Cruise ship blues

jeffcnichols

I’m doing my best to stay positive while trapped on a ship with 4500 “friends” and 6-7 in-law-relatives, but it ain’t easy. The good news:

  • Slept OK, the bed was fine. LOTS of engine vibration and some side-side shimmy, but I slept through it. Had to take the clothes hangars off the closet rack, because they kept banging against the wall as the ship swayed.
  • The weather is warm – we’re heading deeper and deeper toward the equator each minute. Should be 80+ degrees all the time around Aruba.
  • I’m not caving in to any temptations to eat from the nonstop food offerings. It’s incessant. But better living through chemistry; I can say no.
  • I went ahead and bought the $30/day Internet package. It’s a ripoff, but I can’t live like a savage for a week.
  • I saw the crazy, awful, great UK game on my phone as we left Florida. Stressed the living shit out of me, but we won and didn’t have to listen to those heathens sing Rocky Top.

The bad news:

  • Pretty sure they’re watering down the bourbon, I had a shot of Woodford, neat, and it was noticeably weak. Have to try to find a decent wine by the glass.
  • I told one of my relatives that one reason I don’t like cruises is that I just don’t like most people. I’ve had to face that about myself – I’m not a people person. And this crowd just reinforces my tendencies.
  • The van we took from the hotel to the ship was a travesty. They packed 15 people into a 10 person van. And we paid for that privilege.
  • The relatives scheduled us to eat dinner in the fancy dining room every night at 8pm. I HATE that. Don’t like sit-down meals, and 8pm is waaaay too late to eat (for me). I’m among the youngest 10% on board (no, seriously), but some of my habits are oldster.
  • Trying to watch the UK game on ESPN drove me nuts. Their app ONLY allows a micro-screen on the phone, about 20% of the screen real estate. And the shipboard ESPN feed didn’t carry the UK game – it was soccer, FFS. My brother eventually suggested I switch away from ESPN and watch it on a Youtube restream. That worked. FU, ESPN.
  • Seven more nights on ship.

I know, this is a silly first world problem. 95% of the world would be happy to be here in my place, I get that. But I reserve the right to bitch about it.