Our big Italian cruise ship is on its way from Rhodes to Dubrovnik. It’s a long haul with no stops until we reach our destination, so there’s nothing to do but sit back, relax, and take it easy. It’s a cruisin’ day.
But if a person is sufficiently relaxed and wants to move around, there’s plenty to do on board. A good place to start is in the ship’s gym. The gym is located in front of the ship, up high by the bridge. It’s glass on three sides, so the view is great. I spent some time there before breakfast, making up for moussaka and jiggling the gelato I had in Rhodes.
Breakfast
For breakfast, there are a lot of options. We like to have breakfast in one of the nicer restaurants. The ratio of workers to customers there must be something like five to one. Take a sip of water, and within seconds someone in a white jacket appears, replacing the missing sip’s worth of water from your glass.
That kind of attention might seem intrusive when you’re having a meal, but it’s surprisingly easy to get used to. Oh yeah, you get used to it, no problem.
After breakfast, maybe take a walk. Do some exploring. We roamed around and stumbled into a casino. It was just like a small version of a Las Vegas casino.
We moved on and took a look inside the library. Next to the library there’s a place where they post photos taken of passengers. On-board ship photographers are always taking your picture. If you like the way a photo turns out, you can buy it.
This also seemed intrusive at first, but before long you might find yourself yelling out to the photographer, “Hey buddy! Over here!” We like to come to this area to see if any shots of us are posted – and to look at everyone else, of course.
Shopping, Anyone?
Then there’s the ship’s shopping area. It’s a miniature shopping mall. Walk through a winding pathway lined with stores on both sides. Each store has display windows designed with great care to make their merchandise as enticing as possible.
We went into a few shops and browsed around. Nice stuff. Too nice. Apparently someone thinks people who go on cruises have lots of euros to spend. I guess some of them do.
When it’s time for lunch, try one of the ship’s lunch buffets. The food is good, but I wouldn’t say great. No one seems to notice, though. People load up their plates until food is piled high and flopping off the sides.
And then they go back for more. I guess people all over the world go a little crazy when it’s all-you-can-eat, eh?
I Scream for Ice Cream
I didn’t make a habit of making multiple trips to fill and refill my plate. However, in the spirit of full disclosure, that doesn’t count trips to soft-serve ice cream machines.
They’re everywhere. You can have vanilla, chocolate, or both. No one’s watching. No one cares. You can walk up to one with a bucket and no one will care. And the ice cream is REALLY good.
That afternoon we took a walk on the outside decks. This boat has three pools. We sat by one and had a poolside conversation with a nice Italian couple from Verona. They didn’t speak much english, and io no parlo si bene l’italiano, but we managed to have a fun and interesting conversation.
Evenings On Board
Evenings meant dinner with our doctor tablemates, which was always enjoyable. After dinner we’d either hit the sack or hit one of the clubs. They had entertainment – maybe a singer with a guy on piano or a small combo.
The clubs were fun. People we met in the clubs were almost always Italians, even though there were lots of people from other European countries on board.
Another option was to take a walk outside. The ship usually travels at night, so if you’re walking outside, there’ll be a breeze. And in these Greek waters, the breeze was always warm.
But we won’t be in Greek waters for long. We’ll turn the corner and head back up into the Adriatic and to our next destination. Sometime tomorrow morning we’ll pull into the Old Port at Dubrovnik – so rest up!
To be continued…
