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I finished blogging at 1am last night, just as the ship was starting to rock. That's not rock in a good way as in "where's the party, dude, I'm ready to rock!" I was done, so I crawled into bed to join Stacey who had fallen asleep around 11pm.
The rocking got noticeablely worse around 4am, and a sudden lurch by the ship pushed Stacey enough to almost wake her out of sleep. The ship jerked and so did she, sending a sharp kick right into my shin. Ow! She has no memory of this. She did it again later but this time I think she was trying to stick her leg out of the covers off the side of the bed. She just forgot that she wasn't on her usual side of the bed, due to my needing an accessable electrical outlet for my cpap machine. Ow!
Stacey was up @ 5:20am to run. Reluctantly I decided to join her. We did 4 laps of the track, and I managed to jog 1 and a half of them. Feels weird running on a pitching platform, but the ocean had calmed quite a bit from the 4am ordeal. Stacey headed back to the cabin to shower, but I needed another lap around the top deck to cool off in the breeze with a cup of water. The ocean was calm as the sun rose behind distant cloud cover and haze. It looks like a nice day is coming, as it's now clear overhead.
I head downstairs for a shower and shave and we make our way to Triton's for breakfast a la carte style. Getting up so early meant that we were there at 7:30am but didn't check the daily ship navigator to see that Triton's doesn't open until 8am. We decide to go back up and start a load of laundry which has started to pile up. We stuffed one machine full and made note of the time to come back to dry it all, 27 minutes.
Stacey is still tired and goes back to bed after putting the clothes in the dryer, and I go downstairs to Studio Sea to watch a live taping of the Cruise Director's Morning Show. Very entertaining. Jimmy the Cruise Director and his Assistant Leslie are very entertaining. He tells us that Tropical Storm Odile is now officially a Category 1 Hurricane. Some half hearted cheers and clapping erupt among the other watching guests. I dunno. Are we happy about this? I guess if your plans have to be altered, might as well have a really good reason for it. It also makes for a better story to say we got diverted by a hurricane than a smaller storm.
The water is calm so far, but they expect that Odile may eventually have a 300 mile radius. There is another storm, designated 16E, that they are watching southwest of us, but it looks like Odile is siphoning off it's strength and eating it. Odile could get bigger, but taking out the other storm would give us more room to run to if needed.
After the show, I pick up our laundry from the dryer and fold it in the cabin while Stacey sleeps. I wake her up and take her out for breakfast @ 10am. We're hungry, and Stacey is sick. =( Sore throat, and losing her voice and very tired. I'm tired too. While I'm at the buffet getting my breakfast and Stacey waits at the table for the chef to make her pre-ordered gluten/dairy free food she is asked by 2 different servers if she's cold, since she's rubbing her arms. She tells them that she is fine as she had brought a blanket down from the room with her and has it on her lap. Moments after that, one of them shows up and wraps a large clean white tablecloth around her. She liked that a lot.
After breakfast we decide (mostly Stacey) to go find a lounge chair on the top deck to get some sun. It's a bright sunny day and quite warm and humid, but there is always a breeze. I'd thought it might be colder in the middle of the ocean, but even the wind feels warm. Must be the humidity. We get about 15 minutes of Vitamin Sunshine while I watch Toy Story on the Funnel Vision Jumbo screen outside, and then we go back inside to the cabin. Stacey is going back to bed, and she stays there all day.
I stay in cabin too until 6:10 and go by myself to watch the Golden Mickeys show in the main theatre. Now, it's formal night tonight, and I see a lot of suits, tux's and dresses while passing Triton's as people go in to dinner at the early seating. I walk into the theatre and immediately feel out of place. Everyone decided to dress up for the show, and I'm there in running shoes, shorts and a bright neon yellow t-shirt. I guess I didn't get the memo! I stick out like a vegetarian at a hotdog and bbq rib eating contest. I quickly assess the situation...no time to go get changed, so I find a seat high up in the back corner of the theatre and try to blend in. Good luck with that in a ritzy red theatre with everyone else dressed up. Felt like a goof,or Goofy, but even he was wearing a gold colored suit and top hat.
The show is good. Slightly different than what I remember last time, and leave just before it ends in hopes of hiding my shame and power walk back to the cabin to get Stacey up and dressed for dinner. It takes me over an hour to try to tie a proper and good looking Eldritch knot in my necktie. Trying something new. It ends up looking pretty good I think. We go downstairs and get some pictures taken of ourselves all prettied up, both alone and with the Captain. Stacey looks stunning. Gorgeous. Dinnertime! Try to remind myself not to slop on my suit. I only brought one, and that was a tight fit to get in the suitcase.
Our switching of our dining time from early to late meant we no longer have a private table for 2 and are now at a table for 8. That's fine with us, since we never requested a private table anyway. Maybe our travel agent did for us?
The first night we didn't really get anyones names at our table, and with a large table like this, hard to hear the conversation at the other end of it too. Tonight we start to introduce ourselves to each other. John and Mary from California, John works in IT at a college, Mary is a cast member at Disneyland. Mallory and Katherine are cast members on the Disney Dream cruise ship in the kids club department. The last couple, the newlyweds, didn't show up for dinner. The wife still wasn't feeling well with the movement of the ship. I hope they're doing alright. Tough way to take your first cruise, a 14 day journey that's altered to a lot of sea days due to weather. We feel for her.
Starting to recognise our team helping us. Deniz is the head server, I think from Turkey, Ismet the server is definitely from Turkey. He's 35 and disappointed to be missing Puerto Vallarta to have the chance to call them. He's got one month left on his contract and is talking about getting married. He's a spiritual man, talks about his faith in God as a Muslim. He seems to be a happy man, always humming a tune, says "Opa!" when putting something down in front of you, and refers to himself as Turkish Delight. His assistant server is Beata from Slovakia and finally our Cabin Host is Noel, from the Phillipines.
The hurricane is affecting everyone plans. The Captain of the ship, Captain Guus, wasn't supposed to be here. Captain Fabien had a family emergency recently and Captain Guus was called in to replace him. Captain Guus was supposed to leave the ship in Puerto Vallarta with Captain Fabien returning. Now with us missing that port, Captain Guus is stuck. Jimmy the Cruise Director told me that the Captain told him that his wife is gonna kill him.
With no port days the crew doesn't get much time off either. Ismet has started the last few days at 6:30am and I still see him in the restaurants after 10:30 when we leave, so who knows how long his days are. Gotta be a tough job to work 7 days a week, long hours and always appear to be happy. Don't think I could do it.
Jimmy's morning show gave me some interesting info. The ship had been late leaving San Diego, leaving at 5 to 6pm instead of 4pm. We had initially been told it was because we were waiting for a passenger. Jimmy took the blame this morning. Due to the hurricane, 80% of the ships scheduled entertainers book to come on board the ship to perform cancelled. Whoa! He wasn't blaming them though. They were supposed to perform and leave the ship in Puerto Vallarta to go to other commitments/jobs, and another group of performers was supposed to join the ship there as well to replace those leaving. With no stop there, they couldn't come due to those other commitments. Understandable.
That meant that Jimmy and his team and head office had to scramble to find some performers to fill time for all these extra sea days we would be having. They did their best and had one performer coming from Argentina or something, that they were excited to be able to get, though I forget what kind. He/she had to take 4 flights to get to San Diego, and landed at 4:25 pm. They get to the dock and can't find his/her passport. Doh! Jimmy went down to the dock at 5:15 to see if he could help with anything, but with the ship going different countries and most countries really wanting you to have a passport to identify you, they weren't allowed on the ship past US customs and immigration. Wow, would that be rough!
With dinner finished and Stacey's food for the next day ordered we climb the stairs to deck 7 for bed. The ship is starting to sway again. Hope it calms, but we're a couple hundred miles off Cabo San Lucas we're catching up to the hurricane. Could be a rough couple of days.
WYWH?
Kim =) and Stacey :)
- comments
daughter I love your blog Dad. Lots of detail. I hope mom feels better soon :( good for you guys getting into running! Although 530 is pretty early. Miss you and hope you guys are safe. Love you lots.