No photos in this blog. I'll tell you why tomorrow.
Well, I’ve me the nicest people. Let’s start with Pam, my roommate. Pam, her husband Peter, and I met four years
ago, sailing through the Panama Canal on a Princess cruise. They hail from New Zealand -the land of wooly
sheep - so they speak with a funny accent and use some expressions we yanks aren’t
accustomed to, but those are minor hurdles.
Pam, Peter and I became friends in Cartagena, Colombia and hung about a
bit in several ports after that.
Towards the end of the 16 night
sailing it was discovered that Peter’s family was a “bunch of crazy
Irishmen”. His mother’s maiden name was
Brady and her family was originally from County Cork, Ireland. Here’s the thing: MY mother’s maiden was
Brady and HER family originally hailed from County Cork, Ireland. So Peter and I started calling each other
cousin. You meet the darndest people on cruise ships.
Long story short, we’ve kept in touch and Pam has come along
on this sailing with me. She’s a great
roommate; adventurous, well-traveled,
independent and actually a good influence on me, except when it comes to
chocolate desserts. We each go off and
do our own thing, but get together for things we’re both interested in . She tells me I talk in my sleep, but I’ve
been told that many times, unfortunately nobody will tell me what I say.
I had the honor of sitting next to a very nice young man on the plane who
is in the Air Force but for security reasons could not tell me what he
did. We had a great talk (about
non-classified issues) and I thanked him for all he did for our country.
The counter supervisor at Delta, Angela, deserves a gold
star for calming my nerves as much as possible during the non-existing passport
incident. Bless her for keeping her head
while I was losing mine. Apparently it’s
a daily occurrence in her line of business.
Our table mates are interesting also, one couple is
from the north of England, and the other
is from Australia (I’ve always liked Australians in general).
A few observations:
- Who knew the ship would be so bloody full of Brits? As an American I guess I just didn’t think
about a sailing from Southampton being loaded with Englishmen. Of course it makes sense, but I just hadn’t
considered it.
- The carpets on the port side corridors are blue (blue, left,
port – all have four letters), and starboard side corridors have red carpeting. In flower arrangements the top flower points
toward the bow of the ship - helps you orient yourself, when you can’t see out
a window. Clever, huh?
- The average passenger age on this sailing is 75+. As many of you know, I live with my 92 year
old mother in her retirement village.
This was to be a bit of a break, but I’m afraid it backfired. I’m the young blood around here and the disco
is hardly cranking.
- There are a lot less tattoos than I see on Carnival
ships. Or maybe they’ve just faded over
time and into the wrinkles.
- The hoi-poloi don’t mix with the riff raff. You need to
insert your card key in the elevator to go up to the Princess Grill or Queens
Grill level suites (which also have their own dining rooms & lounge). The class systems still exists on Cunard.
- Being on deck one I expected to be issued a pair of oars
with my card key, but am told I won’t actually have to help row. Good thing or we’d probably miss a few ports.
- Most of the hangars in the closet are “perma hangars” – the
kind you slide into a little device on the clothes rod so that people won’t
steal the hangars. I was a little disappointed
by this, on the mass market cruise lines I expect it, I had thought that a 5-star line wouldn’t
need to go there. Makes me want to
steal one of the two regular hangers just for spite. (But I won’t.) Maybe this only applies in steerage
class. I’ll have to ask around. Maybe top drawer passengers get real hangars.
- Almost the only people gambling in the casino are the few
Americans on board. I’m told that Brits
don’t gamble. (Who knew?) As usual, I lost – but only $10 so I’ll just
consider it a contribution.
- No denim in public areas after 6 PM. Refreshing, but makes for more stuff to pack.
- And that’s all I’ve got for today. There hasn’t been a single belly flop contest
or sexy legs or hairy chest contest. No
pool volleyball. There was, however, a
paddle tennis competition, a watercolour art class, and shuffleboard tournament. Not to mention a ballroom dance class. How
genteel.
- The view from my treadmill this afternoon was much nicer than at home.
No weird souvenirs yet … this is CUNARD after all. I’m sure I find something soon.
Keep Calm & Sail On.
Missing Sailor!!
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