The Cruise

So, I have referenced the cruise, and told you about the lap of luxury that we kids enjoyed for the week, but I haven’t told you anything else!  

Much to my dismay, there isn’t a lot to tell.  My parents are seasoned cruisers at this point, and they always have so many stories to tell when they return from another chunk of days at sea.  But after this cruise, I’m beginning to think they make all of the stories up.  The two of them would come home with stories of crazy characters in the dance club, by the pool, in the dining room, and wandering about aboard.  They would often give the characters names based on the outfits they would wear, the way they spoke or the way they carried themselves.

Erin and I attempted to do the same on this cruise, but without much success.  We spent the week calling one girl “Rhythm,” because she didn’t have any.  We called two brothers “The brothers.”  And we called an older man with particularly impressive dance moves “Hips.”  But that was it.  And those are far from memorable.

I so badly want to believe that all of my mother’s stories of Elaine-like dancing, massive cleavage and couples in Hoverroun- oun- oun- oun- ounds are true, but after this week, I’m finding it challenging.  Except for one small detail: my mom has pictures of her characters!  Why on this ship wasn’t there anyone exciting to make fun of?  Does that just mean everyone was making fun of us?  Oh, well.  Here is the basic rundown, without characters.

Elaine dancing.  Classic.

We spent our first day at sea before coming into Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos.  Garvey and I went scuba diving for the day while my parents, Chip and Erin relaxed on the beach and later by the pool.  Scuba diving was great.  I saw my very first sea turtle!  Woohoo!

Day at sea

Our night at sea was the first formal night.

Grand Turk

The next day we spent in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We met up with the Holland family and enjoyed an authentic Puerto Rican lunch.  After lunch, while the rest of the 12- person party explored the Old Town, I beelined it for the nearest place with free wifi, Senor Frog’s.  I spent far more time there than I want to admit, but it was necessary.  Erin and I were just over a week away from moving to NYC, and there were a few things that I needed to take care of.  

First arriving in San Juan

Old Town

The party of twelve, minus me.  

On Thursday, my mom, Erin and I rented beach chairs and an umbrella in St. Maarten.  We drank our beers (and sodas) while watching Chip and my dad spend the morning racing a real America’s Cup sailboat.

The woman selling hats on St. Maarten.  It reminded me of one of my favorite books, Caps for Sale.

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This man was wearing a bathing suit.  Barely.  

Friday was another day at sea before hitting our last stop, Half Moon Cay, on Saturday.  Half Moon Cay is Holland America’s private island in the Bahamas, and it is stunning.  If Disney World were an island, this would be the island, but I loved it.  It was spotlessly clean, with over two miles of the softest white sand beaches I have set foot on.  Honestly, going on a cruise will never give you an authentic cultural experience, so why not enjoy the perfect island experience?  Half Moon Cay was great!

"We're over here!  Over here!"  Oh, yeah, Dad?  Is that where you are?

Our shells for the day.

"Look at Chippy.  It's just like the old days with him and his pink boat on a string."

Dad struggling to fold the sun shades back up.

Our last night on the ship, with the DJ.

The Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam

Comforts of Cruising

As I mentioned in the previous post, my family went cruising.  For months we had planned our 7- day Caribbean cruise on Holland America.  There was talk of inviting other friends or family members to join us, but we decided against it.  The 6dooleys have not been on vacation alone since 2006 when we spent two nights on Tupper Lake.  Therefore, this was our trip.  When we were first making arrangements, rooming options were discussed.  My dad had an idea to get only two rooms: a boys and a girls room.  I vetoed that immediately.  Then, my dad asked me if the four kids could share a room.  We could potentially get a big discount by adding two extra people to the room.  I thought about it, thought about discount equalling tiny, thought about Erin's outrageous bikini collection exploding in the room and thought about the boys who don't particularly put showers first on their list of priorities, and I vetoed that idea as well.  And it was agreed, three rooms, one for the parents, one for the girls, and one for the boys.

The night before we left for our trip, Holland America called my dad.  The cruise line had overbooked the ship, and wanted us to consolidate rooms.  They offered to upgrade my parents to a suite, but they would have to have one of the other rooms share with them.  My dad decided that the four kids would take the upgrade.  And so it was decided, four kids in one room.  Ruh roh.

Quickly getting last minute technological things figured out.

But in reading the fine print, looking more carefully at what our upgrade entailed, and watching the online tour of the suite, it didn't seem so terrible.

My dad has a lot of baggage.

When we arrived in Fort Lauderdale to board the ship Erin read a sign stating to identify yourself if you were in a Deluxe Verandah Suite.  When she did, we were pulled out of line, brought to the front, and to a separate line to check in.  Don't worry, we brought my mom along with us.  When we got our key cards Chip, Erin, Garvey and I had gold cards.  My mom and dad's cards were blue.

The line we skipped

On the ship nice and early, before the rooms were ready.

In our very spacious room, with a very large balcony, we found a laundry bag for complimentary dry cleaning.  The four of us put dresses, pants, shirts and skirts into the bag to be pressed.  Yes, we had our clothes pressed.  And during the week we had clothes dry cleaned, washed and pressed many more times.

The balcony was so spacious, Garvey slept on it.

Our laundry delivery

We also each had our own stationary.  Poor Mom and Dad had to share a few pieces of stationary, while we each got our own!

The four of us also had access to The Neptune Lounge.  Apparently this is a big deal.  Basically, it is a lounge, with a private "front desk" for only those in suites.  The room has delicious food out all day long, an espresso maker and juices and coffee.  And, as Garvey really liked, the room doesn't have sugar for coffee.  Instead, they have rock candy.  If that isn't high class, I don't know what is.

The first afternoon on the ship we decided to go check out The Neptune Lounge.  We found board games and agreed to play a family favorite, Rummikub.  And, no, The Neptune Lounge didn't have just any old Rummikub, they had the deluxe large numbers version.  The game came in a case with a handle!  High class.

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Hours later, after playing three rounds, and my siblings losing terribly to me, we wandered back downstairs towards my parents' room, but not without taking a little detour to explore.  Before we had rounded the corner we could hear my dad sniffing.  The four of us came around the corner and he said, "where have you been?!  I have been looking everywhere for you!"

"We were playing Rummikub in The Neptune Lounge.  Ooooh, right.  You can't go there."

I have a type

We cruised on Holland America.  Now, while it was absolutely fabulous, you need to know a few things about Holland America.  For one, the most common form of identification to get back on the ship is an AARP card.  Two, there are more than a handful of motorized wheelchairs on board.  Well, with those two facts alone you can easily see how many oldies are on board.  But, there is one fact that says it all: of the 2,100 passengers on board, there are only 78 between the ages of 18 and 34.  Hmmm...

Now, we all know that I am on a family vacation.  But, if my family of 6 makes up 3 of that statistic, and the fourth is underage in regards to, well, everything, then what does that leave?  I’ll tell you.  It leaves a handful of very awkward cousins who smuggled a small bottle of rum on the ship from Puerto Rico.  It also leaves a pair of brothers that like to dance.  Very nice boys, but nothing to write home about.  It also leaves a few 15 year old girls that have realized the dance club doesn’t enforce the 18 + rule, and they come out at night to booty pop.  

But don’t worry, readers, I found some cute boys.  I just also happened to find something out about myself: I have a type.  

The perfect example is a man I found to be quite attractive on our first day on the ship.  Yes, he was with his pregnant and waddling wife, but that didn’t stop me from noticing how cute he was and pointing it out to my mom and sister.  When my mom finally saw him, and after she had said that he looked old, she said, “he looks like everyone else you like.”  I didn’t know exactly what she meant, but I knew Cute Boy has a pregnant wife, so I kept looking.

I found DJ George.  DJ George is adorable.  He is unbelievably nice and engaging.  And while I know that is his job to chat with the passengers, he and I really enjoyed taking to each other.  He is the DJ at the dance club in the evenings and runs various musical activities on board throughout the day.  For example, Erin and I did cute DJ George’s line dancing activity by the pool.  We also played his game of Name That Tune.  

So prego’s husband and DJ George are the cute boys on board, and I started to understand what my mom meant.  I like tall boys.  I like brunette boys.  I like boys who always look put together, preferably those that consider polo shirts to be casual.  I like boat shoes.  I like khaki.  I like good haircuts.  I don’t like facial hair.  And by God, I love good teeth.  So there it is, Meaghan has a type.  Meaghan likes preppy brunettes.

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