THE NOT SO SAFE SAFE

January 23, 2016

So we get ready to go out and shop Aruba (Mountain Dew, Diet Ginger Ale – all the staples) and the safe won’t open.  I don’t like this kind of safe – first major complaint about the ship.  We’ve been on other ships with the same kind, and I didn’t like them either.  It requires a credit card to open and close – and the same card must be used all the time – if it’s in one person’s pocket, the other person can’t get in the safe.  Turn the magnetic stripe up and swipe.  This morning getting our passports out, it didn’t work.  So we had to wait for a supervisor to open it and reset it.  Small annoyance, and since we are going to be here until 11 p.m., not much at all.

Tonight’s entertainment was cancelled because the entertainer was flying out of New York City.  Ha!  Maybe he will catch up to us tomorrow in Curacao or the next day in Bonaire.  Snowmageddon cancels cruise ship fun.  Film at 11. 

Speaking of film, instead of the entertainer who wasn’t, we went to the Dive In Movies.  Tonight was “Ant Man.”  Bonnie had seen it before, I had not.  There is a scene where the action is getting ready to start, Ant Man has shrunk to his ant size to save the day, and one of the hero’s team begins whistling, “It’s a small world after all.  It’s a small, small world.”  I laughed a certified “Bros’ Laugh!”  And there was not another snicker in the house.  Come on folks!  That was funny!

There were two smaller ships docked beside of us, “Black Watch” and “Freewinds.” 

The Freewinds is 440 feet long and holds 200 passengers (“holds” may possibly be taken literally).  It looks like a neat old days cruise ship, and it is old because it was built in the 70s.  However today it is owned by the Church of Scientology and is used for their indoctrination courses, some cruises costing up to $45,000.  The rumor that it was insulated by blue asbestos, the most deadly kind, does not produce a discount.

The Black Watch is owned by the Fred Olson Cruise Line, a company started by three brothers from Norway in 1848 (not Manny, Moe, and Jack, but Fred, Pete, and Andy – actually Fredrik, Petter, and Andras).  Today it has 4 ships, the BW is 600 feet long and sails with 850 guests and 330 crew.  An 8 night sailing is about $700 per person.

Based on the bad reviews on cruisecritic.com, we won’t be book the BW any time soon, and with people writing about captives in the hold/dungeon of the FW, we sure as shooting won’t sign up to do any cruise talks for them.

And now you know.

We had lunch with two other couples who have attended my talks, and are in ministry in a Baptist church in Houston.  One of the men is doing Bible studies on sea days.  It was an enjoyable time.  The conversation started with the ubiquitous, “So do you get to sail for free?” and my standard answer replied, “We are under contact to the ship and I cannot answer that question.”

I had an Aruba recipe chicken dinner tonight – it was good but the lentil soup that started the meal was the best part of this evening’s fare.  If you discount the Melting Chocolate Cake, which I do not.  Bonnie ate all the peas and carrots from her chicken, but didn’t enjoy the dead bird all that much – a couple of bad days food enjoyment-wise for her.

We have been invited by our two assistants with the cruise director’s staff to go to the on board steak house on Bonaire night – Monday, if my calculations are correct.

Well, enough rambling.  Curacao, one of our favorites tomorrow, and it is after 11:30.  Old folks need to be asleep.

TTFN.