The next night, was the NCL White Hot Party. So naturally you’re suppose to wear white, it was just a coincidence that I had on a white outfit during the day. So, I run into my uncles and aunts sitting outside with some beers and a bottle of red wine. They invite me to sit down and have a beer with them, to which I politely accept. I just sit back and observe the conversation.
They’re trying to convince one of the wives to let their husband go with them to the party tonight. However the wife is worried that the husband will do something wrong. I wanted to chime in and say, relax we’re on a boat, this isn’t government where you have a bunch of old single Viet ladies dancing around for your attention, this cruise is filled with drunk adolescents. But then again you knew know what might happen, so I kept my mouth shut.
In the end she said he could go, but she brought her kids along with her, she said she wanted to let them “experience” it, since we were on a ship and probably international waters, kids were allowed in. They didn’t stay very long, not even the husband.
So my uncle went up to buy booze for everyone, which was 6 bottles (they had a deal all week long, buy 5 get 1 free). He said that some chick approached him and said that if he gave her one bottle she would give him a kiss. He said that if she was pretty he might have done it, but she was ugly so he said no thanks. Or so he claims, since his wife was there. Later on in the night, my aunt orders shots of tequila for her and her friends. Ballin!
They don’t stay very long after that since the party seems to be dying down a bit, I go out to the dance floor and find my Taiwanese friends and hang out with them. They tell me they’re going to go check out the after party and I tell them I’ll see them there in a bit, to which I do.
It’s getting late and I’m getting tired, hungry and thirsty. So I make my way over to the one true 24h restaurant – Blue Lagoon. (We have a 24h Blue Lagoon here as well, however it’s a rug and tug, just saying). So I’m in my white dress shirt, standing by the podium waiting to be seated, when these two drunks girl come up to me and ask for a table. I start off by handing them a couple of menus and ask them if they’ve decided on what they would like to get yet. They recite their order and say they know what they want, the problem is that no one has come up to their table and taken their orders yet.
At this point in time, I’ve run out of bullshit material. So I turn to one of the girls and ask them the following “Did you notice how my English is significantly better than some of the others here?” and she goes “OMG, I was just thinking that!” I reply with “Then what makes you think that I work here?” You should have seen the look on their cherry faces. It went from being a drunken cherry to drunken cherry cola.
So that was embarrassing for the both of us, they return to their table, meanwhile, I’m still standing there waiting for my table, and not even 30 seconds pass by, two more girls walk up to me and ask for a table. WTF!? This time I just get straight to the point and go “okay, what makes you think I work here?” and you could tell they’re embarrassed and trying to come up with something on the spot other than the fact that I look Filipino. They reply with “I don’t know, you’re wearing white and you’re standing there.” Fair enough, I guess. The waiter comes up and asks them how many and they say two. I say hold up you just stole my table, make that three! So we just end up eating with each other.
The next time I run into any of the 4 girls, you can tell they’re still slightly embarrassed and just kind of turn away, trying to avoid eye contact.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Multiple Personality Disorder
I played various characters throughout this trip. In the mornings, I would play the loving brother and have breakfast with my younger brother, after that I would play the responsible friend and go hang out with Yvonne and Doris and have lunch with them. Sometimes we’d hang out into the wee afternoons, other times, I’d pretend that I was the 18 year old and go hang out with the crew of Asians, which were usually found in the card room.
I sometimes would go to the Casino and play the perfect Grandchild and hang out with my grandma there and teach her how to play slots.
When dinner time came around, I would play the perfect child and go have dinner with my folks, after that I resume my duties as the 18 year old and go hang out in the card room with either Yvonne or the “crew”. 11PM was Yvonne’s bedtime, so once 11 rolled around both her and her sister would disappear into their room. However, once 11:30 rolled around for me, that’s when the over 21 in me would roll out. I would head on over to Bliss Lounge, it was the on ship club at night and a 4 lane bowling alley at night.
I would stay there and party until 3 am, to which I would then return back to my lower bunk and sleep until 8:30-9.
I went to Bliss one night with my uncle, just to check it out and we each had a couple of beers, he said he was tired and returned to his room, little did he know that I stayed till 3.
The next night, I couldn’t find him, so I went there by myself, lo and behold; he was there with his friends. They didn’t stay very long either; however that was not the case for me.
I think by the third night, I had made my marks. I spotted a group of 6 Asians, 3 guys and 3 girls, they looked to be Mandarin speakers. The 6 of them would just dance around in a circle, been there done that, these guys are just friends. I need to find my way in! I notice that one of the guys is quite flamboyant and mark his as the gay one. So how do I get myself into their group? Easy! I talk to the gay one! I don’t remember what I said, but next thing I know, he’s introducing me to his group of friends. Perfect, I’m in! I don’t stay too long, just in case I don’t ‘fit in’, it’s confirmed they speak Mandarin and are Taiwanese. Better Taiwanese than Mainlanders….I think.
I sometimes would go to the Casino and play the perfect Grandchild and hang out with my grandma there and teach her how to play slots.
When dinner time came around, I would play the perfect child and go have dinner with my folks, after that I resume my duties as the 18 year old and go hang out in the card room with either Yvonne or the “crew”. 11PM was Yvonne’s bedtime, so once 11 rolled around both her and her sister would disappear into their room. However, once 11:30 rolled around for me, that’s when the over 21 in me would roll out. I would head on over to Bliss Lounge, it was the on ship club at night and a 4 lane bowling alley at night.
I would stay there and party until 3 am, to which I would then return back to my lower bunk and sleep until 8:30-9.
I went to Bliss one night with my uncle, just to check it out and we each had a couple of beers, he said he was tired and returned to his room, little did he know that I stayed till 3.
The next night, I couldn’t find him, so I went there by myself, lo and behold; he was there with his friends. They didn’t stay very long either; however that was not the case for me.
I think by the third night, I had made my marks. I spotted a group of 6 Asians, 3 guys and 3 girls, they looked to be Mandarin speakers. The 6 of them would just dance around in a circle, been there done that, these guys are just friends. I need to find my way in! I notice that one of the guys is quite flamboyant and mark his as the gay one. So how do I get myself into their group? Easy! I talk to the gay one! I don’t remember what I said, but next thing I know, he’s introducing me to his group of friends. Perfect, I’m in! I don’t stay too long, just in case I don’t ‘fit in’, it’s confirmed they speak Mandarin and are Taiwanese. Better Taiwanese than Mainlanders….I think.
Cruisin
For those of you who haven’t been cruising before, it’s like the most amazing thing in the world. Why? Because it’s like a “solution” to poverty.
You take your giant cruise ship, sail it to a country, say the Philippines and you go to the citizens there, claiming that you have the opportunity of a life time for 1,000 people. You will give them a job, pay them, give them free room and board, let them travel the world AND teach them English. Heck, I’m a middle class citizen and even that sound tempting. You then sail your ship over to another country, say India and do the exact same thing.
Once you find your cheap source, you pay them very little, but in USD, and keep them on the ship for as long as you can and keep them isolated from the outside world. You tell them that if you work hard enough, they will be promoted, which is true. In turn, they will see all this wonderful opportunity that you’re presenting them with and see that you’re promoting them from within and they will all work very very hard for you.
I don’t think you even need to get them new citizen ships, ‘cause your company is registered in the UK, your ship is on international waters the majority of the time and even when you do dock, it’s just to refuel and replenish supplies, your workers won’t even have the opportunity to leave the ship to explore!
On your ship, make sure you charge people for alcohol, but not too much otherwise they won’t buy much, a little higher than regular bar prices and slightly lower than strip club prices, offer mediocre but free food, make sure that there is a happening club that goes into the wee hours of the night, hire a good DJ if necessary.
Create your own world of gambling, set up a casino, with various table and slot games. Set up a lottery. Create your own instant wins and ‘break open’ tickets. Create bingo games to increase revenue and sell raffle tickets to further increase your revenue.
The only thing missing on your ship right now is a strip club, but we can always add that in later on.
You take your giant cruise ship, sail it to a country, say the Philippines and you go to the citizens there, claiming that you have the opportunity of a life time for 1,000 people. You will give them a job, pay them, give them free room and board, let them travel the world AND teach them English. Heck, I’m a middle class citizen and even that sound tempting. You then sail your ship over to another country, say India and do the exact same thing.
Once you find your cheap source, you pay them very little, but in USD, and keep them on the ship for as long as you can and keep them isolated from the outside world. You tell them that if you work hard enough, they will be promoted, which is true. In turn, they will see all this wonderful opportunity that you’re presenting them with and see that you’re promoting them from within and they will all work very very hard for you.
I don’t think you even need to get them new citizen ships, ‘cause your company is registered in the UK, your ship is on international waters the majority of the time and even when you do dock, it’s just to refuel and replenish supplies, your workers won’t even have the opportunity to leave the ship to explore!
On your ship, make sure you charge people for alcohol, but not too much otherwise they won’t buy much, a little higher than regular bar prices and slightly lower than strip club prices, offer mediocre but free food, make sure that there is a happening club that goes into the wee hours of the night, hire a good DJ if necessary.
Create your own world of gambling, set up a casino, with various table and slot games. Set up a lottery. Create your own instant wins and ‘break open’ tickets. Create bingo games to increase revenue and sell raffle tickets to further increase your revenue.
The only thing missing on your ship right now is a strip club, but we can always add that in later on.
All-Nighter
On the very last day of the cruise we got a wake up call @ 6:30 in the morning, I had crashed around 3AM, and Eric kept saying he wanted to try sleeping on the lower bunk, so that night I crawled up into the top bunk. When I woke up the next morning, my mom was surprised to see me there ‘cause she thought it was Eric who climbed into the top bunk and that I was the one who never came home that night, sneaky little kid that one. Turns out he pulled an all-nighter with his new found friends, not sure what they did though, ‘cause he wasn’t even in the video that was posted.
After that all the ‘kids’ hit up the buffet at around 8 and got together for one last hurrah. When 9AM came, we all headed back to our respective rooms to grab our luggage, and once again, we were hit with approximately 3,000 passengers trying to get out of 1 set of double doors. As you’re going out, you have to be swiped out too, to ensure that there are no stowaways. Once you get out, you got to find your luggage and go through customs, by the time we got to our bus and took off it was already 10:30.
We were the first bus to leave the marina, and according to our tour guide we were making great time and that we would be back at Commerce Gate around 10PM, even though we kept stopping every 2 hours for a washroom break or a food break. I just understand why we couldn’t have done both at the same time. We stopped for dinner at around 6, and then about an hour or so later, we stopped at the border to shop at the duty free shop, and we stayed there for about an hour. Wouldn’t you know it! There’s a Tim Horton’s there and get this! It has a restroom!
His defense was that he knew the border would be packed, since most people are returning from their holidays and he wasn’t sure how long we’d be stuck there, so he needed to let us go eat first, ‘cause our bus was full of old people, and people tend to get cranky when they are hungry.
So we’re coming out of the duty free shops and there is only 1 lane for buses and cars and 1 lane for cars only, with one final lane for trucks. The crossing guard removes some pylons so that our bus can get through, so our driver decides to use this to his advantage and ride the truck lane all the way down and merge at the very end. We get close enough to the border and we see a uniform officer get up and walk towards the bus, we think “uh-oh” he’s going to lecture us, but instead he goes the car that we’re trying to get ahead of and both the tour guide and driver think that we’re scott free, that he’s telling her car to let us merge. WRONG! He probably just told the car, “don’t worry, I’ll take care of this” and he goes up to our driver to ask him what he is doing and tells him that it’s not fair for everyone else who had to wait in line etc etc. So our tour guide plays dumb, he said “sorry, sir, I didn’t know” But border patrol isn’t dumb, so he says “listen, if I pull up your records, I’m sure it’ll say that you’ve been through here many times” So our tour guide goes “yes, yes, I have been but my driver is new, he didn’t know, I so sorry!” So long story short, they send a patrol car over and we get escorted back to the states and we have to do our trek all over again, sure time flew in this entire process, but it also cost us about 30-45 minutes.
We get back to commerce gate at midnight! I get a phone call from Ivy’s dad and turns out his bus got back at like 10PM, right on time! Rumor has it that they skipped the dinner pit stop, which saved them a bunch of time.
After that all the ‘kids’ hit up the buffet at around 8 and got together for one last hurrah. When 9AM came, we all headed back to our respective rooms to grab our luggage, and once again, we were hit with approximately 3,000 passengers trying to get out of 1 set of double doors. As you’re going out, you have to be swiped out too, to ensure that there are no stowaways. Once you get out, you got to find your luggage and go through customs, by the time we got to our bus and took off it was already 10:30.
We were the first bus to leave the marina, and according to our tour guide we were making great time and that we would be back at Commerce Gate around 10PM, even though we kept stopping every 2 hours for a washroom break or a food break. I just understand why we couldn’t have done both at the same time. We stopped for dinner at around 6, and then about an hour or so later, we stopped at the border to shop at the duty free shop, and we stayed there for about an hour. Wouldn’t you know it! There’s a Tim Horton’s there and get this! It has a restroom!
His defense was that he knew the border would be packed, since most people are returning from their holidays and he wasn’t sure how long we’d be stuck there, so he needed to let us go eat first, ‘cause our bus was full of old people, and people tend to get cranky when they are hungry.
So we’re coming out of the duty free shops and there is only 1 lane for buses and cars and 1 lane for cars only, with one final lane for trucks. The crossing guard removes some pylons so that our bus can get through, so our driver decides to use this to his advantage and ride the truck lane all the way down and merge at the very end. We get close enough to the border and we see a uniform officer get up and walk towards the bus, we think “uh-oh” he’s going to lecture us, but instead he goes the car that we’re trying to get ahead of and both the tour guide and driver think that we’re scott free, that he’s telling her car to let us merge. WRONG! He probably just told the car, “don’t worry, I’ll take care of this” and he goes up to our driver to ask him what he is doing and tells him that it’s not fair for everyone else who had to wait in line etc etc. So our tour guide plays dumb, he said “sorry, sir, I didn’t know” But border patrol isn’t dumb, so he says “listen, if I pull up your records, I’m sure it’ll say that you’ve been through here many times” So our tour guide goes “yes, yes, I have been but my driver is new, he didn’t know, I so sorry!” So long story short, they send a patrol car over and we get escorted back to the states and we have to do our trek all over again, sure time flew in this entire process, but it also cost us about 30-45 minutes.
We get back to commerce gate at midnight! I get a phone call from Ivy’s dad and turns out his bus got back at like 10PM, right on time! Rumor has it that they skipped the dinner pit stop, which saved them a bunch of time.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Tour Guides
I’ve been on countless Chinese guided tours and not once have I gotten a tour guide that I liked. Maybe it’s always because I know I can do a much better job than them. Career change? This time my tour guide literally only spoke Mandarin, he came from China about 12 years ago, and has been a tour guide for about 11. He knows very little and very poor Cantonese and a small amount of Engrish. Usually on these tours they’ll say stuff in Cantonese and in Mandarin to cover their basis, well whenever he spoke Cantonese, it would be a different set of instructions than what he gave in his mother tongue, Mandarin, during the beginning of the trip he looked really flustered, like he was new to this job, only at the end of the trip did he reveal that he had been doing this for 11 years. My mom had to translate this last part for me, but apparently all the mainlanders thought that he did such a good job, they started asking him what other tours he would be involved in, because they wanted to sign up as well. WTF?
Casino
I also spent some time in the casino, I think on the second day, I lost about $100, then took out another $100 wanted to chase, but decided not to. I lost that/spent that later on. I entered my very first black jack tournament on this cruise, it was only $15 to enter, whereas Fallsview wants $250 to enter. Maybe they’re structured a little differently ‘because the one that I participated in only went for 7 rounds, and the winner would be able to move on to the finals. My dealer was a somewhat pretty female Filipino dealer, we didn’t have a choice, and I only won 2 of my 7 hands for that round, so needless to say, I didn’t qualify to move on. I witnessed the highest score of the tournament which was 9,500. Everyone started off with 2,000. She got lucky being the last 2 hands of the round she got blackjack both times, which paid 1.5 times. She ended up coming in second at the final table. First place won $500.
Blackjack wasn’t the only tournament available; they also had slots tournaments ($20) and Poker tournaments ($60). I already tried a slot tournament in Vegas and knew how mind numbing that would have been, and I figured I would have much more fun with the $60 in video poker if I skipped out on the Poker Tournament. I ended up entering the blackjack tournament twice, I wanted to enter several more times, but had to resist the temptation. The second time, I entered, I just heard that they were looking for players so I signed up and they were offering a free drink to all who participated, so I paid $15 for a rum and coke.
On the very last full day of the trip, I took out $200 and went to play $25 per hand blackjack, I managed to win about $450, saved $400 aside to repay my father for the money that I “borrowed” and went to go use the several match play coupons that we were given when signing up for their players card.
Craps sucks, I can never win at that game, wasted $10 there. Roulette was okay, won my bets there. The $15 in promo chips were pretty crappy as well since I kept losing those, but the best coupon was the ‘Lucky Ace’, where your first card was an Ace, won the majority of those hands, I could have walked away with a bit of money, but that just wasn’t enough, so I kept playing until I lost all the money that I was suppose to leave with. We had 6 new sign ups, so that meant 6 coupon books and it says only 1 per person, so I had to discreetly and slowly use them, every time I wanted to use one, I would play stupid and ask what I had to do, and they would tell me.
Throughout the week I overhead a couple guys say that their buddy was in the casino and he’d be up money every night, one night I walked in and saw him sitting at the $15 minimum tables, pretty much betting the table minimums, his face was all red like he was just a regular drunken teenager playing blackjack and he turned to his friends and said “yeah, I’m up again”. The very next night, which was the last night of the cruise, I see this very same kid, sit down with $20-$30,000 is chips, and playing the table limit of $2,000 at 2 hands a go. I watched him double that money and then bring that pile back down to less than what he bought in with. I left shortly after seeing that he was down, so I’m not sure the end result of that story. At one point, after splitting aces and winning all three hands, he turned to the dealer and said ‘pick a number, 1, 2 or 3?’, the dealer picked 2 and he tipped him $200.
Blackjack wasn’t the only tournament available; they also had slots tournaments ($20) and Poker tournaments ($60). I already tried a slot tournament in Vegas and knew how mind numbing that would have been, and I figured I would have much more fun with the $60 in video poker if I skipped out on the Poker Tournament. I ended up entering the blackjack tournament twice, I wanted to enter several more times, but had to resist the temptation. The second time, I entered, I just heard that they were looking for players so I signed up and they were offering a free drink to all who participated, so I paid $15 for a rum and coke.
On the very last full day of the trip, I took out $200 and went to play $25 per hand blackjack, I managed to win about $450, saved $400 aside to repay my father for the money that I “borrowed” and went to go use the several match play coupons that we were given when signing up for their players card.
Craps sucks, I can never win at that game, wasted $10 there. Roulette was okay, won my bets there. The $15 in promo chips were pretty crappy as well since I kept losing those, but the best coupon was the ‘Lucky Ace’, where your first card was an Ace, won the majority of those hands, I could have walked away with a bit of money, but that just wasn’t enough, so I kept playing until I lost all the money that I was suppose to leave with. We had 6 new sign ups, so that meant 6 coupon books and it says only 1 per person, so I had to discreetly and slowly use them, every time I wanted to use one, I would play stupid and ask what I had to do, and they would tell me.
Throughout the week I overhead a couple guys say that their buddy was in the casino and he’d be up money every night, one night I walked in and saw him sitting at the $15 minimum tables, pretty much betting the table minimums, his face was all red like he was just a regular drunken teenager playing blackjack and he turned to his friends and said “yeah, I’m up again”. The very next night, which was the last night of the cruise, I see this very same kid, sit down with $20-$30,000 is chips, and playing the table limit of $2,000 at 2 hands a go. I watched him double that money and then bring that pile back down to less than what he bought in with. I left shortly after seeing that he was down, so I’m not sure the end result of that story. At one point, after splitting aces and winning all three hands, he turned to the dealer and said ‘pick a number, 1, 2 or 3?’, the dealer picked 2 and he tipped him $200.
Nassau
The next port of call that we visited was Nassau Bahamas. This was supposed to be a great day for sun as well, however as we were leaving the ship, it started to lightly rain, and the remainder of the day was mildly cloudy. This was the first and last excursion that we actually participated in. I knowingly paid $65 for a guided tour of the Atlantis Resort, usually tours of the hotels are free, and after having been to Vegas this was more of a ‘been there done that’ moment. The price of the ticket did include admission into their Aquarium, and you could go through it as many times as you would like.
Today was also St. Patrick’s Day, and I’m not sure if it was the lack of food, the lack of liquids, or the lack of sleep, but I really wanted a beer. Okay fine, maybe I caved into peer pressure, being surrounded by drunken adolescents wandering the streets with a bottle in a brown paper bag, but the above facts were true too.
I was stuck on babysitting duty, watching Eric, Yvonne(11) and Doris (17), Doris was old enough, so she wandered into the street markets to look for a “designer handbag”, while I wandered the streets with the other two.
As soon as we saw the parents and they took protective custody of their kids, I marched myself into the nearest convenience store and purchased a bottle of local beer for $2.50, after drinking half of it and on an empty stomach I was already feeling a little talkative, looked down on the bottle notice that it says 7% alcohol. As we were making our way back to the ship, I stopped in another store for another one, this time it only cost me $2.25. So I got a little wobbly on less than 5 bucks, beers on the cruise cost @ least 6 bucks!
We boarded the ship about 2 hours before they closed the door, as there wasn’t much more to see and we were getting hungry since the kids skipped lunch, the parents went back on the ship for lunch.
This was the last stop of the trip and from here we would be headed back to NYC, which surprisingly is a 2 day cruise, but hey that’s 2 more days of partying, so no one’s complaining.
To help pass the time between travels the cruise staff put together a long list of activities for people to do, and each day they would come out with a newsletter outlining all of the activities available.
They had Bingo, Karaoke, movie screenings, shows, games to play. We had several coupon booklets that were given to us by our travel agent at the time of booking and in that book was a coupon for 3 free bingo tickets, so we played bingo a few times. But the catch to those free bingo tickets is that they are only valid for the ‘blackout’ game, which you have to get all the spots on the bingo card within a certain number of calls in order to win the prize.
Shows we watched a show where a woman sang some songs, we watched a close-up magic show, we watched a hypnosis show, I watched the dating game show.
Karaoke, needless to say there were some talented singers on this cruise and there were some not so talented singers on this cruise. My mom’s friend’s daughter, Doris wanted to sing, but she didn’t want to go up alone, so she asked me to sing along with her, so I said fine. I let her choose the song, she chose “Never Had A Dream Come True” By S Club 7, and I said okay, since I knew the song. So we get up on stage, they cue the music and the lyrics, and I go ‘wait a minute’ I don’t know this song, the only thing I know is the chorus, but by that time it was already too late, she had started singing, so I just stood up there for moral support.
The other ‘cool’ places to hang out were the Library and the Card Room, yes the library, Eric and his crew would go there late at night when no one was around and they would just sit around and talk, one night they played ‘Truth or Truth’ after a couple of questions, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. I’m not sitting around playing ‘Truth or Truth’ with a bunch of 14 year olds. On my way back from the bathroom I stopped by the only truly 24 hour restaurant and had some vanilla ice cream, before I made my way back to the room.
Tai Pan tours advertised it as the ship having 3 24 hours restaurants, but we only found that there was one of them.
Today was also St. Patrick’s Day, and I’m not sure if it was the lack of food, the lack of liquids, or the lack of sleep, but I really wanted a beer. Okay fine, maybe I caved into peer pressure, being surrounded by drunken adolescents wandering the streets with a bottle in a brown paper bag, but the above facts were true too.
I was stuck on babysitting duty, watching Eric, Yvonne(11) and Doris (17), Doris was old enough, so she wandered into the street markets to look for a “designer handbag”, while I wandered the streets with the other two.
As soon as we saw the parents and they took protective custody of their kids, I marched myself into the nearest convenience store and purchased a bottle of local beer for $2.50, after drinking half of it and on an empty stomach I was already feeling a little talkative, looked down on the bottle notice that it says 7% alcohol. As we were making our way back to the ship, I stopped in another store for another one, this time it only cost me $2.25. So I got a little wobbly on less than 5 bucks, beers on the cruise cost @ least 6 bucks!
We boarded the ship about 2 hours before they closed the door, as there wasn’t much more to see and we were getting hungry since the kids skipped lunch, the parents went back on the ship for lunch.
This was the last stop of the trip and from here we would be headed back to NYC, which surprisingly is a 2 day cruise, but hey that’s 2 more days of partying, so no one’s complaining.
To help pass the time between travels the cruise staff put together a long list of activities for people to do, and each day they would come out with a newsletter outlining all of the activities available.
They had Bingo, Karaoke, movie screenings, shows, games to play. We had several coupon booklets that were given to us by our travel agent at the time of booking and in that book was a coupon for 3 free bingo tickets, so we played bingo a few times. But the catch to those free bingo tickets is that they are only valid for the ‘blackout’ game, which you have to get all the spots on the bingo card within a certain number of calls in order to win the prize.
Shows we watched a show where a woman sang some songs, we watched a close-up magic show, we watched a hypnosis show, I watched the dating game show.
Karaoke, needless to say there were some talented singers on this cruise and there were some not so talented singers on this cruise. My mom’s friend’s daughter, Doris wanted to sing, but she didn’t want to go up alone, so she asked me to sing along with her, so I said fine. I let her choose the song, she chose “Never Had A Dream Come True” By S Club 7, and I said okay, since I knew the song. So we get up on stage, they cue the music and the lyrics, and I go ‘wait a minute’ I don’t know this song, the only thing I know is the chorus, but by that time it was already too late, she had started singing, so I just stood up there for moral support.
The other ‘cool’ places to hang out were the Library and the Card Room, yes the library, Eric and his crew would go there late at night when no one was around and they would just sit around and talk, one night they played ‘Truth or Truth’ after a couple of questions, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. I’m not sitting around playing ‘Truth or Truth’ with a bunch of 14 year olds. On my way back from the bathroom I stopped by the only truly 24 hour restaurant and had some vanilla ice cream, before I made my way back to the room.
Tai Pan tours advertised it as the ship having 3 24 hours restaurants, but we only found that there was one of them.
GSC
After Port Canaveral we would be docking in Great Stirrup Cay. Just like any other major cruise company, they purchased a small portion of the islands which allows them to have parties and access there. To get off the island you had to ride a small boat that carried 400 passengers at a time and it would only be a 10 minute boat ride. If you purchased tickets for their excursions then you would get first dibs to get off the boat, however if you didn’t then you would have needed to get a ticket and wait till your set of numbers would be called.
I went to go line up for the onshore tickets and got numbers in the 900’s. The tour guide was handing out tickets in the low 20’s, so needless to say, I abandoned my tickets and went with the tour guides tickets.
Even though we had tickets in the mid 20’s we somehow managed to miss the first set of boats and ended up on the next set. Luckily my mom’s friend was able to get to the island first and they reserved seats for us.
From there on it was just one big beach party, with food and water provided. After lunch, I was hanging out with Ivy and her friend Priscilla, when Priscilla saw a girl who looked really familiar and said that she thinks she knew her, that she was one of Derrek’s friend’s girlfriends, but she was too shy to go up and ask her if it really was her. So we were all just standing around when someone from their group asked me to take a photo of them, of which I did and when I returned the camera, I said “alright, which one of you is Anna?” after she identified herself, Priscilla took it from there, and then our tribes merged and we all became great friends for the remainder of the trip.
My tribe was a lot smaller in size than the other tribe, the other tribe was already well established and had almost 10 people in it. That is where all the lying began. I didn’t want to be the oldest one of the tribe, so when they went around asking for everyone’s ages, I told them that I was only 18, they all bought that at first, eventually later on in the trip, they would get from multiple sources that I was 25, of which I would blatantly deny and leaven them wondering how old I actually was.
That was pretty much the only day of warm sun we got, the rest of the trip was really cold, who knew that travelling across the transatlantic ocean in the middle of March would be so cold and windy!
We never once, hit the pool. I did go outside one day to sit and read, but it got so cold that I had to run back in and grab a sweater and even then I didn’t last very long. There were people there just sitting there while reading and sunbathing, I had no idea how they did it, and I’m from Canada!
I went to go line up for the onshore tickets and got numbers in the 900’s. The tour guide was handing out tickets in the low 20’s, so needless to say, I abandoned my tickets and went with the tour guides tickets.
Even though we had tickets in the mid 20’s we somehow managed to miss the first set of boats and ended up on the next set. Luckily my mom’s friend was able to get to the island first and they reserved seats for us.
From there on it was just one big beach party, with food and water provided. After lunch, I was hanging out with Ivy and her friend Priscilla, when Priscilla saw a girl who looked really familiar and said that she thinks she knew her, that she was one of Derrek’s friend’s girlfriends, but she was too shy to go up and ask her if it really was her. So we were all just standing around when someone from their group asked me to take a photo of them, of which I did and when I returned the camera, I said “alright, which one of you is Anna?” after she identified herself, Priscilla took it from there, and then our tribes merged and we all became great friends for the remainder of the trip.
My tribe was a lot smaller in size than the other tribe, the other tribe was already well established and had almost 10 people in it. That is where all the lying began. I didn’t want to be the oldest one of the tribe, so when they went around asking for everyone’s ages, I told them that I was only 18, they all bought that at first, eventually later on in the trip, they would get from multiple sources that I was 25, of which I would blatantly deny and leaven them wondering how old I actually was.
That was pretty much the only day of warm sun we got, the rest of the trip was really cold, who knew that travelling across the transatlantic ocean in the middle of March would be so cold and windy!
We never once, hit the pool. I did go outside one day to sit and read, but it got so cold that I had to run back in and grab a sweater and even then I didn’t last very long. There were people there just sitting there while reading and sunbathing, I had no idea how they did it, and I’m from Canada!
Florida
The next day we would be at sea once again, everyone would pretty much go exploring on their own and then report back their findings during meal times. Sometimes at lunch it would just be the kids, my mom’s friend had 2 kids that we would hang out with.
When we docked in Port Canaveral in Florida, we didn’t want to visit Cocoa Beach, The Kennedy Space Centre, Disney World or Universal, we wanted to go to the Outlet Malls, so the 11 of us hired a taxi van for about $275 USD to take us there and back. We probably stood around the port for a good hour discussing where we wanted to go, if it was worth it and negotiating with several cabs before we actually boarded one. The driver was a nice guy; it seemed like he needed the money so he picked up a shift from his buddy and borrowed his taxi van.
The drive to Orlando was a spot on 1 hour drive, so I guess the excursions people didn’t lie about the travel time, I kept thinking that they deflated the travel time to get you to join.
Over in the outlet mall area, Eric fell in love. He bought some kind of fudge smoothie from the fudgery and it truly was the best thing we’ve ever tasted. Every time we took a sip, an uncontrollable smile would run across our face.
Everyone seemed to have managed to pick up a few things at the outlets, after that we even had time to travel to downtown Disney and walk around there and snap some pictures before heading back to the ship.
Getting on and off a cruise ship with 3,000 people is insane! Everyone is crowded in the stairwells waiting for the “go ahead”
When we docked in Port Canaveral in Florida, we didn’t want to visit Cocoa Beach, The Kennedy Space Centre, Disney World or Universal, we wanted to go to the Outlet Malls, so the 11 of us hired a taxi van for about $275 USD to take us there and back. We probably stood around the port for a good hour discussing where we wanted to go, if it was worth it and negotiating with several cabs before we actually boarded one. The driver was a nice guy; it seemed like he needed the money so he picked up a shift from his buddy and borrowed his taxi van.
The drive to Orlando was a spot on 1 hour drive, so I guess the excursions people didn’t lie about the travel time, I kept thinking that they deflated the travel time to get you to join.
Over in the outlet mall area, Eric fell in love. He bought some kind of fudge smoothie from the fudgery and it truly was the best thing we’ve ever tasted. Every time we took a sip, an uncontrollable smile would run across our face.
Everyone seemed to have managed to pick up a few things at the outlets, after that we even had time to travel to downtown Disney and walk around there and snap some pictures before heading back to the ship.
Getting on and off a cruise ship with 3,000 people is insane! Everyone is crowded in the stairwells waiting for the “go ahead”
NYC
The very next morning we all boarded the busses at around 8AM and were headed to New York City! This next part for me was unexpected; I didn’t realize that they would be taking us to the Rockefeller Centre, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum and Times Square. I honestly thought that we would just dilly dally, have breakfast and make our way towards the cruise ship, but leave it to Asian bus tours to cram every little minute in. In New York I bought a Jay Leno coffee Mug and a Heroes T-Shirt and it took me awhile but I finally managed to find a NYPD shirt for a suitable price.
Boarding the ship was an interesting but long process. Who knew that there would be 3,000 passengers onboard a 3,000 guest passenger capacity cruise ship? Oh and did I forget to mention that it was Spring Break 2010 as well?
They let us board the ship beginning at around 1 and the ship wouldn’t set sail until 4, but none of the rooms would be ready until 2. So our only options were to either explore the ship or go eat at the buffet. So naturally like everyone else we all chose the buffet. OMG it was like P Mall on Christmas day, you could barely walk. Miraculously most of the trays of food remained full, and once you got food, it was impossible to find a parking spot, or in this case, a table.
By the time we finished eating, our rooms were ready, so it was time to go check that out. Once we walked in, we were in for a huge surprise, it wasn’t dirty or anything, it was just really really small. I mean we all knew that it was going to be a small room; we just had no idea how small of a room it was going to be. I mean it was smaller than my first year dorm room, and we had to fit a family of four in it. After that our next concern was, where are we going to sleep, there are only 3 beds, after asking our housekeeper, they informed us that there was a pull away bed tucked under one of the beds and that it would be pulled out and set up for us at night.
We had what they called an inside cabin, my mom’s friend upgraded and paid $50 more per person to have a little window in their room, their room was a bit bigger, but only by a couple of feet.
The first night was very rocky, there was a storm in NY when we left and we probably had to sail through it in order to maintain our schedule. It was so rocky that the tableware in one of the specialty Japanese restaurants started sliding off and broke, people were sliding all over the place.
We started dinner with 11 people, and before the food came we were already down to 8 people. *Sigh* the rest of us just had to pick up the slack and eat their food.
If you went up Deck 7, you would see a cluster of people just sitting by the stairs and holding on, looking really pale, having just consumed some sea sick pills.
Boarding the ship was an interesting but long process. Who knew that there would be 3,000 passengers onboard a 3,000 guest passenger capacity cruise ship? Oh and did I forget to mention that it was Spring Break 2010 as well?
They let us board the ship beginning at around 1 and the ship wouldn’t set sail until 4, but none of the rooms would be ready until 2. So our only options were to either explore the ship or go eat at the buffet. So naturally like everyone else we all chose the buffet. OMG it was like P Mall on Christmas day, you could barely walk. Miraculously most of the trays of food remained full, and once you got food, it was impossible to find a parking spot, or in this case, a table.
By the time we finished eating, our rooms were ready, so it was time to go check that out. Once we walked in, we were in for a huge surprise, it wasn’t dirty or anything, it was just really really small. I mean we all knew that it was going to be a small room; we just had no idea how small of a room it was going to be. I mean it was smaller than my first year dorm room, and we had to fit a family of four in it. After that our next concern was, where are we going to sleep, there are only 3 beds, after asking our housekeeper, they informed us that there was a pull away bed tucked under one of the beds and that it would be pulled out and set up for us at night.
We had what they called an inside cabin, my mom’s friend upgraded and paid $50 more per person to have a little window in their room, their room was a bit bigger, but only by a couple of feet.
The first night was very rocky, there was a storm in NY when we left and we probably had to sail through it in order to maintain our schedule. It was so rocky that the tableware in one of the specialty Japanese restaurants started sliding off and broke, people were sliding all over the place.
We started dinner with 11 people, and before the food came we were already down to 8 people. *Sigh* the rest of us just had to pick up the slack and eat their food.
If you went up Deck 7, you would see a cluster of people just sitting by the stairs and holding on, looking really pale, having just consumed some sea sick pills.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Where it all began. The Big Bang Theory
It all began with my little cousin’s parents wanting to take her on a vacation for her March Break, so they signed up for the cruise along with 7 of their friends. My cousin’s dad asked his mom, if she would like to join them on the cruise, she said only if she could find some of her friends to go with her and sure enough she found two.
Then my mom caught wind of this and immediately like the idea so she signed us up and began telling her friends about it, at first there were several others interested, but due to vacation conflicts only one could go. So in the end we had a big group of 21 or so people.
We were all supposed to be together on one bus, but for whatever the reason we got separated into 2 buses. Turns out that Tai Pan had 3 buses leaving for this trip. My mom’s friend and her family, my Grandma and her friends along with my family were placed on Bus A. While my cousin and her party was placed on Bus C. The buses are suppose to leave in alphabetical order, but Bus A had some late stragglers which caused us to be the lone wolf and leave a bit later than everyone else, while Bus B & Bus C were already on their way.
When we got to the Niagara border the line wasn’t that bad, it was soon revealed to us that Bus C made it through the checkpoint without and hassles and were already well on their way, while Bus A & B had to be screened carefully. So everyone on those two busses had to take all of their luggage and belongings off and report to customs individually or as families. So needless to say, this gave Bus C a huge head start and left Bus A and B only 15 minutes apart.
We were never really able to catch up to Bus C, every time we got to a checkpoint they would have already left or was already boarding the bus to leave. When we stopped for lunch, they were nowhere to be seen, when we stopped at the outlet mall to shop, we caught up with them, however they had 2.5 hours to shop while we only had about 1.5 hours to shop, and for some that was just simply not enough. So they left the mall pit stop before us and when we got to dinner, they were already finished and was about to leave. When we got to the hotel they were all already checked in.
Bus C = Fast Bus
Bus A = Old Bus
Bus B = Slow Bus
I was on the old bus because the majority of the passengers on my bus were senior citizens or on their way to becoming one.
Bus B is the slow bus because they were always 1 step behind us.
Then my mom caught wind of this and immediately like the idea so she signed us up and began telling her friends about it, at first there were several others interested, but due to vacation conflicts only one could go. So in the end we had a big group of 21 or so people.
We were all supposed to be together on one bus, but for whatever the reason we got separated into 2 buses. Turns out that Tai Pan had 3 buses leaving for this trip. My mom’s friend and her family, my Grandma and her friends along with my family were placed on Bus A. While my cousin and her party was placed on Bus C. The buses are suppose to leave in alphabetical order, but Bus A had some late stragglers which caused us to be the lone wolf and leave a bit later than everyone else, while Bus B & Bus C were already on their way.
When we got to the Niagara border the line wasn’t that bad, it was soon revealed to us that Bus C made it through the checkpoint without and hassles and were already well on their way, while Bus A & B had to be screened carefully. So everyone on those two busses had to take all of their luggage and belongings off and report to customs individually or as families. So needless to say, this gave Bus C a huge head start and left Bus A and B only 15 minutes apart.
We were never really able to catch up to Bus C, every time we got to a checkpoint they would have already left or was already boarding the bus to leave. When we stopped for lunch, they were nowhere to be seen, when we stopped at the outlet mall to shop, we caught up with them, however they had 2.5 hours to shop while we only had about 1.5 hours to shop, and for some that was just simply not enough. So they left the mall pit stop before us and when we got to dinner, they were already finished and was about to leave. When we got to the hotel they were all already checked in.
Bus C = Fast Bus
Bus A = Old Bus
Bus B = Slow Bus
I was on the old bus because the majority of the passengers on my bus were senior citizens or on their way to becoming one.
Bus B is the slow bus because they were always 1 step behind us.
The Deal
A 9 day Tai Pan Tour embarking from Toronto headed to New York to board the Norwegian Gem which would eventually make port calls @ Florida and the Bahamas.
The schedule was to leave Richmond Hill on Friday March 12th, 2010 @ 6AM and take us to New York where we would be accommodated in a hotel and the very next morning take us to the pier to board the ship, with minor and various pit stops along with way to New York since it was a lengthy bus ride, with one of the pit stops being an outlet mall.
The schedule to return was to leave the New York pier by noon and return to Richmond Hill by 10PM.
The schedule was to leave Richmond Hill on Friday March 12th, 2010 @ 6AM and take us to New York where we would be accommodated in a hotel and the very next morning take us to the pier to board the ship, with minor and various pit stops along with way to New York since it was a lengthy bus ride, with one of the pit stops being an outlet mall.
The schedule to return was to leave the New York pier by noon and return to Richmond Hill by 10PM.
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