January 29, 2023

Since the beginning of our trip, our toilet has been an annoyance.  Ship toilets work much like airplane toilets except ship toilets do have some water in them.  However, you push a button and hear a “swoosh” and it’s all gone.  Ours sounded more like bubbling water behind the wall, like the tank was filling, and maybe fifteen minutes later we’d hear the swoosh. This was not a big deal for us – we’ve camped and lived in a travel trailer with three kids and are not really high maintenance travelers.  The last few days though, two weeks into a three week trip, the lag time was becoming longer and longer to the point where taking a morning constitutional could render the bathroom intolerable for an hour or longer.  We called several times and each time our steward or someone would come,go in the little hallway closet, do something or other and it would flush.  For a few times after that, all was well.  Then it started all over again. 

I decided I’d had enough, and largely because I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t just FIX the damn thing.  Talking to the front desk staff was met with many sincere apologies.  There was no sense getting angry – these folks are hard working and put up with assholes I’m sure.  So Al and I went down and fortunately the front desk manager was present.  We asked if we could speak to her privately because well, you know, poop talk.  We were nice, because we are, and she actually had a record of our phone calls. We truly were more worried about the next people coming in and wanted to let her know it wasn’t getting fixed.  Turns out they need a part (ah yes…when a ship needs something they can’t always get it at the local hardware store). She offered to change our room, which we really didn’t want to do, it was on the very back of the ship with a great view of everything including the night sky and a larger than usual balcony.  She offered to find a room in our hallway where we could at least use the bathroom.  Then Al joked “maybe you can offer us a suite”.  She raised her eyebrows and said “well I can show you the signature suite but you have to decide if you want to move for four more nights”.  We decided to take a look.  We wanted to move for four more nights! We threw all of our little crap into suitcases and the stewards moved everything for us.  

Kids, we’ve hit the big time and wish we’d complained a bit sooner.  This is an actual room with a tub with whirlpool jets, a separate shower, two bathroom sinks, a desk, a couch that turns into a bed, a double balcony and just in general room for more than one butt at a time to walk through.  Who knew rooms like this existed on a ship?  Most importantly, the toilet works. My Dad would have referred to this outcome as “going into an outhouse and coming out smelling like a rose”.  Quite an apt description in this case! At any rate it’s kind of fun pretending we’re hoity toity.

Today was the last sea day. I said goodbye to my mahjong pals, exchanging emails that never seem to get used, but just saying goodbye to new found mahj sisters is always too hard. We have two more ports and then a day in Buenos Aires, one more night on the ship in Buenos Aires and disembark the next day for the final part of this amazing journey: Iguazu Falls and more touring Buenos Aires.  Probably won’t get out of there without Argentina world cup winners paraphernalia!

Tomorrow – Uruguay….