What? We Don't Actually LIve Here?

The ship pulled into Miami.  Florida. USA. 

And it docked.

And people left.

And it looked like we were supposed to leave too. 

The fairy dust was blown off and it was time to leave the nursery and disembark from Never Never Land of endless ice cream and rack of lamb and spa treatments and sun and cabana boys.

Quite jarring.

But it was one of those amazing trips that I felt some real completion with as well, meaning I had such a good time and I realized that these kinds of things, like Christmas and Spring can only exist with reality and 364 other days and Winter.

So be it. I got off.

But I wasn't happy about it.

Backstage Tour

Ellie got us a private backstage tour of the theatre aboard the Crystal Symphony ship with the amazing star of the incredible productions we saw.  Colleen knocks it out of the park 5 times a week and took tine out to show us around. 

Folks. I have to say as a semi-jaded New York theatre-goer, these productions were amazing. The people, the costumes. 

Wow the costumes.  It was like a Carol Burnett Show on speed with all the wig and shoes and bustle changing that went on. 

And today we saw how it works. Everyone has their own dresser and all the wigs and shoes are well-organized.  

I mean these people are just finished prancing around in CATS and then are "gavotting" in high button shoes in Hello Dolly five seconds later.  Amazing. 

Last Formal Night

My collar on my dress shirt feels somewhat tighter each time I put it on.  Must be the ocean air that causes shrinkage. 

It could having nothing to do with chowing down every minute of every day on this ship like it was feeding time at the Shamu show. 

The mass consumption of goods into my gullet has been profound. I remember hearing a lot about cruises from the housewives in my Weight Watchers group in Los Angeles.  Cruises were the curse AND the graduate program of Weight Watchers I remember. When Shirley came home only 2 pounds up we applauded. When Silvia was 11 pounds over we gave support.   I never thought the dessert trolley on a cruise would even be within my sights. 

Now, here I am wolfing Beef Wellington like there was too much room in my arteries and ordering a side of ice cream with everything because I can.  (I just heard you can get milk shakes from the ice cream guy by the Trident Grill.  Thank God I did not know this earlier.)

 

So tonight I went to Formal Night with tight collar.  We had a wonderful evening with our tablemates, Bernice and Igor.  (Sound like names from the appropriate cruise demo, right?)  Lovely people.  Each evening with each grouping provokes/invokes/bespokes new tales and different energy.  Tonight's theme was "Secrets and Lies" and what parents do to survive. It was quite moving and some day I would like to write about what we shared with each other - virtual strangers.   I was very moved from the exchange of stories from this wonderful couple and from Ellie. And I have lived enough now to have my own.

My life of late.

We continue to cruise in style.  Life here is just so over the top and wonderful it is hard to describe. 

As I said to Ellie, the only thing Crystal needs is a "Re-entry Program."  Just some way, ala a methadone clinic, where you can come down gently from the lifestyle and the service so that when you get back home you do not have a coronary when no one unfolds your napkin on your lap for you. Or you leave a card on your bedroom door and the next morning there is no fresh coffee and croissant delivered.   There just needs to be some way to ease one way into a life where rack of lamb is not just a given.

Oh my God, it is going to be hard to come down from this.  I feel for me.

Snotty, Jaded, Cruising Bastard.

Today it was Antigua. The Entertainment Director suggested that we really just go to one island the whole time and dock at different parts with the suggestion that they are all really kinda the same. And it is really kinda true:  White sand beaches, aqua water, poverty, immediate on-land harassment for taxi tours and bad pavement. 

As I seasoned traveller of this part of the world now (!!) we are doing what the other experienced cruisers do -- stay on the ship.  Best views, clear blue waters of the swimming pool. Unlimited non-invasive drinks and cold towels scented with rose water service.  Excellent, abundant and food, etc. Ironically the paradise is aboard the ship and not on the islands.

Ellie needed to get some gifts so I made her hike to St. John's Cathedral built in 1845. Or rebuilt in 1845.  It was a treacherous journey up unbelievably bad pavement.  If I delivered Ellie to her kids in crutches and a wheelchair they would rightfully have my hide. And the big joke is that it will most likely me to be the one to fall!

Anyway, we made it all the way to the top and the Cathedral was closed because like everything else in St. John's, it had fallen into disrepair.  The man outside (as opposed to upstairs) said it was too dangerous to let people go in. I felt like saying "Well, if that is the case, shouldn't you close the whole town?"

Dining with the Stars

Ellie and I had the most fun dinner tonight with Michael and Colleen, the lead singers of the shows on board.  We have enjoyed watching them perform so much and they are both so talented. It was just so much fun and the two performers just ate Ellie up with her wonderful stories of Broadway of yore and Liza and her husband Bill in the Original Broadway Cast of "My Fair Lady."  So many wonderful stories and all three of them knew people in common. Another small world right at our dining table somewhere in the middle of the Caribbean.  Just a joy.  I felt so happy to be there tonight. Kudos to Ellie for asking them to dinner.

And Somewhere in the World It Is...French Night!

I wrote this whole blog post in French, but deleted it as I realized most of my readership speaks English. Shame as it was so good. 

The beauty of doing a return on a cruise I am discovering is that if you were eating a fine Japanese meal last cruise in the Nobu dining room and missed French Night in the main dining room you just catch it on the way back!

Ellie and I joined our new tablemates in our formal finest for French Night. It was rack of lambs all around and escargot and pate and frog's legs.  Not that I had most that of that, but it was on the menu. 



What a fun evening it was.  We were so stuffeed we could been turned into our own pate.  Or at least I could have been!

I need to start thinking in terms of New York and Rack of Gym very soon! With a side of spa salade!