Monday Highlights
Back in my day, when a family returned from a nice vacation they would subject visiting guests to a slide show. It was usually too long, too boring, and full of pictures that only the people actually in the pictures cared about. This blog is just like that except, instead of lasting an evening, it will last a whole week. Probably nobody will care aside from Lisa and I and our friends, the Nelson's, who joined us. But I'll forget all this stuff unless I write it down somewhere. That's sort of the point behind the whole "web log" thingy anyway.
So, with apologies, here are the highlights of each and every day we spent on our wonderful cruise.
SUNDAY: Unbeknownst to us, our friends The Ogle's departed The Vision of the Seas on Sunday morning and we boarded her on Sunday afternoon. During our first of many wonderful dinners, Roscoe the headwaiter asked us to come see him before we left the dining room. We couldn't find him when we were done, figured it was nothing important, and left to tour the ship a bit. Fortunately, Roscoe was persistent, so...
MONDAY: ...the next morning we got a call inviting us to dinner at the Captain's table that evening. I've only cruised twice (Lisa thrice) so most of my knowledge of these things comes straight from The Love Boat. There it seemed like everybody got to eat at the Captain's table at least once (more often for Charo). So we were surprised later to find out that we and the two other couples who joined us were the only people fortunate enough to have this experience all week. And there were about 2400 on board. So these odds were sort of like me winning at slots. Which I also did later in the week! Ten bucks, no big, but still!
Dining with Captain Anders was an amazing experience. It was formal night, so we were dressed to the nines. Lisa was dressed to the tens. Zowie. We were escorted in to the center table, just below the grand piano. The men held the chairs for their ladies and, shortly, stood again when the captain arrived. Everything was incredibly elegant and there was much peeking to see which fork to use. The ladies were always served first and always from the correct side. There was great conversation and even greater food. The filet mignon was probably the best cut of meat I've ever had in my life. The captain shared some liqueur from his private stock. And when dessert came, nine waiters surrounded the table in single file and simultaneously served each of us.
Eventually, Captain Anders made his excuses and we gentlemen again stood as he left. We all chatted a bit before reluctantly acknowledging that the meal was over. I'm proud to say that I wasn't so overwhelmed by the formality of the occasion that I neglected to make the Devil's Tower from Close Encounters out of my mashed potatoes. The couple to our right were from Mission Viejo and were 20-year members of the Saddleback Church. They were on their 55th cruise yet still had no idea why any of us were invited to this incredible meal. We agreed to just accept the blessing as it was. The week was off to a perfect start.
Moral of the day: If your headwaiter ever asks you to see him before you leave, I encourage you to follow up on that.
posted by Thurman8er @ 8:27 AM
7 Comments:
What a great meal. And with the captain and you got to do whatever you wanted with your mashed potatoes with whatever utensil you wanted and you got to sit with a beautiful lady and have fun all week. Sounds pretty darn good to me!
One day, the true captain will have you to his table. I know you won't miss his call...
Hey man, lets see some pictures. Did Kevin get out of hand and require you to give him a smack? Does the ship have "the dome" written everyhwere? What were you shore excursions like?
Oh you are so funny! I didn't take TERRY on the cruise! It was my two sisters and my mom! Just a girls trip! :) :) :)
I had a whole packet of port and ship info that I tossed after the cruise - would have loved to pass it off to you in the parking lot. I'm glad you had a great time - and what a treat to dine with the captain! My cruise pix are on my facebook. You're way more organized than I am, I guess!
Its like they were settin you up for preaching material, you getting to dine with the "Captain" and all.
I think it's obvious why you two were picked to dine with the Captain. So obvious, I don't even need to say it. Sounds like it was a BLAST!
You were missed! I'm glad you had a great time.
On our cruise, they had a "meet the captain" reception, but we were all instructed that there would be absolutely no hand shaking - we steerage passengers must have been oozing the plague or something.
We did take a nice picture with him, though.
What ship were you on? Seems the captain of our Alaskan cruise ship was named Anders. Or are all ship's captains named Anders???
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