Cruising on a cruise ship is a great way to travel. They treat you like royalty. But it is not without mishap. I remember our first cruise. We were working at that time, and we decided to take a cruise to Alaska. We found one departing from Seattle, Washington, that met our criteria. Our sons’ in-laws lived there, so we gave them a call and they invited us out a day before to stay with them.
We got up in the morning and they brought us to the port. We could not find the ship. There was nobody there. Finally, someone told us that the Coast Guard did not approve the ship for passenger service because they didn’t complete the repairs in the engine room after they had a fire. Our hosts did not want to hear this because they were leaving for Germany the next day. They offered us their house to stay in as we looked for another cruise. This was before cell phones, so the cruise company had called but there was no way you could reach us. The cruise company went bankrupt and paid $0.10 on the dollar. We were fortunate enough to have paid by credit card. We got all the money back and scheduled the cruise with another cruise line. We identified an option departing from Seattle, Washington, that met our requirements.
We have cruised often since then, but our most recent cruise was different. This was with the Royal Caribbean Cruise line on their ship, the WONDER OF THE SEAS. It is one of their largest cruise ships and we were curious what it was all about. The WONDER OF THE SEAS is 1,188’ long, 210’ wide and has a draft of 30’. She can serve about 5,700 passengers with a crew of about 2,300. Most of the cabins have balconies, half facing the ocean and half facing the park. Yes, I said park. They have a beautiful park, including a Zip line in the middle of the ship. We were on the 14th deck, and there were two more above us, housing 2,867 cabins. She is BIG! But she will accommodate you beautifully. Her crew is International and very friendly. We spoke with people from China, Indonesia, India, England, Italy and Puerto Rico. They normally work 7 months on and 2 months off.
The entertainment on cruise ships is normally very good. We only had one case where they had the entertainer put off the ship. He had a huge problem with his language. This was not the Royal Caribbean problem. We saw an ice show which was outstanding. In fact, we liked it so much, we saw it twice.
I was able to take a tour of the ship. It was very impressive. I never saw so much stainless steel as they had in the galley. And everything was spotless. I did not go into their freezers though; it was too cold for me. But the laundry was impressive. Just think of the cleaning every day for the sheets, towels, tablecloths and uniforms. The control room and engine room were just as impressive. They have four bow thrusters forward and three props aft. The props can rotate 360 degrees and are controlled by joy sticks in the pilot area. It truly is a marvelous example of engineering.
While the experience was glamorous it wasn’t without its mishaps. We were joined on the cruise by our close friends who traveled with us, to honor my wife on her eighty fifth birthday, and we did, but following dinner, Mr. D had a heart attack and was taken to the Infirmary. They stabilized him and planned the best way to proceed. A possibility was to helicopter him as soon as possible. But he started to improve, and they finally decided to airlift him and his wife from St. Thomas to Fort Lauderdale, Fl where he could receive the necessary hospital care he needed. We are happy to say that Mr. D has two stints in him and is doing fine. They said he was not eligible for additional surgery.
You can never tell what may happen when you travel but go for it. I think that’s why they have travel insurance.
