MORE FREEBIES

March 7, 2020

More freebies, but first, we are not Springing Forward with the rest of you (hey Bro, do they spring forward in Albuquerque?).  In order to stay on time with our ports of call, and to be on the same time as San Francisco when we dock (do they observe Springing Forward in San Fran – they don’t pay attention to much else out there – Google “sanctuary cities”), we will turn our clocks back an hour on March 10 and another on March 15.  No sleep loss here, unless it’s to get up to pee.

Okay, about the freebies.  Bonnie came back to the room after dinner while I sat outside the theater waiting to rush in and grab our favorite seats.  When she came back she had a photograph of another plate of chocolate covered strawberries, and on top of the lid was a golden ship on a stick and a Carnival medallion on a ribbon.  Also there was a note from Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald, telling us to “have a brilliant time.”  We ate the strawberries and put the two goodies in our secret stash to take home.  We still don’t know whether they think we are the original occupants of 4115, or whether they are saying, “Sorry!” for the dock-side shenanigans.  Either way, thank you very much.

I did my third talk of the cruise today on Photography in the Phantom Theater.  This is the first time I’ve done a talk for Carnival in the main theater, Holland America always, here not so.  And two more are scheduled there – it all revolves around what is going on where.  The main floor was 2/3rds full and there some people in the balcony.  Lots of questions and comments after the talk.

And I had my first, “How did you get this gig?” question of the cruise.  Usually I tell them, “By asking that question on a sailing a dozen years ago,” and then explaining about needing an agent.  It always bugs Mom when people say, “Oh you get to cruise for free.”  She is well-restrained and does not respond to that.  But I think I am going to change my answer and tell them, “Well, first you have to have something to talk about and I have more than 50 cruise talks, each one of them taking 120 hours to build through research, writing, rewriting, and developing a PowerPoint.  That makes 6,000 hours or 250 days of work to get them ready, and that doesn’t count two rehearsals which I do in our stateroom before each talk, regardless of how often I’ve done it.  Then you have to hire an agent and pay him or her to represent you to the cruise line.”  That answer is Bonnie approved.

The ship instituted new safety/health procedures today.  There is no more self-serving of food.  Even on the Buffet, especially on the Buffet.  All food will be served by the crew who will be wearing rubber gloves – including ice cream cones.  At night, neither bread, nor butter, nor salt and pepper shakers are put on the table.  Each is served upon request.  No bottles of water, no bottle of wine with the table number dangling from the bottle neck, no wine glasses on the table.  I told one of our servers, Sarvesh, that it makes more work for them, but Bonnie and I appreciate it.  He said it is not more work, it is simply doing what is necessary to keep everyone, guests and crew alike, safe.  And we really do appreciate it.  I’m sure the fact that the Carnival Magic was denied docking at Grand Turk yesterday and another Carnival ship was denied docking at another West Indies island earlier in the week.  We are all for it because my wife and her husband are on board!

We have booked two excursions for this cruise.  The first one tomorrow is in Cartagena, Columbia (I did not risk buying hop on hop off bus tickets, because the last time I bought hoho tickets for Cartagena, I wanted them for Spain and bought for Columbia, so I’d probably reverse it here – we showed up at the bus and the lady said, these are for Columbia.  Well, fiddle dee dee).  This is a 4.5 hour deluxe walking tour and visit to Getsemani.  I have no idea what Getsemani is, other than we ride there, make a couple of stops where we walk around, then ride back.  Getsemani is billed as a well-known historic center and arts and crafts haven (and I am pronouncing it like the Garden in which Jesus prayed the night he was betrayed).  Stay tuned for tomorrow night’s blog.

Okay, Mom’s turn.

TTFN

Well, this is the cruise of the sore toes. You all know I broke the little toe on my right foot several weeks ago and it is pretty much all better. But today I have an ingrown toenail on the left foot. I worked on it this morning and put neosporin and a band-aid on it. We will see how all goes tomorrow on our walking tour. And we have another walking tour when we get to Guatemala.

Today was a so-so day. Your dad’s photography talk is always long and he ran right into the time for the trivia game on Seinfeld. Only about 10 people showed up for that so I guess it was okay. We knew bingo ticket sales were to start right after his talk but missed the note about the trivia. Oh well fire us.

After his talk we went to the lido and had a small, very small salad. Mine was made even smaller because they put a lot of that one type of yucky tasting lettuce on mine and I took it all out. So I mainly had some cauliflower and croutons and a tiny bit of  lettuce.   After that we got a minuscule ice cream cone. The crew member who had been put in charge of making the cones had no clue how to do it. Oh well it tasted good.

We went to the cabin for a nap. He snored and slept and when he got up I laid down for a few minutes. Then it was up and dressed and off to supper. When we went to supper last night at 5 there was nobody there waiting to get into the dining room But tonight there was a huge line at 5 when we arrived. So we had to get at the end and wait our turn. We didn’t get table 421 but table 423. It was okay because it was the same server. I had broccoli and cheese soup, linguine with spicy Italian sausage ( every time I get this there are only 4 tiny pieces of sausage) but the sauce is good so I enjoy it. I got the smore’s parfait tonight, which is usually very good, but not tonight. I only ate about half of it.

The show tonight was a juggler who is from Mexico originally. He told a lot of jokes about Balls (editor’s note: ping pong balls with double entendres) and other things, a little on the racy side. He is a good juggler but I think he talked more than he juggled. But a nice show.

Now back in the room relaxing. We need to be up early and have breakfast and be on the dock by 8:15. We are to dock at 7. I am going to wait till we return from the tour and then take a bath. It will be hot and I will need a bath to cool down.

Well, love you all.  Mom, Granny and Bonnie