Cruise: Day 1
Author's Note: I typed up these entries while on the cruise, and am posting them all at once now. The dates have been edited to reflect the day I wrote each one. I did not write an entry for each of the 12 days, only days that were interesting to me.
Dan and Jeanne dropped us off on the pier around 1:30. After waiting in line for a half hour we were given our keycards and cleared to board. Once on the ship we began to notice that almost all of the passengers were significantly older than us - by three or four decades. At first this was a little disturbing but we quickly realized that there were also almost no children aboard. At the time of this writing I have only seen five people under the age of 20 among a crew of thousands, and this phenomena is fantastic.
We stopped by our room on Deck 4 to deposit bags and were pleased by the accommodations. The room was regular size, but 3/4 of the floor was taken up by a queen-sized bed. We discovered the safe behind the mirror (where Ryn promptly deposited her purse) and the private mini-bar right away. The closets were disguised as part of the wall and took a little more searching.
Presently we set out to explore the ship. We started on Deck 12, the observation deck and got a good view of Baltimore's older neighborhoods and shipyards. After seeing what there was to see we headed down to 11 and discovered the pool/hot tubs and a grill adjacent to them, one of the many places on the ship to get food. Ryn and I had a small snack of hot dogs and hamburgers to re-energize for more scouting.
To give you a brief overview of some of the things we found, Deck 11 also houses the Palm Springs complex (the main buffet-style restaurant as well as several bars, a cafe and a spa), a gym and hydrospa, as well as a regular spa that has water but apparently isn't hydro enough. On other decks we found the Navigator's Club (an adult bar with a good forward view as well as a display of the ship's route), the theatre (about as big as the one in the Weinberg center), a small movie theater, the Manhattan restaurant (where open-seating breakfast, lunch and closed-seating dinners take place), an overpriced shopping complex, a dozen different bars/lounges, a library and some other stuff I've forgotten.
Ryn and I waited on the observation deck for the ship to depart. When it finally cut loose from the dock, we went to the forward-most place on the deck and watched for about an hour until we went under a large bridge (perhaps the Francis-Scott Key bridge?) . Then we went looking for a snack while we waited for dinner. The Palm Springs made us these awesome chicken salad sandwiches that we could have gotten seconds or thirds of and been very satisfied, but Ryn and I wanted to try the semi-formal dinner at the Manhattan and so we kept it light.
Some time passed where we explored more and other stuff happened. We seem to be enjoying a semi-celebrity status because we are by far the youngest couple on this cruise, not counting roughly five children. One woman of about 40 calls out to us every time she sees us, cackling about us being the youngsters. Several people have referred to us as the honeymooners, and one gentleman asked us what two youngsters do to get two weeks off in from work. Ryn responded that two youngsters theoretically need only get married, which the gentleman amended by suggesting that the two youngsters in question need only tell their bosses that they got married.
Getting into the Manhattan for our dinner reservations was a little confusing. There are four entrances to the restaurant (two on each floor) and we found ourselves in three of those lines at different points as various ship staff redirected us to improve traffic flow before the doors opened. Once the doors did open, we were inside and seated in under a minute. I had an antipasta platter as appetizer, a bowl of baked french onion soup and a plate of spaghetti carbonara. Ryn had the San Fransisco crab louis. Everything was delicious, although our company at the table was pretty lame. Four of our ten seats were empty, and while I can't speak to the friendliness of the people adjacent to Ryn, the couple sitting across from me were fairly rude to the wait staff. The wife constantly nagged the waiter for various things, acting the disappointed marytr when those things weren't available because they were not on the menu, and at one point even complaining about her food because there weren't any chalets in her dish. When the waiter patiently explained that the chalets were cooked into the sauce, she shut up and looked annoyed.
Ordering dinner was a little bit of a pain. The waiter joked that they didn't have what I asked for, but his english was poor so I thought he was serious. By the time he left the table, there was no saving the situation. He came back and set a creme brulee, an apple pie a la mode and a scoop of rocky road ice cream in front of me. The man looked amused so I figure he was messing with me.
Ryn and I spent the rest of the evening in bed watching The Unit on my laptop. I highly recommend taking TV shows with you if you ever go on a cruise, as there isn't any good TV available on the ship's channels and it's a nice way to relax together after a day of excitement.
Dan and Jeanne dropped us off on the pier around 1:30. After waiting in line for a half hour we were given our keycards and cleared to board. Once on the ship we began to notice that almost all of the passengers were significantly older than us - by three or four decades. At first this was a little disturbing but we quickly realized that there were also almost no children aboard. At the time of this writing I have only seen five people under the age of 20 among a crew of thousands, and this phenomena is fantastic.
We stopped by our room on Deck 4 to deposit bags and were pleased by the accommodations. The room was regular size, but 3/4 of the floor was taken up by a queen-sized bed. We discovered the safe behind the mirror (where Ryn promptly deposited her purse) and the private mini-bar right away. The closets were disguised as part of the wall and took a little more searching.
Presently we set out to explore the ship. We started on Deck 12, the observation deck and got a good view of Baltimore's older neighborhoods and shipyards. After seeing what there was to see we headed down to 11 and discovered the pool/hot tubs and a grill adjacent to them, one of the many places on the ship to get food. Ryn and I had a small snack of hot dogs and hamburgers to re-energize for more scouting.
To give you a brief overview of some of the things we found, Deck 11 also houses the Palm Springs complex (the main buffet-style restaurant as well as several bars, a cafe and a spa), a gym and hydrospa, as well as a regular spa that has water but apparently isn't hydro enough. On other decks we found the Navigator's Club (an adult bar with a good forward view as well as a display of the ship's route), the theatre (about as big as the one in the Weinberg center), a small movie theater, the Manhattan restaurant (where open-seating breakfast, lunch and closed-seating dinners take place), an overpriced shopping complex, a dozen different bars/lounges, a library and some other stuff I've forgotten.
Ryn and I waited on the observation deck for the ship to depart. When it finally cut loose from the dock, we went to the forward-most place on the deck and watched for about an hour until we went under a large bridge (perhaps the Francis-Scott Key bridge?) . Then we went looking for a snack while we waited for dinner. The Palm Springs made us these awesome chicken salad sandwiches that we could have gotten seconds or thirds of and been very satisfied, but Ryn and I wanted to try the semi-formal dinner at the Manhattan and so we kept it light.
Some time passed where we explored more and other stuff happened. We seem to be enjoying a semi-celebrity status because we are by far the youngest couple on this cruise, not counting roughly five children. One woman of about 40 calls out to us every time she sees us, cackling about us being the youngsters. Several people have referred to us as the honeymooners, and one gentleman asked us what two youngsters do to get two weeks off in from work. Ryn responded that two youngsters theoretically need only get married, which the gentleman amended by suggesting that the two youngsters in question need only tell their bosses that they got married.
Getting into the Manhattan for our dinner reservations was a little confusing. There are four entrances to the restaurant (two on each floor) and we found ourselves in three of those lines at different points as various ship staff redirected us to improve traffic flow before the doors opened. Once the doors did open, we were inside and seated in under a minute. I had an antipasta platter as appetizer, a bowl of baked french onion soup and a plate of spaghetti carbonara. Ryn had the San Fransisco crab louis. Everything was delicious, although our company at the table was pretty lame. Four of our ten seats were empty, and while I can't speak to the friendliness of the people adjacent to Ryn, the couple sitting across from me were fairly rude to the wait staff. The wife constantly nagged the waiter for various things, acting the disappointed marytr when those things weren't available because they were not on the menu, and at one point even complaining about her food because there weren't any chalets in her dish. When the waiter patiently explained that the chalets were cooked into the sauce, she shut up and looked annoyed.
Ordering dinner was a little bit of a pain. The waiter joked that they didn't have what I asked for, but his english was poor so I thought he was serious. By the time he left the table, there was no saving the situation. He came back and set a creme brulee, an apple pie a la mode and a scoop of rocky road ice cream in front of me. The man looked amused so I figure he was messing with me.
Ryn and I spent the rest of the evening in bed watching The Unit on my laptop. I highly recommend taking TV shows with you if you ever go on a cruise, as there isn't any good TV available on the ship's channels and it's a nice way to relax together after a day of excitement.