Okay, I met Candy. She figured out who I was from my description above. She was pleasant. We saw her only once after that first time -- I guess we had different individual itineraries. Although at the DI giveaway in Belize, "Candy" something was the first name Dominica pulled out of the hat. No show, so she kept pulling names until my wife won the raffle.
The muster drill folks didn't quite know where to herd the passengers going to section B -- which was disconcerting to some but annoying to me. Good grief, folks, you've been doing this for how long? Figure it out!
I won a free bottle of champagne at the last-day art auction. On our anniversary ... which was convenient. We toasted anniversaries and honeymoons at dinner.
My wife won some sandal thing at DI; I won the champagne. The kids were doing their best to win at bingo just to make it a clean sweep. They let the team down.
George the guitar guy ended up knowing me by name. I kept asking if he knew these off-the-wall songs; he didn't. What's not to love about 30,000 Pounds of Bananas? But he was going to learn El Condor Pasa just because three people asked him to play it.
I also won a coveted ship on a stick, for the trivia contest after getting back from Cayman. Got 18 of the 20. I shoulda remembered that London Bridge isn't a drawbridge, and gotten 19.
Talked with several merchants taken off the "recommended" list we'd known before and got very disturbing feedback on the Carnival "recommendation" program. I'm sure the info we got is somewhat subjective and not strictly accurate, but then I idly quizzed Dominica, the shopper chick, and she gave a completely different account. Sorta figured that'd happen.
But the stories from the merchants were all very, very similar and were from three different stops, while the story from Carnival was at odds with them. I would tend to believe the merchants' accounts were closer to the real reason those places were dropped. And near as I could tell from what I learned, either Diamonds International is attempting to muscle competition out of their way, or Carnival is attempting to solicit kickbacks for the benefit of "recommendation" and some of the smaller joints can't come up with the scratch.
Had an interesting conversation with one of the maintenance guys about 6:15 one morning early on in the cruise as I held the bar clamp he was using to repair one of the Lido Deck tables. Jorge, from the Philipines. He smiled and waved at me several times during the cruise. But that is for a different topic.
Hired a local outfit to take us to Tabyana, and learned that when Carnival is in town they seem to want exclusive access to the beach for themselves and their own excursion parties. We had to climb through condo construction to get there. Annoying. And then the place was so crowded it zapped all the wow out of it. It's just a beach. With elbow-to-elbow people and locals selling or renting virtually anything you can think of.
I tooks notes on the television channels available, but apparently we haven't unpacked those yet. I'll try to dig them up.
The newlywed game hasn't changed content or format; it just changed name. If my wife and I ever do that, we'll get every question answered the same. They really need to mix it up.
One day -- after Belize, I recall -- two of the pools were closed for the rest of the day. The one by the stage had a brown out [tip o' the hat to Linda for the phrase] while the aft pool [we heard; we didn't actually go look] had some kind of "oil slick". Many, many people were severely annoyed or greater, and I watched one woman having a meltdown at the chick running the towel/ping pong paddle desk over it.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me say this as clearly and distinctly as possible:
Babies in diapers do not belong in the pools.
And let me just casually mention that all that suntan oil you slather on yourselves? it comes off in water, which means the pool. Not all of it will come off, but if enough people are all oiled up and rinse off in the pool -- oil slick. Use the showers; that's what they're for.
Desperately seeking 10th cruise for the free laundry.