As we sailed out of Port Liberty and Bayonne, NJ we were in sight of the Statue of Liberty and the new World Trade center – Freedom Tower. An impressive site and a continual reminder. Vigilance.
Smooth sailing and beautiful seas. Not a bad sunset, either.
Our luggage arrived at Stateroom 9683 by about 6 o’clock and we began putting things away, and remarking, “Oh, I know what we forgot!” Fortunately it was a short list. The most serious thing was my Royal Caribbean Coffee Mug, which the ship was glad to replace for me at the “Logo Souvenirs” shop for $12.95. Oh well.
We have second seating and are with a group from Rhode Island. They talk strange, and one of them had the temerity to remark about my
accent! Nice folk, though. One of the ladies reminds me of my Aunt Veronica – she doesn’t have an Irish accent, but she does have blonde hair piled up in a fashionable style (and talks with her hands, and the words come fast and furious, so the hand gestures keep the table cool with a gentle breeze).
My talks are all at 1 p.m. except the first one which is at 2 p.m. – “Democracy in the Bahamas: The Pirate Republic” (wake up!).
And I will be doing the Protestant worship service tomorrow morning at 8:45 from the Palace Theater.
A funny thing happened on the way to talk number 1. My computer – my brand new computer; my brand new computer with Windows 8.1, the most awful operating system since Vista – would not talk to the ship’s projector. Fortunately they had a spare projector and I had my talk on a flash drive. Problem solved. And the talk went over well, with 100 in attendance.
Well, as you no doubt know from emails, or texts when we were in Florida, my computer problems – with the new computer continued. I could start it and stop it, but I couldn’t put it in gear. Kind of like Aunt Gussie’s 1951 Dodge, but that’s another story (raise your hand if you’ve heard it).
So I have used our backup computer for all of my talks. Dude! I’m glad Bonnie brought the Dell!
Wednesday, we were in Florida and took a trip to the Kennedy Space Center (more about that in a paragraph or two). When I got back on board, using the old Samsung GS 3, I checked an email from my personal technical advisor who said there was no way to know what was going on with the computer without having hands on, and suggested I talk to the ship’s IT department. So I called Andre, my contact in the cruise director’s office, and he said, “Sure, Mon!” (Andre is from Jamaica) and took the computer to Brian, and today it is fixed! Mostly. The mouse pad is bad, but he bypassed it so my wireless mouse will work, and we are back in action. Warranty department of Sony when we get home.
Sometime late Friday afternoon, Bonnie’s Sea Pass Card – which is a combination room key and credit card – wouldn’t let her into our room. Never smile at your wife’s misfortune with her Sea Pass Card! She was off to Guest Services and back in about 30 minutes with a new one. Sometime Saturday I was standing in line at Guest Services to get a new Sea Pass Card.
We typically eat two of our meals each day (Atkins style, mostly) in the Windjammer Café, a buffet located on Deck 11, two floors above our stateroom. We eat supper at Second Seating in the Magellan Dining Room on Deck 3, six floors beneath our stateroom. We are located in the aft section of the ship – that’s the back for you landlubbers. My talks in the Maharaja’s Lounge – and the staff all call it “Ma-ha” (Las Banyak how you say Pickle Puss – 3 Stooges routine), and the Palace theater where the ship’s shows are put on are on Decks 5 and 3 and 4 forward – that’s the front for you landlubbers. So between eating and entertainment we are getting in 10-15,000 steps a day.
We tried to book a shore excursion for a tour around Nassau on Monday, but by the time we decided what to do, that excursion was full. So we set out by ourselves, and at the welcome center booked a similar tour. With a local gentleman as our guide, we set out. We saw some depressing areas where the have-nots live – and he said there are as many as 14,000 illegal immigrants from Haiti on the island, all trying to get to Miami. Give me your huddled masses yearning to illegally enter the country! And we went to Paradise Island where lots sold for $250,000 each, and current homes go for seven figures (one or two poor people there only get 6 figures). We visited Fort Fincastle where we got our ubiquitous photo of Granny and a cannon for the Big Guy. The sun was in her eyes, and Granny didn’t smile. Neither did the cannon.
Tuesday we woke up to the Captain giving a weather report. Stations in the area and in Nassau indicated severe thunderstorms with lightening and very high winds were in the area, so he would not let us tender ashore to the private island, Coco Cay. Instead he sailed on. I called Andre and told him I was ready to do a talk to fill in schedule holes, and they plugged in my “Flight 19 and the Legend of the Bermuda Triangle” talk. The largest crowd for any of the talks so far turned out – where else could they go!
Wednesday we went ashore in Port Canaveral and took a tour of Kennedy Space Center. I had been there once 30 years ago, and this was Bonnie’s first visit. We got to go places that were off limits when it was a real space port – thanks Mr. President for messing up our space budget and our space program! For all of you nay-sayers out there, the current space budget (in the first budget our beloved president presented in his years in office – in violation of the Constitution) is one-half of one percent of the entire federal budget. The highest it’s ever been was less than 5 percent in the years before Neil Armstrong took one giant leap for mankind. But, don’t get me started.
KSC has the Shuttle Atlantis in residence. They have built a building to house and display it and we could almost touch it. Magnificent flying machine. Actually it didn’t fly – it was shot into space with on board rockets and solid rocket boosters and then glided back to earth (one astronaut called it, a flying brick). I got to touch a moon rock. The Apollo 14 command capsule (which Alan Shepherd flew to the moon) is on display as are a number of space suits and other artifacts. We sat in the actual
control room that was used to send Apollo 8 to the moon, with Borman, Lovell, and Anders on board and reading the Bible in moon orbit. We drove past Pad 39A, the only place on earth from which men have flown to the moon. It was a great time.
Talk number 4 today, “The Pirates of New Jersey” was to a full house – the largest audience of the cruise. One of the highlights was showing a picture of the greatest pirate of all time who hails from Puerto Rico. I know you didn’t ask, “Who?” Roberto Clemente, of course. In the audience was a lady whose grandfather, George Smith played with the Pittsburgh Pirates in around the time of World War I. I forgot to tell you that while on Nassau, and visiting the Nassau Museum, I met Vienna Johnson, widow of Godfrey Johnson, who played in the Pirates farm system in the late 1950s (and played with Roberto during spring training). Godfrey played with Roberto, not Vienna.
Talk number 5 tomorrow, and then the first week is over. Sadness.
Well, we are back on board. We went through customs and were back on the Explorer in about 15 minutes. I think that was the smoothest transition ever. We were welcomed to a “back to back” luncheon which was the best meal we’ve had on the cruise. Our luncheon companions are all very frequent cruisers – one couple, I think just goes home, washes clothes and gets on another ship. They all remarked on the quality of the lunch. I had seafood salad, melt in your mouth beef tenderloin and warm chocolate cake. Bonnie had a chef salad, shrimp stuffed with something green (about which she remarked, “I like this. Don’t tell me what it is!”) and chocolate ice cream.
A couple of odds and ends from last week.
Paula, one of our dinner mates complained about being cold frequently. She said, “I kept hoping for one hot flash to warm me up!”
Bonnie was working on one of her crochet projects when two ladies walked over and started talking to her in, what she recognized as French. Politely, she said, “Bonjour,” and the woman took off in full conversation. When she told the lady she did not “gavaroo po Francaise” or “parlez vous” her companion switched to English and they talked about crocheting. Funny.
We changed staterooms for this second week. A wedding party is on board and they needed a number of rooms together, so we went from 9 aft to 8 forward. The room seems a little larger and it is above the promenade. We have a window that overlooks the doings and goings on down there. My traveling companion has declared that it will be noiser, but so far I haven’t heard anything but her ramblings and my fingers on the keyboard. Tonight will tell.
Lifeboat drill in a few minutes. Then maybe I can get this posted.
Next post Monday from Port Canaveral. Hopefully.
TTFN
Port Canaveral here. Your intrepid explorers, from Explorer of the Seas, went ashore for 2 hours and 20 minutes. We visited Ron Jon Surf Shop, walked onto Cocoa Beach (about 15 feet out – did not experience the ocean), bought a box of Q-tips, 3 Mountain Dews (outside of Georgia, they seem never to have heard of Mello Yello) and 3 caffine free Diet Cokes. And caught the first bus back to the ship.
