Carinval Glory - NYC to New England... A Memoir

[ShakyBeef]

He'll be back at it later tonight (that's the plan, anyway). He's at that annoying inconvenience that takes up so much of what could be productive beer-drinking and writing time - "work".

 

 

On a side note - I just noticed in the picture above of Granite Man, his painted box has such obvious wood grain. It kinda detracts from the whole statue-on-a-pedestal look.:rolleyes: He really sould have sanded and sealed the plywood before painting it.:cool:

 

:eek: Uh-Oh! I'm starting to think like DH. I better shut up now before I start discussing my hand-washing and sock-wearing habits with strangers on the internet.

[jbhcw]

Absolutely loving this review-memoir:):) DH is a great story teller and Shaky you're not so bad yourself:D. I cannot tell you how many times I have said while reading - that's us, you are so right, done that before, thought that before! Bravo to you both for a fantastic read!

[EBONI325]

I love these dried mangoes, just as much as i'm loving your review. I started late but have been reading for over a week now, and enjoying every bit of it. Must go to bed now, it's 2am. maybe one more night and I'll be caught up, not in any rush though,will be very disappointed when it ends...

Across the street from the alley and down a few buildings to the left, is a store with large, red Chinese writing on the window. Wifey points out the building with the red writing and says, “Is that an Asian market?”

 

“Uh, I don’t know. I can’t see it clearly.” We walk down the sidewalk a little bit until we can get a better look at the store front. Above the Chinese writing, it says “MING’S MARKET”.

 

Wifey gives a little cheer, “YES!”

 

 

<Begin quick background story>

 

On every cruise that Wifey and I have taken, we’ve found and purchased dried mangos in one of the port towns. Sometimes, it’s more difficult to find them than others, but it’s one of our cruise traditions now.

 

In Seattle, we found an oriental market with a large glass jar of dried mangos. We bought a large bag of these mangos (one or two pounds) and ate them every day on our Alaska cruise. Wifey put them in her frozen drinks. I would carry one or two pieces around with me in a napkin and take bites throughout the day, or sometimes just pull out the napkin, unfold the napkin, and sniff the mangos a little and then put it back in my pocket.

 

 

On our last few Bahamas cruises, we got off the ship in Port Canaveral and took the bus to the Merritt Square Mall. On the outside of the mall, there’s a small international grocery store near the bus stop. Now we make this trip to the mall just to get our dried mangos. Our first trip to the mall years ago was a mission to find a small step-stool for Daughter #2. Back then, she was able to go potty by herself, but the toilet in the cabin was too high for her. To make our cabin-life a little easier, we needed to find a little step-stool for her to use (like at home).

 

These are the mangos that we picked up from the Merritt Island mall while docked in Port Canaveral during our first Bahamas cruise.

 

 

This next picture is of the dried mangos that we got on our second Bahamas cruise (same itinerary) from the same store, same mall. These were the same brand from the same store, but these were ten cents more expensive.

 

 

So, we have a dried mango tradition that we try to keep up… partially for the sake of tradition, but mostly because dried mangos are so yumi-licious.

 

<End quick background story>

[Delta Hotel]

Mom had found a booth with live oysters in a tank where you can pick your oyster and they’ll pull out the pearl for you. How I missed this large booth with aquarium tanks almost directly inside the main door, I’ll never know. Mom insisted that each of the girls be allowed to pick their own oyster, and she would buy them a necklace with their pearl mounted in it.

 

It’s a really cute and great idea. It’s a little gimmicky, but fun and exciting.

 

 

<Begin minor side story>

 

We first experienced this oyster/pearl thing in the Japan portion of Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center. Wifey and I went there for New Years back in December of 2000. In the gift shop of “Japan”, there was a long shallow oyster tank where you could pick your oyster. They would cheer (in Japanese) and make a big deal if you picked an oyster with a decent-sized or nicely-colored pearl.

 

While in line at the oyster-picking counter, an old Japanese gentleman (who didn’t seem to be an employee) standing next to us leaned in and gave Wifey a few quiet pointers on picking a good oyster. Wifey, to this day, regrets having forgotten the hints that this gentleman gave her. With his help, she picked an oyster out of the tank, and when they cracked the oyster open and pulled out the pearl, it was a shiny, perfect, 7.75mm, black pearl. Wifey turned and thanked the gentleman profusely as the people behind the counter cheered and hit the gong several times.

 

She had it mounted on a necklace and still wears it regularly today.

 

<End minor side story>

 

At the oyster booth in the tent, both girls are told about the oysters and the pearls, and each one is allowed to pick their oyster. Daughter #1 quickly scans over the tank with one hand balled up inside the other. She finds and picks her oyster and begins bouncing lightly at the idea of what’s about to happen. She doesn’t know what’s going to happen, but she’s really excited at the possibilities.

 

Wifey is at the other end of the tank and sees an oyster that she believes to be a good one. She’s staring into the tank, desperately trying to remember those pointers from the Japanese gentleman 10 years ago. Daughter #2 is standing by her grandmother (Mom) and standing on her tip-toes to see into the tank. Wifey finds one that looks good, then says to Mom, “I think she should pick this one” as she gestures toward an oyster at one end of the tank.

 

Daughter #2 is directed over to Wifey and tries to see what’s in the tank. Wifey picks up Daughter #2 around the waist with one arm and the girl on the other side of the tank hands the 5-year-old a pair of black plastic tongs. Daughter #2 takes the tongs and reaches into the tank, carefully picking up the oyster that Wifey had pointed out. She then places the oyster on a tray, which is being held by the girl behind the tank. The girl then turns with the tray and moves toward the counter where she’ll open the oysters.

 

Wifey turns away from the tank to carry Daughter #2 to the counter, but Daughter #2 is still holding the tongs in front of her, and doesn’t know what to do with them, so she drops them into the tank. As we all watch, the tongs sink… to the bottom of the shallow tank. Apologetically, and mildly embarrassed, Wifey says to the girl, “She dropped the tongs in there… sorry.”

 

Mom reaches her hand toward the tank and offers to reach in and pick them up, but the girl behind the tank says, “Don’t worry, I’ll get them. It can get kind of yucky in there” and reaches in and grabs the tongs herself after putting on a single latex “surgical” glove.

 

After retrieving the tongs, she takes off the glove and returns to the counter to open the two oysters. She opens the one picked by Daughter #1 first. She holds the oyster firmly on the tray with one hand and uses a small knife to open it.

 

The knife isn’t a normal oyster knife. It looks like a cheap bait knife with a fancy handle… but stronger. It’s sturdy and strong-looking but has a relatively thin, straight blade with a point. The whole knife is one solid piece of stainless steel, but still has the profile of a cheap bait knife. It’s clearly a quality tool by the looks of the handle and the blade, but I was expecting something… more like an oyster knife… for opening oysters. But that’s just me, I guess. I’m sure they have a good reason for it.

 

 

As the young woman begins to open the first oyster, she says, “What color are you hoping for?” to Daughter #1.

“A pink one?” Daughter #1 says this with the inflection of a question, but she didn’t mean it as a question. It’s more of an answer that you’re not sure of, when there is no wrong answer. It’s like going to a fast food restaurant and ordering a meal and having the person behind the counter say, “Uh, would you like that #4 meal medium, large, or enormous sized?” This might be where you pause and say, “Uh, medium?” See? There’s no wrong or right answer here, just your opinion or preference… but your lack of confidence in your own answer may cause it to come out sounding like a question? Just kidding, that last question mark was just for fun; my fun, not yours. It’s amusing just knowing that your brain suddenly tried to turn that very “statement” of a statement into a question? I did it AGAIN!!!

 

So the young lady behind the counter cracks open the oyster, reaches inside and pulls out the pearl. She clears the meat-stuff and mucus away from the pearl. With her right hand, she places the pearl in the palm of her left hand, then holds it out for us to see. The pearl is pink, just like Daughter #1 had wanted.

 

After we all see the pearl, she washes it quickly in a small bowl of water, then places it in a small wooden bowl. It’s actually a plastic bowl made to look like a wooden bowl, but hey… who’s going to notice, right?

 

 

She proceeds to open the oyster that Daughter #2 picked in the same fashion as the first. The young lady asks Daughter #2 what color she’s hoping for. Daughter #2 says that she wants a white one.

 

As she’s opening the second oyster, the young lady tells Mom and Dad about the prices of the various settings, necklaces, and fees for mounting the pearl. She says that it takes about five minutes to set a pearl, and it costs $35 for the necklace and the pearl. She offers a few suggestions about settings and mounting options. Mom and Dad choose the little silver “cage” setting which doesn’t require them to drill into the pearl.

 

The second pearl comes out of the oyster, quickly gets washed in the little bowl of water, and it’s white. So both daughters get the color pearl that they wanted… what are the chances?! Well, probably pretty good… there aren’t that many colors of pearls, so the odds aren’t so bad. I don’t think any decent bookie would take those kinds of odds.

 

 

It’s better that the girls got to pick the colors, and not me. If I picked an oyster, the young lady would ask me what color I was hoping for and I’d probably say, “Green, please.”

 

With my luck, she’d crack open the oyster and there’d be a small Ziploc bag of cocaine inside the oyster. And immediately after I realized what it was, there’d be three DEA agents grinding my flat nose into the asphalt.

 

For any of you who aren’t playing close attention, or came late to this party – I’m apparently wanted in the US and Canada for drug trafficking. As for the green pearl reference – green is my favorite color, that’s it. I ask for everything in green, even if “it” doesn’t come in green. Move along now… nothing to ponder here.

 

As the girls put on their new necklaces and stare down at their chests trying to focus on something that’s just barely too close to their faces and making funny shapes with their mouths (like that helps you see something that’s too close), we herd them out of the tent and back through the port building. We’re headed back onto the ship.

 

BING! (times six).

[Delta Hotel]

Must go to bed now, it's 2am.

 

Yeah, I know, right?! Stupid clock.

[pe4all]

LOVE the oyster story. Flashback of my own - on my honeymoon in Hawaii (28 years ago!) we came across one of the oyster/pearl tanks in the Marketplace in Oahu. Of course, dh says "pick an oyster." One of the hints someone gave us was to pick the UGLIEST OYSTER - that means it is one of the oldest, and has the best chance of having a more valuable pearl inside. So I pick the most butt-ugly oyster I can find, they crack it open, and inside are twin black pearls- both very large. Everyone was sooo excited, and the person running the booth went on and on about how rare they were - especially twins! Sooo, here I was, ready to take the pearls back to the U.S. and have them set, when I hear a strange noise in front of me. I look up, and the guy is drilling a hole in each pearl before I could get a word out of my mouth!:eek: He brings out a tray of settings. I had no idea you had to buy a setting with the pearls. (I didn't realize that that was how they really made their money- by selling settings) DH was laughing his rear end off, cause I was so naive. But I got the last laugh, as I got a beautiful pair of black pearl earrings set in gold! And the price? I just pulled the receipt out of my drawer - $30 for everything! (which, at that time for us was a fortune!)

[ShakyBeef]

LOVE the oyster story. Flashback of my own - on my honeymoon in Hawaii (28 years ago!) we came across one of the oyster/pearl tanks in the Marketplace in Oahu. Of course, dh says "pick an oyster." One of the hints someone gave us was to pick the UGLIEST OYSTER - that means it is one of the oldest, and has the best chance of having a more valuable pearl inside. So I pick the most butt-ugly oyster I can find, they crack it open, and inside are twin black pearls- both very large. Everyone was sooo excited, and the person running the booth went on and on about how rare they were - especially twins! Sooo, here I was, ready to take the pearls back to the U.S. and have them set, when I hear a strange noise in front of me. I look up, and the guy is drilling a hole in each pearl before I could get a word out of my mouth!:eek: He brings out a tray of settings. I had no idea you had to buy a setting with the pearls. (I didn't realize that that was how they really made their money- by selling settings) DH was laughing his rear end off, cause I was so naive. But I got the last laugh, as I got a beautiful pair of black pearl earrings set in gold! And the price? I just pulled the receipt out of my drawer - $30 for everything! (which, at that time for us was a fortune!)

 

That's so cool! I don't know what impresses me more - the fact that you got twin black pearls or that you still have the receipt for them.:cool:

[Delta Hotel]

Sorry folks, I don't have anything for you today =(

 

Got up yesterday morning and went to work and didn't quit working until 3AM this morning... then my phone starts ringing and I only get a few hours of sleep... and I'm back to work this morning, so I haven't had any time to prepare your poorly-written-and-over-punctuated-first-person-oxy-moronic-memoir-thats-written-in-present-tense.... mostly.

 

I realize that my memoir is written in mostly present tense. I choose to be difficult, it's a birth right.

 

Hope to have more for you later!

 

DH

[Delta Hotel]

We’re back on the ship and it’s not even 2PM yet. We didn’t stop anywhere for lunch in Saint John, so we’re all hungry for some technically-not-free food from the buffet. The six of us plan to head to Lido deck for some pizza, pasta, and burgers but first, we need to go to our cabins to drop off extra stuff like strollers, ponchoaks, and bags. We split up and agree to meet back at the tables on Lido aft, where we were the day before. We all head back to the cabins.

 

When we arrive at our cabin, the very first thing we notice when walking in the door is the window. When we left our cabin this morning, there was only stone and concrete outside our window. It’s now 2PM and our window has a view of Saint John. I walk over to the window to look out, and our window is now level with the second floor of the port building! The tide came up between 20 and 30 feet since we docked this morning, and we now have a view of the city instead of a stone wall.

 

As a fun touristy factoid, the Bay of Fundy (between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) is home to the world’s highest tides! The tides in the Bay of Fundy can rise 50 feet or more, twice each day. According to the Bay of Fundy tourism website, “Each day 100 billion tonnes of seawater flows in and out of the Bay of Fundy during one tide cycle more than the combined flow of the world’s freshwater rivers!”

 

How about that sentence structure, eh?!

 

*NOTE*

I am not poking fun at Canadians, just the Canadian that wrote this sentence.

 

 

We drop off our extra stuff and stroller in the cabin. While the girls are putting away their things and taking turns using the restroom, I pull out my primary laptop, boot it up, and try to connect to the internet using my cellular connection – no go. Apparently, my cellular data plan doesn’t work in Canada. I know it doesn’t work in the Bahamas, but their cell network doesn’t work with my particular carrier, so that’s not surprising. I was hoping that it would work in Canada… it doesn’t. I walk the laptop over the window and set it on the “shelf” in front of the window. It’s not really a shelf, it’s just the flat space created at the bottom of the window because of the bump-out… it’s more like a 15 inch window-sill.

 

I try to see if there are any available wireless networks in the area that I can jump on for a few minutes. I can see several, but they all have low signal strength or they’re encrypted systems that require passwords. Rather than taking the time to break the passwords (because that’s illegal), I try to connect to a few of the unsecured “open” networks that are available. I can’t connect to any of them; they’re all too far away.

 

I shut the laptop down with a defeated feeling, and drop my phone into my pocket. Perhaps my phone can connect to the Canadian data network and I can at least get my emails. It’s been about three days since I checked emails or made work phone calls… and it’s really starting to worry me. Wifey suggested that we get off the ship and go to the port building where those crew members were sitting earlier. I think about it, but don’t really feel like getting off the ship again.

 

We all scurry out of the cabin into the hall and then head up to Lido for some much needed food. Mom and Dad are already there and are already sitting with their half-finished plates. Wifey and I agree to split up the girls and go get food. I take the 9-year-old to go get some pizza, and Wifey takes the 5-year-old for… whatever.

 

Daughter #1 and I walk over to the pizza counter and she looks in the glass case to decide what she wants. We both know that she’s not getting anything out of the case, but she looks anyway. It’s a good start toward the consideration of possibly thinking about ordering something that she’s never had before. She looks in the case, and I ask her, “So what kind of pizza do you want?”

“Cheese.” She says.

Pretending not to hear her, “How about the one with the pepperoni and ham meaty stuff on it? That looks good.”

“Cheese.”

“What about that one? That looks interesting, and it has cheese on it! And it even has a funny name!”

 

It doesn’t really matter what I suggest, as long as I say it in my “Fun Daddy” voice. I’ve noticed that the tone of voice alone usually sets them in a better mood, regardless of what my suggestion is. I could be telling them to go brush their teeth, eat food they don’t like, or scrub the bathroom floor with toothbrushes… the voice and tone make a big difference to them.

 

She says, “Daddy, how do you say the name of that pizza, it looks weird… like Napoleon, but different.”

“Try to sound it out.”

“Nuh-pol-it-on-o?” She asks.

“Oh, you want a slice of Napolitano pizza? That’s a great idea. I’ll get a slice too and we can both have one!”

“No Daddy. I knew you were going to do that. I just want cheese… one slice of cheese, please.”

“Well fine… you may have your cheese pizza, but you have to ask for it yourself.”

 

She looks up at me with an overly dramatic worried face and sticks her lower lip out a little, not too much, just enough. I look down at Daughter #1 and twitch my eyebrows and nod my head toward the man indicating that it’s now time for her to order her slice of cheese pizza. She freezes and stares at him. After a very long two second pause, I look up and request a slice of cheese and a slice of Napolitano pizza. Daughter #1 relaxes and suddenly clutches my arm hanging next to her and presses her face against it.

 

“OK kid, let go. I have to get the pizza.”

 

I take the two plates and hand the Napolitano slice to her and hold onto the cheese slice. She takes the plate and brings it down to face level, looks at it, looks at me, and gives me that same worried face. Keep in mind that this isn’t a real worried face, it’s the kind of face that a person would make if you out-of-nowhere said, “Hey, make a worried face with a noticeably sad and pathetic undertone”. That’s the face I’m talking about. Rather than continue the joke further and bring the poor girl to tears (because her tear ducts are better actors than most people on television), I switch the plates and we begin walking back to the table.

 

We get back to the table first, and Wifey comes back with Daughter #2 a short time later. Going to get food with each girl has its own “pros” and “cons”. The tall kid can see and get things for herself, but she’s a picky eater. The short one is also a picky eater, complains about eating almost anything except crackers, and you have to lift her up so that she can see the foods that she won’t eat before deciding that she won’t eat them. OK, so… not so many “pros” here.

 

Wifey and the short kid have come back with some kind of pot roast stuff from the buffet, raw sliced carrots, and a bowl of fruit. I eat my pizza quickly. It was almost gone so fast that it might have appeared as though I had come back to the table with an empty plate if you weren’t paying attention. While everyone’s eating, I get up and run back to the buffet area and fix myself a big salad. Yum.

 

As I’m eating and my stomach’s “you must consume Calories immediately” alarm turns off, I remember that I wanted to check in with work. Wifey, Mom and Dad, and the girls are all eating leisurely and talking, so now’s a good time for me to excuse myself. I walk over to the starboard side of the Lido aft area and tuck myself away in a corner so that I now have a nice view of Saint John, and I have a private place to talk on the phone. I’m less concerned with privacy than I am about annoying people with my conversation. I personally don’t like having someone near me that’s clearly talking on a cell phone when I’m trying to talk to other people in-person, so I try not to do it to other people.

 

I call my office back in Maryland, and talk to several people. I first talk to the office manager and ask her how things are going. She tells me that everything is normal, and things are moving along fine without me. She now makes the mistake of saying, “Stop worrying and just enjoy your vacation.” This line is so transparent that I start to furiously imagine all of the things that she’s trying to cover up with this extra sweetness.

 

I say, “OK, good. I’m glad things are going well. We’re in Saint John, New Brunswick today, and yesterday we were in Halifax. The weather is pretty nice, and I’ll get back to New York the day after tomorrow.” She says something in reply, then I say, “Hey, let me talk to Joe for a minute.”

 

She transfers me to Joe, and he picks up the phone.

 

“Hey boss, how’s your vacation?”

[in a matter-of-fact tone] “What happened?”

“We have it all under control, don’t worry about it.”

“So something did blow up? Which client was it?”

[Feeling depressed and out-smarted] “Oh… you didn’t actually know, did you?”

“Well I know now, so you might as well tell me.”

 

So he then tells me the long story of all of the things that went wrong starting immediately after I left for New York. I can hear the office manager in the background yelling at him for letting the “secret” out.

 

[small time-machine jump into the future, which is actually today. Not today-on-the-cruise, but today-today]

About a week after getting home from the Glory cruise, I received my cell phone bill. I was ready for a noticeable jump in my monthly charge due to the cruise, but not ready for this. My cell phone bill was $272 this month, which is about $100 higher than my normal month. After reviewing the bill carefully, this phone call in Saint John cost me $75 by itself. <sigh>

 

[End small time-machine jump into the future. Now back to the cruise]

 

I finish my conversation with my office, and walk back to the table with Wifey and parents.

[bragstarr]

When we arrive at our cabin, the very first thing we notice when walking in the door is the window. When we left our cabin this morning, there was only stone and concrete outside our window. It’s now 2PM and our window has a view of Saint John. I walk over to the window to look out, and our window is now level with the second floor of the port building! The tide came up between 20 and 30 feet since we docked this morning, and we now have a view of the city instead of a stone wall.

 

That's actually incredibly cool that The Bay of Fundy rose that much that you could now see land instead of the cement wall. Did you explain THAT to the girls?

 

As for the cell phone call, charge the office. You were being responsible and checking in. I vote it's on them.

 

Carry on.....:D

[Delta Hotel]

That's actually incredibly cool that The Bay of Fundy rose that much that you could now see land instead of the cement wall. Did you explain THAT to the girls?

 

As for the cell phone call, charge the office. You were being responsible and checking in. I vote it's on them.

 

Carry on.....:D

 

[irish accent] Top o' the mornin' to ya!

 

Yes, we tried to explain it to them, but it wasn't sinking in at all, so we stopped.

 

Yes, the office always pays my cell phone bill, regarless of what it is.

 

Thanks for checking in, Robin!

[Delta Hotel]

As I sit down to eat the salad that I didn’t finish, Wifey notices that I seem a little depressed, concerned, or withdrawn and asks, “What’s wrong?”

 

I generally don’t like this question, because it normally assumes that something is wrong without adequate information. For example, if you’re talking to someone on the phone and you ask them, “What are you sitting on?” You’ve just assumed that they’re sitting. I prefer the first question to be, “Are you sitting on something?” and then you can follow up with “What are you sitting on?”

 

Asking someone, “What’s wrong?” to start a conversation irritates me a little – because more than half of the time I’m asked this question, nothing is wrong… and I’m not sure why they asked. Also on top of that, it sets a bad mood to the beginning of the conversation. Wifey’s mother is notorious (with me) for this question. I could drive to her house, walk in the back door and before I can close the door behind me, I’ll hear, “What’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing. What makes you think something’s wrong?” is a common response from me.

“Oh, I don’t know. What are you doing here?”

“I just stopped by for __________________________.”

“Oh, OK then. Well, ‘hi’ son-in-law.”

 

I see this conversation as backwards, but it’s normal for her. I would prefer that a conversation start with a “Hi” rather than a “What’s wrong?”, even if you think there might be something wrong because of body language or facial expression.

 

Like I said, normally, I don’t like this question because it’s usually unnecessary and just puts a negative shadow over the conversation. However, in this case, Wifey was correct.

 

“What’s wrong?” Wifey asks.

“It’s work. I need to get internet so I can do some work before we leave port because tomorrow’s a sea day.”

“OK, well do you want to get your laptop and go to the port building where the crew members were all sitting?”

“Yeah, I guess. I tried to get it working from the cabin, but the signal was too weak, I guess.”

 

After I finish my salad, Wifey makes arrangements with Mom and Dad to keep the girls while we to go the port building. It’s not necessary for Wifey to go with me, but I like her company, and she knows that I’d almost never ask her to come with me, even if I wanted her to. Wifey and I leave the girls and parents at the table on Lido aft and head to the cabin.

 

We grab the elevators closest to the buffet and head down to the cabin. I’m putting together a plan in my head for what to work on first when I get on the internet. I have to assume that the internet connection speed won’t be very fast for a few reasons:

 

First, public-access internet is rarely implemented on a real high-speed connection because of the cost. Second, even if it’s a high-speed connection, public access systems normally have bandwidth-throttling built into them so that one person doesn’t hog all the speed trying to Skype, stream videos, or download music. And third, New Brunswick is an island, albeit a large island, still an island, which means that the internet backbone that serves it is probably only a few redundant fiber lines at best. So, there’s most likely a bottleneck for the island, and I have to share it with all of the other New Brunswickians.

 

I learned that people from Halifax are called Haligonians, but still don’t know what you would call people from New Brunswick. I guess I’ll need to go back someday and find out.

 

On the way to the cabin, we see that there’s a “GANGWAY à” sign in our Deck 1 elevator lobby. As we turn the corner to head to our cabin, we see that they’ve opened a new gangway only a few doors down from our cabin. The tide has lifted our ship so far that they’ve moved the gangway to Deck 1 – which is still as high as the second floor of the port building. I’m still amazed by that. Although I was really dreading the idea of getting off of the ship, and having to get back on, the process in Saint John is really quite painless. It makes it even that much easier now that the gangway is only 50 feet from our cabin door.

 

We arrive at the cabin, go in, and I grab my secondary laptop. It’s the smallest one with a standard sized keyboard, and has all of my various work-tools on it so I don’t have to download anything in the event that I need them. I probably won’t need them, but I like to be prepared. Also, it’s approximately half of the cost of my primary laptop, so if something were to happen to it, it wouldn’t hurt as bad. Wifey grabs a book to read for when I’ll be staring at my glowing screen. We quickly head out into the hallway and BING off the ship for the second time today.

 

I scurry down the ramps and into the port building. Wifey stays with me. I’m determined and focused now, so I’m using my “determined” walk instead of my “eh, I could take it or leave it” walk. I don’t stop or slow down until I get into the port building and reach the row of seats where the crew members were sitting.

 

I look around and see an empty seat near the end of the row. There are still people sitting here with their laptops, mostly different people than before, but still quite a few. Wifey sees me lock onto the end-seat and stops me.

 

“Hey, there are tables and chairs just outside, do you want to sit out there instead of in here? Being out there wouldn’t mess with the signal or anything, would it?”

I look around and assess the situation. The outdoor tables are only 10 feet from the end-seat where I was going to sit, and the only thing in the way is one interior wall (drywall), a fake potted plant (plastic), and the combination of an exterior wall (brick/stone) and glass windows and doors. The window glass does have a metallic tint coating on it, but the distance is so short that I make my judgment call, “No, it wouldn’t really make much difference whether we’re inside or outside. Would you rather sit outside?”

“Yeah, I’d rather sit outside with a table instead of in here. Wouldn’t you?”

I think about being outside. It’s not exactly warm outside, and it’s only getting cooler as the day goes on, and the glare of the sun on my screen would make it harder to read, but I don’t make a fuss over it, and agree to sit outside.

“Yeah, let’s sit outside.” I say.

 

We step out into the courtyard and there’s a cast iron table just outside the doors on the left. It’s got an umbrella over it, so at least that’ll help with the glare from the afternoon sun. We sit down, scoot our chairs in, and I open my laptop and boot it up. Wifey opens up her book, Arguing with Idiots. It’s actually my book, which she gave me as a present, which I never read. I don’t read. She brought it on the cruise with us for light reading.

 

On my laptop, I look up the port’s wireless network and connect to it. The wireless network name (SSID) is “Port Networks Public Wi-Fi” and it has no security on it. The first thing I do after getting connected is test for bandwidth speed, so I know what I’m working with. A quick internet speed test shows that my connection speed is approximately 240Kbps down, and 110Kbps up, which is pretty good for free, but leaves a lot of room for improvement. I enable my encryption software and then tunnel to my office network to get my emails.

 

I normally get anywhere between 100 and 200 legitimate emails per day, and I’ve been offline for almost three days. I have my Out-of-Office auto-response message turned on, so I was hoping that it might reduce the number of messages that I was getting on vacation. I don’t think it helped. My laptop starts downloading emails, starting from most recent to oldest. As my laptop begins downloading a few hundred emails, I start reading through the most recent ones. Luckily, most of the newest emails have previous replies and forwards contained within them, so I can get some history on a particular email string before responding. I furiously start typing and sending emails to specific clients that my office manager and Joe had told me about.

 

It’s kind of funny sometimes… very often when people find out that I’m the owner of my company, one of their first responses is usually something like, “That’s great… being your own boss.” Or perhaps something like, “Wow, it must be nice to work for yourself.” Although there is some truth to these statements, it doesn’t seem that most people realize the other side of that “Being your own Boss” coin.

 

Before I bought the company and became the owner, I often thought, “I can’t wait to take over, then it’ll be my company, and I’ll have no one to answer to, no manager, no boss breathing down my neck.” Before I bought the company, I basically did the exact same job as I do now – but I had done it for the last 7-8 years. Never before in my career have I had to apologize so much, kiss so much butt, and bend over backwards to make our clients happy… of course, my employees never have any idea how much crap I have to deal with when they screw up. So much for being my own boss… now I know why the previous owner was so eager to sell the company!

 

I’m sitting at this little metal table in Saint John while on vacation, and I’m sending email after email, connecting to routers and servers, and trying not to scream. At one point, I stop typing an email, and think to myself, “I bet it would feel really good to close this laptop, pick it up, and throw it over the fence into the water.” Then I take a long breath and keep typing.

 

During my typing episode, Wifey takes a break from her book and walks back into the white vendor’s tent to get a drink. She comes back with a Diet Coke. Neither of us ever drink Diet Coke. Wifey very rarely ever drinks soda of any kind, and I hate the taste of diet soda… no matter how “non-diety” it tastes… it still tastes like drinking flavored Drano to me. My solution to the “calories” problem is – drink less soda. Wifey gets the Diet Coke because she can’t find anything in the tent other than soda or water. She didn’t want water; she wanted a drink with flavor, this time. And if she must have soda, she’d rather not have the calories… she’d rather save those few calories for warm chocolate melting cake.

 

After about 47.5 minutes, I send my last email, take a deep breath, and then go to eBay to see what’s happening with my Watch List. I notice that I won an auction which ended on our first sea day, so I log into PayPal and pay for it, then I sign off and close my laptop. In some ways, I feel better about getting some work done, and in other ways, I feel more stressed. Only a few hours ago, I was blissfully ignorant of the problems at the office, and I was just trying to lighten the ship’s net tonnage, 12 ounces at a time. Oh well… I’ll just have to fire someone when I get back to make the clients happy. And you thought that sacrificial lambs were only used in ancient and tribal cultures!

 

By the way, if you didn’t already know this – a ship or vessel’s gross tonnage does not refer to the ship’s weight, mass, displacement, or anything that could actually be measured in tons. A ship’s gross tonnage is technically the measure of total internal volume and space, not weight or mass.

 

Wifey and I head back into the port building, and go back through the Customs check-point again. Since we’d already been through here earlier, I knew that they don’t really check our passports, so I wasn’t worried about being stopped this time… but the thought had crossed my mind. We work our way around the long fence and up the gangway. We BING onto the ship, hang a quick right, and we’re standing in front of our cabin. I wish it were always that easy.

 

I drop off the laptop and Wifey drops off her book and extra stuff. We’re in the cabin together. Mom and Dad have the kids. I’m done with work… and there’s no pre-arranged meeting time to pick up the kids. So what do we decide to do? GO TO THE LIDO BAR!!!

 

Actually, we considered going to the casino and spending some time with the Idiot Box, but the casino isn’t open while we’re in port… so we’d have to wait until after sail-away for that.

 

We head up to the Lido Bar, find a couple of seats at the bar. Normally on any other cruise, my butt wouldn’t even have settled on the seat before the bartender or a waiter would’ve greeted me and/or begun to take my drink order. We sit there… and sit there. There are three bartenders behind the bar. A tall Macedonian guy who’s organizing the DOD glasses on the counter behind the bar, a small, Thai woman who’s pouring some blender drink for someone else, and directly in front of us is an Indonesian man who’s sticking labels onto the tops of plastic containers. The rectangular, white labels are coming off of a roll, and each label has a hand-written date on it.

 

We wait for him to look up and notice us. He doesn’t. I give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he may not be a bartender, and I try to make eye contact with the Thai woman, but she never looks our way. The Macedonian guy has finished stacking his DOD glasses into a log cabin shape on the counter, and he’s now doing nothing… except talking to the Thai woman. There are three bartenders here, and they’re all ignoring us. By the way, there’s no one else sitting at the bar. The one woman that was waiting for her frozen drinks has received her drinks and left by now. It’s like we’re not even there.

 

Right as I’m about to say something to the Indonesian man in front of me, he turns and carries the tray to the other side of the bar, completely ignoring the fact that there were two people sitting right in front of him. With the ambient noise and the speakers going from the outdoor movie theater, I would’ve had to yell to get his attention, and I didn’t want to yell. This is disappointing. He carries the tray to the other side of the bar, sets it down, opens a door under the counter and begins putting the tray and containers into the cabinet – I’m going to assume that this is some kind of refrigerator, but I can’t see around the door.

 

When the Indonesian man goes to the under-counter fridge, the Thai woman and the Macedonian guy have to move to let him by. As the Thai woman moves to make room, she glances up and looks in our direction. My hand is already on the bar, so I raise it to get her attention. As soon as she sees me, she smiles and comes over to take our order. I request a Miller Light, and Wifey get’s an Ultimate Suntan.

 

She’s had a few of these Ultimate Suntan drinks already, and seems to like them. This is where I would normally tell you what’s in it, how it tastes, or something like that. Well, I can’t tell you anything other than it costs $6.75 for the refill, and it’s a brownish-orange color. I didn’t try any, and never read the drink card which tells you what’s in it. I’m guessing several fruit juices, with one or more types of alcohol in it.

 

From our small pile of bar receipts, it’s clear that Wifey prefers Pina Coladas, Ultimate Suntans, and Cruisers. I’ve been drinking Miller Light can-bottles exclusively with the exception of Pinot Noir at dinner with Wifey, and Dad has consumed several Bailey’s (singles and doubles) on us. Mom likes Pina Coladas, but it takes her an hour or more to drink one due to her extremely low alcohol tolerance. If you held a shot of vodka under her nose, she’d probably turn red, get dizzy, and then start swinging her napkin over her head.

[hockeyluver]

HMMM I guess my coffee break is over :D

 

Cell phone charges are the main reason I leave mine in the safe when we cruise!! There have been many times when we can be in downtown Windsor and get charged for roaming in the States, the signal will jump from the Canadian tower to the U.S. tower, I guess the signals dont get stopped at the border. One "quick"call to my provider and it is taken care of.

 

Hope your enjoying your weekend!!

[bragstarr]

Now I want to know....Flaky, what's in an Ultimate Suntan?

[ShakyBeef]

Now I want to know....Flaky, what's in an Ultimate Suntan?

 

Uh, you mean Shaky, right? 'Cause FlakyBeef would just sound dumb.:rolleyes::p

 

I couldn't remember; had to look it up:

 

Ultimate Suntan

1oz Bacardi Rum

1/4oz DeKuyper Creme de Banana

1/4oz DeKuyper Blackberry Brandy

1 1/2oz sweet & sour mix

1 1/2oz orange juice

Float Grenadine

Blend all ingredients but grenadine together, pour over ice, and float grenadine on top

 

Definitely a yummy "boat drink".:D It was either on the ship's regular bar menu, or it was a DOD that I just kept going back to. Once again, I can't remember. Hmm... maybe I am a little flaky.:rolleyes:

[bragstarr]

Thanks Flaky Shaky. I'll have to try that one. I have an onboard gift of four free drinks of my liking so I'm looking for inspiration!

 

Although I do like frozen drinks with the ice blended INTO it!

Edited August 7, 2011 by bragstarr

[Delta Hotel]

 

Ultimate Suntan

1oz Bacardi Rum

1/4oz DeKuyper Creme de Banana

1/4oz DeKuyper Blackberry Brandy

1 1/2oz sweet & sour mix

1 1/2oz orange juice

Float Grenadine

Blend all ingredients but grenadine together, pour over ice, and float grenadine on top

 

 

Yes yes yes, ingredients schmin-gredients... it's $6.75 per refill. If you'll notice, I'm trying to only hit the important parts of this cruise, and not spend too much time on the useless details. Of course this drink has ingredients... but that's not what matters here. You don't see me going into the ingredients of my beer, do you?

 

That is all. You're dismissed.

[Delta Hotel]

 

Hope your enjoying your weekend!!

 

Thanks HockeyLuver, my weekend is going OK, I guess. I worked all of Friday and Saturday, but today is mostly open. I'm about to start hemming Daughter #2's school uniform and making a new skirt for the girls from some remnants I picked up at the fabric store. That'll be my productive check-mark for the day. Speaking of productive... it's almost 5 o'clock Wifey's been needing me to lighten the fridge by 12 to 36 ounces before morning. Can't let the Wifey down.

 

DH

[binajack]

 

Ultimate Suntan

1oz Bacardi Rum

1/4oz DeKuyper Creme de Banana

1/4oz DeKuyper Blackberry Brandy

1 1/2oz sweet & sour mix

1 1/2oz orange juice

Float Grenadine

Blend all ingredients but grenadine together, pour over ice, and float grenadine on top

 

Definitely a yummy "boat drink".:D It was either on the ship's regular bar menu, or it was a DOD that I just kept going back to. Once again, I can't remember. Hmm... maybe I am a little flaky.:rolleyes:

 

This is now on my bucket list of drinks to try on the ship.....in a few short weeks!! ;)

[cv322]

Just before we reach the port building, there’s a small crowd of people standing on the sidewalk. When we reach the crowd, we see that the people are all watching a “living statue”. At his feet, there’s a gold name-plate which reads, “Granite Man – Worlds Best Living Statue”. We stop and watch with everyone for a few seconds, and then Wifey reaches in her purse, pulls out a dollar for Daughter #2 to go up and place in the tip jar.

 

Daughter #2 walks up to the tip jar and places the dollar in the glass bowl. As she’s standing up from the jar, the statue bends down and extends his hand to shake hers. She reaches up and shakes his hand, and then walks back to us. When she gets back to us, she looks up at us and says, “His hand sort of feels like a real hand.”

 

 

As a bonus, it’s never occurred to Daughter #2 that this was a person. She still believes that she shook the hand of a statue that moved just for her.

 

 

So incredibly precious!

[bragstarr]

This is now on my bucket list of drinks to try on the ship.....in a few short weeks!! ;)

 

You and me, G, at the CC get together???

[binajack]

Poll: Favorite drinks on CCL?

 

Pina Colada is usually on the top of my list. Something that doesn't taste a lot like alcohol. Ultimate Suntan sounds like it will be worth a taste.

 

Do they have like frozen, blended coffees by chance on the Glory? I'm a sucker blended and iced coffee.

 

Bina;)

[bragstarr]

We're hijacking the thread a bit here....but so many enthusiastic Carnival Cruisers it's a valid question. My favorite is a BBC--traditionally a Royal Carib drink but they all know what I am talking about--Banana, Bailey's and Coconut blended with ice. Yum!

[Crusin Karen]

My vote for favorite drink is The Cruiser. It is super sweet, tho and comes in a tiny glass half filled with ice and it's one of the $8.75 drinks (before tip! :eek:) I usuallly reserve ordering it until the Captain's Welcome Aboard party when the drinks are $1 off (hey, a $1 is a $1! :o) Realized that I could make it at home with coconut rum and Dole Fruit Punch. CCL uses coco rum, vodka, Peach Schnapps and OJ and cranberry juice, but honestly, "my recipe" tastes almost the same. Course, can't figure out why, but it's not as good at home as it is on a ship....:(

[ShakyBeef]

Poll: Favorite drinks on CCL?

 

Pina Colada is usually on the top of my list. Something that doesn't taste a lot like alcohol. Ultimate Suntan sounds like it will be worth a taste.

 

Do they have like frozen, blended coffees by chance on the Glory? I'm a sucker blended and iced coffee.

 

Bina;)

 

They have the specialty coffee bar on Glory. It's called Creams Cafe and it's on Deck 5, Aft (beside the Sushi Bar). We never ordered anything there, but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing people get frozen coffee drinks there. You could get a shot of something (like Kahlua or Bailey's, etc.) to add to it at a bar.:)