{"id":149,"date":"2008-01-20T10:56:17","date_gmt":"2008-01-20T16:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/western-caribbean-cruise\/friday-11808-at-sea\/"},"modified":"2012-08-21T09:32:47","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T15:32:47","slug":"friday-11808-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/western-caribbean-cruise\/friday-11808-at-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Day at Sea, Toga Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday we got up early, even though we didn’t really have to, because it was a day at sea. We watched the documentary about how the ship runs, then sat out on the balcony reading and watching the ocean. It was kind of hard to wrap our heads around the fact that the cruise was almost over.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nour cabin! <\/em><\/p>\n

We had breakfast, then went up to see the ship 3-Day in progress. We’d intended to participate (they were walking a mile around the track), but most of us had lost our shoes in the Great Mexican Jungle Adventure of Aught-Eight.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We decided to go swimming. I’d never been in the pool on the ship! I didn’t realize it’d be salt water. Also, the thing about putting a bunch of us in a swimming pool together is that we turn into 10-year-olds. It’s kind of spectacular.<\/p>\n

We got out of the pool after a while, and sat on the deck nearby playing hearts. I actually won for once!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We went to the cabin to change, and found our togas there waiting for us. When we left the cabin, we found Wendy there waiting to scare us. It worked.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We decided to go take a tour of the parts of the ship the rest of the group hadn’t seen before, and also go to the gift shop, since we hadn’t gotten there yet. They didn’t seem to mind that we were carrying drinks. Also, I got INFLATABLE SHIPS FOR $4. Plus my frequent-cruiser discount!<\/p>\n

We visited the Roero Bar (otherwise known as ‘the bar where we took naps on the last cruise’), the chapel, and the arcade. Through the arcade windows, we discovered a secret deck for the crew! With a hot tub!<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nthe arcade <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\ncrew deck! <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\n“uh, where’d you last see it?” <\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\narmonia pool<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
\ndear cindi: who toasts with coffee?? <\/em><\/p>\n

At 3:30, Matt and I went to merengue lessons. The teacher was fantastic. He taught us a bunch of moves, one which he just called ‘sexy, sexy, sexy, sexy’. You circle your finger around your head as you turn around in a sexy, sexy, sexy, sexy way.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\ndance lessons on deck <\/em><\/p>\n

We went down to the cabin to drop all our stuff off, then headed back up to find everyone else. They were nowhere to be found, but we did manage to wander into teatime. They had tiny sandwiches and everything. We hung out watching the next dance lesson (we’d have participated, but we arrived late), then went to hang out at the pool bar.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nthe special of the day <\/em><\/p>\n

We went down to their cabin to see if they’d come back, and found the cabin steward, Towel, in there instead. I think we scared him. We finally located Jumi out on the back deck, then Wendy and Cindi up on deck 10. We went to go play shuffleboard, but were interrupted when we found soccer balls by the basketball court. We played 2-on-2 futbol, to the amusement of the staff, until I tripped and skinned my knee. We then switched to shuffleboard, a sport which requires no running or falling down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After sunset (sigh), we went to our cabins to change clothes and pack. You have to have your suitcases in the hallway by 1am the night before docking in Fort Lauderdale, which means you have to put any clothes and toiletries you need in your carry-on bag and haul it around with you in the morning.<\/p>\n

I’d brought a spare duffel bag, and was glad I had it. All my dirty laundry went in that, and the well-packed souvenirs took up much of my suitcase. Once we’d finished packing, we put on our togas. I love toga night!<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nbest dress code ever. <\/em><\/p>\n

Wendy, Cindi, and Jumi came to our cabin before we headed to dinner. Wendy still had her giant green penis. We left it behind for Rocque.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\njumi is duly horrified. <\/em><\/p>\n

We did the toga chant going downstairs, a la Animal House<\/em>. Also, we still had a spare bottle of champagne, so we brought it up to dinner with us. Wendy was embarrassed about carrying it, so she hid it in a drink menu. Not the drink menu she eventually stole, unfortunately.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We were a little early to dinner, so we sat there hassling people who weren’t wearing togas. Some people had even brought their own togas and toga-related accessories from home. It was awesome. At least half the people at dinner were dressed up. The rest of them just didn’t get it.<\/p>\n

We also had a very long talk with Mr. Pizza and his wife, Maxine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mark Boney exchanged our warm champagne for a cold bottle, and poured it for us. Dinner that night was spectacular. (Below is a picture of the best thing I’ve ever eaten. Seriously.) I also had soup that tasted like Creamsicle, bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and spinach flan. I have no idea how people manage to eat all 6 courses at dinner!<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n bleu cheese mousse with pickled onions and raisins<\/em><\/p>\n

After dinner, we went to the Osiris Theatre for the passenger talent show. We’d seen it last time and there were really funny moments, but overall it was way too long. We were excited to find out that there were only 5 performances, and all of them were pretty good. There was a trio of sisters singing a Miami Sound Machine song, an Quebecois guy singing ‘You are my Sunshine’ in French and English, a lady singing a Flemish song, and Ukelele hero.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A guy named Klaus got on stage and told us how he’d been on back-to-back cruises. Last time, he’d dedicated his performance to his fiancee. This time, he was dedicating it to the awesome crew. It made me sniffly. Sadly, though, nobody got sent to the lions.<\/p>\n

We changed out of our togas, put our bags in the hallway, then went to make the rounds of all of our favorite staffpeople. Pete was nowhere to be found in his bar, so we asked another server named Arsenio. He told us Pete had jumped overboard. Then Pete appeared and told us that he was a fast swimmer. Arsenio took our picture together, and then a photo of the old Italian guys at the next table imitating our rock hands. It was hysterical.<\/p>\n

Sadly, we couldn’t find Niner anywhere, so we headed to the disco for Bye-Bye Disco Time. SAD!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We danced to Biggie and Tupac, and of course Jersey was there requesting the Cha-Cha Slide and Soulja Boy. The place was pretty much empty by then, but that didn’t stop us from Crankin’ Dat. I can only do half of it, but I’m fine with that.<\/p>\n

We talked to Jones for a long time, and Wendy, Cindi, and Jumi took off at various times to go sleep. We discovered that the bartenders were unable to light shots on fire, and that made me love Rodrigo and Casanova even more, for allowing Wendy to almost burn up the ship. I want to believe they have that rule now because of her.<\/p>\n

Jones hugged us goodbye, and we went to our cabin around 1:30. Then it was time for a fashion show, but that part is none of your business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday we got up early, even though we didn’t really have to, because it was a day at sea. We watched the documentary about how the ship runs, then sat out on the balcony reading and watching the ocean. It was kind of hard to wrap our heads around the fact that the cruise was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[27],"tags":[40,32,30,134,84,165],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"geo":{"latitude":22.268764499999999628698788001202046871185302734375,"longitude":-86.3085937999999970315911923535168170928955078125,"description":null},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2008\/01\/2211215820_e33a2eabd7_o1.jpg?fit=2800%2C2100&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Z5R-2p","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":404,"url":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/southern-caribbean-cruise\/friday-12-18-2009-day-at-sea\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":0},"title":"Day at Sea in the Caribbean","author":"Jenni","date":"12.30.2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We slept til 10 on Friday morning, and it was glorious. I popped my Dramamine, we had breakfast, and then we went to the theater to see the crew talent show and sendoff. It always chokes me up a little knowing that vacation is almost over. It goes so amazingly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Southern Caribbean Cruise"","block_context":{"text":"Southern Caribbean Cruise","link":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/southern-caribbean-cruise\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2009\/12\/4204517608_fda93ff4e8_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":131,"url":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/eastern-caribbean-cruise\/friday-3302007-at-sea\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":1},"title":"Eastern Caribbean Day at Sea","author":"Jenni","date":"04.1.2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Friday, thankfully, was a day at sea on the way to the Bahamas. We got up at 10am, and miraculously, none of us were hung over. Stephanie and I went to the embarkation talk with Deborah, to learn about how to get off the ship back in Florida (it's more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eastern Caribbean Cruise"","block_context":{"text":"Eastern Caribbean Cruise","link":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/eastern-caribbean-cruise\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2007\/04\/452718847_955d4b37ca_b.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":416,"url":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/southern-caribbean-cruise\/saturday-12-12-2009-san-juan-boarding-the-ship\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":2},"title":"San Juan and the Celebrity Summit","author":"Jenni","date":"12.30.2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday morning, we had to check out by 10am. That hurt a little! The perfect cure for a hangover, it turns out, is La Bombonera. We expected to have to wait in line at the most popular breakfast spot in San Juan, but we got a table right away! After\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Southern Caribbean Cruise"","block_context":{"text":"Southern Caribbean Cruise","link":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/southern-caribbean-cruise\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2009\/12\/4204053430_8e5ddcaaca_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":432,"url":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/southern-caribbean-cruise\/southern-caribbean-cruise-december-11-20-2009\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":3},"title":"Southern Caribbean Cruise","author":"Jenni","date":"12.30.2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Matt and I decided to visit some all-new islands on a cruise, and also spend a few days wandering around San Juan and the rainforest! (The entire photoset is here on Flickr.) Read from the beginning below, or jump to each day: 12\/11: minneapolis to san juan 12\/12: san juan,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Southern Caribbean Cruise"","block_context":{"text":"Southern Caribbean Cruise","link":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/southern-caribbean-cruise\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129,"url":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/eastern-caribbean-cruise\/wednesday-3282007-st-thomas\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":4},"title":"Swimming with Turtles in St Thomas","author":"Jenni","date":"04.1.2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We were up at 6am to prepare for our excursion in St. Thomas, but the ship wasn't there yet. We got dressed, washed out our many yards in the shower, and put them in the closet. We had breakfast as we were arriving in port. As instructed, we went down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eastern Caribbean Cruise"","block_context":{"text":"Eastern Caribbean Cruise","link":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/eastern-caribbean-cruise\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2007\/04\/448507728_6d9fdc8f05_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":127,"url":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/eastern-caribbean-cruise\/monday-3262007-at-sea\/","url_meta":{"origin":149,"position":5},"title":"Day at Sea","author":"Jenni","date":"04.1.2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We didn't sleep very well the first night because of the rocking of the boat, so we awoke fairly early and went up to breakfast at the buffet. I was thrilled because it was definitely European-style: fruit, croissants, and cheese. Also, gruel. I still daydream about it sometimes. Sigh. Gruel.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eastern Caribbean Cruise"","block_context":{"text":"Eastern Caribbean Cruise","link":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/eastern-caribbean-cruise\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/storage\/2007\/04\/445683202_131bd2e5b7_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}