Anything is Possible on This Ship

I mentioned in a previous bit that that this journey through the Panama Canal finds us on a more upscale cruise ship than our past experiences. The staff are very attentive, in tune with our preferences, and enjoy doing extra things for the clientele.

The bar in our cabin was stocked when we arrived and we asked if we could swap out some of the items. Our cabin stewardess told us, in her eastern European accent, “many sings are posseeble, so jou shood alvays ask”.

In the end, she couldn’t swap our Tennessee whiskey for Makers Mark – but she was able to get everything else on our list. When we returned to our cabin we found the new items proudly displayed under a glow of special cabin bar lighting.

While ordering breakfast in the restaurant, I declined the fruit plate but said “If you have a mango I would like one”. Our waitress frowned, didn’t think mango was available but she went back to ask. She returned, beaming with pride, and presented a sliced mango, fresh from our Guatemala stop the previous day.

Another exception to the ultra-high onboard service level involved my request for potato chips. At our first stop, we noticed a truckload of potato chips being loaded onto the ship. There was no mistake. They were not tortillas – they were potato chips. Familiar yellow bags, with a picture of a potato and the word “Papitas” boldly on the label. We kept waiting to see potato chips in one of the restaurants or on our room service platter. None appeared. I finally asked the maître de about it. He assured me that there were no potato chips on board. That what we saw were the finest Mexican tortilla chips and, as one would naturally expect, they stock up for several months when in Mexico. I gave him a sideways look and assumed they were serving the papitas in the crew mess down on level 3.

I suspected that I would find some on presentation in our cabin that night and we would have a good laugh about it. It didn’t happen.

There is only one US-based entertainment channel on board and it plays alternating re-runs of NCIS and CSI over and over again. I was worried that we would miss all three weekends of the football playoffs while at sea.

Ross is our flamboyant cruise director from the UK. I asked him about getting the NFL games on the ship. “N Eff Ewl? Is that a sports thing? Leave it with me and I’ll sort it out”.

Long story short. The NCIS channel suddenly became some version of ESPN Desportes and we got all of the games. Ross even cleared out the Card room so we could watch on a big screen. Here are some photos of me the screening room with all of my new friends.

And, yes, Ross did provide a large bowl of potato chips. And popcorn. And pepperoni pizza. And Chicken wings. And even hot dogs. My favorite meal of the cruise so far. I saw the kitchen staff bringing it all up from the back stairs that connect to level 3.

Kim and I sat alone in the room – but were interrupted several times by passengers coming by to check us out. Confirming the rumors that NCIS was pre-empted for a single American who wanted to watch some sports thing. They would point, nod, whisper, and sneer at us before continuing on their way.

In one of our other blog entries I mentioned Helen from Texas. Helen was lamenting the lack of escorts on the ship on our first night. It appears that Helen has found a friend. A very young, dark, hairy-chested, and handsome gentleman who sits with her at the pool. He seems nice. He nods and smiles a lot – but doesn’t seem to speak much English. I’m pretty sure he boarded the ship in Guatemala.

As they say … “many sings are posseeble, so jou shood alvays ask”.