martini lounge for drinks followed by dinner. ‘Our gang’ has formed over time and we aren’t terribly interested in adding others. They are:
· Russell Stanley and Diane Osborne, the two seismic consultants (sort of mapping possible oil fields from research ships) from Australia and New Zealand respectively, who now have homes in Palma de Mallorca and Las Vegas. They are incredibly well traveled, enjoy a good laugh, a pint of beer and always seem in a spirit to party. They too are self-entertaining with their computers, SONY book reader, IPODS, puzzles and books, but enjoy an afternoon on deck in the hot tub with a ‘brewsky’ and some chatter. We enjoy chatting with them about ports of call, their harrowing days at sea and most any and all things related to sailing or travel. They are the ‘children’ of our gang being both below 50 years of age, but in many ways the most worldly.
· George and Bettelou Stagg, from Calgary, provide the elegance to our gang. They are always on deck or in the pool reading, chatting or laughing. She worked for IBM, he was an HR executive and they always have amusing tales to tell of prior cruises, their farm and grandchildren, whom they obviously adore, or their various aches and pains. They always come to cocktails dressed to the nines and if there’s dancing to be done they’ll be on the dance floor cutting a rug. Their laughter is infectious, their Canadian accent charming and their manner quite self-deprecating. They always have things to chat about and we look forward to seeing them in the evening.
· Doris Litton from Knoxville Tennessee is our grande dame. A widow of seventy-nine she has been everywhere a boat could sail and Russell early-on named her “the oracle”. She is up for anything and everything has a great laugh, loves to sing, has a wicked sense of humor, but is always the gracious lady. Her days are spent on her own, usually in her cabin, but if there’s a tour to go on, she’s on it. We have all adopted her, and she us, and we look forward to seeing her at the bar with her Dewars, wearing another wonderfully gaudy pair of earrings – her one fashion statement.
· Dick and Carol from Charlottesville are part of the gang, though they tend to do things on their own. Both graduates of U. of M., he is a psychologist and professor, and she a retired kindergarten teacher. They are a little more anxious and edgy and tend to spend days on their own either on a tour (if at port), or exercising, or sitting on the pool deck reading. They recently lost a grandson to H1N1, and I’m sure this cruise is a way for them to heal.

There are other ‘gangs’ which ours have identified and tend to avoid – there’s the Turkish family who move as a unit through the ship and tend to stay on their own; there’s the “H&R Block” group (so named by us) a fairly boisterous group of what we would call ‘New York Jews from Miami Beach’, who suck the air out of a room or a bus no matter where they go. If they’re on a bus we will try and get on another.

What is amazing is that you’d think that after 40 days you’d recognize most of your fellow-passengers. After all there are only about 500 – but everyday there is a new face and you say to yourself “where did they come from”. The average age would be late 50’s and since schools are in session there are absolutely no children on board and very few young working people.

Bob and I have chosen our favorite crew members as well – Oana, one of the wine sommeliers from Croatia, a wry and witty woman who has provided us with wonderful wine selections, always with a dose of good humor mixed with deep knowledge of wine; Star , another of the wine sommeliers from Serbia who seems to be a rebel and adventurous sort; Diana, our favorite waitress who comes from St. Petersburg, Russia, who is pixieish in her manner and has wonderfully amusing body gestures when she recognizes us anywhere on the ship; Chris our barman at Martini’s who knows our likes and our dislikes who seems somewhat shy and very un-barman like in his lack of small chatter, but who always remembers that I love potato chips with my drink.
The ‘destination staff’ are critical to a cruise like this since they are the ones who organize all the tours ensuring that the busses arrive on time at the quayside, that the very forgetful passengers do not forget their identification cards, their bug spray, their hand sanitizer, their umbrellas, their sunscreen…you name it. Every day in the main theater (and later repeated on the TV) they give a review of the upcoming tours at the next port, when they will depart, how long the bus ride will last, how many stairs there may need to be climbed, what the highlights of the tour contain, whether we will have to take off our shoes at a temple, or cover our heads in a wshrine, etc. The details are endless, the chance for confusion or error is great, and they have anxious passengers who are unfamiliar with the port, the language and the history. Through it all they keep their ‘sang-froid’, their humor and their energy.

It has been amazing to us how ignorant some of our fellow passengers may be. We heard of one woman who spent an entire day on a tour and came back to ask “what country was that?” or the woman who walked up to one of the staff and said “You’re from France. Do you speak French?” And yet each person, having spent a day in a protected environment will come back and tell their friends they have seen the country. For us the goal has been twofold: to sample the various ports and to determine where we want to come back for longer visits and to follow in Daddy’s footsteps as he circumnavigated the world.

The blending of days at sea where one wakes without an alarm clock and without the need to be alert to new senses, sounds and people, and the days on tour when we’re absorbing all that is new and unfamiliar makes for a perfect blend. Too many days on tour and it all blends together…too many days at sea and some of us get antsy. But all in all it works thanks to the crew who make every day a delight.