• 1040 . . . . and I don't mean the tax form

    3/19/20092:22:10 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment

    This time of year seems to generate a . . . . . larger than normal . . . . . number of un-warranted complaints. Why isn't basketball on the big screen every day? (a need to please the largest portion of guests) What are you going to do about kids splashing water while I lay at the pool? (don’t go for lounge chairs which are only 3 feet away from the water) Who is going to refund me because you left me at port? (too much fun at Carlos and Charlie’s will do that)

     
    Being left in Cozumel . . . . or anywhere for that matter . . . . is something we caution our guests about. Carlos and Charlie’s does sneak up on you . . . . . . . and if you don’t bring a clock watcher (usually me) . . . you may get left. This happened to four college girls last week, which were having a big time in Cozumel. There are numerous announcements and handouts which warn you to be back aboard at 4:30 . . . . . . as the ship sails at 5. By the time 5 o’clock approaches, some of the guests . . . . . . these 4 girls . . . . . . can no longer see their watch. Come 6 o’clock . . . . with schedules to keep . . . . . . the ship heads back to Miami. These 4 young women arrived (staggered) to the pier . . . . . around 6:30 . . . . . to find only one ship . . . . . . . and it wasn’t theirs.
     
    Lucky for them (unlucky for the everyone else), the other ship was willing to take them back . . . . . . to Tampa. You would expect they would be thankful, when instead they began with their list of demands . . . . . . get my clothes sent here . . . . . . . refund my cruise because you didn’t wait . . . . . . . give me free bathing suits to enjoy what’s left of what you screwed up . . . . and so on. Not to mention the free flight from Tampa to Miami.
     
    But, not all people complain about things. Some people . . . . . . . as you will see below . . . . . .take responsibility for themselves.
     
    Not too long ago, four women . . . . . . . which had a combined weight of no less than 1040 pounds . . . . . . . cruised in a cabin . . . . . . . a single cabin . . . . . . . . . an inside cabin . . . . . . . . of 185 square feet . . . . . . . . in bunk beds. The strain of a Pullman berth pulling on a wall frame can be extreme . . . . . . especially with 260 pounds tugging at it. So this is how it was.
     
    Sometime around midnight on the last night of the cruise . . . . . . . there was the sound of an explosion in the hallways. Don’t panic . . . . . . . . . you probably figured out by now, that one of the women had crashed to the floor . . . . . . . . with her pillow, her nightie and her bed. This certainly would have scared . . . . . . . . or at the very least. . . . . . gotten the attention of the other 3 . . . . . . . especially the one below her.
     
    Security and a medical team arrived quickly . . . . . . . . only to find these four sisters huddled together on the floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hysterically laughing. The one which had taken the tumble . . . . . . . left the ship that morning via wheelchair . . . . . with a badly sprained ankle . . . . . . the whole time telling her story to any that would listen while her sisters stood close by still laughing away.
     

  • Gram is Enjoying a "Stress Free" Vacation

    3/13/20094:31:44 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment

    Spring break is once again upon us. In my younger days . . . . . . . spring break was known as Easter Holiday . . . . . and it was a treat to get to the movies or a baseball game. When my kids were young, this was a week for vacation . . . . . . . . usually a condo . . . . . . . . as this was the age of the time-share, but as the kids got older, they . . . . without their parents . . . . made the annual trek to the beach. These are the beach trips of the Girls Gone Wild fame . . . . . and the parents held their breath. It was sometime after that when cruising . . . . and Mexico . . . . became the popular thing to do. Kids wanted sun and water . . . . . along with the obvious. Mexico gave us the obvious along with the sun and water.

    But kids today . . . . . . . . they come into our office with their
    parents to book the trip . . . . . . and it is they (the kids) who make the decision as to where the vacation will be. Some choose to go to Europe with the hopes of exploring the ruins of Pompeii . . . . . . . . . while others would like to climb the Mayan ruins of Tulum or sail through the history of the Panama Canal.
     
    Even the college kids today are a much calmer crowd than those of the past. Beer chugging games have been replaced with a glass of white wine while participating in “college trivial pursuit” which the cruise lines add for the spring. The questions are asked and answered . . . . . . . . and ultimately . . . . . one of the teams will disagree with an answer . . . . . . . . and out comes the laptop and the fingers start googleing . . .
    - - - - -
    I just went to my laptop to google how to spell googleing. I should have gone to ASK.com.     - - - - -
     
    . . . . and it always turns into a rematch challenge between a couple of teams which refuse to lose. Yet, the cruise directors always find a way to declare a tie - leaving them to . . . . . . once again . . . . . . find victory on the football field.
     
    We place a lot of families on cruises during this time. The variety of activities . . . . . . for all ages . . . . . are what keeps everyone happy. Grandpa can be in the casino while mom and aunt Betty are having a spa day. Dad and the boys are spinning down the water slide while the girls are learning how to bake cookies and the toddlers are taking a nap at the day care. Gram is enjoying a “stress free” vacation knowing that all the family are OK . . . . . . . . . safe and secure . . . . . . enjoying the activities which best suit them.
     
     

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