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Unique or bizarre people you have met on your cruises


robthens
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Just for fun. Let's share stories about unique/bizarre people you have met on your cruises.

 

On an Alaskan cruise tour, our table of 6 sat down for dinner. We consisted of 2 Aussies, 2 Brits & the 2 of us from Texas. Of course, we all spoke English but no one could really understand each other.

 

I kept thinking "why did we get assigned to be with these people". It didn't seem we had anything in common with them. Couldn't really make a connection (mainly because everyone had to keep repeating themselves). Seriously thought about switching tables.

 

So glad I didn't switch tables. 2nd night we realized we were on the same land tour (Princess - Off the Beaten Path). Then the fun began with them!!!

 

Yes, we still had to repeat ourselves at times but I have to say we really enjoyed their company. By the end of the trip, I knew all the Aussie slang. When in doubt, just call it a "blue". Oi Oi Oi. The Brits introduced me to Ale. (Now my favorite adult drink). & of course we had every saying "ya'll".

 

My advise is first impressions "some first impressions are sometimes wrong"

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I enjoy the entertainment value of "people watching". The transformation that happens over the course of a week on a cruise is amazing.

 

Last Spring there was a couple that I noticed while we were all herded together waiting to board...they were dressed alike. Every time I saw them that week they were dressed alike. Other folks showed up to board and looked like they had just completed the road trip from HELL. By mid-week they were looking fairly sane. By the last day they were starting to have that look of dread in their eyes knowing that the relaxation was coming to an end and in a matter of hours they would be headed back to the rat race.

 

I really enjoy meeting the crew. Some of these guys and girls have amazing stories to tell. They are hard workers that regardless of nationality and language understand the meaning of a genuine smile. Can't wait to be back aboard the Oasis in less than 3 weeks.

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We've been incredibly lucky to have had fantastic tablemates on all our cruises.....we do get along with almost everyone, so that might have something to do with it. We were seated with a young couple from England...the woman had a VERY heavy cockney accent...took a while to get our "ears wiggling" enough to understand her! She and her hubby were a hoot!

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We had a gentleman that announced at dinner that he always kept his "everyday carry" with him. Well, we are from Texas & when we hear "everyday carry" we think of something with bullets in it.

 

If you know what "everyday carry" is your are laughing now. If you don't, google it.

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When you choose to sail with a lot of people you will meet a wide range of people.

 

I would say one very unique person was on board a sailing in the 1990's on Holland America where my family and another family we were traveling with were seated with the ships priest.

 

If you didn't know better you would not have guest he was a priest. He told us many stories of his life on land including being a runner for the Mafia. He also told us places to go at some of the islands we were visiting for drinks.

 

Sure enough he was the priest and just someone who has stuck out in my mind for all these years.

 

Keith

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I enjoy the entertainment value of "people watching". The transformation that happens over the course of a week on a cruise is amazing.

 

Last Spring there was a couple that I noticed while we were all herded together waiting to board...they were dressed alike. Every time I saw them that week they were dressed alike. Other folks showed up to board and looked like they had just completed the road trip from HELL. By mid-week they were looking fairly sane. By the last day they were starting to have that look of dread in their eyes knowing that the relaxation was coming to an end and in a matter of hours they would be headed back to the rat race.

 

I really enjoy meeting the crew. Some of these guys and girls have amazing stories to tell. They are hard workers that regardless of nationality and language understand the meaning of a genuine smile. Can't wait to be back aboard the Oasis in less than 3 weeks.

 

Couples who dress alike in the UK are often referred to as 'Howard & Hilda' after 2 characters in an old BBC TV Comedy 'Ever Decreasing Circles'. My wife does a lot of knitting and, when she's finished a garment she will ask me whether I want one in the same style and colour To which I reply 'Here we go again - bl*ody Howard & Hilda mode again!' - the bruises do heal eventually ... but a sharp knitting needle can hurt!:)

 

We went on our 2nd cruise ever almost 2 years ago and were asked by a very snobbish fellow passenger about our first cruise. When I told her the name of first cruise line, she enquired imperiously 'Was it on the Majesty? Because my GARDENER takes cruises on that ship'! I was in hysterics, trying desperately not to laugh out loud so had to rely upon my wife to deliver the riposte ... 'No - it was on the Island Escape - the level below the Majesty!'

 

That episode caused us to refer to our first cruise thereafter as 'The One Below the Gardener' - priceless! :D

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Great story, marchie1053! I'll have to look for a Howard and Hilda video. My wife and I used to threaten to dress alike and take the kids to the mall, if they didn't behave. They behaved.

 

Our cruise weirdo was Banjo Jack. I don't know whether that was really his name or one we assigned him. A fellow passenger, he serenaded diners in the Lido. Badly. Cruise staff finally put a stop to it.

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Great story, marchie1053! I'll have to look for a Howard and Hilda video. My wife and I used to threaten to dress alike and take the kids to the mall, if they didn't behave. They behaved.

 

Our cruise weirdo was Banjo Jack. I don't know whether that was really his name or one we assigned him. A fellow passenger, he serenaded diners in the Lido. Badly. Cruise staff finally put a stop to it.

 

Imagine Howard & Hilda walking towards you in the atrium - would you rush to engage them in conversation? :D

 

http://80sactual.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/howard-and-hilda-talk-80s.html

 

Those sweaters are beyond belief! Each episode they wore something identical but rarely a sweater that had been seen in previous episodes - glorious caricaturisation! And if you can find a video, DO listen to both the script and the accents - if you had them as dining companions, you would jump overboard before the second evening!

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We have met great people on all our cruises with the exception of this last one a few weeks ago.

 

Alaska R/T out of Seattle on the HAL Eurodam. First time for both - Alaska and HAL. Sailing into Glacier Bay when my wife and I went to breakfast in the MDR - asked for a window seat and shared a table with a woman from Canada. Said "Good Morning" and it was downhill from there.

 

It was her first time to Alaska and on HAL as well, but rather than admire the scenery of entering Glacier Bay, she proceeded to tell us how horrible HAL was and it is nothing compared to RCCL. The staff were rude, the food horrible, the ship was disgusting and everyone lies to you. Waiter comes by and asks for our drink order - having a drink package, she wanted a specific type of bottled water and didn't want the one in the plastic bottle. When he left to find someone about it, she told us that they "don't want to give out the good stuff". The Maitre 'd comes out and wasn't sure what she wanted and she told her the "good stuff in the glass bottle" that she got at some bar on the ship - and none of that "fizzy stuff". She leaves to find it and she tells us that she is going to get the most she can out of the drink package to make up for being on Holland America. One of the sommeliers eventually come by with what she was looking for.

 

By that time we were nearly finished with breakfast and just wanted to get out of there. He opens the bottle of water, pours her a glass and leaves. She asks if we would like some and we politely decline. She takes a couple of sips and gets up to leave, leaving that full glass AND bottle on the table. She says her goodbyes and says she is going back to her cabin to go back to sleep

 

Wife and I just look at each other and shrug as we get ready for the day in Glacier Bay, wondering how someone can go thru life being so unhappy........

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On one Transatlantic cruise there was a man who was never seen (at it was impossible not to keep seeing him) without wearing his gigantic prizefighter championship belt. He was a very short and squat gent so the medallion covered him from well below the waist to his sternum. I couldn't help wondering whether he won some type of bet. Or more likely lost it.

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On one Transatlantic cruise there was a man who was never seen (at it was impossible not to keep seeing him) without wearing his gigantic prizefighter championship belt.
Are you sure it wasn't a similarly subtle Holland America medallion?
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We shared a table with a lady who finished second on Jeopardy and a gentleman who had escaped death from the World Trade Center. Seven of his coworkers weren't so lucky. And then... on a T/A we observed a deeply religious couple who wore a uniform everyday. His was a bright blue tight fitting top with equaling tight pants. She wore tight revealing clothes and very heavy makeup. We referred to them as Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. He would sit at a table with his Bible open and she would bring him food.

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I don’t know if this qualifies, but I think it’s a cute story.

 

When on a cruise I always have breakfast in the buffet while Mrs. XBGuy sleeps in. Five or six days into our recent Alaska cruise, I’d carried my plate to a table that had a couple and four empty seats. I invited myself in, and we had a great time. They were from England, and their sense of humor seemed to complement mine. So, we bonded very nicely.

 

The next day when I went down to the buffet, there were lots of empty tables. I picked one and started to enjoy my breakfast, when the same couple walked up and joined me. We picked up right where we left off the previous day.

 

I’m getting to it.

 

We bantered for about 15 minutes when another couple asked if they could join us.

 

“Of course.”

 

They sat down right next to me. I knew that they were also part of the Empire, but I can’t tell an English accent from a

New Zealand accent from an Australian accent. So, I asked, “Where are you folks from.”

 

“They’re English,” came the response from across the table.

 

“NOT ENGLISH. WELSH.” Came the very firm retort from the man now sitting next to me.

 

“Uh oh,” I thought. “Are we going to get into some sort of nationalistic feud, here?”

 

Not to worry. These people were equally great, and get this. It turns out that these two couples both lived outside of London—no more than five miles apart. So, they had independenly flown to San Francisco--actually, the second couple had flown to Oakland and found out that a cab ride across the Bay Bridge would cost them $90--boarded a ship, cruised to Alaska and met in the buffet.

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There is a small world thread around CC somewhere.

 

On our recent cruise, we did a brunch with gallery tour on the fist sea day. At a nearby table, a lady had ordered eggs benedict, and was picking up them and eating them like a sandwich. With egg yolk running everywhere.

 

We kept seeing her all cruise, and one of us would comment about the egg lady.

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Got to an assigned dining table of 8 or 10. One woman loudly complained from the minute she sat down about the cruise, the food, the cabin, personnel, everything. Dessert came and she told our wonderful waiter that her ice cream had sugar in it, it wasn't the sugar-free she had ordered, etc. He rechecked it in kitchen and assured her it was sugar free. She still kept complaining so the waiter brought his superior over to assure her it was sugar-free....Complaining kept up through the meal.

 

I couldn't imagine enduring 10 more nights of dining with her so we asked to be switched to another table and it worked out great.

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Got to an assigned dining table of 8 or 10. One woman loudly complained from the minute she sat down about the cruise, the food, the cabin, personnel, everything. Dessert came and she told our wonderful waiter that her ice cream had sugar in it, it wasn't the sugar-free she had ordered, etc. He rechecked it in kitchen and assured her it was sugar free. She still kept complaining so the waiter brought his superior over to assure her it was sugar-free....Complaining kept up through the meal.

 

I couldn't imagine enduring 10 more nights of dining with her so we asked to be switched to another table and it worked out great.

 

The sort of passenger whom many think is a pain in the neck; and the rest of us have a lower opinion ...

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A couple of years ago we were on a cruise and there was one couple, who the wife was a very, very good seamstress and she made all of her and her husbands clothes. They were always a matched pair. Identical fabric print, or color, etc. Even down to the hats they both wore. When ashore, if you saw them from a bit of a distance, you ALWAYS knew who they were.

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A couple of years ago we were on a cruise and there was one couple, who the wife was a very, very good seamstress and she made all of her and her husbands clothes. They were always a matched pair. Identical fabric print, or color, etc. Even down to the hats they both wore. When ashore, if you saw them from a bit of a distance, you ALWAYS knew who they were.

 

Any Brits of a certain age would have christened them 'Howard and Hilda' from an old comedy series Ever Decreasing Circles.

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