Cruising with Granny

I wrote this after my cruise in 05 as a continuation of the Thelma and Louise saga.  I have an ealier article about that , see it here   http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976775581 

Granny Goes Cruisin’

When I retired I dreamed of going on a cruise. In February 2005, that dream became a reality. Not only was I going on a cruise but I was spending 3 weeks in Florida basking in the sun when Iowa was in the throes of winter. My friend Joann( known as Louise in our summer Thelma and Louise adventure) was my hostess and cruising partner. We were booked aboard the Carnival Miracle, one of the lines newest ships, for a 4 day 3 night cruise to Nassau . The day of the cruise we were all packed and excited about leaving. Our ship was leaving from Port Everglades and Louise assured me she knew how to get there since she lived in the area, and we had plenty of time. There was a slight hitch though because we got lost on the way to the ship. We, being women and not men, stopped and asked directions and arrived at the port in time to check in, (after waiting in long lines) and board the ship.

We found our cabin but our luggage hadn’t been delivered to our door yet. Wow! Our cabin was on the Veranda Deck , 7^th level and had a private balcony with unobstructed view of the scenery. We decided to take a tour of the mega liner and visit the Lido deck where lunch was being served. It takes a little getting used to when there are so many twists and turns to get to a set of elevators, but the idea of food finally got us to Horatio’s on the Lido deck and we had a light lunch. There was food everywhere so it is no small deed to eat a light lunch but we knew dinner would be a big meal.

When we got back to the cabin our luggage was at our door so we hauled it into the cabin and got unpacked just in time for the announcement that there would be a Life Boat drill in 15 minutes and we were to don our life jackets (found in one of the closets) and report to our muster station. I may not have mentioned it before but I have another traveling companion. His name if Flat Randy and he is 9 inches tall and perfectly flat (patterned after the Flat Stanley in the books by Jeff Brown).

We took our time to get all gussied up for dinner and yes, we were somewhat formal even though it was not required the first night. Thelma and Louise wanted to make an impression. Flat Randy, being a child could not go to the bars and casinos with us.

We were at the late seating for dinner and found our table which it turned out was occupied solely by women, but a very fun group. One looked so much like Nicole Kidman that we all started calling her Nicole( I think her real name was Pam). We had a handsome waiter named Mario. Louise naturally assumed he was Italian and addressed him in her best imitation of an Italian accent from then on. We found out the last evening that he is actually from Guatemala, LOL. The ship’s cuisine was quite fancy and sometimes what was served didn’t quite go with the name. But all in all we enjoyed all of it.( you can’t fault a place that has soft serve ice cream and pizza available 24 hours a day.

After dinner we were off to Sam’s Piano Bar where Duane was tickling the keys and singing. The crowd was great and everyone was yelling out songs for him to play. There were lyric books on the bar so if someone wanted to sing the words were there. Of course Granny sang, more than once. The first solo piece was “Stormy Weather” and no I wasn’t sitting on the piano. Later I sang “Proud Mary” and got everyone involved in the chorus, “Rollin, Rollin, Rollin on the river” Duane and I also did some harmonizing. Louise was anxious to get to the casino and try her luck so I tagged along. Let it be known that Granny is not a gambler. I played slots for a couple of hours on less than $5. Louise was raking in money at the Blackjack table.

At 3:30 AM I went back to the cabin but couldn’t sleep as I worried about Louise finding her way back to the cabin. At 4:30 she made it back but was escorted by a friendly fellow traveler who thought he should come in and say Hi to me. We are nice grannies and didn’t encourage him to stay. He probably wondered how we got him out of there so fast.

Next morning we were in Nassau and I was ready to explore, but Louise wasn’t feeling so hot. With 4 hours of sleep and a shower I went looking for breakfast and enjoyed visiting with fellow ship mates. I walked on the upper walking track and went to the fitness center for about a half hour on the weight machines. Feeling guilty for all that eating I guess. After awhile I took coffee back to the room for Louise and I and finally managed to rouse her from a much needed rest. We spent the afternoon exploring the dock and downtown area of Nassau. ( I will write more about Flat Randy's Nassau adventure in a separate article). Flat Randy went along and we took more pictures but Louise still wasn’t really perking so we went back to the ship and changed to our swim suits and went to the Lido deck to get some sun. Since our dinner seating was at 8:15 we had plenty of time to sun and then catch a nap back in the cabin before getting ready for dinner. We were in port all evening and it was the Captain’s formal night. That meant formal gowns, jewelry and the whole 9 yards. We decided we looked pretty good for a couple of grannies. We took advantage of all the photographers on the ship and had numerous pictures taken. These were all in the gallery for viewing the next morning and darn, they made us look so good we each had to buy one or two. Dinner was an occasion and Mario and the other serving staff invited everyone to join in for a dance number. Only Louise and I took them up on it and what fun. The next night more people joined in.

We went to Sam’s Piano Bar again and it was a quieter crowd but we all joined in an a few songs. Louise went to check out the casino and I stayed at Sam’s and visited for awhile, joining her later at the casino. It wasn’t her lucky night and we decided the bathrobe party on the Lido Deck at midnight might be fun. You were supposed to wear clothes under the robes ( big fluffy white terrycloth robes were furnished to each passenger). We changed into more comfortable clothing and donned our robes. Did I mention that the strappy high heels were killing our feet? Once on the Lido deck it didn’t take long for us to join in the conga line which went on forever, followed by line dancing and then some swing dancing. We went in search of liquid refreshments and by the time we got back to the cabin it was after 3 am.  Flat Randy wasn't allowed to go to these adult activities so he stayed in the cabin and tried out the bed.

Friday was our day at sea and no need to get up. Of course this granny was awake at 7 AM and ready to greet the day. Louise said UGH! And rolled over and went back to sleep. I went up to the Lido again and found that the winds were so strong that the outer rails were off limits and it was “chilly”. I worked out in the fitness center again and went to get coffee to take back to the cabin. This time I talked Louise into getting up for breakfast. The day was spent wandering about the ship, visiting with fellow passengers, checking out the gallery and shops and the casino. By evening we were not really in the mood to go formal again although we were prepared with our dazzling gowns (we each took more than one). We dressed up but more informally than the previous night. Dinner was a somewhat sad affair as we knew it was the last evening to get together with our fun table mates and Mario. We had decided that we just had to take in one of the extravaganzas  given nightly in the Phantom Theater . It was a rousing Beatle’s Revue and was fun to watch. Afterwards Louise went to the casino and I went to Sam’s Piano Bar. Can you tell what our favorite places were? She was unlucky, but I had good luck as I got to have drinks with Duane on his break and to meet the lead singer from the Beatle’s revue. It was a fitting close to our nights aboard the Miracle. And it was about 3 AM when we turned in. Who would have thought that we older ladies could stay up so late?

We returned to Port Everglades the next morning and went through the very tedious process of disembarking. By the time we were back at Louise’s place, all we could think about was sleep. LOL

Thus ends Granny’s first, but not last, cruising adventure.