Oct. 8, 2019 Meeting interesting people

Tuesday, Oct 8, 2019  Meeting interesting people

I slept peacefully all night and woke up feeling refreshed which is rare for me cuz i usually wake up tired and headachy and miserable even after sleeping 8 or 10 hours. My cabin is very very quiet and i haven’t heard or seen my neighbours on either side. Maybe there’s no one there, i dunno, the ship was supposedly sold out so surely there’s someone in there. Before i left home i researched the cabins onboard by reading past passengers reviews. Most were positive so i just checked out the negative ones and while my cabin wasn’t mentioned a nearby one was and it didn’t sound good. They spoke of a grinding, hammering type of noise and while i heard nothing maybe the walls are sound proofed enough to hide it. Or maybe it’s a haunted room like the one on the Queen Mary which is a hotel now and we were docked beside her in LA. Apparently a ghost of a child will pull off your covers in the middle of the night and/or be seen standing at the foot of the bed. I know some of the passengers onboard Splendor with me had experienced things like no hot water on Mary and they spent a night or two on the ship before boarding this ship.  Whatever all i know is when i awaken in the mornings it’s so quiet i always think no ones up yet. Then when i get to the Lido there’s millions of people there or on their way to a dining room or whatever.

I breakfasted like a spoiled child today because i have no one to comment on it or to look all wide eyed and astonished at my choices. I ate several cakes, cinnamon buns, FroYo and lemonade. I met a lovely Chinese lady named Vivian who’s table i had sat at before and we had a nice visit and as we walked out we met her hubby coming in and so we had a little chat. Very nice man, he told me how to get to the place where i was going to attend an arts and crafts thing which was very valuable info because while i’ve walked by the room many times i hadn’t ever noticed it because there’s so many interesting things around and near it. The project for today was a door hanger, made with one of those plastic grid things. Everything was supplied along with instructions. Red, white and blue yarn, scissors and the needle and the threader thingy. There were quite a few people there, men too. I got the border finished on mine when time was up and will finish it in my room eventually and hang it on my door.

Soon it was lunchtime and i got some salads and iced tea and was looking for a table when i spotted my friend Annie with some of her friends so i went to see if i could join them. It was a table for 4 and Wendy was just leaving to get to a function so i was able to join them. I need to remember the names of Irene and Shasta so i can put one of my postcards in their mailboxes because i have lots of leftovers. 

I walked around a while and ended up playing a bit in the casino but it was so tight and i didn’t even really like the machine i had chosen so got out of there quite fast. On my way back i got ice cream and asked a guy alone at a table out on deck if i could sit with him there for a minute and he said yes. He and his wife are from Houston Texas and are on their 32nd anniversary trip. He told me that he and his wife had snagged tickets to do the chefs table tonight which includes a visit to the galley. It sounded pretty awesome but i know i’ll never attend because it’s super expensive and i’m not really into the gourmet things they’ll have like maybe raw oysters or something.

After wandering through the art gallery i entered the contest to name a certain piece of art. It was an abstract of a man with an umbrella and the upper half of the scene was muted coloured half circle thingies. The first thing that came to my mind is what i wrote down so i didn’t have to think anymore. I called it “Pipe dreams” and then realized that i was just an elevator ride away from my cabin so down i went and am now going to have a little nap. I never nap at home. This is the new me i guess.

Woke up a couple hours later and my room was actually a little too warm even for me. I got freshened up and changed my plan of eating dinner in the Lido to the Black Pearl restaurant. That’s the dining room where i didn’t really like their food very much but decided to give them another chance. So i went via the new route that i learned and found a one lady lineup. The door was closed and a sign said it would be open at 5:15 and according to my watch it was now 5:25. I stood there a couple minutes and then thought i’d open the door to the room to see what was going on and it opened and i see four waiters standing around chatting. I asked them if the restaurant was closed and they said no, it’s open but you have to go to the other end. I thought omg i thought i had figured this place out but nope, i was at the wrong entrance; it was actually an exit. Then one of them said you can just walk through the room to the front desk instead of going around so i did but the other lady who had been waiting had disappeared. So i get to the front desk where you have to show your ship card and i noticed the entrance lobby was packed full of people lined up waiting to get in. It was awkward but i bravely just cut in behind a couple who were next in line because there was no way in hell i was going to walk through them all to get in line behind them. Nobody noticed me, thank God cuz it could have been embarrassing. 

So i told the maître ‘d that i was alone but would like to sit at a table where other solos or singles could join me. On my last cruise they had big round tables for 6 singles and solos. Well, maybe they didn’t have that here because he led me to a table for two. A few minutes later i hear a woman from about 6 or 8 tables away call out to me “are you eating alone?” So i said yes and she says well come and sit with me. It kind of took me by surprise but i said ok and then realized that i’d had my water poured and had drank some, the menu had been given to me and to move at this point might be rude or troublesome for the waiter or something because he’d have to remove the bread basket and silverware and water and i didn’t want him to get in trouble over it so i said to the woman i don’t think i should move at this point and she says oh, well I’ll move to your table then and over she comes. 
And so i met Linda, a Canuck who had been born in Labrador, Canada, the Province that my dad was born in and so i felt an immediate connection. Linda lived there until she was 8 years old and then her family moved to Colorado. She said she pretty much considers herself to be an American although her passport said Canadian, she was 58 yrs old and a recent widow. She was a fun lady, full of humour and i liked her right away. She had sailed on the Splendor before and in fact had done several cruises the last couple of years but after this one is over she has to return to work for a few years and doesn’t think she’ll be cruising again for awhile. I enjoyed her company as we dined and then she asked me if I wanted to go with her after dinner to the Dive In movie Bohemian Rhapsody at the Carnival Seaside Theater under the stars so i said sure. 

Suddenly there was some excitement; another ship was in sight! It’s funny how people can get so excited over seeing another ship. Turned out it was the Carnival Legend on her way back from Hawaii. Everyone rushed to the windows and took pictures including me. It seemed pretty cool to pass like two ships in the night but we weren’t close enough to wave or see anyone waving back. You’d think we had been lost at sea for weeks instead of on course for 4 days. 

By the time we got to the Dive In it was pretty much filled up and there were no more loungers to lay on and no more seats on the deck so we had to go upstairs and were lucky to find a couple chairs at the only table left. It wasn’t the best of seats and the railings around the deck were in our way but it was better than nothing. We got blankets in case we got cold, popcorn and water and the show began. It seemed tedious at first, there were subtitles on the screen that i don’t think were very good for anyone with a hearing problem because it only mentioned things like sighing, groaning, phone ringing, someone knocking at the door etc and i thought it was weird but maybe deaf people appreciated it even though they weren’t getting any other dialog. I like Queens music and seeing the show was nice but i didn’t really like the guy who played Freddie Mercury although i heard someone later say that he had won an Oscar award for his performance. Yeah, i cried at the end along with everyone else.

Linda had commented a couple times right from the beginning that she couldn’t follow what was going on in the movie and finally she decided to leave as she was tired and wanted to go to bed so we made plans for her to phone me in the morning and so we said good night.

After the movie was over i was going to drop in to the Lido for ice cream but then decided to just go home. As i approached my door i could see what looked like a lot of mail in my mailbox. Apparently a lot of people have forgotten the date of the postcard exchange and have started delivering them already. I know myself if i didn’t have it written down i would have screwed up on the date too. And here i thought i was the only passenger who didn’t have a phone or other internet connection to keep tabs on the group so i feel a little bit better about that. But I’m pretty sure i’m the only one onboard who still uses a pop up flash camera though instead of a phone.

 The art in my cabin. I wasn't crazy about it but it grew on me over time. The colours were amazing.

 Passing the Carnival Legend

 Not a great spot to watch the movie but it'll do

 Would have been better on a lounger

Oct. 7, 2019 Misinterpretations

Got up early and went for breakfast, no muesli again today. I had been hoping  it might be there but when i asked an employee he directed me to a stand that had a selection of dry cereals in dispensers. I don’t usually eat eggs so i just got some bacon, potato’s and other veggies. I don’t usually eat bread so topped it off with a lot of fruits. 

I returned to my cabin to get my yarn, pattern and hook and went off looking for the crocheting group. I was so surprised when i got there to see quite a large crowd of people, both men and women waiting for a class to begin on how to knit. I never would have thought it would interest so many people. It was a very large room and over in a corner i spotted the group of people who already knew the basics of both knitting and crocheting and they were busy doing their thing so i joined them with a question right off the bat re something in my pattern instructions that i didn’t understand. 

It’s been a long time since i crocheted and now there’s new and different abbreviations that i  didn't understand until the leader told me and then i realized that it should have been easy to clue in and figure it out. So i started my project only to find another thing i didn’t understand in the second row. The instructor showed me, and it was a new-to-me thing involving a stitch that was done from the back instead of the front and i just couldn’t get the hang of it, because my hand doesn’t want to twist that way. It felt like working upside down inside out and i was way too awkward and slow trying to do it.

So, that pattern and that yarn went back into the bag and i pulled out my project number 2, a different yarn and a bigger hook. The pattern said “easy” and technically it was but .......yeah, there’s always a but..... there were way too many distractions, questions asked and people wanting to chat while you hooked or knitted, people going by, or coming over to see what we were doing, announcements over the PA etc. Well, i have to count my stitches as i work and kept getting mixed up and side tracked and couldn’t concentrate on what i was doing. The lady beside me asked what other hobbies i do and when i said gelatin mono printing she had to know more and while i’m happy to tell people about it and how it’s done it pretty much ended my crocheting. The lady took notes of what i was explaining on Gelli printing so she could teach a class about it when she got home. I hung around for awhile and then took off. Maybe tomorrow the room will be quieter but then maybe not because most if not all the others there were willing and able to chat while they knit, stitched or sewed. The lady beside me didn’t even have to look at hers as she knitted. Thin tiny yarn too and she crocheted a mile a minute. Gotta admire these talented women!

I walked awhile and then sat down near the pool in the sun and when another woman asked to join me i said yes, of course. She was from Florida and this is her second cruise with the first being many years ago. She was surprised to see the pool was quite small and i’ve observed that too on different ships for awhile now. I imagine it’s because while the pool deck is always popular and alive with a multitude of people not many of them actually go into the pool; they’re more like sun worshippers. Also maybe the ship designers have decided to use the space saved for other attractions like more food stands, barbecues, tables with items to sell, entertainment etc.

Eventually it was lunchtime so i made my way into the Lido and loaded up my plate with a variety of salads, bacon that looked good but i couldn’t eat because it was way too crispy, potato’s and eventually cake and cookies and then my fix of ice cream too

A lady named Shirley from Las Vegas asked to sit with me and soon her friend Dee arrived too. They were very, very interesting women. Neither of them were going home after this cruise arrives in Singapore. They were staying a few days in Singapore and one was going to board a different ship and sail to Barcelona and beyond and the other was going to be doing the same thing but on a different ship eventually hitting the Canadian ports on the east coast and then disembarking in NY. 

We said goodbye but not before Dee taught me the secret of how to remember peoples names. She said to have the person say their name at least 7 times and then you’ll remember it. So we did that and sure enough they now remember my name and i remember theirs.

Now, the women from the Lido deck and the others from the knitting/crocheting group i do not remember any of their names so i’ll test out this 7 thing the first chance i get.

I was cold but i got more ice cream and went to my cabin which was all warm and cozy cuz cruising alone means i can crank the thermostat up as high as i want. I meant to have a nap but instead decided to address my 41 cards for the postcard exchange. Once that was done i thought i better put them in some sort of order because the participants are spread out all over the ship. We have a full day to deliver them but still, i’d rather have them organized according to their deck numbers which are 1 through 11.  That done i also tried to put them in order of number of location so i wouldn’t have to do any back tracking. Even with it organized i think it’s going to be a long day delivering them all as walking has become difficult for me and this big ship could do me in.

While i was addressing the postcards i discovered the tv has a music video channel and this was a first for me and guess what!?!! It’s my kind of music, Passenger, Ed Sheeran, James Blunt, Bruno Mars, Adele, James Bay, Harry Stiles, Ariana Grande, Calum Scott, Sam Smith etc. I am so happy that i turned it on and found this, something like YouTube but with no Gelli printing videos, just music videos. 

So, tonight is our first of 4 formal dinners and i don’t do formal so i will eat in the Lido, with my blue jeans on. Frankly, i like their food better than the little portions of delicacies that you get on formal nights, sitting there waiting in between each dish is just so not me, nor is getting all gussied up for portraits so i’ll just do my thing and the gowns and tux people can do theirs.

So i went out for dinner in the Lido and it was practically empty. Only half of it was in operation. I was amazed thinking that there must be thousands of people at the formal dinners tonight and there i was with just a few other rebels.  After dinner i made my way to go to the evening show and as i progressed i found pockets of people, lots of people not in formal wear in the various sitting and shopping spots and then into the casino because you have to walk through it to get to the showroom and there were tons of people playing there too. Into the showroom i went and though the show wasn’t to begin for 15 mins it was packed to the rafters and i was lucky to spot a single seat in a prime location. So, they all must have eaten earlier and i had interpreted it all wrong.  So, now i feel better; there's lots of people like me who arn't formal.

The show was all right, nothing to write home about, just ok. I meant to play in the casino on my way back out but the stink of smoke was just too gross to handle and i didn’t want the headache so i just kept on walking to the elevator. I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go but home to my beautiful warm, comfy fresh air cabin. 

Sooo, 3 days in now and i’m already feeling a little lonely. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea to cruise alone. i dunno. i like it in some ways, nobody here to complain about my snoring, i like being able to keep the heat on as high as i like, coming and going whenever and doing whatever  feel like doing without having to explain it to someone or saying what time that i’ll be somewhere else. However i could use another brain to help out with things like directions so i can quit getting lost and walking way too far on places like decks 3 and 4 with its dead ends, and then going to a different deck and doing the stairs which is the remedy but then walking the wrong direction, being lost a lot even to get back to places i’ve been to half a dozen times and there’s tons of places onboard that i haven’t even seen yet. I’m just not learning this ships idiocyncrisities at all and now why can’t i spell? Why do i keep going to deck 3 instead of any other deck? I know this answer! It’s because there’s some cool things to do on deck 3. You just have to learn how to get there by going to other decks first and then walking to the next raft of elevators before hitting the dam 3 button again!  Do i really think it’s suddenly going to become like a normal deck? Or is the secret on the opposite side of the ship. I get all mixed up real easy now a days. 
The funny thing about this is that i’ve had lots of help from passengers who i asked and they very confidently told me how to get to where i want to go and i believed them because they seemed so genuine. Then they’re gone in the elevator and i’m at another dead end and have to backtrack again. Once i did this and at the same spot that i arrived back at another person told me the exact same way to do it that i had just done and it was the wrong way. I think some people think they have the ship down pat and haven’t experienced these dead ends like i have because they’re going to totally different decks and places and maybe the next raft of elevators is ok for them. I really don’t think they’re deliberately tricking me. Or possibly their room is on the other side of the big empty block or on another deck and so they assumed that it goes straight through like it does on normal ships so they’re confident. Whatever, i’m starting to sort it out and i know the best answer for me would be to walk on my own deck to the next raft of elevators so that i’d be past the big empty block instead of getting on the elevators that are close to my room and then I’ll get to where i want to be. However, walking the long hallways on the cabin decks is really boring.

Oct. 6, 2019 Sleeping my cruise away

Slept around the clock, a full 12 hrs. It didn’t surprise me cuz i was so tired from embarkation. Actually i was up two or three times  because of muscle cramps in my legs and feet. I used the Theraworx relief foam that i bought on Amazon and it didn’t work perfectly but enough that i was able to go back to sleep. Other times i used this product it either worked real well or not so much so it’s an iffy thing but better than nothing. My cabin is very large, very clean, very quiet, the tv works and the fridge too, my bed and 4 pillows very comfy. I have the thermostat set to its highest so nice and cozy, my cabin attendant Anthony is awesome.

We are headed for Maui, 5 days to get there i think.

I got ready and headed out to eat. I considered doing the Black Pearl dining room this morning but when I got near it was all backed up with a huge lineup. I thought that probably the other dining room the Gold Pearl would be busy too so I went to the Lido buffet. I usually do like the buffets better anyhow. It was pretty packed as well but I went around looking for my muesli which was no where to be found and thé workers in there didn’t know what I was talking about, bah humbug. So I got some yogurt and fresh fruits and a delicious mango drink and sat down at a table that was ridiculously tall. It was awkward eating there so i moved on and ended up seated at another tall table because it was the only one available. Well, i don’t know if the bench was too short or the tables too tall or both. I think i was feeling a little stressed so that’s why i ended up at the ice cream machines. Well, that’s my excuse and i’m sticking to it. My first choice was yogurt but it came out of the tap all runny so i set it aside and got a bowl of soft serve vanilla that was quite solid. It was excellent and icy cold unlike the usual soft serve and now i have my new fav breakfast food. Guess it was frozen overnight and nobody else had picked it as a breakfast food. So now, it’s mine! Yippee! Later i found the little boxes of yogurt so that’s good and  they have them in all sorts of flavours but now wondering if i’ll remember where they’re kept. It takes a while to become familiar with ship buffets!

So i wandered around looking for the meet n greet and found the room at the correct time according to my watch  but there were no people in it. I hadn’t brought my daily “Fun Times” paper with me so decided to just wing it and check out the ship. Unfortunately my knees didn’t allow me to go very far and when i pushed on i found myself at the wrong end of the ship. It’s gonna take awhile to learn this ships layout. 

One deck in particular seems to be hard to find what you’re looking for and the reason is because the Center  section of that deck isn’t available unless you take the elevator to the deck above it or below it and then do the stairs to get to it, maybe?  Gotta wonder how all the people in wheelchairs and scooters do it. This set up has screwed me around a few times now. I have also totally lost my bearings on just about every floor and have the knack of going in the wrong direction every bloody time. Even when using the diagram map of the ship at all the elevators doesn’t work easily for me because when it shows you an arrow of which way to go but you can still mess up because the elevators are in the Center part of the ship facing each other. So, the ship diagram shows forward and aft clearly but has to be translated in your mind which way that is once you go around two corners and so far i haven’t got that straight in my head so i’ve been lost a lot.  To top it off the elevators are placed facing each other so it’s like left and right depending on which one you you can be sure you’ll be lost because it was the opposite way from the diagram that you were looking at. Maybe didn’t explain that well. Whatever, this is for sure my hardest ship to traverse so far. Otherwise everything else on here is awesome except for my knees which are giving me a hard time. Yeah, for sure i can see a scooter is going to be in my near future for cruising.

I checked out the art gallery but turned down the auction and went to the casino instead. Got my players account set up and wasted a few bucks in no time flat. This casino is extremely tight right now; what else is new, lol.  So i wandered around and came across the knitting/crocheting group unexpectedly. They had been there for a couple hours already so i thought no use going to get my crochet stuff because the group might break up soon. So seeing no one that i might know from my Facebook group i got some treats and went to my room until lunchtime.

In my room i found the paper that clearly says to set your watch ahead an hour. I had been too early for the meet and greet and now i’d be too late! We are going to be moving an hour ahead every second day for a few days now. 

Lunch in the buffet was another mob scene but i managed and even found a nice table. I stared to eat and then heard a familiar voice. It was my past cruisemate Annie at the next table! It was nice to see her and she introduced me to her friends and invited me to dine with them later today in the Black Pearl restaurant. I said i'd join them there at 5:30pm. I chatted with several people at my lunch table and coincidently all of them were Australians. Two were twin brothers Ross and Mike who both suffer with vision problems and they were much fun to talk with. Another gentleman asked if he could sit there and of course we said yes and he was a real funny happy-go-lucky guy. Then Krista and her husband sat down and i had a nice conversation with them too. They’re hoping to visit Canada in the near future and I’m hoping to see Australia so it was a lively conversation. Eventually i was so cold i had to return to my room, set my thermostat on high and got warmed up while eating my ice cream, lol.

And then fell asleep! It was time to meet Annie and her friends for dinner so i had to scramble. I had a little trouble finding the Black Pearl restaurant and was able to go in and look for them and i did find them right away. 

But they had already ordered and the waiter was slow coming to get my order so our dinners were sort of spread out. I ordered a sea food starter and it wasn’t very good but i was hungry so ate some of it. Then a mahi-mahi main dish and it too wasn’t really great and i ate about half of it. Then it was rush time to get to the showroom in time but i was so cold i had to return to my cabin to get a sweater and by the time i got there the show was already in progress so i didn’t attempt to find them in the dark. I waited near the back because the room was almost full and when i spotted an empty seat i thought i had been lucky. Turned out not so much, my seat was behind a post! The guy on the stage was spinning hoops and his act was great and he was real funny too. I managed to see some of it because he moved around on the stage so i could see him at times.

Afterwards the other girls were going to dance or a dance class or something and i’m not into that so i went into the casino instead. It was smoky and there was a smoker sitting next to the machine i wanted to play so i wandered around looking for something else to play. Ended up playing a huge very loud machine and it was taking my money real fast until i got some sort of feature and won it all back and then some. I should have left at that point but i lingered playing it again for a higher bet and once it got down to my starting point i cashed out and left for my room. Not sure if i’ll want to play in there much as i didn’t particularly like their machines and their seats are backless and i’ve never encountered that in a casino before. I’m used to having a seat or stool with a back rest for my poor aching back plus the cigarette smoke from many different countries all mingling together was just too hard to get by. But of course i might succumb you never know....Well, yeah, you probably do know i’ll be there regardless But seriously, i’m sure i’m not the only one who wants a chair that has a back, not a stupid stool!

I returned to my room and watched a show on the tv that had been on the stage earlier today. The host was Lee Mason who is our cruise director and i’ve had the pleasure of being on another cruise with him and he’s a pretty awesome guy and definitely my all time fav cruise director. There’s been cruises where i’ve never even seen the cruise director except for when he introduces the star of the evening show for about  2 mins. and then nobody sees him again. Lee is all over the ship all day and very available to all the passengers. He is from near Manchester England and is a very fun guy and i feel fortunate to be cruising with him once again.

Got to remember to move my watch back an hour again tonight....

Saturday Oct. 5, 2019 Carnival Journeys 24 day Cruise L.A. -Singapore

Leaving my husband at home alone once again and that’s what he wanted to do. I will be cruising alone in an ocean view cabin that I had to pay double for. But dems da breaks; he’s not into cruising having worked most of his life on ships and doesn’t care to step on one again. Actually he had also said he doesn’t want to fly anywhere again so I guess it’s a combination of both. However, he also did say he might be up for an Alaska cruise “sometime” and so would i. If it happens it’ll be my 6th  Alaska cruise and yes, it’s a fav and always a treat to experience Alaska again.  Alaska gets in your blood and it grows on you and there’s no such thing as going too often because it’s always different. For me, seeing the effects of global warming in Alaska is truly disastrous and I’ve seen it happening right before my eyes. It makes me so sad, but I’m compelled to witness it. I hope somehow this can be stopped and fixed or soon there’ll be nothing left.

But first the Splendor! This ship of 113,300 tonnage sailed on her maiden voyage in 2008. She has capacity for more passengers than what she looks like in pics. There’s nothing like seeing your cruise ship for the first time in person and maybe she’ll look bigger when I see her. I love big ships but it’s ironic because as I’m getting older and can’t walk far anymore now is the time I’m choosing to cruise on the big ships when I should be doing the opposite.

One of Splendors special attributes is a retractable dome cover over the pool deck. I’ve only ever cruised on one other that had this and that was a HAL ship to Alaska. Passengers can swim whether it’s balmy or not and at night by the pool there’s the Dive In movies under the stars every night.

Splendor has 13 decks and with about 4000 passengers there’s lots of quiet spaces and no feeling of being crowded. But, from what I’ve read her decor is quite overwhelming with outlandish designs and huge chandeliers, bright pink moldings and couches and has been called The Pink Ship.  I like pink. I think. Time will tell,lol, she sounds like a character I might like.

I will have a friend onboard the Splendor; Annie from Las Vegas who was my cabin mate last year and she is sharing her cabin with another friend this time. I expect to meet lots of new friends on this cruise and judging from the Facebook group page they’re a real fun bunch arriving from all over the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan and beyond. I’ve joined the groups to play cribbage and other card games as well as games such as Yahtzee, Monopoly as well as others like LRC and I’m curious to learn some new ones like Euchre which I googled and it sounds quite difficult. I’ll participate in the  scavenger hunt, slot tournaments and looking for and finding rubber ducks, I’ll sit in the mornings with the ladies doing their knitting and crochet and although I’m pretty rusty with the hook I think it’ll all come back to me.  I even have some patterns picked out that I found for free on the internet. The big difference about this and I’m not sure yet if I’ll tell the others that my patterns are for dishrags or to tell them the truth. Would you believe I got the bright idea to crochet items that would work for me like stencils for my Gelli printing. I think it’ll sound bizarre especially for those who haven’t heard of it and of course they don’t need to know the truth and because it sounds a little nutty maybe i should just keep my mouth shut.

I know everyone onboard is going to be excited to be the first passengers on Carnivals longest cruise so far. Who knew that 24 days could or would be their longest? So many ships do dbl, triple and beyond that these days but those are what’s called btb  which is back to back cruises. My cruise last year was a btb which meant a lot of passengers boarded in Vancouver and departed in Japan a couple weeks later but I stayed onboard and cruised along with a couple hundred btb’ers and all the new passengers that got on in Japan to the final port of Singapore where she went into dry dock. I have only a tiny worry and that is that this ship is on its way to dry dock so maybe not exactly in tip top shape. She is a fairly old gal from 2008 and has had a slightly scary past and who knows what might happen to a ship on any journey. The excitement grows and I’m prepared come hell or high water.

Splendor won the Cruisers Choice Award for best shore excursions 2019. I’ve chosen just one excursion with Carnival and two others with outside companies and that was before I knew this fact. My cabin is an ocean view port side on deck one and fairly close to the water but close to midship which will be nice. This will be my first solo cruise. Not used to travelling  alone so hoping I can handle it. I am still at home writing this, passing time until I head for the airport at 4a.m. for my 7a.m. flight to LA. If all goes according to Hoyle I’ll be in LA shortly after 10a.m and I’ll get my luggage and find the shuttle to get to the port which is about an hours drive from the airport. My designated boarding time is from 12:30 -1:30pm. Nicely arranged by Carnival Cruiselines, thank you very much!

Well, it wasn’t quite that easy.The flight was ok except that i was cold and shivering for most of it and I was afraid I would fall or get pneumonia again or something because my feet were numb but I didn’t. Landing, getting my luggage and finding my transfer bus went smoothly. Boarding the ship was horrible. Excuses were that this being a “Journeys” cruise made for a lot of different rules too lengthy to get in to here. But the facts were that it must have been the worst embarkation in the history of cruising in this world. I arrived at the port before noon and wasn’t able to get onboard until almost 4 p.m. That was just plain crazy and very tiresome for me. Apparently there were over a thousand passengers in the “elite” category and that slowed everything to a crawl getting them onboard first. Then the employees who handle the handicapped passengers were given new rules they had to follow although most of the rules were really obviously stupid. They had to work at a snails pace and by the time it was my turn the whole thing became ridiculous with a lot of angry passengers. Now onboard there’s been a million apologies given but somehow no reasons or excuses for the whole incident. Like me, I’m sure most people will forgive and forget the whole thing as we all get into our cruising mode. I do feel a little bitter; I was one of many who had to spend way too much time standing which is hard for me to do especially when it could have been easily avoided with simple little changes. 

Right now it’s only 8pm and I’m in my cabin in my pj’s already. It all just took the joy and excitement right out of me. Oh well, tomorrow’s a new day and I’ll  get over it and start meeting people and enjoying this beautiful Splendor ship.

Lunch with Jen, Sam and my 3 great grandkids

We sat in our regular booth at Boston Pizza and got all caught up with our lives. Hailey, Emily and Huxton have grown again! Huxton is almost one already and his mom Samantha will be going back to work the very next day as her year of maternity leave will be over. Sam is a nurse in the local hospital there in Langley.  Isn't she pretty and isn't Huxton adorable too? He is such a happy easy going and well natured boy.

This is my grand daughters Jennifer and Samantha

I wasn't surprized when Hailey ordered her usual chicken strips and fries once again. She has never wavered on that order since she was about a year old. Hailey is now 6 and attends grade one. Just look at her colouring…..nothing went outside of the lines! She def. takes after her great grandma!

Emily has grown so much and she is the picture of her mom and sister

The girls are both excited because they will be flying off tomorrow for some fun in the Maui sun.

Until we lunch again.....