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A full week at sea. Today we did some trivia – poorly again. And played some slots, with mixed results: lost in the afternoon, won in the evening. I think I am up about $90. Dinner was preceded by a presentation of the officers, with our favorite band, the Sea Surfers, providing some nice dance music. We got up on stage, along with the dance instructors and a few other brave passengers. The ship was rocking a bit, which made keeping time with the music a bit of a challenge.
Presentation of officersDancing on the stageMarlene dressed for dinnerMarlene on stageUs with Tom and Jo, dance masters
Beef Wellington
Because it was a formal night, the dinner was special. Marlene had lobster tail and I had Beef Wellington. Delicious!
Another lovely day sailing the Atlantic Ocean. We lost another hour on the clock (a cumulative 3 hours now) and slept in late. After breakfast we stood in line again for the caricatures – Marlene wanted individual ones – and watched the Latin dance class while we waited in the Atrium Lobby. But we barely made the cut and settled for one for Marlene.
We had lunch and did some trivia, doing poorly. We also did poorly at the casino in the afternoon after Marlene’s caricature sitting. I had some very nice pork for dinner and we got one of the waiters to take our photo. Then back to the casino where… drum roll please… I won $581 on a 50 cent bet. Can’t beat that. I split it with Marlene but even after losing some of that I still ended the evening up about $100 for the cruise.
Dance class in the Atrium LobbyMy pork dinnerUs before the big win
Another fine day at sea. The weather was beautiful and the ocean was calm – “like glass” according to Marlene. I did a lot of reading, finishing Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly, and we managed to snag one of the slots for a caricature. That wasn’t easy. The “sign-up time” was posted on the calendar as 11:45 am, but we went down on Sunday at 11:45 and learned that to have a chance we would have to arrive before 11:15. We got in line Monday at 11:10 and got the last slot of the day, at 3 pm.
We killed time by having lunch and going to the casino (down $45 now). But we got the caricature done at 3 pm, had a nap and went to dinner. One of the perks of Marlene being a gambler is that we got a free bottle of wine at dinner. Marlene doesn’t drink wine, so I had it all to myself. A very nice sauvignon blanc from California.
Us?A fine day at seaMarlene in the evening
The theater show was “Love and Marriage” where 3 couples of varying marriage lengths – 5 weeks, 10 years and 57 years – guessed the response of the other to provocative questions such as “What was the name of the husband’s last girlfriend before you were married? And what hashtag would you use to describe her?” The couple married for 57 years had an exact match – the full name and #townwhore. It was all very funny.
We then finished the evening at “Carnival Quest” which was an R-rated scavenger hunt with teams of 5 to 9 passengers. One of the requested items was “3 unused bras” and women actually disrobed to remove their bras. It is amazing what people will do on a cruise that they would never do at home.
The technology in this book is a bit hard to swallow – literally – but the story is compelling and is very well-written. Connelly never disappoints.
The story begins with the CTO of a cutting-edge biotechnology company, Henry Pierce, moves into a new condo and begins getting mysterious calls on his new land line. It becomes obvious that the person who had the number before was a female sex worker. He could have just gotten a different number – and he soon regrets that he didn’t do that – but he wonders what happened to her and why she gave up the number. He starts pulling on that thread and soon finds himself embroiled in a murder mystery. Embroiled to the point where he becomes the prime suspect.
Meanwhile, his company is on the verge of securing some critical venture capital that will enable it to “chase the dime” – develop cellular computer technology that would allow a powerful computer to fit on the face of a dime. He is also trying to get over the painful breakup with a former co-worker. All the pieces of this puzzle seem to fit together eventually. Or do they? Things are not what they seem and Henry needs to figure out the truth before he ends up on death row.
We are now nearly halfway to the Azores with a lot of water under our hull – over 17,000 feet. This was another fairly quiet day. Lots of reading. Some casino time, too. I am now officially losing, but only by about $20. We both had tilapia for dinner. Very good. We saw another theater show after dinner – “Getaway Island” featuring many tropical songs. Very nicely done.
After dinner we danced a bit. Marlene even did some line dancing. Not me.
Getwawy IslandUs in the dining roomLine dancingMarlene with the cast
This was a “do nothing” day. Eat, sleep, read and lose money in the casino. I am still up, but barely. The weather contributed to the general miasma: cloudy and cool with intermittent showers.
Our first full day on the Pride. We had breakfast in the buffet and met a lovely woman from Michigan, Amy, who was traveling alone and made arrangements to dine with her at dinner. It was a formal night so Marlene and Amy were both dressed to the nines. I was definitely the thorn between two roses. A guy asked me how HE could get two lovely women. I said “be me.”
Marlene before dinnerMarlene, me and AmyMarlene sashaying to show her shoes
After dinner we all went to the show – “88 Keys”, a tribute to piano classics. The voices were terrific, as was the piano playing. I was also impressed by the staging. Very professional. It was, hands down, the best cruise production I have seen since before COVID. Near the theater was a little hallway called, I believe, Serenity Garden. Empty but I thought it was lovely. Very tasteful.
88 KeysSerenity Garden
We stopped in one of the nightclubs on the way back to the room. The band was playing some very danceable music, which we could not resist. We danced. And danced some more. Then we met the band. From Argentina. I think we will be dancing to their music many more times on this cruise.
Marlene and the Seaside Surfers band
We spent quite a bit of time in the casino. I think Marlene is down some but the slots continued to be kind to me. I ended the day up $123. It won’t last.
My transatlantic cruise, with Marlene, has begun. We boarded the ship – the Carnival Pride – in Tampa Thursday around noon. We are now underway.
But before the trip began we had to figure out how to get from home to the ship (Tampa) and from the airport (Miami) back home. The astute reader might notice that Tampa and Miami are two different cities, so driving and leaving the car was not an option.
Why not fly back to Tampa? Because flights from Spain to Tampa cost about twice as much as flights from Spain to Miami. It would be cheaper to fly to Miami and take an Uber to Tampa. But that didn’t seem like a great option either, so we prevailed on our friend Maureen to drive us to Tampa. That took care of the departure problem. To get back from Miami we decided to drive to Coral Springs in two cars, stay overnight with Marlene’s brother Michael and drive home in her car, leaving my Toyota with Mike. He will pick us up at the Miami airport and we can drive home in my car.
Whew! I hope that is the most difficult part of this trip. We haven’t booked hotels in Spain yet, but Marlene assures me that it will be easy to find good accommodations. We will take a train from Barcelona to Madrid.
The Pride. This is one of the smallest ships in the Carnival fleet with a capacity of 2,124 passengers – less than half the capacity of many of their larger vessels. It is also old, launched in 2001. It was refurbished in 2012 and is going into drydock in Europe after this journey, so it is showing its age. But it is still beautiful, with classic Italian decor. And the staff is friendly and efficient. So it made a positive first-day impression.
Boarding the PrideThe atrium
We have a balcony cabin – spacious compared to some I have had – with an oversized balcony. No complaints except that there is just ONE electrical outlet in the cabin. We don’t have a lot of electrical gadgets with us, but it is annoying to have to share the one outlet. Being an older ship, the television is small and the channel selection is lousy. No on-demand movies. But no big deal. We don’t spend a lot of time in the cabin watching movies.
The buffet is more than adequate and the burgers and pizzas are very good. There is just one dining room and so far the food there has been mediocre, but I am not worried about starving.
I think 2023 will be the “year of the dance,” thanks largely to Marlene. She loves to dance and goes to clubs and other music venuues three or four times per week. And then there are the festivals. In the past couple of weeks we have gone to
Redbones to listen to Zydegatorz, a local Zydeco band.
I had my first flat tire with my Corolla last week. I was on my way home to prepare for my afternoon volunteer gig driving golf cart for cancer patients at Lee Health Regional Cancer Center when my front left tire started losing air. I suspect I ran over something dropped from a flatbed that was shedding debris in front of me. At first I thought it was just a low tire pressure warning but it soon became apparent that it was going flat. Fast. I couldn’t make it home. So I had to stop on an off ramp from I-75 and replace the thing myself. Not fun. My jack was a bit rusty and I had to lift the car four times because every time I got it up the car shifted a bit and the jack tilted. I ended up with a blister on my finger and a bruised left palm. But I got it changed. I hope I never have to do that again.
And the tire – one of the two I got new before the trip north last summer, with less than 7,000 miles on it – was damaged beyond repair. Over $200 to replace it. *sigh*
