February 20, 2024

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. 

Don’t touch that dial, I’ll be back.