Tales of the Great Holt-Ysses - Part 2 "Take off Eh"

Ok so were on the boat and we get all unpacked and ready to eat....That's because on cruise ships all you do is EAT! But before you eat you get to have a deck party with everyone one else from the boat. This isn't an ordinary party this is the Muster Drill. Muster-what? Yes the Muster Drill! This is a very special time where everyone on the boat gets to grab his or her life jackets and head for a specified Muster Station. There you put on your life jacket and stand in a big honkin pile of fellow cruisers. My wife called it the Munster Drill because one she couldn't remember the name and two because with the big life jacket on you, you feel stiff like Herman Munster. While you Muster you get the opportunity to meet some fellow cruisers. Conversations spark up and there you are....hanging out on the deck, elegantly dressed for dinner, having intelligent adult conversation with a guy from Cleveland all with this a bright orange foam filled life jacket around your neck. It's truly a site to behold.

Well we make it to dinner and we are sitting with Amy's dad, step mom, her two twin step-sisters and their husbands and five other couples who are all friends or relatives to the two sisters. 18 people total I think at two tables. We get to pig out on some tasty food and the service is great. Two waiters to your table! If you take a drink of water, they fill it back up. If you use a sweetener packet, they practically pull it from your fingers after the last granule falls. 99% of the crew on the boat are from different parts of the world. Our head waiters were from Turkey and Philippines. Our assistant waiters were from India and Dominic Republic. Only a couple understood English well enough to get by. The others simply smiled and nodded in agreement with everything you said. Everybody was great!

The boat we were on, "The Seranade of the Seas" is a mid-size cruise ship but you could have fooled me. That sucker was big and it had a lot of cool things on it. Indoor and Outdoor pools, a putt-putt course, a rock-climbing wall, a great gym and spa, a disco complete with spinning bar (cheesy but cool). It had a basketball/volleyball court, a complete kids water park area, two eating areas and a heli-pad for those late night helicopter rides we all take so frequently.

Well the time has come! At 10:30pm that Saturday night, we took off from San Juan and we spent the night at Sea. It was so cool to get our "Sea Legs" on that first night. Everyone feels like they are drunk but without the alcohol! The ones who are drunk walk in a straight line....it's a strange anomoly. I'll talk about the next day in the next blog.