This was a good change for several reasons. Best of all, when we get to the ship we actually get to unpack all our stuff. Four guys in a hotel room is tight under any circumstances. When they’ve carried enough luggage to last 10 days on a cruise, it takes a pretty monumental effort to keep things organized enough that it’s not complete chaos.
The other reason that it’s good is that Jacob and Taylor finally will change underwear. The current style of wearing shorts low enough that ones undies peak over the top as a fashion statement makes it acceptable to observe what other people wear as unmentionables. In this particular case, Jacob is fond of NC State boxers and Taylor had smiley-face ones.
Along with the same cargo shorts. Every day. Since we left on Wednesday.
If it weren’t for the fact that they wore them under their swimsuits to go to the hot tub, things could have gotten bad. Fortunately, like most hotel pools, there was enough chemicals in them to disinfect as they were worn.
Traveling to the Ship
Once again, we were in the Big Blue Bus to travel. The poor driver looked at the luggage – roughly what Hannibal used to cross the alps from Carthage to Rome, minus the elephants – and started stacking it into the back of that 14 passenger van.
I’d note again that the 14 passengers who are going to occupy that vehicle have to be Lilliputian in dimensions. It was plenty full with just us.
30 minutes on the road and we were at the terminal. Royal Caribbean hadn’t sent us the right baggage tags, though, so we ended up standing in the sun writing out new tags to make sure that all the luggage went to the right rooms. We must have done it right, though, because the tags and the tip to the porter insured that everything was delivered later in the day.
Check-in
The message boards talked about check in at the port, sometimes favorably and sometimes quite unkindly. It was relatively painless to get our crowd through, although it looked as though Eddie was going to have to drag one lady over the counter to whup some serious ass.
As we were collecting to go through the Disney-esque lines (back and forth, back and forth), Dad (who’d arrived from their hotel earlier with Mom and was already checked in) said they’d been told to bypass the lines and go straight to the desk. Eddie was leading with all the paperwork and I was trailing to encourage stragglers, as was normal. Some dictatorial lady decided that we had to go through the loop-te-loops despite the fact that nobody was there. By the time she was arguing this, of course, Eddie was already at the counter pulling out paperwork.
Was this the one who almost got whupped? Noooo – that’s still to come!
So we went through the line, held back behind EB (as per his directions to give him some space) while the other counter agents began insisting that we move down and they’d take care of us. One went after Benita and the other went after me, and then one bleached blond made the mistake of reaching over to try to get some of Eddie’s papers.
Like a pit bull guarding his food dish, you don’t mess with the man’s filing system.
I was fending her off, explaining that we were happy to wait, it was still early and we were in no hurry. I told her we’d been on lots of cruises before and had the system down, to which she retorted, ‘Yeah, well, we’ve checked in a lot of folks, too, you know.’ When I responded that they hadn’t using our system, she looked as if I’d just slapped her.
By then, Eddie’d gotten all the papers out and we were checked in, cards printed and ready to go back and have a seat while we waited.
All in all, it was a relatively painless process that resolved itself at the barking stage rather than having to go to an all-out dogfight.
One interesting thing – for all the fuss over having the appropriate paperwork to take Jacob with us and out of the country – nobody asked about it. Not once. Not the slightest mention of it. We could have schlepped the boy off to Canada and sold him to slavers. I’m betting the Canadian market for teenagers with significant appetites is pretty slim in this economy though, so the current plan is just to bring him back home, unless, of course, Jerry and Candy give us different directions.
Boarding
Boarding was easy as well. Walk up the ramps, stick your card in the slot, stand on the tape and smile for the camera. Then you’re on the ship (no “Welcome to the cruise cocktail was offered!) and herded toward the food chutes until 1:00.
It is a BIG ship. Lots of the older people on board can be heard talking about the fact that it’s just too big, and from their perspective that’s correct – think of a small shopping mall and you’ve got the approximate dimensions.
The only place we really notice it is with regard to Mom and Dad’s room. They were right across the hall, and the cruise line “upgraded” them to a cabin that overlooks the Promenade – actually an interior mall or streetscape. This is great for watching the parades and events that happen nightly between 11:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. It puts them a LONG ways away from us (at the complete other end of the ship, roughly 2 blocks away) and a lot closer to noise that they probably don’t appreciate. Between Dad’s hearing and Mom’s Ambien, though, it’s probably not going to cause them to lose any sleep.
Afternoon Activities
After 1:00 we were in the rooms waiting for luggage. The boys got theirs first and Taylor whipped them into line. When we stopped by to check later, it was spotless (yeah, that’s hard to believe, but is accurate). Everything was unpacked, suitcases stowed under the beds, things very organized and they were asking for their dirty clothes hamper. (The pop-up mesh ones travel well and are a Godsend if travelling with kids, just to corral the dirty stuff if nothing else).Other luggage was slow in coming up, so everyone went to the sundeck to catch the rays available (well, except for me, who was waiting on the rest of the luggage. I’m not a sun worshiper anyhow).
With only two of us in the room, I was somewhat lost in attempting to organize things. Usually, it’s a matter of double stacking, dividing drawers and showing no quarter for things out of place. We actually have empty shelves and drawers with lots of space to put our stuff now, which also means there’s nooks and cubbies to lose your stuff as well.
Travelling with Teenagers
For the first time, the boys aren’t sharing a room with a parent but instead are in one by themselves. Lots of talk about trust and don’t mess up, because we will kill you and throw the body overboard. Rules are pretty simple – stay together, don’t go to anyone’s room, don’t bring anyone to your room, check in periodically and let us know where you are. We did a surprise check this morning (the parental units have a key that works to their room) and everyone was in bed – alone – as reported and anticipated. But it showed that we will bust in without notice to do a spot check. As all parents know, the mere threat is sometimes as good as actual action if there’s a reasonable possibility they’ll follow it up.Entertainment
Shows on cruise ships can be either pretty good or pretty bad. The first night’s show, which was packed because there was only one showing, was pretty good, despite what it sounded like going in. The lead act was a juggler who was as much a talker and funny as he was a juggler. He did impress everyone with his ability to juggle 2 ping-pong balls with his mouth and blow them up to the top of the stage, probably 20 feet in the air. He was followed by a standup comic.
Dinner
Dinner was late. 8:45. That’s almost bedtime under the best of circumstances, and hardly the time that one wants a multi-course meal. Nonetheless, it was there and we ate it. Our waiter is Lyle, from India, and he’s assisted by Vang, from China. They had the names down pretty quickly and were learning preferences (de-caf, no alcohol, etc) even as the meal started.
Either the food was really good or we were hungrier than expected. Prime Rib with baked potato was the winner, although a baked Salmon and shrimp ravioli were pretty good too. We tasted “watermelon gazpacho soup”, which was excellent and will now have to work on a recipe to figure that one out.
I forgot to mention – the first thing I had to do was go fix our dinner reservations. When they’d upgraded Mom and Dad, they also removed them from our table – and gave them 1st seating at 6:30 rather than 2nd at 8:30 with the rest of us. It was all fixed by dinner, though, and we’re now a table for 10 at 8:30.
Casino
Of course, after dinner was a trip to the casino. We anticipated the slots would be kind of loose since it was the first night and they want to suck you back in for the rest of the week. The kids followed us in despite the “over 21 only” signs and were there quite a while. Only when Taylor started to win a bit did he get run out. Their ID’s have two holes punched in them to make sure that the youthful sin is kept to a minimum.
Caleb stood and watched me play what I thought was a nickel slot called “Texas Tea”. It’s my favorite of all of them, and I always look for it. We were doing pretty well, hit a couple of jackpots and were ahead, then it started a downhill slide. I knew he’d learned something, when he asked, “So do you just keep going until the money’s all gone?”
Probably the best $20.00 in tuition that I could possibly have spent.
By then it was late, we were tired, so the boys went to their room and we went to ours. Mom and Dad had crashed right after dinner, since they hadn’t had any days to acclimate to the time change.
Key Frustration
If you’ve ever been on a cruise, you know that everything happens through the use of your room key – you charge to the room that way, gain access to things with it, etc. We hit a relatively high frustration level when our keys kept “de-magentizing” and wouldn’t work. The ship truly DOES become too big when you have to go hunt down someone to get a key to the room, especially if you find out that theirs won’t work, either.
Someone finally said that it was because we were putting them in our pockets next to the cell phones, and that was killing them. Just goes to show that technology doesn’t necessarily simplify our lives like we expect it to. The phones don’t work at sea, yet they’re now the “wrist watches” that we carry so everyone has them.
Room keys now have a hole punched in them and are on a lanyard, safely removed from the cell phone.
