Six Days At Sea

They are wineing, dining and entertaining us like crazy but it is still 6 days in a ship with no port. It is part of any world cruise. The oceans are massive so to get anywhere you have to cross them. We missed the 6 days across the Pacific by boarding in Singapore. Now we are almost home to Ft Lauderdale after 6 days at sea. 

The mood on the ship started changing when we left continental Europe, headed for the Azores. After our last port which everyone agreed was a wonderful surprise, the mood really changed. Everyone was packing and generally ready to be home. Our first event was a Mariners Lunch to thank us for being there, champagne was served. The next day was a formal night with a gala in the theater before dinner, free alcohol. Wine was served at dinner also. Missing from the formal night was escargot. Lobster was there and a few of us did not order it. We have had it a lot. We asked if we could special order escargot and were told we would get it the following night. Then it was on the menu the next night. 

There is a Johnnie Walker rep on the ship giving talks and tastings. We went to one, nasty stuff. But if you like scotch, they were pouring pretty much as much as you wanted. We were shown a short film about how they made a special issue for the Queen's Jubilee. They made 60 bottles at $150,000 each! They still have some if anyone is interested. We chatted with the rep telling him we would be in Scotland in July. He is going to set us up for a special tour of one of their many distilleries, one that is not open to the public. Should be nice. Johnnie Walker sponsored the masked ball that night. They had 24 cases of scotch to pour at the event. It was at 9:30. We had had time changes for 4 nights in a row. By 9:30 everyone was tired, we were sleeping already. They ended up pouring only 2 bottles! Now the ship has 23 cases of free Johnnie Walker that they cannot sell. 

And all we could see outside were waves and clouds with some rain mixed in. 

They had crew talent shows, one with the Indonesians, the other with the Filipinos. They had a lot of fun doing them. Another afternoon was the passenger talent show. There were some good singers but the highlight was a Jewish lady from Brooklyn. She stood up there for 20 minutes talking about her relationship with her husband and had us all laughing like crazy. She was better than the comedians who had done shows onboard. 

And all we could see was waves and clouds, it was time to get home. 

They did a farewell reception with a speech by the Capt. The entire voyage went 31,000 miles and used 8.5 tons of fuel. The ship's hostess rattled off all the things that had been done for charity, raising over $12k. The port guide gave a synopsis of the entire cruise in about 5 minutes with pictures to go along with it. She did a great job and brought back a lot of memories. Then they ran a video of the crew doing silly things like falling into the pool, hiding in closets in one of the suites and a chef taking a rubber chicken out of a pot. It was very funny. A long cruise like this you get to know the people, passengers and crew. We become one big dysfunctional family. With all the memories, maybe I am not ready to get off the ship after all.