My wife and I just recently went on a Carnival cruise and we had a great time. There were some problems, like sea-sickness and the time at one of our stops was cut short, but overall, it was a nice relaxing time and I'm glad we did it.
This whole thing started several months ago while I was in Kuwait. Actually, in a way, I guess you could say this whole thing started about 5 years ago with our first cruise. We cruised from Cape Canaveral on a Royal Carribean boat to the Bahamas right before I joined the Army. And we fell in love with cruising from that experience.
Anyway, while I was in Kuwait, we talked at length about what kind of vacation we wanted to take when I finally went on leave upon my return. Of course, it was almost a no-brainer. But, we also wanted to be sure that we left our options open. Sometimes cruises sell out, so we'd need an alternative.
We came up with a couple plans: a few nights in Vegas, a few nights in San Antonio or Austin and a cruise. We started watching ticket prices for the cruise and saw different cruises go up and down in price over a 2-3 week period. At one time, a Norwegian 7-day cruise was going for about $199 per person, which is a really good price. Of course, every cruise line will add the taxes and port fees on, so the price of the cruise itself is really the only variable. Expect that whatever you pay for your cruise per person will most likely be doubled by the time everything is said and done. No taxation without representation, huh?
So, we waited and waited. It appeared as though almost all the cruises for the major lines all left on or about the same day, a Friday or Saturday. Our goal date was either 3 or 4 November to leave. As the time approached, we watched the prices go up and down, availability sell out and then open up again.
Then, on 3 November, we decided to visit a travel agent. We walked out with an incredible deal of about $130/person for a 5 day cruise. Total price was just over $500. Sure, we waited until the last possible second, but we were prepared to go another direction with our vacation plans should this one have fallen through. Moral of the story? Sometimes procrastination is good. Call it Strategic Procrastination, if you will. But, also keep in mind that cruise companies don't make any money on the price of the ticket. They make money in other ways, that I will point out.
From Fort Hood to Galveston takes about 5 hours driving time, in good traffic. Our travel agent told us it would take 3. Luckily, we like to get everywhere early, so we left for our 1600 final boarding time at 1030. It didn't help that every single Biker in the Western Hemisphere had converged upon Galveston for some kind of rally that exact weekend. After dropping off my wife and our luggage at the cruise terminal, and then parking in the lot and high-tailing it back to the terminal, I literally had 5 minutes to spare. No worries, though. The Bikers made everyone late and the cruise departure time was delayed by probably 2 hours. Doesn't make me feel any better by getting there when we did.
Off we go. Our first day was rather uneventful. The boat looked very large on the outside, but when we got inside, it just didn't feel that big. On a good note, though, we expected to get the center-of-the-boat closet sized room, but we were actually upgraded to a room on the side of the boat with two portholes. Plus, the room was only a bit smaller than the average hotel room. Quite a nice surprise.
We unpacked, went to dinner and explored the boat. There wasn't anything we hadn't really seen before: lots of opportunities to spend a lot of money and a lot of people trying to use the elevators to get their rooms upon boarding the boat, when the stairs are right next to the elevators and they could have skipped the elevators, taken the stairs, been unpacked and dressed for dinner by the time the elevator got to their floor.
Dinner each night was pretty much what we expected. Very classy, lots of exotic food and desserts. My wife and I both used dinnertime to try foods we have never tried before. The most memorable was the Escargot. (Hint: It tastes like clams. Really.) There was a formal night. Everyone looked great. My wife looked awesome.
The point of a cruise is much like the point of a flight somewhere. You are just going somewhere to do something and then coming back. Except that with a cruise, you are on a boat and you get to eat and drink as much as you want (food is free, drinks besides water and juice are not) and you get to participate in all the activities on the boat, most of which involving spending exhorbitant amounts of money with little or no return. Can of Coke: $2, Glass of wine: $10, Game of Bingo: $10, etc... Like a movie theater, a cruise company doesn't make any money on the admission, they make money on the other stuff you buy once you are in the door.
Our first "fun day at sea" was not fun at all. There was a storm blowing through the Gulf of Mexico and the water was very, very choppy. It was so bad that my wife and I both got seasick, as did many/most of all the passengers. It wasn't possible to walk anywhere without seriously swaying and possibly losing your balance.
To be continued...
Friday, November 10, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
My First 5k
So, my first official distance run was a 5k (3.1 miles) that occurred on Thanksgiving Day. It was called the Gobble Wobble Run, but most folks have since called it the Turkey Trot. It started at 0600 on the other side of camp, which means I had to get up at 0500 for personal hygiene and get on the bus at 0530 so I could get in a decent position before the start. It was supposed to be a day off. I should have been able to sleep in until any time that I wanted. But nooooo. I had to participate in this race.
So, there I am at the starting line, 20 minutes early. At first, there weren’t too many folks out there. But, about 10 minutes to start, it was shaping up to be a regular human traffic jam. The “appeal” of the run was to be a T-shirt for the first 600 finishers. Of course by now, you should know my goal was to get the shirt, not necessarily to place. All I had to do was come in at least 600th and I would be happy.
My first observation about the race wasn’t about the race, actually. It was the music. During any kind of “official” Army athletic event, someone is always designated to play some really good music to get everyone feeling good. Usually, soldiers pick the music. This time, there was a bit of difference. The local workers (Third Country Nationals, or TCNs) picked the music and it was especially bad. I think they were playing “The Age of Aquarius” or something equally awful. I mean, I hadn’t heard of any of the songs but one, and it wasn’t even a good one. So, it was definitely an interesting start to the event.
Before the race, folks started to get up to the starting line and I was already there, so I didn’t have much to move. By luck, I looked behind me and someone I went to AIT with and I went over and said hello. We had a brief conversation before I wrestled my way back up to where I had been before.
And then the race started. And I didn’t move for nearly five seconds. I had seen this occur on TV and in movies, but I never experienced it for myself. Once I started moving, I really thought everything would clear up. I was wrong on that. For the first quarter mile, I would say, I was ducking and weaving, dipping and dodging to get around folks. It’s hard to pass when everyone is so close together. We were only on a two-lane road and that many people took a while to thin out. I would say that probably up to the first third to half a mile went really slow. So slow in fact that when I got to the first mile marker, my time was over nine minutes, which is really bad, even for me. Still, everyone else had the same problems I had, so I wasn’t feeling too bad about the whole thing. I thought, though, that once the first mile was out of the way, the race would go better for me. I was wrong about that.
Almost immediately after the first mile, we made a right turn into a wicked crosswind. In addition to the wind, the third half mile was completely uphill, probably a 2 or 3 percent grade. By this point, I realized that I was being passed a lot more than I was passing. I ran the second mile in a bit over eight minutes, so it was a bit of an improvement, especially considering the wind and the incline.
The third mile was rather uneventful, but it was difficult, not just because I was almost done with the race, but because I made an effort to not be passed by anyone. I did my best to speed up and run as fast as those wishing to pass me. I was able to hold most off, with only a few breezing by. Judging by my finishing time, though, I think speeding up probably got be back to my original speed, instead of getting me any faster.
Apparently, one of the units here got the idea that they would run this race for PT that morning. So, a whole unit ran the race in formation, calling cadence the whole way. It was rather motivating for me. They weren’t running fast, but all those soldiers yelling were a great impetus for me to keep driving forward.
And the race ended at the quarter-mile track, right where we started. I finished in 26:30. Not a terrible time, really. It averages to a little less than 9 minutes per mile,
So, we lined up around the track to get T-shirts. After I was there a couple minutes, that unit runs right up on us and past us to the registration desk. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. This turns out to be significant later.
While we’re lined up to get registered and get our T-shirts, some person yells from across the field, “We’re almost out of shirts. If you want one, come over here.” Well, what do you think happed? Yup, everyone beat feet over to the registration desk. I made my way across the field, but by the time I got there, it was pretty much a free for all, like food being handed out to starving people. It was unfair, really, because there were a lot of folks who finished in the top 600 that did not get shirts. And there were a lot folks who finished well past the 600 mark that did get shirts, including that unit that ran around to the registration desk and picked up a shirt for each person in the unit. I did not get a shirt. I’m not even sure I deserved a shirt, but I’ll never know for sure.
I went over to see my commander, who had a shirt. He noticed that I didn’t have a shirt and asked me what happened. I explained and he freely gave me his shirt. I noticed that he ran this race in a T-shirt from some other race, so something tells me that this was just another shirt to add to his collection.
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