Holiday

[chris_gerrib]

Today is President's Day, a holiday for bankers. So I spent the day (in part) in fulfilling a 2009 New Year's resolution and planning a "real" vacation. I booked a cruise on Carnival from Tampa Bay, Florida to Cozumel and back, in mid-April. It's only four days, but that's all my schedule allows at the moment.

I have a few mixed emotions about cruises in particular and vacations in general. First, the idea of going somewhere to sit around is a bit weird. My house is reasonably comfortable, so if I just want to hang out, it's cheaper to do that here. But on the other hand, I'm enough of an introvert that if I don't make an effort to get out and about, it won't happen.

The second mixed emotion involves going to sea for fun. I spent four years on a Navy frigate going to sea for work. It's like a bus driver taking a bus tour. Again on the other hand, the Navy was going on twenty years ago. Besides, the bar on the frigate was really shitty and the pool was oily. :-)

At any rate, a four-night float will get me out of the usual routine, which is an important part of a vacation. If I don't like it, I'll not go back.

Comments

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

You guys had a bar? I knew the Navy was shortchanging the grunts.

The one time I saw one of those itty-bitty ships (from the deck of an LST) you guys looked like you were having way too much fun.

And here I thought it was because you driving a little sports car ship around a great big truck kind of ship.

Literally around - for some reason (probably having to do with our man overboard) the little ship dashed up from astern, circled once and zipped back the way she had come.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

We had the same high-quality bar service you did. (For the non-USN types, that means, "no booze.")

Man overboard drills are fun. Alas, standing midwatches is not, and there's a hell of a lot more midwatches then man overboards.

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

That wasn't a drill - a sailor from the other LST in the TF fell overboard sometime between lights out and reveille.

We did find him, around lunchtime. Which I guess says a lot of good things about the guys driving the ship.

Alas, he fell into or got sucked into the prop so we only found _half_ of the poor guy. Or so said the crew - I wasn't anxious to hustle over to the rail and take a look.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

only found _half_ of the poor guy. I don't blame you. If you see the man go over, you're supposed to turn the rudder away from the man to prevent that.

[timakers.livejournal.com]

I've only ever been on one cruise, a 10-day tour up in Alaska about ten years ago. It was a good time. I've become interested in the idea of in-country cruises... river tours and the like. Maybe something on the Great Lakes. We'll see.

[jetfx.livejournal.com]

"First, the idea of going somewhere to sit around is a bit weird."

I never liked the cruise vacation style because of that. Sailing around on what is basically a floating hotel/mall/casino with the occasional stop in some tourist trap of a port always struck me as kind of boring. Not that the idea of a cruise is a bad one, its just that most cruise packages are very tightly controlled experiences - the ship, the crew and even the ports selected, are carefully managed.

Recently I spotted a set of cruises (http://www.martinrandall.com/Cruises/Policies-style.aspx) from Martin Randall Travel that I really liked. They're all the Mediterranean and they are thematic, like a Classical Greece tour of the Aegean. Their cruises are also designed in opposition to most other cruise packages. Unfortunately, they are really bloody expensive.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Well, much like one needs to learn the basics before moving to advanced material, I'll try a simple cruise first.