WELL, SHE’S WORN OUT

April 22, 2018

It has been along day, and my beloved is worn slap out.  As I write this, it is 8:28 p.m., and she is in bed and asleep.  We went to the theater to cop-a-squat, found the seats we will claim for the entire cruise, and she said, “I don’t think I can stay awake for the show.”  We were in the theater at 8 and the show starts at 9 and I said, “Let’s go back to the room.  I can use the time for preparation for my talk.”  There is a shore excursion talk at 10 a.m. tomorrow, telling what to do ashore in Bermuda, and since that was a large part of my first Bermuda talk, I am revising it with much of the history from what would have been my second Bermuda talk.

I am only doing 6 talks, at least that’s the coming on board schedule.  My agent told me to bring 10, so there will be 4 sea days when I won’t have to work.  I spoke Nicole in the entertainment department and she said the ship’s theater would be very full this cruise, which is why I only have 6 talks.  And because of the tight schedule, there will be no Q&A after the talk – at least not in the theater.

Well, when we followed our GPS (using my cell phone, and the GPS has not yet been named) to where we were to drop off our rental car, there was no one there.  We recognized the spot because we’ve dropped off at least one rental there, but after looking around, Bonnie spied a sign on a door that said, “We’ve moved.”  I copied down the address and went to their new location where we left the rental and boarded a shuttle to the ship.  The interesting thing about this address change is, I got the address from the Budget website, and when we picked up the car at the Augusta airport, the agent verified the address.  On the shuttle to the ship was a couple who had booked through Travelocity, and they were given the same wrong address.  Budget needs to change their website and let everyone know where they are.  But we made it.

We had great help locating our cabin number (as you probably know, we are never given that information in advance and wait until we arrive at the pier – sometimes the process is painless, like today, and other times it is a pain in the wazoo) and joined the throng waiting to board the ship.  I asked one of the local reps where we should go since I am the guest lecturer.  He said to go with the Pink Card crowd.  They are the which of which there is no whicher, and so we left the great unwashed for the private lounge.

Our key cards didn’t work when we checked in with security – so what else is new – and we went to Guest Relations to get the matter resolved.  Marina said the reason they wouldn’t work was the “M” stamped on each of our cards which meant we were minors.  She asked with a smile, “You are over 21 aren’t you?”  I replied, “For the last 50 years.”  But she got it worked out. 

Then another of her fellow agents helped me get the computer set up for email.  It took a while because she wasn’t used to working with Windows 10 (and I personally vote two thumbs down for Windows 10 – why did Bill Gates abandon Windows XP??).  But I am signed on the crew internet for a substantial discount, and that’s good.

The only other thing of note today is we booked a ship’s excursion for when we get to France that will take us to the D-Day beaches.  We are looking forward to that.

Well, I’m off to check email and post this blog.

TTFN