Our
Panama Canal and South American adventure began with a two day drive
from home to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. 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.
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.
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.