Ciao, Y'all

The cruise director is an an Italian guy named Giuseppe.  He introduces most of the events, and it’s his voice heard over the PA system for important announcements.  He greets everyone with a signature combination of Italian and Texan, saying Ciao, y’all!

In fact, nearly of the senior officers are Italian and I believe that’s where this ship was built.  Giuseppe introduced the head cook and the head pastry chef during the baking show this morning in the theater, both of them Italian.  The one exception was the head of the wait staff, who was Dutch.

These guys put on a spoof of a baking show which was both informative and humorous.  After the show, everyone in the theater was invited to take a walk through one of the galleys.  So perhaps a thousand people streamed through the galley, a massive area of stainless steel which serves the needs of thousands of people.  Some of the wait staff were playing instruments and singing songs as we passed by.

Seeing the scale of this kind of operation can be rather mind-boggling.  In addition to the 20,000 eggs a day that are used on this ship, 600 pounds of bacon are consumed.  Per day.  When it comes into port, this ship will take on another $1.2 million in food supplies.

We’re really getting into the cruise thing now.  After taking another long walk on the walking track, we had lunch and then sat in the sun above the pool deck and listened to the the ship’s band play songs from various artists such as CCR, the Beatles, and the Eagles.  This band is quite good and they are fun to listen to.  The sun is rather warm and it’s hard to believe it’s early February.  Sunburn can be a real issue here.

Last dinner with our table mates that we have shared dinner with the last several days.  Both couples are seasoned cruisers, one in their 80’s and the other in their 30’s. The older couple remarked that they were old enough to be our parents and the other couples’ grandparents.

More walks around the decks, this time the wind had died down enough to where I could actually wear a hat.  I’ve had my hat blow off numerous times, once it even went over the side rail and slid down the outside of the glass railing and lodged on the metal lip just outside the rail.  I was able to reach under the glass and retrieve it but I thought I was going to watch it float down 18 decks into the water.

We took our last chance to use the hot tub, watching the end of a move that I don’t know the title of.  Then it was down to the piazza deck to watch the ship’s band play for a bit before turning in.  A lot less people were congregating and dancing this time--they were probably all packing and getting ready to disembark.

Tomorrow it’s back to reality as we trade an enormous ship for a tiny motorhome.  It has been good and it was fun to be pampered for a week.  Cheap, too.  Deb found this deal online: $250 for each of us.  Add to that about $100 for the mandatory tipping and it was a value oriented (read: cheap) vacation for us.  The shore excursions added some cost, but where else can you stay for a week with all meals and entertainment included for $350?