By now we were on our second week of our cruise. I recommend just one week of a cruise.
We were tired. Eating too much rich food, drinking too much wine, exposure to too much tropical sunshine, and finally, the daily Dramamine one swallows to help erase that funny feeling that isn’t funny, were all taking their toll.
Also, no matter how big your stateroom is, after a week, living in close quarters with your loving spouse gets old. It seemed to me that my husband was always in the way whenever I tried to move across the room and certainly, he must have felt the same about me.
Then, I missed my dog, “Dandy,” who was back home in Urbanna under daughter Liz’s good care who was there with her two big labs holding the fort. “Dandy” loved the labs, so he was probably perfectly alright, but who can be wholly happy in life without their dog?
I imagined getting up in Urbanna and padding out in my jammies and slippers to feed the menagerie — “Dandy,” the “backyard cats” (who don’t know they are feral), the “front yard cats,” (who know they are feral), the squirrels, opossum, racoons, birds and God only knows what else.
On top of these issues of the heart, I was worried about President Zelenskyy’s disastrous interview with President Trump at the White House. After, according to President Trump, $350 billion in contributions from the U.S. to help Ukraine and no end of war with Russia in sight, I understand that Americans are concerned that we will become in another long drawn out war like Vietnam and Afghanistan and, in the end, withdraw just as we did in those two unfortunate nations leaving a shameless bloodbath in our wake.
However, only a naif would trust Putin to honor a deal for peace. My generation clearly remembers how appeasement of Prime Minister Chamberlain worked when he tried to make a peace deal with Hitler. The West learned then that appeasement with tyrants does not work.
I ruminated on all this as I so often tend to do.
That night two of our waitresses were Ukrainian. They were grieving at the situation their country is in. All this kept me on my stateroom balcony after dinner staring sadly at the rolling sea and far horizons wondering what would happen next.
All this prevented me from even remembering our next stop at Roseau, Dominica, the next day. I am sure it was a lovely island filled with welcoming and friendly people.
I do remember, however, pulling in the next morning to St. John’s, Antigua. This would be our last stop before the three-day steam back to our homeport in Miami.
No sooner had we arrived in Antigua than the “Viking Sea” pulled into the pier opposite us. What a beauty she is! She is also a cruise ship designed with luxury staterooms geared especially for a small payload and she is as clean and beautifully cared for as the “Vista.” I had already learned from the exposure to too many cruise ships that one should, if at all possible, book on a new and small ship.
Chip immediately left on a trip that promised a morning of sailing on a catamaran whereas I stayed on the ship to read and write. I was sorry I had done this because no sooner had Chip left before the captain announced over the P.A. system that the crew would be doing their safety drills.
The next hour was filled with blasts of the emergency siren and announcements as the crew went through all the many steps to evacuate passengers from their staterooms and get them into lifeboats and launched into the sea should the need ever arise. Which caused me to spend the hour thinking of the loss of the Titanic in 1910 and the suffering of that tragic event.
I found myself typing this column from my stateroom during the emergency exercise. I didn’t care for all the noise this exercise generated but I had to admit I was glad ship crews today are well prepared for such emergencies at sea or at least the crew on the “Vista” is.
After a while I began to wonder when Chip was coming back from his sailing trip. I was sitting on the balcony when a catamaran motored by packed with people and with blaring hideous music being broadcast all over the harbor. I saw Chip sitting in the cockpit amongst a throng of tourists packed together like sardines. There were no sails on the ship.
The catamaran sailing trip turned out to be a motor ride to a beach where the tourists swam in the ocean until it was time to return to the ship.
We heard other complaints that day about expensive trips offered to passengers. One couple said they paid $600 for a day at the beach with chairs, including lunch. For this they were given a chair at a pool next to a beach that was filled with screaming children.
Just as my husband had assumed a catamaran trip would be a sailing trip, they had assumed they would spend the day in beach chairs at the beach. They would have preferred staying back on the ship enjoying the ship’s quiet pool. Lesson learned. One must be careful about signing up for trips on a cruise.
That afternoon another ship came in from the Virgin line. With two ships in port at the same time the duty-free stores along the waterfront were loaded with tourists. The stores were painted every shade of pastel color and reminded me of Naples, Fla., or Bermuda. Cafes were mobbed with those seeking refreshments. It was a festive scene as if a Mardi Gras made up of visitors from all over the world. I quickly returned to my quiet stateroom.
Tomorrow we would begin the long haul back to Miami, our flight to Dulles and drive home. It cheered me to think in just three days we would be on our way back home to Urbanna.
(Conclusion next week.)
