The World's Lowest Calorie Dish

Last night at dinner, Pati and Beebee selected from among several options the one appetizer labeled as heart-healthy. It was described as tiger shrimp with some additional seafood ingredient.

When the plates arrived, they each contained a small green gelatinous puck topped with one toothpick-sized sprig of green onion stalk, all this surrounded by 6 circular orange smears on the plate.

Pati and Beebee stared at their plates, trying to decide whether some additional ingredient might be arriving on a separate plate. Pati automatically reached for his glasses, hoping the additional magnification might increase the portion size, but gave that up when he realized the futility of it: 2.25 times nothing is still nothing.

The waiter appeared as Pati and Beebee began to scrape the firmly-attached smears from their plates. Beebee asked him "Is this it?" He said it was, and they all had a good laugh.

The puck, though small, was wasabi-flavored and tasty. (How thin were the smears? So thin that the tiger shrimp had lost its stripes.)

As they finished the ersatz appetizer, the waiter re-appeared with shrimp cocktails for them both, which they were happy to get.

There is a lesson here: when the menu says "low calorie," ask yourself (as the wait staff did during their dance performance during the meal) "How low can you go?"

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Gremlins

At breakfast Beebee was reminded of the Twilight Zone episode of the gremlin on the wing outside William Shatner's airplane window. A sound of screeching metal, apparently at water level on the outside of the ship, punctuated the breakfast table conversation. Pati suggested it was workmen beginning the ship's renovation before reaching Venice. Or maybe it was an engine problem, which this ship has had in the past. The noise did not bother the other tablemates, one couple from Houston and another couple from Manitoba. The Houston couple, still not retired, have 8 grown children and 11 grandsons. The Canadian couple have many grandchildren and a great- grandchild.

 

But, speaking of gremlins, not all of the elevators appear to be working (do not come at all when called). Others come but merely turn off the call button as they speed by to another deck. Pati has begun to use his hard-earned job experiences to hyjack elevators: push both the up and down buttons - if the elevator stops but in the opposite direction needed, get on anyway. If there are other people onboard, ride the wrong direction until they get off. Then go the right direction. If there is no one inside when the door opens, get in. Push the button for the deck needed. The door will close, then reopen. Then it will automatically close again and go in the proper direction.

 

Last night's show was a singing and dancing extravaganza. It was very well done, emphasizing well-known songs of many eras. Pati's favorite number was the Village People (YMCA) with 4 male dancers dressed appropriately, while Beebee most liked the rendition of Stayin' Alive with 8 female dancers all dressed like John Travolta (white 3-piece suits). Tonight's show is a comedy show. There are three comedians on board. One of them, Mark Evans, was also on the Carnival Pride for the Christmas cruise.

 

As the cruise director, Kevin Noonan ("Hello, Noonan!), said during the first night introductions, there are only 12 Americans in the 1200 member staff. Pati and Beebee have had interesting conversations with several of the staff. Last night they talked with a lady from Thailand and a man from India. They are both going directly "home" after the cruise, which means that Pati and Beebee will actually know somebody in each country as they visit it.

 

The sun is trying to decide whether to come out and the sky is beautiful. It's time to get back to reading. Pati is deep into 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Beebee finished The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander Mccall Smith last night and must choose another book to start.

 

Watch update: local time = EST+1

 

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Just Who Else Is on this Cruise?

Beebee is pleased: The laundrette is just a few cabins down the hall from their cabin. After starting a washerload of clothes, Pati and Beebee headed downstairs for breakfast in "their" restaurant, called Universe.

 

They were seated with 6 other people at a window with a good view of the ocean speeding by at 17+ knots. The gentleman across from Pati, a native New Englander, has sold his house and car and now cruises continuously, with over 100 cruises completed on at least 4 cruise lines (including every ship of two different lines). Across from Beebee was a perfect gentleman from Kentucky, also a longtime cruiser with interesting tales. On the other side of Pati was a retired special education teacher from Fairfax County. (She had flown to Miami out of National Airport on Saturday; her flight was also delayed and de-iced.) Beside the New England gentleman were a congenial retired couple, also frequent cruisers, on their first Atlantic crossing. Across from them was a younger (relative to the rest of us!) man who spent most of his limited conversation correcting other people's trivia about cruising.

 

Without naming names (which she doesn't know anyway), some of these cruisers reminded Beebee of actors in Taco Bell's Super Bowl commercial.

 

Pati and Beebee have mixed feelings about having breakfast daily in the restaurant and may just try the Lido deck self-serve breakfasts in future. The service in Universe was extremely slow and the waiter had trouble with English, i.e., couldn't seem to connect the spoken names of food on the menu with the actual food. For example, one cruiser asked for brown toast, got hash browns, asked again for wheat toast and finally got it. However, everyone at the table was of an age to persist until they got what they wanted.

 

On the other hand, service was so slow that people got to talk about their favorite topic, which was cruising and how many cruises and different ships they had been on. They didn't seem as interested in where they had gone, just how they got there. Pati and Beebee, being relative newcomers to cruising, mostly just listened to this.

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Taxis

When the Essex House front desk asked Pati and Beebee whether they would need a taxi when they checked out, Pati said yes. When the clerk asked what time the taxi would be needed, Pati said 1 pm. After leaving their luggage in the Essex storage room, they walked out to eat breakfast at a good local Cuban restaurant.

After a last stroll near the beach, Pati and Beebee decided they would go to the ship early. They returned to retrieve their luggage and the front desk clerk obligingly called for a taxi. They used the time waiting for the taxi to get in a few last minutes of free internet time.

After 45 minutes of waiting in the lobby with no taxi appearing, they decided to wait outside. As soon as they got their luggage to the curb, Pati saw a cab and flagged it down. They were off to the cruise ship port!

Carnival Destiny was their ship, they told the taxi driver, whose English was a lot worse than they realized at the time. As they neared the port, they could see a long line of cruise ships with Destiny at the head of the line. There's Destiny they said to each other and took a picture of it through the taxi window. Getting into the act, the taxi driver said There's Imagination (Carnival Imagination was the 4th ship in line.) The lineup was Carnival Destiny at Terminal B, a Norwegian ship at Terminal C, Carnival Victory at Terminal D, Carnival Imagination at Terminal E, and many more.

The taxi approach to the ships requires coming in from the end of the line and peeling off at the proper terminal. After the taxi drops off the passengers, the road then shoots the taxi back toward town. The taxi driver decided to peel off at Victory. NO they said, Destiny! Then he tried Imagination. NO they said, Destiny. IT IS IN THE OTHER DIRECTION. Des-tin-ee? He said. Back the other way? He said. YES they said.

Back around the big loop they went. The taxi driver peeled off again, stopped directly opposite the Norwegian ship, hopped out, put the luggage at the curb, got his fee, and left. Don't let him leave, the baggage handler said, he needs to drive you to Destiny.

Too late. He was gone.

Luckily, the Destiny baggage handler was only 50 feet away. After handing over a healthy tip, Pati and Beebee breezed through the fastest embarkation ever.

Goodbye Miami! (Well, at midnight.)

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Sleeping in South Beach

Pati and Beebee will board the Carnival Discovery a little after noon today. It is nice in South Beach but Pati and Beebee won't miss it too much. Pati is pretty sure that the technical difficuty with their room was that some other couple was sleeping in it. Pati realized that prepaying for a room in September must be a cutting it a little close to have the room in February.

The room the Essex sent Pati to the first night was in a hotel called the Dream. The room was so beautiful, it looked like it came from a design show. Unfortunately, rooms from design shows are difficult to live in. The room had theatrical lighting that was all blue. Unfortunately, the light switch had 6 buttons and pressing a button would sometimes make a light brighter and other times dim it. Also, the small toilet and shower rooms had glass walls. This was very nice to look at but had no privacy.

South Beach Dream

The next morning, Beebee said "Pati where do we sleep tonight?" Pati dialed the Essex a few times but they did not answer their phone. Pati said "I will walk there and talk to them. They can not ignore me if I am standing there." Pati was wrong.

When the clerk had waited on everyone else, including some who were not there when Pati arrived, Pati finally had his chance. The clerk said "No problem! Check in is at 4PM." Pati explained this was a problem because check out at the Dream was at noon. The clerk agreed to do Pati a favor and store his luggage until 4PM and Pati would have a $50 dining credit since someone who did not have to change hotels was sleeping in their room. After carrying their luggage from the Dream to the Essex, Beebee and Pati tried to use their credit. Before they were seated, the hostess said "You know there is a minimum cover?" Pati and Beebee did not know this. Beebee asked her "How much?" She said "$100." Beebee said "Goodbye."

Pati is going to tell the TripAdvisor tube of the internets about his stay at the Essex and how kind they have been to Pati.

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Time Zones

You would think that 24 time zones would be sufficient to cover the world, but there are a few more than that. (it's an interesting topic to learn more about in your spare time.)

We will reside for longer than a day in 5 different time zones, and we will travel through 6 timezones while on the first cruise.

Home is in EST, which is 5 hours earlier than Greenwich Mean Time (GMT or UTC, also known as Zulu). So, using some elementary math,

Home = UTC - 5
Miami = UTC - 5 = Home
Italy = UTC + 1 = Home + 6
Egypt = UTC + 2 = Home + 7
India = UTC + 5:30 = Home + 10:30
Thailand = UTC + 7 = Home + 12
Cambodia = UTC + 7 = Home + 12

What time is it in Italy, etc., when it's 8 am at home?

8:00 am Home = 2:00 pm Italy = 3:00 pm Egypt = 6:30 pm India = 8:00 pm Thailand and Cambodia

Beebee's brother gave them watches with 3 faces to help keep track of the time differences. Beebee will be setting her watch like this:

The upper larger clock face will show the local time wherever they are.
The clock face at lower left will show the time at their next location.
The clock face at lower right will show the time at home.

For example, when they are in Egypt, the upper clock will show Egypt time, the lower left clock will show India time, and the lower right clock will show home time.

Following this formula, Beebee set her watch on the day before they left home for Miami.

It wasn't very exciting.

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A journey of 25000 miles starts with a single 986 mile flight

Beebee and Pati made it to South Miami beach. Their plane was de-iced in the snow at Dulles and the Floridians are freezing because it dropped to only 65 degrees after the sun went down. Their room at the Essex House had a "technical problem" (CSI Miami?) so they were moved one block to an even nicer room. After a seaside walk, they are turning in for the night.

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