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2003-11-28 - 12:56 p.m. -



javabill�s vacation
or how i spent thanksgiving week

from fort lauderdale to key west� around the western end of cuba to the island of cozumel, mexico� then on to belize city, belize� then back to florida. all in five days� on a ship.

some day i will meet iggy pop & ask him, �how could you?�

yes, there is some satisfaction in knowing that royal caribbean is using a song about surviving heroin addiction to promote �family friendly� cruses, but still� the ship is a glorified floating habatrail for humans.

Day One
�begins at 5:00am. breakfast in the car on the way to the hartford airport. early arrival (to beat the rush hour traffic). long flight to fort lauderdale & a taxi to the royal caribbean enchantment of the seas.

now, we pause in our story to go back two days. hear i am, surfing the web, looking for some information about this glorified tugboat we are about to spend six days on. the website has lots of information on day excursions (all costing $$) but almost nothing about what is actually on the ship. we are boarding having no idea what the place is like or what there is to do.

we are checked in & issued a sea pass. this is our �cash� for the week. the pass is connected to our ATM card, so all purchases are done with the card, not with cash.

casinos have you use chips instead of cash because they find people spend more its pretty tokens & not real money. the ship works in much the same way. when all you have to do is swipe a cute card you don�t think about the $1.73 you are spending for a can of coke. but back to boarding�

all the baggage is scanned before it is brought on board. you have to leave your bags at the curb & they will be brought to your stateroom right away. (we will board at 1:30 & not see our bags until after 5:00) our cards are photo matched to us & then the first of many photo ops takes place. every day there are �photo ops� where the ship�s photographer takes �formal portraits� with a fitting backdrop. these can be purchased the next day at the photo center for an arm & a leg. (�Look, Henry, here is the photo of when we first got to the ship after spending nine hours driving, flying, and taking taxis. Don�t we look wonderful?�)

then the child has to check in. if (for some reason) this tub should go down, they will need to know where to bring the boy so we can go down as a family. (this will be reinforced by the mandatory lifeboat drill at 4:30). finally, we head to our cabin.

let the search for suite #2038 begin�

more later.

be well.