This is our 43rd day aboard the Sojourn, and so far, we are having the time of our lives. Except for the two stops in Samoa and the stop in Tonga, we have been to every port prior to this trip. Well, now comes the uncharted waters. We have been looking forward to this part of our trip. All ports will now be new to us until we arrive at Okinawa Japan on March 26th. That’s almost five weeks of new adventures for us.
Well, it’s Pool Chronicles time again:
Full disclosure here, this actually happened at the sushi bar last night, but it’s too good to pass up. This lady sat down next to me and asked me if I got anything in the room when I got on yesterday, did I get a list of the available restaurants? I explained that we got on in LA. Oh, well how did you learn about where and when to eat? Well, is this your first cruise, I asked, well yes, it is. Well, first I recommend you download the Seabourn app. I proceeded to show her that all the bars and restaurants were listed there, and today’s menus are also available. Also, each evening you will get a daily paper listing all the activities and food menus for the next day. After several more questions including how do I order sushi here, I showed her a menu and I again referred her to the Seabourn app. She told me that wouldn’t work because I don’t like to carry her phone with me all the time, and besides that I can’t get my internet to work. So, I explained to her that she needed to go to Seabourn Square on deck 7 and they would be able to help her with that. Then she said she had been aboard for a whole day and had not met anyone yet. I told her that there are usually single cruisers “meet and greets” on occasion. She said, yes, they told me there was a singles cocktail hour last night, but she didn’t go because I don’t drink. How do I get to eat in the specialty restaurant? Simple, just make a reservation at Seabourn Square on deck 7. But I’m alone, I can’t imagine going to a fancy restaurant by myself. I explained that there are probably as many solo travelers on board as couples or get out there and meet some other travelers and ask if they would like to join you for dinner. How much crazier can this get, I thought? Then, the bomb dropped. She said I have to go because I have been invited to dinner by an officer, but I don’t know where to go or what officer I am dining with. I explained that the ship has these events quite often and she would be at a table with several other guests and an officer in the Dining room on deck 4. Just check in at reception and they will take you to the right table. Oh, thank you, you have been so helpful and left.
Kim showed up a few minutes later and I told her this story, to which she said, careful, or you may become her new BFF.
On a sad note:
Even paradise isn’t safe from the reality of life, it’s a sad day for us. Friends, we realize that we are extremely lucky to be where we are, few people ever experience something like this. We are grateful and count our blessings every day. But even this magical moment is not immune to the pain of the world.
We woke up to an email from Mary, the director of the orphanage that I helped build and Kim used her nursing skills to monitor the growth of the children. The orphanage has been running successfully for over 20 years now.
Well, the Honduran government has decided to close down all orphanages in the Country and return the children to their families.
Today, they took 37 of our 70 children and there was nothing we could do to stop them. I’m sure you can all imagine what it would be like to lose your child. But how about losing 37 of them at one time? The ministry is devastated. These children have been taken from the security of a loving home and dumped into an unknown future.
Worldwide Heart to Heart has hired attorneys to help them recover the children, but it may be hopeless. I’m sure the remaining children fear for their lives and know that it’s only a matter of time before they too will be taken from their home. These are devastating times; we know and love these children. They are family. The future of the orphanage is up in the air. Such a sad day for all. Sorry to turn my fun and funny blog into reality, but sometimes our dreams get bit in the ass by the brutal reality of life.
I’m going to leave it right there for tonight. Say a prayer for all orphans in Honduras before you go to sleep tonight.
I was actually concerned that today would be boring and I wouldn’t have anything to write about. Well, wrong, I’m on a cruise ship with lots of people who like to talk.
As I said yesterday, today about 200 new guests came aboard, it was actually 150. Well, that’s what the crew called them, to me I see 150 potential victims of the Pool Chronicles. How exciting is that?
Well, it was time for my first ever pedicure treatment. All I can say is it will not be my last. It too was an over the top experience. I will do this once a month for the rest of my life. I hope I can find someone in the Longview area to serve me. Any recommendations will be gladly accepted.
I saw a guy wearing a t shirt that said “In my defense I was left unsupervised “. Great shirt.
I would guess with the changeover of guests that our median age dropped by about 15 years, which puts us back on the top side of the curve, where we belong. Several new cruisers stopped by my table and introduced themselves to me, I thought that a bit strange. Then, a guy said that the bartenders were telling everyone that I was the mayor of the pool deck. With all the humility I could muster, I said that wasn’t quite the case, but he could find me here most days from about noon to 4. A younger couple sat at the table next to me and struck up a conversation. They were from Calgary Canada, which caused me to tell them about a horrific night we had in Calgary. We ran into pea soup thick freezing fog. The roads became slick with ice. I told Kim to start looking for a hotel to stop at, she told me there were several at the next exit. After taking the exit, I saw the red glow of a Marriot sign. I pulled into the driveway and stopped at the sign that said valet. When they opened our doors, I asked if they had rooms available, and with an affirmative answer, we took our bags and left the car with the valet. The clerk checked us in and asked how many nights we were staying. I told him until the freezing fog is gone, if it’s gone in the morning, so are we. He told us because of our status with Marriot, he was able to put us in a deluxe room (I didn’t know we had status). Your requests for a high floor away from the elevator have been met and the extra pillows have been ordered, damn, he knew us well. Wow, I fell down that rabbit hole, sorry. So, back to the couple, we visited about all sorts of stuff and the subject of this blog came up and my side show:
Pool Chronicles:
She had already told me this was her fourth Seabourn cruise, but her boyfriends first. She told me she had a true story to share with me. First you need some background. Seabourn ships have valet laundry service and also a free laundromat, for people who don’t trust the valet service, Kim uses it for delicate items. It’s all about early risers, of which I’m not one. This lady woke up very early and decided it would be a great time to do her laundry, sure enough, the room was empty. She loaded her clothes and as she did, she realized the clothes she was wearing really needed washed also. So, the time being what it was she stripped off her clothes and washed them too. Little did she know, there were 3 guys that met at the gym at 4 AM to work out together. After their workout, they would shower and prepare for the day. On their way back to their respective rooms, they always stopped by the laundromat to wash out their stinky gym clothes, I know you are getting way ahead of me here. Sure enough, they opened the laundry room door and there sat Miss naked, reading a magazine. There are serval words to describe what happened next, but in the end, they just asked if she was done with the washer. She replied that the dryer should be done soon. They all went about the business at hand. She folded her clean laundry getting dressed as she found the clothes she wanted to wear and left, saying nice to meet you.
Well, when it came for us to leave Sidney, the Captain asked me to pilot the ship out of the harbor, I told him that I might have had one too many margaritas. He told me I was likely more sober than he and with I said, WELL HOLD MY BEER, I GOT THIS.
Sushi, 2 nights in a row. Two things, first, apparently my sushi friends got off in Sydney, or hopefully just took a night off. And the bartender from the sky bar, a cute little red head from Montenegro, was tending bar in the club and said that when she didn’t see me at my poolside table she worried that I got off in Sydney. That really surprised me since I never go up to the sky bar. It does, however, look down on the pool and I see her daily up there. I told her I too had the same feelings when I looked up to see the Sky bar was closed. Then I told her about my 12:30 pedicure appointment and that was why I was late to the pool. We both confirmed that we are on until Singapore. Another plus for small ship sailing, they notice the small stuff.
So, Australia is at the top of my shit list today. For some reason, they made us all get off the ship at 7:30 this morning, so we could sit around and wait for 2 hours before reboarding. Some immigration thing, I guess.
Well, we have come to the official end of our first segment of our trip. So, about 200 of our mates are leaving us and a good number of crew. We will pick up 200 new guests and some new crew. We are also provisioning again. That means IPA again (we didn’t get any). Last time we provisioned, the IPA lasted less than 2 days. The bar manager said that has never happened before. I told him that I hoped that most of the 200 guests leaving were the IPA drinkers and we may be okay. We will see.
Last night around the pool, we had an Epicurean Delight. Epicurus was a Greek Philosopher, and his ideas centered around an orgy of Greek food and drink. Well, that it was, it was wonderful. I hope no one is getting the idea that all we (I) do around here is eat and drink. That’s absolutely not correct, we have to sleep sometimes!
This afternoon, we had a huge thunder and lightening storm. Kim hid in the cabin; I sat by the pool and watched the spectacle unfold. Local News said 4 people were struck by lightning, the airport was closed for a while, there were scattered power outages and over 7500 strikes per hour were recorded. That’s a big storm.
We leave Sidney tonight bound for Queensland, day after tomorrow. Yep, tomorrow is a sea day.
I’ve been on a lot of cruises over time, and I always make sure to get my hair cut a few days before I board the cruise ship, so that I don’t have to go to the expensive spa for a haircut. Well, obviously after just over five weeks on board, I needed my hair cut. So, yesterday I got my first on board haircut in the spa.
What a fantastic experience. From now on, I will go aboard every cruise needing a haircut. I was in the chair for nearly an hour. She washed my hair, massaged my scalp, cut my hair, trimmed my eyebrows and mustache, shaved my little ear hairs, and trimmed my neck. WOW, it was good. Great Clips, about ten minutes. I had no idea what I was missing. Just a heads up if you get the chance, try it. I booked a pedicure for Tuesday; I’ve never had one of those either.
And now it’s time for another episode of Pool Chronicles:
I have now officially been crowned Pool Deck Monitor.
As such, I have made some interesting observations. No matter how early I get to the pool or how long I stay, there is one couple that sits in the same chairs at the same table every day. They drink Champagne over ice, all day. And the glasses are refilled several times an hour. For the record, I saw them in the Club while I was eating Sushi one evening and sure enough, they each had a glass of champagne over ice. I don’t know how they can do that. The retired Doctors are there every day and are always interesting to listen to. And I’m sure there are guests that would mention the fat guy that sits around the pool drinking Margaritas all day, but I never see him.
Yesterday afternoon was the Cardboard ship building classic. Some guests collect, with the help of the crew, cardboard and other recyclables from around the ship, build a boat and sail it from one end of the pool to the other. This cruise produced 6 teams and 6 boats. It’s clear that some people take this competition very seriously, bringing items like lights and self-propelled SHARKS from home. Others show little imagination or planning. It is always a highlight among crew and passengers and today was no disappointment.
The task was to haul a 4 ½ pound tin of caviar from one end of the pool to the other. The first ship capsized almost immediately. The rest made the complete sail. The judges – Ship’s Captain, Engineer, Hotel director and, First officer –judged on seaworthiness, design, efficiency, and appearance. In the end, there was a clear winner (pictured). The greatest thing about the winning team is that they involved Arnold, one of our cabin stewards. He requested time off to attend the event and was honored like any other guest. This was special and he really appreciated it. Arnold is the guy from the town in Honduras where our orphanage is located.
Enjoy, it’s almost time for my next pool shift to start.
Once each cruise on Seabourn, they have what they call their “World Famous Galley” luncheon. This is the only time any guests are allowed in the galley. The chefs pull out all the stops for this one. The galley is u shaped and quite large. The first thing you have to do when entering is wash your hands. Then you are presented with the largest buffet lunch in the World. Both sides of the aisle are loaded with food. Of course, there is a huge salad bar, dessert bar, caviar, and bread stations.
The highlights for me are prime roast beef, spit roasted whole suckling pig, Fried shrimp, calamari, and cod. Grilled shrimp and fish. Sushi, Chilled shrimp, crab legs and lobster (no limit).
The highlights for Kim, well, look at the picture.
