I headed down to the lobby level of the hotel for a fix of my favorite morning beverage, a Starbucks venti mocha [for you non-Starbucks addicts, venti = Italian for twenty ounces]. I was outraged to find out that this particular franchise is closed on weekends, a disgrace to the Starbucks chain! However, I did stumble upon another coffee shop farther down the concourse and scored a cup of hazelnut coffee. After consulting the concierge so I would not waste my time or overtax my knees by setting out in the wrong direction, I left the hotel in search of Branford Place and a men's shop or two. As I later confessed to the Russos, if Jill had known just how seedy the neighborhood was, she would not have let me go! I did not find either of the men's shops I had encountered on yellowpages.com but as I was traveling west I spotted the Porto Bella Men's Shop on a cross street. Jill had warned me that I would be paying a premium price in the NYC area, but when I saw the sign, "Buy 1 suit, get 2 suits free," I knew this cheap, German Lutheran had come to the right place! The sales staff was very helpful, probably because they were bored to tears. I had one salesman measure my neck since, even at 56, I am still a "growing boy" and I cannot remember the last time I wore a dress shirt. [For you non-cruisers, there are usually one or two "formal" nights on a cruise.] I selected two shirts, one dark purple and one beige. I would later be complimented by Lisa on my matching tie and pocket square.
I "stalked" the Russos after checkout time and was surprised to find them still in their room. I texted Diane that Jill was just about ready. Diane responded that we would have to hire two cabs anyway so they would meet us at the ship. Ironically, we ended up beating them to the port. We were already standing in the boarding line when the Russos arrived. Unfortunately, we were separated again when we did not have all of our necessary paperwork ready. I recalled an email from Royal Caribbean back in March, "Your cruise documents are ready," but that had faded into the background after Jill's dad's fall.
After finally satisfying the check-in requirements and posing for our welcome-aboard photo we headed directly to the Windjammer Grill on deck 11 for lunch. Assuming the Russos had gone to their cabins first, we reserved a table for six. Since no good deed goes unpunished, the Russos had already started chowing down at another table without us! Fortunately, Ken found us and guided us to their table.
After lunch we located our cabins and started to unpack. The mandatory lifeboat drill temporarily interrupted our mission: to find our first tropical drink. By the way, this was our first-ever lifeboat drill without lifejackets. After the drill we walked "upstream" against the flow of dispersing passengers and located the Russos farther up the deck. [When we first booked our cruise the closest we could get to the Russos was 18 cabins away, so they were not assigned to our lifeboat.] Our reassembled group headed directly up to the pool deck (#11). Pina coladas (men) and mai-tais (females) were promptly ordered while we watched the ship pass dangerously close to the bottom of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the Manhattan skyline disappear into the distance. The Russos decided to dance to the live DJ as we all wondered where the live steel band was. Did Royal Caribbean cheap out on the entertainment? I furtively snagged a towel from one of the VIP deck chairs to keep chilly Jilly warm. We parted ways again when the Russos took off walking and we returned to our cabin to finish unpacking.
Our tentative plan was to regroup on the Royal Promenade at 6:30 for the complimentary liqueur tasting. We held up our end of the bargain but the Russos found themselves in the Viking Crown Lounge and did not want to move so they sent Stephanie down to retrieve us. By the time Stephanie found us we had reached the front of the line so we invited her to join us for a quick nip of liqueur before rejoining the rest of the group. At 7:30, after a round of cocktails, we headed down to the Palace Theater for the "Welcome Aboard Show." First up was a painter (why a painter?) who did not impress any of us with his skills and did not even finish his painting! Fortunately, the guitarist/comedian who followed was very funny as well as very talented on his guitar--he impressed me with his intro to the Who's "Pinball Wizard"--but it took him until 8:40 to realize that he was losing most of his audience to the 8:30 dinner seating and he had better wrap it up!
At our first onboard dinner we met our waiter, Darryl from India, and his assistant, Komang from Indonesia. The sudden and coincidental mention of "Indonesia" prompted the Russos to disclose to us for the first time that Lisa was soon headed there [specifically, the island of Bali] to study its music, one of the seven sub-disciplines [according to Ken] under the umbrella of "anthropology," the study of man. Komang was more than happy to share information with Lisa and the rest of us about his homeland. After dinner, I quipped to Lisa, "You made his day!" as we headed to the Royal Promenade and the casino, where Ken schooled his daughters in the finer points of roulette. Finally, we called it a day at 11:00 PM because we had to turn our clocks ahead one hour to Bermuda time. I continued writing until midnight or 1:00 AM Bermuda time.
For those of you who are still curious about "Lisa's Excellent Adventure in Bali" you may follow her at:
Our tentative plan was to regroup on the Royal Promenade at 6:30 for the complimentary liqueur tasting. We held up our end of the bargain but the Russos found themselves in the Viking Crown Lounge and did not want to move so they sent Stephanie down to retrieve us. By the time Stephanie found us we had reached the front of the line so we invited her to join us for a quick nip of liqueur before rejoining the rest of the group. At 7:30, after a round of cocktails, we headed down to the Palace Theater for the "Welcome Aboard Show." First up was a painter (why a painter?) who did not impress any of us with his skills and did not even finish his painting! Fortunately, the guitarist/comedian who followed was very funny as well as very talented on his guitar--he impressed me with his intro to the Who's "Pinball Wizard"--but it took him until 8:40 to realize that he was losing most of his audience to the 8:30 dinner seating and he had better wrap it up!
At our first onboard dinner we met our waiter, Darryl from India, and his assistant, Komang from Indonesia. The sudden and coincidental mention of "Indonesia" prompted the Russos to disclose to us for the first time that Lisa was soon headed there [specifically, the island of Bali] to study its music, one of the seven sub-disciplines [according to Ken] under the umbrella of "anthropology," the study of man. Komang was more than happy to share information with Lisa and the rest of us about his homeland. After dinner, I quipped to Lisa, "You made his day!" as we headed to the Royal Promenade and the casino, where Ken schooled his daughters in the finer points of roulette. Finally, we called it a day at 11:00 PM because we had to turn our clocks ahead one hour to Bermuda time. I continued writing until midnight or 1:00 AM Bermuda time.
For those of you who are still curious about "Lisa's Excellent Adventure in Bali" you may follow her at:
No comments:
Post a Comment