Island Princess – Panama Canal

Day One at Sea May 2, 2014

Well we sailed out of Fort Lauderdale right on schedule at 4 p.m. yesterday, after passing muster. Muster is a mandatory drill that occurs before sailing – you grab your life jacket from the closet, learn where the emergency exits are to get to your room’s muster station, where you are checked in. Then the fun starts. You learn how to put your life jacket on, how to get into the life rafts, how to hold your nose AND your mouth if in the unlikely event of a need to jump ship. Except you aren’t supposed to jump. You are supposed to “just step off.” How about “the guy behind you pushes you off.” When everyone arrives at the muster station there is quite a bit of joking going on, but by the time they get to the scary part, scenes from every ship disaster you have ever heard of comes dancing across your mind, starting with the Titanic, moving on to The Poseidon Adventure and ending with the crash on the rocks in Italy where the captain was canoodling the young lady he stowed away and then ran for the bar on land while the ship sank. It is all forgotten the minute you walk back into the main ship where, like the Titanic orchestra, the music is playing and you are back in fairy tale land.

We are high tailing it across the Caribbean with strong head winds. (Thank you spell check. I always have trouble with the whole two r’s or two b’s thing.) For the first time on a cruise I am feeling the ship rock and roll a bit. This isn’t a problem for me – I think I must have been a seagoing girl in past lives, which explains my fascination for tales of the sea – pleasant or otherwise. What’s funny is that last night I was reading in the stateroom and suddenly thought “oh! We’re having an earthquake!” before I remembered we are on a boat. Guess I’ve lived in California long enough.

Damn the food is good on this ship. Last night we had melon and ceviche for appetizer, moving on to chicken boullion with tortellini and green onions, then Al had prime rib and baked potato while I opted for grilled Basa with a lovely papya and pineapple salsa. I make Basa a lot at home, going to have to scare up a similar salsa. Ended it with a bit of hazelnut ice cream. It sounds like a lot but the portions are reasonable.

I have made a commitment that I am going to look at this as a spa vacation and practice moderation and not return home with an extra ten pounds, especially since I carried an extra 8 when I embarked. This morning I kept my eyes to the left at the breakfast buffet and dared not glance right where the Belgian waffles and sausage and bacon and omelets all reside. A yogurt parfait, some fruit and a bit of smoked salmon was just fine. The fitness center is pretty nice and it is part of my plan to arrive home ready to continue at a gym. Working out at home is not working.

I am happily preparing for my next teaching course, electrotherapy. I know that sounds like work but it’s really not. I love the subject matter and it’s nice to be uninterrupted.   Tonight is formal night so we get all dolled up and head out for dinner. The best part of cruising – no thinking required. No check, no figuring out tip, no real reason to carry a purse except for Kleenex, and if my Mom were here I wouldn’t even have to do that.

Before I sign off today I will admit that I watched The Love Boat on TV this morning. The Pacific Princess WAS the Love Boat so of course Princess would have that on TV. I was amazed at all the character actors who were on just one episode, including a younger and much thinner Kathy Bates as a young bride. The young traumatized pilot who saved the day in “Airplane” was present as well. Numerous others you would all recognize, but I can’t remember any of their names. Al caught me smiling – but of course – as I watched everything end up happily as it always does on the Love Boat. The cameo steward discovered the daughter he had abandoned when she was an infant was on board after he found a photo in her room of his ex-wife. Resolved by the end of the episode. The young couple who had spent their last dime for a lousy room were given the no-show super suite by the lovely Julie. Of course, this meant they had to pretend to be the high powered ad exec and there were hijinks to make sure Capt Steubing (no spell check on that one) didn’t find out. It got dicey when he arranged for them to join another ad exec for dinner, who was courting a new high powered client. The young grocery clerk had great marketing ideas due to his tenure in the grocery business, so when he “stole” the client he had to fess up that he wasn’t who they thought he was. The other ad exec and the client were so impressed by the young man the ad exec offered him a job and he would be working the client’s account.

Everything always works out on the Love Boat!