The third of eight observations on a recent Caribbean cruise.
On this first sea day, the schedule includes what seems an odd assortment of entertainment: two-hour glass-blowing demonstrations by Corning staff, live music sets by an a cappella group, and 45-minute talks by an art and culture scholar and by a Clinton-era White House insider. Waiting for my first selection from the day’s activities — my group’s tour of the ship’s galley — I’m perusing a handout of fun facts (Are there any other kind?) on the provisions required for a typical two-week cruise. The absolute numbers don’t mean much to me: I’m not in the habit of serving 2,500 people three squares and endless snacks for 14 days, 24 hours/day. But the relative numbers tell a pretty clear tale: they go through as many bottles of wine as they do teabags.
Note 1: The structure of the first seven of these eight observations was inspired by Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar.
Note 2: In common with much of the country, Ottawa is snowed in (and then some) on this first day of Spring. If you missed it, here’s my reflection from two years ago on Spring in Canada.
I am waiting for the eighth post when you finish with the replacement for “We ain’t got dames”. Every time I read a title I start singing to myself the song “We Ain’t Got Dames” from one of my favourite musicals, South Pacific. Surely the warm tropical surroundings you visited on your cruise reminded you a little of what it might be like on Bali. Of course, that was Kauai in the famous movie.
Dave J – Well there, you see, you just never know what associations people will make. I’m sure I’ve seen South Pacific, but I don’t have that song in my head. The one I do have is, of course, Some Enchanted Evening. As for the eighth post, it uses another Rodgers/Hammerstein musical – sorry about that!
Of course! A gal’s song vs a guy’s song, right?
Dave J – Ah. I guess that’s right. Although I think my favourite association with the song is the joke whose punchline is the pun: Someone chanted ‘evening’. Just awful enough to be great.
Isabel,
Remind me sometime to tell you about the “all you can eat lobster tails”, on a cruise Jonathan and I were on. Something about old dudes from the mid-west…. The gluttony on these floating hotels can be totally remarkable.
Kate – Seems like most people have an onboard ‘overboard’ story, as it were, especially for the nominally ‘free’ stuff (that is, the ‘included’ stuff – none of it being ‘free’). Overdoing it ‘r’ us! Liquor, of course, doesn’t fall into that category – all of it was charged separately…