Day 1:
At Sea
DAY 1: AT SEA: Everybody likes days at sea, a day to sleep in, to develop the necessary rolling gait to maneuver the ship. I'm up early to walk the promenade (Dawn has a full-perimeter promenade that is great for walking/jogging) three times around, a mile. Blinding sea-spray and gale force winds lend an air of righteous superiority to the hardy few, exchanging terse "good mornings" to your fellow sufferers, at least until you are lapped by a speed-walking granny a couple of times.
I know I'm on vacation when, on the verandah, the Caribbean is a cobalt blue capped with snow white meringue, interrupted by the frantic slash of silvery flying fish escaping this huge imagined predator. My real life is one of the dead and their killers, trying to extract truth from broken and torn bodies, so that justice or its closest approximation may be served. A vacation must be a getaway, without the incessant telephone, fax and, now, E-mail that are so essential and detrimental to a Medical Examiner's life. A cruise is the only vacation that really frees me, allows me to be out of touch and without the need to control.
Breakfast, when I finally tiptoe around the cabin enough that my long-suffering wife, who has voted me the worst vacation roommate in Christendom, is in the Dining Room, with stewed apples with cinnamon and a blueberry muffin for her and a fruit plate and smoked salmon on a toasted bagel for me. Impeccable, with excellent decaf coffee and freshly squeezed juices. When we return, there is no sign of Dixon, our room steward. We spent an hour on deck, having found a relatively undiscovered sundeck on the fantail overlooking the wake, a flattened furrow of water left by the screws of this behemoth. My wife off to dominate a trivia contest -- she later returned, muttering, "dates, all the questions were dates" -- I repair back to the deck to read my James Lee Burke. In my opinion, he took the baton when John D. McDonald died (who, in terms of drawing word pictures and character development, took the pass from Steinbeck.) I'd read all of the Burkes but had saved Cimarron Rose for the trip and had recently found his first, "The Lost Get-Back Boogie." Thank you, amazon.com. A remarkable web site!
On return to our room at 12:00 to get ready for lunch, here's Dixon, asking if we wanted our room made up. Big faux-pas in room stewarding. Susan and Amy are very happy with their room steward, Bernie, as is Matt with Aaron. I guess two out of three is OK, or maybe Dixon is having an off day. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt, for now.
Lunch, in the Dining Room, consists of green mussels, a small order of rigatoni in sauce bolognase (superb) and a Cobb salad, with perfectly ripe avocado and baked chicken (off the bone, not amorphous strips or chunks.) My wife had a bowl of beef broth with tapioca pearls and root vegetable julienne. Dessert was fruit tartlet with a dab of custard, sliced strawberry and kiwi. Susan and Amy had amaretto cheesecake and espresso ice cream; we arrived too late to see what they had for entrees. Service was good, for open seating.
The afternoon was spent in quiet contemplation (nap) and I managed to sleep through tea. My wife's team won the Jeopardy competition and I stirred long enough to participate in the afternoon trivia. Our family group walked away with the usual Princess logo gimcracks and the glares of our competitors, who imagined that we had somehow cheated. These trivia contests can get almost violent.
Evening brought the first formal night. We all looked resplendent in our tuxes and gowns (so who are those people in our pictures?) and had dinner (menu) in the Florentine. Appetizers included a crab quiche for me and a fresh grapefruit/kiwi compote for the rest. Susan and I had lobster bisque and Matt and I had a small order of excellent fettuccine Alfredo to sustain us until the entree. I had sauteed crayfish tails, Susan had a Cornish game hen, Amy had a fresh pasta in a tomatoey sauce, Matt had the tournedos of beef filet and my wife opted for a chicken breast. Not a complaint was heard. Dessert was hazelnut souffle, a pear tart and cheeses with biscuits. Magnificio!
The only slight negative was that, when Susan had her hair done, she got the usual Steiner hard sell about their products, and that kind of dampened her enthusiasm about future spa activities. I guess this approach must pay off, but I know a lot of people who would spend more time and money in the spa if this wasn't the case
We didn't go to the Celebrity Showtime, which featured Wes Epae, singer/comedian/impressionist, no doubt extra ordinaire, so can't comment. We watched our Kansas City Chiefs go down to defeat to the hated Denver Broncos instead. Shoulda tried old Wes! Early to bed, the wind now at fresh gale force and the waves hanging in there at eight to thirteen feet.
Continue on to Section 3; Day 2, Barbados
Embarkation; At Sea;
Barbados; St. Lucia; Martinique; St. Martin;
St. Thomas; Disembarkation