Bonney's
Vacation Sagas

Katie's normal wake up time is 5:30 am. Bonney's normal go-to-bed-time has been 8 am. So Katie was up early and went walking around the track on one of the uper decks. There were strong winds. Afterward, she stopped in the Windjammer buffet style restaurant for coffee and breakfast while Bonney continued sleeping. I think Page was up early walking, also. It's a wonder the wind didn't just pick her up and blow her off the ship!

I was awake and dressed before Katie returned to the room and ready to go by lunchtime. We ate in the Windjammer where we met up with Bruce and Page who had already been sitting around the pool, reading. We had a busy agenda for the day, planning to swim after lunch.

Bonney and Katie.	Page and Bruce.

When I say we went for a swim, it really means Bonney went in the water and actually moved around to get some exercise, while Katie sat in the lounge chair working hard on her tan. I'm not sure Katie actually touched any water during the whole trip, except for in the shower! I must admit she had already done her exercise walking around the deck.

Then it was Bingo at 3:30 in La Scala Theatre. There had been a morning game that we missed, but arrived in time to play a set of 3 punch-out cards for each of 4 games that cost $32. This was a little higher than I've paid on other cruises. And, if we purchased an extra 3-card strip for the final blackout Bingo for another $11, we would get a "free" strip for each subsequent game, as well as a Bingo T-shirt! How could one refuse such an offer? Katie was disappointed when she missed winning the cover all by one number.

I think while we were playing Bingo, John got a haircut, but to look at him, I couldn't tell which one it was!

Katie and I arrived at the dinner table not too too late, and before Bruce and Page. Just so I wouldn't be the worst looking one at the table, I took some unflattering photos of the others. Not really on purpose, but how else can I explain these?

Page and Debbie.	John and Katie.

Bonney and Bruce.	Debbie and John.	Katie and Bonney.

Since this was formal night, a photographer went to each table to capture our rare dress-up moment. I thought this one turned out especially nice.Abracadabra! It would have been nice to have some more of our friends here.

Debbie, Bonney, John, Page, Bruce, and Katie.

Typically on a cruise, there are photographers snapping pictures when you board the ship, each time you get off the ship at a port, and at formal dinners. There are also portrait opportunities around the ship that you can stand in line for in front of certain object and on staircases, if you are interested. The typical procedure is that the photos are developed, printed in color, and displayed in a section of the ship called the photo gallery. There, each person can search for their photos that have been separated by event and time, or look them up on a computer - if they ran your ship card before a portrait was taken. When you find yours, you can purchase them, leave them in the displays, or dump them in a reject box.

After we ate (I had a wonderful fillet. I think some of the others ate fishy stuff.), my brothers and I posed for some photos. I have been trying to get a good picture of us together for a couple of years now.

Bruce, Bonney, and John.

Katie and I went to see John and Debbie's suite that had a separate bedroom, balcony, bathtub and shower, and bidet. Since they have sailed on over 21 cruises with Royal Caribbean, they are categorized as "Diamond Members" and get all kinds of little perks and freebies. The suite was not a freebie, but it comes with even more special things.

At 8:30 we went to La Scala Theatre, the location of the evening entertainment. This night featured guest performers, an a cappella group called "Mosaic", who had also performed on TV for the Grammy's. We all enjoyed this very much.

Mosaic.

Debbie, John, and I had signed up for the slot tournament at 10:30 pm. Debbie was in round 1 (there were 5 total), while John and I were in round 2, seated beside each other. We all lost miserably. The person writing down the scores congratulated me on being the lowest score of for my round! There was NO prize for that. That's $20 down the toilet!

Next, I lost $15 in quarter slots, so I gave up and went to bed. I'm not a big spender, at least until the last day, if I have money left.

Unknown to us at the time, since we had not returned to our cabin after dinner, a note had been placed in each room stating the water would be turned off at midnight until 4:00 am so they could work on a pump or some kind of maintenance. Fortunately, we were back in time to get ready for bed before then, but I can just imagine all those other people all dressed up who returned after midnight, to find they had no water.

Each evening when we returned to our room, the cabin steward had folded towels into some kind of animal. Our first one was a swan.