Four Day Cruise
I got away with it. My wife, who normally has everything
planned to the nth degree, was so busy she didn’t even look at the cruise deck
plans. Yes, the ship is big. Very big. The Explorer
of the Seas leaves out of Seattle on a four-day, round-trip cruise. She’s not a fan of large ships.
It wasn’t the cruise we had planned on at all. That was canceled. I had asked for the month of May off
from work. The boss choked and complained. Then the people I was going with had
a sick family member. I didn’t want to go without them, so I canceled too.
We were planning on visiting my wife’s mother in Tampa for 5
days, then leaving on the 14 day transatlantic cruise. Then a week in Italy, an
overnight in Paris then another in Reykjavik Iceland, then home. That will have
to happen next year instead.
I wanted to go on a cruise anyway. This one was cheap and it
involved no airfare, so I booked it. My wife had been swamped so she didn’t ask
what ship or anything, just, “Go ahead, I need the break.”
Seattle was only an hour and a half drive, even in heavy
traffic. We parked at the pier then shuttled over to the ship. Boarding went
very smoothly. It was the easiest I’ve ever seen. No lines and we breezed
through in fifteen minutes. That was awesome.
When we arrived at the promenade deck was when she realized
what size ship this was. We had taken the Navigator
of the Seas out of Galveston a few years back. It’s around the same size. We
walked around, after grabbing lunch, carrying the backpacks because the rooms
weren’t ready yet. The first thing I learned is the food in the Windjammer Café
isn’t the same in each line. The stuff at the back of the ship is better.
Unfortunately, we had already eaten before we figured this out.
The lifeboat drill is
never fun. We stood on deck waiting for the stragglers to arrive. The
announcement finally came and they showed us how to put on life vests for the thirty-second time.
The voice of the cruise director came over the loudspeakers. “Now a word from our Captain.”
“Welcome to the beautiful… (Pause) (Whispers) “What ship are
we on?”
(Whispers back) “Explorer
of the Seas.”
“The beautiful Explorer
of the Seas.”
Of course everyone on the ship heard it. Roars of laughter
echoed around the deck.
“He’s new,” one of the crew commented. “Just back from
vacation.”
The crowd marched into the promenade area, clogged up the
elevators for the next hour.
Just a word about the elevators. They’re hot and they’re not
big enough. This cruise has the largest collection of wheelchairs, scooters, and
walkers I’ve ever seen on a ship. Only one
will fit in an elevator at a time. Only a couple of people can fit in with it.
There’s a collection of wheelchairs and
scooters on every floor waiting for an empty elevator. There are very few empty
elevators.
We then made our way to the sail away party. Really only
looked down at it a couple of times, mostly we were looking over the ship’s
side to see if we were on our way yet. A few minutes after 6:00 pm the ship
pulled out of the dock and traveled north.
Seattle from the Sea
The coast was beautiful as we glided by. Saw a seal attack a
bird. Not sure what type of bird it was though. It was thrashing it back and
forth.
We ate at Chops Grill. That was an interesting experience.
It was like the waiter resented us for being there. He took a long time to take
our order. Food took a long time in arriving. He poured my water with his back
to me. Then he took my wife’s key card and not mine. It was at least a half
hour between servings and some of our food came out cold.
The food, when it was warm, was good, though. I was really
frustrated that it took over two hours to eat and wanted out of there. I almost
walked out at one point, but Deb told me I had to wait for the check. That took
ten minutes between when he said he would bring it, and when it arrived.
My wife was exhausted by this point, so I went to the movie
by myself. Our Darkest Hour. I love
Winston Churchill and hadn’t seen the movie yet. I went to the 9:30 showing. It
was a little breezy so I grabbed a blanket. Had to use my keycard to get it and
when I went to return it after the movie, they were gone. I didn’t want to get
charged for it, so I took it back to the stateroom with me.
I enjoyed the movie. I forgot to bring a jacket on the
cruise because it was an unusually warm day for Western Washington when we left
the house. The weather became colder and colder and the wind picked up. I
clutched my blanket around me. More and more people were giving up. In the end
I think there were only two of us die-hards left. I was freezing.
It was lucky there were subtitles because a jet passed over
us at one point, low and loud. Fog started rolling over the ship and the fog
horn blared out on regular intervals.
Tired and cold, I headed back to the stateroom.
Day 2 Sea Day
We didn’t get up till nine. That’s the problem with having
an inside cabin is you have no natural sunlight to let you know what time of
day it is. We took the customs form down to the front desk, returned the
blanket from last night and headed to breakfast.
There was a line and we were worried that the main dining
room would close its doors right at 9:30. Luckily they didn’t. We shared a
table with a newlywed couple. It was their first cruise and Sailor Deb was all
sorts of helpful to them in telling them
what to do and what not to miss.
I wasn’t impressed. The food seemed to be the exact same
stuff you can get in the buffet, only they make you wait while they bring it to
you. My pancakes were dried out like they had been under a heat lamp a long
time.
The captain’s noon announcement included the joke of the
day. “What’s trembling at the bottom of the ocean? A nervous wreck.”
We played miniature golf. The wind was strong, but not like
the last ship we played on where the balls were getting blown around in the
wind.
I ate at Johnny Rockets today. I ate alone since Deb didn’t
want to. The guy next to me complained that he was getting a hernia trying to
get his milkshake through a straw. But then he spilled it. Some of it hit his
lap, the rest hit the floor. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry to clean it up.
Someone finally put paper towels over the mess. It’s a start, I guess.
I really enjoyed it. Note to self. The shakes are fifty
cents cheaper at the Promenade Café and don’t come with a ten dollar surcharge.
The place to hang out was the Schooner Bar. It had trivia
and wordplay games. It was fun. We dashed
out of there to go to the meet and mingle. Royal Caribbean will host the party
on seven days or longer cruise, but not four-day
cruises so we did our own. It was held in a suite on deck ten. Nice room. Our
stateroom wasn’t much bigger than their bathroom.
Finally we made it to the main dining room. All our
tablemates were women. I feel very outnumbered. I just sat there and listened
to the conversations while drinking my five, or was it six, glasses of water
and eating my dinner. Food is good. I enjoyed it.
The production show Fast Forward was also very good. The one
woman singer was outstanding, I have to say, the other singers and dancers were
above par of what I’ve seen on cruise ships in the past. The show was fun and
fast moving. I really enjoyed it.
Sailor Deb went out to the movies under the stars to watch
The Greatest Showman. At least the
last half of it. She’s seen it before so catching up wouldn’t be a problem.
Staying warm was though.
Nanaimo
I was starving, but it was only four or five in the morning.
Couldn’t sleep, so I headed down to the Promenade Café to grab a bite to eat.
They still had some sandwiches so I asked for one. A few minutes later they
took the rest of them off the shelf and threw them away. I’m hoping I don’t get
food poisoning from a too old sandwich. After that they put the pastries on the
shelf, so I asked for one of them. I was told they didn’t open till six, but I
was given one anyway. Stomach now satisfied, I headed back to bed.
Slept till around 8. I could hear the captain announce
something, but couldn’t make it out. I suppose it was that Bingo was starting.
What else would you announce on a cruise ship? We had a leisurely breakfast
then headed down to the gangway There is
a free bus that takes the ship’s passengers all over Nanaimo. The line for the
bus was very long and a lot of people gave up and walked into town. It’s about
a mile or so. Not that we haven’t done walks into town that far, it’s just a
lot of times I live to regret it. Since the ship is so large and forces so much
walking anyway, we took the bus.
Stopped by and watched the cannons fire at noon, and then
again at one. In between we walked over the bridge and out to the yacht club
and then back. Did some shopping in old town. Learned about a ship named the Oscar that exploded in the harbor and
took out all the windows in the historic church, except one. I’ll have to look
that up when I get home.
We did a little shopping but didn’t buy anything. We were people
in the crowd on a movie set. It’s a Hallmark
movie, Chesapeake Harbor. We were trying to get out of the way, but
still wanted to watch. The actors were across the street from us, but the
camera was pointed in our direction. So I’ll have to watch that episode to see
if I’m in it.
I did get to eat a Nanaimo bar in Nanaimo. That was my great
accomplishment of the day. They did straight across on the exchange rate. I
didn’t like that. It’s .78 to a dollar, so I’m paying 22% more than I should
have.
The tier level party was next. I drank a fruit punch then
listened to them congratulate people for cruising so many times on Royal
Caribbean then the Next Cruise person spoke and said, “The way to get to the
next level is to come see me!” It felt like a sales pitch with free fruit
punch. They did tell us about the ships that are moving in and out of Alaska.
The eleven day Alaska cruise sounded interesting. I’ll have to check it out.
Saw people running for the ship because they were late, but
no announcements which usually means everyone made it aboard. Went to dinner.
None of our tablemates arrived until twenty minutes after they should have been
there and it was only the three German women. We finished way before them, I
even had a second bowl of the minestrone soup. It was good.
Played cards then played music trivia. We graded the winning
team’s paper and they gave us a highlighter they had won, because they didn’t
want it. So I got a prize. They had 20 right and we had 12. That was a lot more
than I expected to get though. I don’t do
well in that category.
The movie under the starts wasn’t great. Deb gave up first.
I was going to stick it out, but gave up soon after. Abdul and Victoria, or vice versa. Should have watched the
magician, he was indoors where it was warm. Movies under the stars is more of a Caribbean thing.
Victoria
We were in the port and docked before either one of us
managed to get out of bed. I don’t know how people can gain weight on a cruise
with all the walking you do. My legs are tired.
We opted for the buffet again, and again I had to wait a
long time to get my omelette. Tomorrow I
think I’ll give up and have breakfast in the dining room if it’s open.
We walked the ten minutes to Fisherman’s Wharf and grabbed a
water taxi into the city. They dropped us off in Chinatown. We explored that,
then headed down to the harbor, where we went to the Maritime Museum. I have no
idea why they moved this nice little museum, but it isn’t worth the fifteen
dollar admission fee. There are very few displays compared with what they had
before. I was disappointed.
Then we had a milkshake across the street from the Empress
Hotel. After that we visited the Royal BC Museum.
It was around the same price as the Maritime, but infinitely larger. Three
massive stories. It would be great if they could combine the two into one.
After wandering through the Empress, we took the water taxi
back to Fisherman’s Wharf. This time the captain was more agreeable to tell us
stories of the harbor and how killer whales sometimes come near the mouth of it
to hunt seals. Another interesting thing he told us was the houseboats around the wharf cost about 300 to
400 thousand to buy and another ten thousand in moorage a year.
We stepped out of the taxi and were met by a pedicab driver who wanted to take us back to
the ship, so I let him.
Back on board we went to lunch. Then we took in the ice
skating show. This was very good. I
enjoyed it. Then dinner, up to the library to play games and then watched the
Las Vegas Tenors. They were very good also. Worth seeing even though they didn’t
play any country music.
Home
We decided to do a walk off. We would skip breakfast and
rush home at 6:30 in the morning before our
stomachs woke up. Being on a cruise, you expect food every hour on the hour.
Getting off was a breeze as very few people were up and out at that time.
Overview.
Too short. I think that covers it. I like the longer than seven-day cruises better. I once was okay
booking inside cabins, but I think that one was our last.
The food was great. The only things I didn’t like were the
ones my wife ordered and then said, “Try this.”
“Yuck, that’s terrible.” I replied.
“Yeah, I didn’t like
it either.”
Then why did she feed it to me? My food was good.
The ship, too big for my wife. I was okay with it as it had
plenty of things to do.
The organized activities, I thought, were lacking.
Would I do it again? I probably will, but I want to go other
places first.
Cruise Books by Deb Graham
