Steve and Cathy's Blog

A Welcome On Board gift from Gallagher Travel

We stepped on board the ship right around 3:00pm with a suitcase and three carryons. Immediately we were invited, as around-the-worlders (in typical American fashion, reduced to ATW), to a welcome cocktail party to meet the captain of the ship and the president of the company. At that moment, we felt like pack mules with all that stuff, so we temporarily declined and went to the room to drop all the stuff.

Hurrying back to the Insignia Lounge where the festivities were taking place, upon entering we were given a special pin given to us ATWs.  (Are we supposed to wear these throughout the trip, we ask ourselves?  Seems pretty pretentious.  Turns out no, just to special events held for the ATWs.)  It was 3:10 and the party ended at 3:30, so we hustled right on up to the stage where the executive and captain were.  The captain looked like he couldn’t wait to get the heck outta there, but the president of the company was cordial. He was obviously very proud of his company, and was very proud that over two hundred people had booked the ship for the entire journey.  He noted that many guests (the staff refers to us passengers as guests) end up making such good friendships that leaving at the end of the six-month trip is a very tearful experience.  Having been aboard for all of twenty minutes, we nod with incomprehension but anticipation of making new friends.

We have a quick glass of champagne (like we needed more!) and booked it back to the room. The boat drill was announced for 4:45, so we had time to chill and begin the task of unpacking.  In our room was a beautiful arrangement of tropical flowers sent by Judi Gallagher of Gallagher Travel Shoppe accompanied by a bottle of champagne. And another bottle of bubbly from the cruise line.  We did not (as you might have expected of Steve and Cathy) dive into these latter gifts, but Cathy delighted in the flowers.

At around 4:30, an extensive announcement was made by the Cruise Director, Leslie John.  He carefully and very soberly and with great emphasis described how important the life boat drill was, described what would unfold for the next hour in detail, and gave other important safety warnings.  It’s interesting to note that cruise ships appear to be set up with two distinct staffs: one that deals with us guests, and the other that deals with the actual operation of the ship itself.  In other words, there is the hotel where we guests are attended to by hundreds of hospitality staff, and this hotel is actually on an enormous vessel attended to by the captain and the staff that actually operate the ship.  So this Cruise Director is the connection between the two staff populations, and we got the seriousness of the message he was imparting to us.

So we grabbed our life vests and mustered in the Insignia Lounge, site of the aforementioned cocktail party.  As described by signs in our stateroom, we are in Area 2, Lifeboat 4.  We gather to rehearse getting on a lifeboat, with repeated instructions from the Cruise Director and other staff that we are to remain quiet throughout this drill and any other (God forbid) actual emergency.  We then line up under our assigned lifeboat.  We’ve all seen Titanic and other similar disaster movies, so the admonition to keep calm and quiet makes a lot of sense.  The drill also brought to light how certain of the guests had mobility problems that, were they not prepared for prior to an emergency, could impede the successful loading of the lifeboats.

Sorry to go on so long about this, but I was really struck by the tone of the crew.  A cruise ship is supposed to be the mostest funnest thing you can set foot on, but these folks wanted us to know in no uncertain terms that, in an emergency, everything changes.  Good for them.

Well, at the lifeboat muster, we overheard a fellow guest announce that she had already booked the personal trainer and had saved 20% by so doing today.  After returning to the room, we decided that we would head for the Canyon Ranch Spa to sign Steve up, as he needs to continue recovery from rotator cuff surgery.  Cathy is urged to accompany Steve to check out the spa.  We arrive and a very nice young lady named Jessica welcomes us and asks for us to wait to talk with the personal trainer himself.  So we sit and observe her as she deals with an elderly guest who, it must be said, tested her patience and her professionalism.  She passed the test with flying colors, and then we had the chance to speak with both of them.

The personal trainer is a very affable twenty-something that hails from India but took his training in London.  At some point I will be able to pronounce and spell his entire name, but not yet.  For now I can only say that his name is Sho, and Steve will be meeting with him three times a week for twenty-five minutes per session for three months.  We indeed get a 20% discount, and hopefully the personal training will instill in Steve the self-discipline that so often eludes him on land.

We head back to the room to await dinner.  The ship is due to shove off at 5:30, but it is actually 5:45 before a tugboat begins to pull on the stern of the 30,000-ton vessel to turn it around for departure from the harbor.

The sun has set, and it is virtually nighttime as we slowly glide by the enormous container ship terminal, watching three or four giant container ships being loaded or unloaded.  For us freight transportation careerists, it is a thrill to see all this activity up close, and we are very, very excited to see our actual journey begin.

The moment calls for – what else! – a bottle of champagne.  We sit on our veranda (their term for what we thought was called a balcony) and watch the brightly lit Miami Beach skyline recede.

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After that wonderful embarkation, it is time for dinner.  There are several restaurant options on board, but all need reservations except the main dining room, called the Grand Dining Room, where you can sit by yourselves at a table for two or join others at larger tables.  We decide to eat by ourselves tonight in that restaurant because it is our first night.  Cathy will describe the very high end cuisine that is available to us.  I would not do it justice.  Not even close.  Suffice it to say that the celebrated chef Jacques Pepin is their consulting chef and has designed the menus.

After dinner, there is entertainment in the Insignia Lounge, there are seven bars to repair to for an after dinner cocktail, and there will be dancing from 9:30 to 10:15.  Cathy and Steve go back to the room and crash.  End of a long and special day.