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2016 Carribbean Cruise - Embarkation Day



As far as the other guests go, it’s been an unusual cruise for two reasons. One: there are a lot of newbies on board. People wandering around more or less lost, not knowing what’s free and what costs extra, not really even knowing the perks of things they’ve actually paid for. Second, there’s also a lot of folks who just don’t like kids, or at least don’t want to see them on their vacation. Nobody’s really horrible about it – the most we really get is cut-eye in the elevators or snark at the buffet – but it’s a different experience then we’ve had in the past. On a typical cruise, two out of every three people we run into smile or chat with our kids, or they tell us about grandkids at home that they’re missing. But this time it’s the two thirds that are gritting their teeth when we walk by, or saying things like, “Better you than me, man!” I’m not even offended, it’s just… peculiar. I love traveling with my kids. And (if you can pardon the platitude) I love how it lets me see things in a new way through their eyes. We’ll be dragging these kids along on our vacations for as long as they’ll let us.

Another weird thing was that prior to embarkation we didn’t bump into anyone else going on the same cruise. Always, always, in the airport, on the plane, in the hotel: we end up chatting with folks going on the same cruise. Not this time. Because of that fact, I predicted we wouldn’t see a single member of the crew we’d known previously. But the words had barely left my mouth before Sarah’s dad picked out a sommelier he knew from his last cruise, and Sarah saw the waiter from our last cruise. This was followed immediately by Julie from the Fun Factory – who our kids knew from two prior cruises. Then there were scads of familiar waitresses and bartenders, and also an assistant maitre’d who was super-helpful during our first cruise with Teddy. So my prediction proved less than accurate, is what I’m saying.

That first day, the kids did a really good job waiting, because they couldn’t do the two things they were dying to do until later that evening (namely: go the Fun Factory and buy whatever random junk they could buy at the shops). We did our best to distract them. We took them to the pool as soon as our luggage (and swimsuits) got delivered, and when sail-away came, we took them out dancing. There was an excellent house band led by a very Adele-like singer, and the kids danced their little hearts out. Footage of the McLean Family Dancers made the Cruise Highlights video produced by Celebrity, and while it was fantastically cute we were still too cheap to buy it. Veronica is all confidence when she dances. Susannah has moves, but she perfers the comfort of being surrounding by her siblings. Teddy… is a wild flailer. His dancing involves a lot of intense arm thrusts. I think he’s aware that his style is unorthodox because he’ll often grab your hands and team-dance with you. My favourite part was when a couple beside us started swing dancing and Teddy was like, “Dad, we need to do that!” as if he wasn’t talking to the second worst dancer on the boat.

Later came dinner in the main dining room, and that was great as always. Our waiter was Harun, his assistant was Efrem, and the sommelier was Lundi, and they were all excellent. It was just an hour away from the Fun Factory being open, and the kids were sort of patient about it. They did ask for a time check every eighteen seconds, but otherwise they ate a good meal and were well-behaved. Then when seven o’clock rolled around, they were out of their seats and ready to go. Veronica got a few feet away from the table – but then she ran back and gave Harun a huge hug. I don’t even know why. Maybe just as thanks for the chocolate ice cream he brought for dessert. But seeing his smile is one of the things I’ll remember most about this trip. The kids get a lot of attention from the staff in general, and they get asked for a lot of hugs (which are happily given). But Veronica’s hug was totally unprompted and out of the blue, and Harun had a look of such happy surprise on his face. Maybe it’s the surprise that really stuck with me, because these guys have worked these jobs for a long time and have really seen it all – the best and the worst that people can be. Surprises are a rarity, I imagine.
From there, the bigs went off to the Fun Factory. We finished dinner and tried to take Susannah dancing, but without the rest of her dance crew she wasn’t really into it. So we took her to the shops where the staff was totally into her and she was really not into that. Then it took three attempts to collect the other kids from the Fun Factory before they finally consented to leave, and soon after, it was beddy-bye for the lot of us.

(Additional story that I couldn’t work organically into this post:  Whenever the ship needs to rotate or make small lateral movements, they use these particular thrusters (I think they’re called azipods) that make the ship vibrate. Anyway, sometime close to sail-away I was waiting in our room while Veronica was using the bathroom. As we're navigating away from the dock, they fire up the azipods and the ship starts vibrating. Veronica, on the throne and more than a little annoyed, says, “Who’s doing that?” Five seconds go by as I try to think of how to explain it to her, and she calls out again with five times more attitude, “Tell them to stop it!”)

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