Sunday December 17, 2006

At Sea

Paul rolled in at 3 am. Foolish man. He just thinks he’s 21 again. Like Zack. We are awakened by the poor little steward at nine am. He stammers out that we need to put out the do not disturb sign. Poor kid. Paul goes out in the hall and puts the sign in Zack’s door. We figure that grandpa was out til 2 or 3 so he may need some sleep…who knows when Zack rolled in. Paul and I get dressed and head out to find some breakfast. This NCL cruise is called freestyle cruising…you don’t have set times to eat like for dinner the first seating is usually around 6 and second at 8. This means you get a reservation for when you want to eat. Also, there are two specialty places…one Italian and one French which has a $15 surcharge (can you guess which one I won’t be eating at?). On 11 there is the Trattoria which is the Italian place which has continental breakfast only. There is a waffle station and an omelet station out on deck 11, and in the pizza/pasta buffet they have fresh fruit, salad, cheese and stuff like oatmeal, eggs, grits, etc. The sports bar has a breakfast buffet also, and the Four Seasons has the traditional sit down off the menu breakfast. We settle into a table at the Trattoria with some fruit and juice. Paul goes off to find me some oatmeal and then he gets an omelet. After we finish, we start to explore the rest of the ship. At around 10:45 we head back to the cabin only to find a very upset grandpa. He is all pissed off cause “there was no breakfast anywhere, anywhere on this ship, I’ve been on every deck of this boat”. Baloney. If he had been on 9 he’d have seen the main dining room open. If he was on 11 he’d have seen the waffle guy and the omelet guy and the line into the Pizza buffet. If he had gone up to 12 he would have found the sports bar breakfast buffet. He claims he was looking all over the ship for us since 9:30 and he could not only not find us but he was terribly upset he didn’t get breakfast. Hmmmm….I think he is mixed up or has his times goofed up. Sometimes I wonder about his mental clarity. I should be so sharp at 90. But it’s not all the time…he has his moments where he looks totally confused. Like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights.

Zack joined us and we headed up to the deck 12. The sun was shinning, it was warm and everyone was out and about. They were setting up the lunch BBQ so Zack and grandpa could get some lunch soon. We found some lounge chairs, grabbing the last 4 on the entire deck. Soon we see folks carrying plates of food so Zack and the old man go searching for lunch. The Caribbean band is playing a jaunty tune and the sun was hot…there was a nice fresh breeze off the gulf which kept everyone nice and comfortable. Now THIS is a vacation. I doze off in my deck chair, like a big ‘ol dog laying in the sun…suddenly, some fool is kicking my chair. It is the only old fool I know, back with his food and for some reason he can’t sit down without kicking the shit outta my chair. I guess he just didn’t realize what he was doing(ok, so he’s now a doddering old fool, lol). He finally sits down and begins to eat. He doesn’t like this…the steak is too tough the ribs inedible…blah blah blah... Meanwhile Zack has scarfed down a huge plate and is heading back in line for more. Zack says his steak was perfect so I don’t know why grandpa’s is so tough. Maybe it’s the choppers. No, I think somebody has a HANGOVER! Yep,the old fart has one hell of a hangover. After about an hour, I can feel my skin starting to burn so I decide to go back to the cabin and put on my swim suit and get the sun block. I didn’t bring sun block. OK, so I won’t sit in the sun too long. On my way back to the deck, I stopped and got some French fries from the pizza bar. Oh they are so delish. Paul and I share a plate of fries for lunch. Some healthy stuff eh? After a while, the sun is getting to me, and my skin is starting to tingle…enough sun for moi. Just as I am readying to leave, they announce an ice sculpting demo so I wander over to where Paul and Zack are sitting at the pool bar…and we watch the demo. I don’t see the fish he carved but everyone clapped when he was done, so who am I to criticize? I get my stuff and go back to the room. I leave Paul and Zack to take care of ol’ cranky man.

Our dinner reservations are for 8 at the Italian place Trattoria. We plan on going to the 6:45 show which is a singing and dancing show. We all meet up in the show lounge. We are being entertained by a Canadian torch singer until showtime. It is a cabaret style show that showcases the singers, two guys, two gals (typical cruise ship entertainment) the dancers and this troupe features a couple from like Transylvania or Romania or some such place that do ballet. She is so thin you can almost see the veins in her body, ick. The show was ok, and both grandpa and Zack had to pop the eyes back into their heads.

After the show we went to dinner. It was excellent. Service was a bit slow, but the food was superb. Paul thought he was going to share my veal parm, he he he, I ate it all! Grandpa was still as cranky as all get out so he just left after the main course. Me and the boys had dessert. After dinner we sat in the lounge and listened to the duo from Russia perform in the piano bar. She had a nice voice. Finally, I went up to our cabin while Paul went to check on grandpa. He reports to me that grandpa is sick with the squirts and upchucking. Great. Paul puts him to bed and then heads out to find Zack the party boy. Once again I take my meds and hit the sack early. I can’t really “do” the nightlife anymore.

Later…

dee