THE FIRST DAY AT SEA

September 17, 2019

It was a good day today.  We were up at 6:30 to prepare our morning toilet and head up to the Lido for breakfast.  Each sea day I have a talk at 9 o’clock (and later at 3) hence the early rise because after sustenance, I come back to the room and rehearse one last time before the presentation.

This morning’s crowd was around 40, and not bad for the first morning of a cruise with an early starting time.  Carnival really doesn’t do a lot to promote the talks, but then neither do they do a lot to promote the ball room dance instructors (and the couple on this cruise are friends of ours from a several cruises, Tom and Jo).  But I did get a blurb on the front cover of the Fun Times, the ship’s activities paper.  The afternoon crowd filled the Forum Lounge where I do my presentation.  Mom said it looked to her like 150.  High standards to keep for the rest of the cruise.

There was a Sea Day Brunch today which starts at 8:30 and goes until 1 p.m.  We did our lunch there and I had a very good pasta dish and Bonnie had a so-so Caesar salad – wilty lettuce and runny dressing.  Where we sat we could see out the window and the sea so far has been smooth as glass.  We’ve both commented that the only other time we saw it this smooth was a late season Atlantic crossing.  The waters can stay like that for the rest of the trip.  Calm seas and following winds.

I made my first onboard purchase of the cruise.  Are you ready for it?  Can you guess?  No peeking!  Here’s the reveal.  A can of Pringles.

Well, before I wrap up this tale told on our first formal night (Tuxedo on, look in mirror and say, “Bond, James Bond.”) let me fill you in on yesterday’s getting to our stateroom.

When I receive my boarding email from Carnival on Thursday, I checked out the location of our cabin and was dismayed to see we had been assigned to a cabin with one twin bed and one Pullman bed (which is code for a bunk bed – and talking to Tom and Jo today, they were also assigned similar less than desirable quarters).  I told our agent, “No way!”  Mom can’t climb a ladder and I don’t want to.  And I told him, if you can’t get it changed we won’t do the cruise.  Bless his heart it wasn’t his fault, but he became our advocate and began working the phone lines.

Because we still hadn’t been assigned a new room by the time we got to the dock yesterday we carried all of our luggage on by ourselves.  Once on, and as our friend Sheilah from Macedonia would say, “to make a long story short” we talked to more people, and finally, Jennifer, the Customer Service Director said, “I think I have it worked out.”  And she did.  It was with gladness of heart that we moved from R-52 to E-112, unpacked and went to sleep.  With thanks to Jennifer, and especially to the Good Lord whom we beseeched earnestly, we are settled in and ready for a good cruise.

And that’s all for now.
TTFN