Cruise Blog - Cruising with Teens (20-part story)

[chesterh]

This forum seems to be in need of a blog, so here goes...

 

Below is the table of contents for a "blogged" story about a cruise. My wife. Kris, and I took two 18 year-old boys - our son, Wells, and his best friend, Dan - on their first cruise a couple of years ago. It was, might we say, an interesting experience - for all of us. You're invited to come along for the ride...

 

Bon Voyage!

• Part 1 - Preface
  
• Part 2 - Choices
  
• Part 3 - Ready, Set...
  
• Part 3a - Young Men in Black (Video)
  
• Part 4 - GO!
  
• Part 5- Settling In
  
• Part 6 - Into the Night
  
• Part 7 - Formal Charges
  
• Part 8 - Celebrity Suite
  
• Part 9 - Casa de Campo
  
• Part 10 - San Juan
  
• Part 11 - St. Thomas 1
  
• Part 12 - St. Thomas 2
  
• Part 13 - St. Thomas 3
  
• Part 14 - The Olympic
  
• Part 15 - Galley Duty
  
• Part 16 - Stainless Oasis
  
• Part 17 - The Making of Young Men in Black
  
• Part 18 - Nassau Revisited
  
• Part 19 - Homeward Bound
  
• Part 20 - Epilogue

All the best,

chesterh

[cruizinmimi]

chesterh

 

Inquiring minds just got an education......WOW...that was a great blog. And to think, I just wanted to come and talk about my latest cruise on the Freedom. I'm very intimidated now. I guess I will just have to keep to the rcl thread.:D

[chesterh]

Intimidated? Fear not, cruizinmimi - I just tend to get a little carried away when talking about cruising. So, did you have a good trip? Silly question, probably, but inquiring minds want to know...

 

All the best,

chesterh

[Sea Fan]

Wow, Chesterh, I just stumbled on your Blog it's amazing. I have alot more of it to read but thank you so much for going through the trouble of posting it.

 

Dianne

[ozland]

Curiously, the sister ship to Angelina Lauro became infamous some years later. In 1985, Achille Lauro was highjacked off the coast of Egypt. She too met a fiery end, in 1994 off Somalia. I wasn't there. [end quote]

 

chesterh: I hope you don't mind that I copied and pasted the above excerpt from your blog. I have been reading with great interest as I sailed on both the Angelina Lauro and the Archille Lauro. So strange and so sad that both those ships met with a tragic, yet similar end.

 

Isn't it amazing what one can find on cruise critic? I now know "the rest of the story." Thank you!

 

P.S. I am also enjoying your book....on the midnight buffet....:D

[chesterh]

Thanks, Dianne. Hopefully, you've caught up by now. I need to get back to work and finish the 4th and most recent blog - good activity now that winter is finally making an appearance here.

 

Ozland, I'm glad for the opportunity to help fill-in the blanks. Watching the demise of Angelina Lauro was sad, and a sight I will never forget (click here for the tale of a 24,000 ton lady, a princess, three angels and a baby). Hope you continued to enjoy the book - it was the highlight of a lifetime for us.

 

All the best,

chesterh

[chesterh]

Here's a video entitled Young Men in Black (aka Teens in Tuxes). It portrays the two teenaged boys in the "blog" (Wells and Dan) making their way to a formal dinner in the Metropolitan Restaurant aboard Celebrity’s Millennium.

 

The boys endured the public humiliation of ‘acting’ for this video in relatively good humor. I had the advantage. Making the video was my way of extracting payback for some very expensive late night ship-to-shore phone calls to girl friends -- made in defiance of my specific instructions to use email instead. I consider their debt to be paid in full…

 

Click here for Young Men in Black (2:51, Stereo Sound)

 

All the best,

chesterh

[seadog67]

Hi Chesterh, Just want to thank you for your stories, and for having a new issuing of your book for purchase. I just ordered from amazon, previously there were only used on sale for over $100.00. Any chance of getting the next chapter of the cruise with your mothers uploaded. You left us with hopefully not, falling overboard? I have just finished all of them on your home page, and I see they were uploaded in 2006, i just found your page earlier this weekend and spent the whole weekend reading them any chance I got. Waiting with baited breath! Thanks

[chesterh]

Thanks, seadog67. The new book has been out since April, but everyone seems to still be finding the old one at the ridiculous "used book" prices. I dare say none of those sellers actually has a copy to sell, but if someone is willing to place an order at $100, they'll scour the country to find one...

 

I fully intend to complete the mothers' cruise story. One of these days I'll sit down and the words will flow, although it is difficult to write freely when the moms are also part of the audience.

 

All the best,

chesterh

[Alan2504]

ChesterH

The blog makes great reading!

Thanks!

[chesterh]

You're quite welcome.

[chesterh]

Epilogue to the referenced story:

 

Danny is now married, has a son, and operates a solar products company in Down East Maine with his father. He still owes me for the phone bill.

 

Wells graduated from U of Arizona with a degree in Anthropology - which prepared him well for his lucrative bartending job. He lives in Manhattan, and is enrolled in nursing school.

 

Kris and Chester are new grandparents, and often dream of another cruise...

 

chesterh

[bcwaves]

After a couple of ring tones, a voice with an unidentifiable accent came on the line.

“Mr. X, we have been watching your habits.”

“What the heck…”

“I think we have a way to save you some money,” the message continued.

“Now you’re talkin’.”

“Please come to the Beta Computer Center on deck 3.”

 

 

Thanks so much for giving an update on this thread which caused it to come to the first page. I've been reading the blog just now and had to comment that this passage made me laugh out loud. I love it! Can't wait to finish the rest.

[HopefulCruiser123]

Chesterh....this thread is fairly old and I don't know if you will ever see this, but my husband went on his first cruise ever for our honeymoon in February of this year aboard the Silhouette. I had been telling him about your Galaxy review from way back, (I first read it on Cruise Critic when you were writing it, always waiting for the next installment to come out). I could not remember your internet name at the time I was recounting the review to him, and then recently (and coincidentally) I read on Cruise Critic as someone mentioned your book "What time is The Midnight Buffet". I told my husband that I thought that Chesterh was the same person who had written the Galaxy review I had been telling him so much about. This evening we were driving back from out of town and as my husband drove, I decided to pull out my IPad and search on Cruise Critic for Chesterh......I read the posts about your attempts to organize a group Alaskan cruise. I went to Amazon and found your book and read an excerpt to my husband and he politely indulged me and let me read to him. We just got home 30 minutes ago and waiting in our mailbox was a box from Amazon.......you guessed it...my husband ordered your book for me (ain't he the sweetest thing!).

 

I know people probably tell you this all the time, but I am a huge fan. Thanks for the laughs and excellent story telling.

[chesterh]

Hopeful - thanks for making my day (week, month??).

 

Obviously the Alaska cruise idea went nowhere, so Kris and I will just have to read the book and re-live the first cruise. Oh well...

 

chesterh

[elena7seas]

Hopeful - thanks for making my day (week, month??).

 

Obviously the Alaska cruise idea went nowhere, so Kris and I will just have to read the book and re-live the first cruise. Oh well...

 

chesterh

 

Chester, I was so happy to see your name pop up on two Celebrity threads today. Oddly enough, I was thinking of you two days ago, and checked out your website to see what you were up to (hoping, of course, that you were still writing).

 

I just wanted to say hello, that I love your writing, and if you wrote another book, about any topic, I would buy it!

 

Hoping that everything is well with you and your family. Happy Birthday to your little granddaughter who was 2 yesterday.

[chesterh]

Elena - I'm back to writing software, which is pretty boring. Everyone else would just find it bewildering...

 

An update to the teens in the story: Wells lives in Manhattan, is engaged, and is attending nursing school. Danny lives in Maine, and with his wife, has 2 children.

 

My granddaughter fed me cake on her 2nd birthday, while my 7 month-old grandson played with her new toys. She is a good sharer.

 

c