Evenings of Luxury

After the glacier we went about our normal business. Food.

You truly wouldn’t believe the food on a cruise ship unless you’ve done it. Every meal, every day is amazing.

Last night we at with 4 other people – all of whom are regular cruisers – I call them the “regulars”. While we prefer our new friends, Megan and Mark, it’s always educational to eat with the regulars. The order of conversation at dinner on a cruise is:

“hi, I’m ________” (insert your name here)

Then everybody goes around the table shaking hands and saying their names.

“So, where are you from?”

Everybody responds, then (on this cruise anyway) they talk about the temperature “back home” and how it’s “such a shock” to be so cool in the middle of summer.

After the appropriate weather talk, the next question directed at Josh and I is: “so is this your first cruise?”

We then explain that we went on 1 other shorter cruise, and are looking forward to many more. Then Josh works his magic, turns on his natural “talk to me” voice, and asks where they’ve been.

The rest of dinner we hear about all of the cruise lines, where to get the best deals (smartcruise.com), what to do on shore (cruisecritics.com), who has the best food, who has the best service, the places people have traveled, the people they travel with. From the “aussies” (there’s a big group of them on this ship) we hear about the parties. They are all on “holiday” for 3 months, and they’ve been to Canada, and Seattle, and they’re heading over to spend some time in “the rockies”. I think that means the Rocky Mtns., but that doesn’t really narrow down where they’ll be for me. We know that rich old people prefer Celebrity cruises, Megan and Mark (they are our age and are here on their honeymoon) prefer Princess, and so far nobody prefers Holland America (the line we’re on).

So, in one week, we’ve heard of enough fun places to last us the next 20 years of vacation. And although we really prefer the company of people our own age, it’s important that we sit with rich old strangers every other night in order to plan our future vacations. (Plus, they have allergies, and they’re picky eaters, so they usually see the menu the night before. We already know what’s for dinner tomorrow!)

After dinner we went to the show, which for the past 3 nights has been the singers and dancers, and honestly it was getting kindof old. Tonight was a magician. Which was incredible! He did a surprisingly large number of "scarf tricks" which I think are cheap shots - too much is concealed behind those scarves, and I think it's a cop out.  BUT they are still very entertaining.

He also did some bird tricks, which had me on the edge of my seat, because now that I've seen The Prestige, bird tricks make me want to hurl. He was very good, very entertaining, and I am still trying to figure out how he did "the egg" trick. I like magic, I like not being able to tell what's up, and I REALLY liked the show last night.

This cruise just keeps getting better and better!