Cruise Day Two
All this journaling...it takes up so much of my time :P After I posted last night, I went back up to Lido with my handwritten journal and whinged some more. This time with two pieces of that yummy pizza (that seems to be my snack food item here...) and some water and hot chocolate. I think the water and the pizza helped me feel better along with walking outside. It's really windy, which made going outside a lot of fun...but of course, it was rather cold. I wish I brought a heavier jacket. I made myself do the walk from the aft to the front of the ship twice though despite the cold...just to get rid of the nausea. It's amazing to see the common areas on this ship so empty...I think I saw a total of four other passengers while I was out...maybe the same number of employees. Granted, it is now 1:30am. Time to attempt to hit the sack before I get sick while typing this again.
Oh, and before I forget, the toilets on here are rather freaky. Took me all of yesterday to get used to. (push the button...sucking sound...RAWR!)
I think part of the reason why I wanted to come because I knew I'd be spending a lot of time alone. And even if my family was with me...I would feel essentially alone. Family vacations were like that after a while; we were all physically together, but in any other sense, I felt rather isolated and therefore I stopped really enjoying them. I think I wanted to come this time because I knew it would be like that. I wanted to be alone because I chose to...for a week. Something I really liked about the Dawn Princess (the cruise I was on in high school...so it was interesting to me to see...I think it was the Star Princess across the dock from us in Seattle) was being able to walk around the deck at midnight...1am...and think. Something about the wind and the ocean and the empty deck...
After reading Jimmy's comment, it occurred to me that I meant to say what cruise I'm on in the last entry, and probably didn't. I'm with Holland America on the Westerdam ship. He also makes a good point about not using the whole time to type, which was the plan in the first place. Learned my lesson back when I read fanfiction on dial up. It was just easier to download everything to read offline. :P But anyway, while the typed stuff goes up each day, I decided to not bother with the pictures until I got back.
Hm...day 2. My family took breakfast in our rooms with room service. My parents called before 8 to make sure we were up. Our breakfast came at 8:30. Yesterday, my dad had said we were welcome to get room service and then take our breakfast over and eat it in their room. Stephi wanted to do that so we gathered up our food to make the trek across the hall. Then they didn't open the door. "Maybe they're having sex," I said. Naturally, Stephi said, "ew!" and we went back into our room to call them. No answer, so we took breakfast in our own room.
Then on the advice of my dad (who said we should get out before the maid service came), I got ready to leave. Of course, it wasn't until I slung my backpack and purse on that Stephi said (while still lounging in her pajamas), "you're leaving?" "Uh, yeah." "Oh." "Do I have to wait for you?" "Please?" And so I sat around for 15 minutes waiting for her to get ready. *shrug*
We went up to the observation deck because apparently my parents had already gone off on their own, and then Stephi said she wanted to play basketball. So we went up to what I believe is considered the 11th deck which had the open air basketball court. There was a casual game going on but it was only a half court game so Stephi and I grabbed a stray ball and started playing H-O-R-S-E. I'm terribly at shooting hoops, and I figured there was no way the game would get anywhere with all of that wind. But the wind made for an interesting challenge, and we both managed to get lucky...sometimes. We both still missed a lot more than making the hoops, but it wasn't bad. I ended up winning the first game which was somewhat close, and then we lost track of the score for the second game.
When we got tired, we found a table on the Observation deck (just before the lunch rush). I watched an episode of Boston Legal, she tuned the world out with her ipod. After the episode, we went for lunch. As it was still the lunch rush, we couldn't find another table so we ate in our room. Eventually Stephi disappeared to my parents room, I took a nap about 5pm, woke up to find Stephi back in the room, and then stumbled across the hall to get ibuprofen from my mother. Then we went up to dinner, which was nice. Heh, apparently for some people it was formal night. My mom made it sound like all dinners would be formal or semiformal, but I have yet to find that to be the case.
I finally saw my first whale during dinner. Despite all the sightings reported on this ship, haven't actual caught a glimpse of one myself...until now. I'm happy with that.
My mom asked me if I was having fun yet. You can probably guess my answer from what I've written here...then I turned the question back on her. Apparently this wasn't what she thought it was cracked up to be. The motion sickness isn't fun for her (the medication for that makes her tired), and she thought she would be a lot more entertained. Quite frankly, I don't find the motion sickness fun either, but at least it gets me out of my room (since I had the most difficult time with it there). Haven't felt compelled to take the medication, but she offered me some this morning. I find that it's bearable with me as long as I get fresh air and a walk every now and then with fluids. Easily fixed on the ship.
We skipped my mom's walk today due to weather (it's raining), but we went down to the third deck to check out some teen dance for Stephi (which ended up lame as I predicted) and the casino for my mother. My mother gave a shot on the slot machine to kill of $5 and my dad poked at an electronic poker game to burn $10. Gambling...I honestly don't see how the slots can be interesting. The poker thing grabbed my interest more than I thought it would.
After my dad's $10 ran out, he went back upstairs to check on Stephi (who wasn't allowed into the casino due to age, so she headed back to the rooms with my dad's and my card keys...since she didn't bring her own :P) while my mom wanted to go to the library to find a book to read. I went with her since I had never been. We ended up on the wrong end of the ship, and to get from one end of the 10th deck to the other requires a walk outside. My mom said, "oh, it's raining. Do you want to walk in the rain?" I said, "I don't care. I'm from Washington. Aren't you?" Which got her to go outside and walk in the rain. I was amused when she half ran at the end. And then much later I realized that when I asked that, the answer in my head was a "duh yeah", when you can technically argue that she's from Hawaii. Anyway...
Some guy with a guitar started up shortly after she started looking at the books. I recognized a few of the songs without knowing their titles or singers. He wasn't great, but he wasn't bad either. Of course, it seems I'm a sucker for guitar-playing anyway...so I sat down and was entertained. He had a group of friends nearby, too, who sometimes made him laugh midsong. At least it seemed he was having fun though, which sort of added to the mood of the performance...it was incredibly casual, amusing even thought amusement wasn't expected...I liked it. My mom sat down for a bit with a medical mystery book. Go fig, right? She looked at the guy with the guitar and said, "oh, he's better than he looks." I think the most notable song (for me) that he sang was one of Jimmy's favorite songs. I'm not sure about the title, but I think he'll know which one I'm talking about if I were to say, "that's amore." We left during another song I recognized from the Sun Bowl 2008...Who did we play, Penn State? Or is that just popping into my head because of Doc? Whoever we played had a special song that they sung and danced to at the dance at that steak restaurant. Something about sweet Caroline :P
And we essentially turned in at that point. Stephi decided to sleep in my parents' room tonight. She claims she likes their couch (we don't have a couch...my parents also have a balcony). Fine by me. I think I shall go walking again tonight.
Oh, and Jimmy, we only had to worry about one performance time which was during the evening on the first night. Granted, I remember being worried about making that on time because my luggage (with my dress in it) made it to my room quite late. The only big difference I see here is that it's a much bigger boat with many less familiar faces for a much longer time, with no one to have a splurge of pointless strawberry daiquiris with me. Where's Chris when you need him?
Also, what is weird about mentioning really good strawberry ice cream? It wasn't too rich, nor was the flavor too artificial...and the strawberry vs. cream flavoring favored more strawberry than I'm used to.
edit: I changed my mind and decided to upload pictures anyway. Link to the second day pictures are here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/30110236@N03/sets/72157620225944485/
I didn't take many pictures today. I linked the first day pictures from the first day post.
Oh, and before I forget, the toilets on here are rather freaky. Took me all of yesterday to get used to. (push the button...sucking sound...RAWR!)
I think part of the reason why I wanted to come because I knew I'd be spending a lot of time alone. And even if my family was with me...I would feel essentially alone. Family vacations were like that after a while; we were all physically together, but in any other sense, I felt rather isolated and therefore I stopped really enjoying them. I think I wanted to come this time because I knew it would be like that. I wanted to be alone because I chose to...for a week. Something I really liked about the Dawn Princess (the cruise I was on in high school...so it was interesting to me to see...I think it was the Star Princess across the dock from us in Seattle) was being able to walk around the deck at midnight...1am...and think. Something about the wind and the ocean and the empty deck...
After reading Jimmy's comment, it occurred to me that I meant to say what cruise I'm on in the last entry, and probably didn't. I'm with Holland America on the Westerdam ship. He also makes a good point about not using the whole time to type, which was the plan in the first place. Learned my lesson back when I read fanfiction on dial up. It was just easier to download everything to read offline. :P But anyway, while the typed stuff goes up each day, I decided to not bother with the pictures until I got back.
Hm...day 2. My family took breakfast in our rooms with room service. My parents called before 8 to make sure we were up. Our breakfast came at 8:30. Yesterday, my dad had said we were welcome to get room service and then take our breakfast over and eat it in their room. Stephi wanted to do that so we gathered up our food to make the trek across the hall. Then they didn't open the door. "Maybe they're having sex," I said. Naturally, Stephi said, "ew!" and we went back into our room to call them. No answer, so we took breakfast in our own room.
Then on the advice of my dad (who said we should get out before the maid service came), I got ready to leave. Of course, it wasn't until I slung my backpack and purse on that Stephi said (while still lounging in her pajamas), "you're leaving?" "Uh, yeah." "Oh." "Do I have to wait for you?" "Please?" And so I sat around for 15 minutes waiting for her to get ready. *shrug*
We went up to the observation deck because apparently my parents had already gone off on their own, and then Stephi said she wanted to play basketball. So we went up to what I believe is considered the 11th deck which had the open air basketball court. There was a casual game going on but it was only a half court game so Stephi and I grabbed a stray ball and started playing H-O-R-S-E. I'm terribly at shooting hoops, and I figured there was no way the game would get anywhere with all of that wind. But the wind made for an interesting challenge, and we both managed to get lucky...sometimes. We both still missed a lot more than making the hoops, but it wasn't bad. I ended up winning the first game which was somewhat close, and then we lost track of the score for the second game.
When we got tired, we found a table on the Observation deck (just before the lunch rush). I watched an episode of Boston Legal, she tuned the world out with her ipod. After the episode, we went for lunch. As it was still the lunch rush, we couldn't find another table so we ate in our room. Eventually Stephi disappeared to my parents room, I took a nap about 5pm, woke up to find Stephi back in the room, and then stumbled across the hall to get ibuprofen from my mother. Then we went up to dinner, which was nice. Heh, apparently for some people it was formal night. My mom made it sound like all dinners would be formal or semiformal, but I have yet to find that to be the case.
I finally saw my first whale during dinner. Despite all the sightings reported on this ship, haven't actual caught a glimpse of one myself...until now. I'm happy with that.
My mom asked me if I was having fun yet. You can probably guess my answer from what I've written here...then I turned the question back on her. Apparently this wasn't what she thought it was cracked up to be. The motion sickness isn't fun for her (the medication for that makes her tired), and she thought she would be a lot more entertained. Quite frankly, I don't find the motion sickness fun either, but at least it gets me out of my room (since I had the most difficult time with it there). Haven't felt compelled to take the medication, but she offered me some this morning. I find that it's bearable with me as long as I get fresh air and a walk every now and then with fluids. Easily fixed on the ship.
We skipped my mom's walk today due to weather (it's raining), but we went down to the third deck to check out some teen dance for Stephi (which ended up lame as I predicted) and the casino for my mother. My mother gave a shot on the slot machine to kill of $5 and my dad poked at an electronic poker game to burn $10. Gambling...I honestly don't see how the slots can be interesting. The poker thing grabbed my interest more than I thought it would.
After my dad's $10 ran out, he went back upstairs to check on Stephi (who wasn't allowed into the casino due to age, so she headed back to the rooms with my dad's and my card keys...since she didn't bring her own :P) while my mom wanted to go to the library to find a book to read. I went with her since I had never been. We ended up on the wrong end of the ship, and to get from one end of the 10th deck to the other requires a walk outside. My mom said, "oh, it's raining. Do you want to walk in the rain?" I said, "I don't care. I'm from Washington. Aren't you?" Which got her to go outside and walk in the rain. I was amused when she half ran at the end. And then much later I realized that when I asked that, the answer in my head was a "duh yeah", when you can technically argue that she's from Hawaii. Anyway...
Some guy with a guitar started up shortly after she started looking at the books. I recognized a few of the songs without knowing their titles or singers. He wasn't great, but he wasn't bad either. Of course, it seems I'm a sucker for guitar-playing anyway...so I sat down and was entertained. He had a group of friends nearby, too, who sometimes made him laugh midsong. At least it seemed he was having fun though, which sort of added to the mood of the performance...it was incredibly casual, amusing even thought amusement wasn't expected...I liked it. My mom sat down for a bit with a medical mystery book. Go fig, right? She looked at the guy with the guitar and said, "oh, he's better than he looks." I think the most notable song (for me) that he sang was one of Jimmy's favorite songs. I'm not sure about the title, but I think he'll know which one I'm talking about if I were to say, "that's amore." We left during another song I recognized from the Sun Bowl 2008...Who did we play, Penn State? Or is that just popping into my head because of Doc? Whoever we played had a special song that they sung and danced to at the dance at that steak restaurant. Something about sweet Caroline :P
And we essentially turned in at that point. Stephi decided to sleep in my parents' room tonight. She claims she likes their couch (we don't have a couch...my parents also have a balcony). Fine by me. I think I shall go walking again tonight.
Oh, and Jimmy, we only had to worry about one performance time which was during the evening on the first night. Granted, I remember being worried about making that on time because my luggage (with my dress in it) made it to my room quite late. The only big difference I see here is that it's a much bigger boat with many less familiar faces for a much longer time, with no one to have a splurge of pointless strawberry daiquiris with me. Where's Chris when you need him?
Also, what is weird about mentioning really good strawberry ice cream? It wasn't too rich, nor was the flavor too artificial...and the strawberry vs. cream flavoring favored more strawberry than I'm used to.
edit: I changed my mind and decided to upload pictures anyway. Link to the second day pictures are here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/30110236@N03/sets/72157620225944485/
I didn't take many pictures today. I linked the first day pictures from the first day post.