Boat-Notes

The followong are just a collection of thoughts that don’t make it into other blog entries.

Bryan and I were in cabin 4600.

John and Larry were next door in 4602.

These were on the lowest passenger deck and each room had a nice sized port hole window. They were not far above water level. When we were docked it was possible for those outside on the dock to see in. 

Joe and Alan were a deck up in 5616 which had a nice sized window. 

Although the buffet was a regular part of every day’s dining, there were also two formal dining rooms, the Venetian and the Aqua. These were nice, comfortable, formal dining options. 

The buffet at times was busy and crowded, and not unlike throwing a bunch of steaks into a pit of hungry alligators. 

But there were always a lot of options to choose from. It was fast to get in and get out of, and there was usually plenty of seating.

The formal dining rooms were very classy, had elegantly presented food, and a personal waiter. It also took much longer for a meal; typically about 90 minutes for dinner. 

Joe and Alan chose this option for most meals, while the rest of us usually joined the alligators. 

While Joe seemed to be hit the hardest with respiratory issues, Larry seemed to catch something first, and had a persistent cough the rest of the trip. All of us had days we felt as if we were coming down with something also. 

None of us got in the pool on the ship. Most days were a bit chilly, so it stayed empty. We had one afternoon that was warm, and the pool filled up like a people soup pot so we stayed out of the mix.

One chilly evening John and I tried out one of the hot tubs, but it wasn’t hot at all. More like a tepid tub. It was more relaxing to just have a hot shower.

Speaking of showers; Joe, who normally is cold all the time didn’t have any hot water in his room, or so he thought. He resorted to brief, cold showers. He told us about it the day before the trip ended. I went to his cabin and figured out his problem with the shower controls and he finally got a hot shower. Alan had no problem with the temperature, but he’s a lot like a penguin in some ways.

Speaking of Penguins; Alan has short legs. Typically when we walked anywhere as a group, Joe would be in the front while Alan would be in the back.

Joe claims Alan is dawdling, and he may have been, but he’s very curious and he prefers to observe his surroundings. Joe, on the other hand, often seems to be in a hurry to get to the next place.

Alan didn’t appreciate it when we frequently pointed out his dawdling, so for his sake I changed it to piddling. It sounded a lot nicer as well. At least it was a lot more fun to say, particularly in a crowd. 

“Alan, stop piddling in the hall”, or “Hold on, Alan is piddling on the stairs.” But for some reason Alan didn’t approve of that either. 

In most of the places we visited it seemed that cats ruled. Back home we may joke about cats acting like they are in charge, but  across Europe it seems like they actually were. It was not uncommon to see groups of nice little homes for stray animals, and people regularly feed them. They don’t have a stray cat and dog issue like we have at home, and in many of the places we went they were simply everyone’s pets. 

My friend Ebru in Turkey said she always carries cat food with her to feed them. In some areas the animals are even given their shots and are ‘fixed’, and given an ear tag so strangers know the animal is safe to interact with. 

In one restaurant we watched as a couple sat eating their meal, and a stray cat sat on the same table with them watching them eat and waiting for scraps. The couple acted as it was normal behavior.

John recently acquired an Apple watch and  it became a daily competition between him and Alan to see who walked the most steps, and who went up the most flights of stairs. Alan was always in the lead. Alan tried to convince us it’s because he’s naturally more athletic. John insisted it was because Alan had short legs that required more steps to keep up with the rest. Joe assured us that it was because Alan was dawdling. 

When we signed up for this cruise, the travel agency gave us some onboard credit as a bonus. At the end of the cruise we received a notice that some of the unused onboard credit could be returned to us in cash. We checked on it and Bryan and I were given $222 in cash refunds from our cabin credits. John and Larry got back $155. Joe and Alan didn’t get any back, but instead used that money to pay their gratuities.

Packing for this trip was a challenge. We had to get everything for three weeks travel in one small carry-on suitcase and one small backpack. 

It seems that we all had something we didn’t need, and other things we wished we had. Over all, we were very glad of our decision. We had considered bringing a larger checked bag, but upon looking back, hauling an additional large bag everywhere would have been nearly impossible with all our traveling and changing trains and planes. We all felt that we made the best choice.

As I was packing, I had 4 different belts laid out and decided that was silly. I wouldn’t need more than one, so I put them back. I only realized once we were on the trip that I had put them ALL back. In Venice a found a really nice travel belt with hidden compartment for stashing emergency cash. I bought it, and was very proud of my purchase. Too bad I didn’t have any money to hide.

One late evening we were at the buffet for our usual night snack and ice cream before bed, and we had a long talk with a food services manager. She was from the Philippines, and was telling us some interesting stories, most notably when COVID first hit.

They were not allowed to take on any passengers and the whole crew had to stay on board. She said they just floated around at sea for months until they started sailing again. 

She said they mostly all enjoyed it. It was like they were on an extended vacation. The entertainers were still on board, and performed for the crew. Up until then, most of the crew had never seen any of the shows.  

They also did extended cleaning. They were looking for things to do so they cleaned everything on the ship. Things that had never been cleaned were cleaned. They washed walls and table legs and anything they could reach.

Everywhere we went, the American election would inevitably come up. In every country we went to, and with every person we talked to, we heard the same thing repeatedly, many many times.

“Everybody hates Trump”

“Nobody trusts Trump”

“Trump is bad for the world”

“Trump is crazy’

People were often very passionate about it and we usually just stayed out of it.

There was only one exception. A young kid in Istanbul, maybe 18 years old, said he liked Trump and the reason he gave was that Trump called their president Erdegon an idiot and that he hated their president.

Trump is obviously not as popular to the world as he frequently claims he is.