We left New York (I now say New York instead of New Jersey because the port is really that close and because of THIS…) on the Sunday night knowing it would take 3 full days at sea before reaching our first port of call. We were ready to relax and read and eat and drink and explore and gamble and watch shows and try lots of different activities… We weren’t ready for the bad weather those next 3 days would bring. We expected some medium coldish temperature but unfortunately, we sailed through some stormy weather and the sun was totally absent for rain and clouds.
Finally on day 4, the weather was a bit better, at least warm enough to sit outside on the deck and maybe even use the pools. After an hour reading on a lounger with DR sleeping next to me, I decided to go and test the pool water… IT WAS FRIGID. I managed to sit by the edge and soak my feet, then my legs… it was obvious I was uncomfortable and just as I was about to get up to go back to my reading, I hear this whispering shy voice to my left: “Excuse me. Are you SharkBoy?”
I turned to find this lovely lady crouching next to me with a wide smile on. I replied: “Yes I am, but I want to know how the hell you know that?” She smiled some more and started telling me how she was looking for information about this ship online and fell DR’s blog with this story and started to read on about all the different posts on what he was packing, etc… She easily criss-crossed to my blog and started to read on as well.
I loved Cathy instantly… Not only did she have the “balls” to come say hello and introduce herself, but she was funny and nice and pleasant… the first really nice person we’d met since departure. After talking for awhile, I finally got my frozen feet out of the pool and she introduced me to her husband Raymond. They were on this cruise with their 2 teenagers and her parents as well. I noticed DR was awake by then and I motioned for him to come down to the pool level and joined us. We were relieved to find out they were from Michigan and we had an instant rapport in regards to disliking a large amount of the crowd aboard with us. What DR called the Large Barge, they called SS Geritol, yet all of us were thrilled to still be aboard and enjoy a nice long vacation, at least if we didn’t like the people, we could make good fun of them.
We met up later on for drinks at the piano bar and enjoyed some more conversations for the duration of the cruise.
It definitely was a nice surprise to be able to walk down the promenade or any decks and run into them and chat for a bit. It made a big difference since the first few days had been filled with loud, rude, clicky groups who didn’t care about others around them…
Cathy and Raymond come from good people.
Raymond, Cathy, me & DR on the last day enjoying deals on the Promenade.
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You’re an internet celebrity!
Awwwwwww. You made me cry! We felt the same about you guys! I should have stayed away from the drinks and mainlined caffeine so I could have done even more stuff….like be able to stay awake past 9 and visit more with you. I had an affinity for waking @ 5 a.m. to watch the whole process of coming into port, so that didn’t help…
I might add that the reality of being back to work really bites donkey balls. But must work to save up for the next vacation!
Miss ya!
How fun! Feels good to know that your work reaches people out there, doesn’t it?
EP and P2: the credit really goes to DR as it was his many articles about the ship that brought a lot of other travellers’ attention, but I’ll admit that it was freaking cool that someone did approach us because they’d read our blogs… freaking cool.
Cathy: We always had early mornings too, we loved being on Deck 12 as we approached the ports (making sure to avoid the bullets also known as joggers…) and therefore had many early nights (right after getting pizza slices of course). It was a pleasure meeting you both. I missed both Monday and Tuesday at work as I caught some bug but I’ll be there today and I’m sure it will bite those balls you talk about.