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So the plan yesterday was to go to the comedy show before dinner last night. I had some time before that, so I started working on the blog. Finished that, and still had some time, so I thought that I would try to check my email. I hadn't planned on doing that at all, but it looked like it would only be about 8 Mb worth of data so I decided to try. Data is at a premium on a cruise ship. Expensive. And slow.
After it finished downloading, took about 10 minutes or more to get it all, I quickly started scanning through it. One email caught my eye. A message from my credit card company, saying my balance had gone up a certain amount. That's weird. So I log onto my credit card account online, and see that someone has made 2 purchases at Best Buy in Richmond for around $1200...the day or two after our cruise started. Ugh! I haven't used that card since a little before we left.
I go back to re-read the email, which had been sent 5 or 6 days ago and it says to contact them if it's incorrect. Well, I'm in the middle of the Pacific, somewhere 200 miles off the coast of Costa Rica. I have no cell service. So I use the email address given in the email and type up an email to customer service....urgent! By this time, the comedy show is well under way, and my mood was not going to be cheered up by some guy I didn't think was that funny the first time I saw his act on the cruise.
We went instead to start a lineup for pictures with Mr and Mrs Incredible, and chatted with Arnold, a young officer from India. Very nice guy. But I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Where and when would they have copied my card info? Was it the guy who sold us our camera that we bought a few days before our trip? The luggage place? I hate stewing and distrusting people with no foundation or proof, but I think it's human nature. Sad that there are dishonest people out there like that. I try a few times before bed to log onto the email to see if anyone has responded from the credit card company, but, of course, they haven't. It'll probably be a couple of days. I'm bummed.
Stacey tries comforting me, but that Archinuk worry gene is just getting warmed up. =( I don't sleep very well last night. After the pictures, we go and have dinner with our tablemates in Animator's Palate. I was less talkative than my normal less talkative self. The food is great again though. Ismet, our server won't stop bringing extra dishes above what you order to try. Extra appy's, extra starters, extra mains, extra desserts. We're both gaining weight. I should have brought an extra size up of pants or more stretchy ones.
We go after dinner to catch the late show of the Elton John tribute guy. We was fantastic again. I tried to clap and be his drums for most of the night. A couple of songs, I'm the only one clapping. Awkward! But this crowd just doesn't have the stamina for it I guess, or don't get that live performers want that kind of feedback. Anyway, my hands are sore by the end of it.
After that show, Jeffrey (Elton) promises that if we show up to kareoke after the show in the lounge, that he'll show up. Why not? Stacey and I find a seat in the corner and listen and try singing along. A couple of pretty decent singers there, and a bunch of....well, not so much. The host mananges to get Jeffrey up at the end to lead a singalong. The host wants him to do an Elton John song, but he refuses. He's out of constume and looks like a regular guy. "I'm not Elton now, I just a guy in plain clothes....I'm drinking!" he says with an almost empty glass in his hand. He chooses Brown Eyed Girl instead. Still sounds good.
Kareoke is over. The DJ will stay to 2am for anyone wanting to dance on the floor, but it's into the wee hours now, and we're losing an hour due to time zone change, so we head for bed somewhere around 1:30am. That's why it seems like we're sleeping our vacation away, Jaimie. We're staying up waaaaaaaaaay too late.
Stacey's cough is still hanging on, and is stubbornly refusing to do anything about it. I keep telling her to take the cough medicine that we brought...but no, that'll make her sleepy, and doesn't want to take it now. Ok at bedtime? No, she'll take Nyquil and do that for a day or two, at night only. Should she take anti-biotics? We have some, just in case. She doesn't want to in case it's not bacterial. /sigh. She coughed less today I think, but I can't help but wonder if she'd have suffered less if she had tried something sooner. And she's still coughing.
I wake up in time to catch most of the morning cruise director's show on tv. The Cruise Director has challenged the Hotel Director to a game of Wii Bowling on the Funnel Vision jumbotron on deck 9 later. Loser gets tossed into the swimming pool. Sounds interesting, make a mental note for 11:30, deck 9.
We slowly, very slowly, get ourselves together and start heading to deck 9 early to catch the show. Ugo, the Hotel Director loses, and is thrown in the pool. He then signals a notorious guest, Robin, who then grabs the winner, Jimmy, and after a brief struggle, bear hugs him and jumps into the pool with Jimmy helplessly along for the ride. Both Jimmy and Ugo were in their Officer White Uniforms.
We stay on deck 9 for a quick brunch before Stacey leaves to go to classes for Memory Pages and Flip Books. I go back to the cabin to check for emails from the credit company. Nothing. I'm not feeling good about this so I read the email again. Contact them immediately. Ok, I go to Guest Services and ask for them to get me a phone. It's not a 1-800 number. Outside of the US and Canada it's a collect call. They need a manager to authorise it, but it happens. I spend about 5 minutes on hold waiting to be transferred to a security / fraud specialist, and the outcome is, my card is cancelled and they'll mail one back to me in roughly 2 weeks. Ok, worry over.
Stacey's classes finish and she joins up with me and we go up on deck, since she wants 15 minutes of sun, per side. Or until her skins starts to tingle. It's 27 degrees here, sun or cloud, though it's party sunny right now. I only need about 10 minutes before I'm tingling, so I head just inside the Cove Cafe for some shade. Oh, wait. My credit card is cancelled. What about my pre-authorized charges? Monthly cell phone, cable company, and mortgage insurance charges? Argh! The worry is coming back. I think I can fix the first two, but I don't even know how to fix the third. Will have to figure that out when I get back to the States and have cell service to make some calls. This is a real hassle.
80's music trivia starts at 2:30pm, so we go and join that. Need an 80's team name? Tears for Beers. It's 25 questions. You hear a very (very) brief sound clip of a song and have to identify the name of the song and the artist, one point for each, maximum 50 points. We don't do too badly. Score 42 out of 50. Should have got a couple more, but, my heads not quite in it right now. The winner got 49/50, only missing the name of one song, but getting the artist. Wasn't a team...just one guy on his own. Wow! He wins a keychain.
We come back to the room and start fixing credit card authorizations, while Stacey watches movies on tv. I keep watching when Stacey goes out to take pictures of characters. We meet up again at 6 to watch the show in the main theatre. Due to a lack of entertainers, the regular shipboard entertainers volunteered to do their own show of movie music from the 30's and 40's all the way to present. Singing and some dancing along accompanied by one girl on piano. The show was unbelievable. Famous movie songs...Somewhere over the rainbow, Diamonds are a Girl's best friend, some Elvis, up to Grease, I will always love you, My heart will go on and ending with a couple of Les Mis songs, with many more in between. Outstanding!! Some really good performances, both solo and group, along with just the one piano providing music. All put together by just the performers with just 5 days notice, on top of their regular shows. Wow! Amazing!
Almost dinnertime. World dining night. There's a different themed menu on every night of this longer cruise. None repeated. Some of these menu's, and staff uniforms, only come out twice a year, once for eastbound Panama, and once for westbound. The chef makes Stacey a special dessert tonight. She had been having only a fruit plate every night so far. She gets a kind of Mango Mousse cup. Looks pretty. Everyone at the table is jealous. Stacey says it was awesome and asks the server to let the chef know. She wants to learn how to make it.
The after dinner show is a Broadway performer, whom I've never heard of. Neither of us is that interested, tonight and we want to get to bed early....well, earlier than we have. It's 11:30pm now as I type this. We have character breakfast tomorrow morning to get up for. =)
Tomorrow we should arrive at the anchorage for the Panama Canal around 9pm, be heading through Saturday. This weeks is going very quickly. Maybe cause we slept through it with all the rough seas?
WYWH!
Bedtime.
Kim =) and Stacey :)
- comments
amber "less talkative than my normal less talkative self" <-- I like that :) but it's too bad about the reason for it. Sounds like you'll get things worked out; but you're right, it's a pain.
nanuk What's an Archinuk worry gene? That doesn't compute!!! I'm enjoying your narrative. The Panama Canal should be exciting.
Marlen heard on News that millions had been compromised with Home Depot a couple days ago....been there lately before cruise
daughter That's terrible news about the card!!!! I really hope it gets worked out :( I'm glad mom's getting a little better. Try not to worry dad. It'll work out :) Love you a lot!
Jasmyn Sorry to hear about the c/c fiasco. What kind of camera did you buy? Nikon One?
Kim Sony RX-10. It's a superzoom type camera. Stacey loves it. I was looking at the Nikon One initially, but decided on the Sony instead.
Naomi Yes the whole credit card thing a pain. Just happened to me too. Hard to sort the mess out from a far though. I agree with Amber that less talkative part was cute.