It's after midnight, Saturday, September 15th, 2012. This morning we have plans to meet Wil and Andi for the drive to the pier and our ship. But, right now I'm having trouble sleeping, I'm hungry. When we checked in I noticed an area next to the desk loaded with 'snack' food. I thought I'd go down and take a look.
Picture a gift shop that sells things you can but shouldn't eat. Now, remove the doors. You have a good idea of what the area looked like. It was an alcove with shelves. Once you made a selection the people working the check in desk would 'ring you up.' This gave them something to do since they were there all night, sort of like a 7-11, with rooms.
I figured the hotel priced the food by the penny, one cent per calorie. After vacillating between something healthy, ya right, or something good, I got a bag of two peanut butter cookies. Two small peanut butter cookies, two bites each, two hundred calories, two bucks.
It was 1:45 AM when I got up got dressed and went down for the ridiculously over priced and not very good package of cookies. It was 1:55 AM when I ate them and went back to bed. It was 2:10 AM when I started tearing the suitcases and carry-on's apart looking for Tums, or Zantac, or Alka Seltzer. Those two small cookies had formed an alliance and were doing the conga in my stomach. I cursed my stupidity. I know I can't eat and go back to bed, especially fat laden, over priced, high caloric junk.
Eventually I settled down and got back to sleep.
Oh, almost forgot. While I was scanning all the bad things to get for a midnight snack…..Snickers, Pay Day Gummy Creatures and lots of packaged cookies, at a buck per hundred calorie, a group of five people with southern or Texas accents walked in. There is a college football game here today. Tomorrow the Dallas Cowboy’s are in Seattle to play the Seahawks. Now that I have checked the NFL schedule it’s very clear, these folks were from Texas.
It’s amazing, Texans can make talking about beer sound like a relatives back side. “Hey Buford, I’m gonna get me one of them Hiney-Kins. You want one?”
It’s now 9:30 AM Saturday. We left the house at 10 PM Thursday. I've eaten more junk, more calories, and more fat grams in more or less, give or take, 36 hours, than I do at home in a month. Yes, we’re on vacation, yes we were on a train, are currently in a hotel, and will soon be on a ship but I worked hard taking weight off FOR this trip, I don’t want to put it back on. I dropped ten pounds and was 168.1 when we left. I am going to be 168.1 when we get home.
This, as I take another bite of my Starbucks Pumpkin Scone.
One of the first things I did when we got home was get on the scale. Want to know how I did with my weight? Well, you will just have to read the rest of the blog entries. Oh, I suppose you could skip to the last entry but what fun would that be?
Wanda and I both have our coffee, my scone is gone, we're packed and ready to go. On the train up we met a fellow named Reggie. He is staying here and is on the cruise. Andi and Wil, and Reggie will meet us in the lobby at 11 AM for the hotel shuttle to the pier, eight bucks a person.
Since we were the first ones down it was my responsibility to confirm the arrangements with the driver. "There are five of us going to the ship, I said. The van driver looked at me and said, "Dee B Da?" I replied, Yes, Da" and I held up one hand with five finger to indicate the five of us. After a few more Dabber and Dosses it became clear, the man didn't speak much English. He was however, one of the most careful or insecure drivers I've ever encountered. He was driving so slow at one point it was downhill and I considered getting out and riding my suitcase to the pier.
Eventually, around 11:30 AM, we arrived at our ship. Between the Holland America ship docked next to the Golden Princess, five thousand people were
trying to get on board their respective ships at noon. Seventeen people decided to wait until 1:30.
We have Preferred Boarding due to our Princess Captain's Circle standing. Once you have spent over fifteen thousand dollars or cruised five times you get to go to the front of the line. I lied, that's not true, they don't add up your expenditures, really?, just your cruise numbers or days at sea.
Boarding a ship these days is a lot like going through airport security, except you don't have to take off your shoes. Security people want to see your boarding pass and passports. Your carry on things go through x-ray. Once you and your tote bags, backpacks, lap tops, tablets, cell phones, and other necessary items are scanned, checked, felt, and cleared, you go to the check-in desk. This is my favorite part of the pre-boarding process. Going to check-in and getting the holy grail of cruising, The Sea Pass Card. This small plastic card opens my cabin door and my bank account.
The last step is boarding the ship. At the gangway your card is scanned, your picture taken and you walk aboard what will be your home for the next week or ten days or if you are lucky two weeks or longer. A cruise ship is a floating hotel. It's a magnificent structure that supplies your every need for a fun and exciting adventure.
Good food, entertainment galore and a nice cabin. You unpack once and do whatever strikes your fancy throughout your vacation. Wanda and I went on our first cruise nine years ago. Each and every one, so far, has been a wonderful experience. I hope we can cruise for many years to come.
Once on board, the first thing we do is take our carry-on bags to the cabin. The next thing we do is eat.
Golden Princess our home for the next eight days.
Tomorrow: our first glimpse of how we would cruise if we ever won the lottery.
Or, our first suite. They had to pry me out of the cabin with a shoe horn and you know what? There was one in the closet.
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