TRAVEL THERE: OUR BIG DAY AT SEA
Usually, when I think of cruising, I think of leisurely days spiced up with exotic activities. That’s not at all what this cruise looked like. We’d been at a dead run since before we left and even though we’d only made it to one of our ports of call, before this day at sea, the 10.5 hour shore excursion had taken a toll on us.
Mr. Bill Sleeps In
Though he’d been a good sport so far, I realized I had used up a lot of my vacation-stress banking account with my husband. He needed down time and alone time – or at least alone with me time.
I am an early riser, regardless of when I go to bed or need to wake up. Mr. Bill is not. On a routine day at sea, I go to the gym, stroll around the decks and perhaps check out the buffet, before I come back to see what Mr. Bill is up to. Since this was not a routine day at sea, I opted to catch up my journal and do a little reading. Only it turned into a lot of reading and as Bill continued to sleep soundly, I began to get nervous about the how the rest of the day would turn out.
A Nervous Bride
As I lounged around the room I began to enumerate the many things that could go wrong.
- The meeting with the event coordinator had not gone well and I already doubted she understood all the details I wanted.
- I turned over the beautifully hand-lettered pages with the vows, scriptures and lyrics for the ceremony to her. What if she misplaced them or forgot them.
- They had come, as promised, to take my gown to be pressed, but as of yet, it had not returned to our cabin.
- I had a list of all the appointments we girls had in the salon, so I felt confident they would happen, but what if the stranger messed up my hair that I had left long just for this event.
- What if the make-up artists made us look like clowns.
Thankfully, Bill woke up before I was able to get too crazy, but with him awake, now I had to hide just how worried I had become. He decided he wanted to lounge around some more before going to the buffet for a meal. I was desperate to escape the cabin, but cooled my heels and pretended all was well.
Not Loving the Endless Veranda
On any other cruise, much of this angst would have been resolved by going out on the balcony. I would slide open the door and be in my own little space. My Celebrity Concierge Class Cabin came with what they called an Endless Veranda, which is supposed to be a wonderful innovation, but in truth is really no veranda at all.
To give them their due, it does make the living quarters a little larger, but if you really enjoy your balcony, as I do, then it’s not going to cut the mustard. The Endless Veranda is a large floor-to-ceiling window at the end of your room. The top half can be raised with the push of a button. However, when you push that button, the window takes a while to raise and all the while, it is making a noise to match its effort. Definitely not a good thing to have happen while your husband is sleeping, just a few steps away, on the day of your much anticipated and very expensive vow renewal.
With a sliding glass door, I am quietly in and out before hubby even has an opportunity to be disturbed. In lieu of my sliding glass door, they did have a sort of room separator you could use, but that raised yet another problem. The furniture they installed next to the floor-to-ceiling window was so large, there is no way to close the separator without doing a whole lot of furniture moving. I have been told by their local rep that they got new furniture which negates this problem, but it was a big problem on this particular day.
We did, eventually head to the buffet, but I will tell you about that next week.
jane sadek 