Thursday, August 17, 2006
Baby, Let's Cruise
Wow, you lucky dogs, two posts in less than 24 hours! What is the world coming to? Clearly my busy summer vacation has had me juggling my precious time between Judge Judy and the gym. Finding time to tool around on the internet? Phooey!
In a means to celebrate his exodus from academia (and sadly, my ultimate return to it. {Aug 28th: LAST YEAR OF NUSING SCHOOL. Be there.}), we are scheduled to be aboard the Carribean Princess on Saturday evening to embark on another delicious 7 day cruise to the Eastern Carribean (barring any typhoonish surprises from Mother Nature..).
I am of the opinion that whoever invented cruises (Christopher Columbus? Blackbeard? A viking?) should be cannonized for sainthood. 7 full days of constant entertainment and stimulation. 7 full days of 24 hour buffets, all-you-can-eat lobster dinners (which is O for me..ew), cookies at bedtime and breakfast on the balcony. Should the ship encounter disaster and begin to sink, I'd stay with our brave captain -- because I'm sure I could get a few more laughs from the comedian, another OO, AHHH at the magician, maybe actually win BINGO and get back to the buffet for the brownies before we were actually submerged.
Because Princess Cruise lines wants to let every passenger's friend and family member live vicariously through them, they've provided a 24 hour (what isn't 24 hours on those ships?!) live webcam feed from any ship in their fleet. At any point, you can log on and see where we are -- most likely, it'll be a seascape (my mother's chief complaint: "All I can see is the ocean, I want to see you on the ship.") -- and sadly, there are no crowds of colorful natives streaming into the water to greet us and carry us back to their camps as their kings. At times it rotates and you can get a sweet view of the ship. And although I cannot guarantee that I can be on that upper bridge to wave at you, you could imagine me somewhere on deck, deleriously draped over a pool chair with my favorite book in hand trying to catch melanoma.
Be on our cruise in spirit. Select "Carribean Princess". Once viewing, you can also elect to see any nuptials in our very own Carribean Princess wedding chapel. (My mother's strict command: "Don't you dare get married on that cruiseship. It wouldn't be funny." I appreciate my mom's understanding of my sense of humor that getting married on a vessel by its captain would be "funny" to me. And, indeed, an homage to my seafaring brethren.) On the last cruise, the Betrothed and I had our "Muster Station" in the wedding chapel. It was a fire drill of sorts before we set sail where everyone grabs their life jacket and meets in a preordained location and we get the safety briefing -- specifically: when and when not to call "man overboard" and "abandon ship". I thought it would be most entertaining for the prospective vacationer to log onto the wedding chapel cam to see over 100 people crammed inside with life vests on.
{Sidebar: Interestingly enough, one of our safety directions was to not throw anything off the ship; don't be an oceanic litter bug/fish, essentially. This included lit cigarettes. Shortly, as in days, after we disembarked that cruise, the next rabble of passengers to come aboard didn't hear/heed that warning. They lit the ship on fire. (If you look closely enough at the picture, the upper level of a long, windowed-room is the 24 hour buffet. Thankfully, I don't think it sustained any real damage. )We were blessed to have been the last full-cruise on that ship before tragedy struck (and incidentally, we were rooming on the other side of the ship and wouldn't have been charred -- it's likely I would have slept through everything, really.) and it headed over to Europe for some serious plastic surgery. You can see that, too, on the webcam -- see "Star Princess". }
We set sail on Saturday and head for St. Thomas and St. Maarten and then hit the Bahamas on the way back. We've got a tough life, don't we?
Be sure to visit us at sea, via webcam. I'll be sure to pour out some rum punch for all of you.
In a means to celebrate his exodus from academia (and sadly, my ultimate return to it. {Aug 28th: LAST YEAR OF NUSING SCHOOL. Be there.}), we are scheduled to be aboard the Carribean Princess on Saturday evening to embark on another delicious 7 day cruise to the Eastern Carribean (barring any typhoonish surprises from Mother Nature..).
I am of the opinion that whoever invented cruises (Christopher Columbus? Blackbeard? A viking?) should be cannonized for sainthood. 7 full days of constant entertainment and stimulation. 7 full days of 24 hour buffets, all-you-can-eat lobster dinners (which is O for me..ew), cookies at bedtime and breakfast on the balcony. Should the ship encounter disaster and begin to sink, I'd stay with our brave captain -- because I'm sure I could get a few more laughs from the comedian, another OO, AHHH at the magician, maybe actually win BINGO and get back to the buffet for the brownies before we were actually submerged.
Because Princess Cruise lines wants to let every passenger's friend and family member live vicariously through them, they've provided a 24 hour (what isn't 24 hours on those ships?!) live webcam feed from any ship in their fleet. At any point, you can log on and see where we are -- most likely, it'll be a seascape (my mother's chief complaint: "All I can see is the ocean, I want to see you on the ship.") -- and sadly, there are no crowds of colorful natives streaming into the water to greet us and carry us back to their camps as their kings. At times it rotates and you can get a sweet view of the ship. And although I cannot guarantee that I can be on that upper bridge to wave at you, you could imagine me somewhere on deck, deleriously draped over a pool chair with my favorite book in hand trying to catch melanoma.
Be on our cruise in spirit. Select "Carribean Princess". Once viewing, you can also elect to see any nuptials in our very own Carribean Princess wedding chapel. (My mother's strict command: "Don't you dare get married on that cruiseship. It wouldn't be funny." I appreciate my mom's understanding of my sense of humor that getting married on a vessel by its captain would be "funny" to me. And, indeed, an homage to my seafaring brethren.) On the last cruise, the Betrothed and I had our "Muster Station" in the wedding chapel. It was a fire drill of sorts before we set sail where everyone grabs their life jacket and meets in a preordained location and we get the safety briefing -- specifically: when and when not to call "man overboard" and "abandon ship". I thought it would be most entertaining for the prospective vacationer to log onto the wedding chapel cam to see over 100 people crammed inside with life vests on.
{Sidebar: Interestingly enough, one of our safety directions was to not throw anything off the ship; don't be an oceanic litter bug/fish, essentially. This included lit cigarettes. Shortly, as in days, after we disembarked that cruise, the next rabble of passengers to come aboard didn't hear/heed that warning. They lit the ship on fire. (If you look closely enough at the picture, the upper level of a long, windowed-room is the 24 hour buffet. Thankfully, I don't think it sustained any real damage. )We were blessed to have been the last full-cruise on that ship before tragedy struck (and incidentally, we were rooming on the other side of the ship and wouldn't have been charred -- it's likely I would have slept through everything, really.) and it headed over to Europe for some serious plastic surgery. You can see that, too, on the webcam -- see "Star Princess". }
We set sail on Saturday and head for St. Thomas and St. Maarten and then hit the Bahamas on the way back. We've got a tough life, don't we?
Be sure to visit us at sea, via webcam. I'll be sure to pour out some rum punch for all of you.
# posted by Cathy @ 10:49:00 AM 
