Sea Day!

Ahhhh... Cruise week at Hurricane Mikey's is rolling along pretty well, but every now and then you need to relax and not worry about getting on and off the boat, going on shore excursions, or duty-free shopping. Sometimes, lazy is good. Sometimes, a sea day is in order.

Today is a sea day on HurricaneMikey.com.

Usually, on sea days, I'm wide awake very early in the morning. Instead of lying in bed, I love to get up, grab a cup of coffee, and have some 'alone' time up on deck, watching the sun rise over the calm ocean.

It's a rare treat, one that is to be savored. And the interesting thing is, there may be 2500 passengers on the ship at any given time, but early in the morning on a sea day, there might be enough up on deck to count on one hand. It's amazing that you can find solitude like that, but it's true, you can. Occasionally, I'm treated to a private showing of dolphins, either swimming alongside the ship, or playing in the bow wave. That always puts me in a good mood, and it's easy to understand why generations of sailors thought they were a good omen.

Unfortunately, the magic doesn't last long. As the morning presses on and the sun gets higher off of the horizon, everyone else starts stirring and the deck gets more crowded, with joggers and sunbathers and such, so it's time to move on.

I like to finish off my coffee and then head down to the cafe for a buffet breakfast. Normally, I don't much care for buffets, but I'm ok with it for breakfast, especially on a cruise ship. And that early in the morning, there are no lines at all, so it's relatively painless to visit the carving stations or have an omelet made-to-order.


Usually, around the time I sit down to enjoy my breakfast, the girls show up and join me. Of course breakfast together is always fun, but then we usually hurry through it so that we can claim some prime upper deck real-estate for our morning sun worshiping. My sister Cyndi always has the beach bag handy, packed with stuff like sunscreen, digital cameras, hard candy, paperback books, etc.--all the stuff we need to hang out on deck for several hours, enjoying the sun and the breeze.


And we're not out there very long before the poolside wait staff comes around offering the special cocktail of the day. It's always some sort of fruit-ice-rum concoction in a special glass and usually a buck or so cheaper than the usual mixed drinks. We'll always try the special first, and if we like it, we'll stick with it. Otherwise, if it's kind of sucky (sometimes they are), we'll go back to pina coladas and dirty bananas for a few hours. This is where the cruise lines get into our wallets, because we generally keep the wait staff pretty damn busy. Sometimes I'll just order a bucket of ice-cold beers and wander around making new friends.

Soon enough, it starts to get hot, so I have to go and jump in the pool for awhile. Once I cool down, I like to go and sit in the hot tub, too.


I may have told this story before, but one time I was on a cruise, sitting in the hot tub all by myself when two bikini-clad sweet young things joined me, and I was feeling like life was about as good as it could possibly get. We were sitting in there talking a bit and just enjoying ourselves, when I said Hmmm, I wonder what the poor people are doing right now... Without missing a beat, one of the gals answered, We're sitting here in this hot tub with you!

Laughs all around.

You don't have to be rich to take a cruise, but maybe that's why I enjoy it so much--just like when you go to Vegas, you live just a little bit larger when you're there than when you're at home.

But as much as I love visiting tropical islands and Getting My Beach On, I love sea days just as much. Time slows down, and I don't have to worry about missing the boat because my sunburned ass is passed out under a palm tree somewhere, drunk on 151 and coconut water. Sea days are where the relaxation part of the vacation really starts to happen, and I'm sure I've embarrassed my sisters on several occasions with my snoring while asleep on a poolside chaise lounge.

Lest you think that there's nothing going on except drinking and sunbathing while at sea, let me tell you what else is happening... There's usually a steel-drum or Calypso band playing. They'll have a limbo contest, a belly-flop contest (which I won while on Rhapsody of the Seas several years ago!), a 'horse race' which is nothing like you imagine. Of course there's food--as soon as breakfast finishes up, they're grilling burgers and hot dogs up on deck, too. Inside, the casino is open, there are dance contests, art auctions, the duty-free shops are open, the card room and library are open for quieter pursuits, and for people so inclined, there are movies and lectures, too. Away from the pool, and depending on the ship, you can hit golf balls, shoot skeet, climb a rock wall, rollerblade, ice skate, play ping-pong, hit the water slide, or if you must, surf the internet.

I remember traveling to Miami for our first cruise, and my sister Amy and I shared our row on the plane with a nice senior citizen lady, and her husband sat across the aisle. She asked us what we were doing in Miami, and we told her that we were going on our first cruise. Her response cracked us up.

Oh you'll just love it! There's so much to do--like bingo, shuffleboard, and square dancing!

Amy and I just looked at each other like Oh good lord, this is gonna suck!, but luckily we were very wrong. We had the time of our lives.

Anyhow--once I've had my fill of pool time and sunbathing, I usually head inside for an hour of blackjack in the casino (they don't open the craps table until later in the evening). Amazingly enough, the gals always seem to find me just about the time I feel like I've had enough.

We'll head back to the room and instead of eating lunch in the dining room or in the cafe, we'll usually just take advantage of the free room service. Sometimes we'll get some sandwiches or whatnot, but most of the time, we just order a tray of cookies and a bunch of cartons of milk. And we just sit around for a couple of hours, shootin' the shiat and eating our cookies and milk. This is one of our traditions that started on our first cruise about ten years ago, and I think that's the point where we all became good friends. We've always been family, but I know this was a turning point--just hanging out together, getting to know each other again. That was the best part of the whole week, and it's spawned a million memories since then.

But the combination of sun, cookies, and laughter conspires to drain the energy from us, and the rest of the afternoon is spent napping on those ridiculously comfortable beds, the air conditioner cranked up as cold as it will go, the room completely engulfed in darkness, and all of us bundled up underneath our newly-purchased woven Mexican throw blankets.



I'm always the first one to wake up from nap-time, and having been raised in a house full of women, I know that if I want to use the bathroom facilities, I better get on it first. So I'll shower and shave, then get dressed in either the business casual dockers and camp shirt combination, or if it's a formal night, I'll put on my Tom Selleck tux. At that point, I get the hell out of the cabin, as the girls are showering, getting dressed, deciding on which shoes to wear, and doing their makeup and hair. Not a place any man with a lick of sense wants to be.

I'll always have a couple of cigars on hand, so I'll find my way up to one of the bars or lounges, or maybe even the casino for a couple of hours to have a martini or two and relax with a fine smoke. Usually I'll run into somebody I've met earlier in the cruise, so I usually don't have to smoke and drink alone. On most ships, there are bars and lounges on the Promenade deck, so I can find a seat next to a huge window and watch the ocean roll by as I indulge and relax.

By the time I finish off my cigar, it's time to head to the dining room for dinner. My gang always opts for a large table so that we can meet new people, and so far we've been lucky--we've only had a few weirdos show up and be clingy. (Here Sherry--let me get a picture of you and James! Heh.) Mostly, everyone has been very cool and are quite interesting dining companions.

I like having dinner in the dining room while on a cruise. Of course there are the extra-fee supper club options, which are nice on formal night, or some people are just cheap and want to eat in the buffet and not have to cough up the $75 in tips at the end of the week, but I'm not one of those people. I like having dinner served in courses by a wait staff that are head-and-shoulders above most restaurant experiences you find here in the States.

And the food is generally pretty good (as long as you avoid the overcooked, rubbery lobster), and their wine recommendations actually work pretty well. I enjoy the dining room experience immensely, and I always want to try something new while there. Hell, the first time I ever ate escargot, steak tartare, sea bass, and intentionally-cold soup were all in cruise-ship dining rooms. And I like the variety, too. If something doesn't taste good to you or isn't quite what you expected, they think nothing of taking it away immediately and replacing it with something more to your liking.

Anyhow, dinner in the cruise ship dining room is something you need to experience, because the food is better than you'd expect, the service is wonderful, the company and conversation is always good, and it's more fun your usual restaurant visit.

We always opt for the late seating at dinner, just because we like to have more time to goof off in the afternoon, and we stay up late anyways. But the other reason is that during the late seating, there are hardly ever any kids in the dining room, especially when dinner is winding down at 10:30 at night. The value of that can't be overstated.

After dinner, there are plenty of activities to choose from--Karaoke, a comedian or magician or such in the showroom, movies, hot-tubbing, the casino, dancing, the piano bar, the champagne bar, sometimes there's a deck party, but most of the time I just go with the flow and just kind of end up where I end up. Sometimes I play craps, sometimes I hang out in a bar, holding court with my new friends, and one time I ended up in the solarium hot-tub with a gal I'd met the day before. As Phil Connors once said, That was a pretty good day...

Once a week, usually on a sea day, they'll have a midnight buffet, which must be seen to be believed. Of course, having finished off dinner less than two hours before, eating again is the very last thing anyone wants to do, but you can't help but stop by to see the cool ice carvings and such, and maybe sample a petit four or chocolate-dipped strawberry off of the dessert station.





By the time I've made my way through that line-up of amazing food creations, I'm good and ready for bed. By then, it's been about a 19-hour day, minus a little time for catnaps. Sunshine, booze, fresh air, rich food, and a whole lot of laughs will eventually catch up to you, and eventually it's time to stumble back to the cabin.

Waiting for us there, a cruise ship tradition. The cabin stewards attack your room again while you're at dinner, and besides leaving mints on the pillow and the daily newsletter on the dresser, they've decorated the room with towel animals. Some of them can be quite creative.




As tired as we are, we usually stay up a little while, talking about the past day, planning the next one, and checking the newsletter for any activities that may be of interest. But then, it's lights out for another day. Another perfect day. No bingo, shuffleboard, or square dancing required.

Mikey