Our crew included Nancy's mom and our friend, Pearl Sparks.
Our ship, Radiance of the Seas.
Other ships in the harbor, all getting ready to depart.
Finally we are on board with drinks in hand relaxing and waiting to be told that our cabins are cleaned and ready for us.
The mandatory lifeboat drill.
This may have been the first cruise that we have been on that the drill was completed before we left the dock.
We passed the glow of Miami and headed out across the Caribbean Sea.
Because of a hurricane that had just passed across eastern Cuba and was now directly in our planned route we detoured to the west.
That provided a closer than expected view of the mountains along the coast near Havana.
The ship had the usual amenities, pools, hot tubs, spas, shops, exercise rooms, shuffleboard, etc.
And one unexpected one, a pool room with 2 servo stabilized tables and a professional player giving instructions.
Sensors in the table top and on the floor directly below were connected to a computer.
It controlled servos that made adjustments hundreds of times a second to maintain a level playing surface.
The ship's stabilizers and calm seas made this a very subtle motion for most of the trip.
Stabilized shipboard pool table
One evening late in the trip we got into some rougher weather and you could see the correction was useful even for some of us novice players.
If you watch this rather poor video you will see the top of the table moves with respect to the base.
Stabilized shipboard pool table
The captain invited us and a few other guests to a cocktail party.
OK, quite a few.
The main dining room.
On formal nights everyone wore their best.
The head chef conducted us on tour of one of the nine galleys.
I asked him what was an interesting problem that he had to deal with on earlier cruises.
After a moment's thought he said "Well, I once hired ten cooks and only five had reported for duty before we left port."
The fellow in charge of breads admitted to once leaving the yeast out of a batch of dough, about 200 pounds worth.
I would guess they offered a lot more flat bread than usual that night.
Most evenings we would be greeted by one of these creatures when we returned to our stateroom.
The day we crossed the equator King Neptune inducted pollywogs, those who had never crossed before, into his society.
But first they were punished for infractions they had committed onboard.
These ranged from saving deck chairs by the pool or, using the elevator to go down a single deck
to the very serious one of saving a seat in the first five rows of the auditorium for an evening show.
Upon their capture by his pirate minions they met their fate.
They were first flogged with dead fish, pelted with eggs and forced to drink sea snake blood.
One of them commented later that they were surprised that it tasted a lot like tomato juice.
The dining areas often had elaborately prepared decorations made of foods.
The sushi chef had made a white peacock one evening.
Classes were offered on board.
This is the conclusion of one for cake decorating.
It seemed a shame to eat the product but we couldn't let them go to waste, just waist.
We tried the climbing wall again to work some of that off.
We talked one of our table mates, Esther, into trying it too.
She didn't look as though she thought this was a good idea as she started up.
but when when she reached the top she had a smile that exploded when she got back down.
She had reason to be proud, it isn't a trivial climb.
Nancy's mom didn't make it to the top but got a medal for her attempt.
We took a behind the scenes tour to see some of what was involved in the evening productions.
Singers, dancers, costumes, props that we all saw on stage.
Lights and video control room and the sound board.
They seemed to have backup equipment or contingency plans for nearly everything that might go wrong.
Though if the Cruise Director picks up the wrong mike it can be a moment before he can be heard.
One problem they hadn't covered was the unavailability of the sound man.
He admitted it would be a good idea for him to train an assistant before he gets the flu again.
Here are a couple of the shows.
Here are most of the performers from the talent show.
Singers, dancers, a comedy sketch team a harmonica player and a magician.
My magic show was good enough to get me a first place blue ribbon and medal.
At times there were unscheduled shows outside, just over the rail.
A view of the ship berthed at one of our stops.
As we entered harbors there was often ship and boat traffic for the crew to deal with.
At a stop in Chile this dog was checking everyone to be certain they weren't bringing fruits or vegetables ashore.
A last look at our ship.
