Island to Alaska with Pictures (part 2)

[cworld]

Mrs. C and I discussed this the other day. There was another couple seated with us that evening, but neither of us can remember much about them. They were either tall or short, heavy or skinny, dark colored or light, I can’t remember. I thought they were from Texas, but Mrs. C remembered them as being from Pennsylvania. I really think they were spies. I would know. They fit the profile. They were a non-descript couple that blended expertly in to the scenery. They were the kind of people that no one ever remembers anything about. When questioned, everyone gives conflicting testimony about their description. They fade in to the woodwork. That takes years of specialized training.

I don’t know why the spy thing didn’t occur to me at the time. I don’t remember any details about this couple, and neither does Mrs. C. That itself should have been a big tip off. I bet they were using the new brain memory wipe device. This is a big deal, it could have been a fatal mistake. I guess I need to tweak up my guvment issued, state of the art, 2 billion gigawatt spydar.

I do remember that the spies along with one of the adorable, saucy, little old ladies from Wales/Vancouver and I ordered the crab. I don’t remember much else, as I’ve already said, about Mr. and Mrs. Intergalactic Spy.

The waiters served the appetizer, salad, and all the other stuff. It was good, if not memorable. If I remember correctly they always served Mr. and Mrs. Lovely first, but that made sense. The adorable, saucy, little old lady from Wales/Vancouver that I was sitting by talked about all kinds of things, including how we were both ready for a big pile of sweet, warm, thick Alaskan King Crab Legs.

Ordering and eating Alaskan King Crab Legs was made even more interesting by the fact that both the adorable, saucy, little old lady from Wales/Vancouver and I had been watching the show on the Discovery channel about how they catch Alaskan King Crab. It’s one of those shows that is rapidly making the Discovery Channel one of my favorites. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go out on a boat in water that’s only about 33 degrees, with winds blowing 40 to 50 knots, with 30 foot waves pounding, and then be expected to haul traps weighing hundreds of pounds around, pulling crabs and other things out, sorting them and pushing them in to the pits, for 20 or more hours a day. That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to me. I’m not rushing out to sign up. But I really enjoyed the show, and it made me look forward to eating Big Alaskan King Crab.

Finally it was time. Here they came. They (our waiters) brought one big tray of food. They served Mr. and Mrs. Lovely’s dinners, of course, Mrs. C’s steak and the adorable, saucy, little old lady from Wales/Vancouver, that didn’t order crab, dinner. That was all that was on the tray. No crab lets. No crab legs! I sobbed. No crab legs.

About the time they served the last entree another server sauntered up with another tray. This tray contained several dishes that were covered. Could it be? Will it be? What will they look like? What will they taste like? Will I like it? Will there be melted butter? Will they be big? Will it be enough? Will I ever get finished with this little story?

I don’t know and neither will you if you don’t come back next time.

[JanaJohn]

[quote name='cworld']Will I ever get finished with this little story?

I don’t know and neither will you if you don’t come back next time.[/quote]

Carl, you can describe your writings about your adventures on the Island Princess many different ways but calling it a 'little story' is not one of them. Kind of like describing War and Peace as a short story! ;)

Once again I and 'patiently' awaiting your next installment.

[margord]

Carl,

We are only 4 months away from our Alaska cruise. The anticipation of whether we will cruise before the end of our "little story" or not is too much. You have definiately kept us entertained.

Marilee

[cworld]

There are some things on this board that just crack me up. I always chuckle when I see tread titles like the one Caribbean Princess Review ... (Very Long). Very Long? I’m sure the person that wrote that review is not one of our regular listeners. I can’t write about ordering lunch in that few words. Man, someone is very messed up here, and I don’t think it’s... or maybe it is... me. OK, I admit it, I’m messed up. There are you satisfied. Does this review qualify as Very Long? I don’t think so. In my humble opinion (IMHO) (here comes the blowhard again) (Warning what you are about to read is probably not true) this review only qualifies as a moderately long trip review. If you want a Very Long review, just wait until my next Rodent World trip. That review will probably be of Biblical proportion.

Meanwhile back to the Crabs...

Finally there it was... My plate, my own plate, of delicious, delectable, delightful, decorous, decked out, Alaskan King Crab legs. But wait, these aren’t the great big thick Alaskan King Crab legs I’d been expecting. These were scrawny little crablet leggy thingys.

TIMEOUT!!

Note to Princess:
Hey Princess, here we are in the shadow of the frozen tundra of the great Alaskan wilderness. Here we are in the very waters where crabs grow to incredible sizes, where men risk life and limb to bring us these awesome creatures so we can consume them in great quantities. We are here where the very name ALASKAN King Crab comes from and what do you put on our plates? What do you serve us you loyal, deserving, wonderful, PAYING BIG BUCKS, passengers? HUH? crablet leggy thingys. Little bitty crablet leggy thingys. Shame on you.

TIMEIN

I guess before I go off too much on Princess, I better try one of these crablet leggy thingys. I’ve never eaten crab out of the shell before, but when earlier in the year, I had a chance to try lobster. At the Lobster place, there was a nutcracker looking thing that we used to break the meat off of the lobster. I expected that we would get a nutcracker thing to to help getting the meat out of the crab legs. I was a little perplexed that there was no nutcracker to be found. Finally I took a close look at the crab legs. They were already split open. (Isn’t that real thoughtful of them, cutting my meat for me. Pretty soon they’ll prechew my Prime Rib for me.) All I had to do was stick my little crab fork in there and pull out some meat dip it in some butter and eat it. OK. I did.

It was great!

It was all I had hoped for. The meat was sweet, and warm and OoOHhH so good. There was quite a bit of meat for such scrawny, skinny, little legs. And again it was really, really good.

Rating for the Crab Legs – A- the only thing that would have been better is if they would have been true King Crab Legs.

I started to ask for another plate when the servers came a few minutes later, but they were taking dessert orders. No one else piped up about another plat of anything, and with Mr. and Mrs. Lovely, sitting there looking at me... well, can you say intimidation... I was good. I ordered dessert. I ordered the cheesecake again.

After the waiters left one of the adorable, saucy, little old lady from Wales/Vancouver who was sitting next to me, poked me in the ribs and said “It’s your fault I’m going to leave here hungry.” “Huh?” I said. (I really am a great conversationalist.) She said that she wanted another plate of the crab legs and she was just waiting for me to order so she could too.

Note to self – Lesson’s Learned from the Crab fiasco– Dear self, If you ever go on another cruise, anytime you want something ASK! You never know when you might just be the leader someone’s is waiting for. You might just be the spark that leads to a table wide gluttony fest. Little ole you could be the leader of the pack. That’s me the leader of the pack... (Usually I lead from the rear.)

Dessert was served, I had my cheesecake, Mrs. C had her vanilla ice cream with chocolate topping (boring), and the others had whatever they wanted. Mr. and Mrs. Lovely had the fresh fruit, and coffee of course. Mr. and Mrs. Intergalactic Spy disappeared about this time and we never saw them again, at least not in human form.

Mr. and Mrs. Lovely bugged out as soon as they had consumed, excuse me, daintily eaten, their desserts. They must have had something more important to do than talking to some hicks from... The adorable, saucy, little old ladies from Wales/Vancouver had to go to something they had planned to do, but offered to meet us later and buy us a drink. Oh, yeah baby. I’m up for that... what? Don’t what? Don’t drink, since when? You’re right. Sorry ladies, we don’t drink, but we’ll probably see you around the ship sometime. (Fat chance.) I was sorry to seem them go. They were cute.

And so ends another fabulous meal on the amazing Island Princess.

Oops, I almost forgot something reasonably important. (I’m sure some of you thought that wasn’t possible.) About halfway through our meal, there was a little announcement.

Ding, Ding, Ding... Hello everyone, this is your Cruise Director, David. (Hi Dave, what’s up now.) I’ve got a little announcement for you. As I’m sure you all know by know we’ve encountered a small (small, small doesn’t keep things broken for 3 days) technical difficulty with our unique stage in the Universal Lounge. (Oh, we hadn’t noticed.) Well, I want to assure you that our outstanding engineering staff here on the Island Princess has been working around the clock to get things fixed so that we can present our great program Tribute, a tribute to all of the great current and past performers tonight in the Universal Lounge. The engineering staff has been in frequent contact with the manufacturers of our state of the art, one of a kind, (one of a kind? I thought the Coral had one too?) multi-level, multi dimensional stage, to diagnose the problem. Between the Island Princess’s superior engineering staff and the staff of the manufacturer of the state of the art, one of a kind, (one of a kind? I thought the Coral had one too?) multi-level, multi dimensional stage of the Universal Lounge hundreds of hours have been expended trying to come up with a solution to the problem of why the state of the art, one of a kind, (one of a kind? I thought the Coral had one too?) multi-level, multi dimensional stage went in to alarm status and quit working the other night. As you know the safety of our performers is our primary concern, and we can’t put the show on until we know for sure what happened to our state of the art, one of a kind, (one of a kind? I thought the Coral had one too?) multi-level, multi dimensional stage, and that it won’t happen again on our state of the art, one of a kind, (one of a kind? I thought the Coral had one too?) multi-level, multi dimensional stage. Last night we reloaded the operating software that controls our state of the art, one of a kind, (one of a kind? I thought the Coral had one too?) multi-level, multi dimensional stage. We tested it and the hardware very early this morning. We thought we had the problem licked, but, this afternoon, during rehearsal on our state of the art, one of a kind, (one of a kind? I thought the Coral had one too?) multi-level, multi dimensional stage, the problem reared it’s ugly head again. So as of right now, tonight’s two presentations of Tribute will be cancelled. We move 50’s Rock and Roll party back to 10:00 but instead of the Universe Lounge where the state of the art, one of a kind, (one of a kind? I thought the Coral had one too?) multi-level, multi dimensional stage is broken, we’ll dance the night away in the Explorers Lounge. You won’t want to miss our great sock hip adventure. We’ll see you there at 10:00, again that’s in the Explorers Lounge. Finally I want to assure you that the vaunted Island Princess’s engineering staff will continue to work diligently on our state of the art, one of a kind, (one of a kind? I thought the Coral had one too?) multi-level, multi dimensional stage, 24 hours a day, and with a little luck, everything will be all hunky dory with our state of the art, one of a kind, (one of a kind? I thought the Coral had one too?) multi-level, multi dimensional stage by tomorrow night. Sorry to interrupt your dinner, I’ll keep you advised, don’t forget to have a great evening on the astonishing Island Princess.

Or something like that.

Dave makes little announcements like I write little stories.

Ha, Ha.

[Gayle2]

cworld-
today is my last day at work where I read all my fun stuff (I don't have a computer at home) and I'm going to miss your massive missive. I hope to get a 'puter soon for home so then I'll be able to pick up where I left off. Keep writing!!!!

Gayle

[alwalaska]

Your comment about the waiters prechewing your prime rib for you reminded me of our Cruise on the Disney Wonder. Yes the waiters are there to serve and sometimes do more than you would normally want. For some reason, one night when I ordered steak, the waiter brought out the plate and then proceeding to cut my steak into bite size morsels. I was too stunned to say anything. When he moved towards my husband, my husband polity said "no thank you". Boy - why couldn't I think of that?
:rolleyes:

[cruzluvr2]

Carl - great memory!! I wondered how you were going to report the stage fiasco. Of course, still more to come on that one though.

Gail

[cworld]

Hey guys, just thought I'd pop in and say, there may or may not be any updates for the next few days. Our family is taking a big "family" vacation. Our daughter is going to Mexico to do some mission work, our sun is going skiing, Mrs. C is going to her parents, and I'm going to visit my Grandmother. A true "family" vacation. I am taking the laptop, and might be able to make a little progress. We'll see. But if not I know you all have great PATIENCE.

[margord]

Carl,

We miss you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone.

Marilee

[cworld]

Sorry for the interruption. I had a good trip to see Grandma, and then it was time to just sit back and veg in front of a TV. I’m on vacation. Besides this has to be my favorite time of year to watch TV. I’m not much on watching nighttime television, but I’m really like the sports on TV this time of year. It just doesn’t get any better than this next couple of weeks. The NCAA Basketball Tournament, although for me, the boy’s tournament is already over, but the girls still have my attention for a little while longer. Then there’s the PGA at Sawgrass next weekend (my favorite golf hole of all that the pro’s play is the one with the island green), NASCAR is ramping up, Spring Training is wrapping up and the sound of Play Ball is just a couple of weeks away. Then the absolute best weekend of the year, the weekend of the Masters (it’s a golf tournament in Georgia). I can’t wait. I’ll still try to get some work done on this, but...

Back to the Incomparable Island Princess

Now what do we do. Our plans for the evening are all kaput. No Tribute, no plan. I’m starting to twitch a little bit. I’m not good at this last minute planning thing. Please make a schedule and stick too it. This could be bad. What are we going to do?

Mrs. C and I walked over to get the stamps she didn’t get before dinner. We planned to take a leisurely walk back to the room and check the Patter again and see if there was anything that struck our fancy, but from Dave’s announcement there wasn’t anything big that we were interested in.

There wasn’t a line at the stamp place, so Mrs. C got her stamps. She mailed her daily post card home, and off to the room we went. Along the way we passed the home of the one armed bandits and the tables of great sin. During the week we had passed this place, the home of the one armed bandits and the tables of great sin, several times during and never had an interest of going in. However, tonight Mrs. C said, hey why don’t we go in. I’ve always wanted to try a one armed bandit machine. You can play on the tables of great sin.

Alarm bells went off in my head. This could be dangerous (read expensive). I’ve played just enough poker to know that I’m not a poker player, or at least not a table of great sin poker player. I had been to Reno earlier in the year and tried my hand at the table of great sin in the game that counts to 21. After losing my $40.00 I came to my senses and decided I wasn’t lucky enough to win at games of chance, especially ones where the odds are not in my favor. But, if you put me at a table in someone’s attic with a bunch not so smart schlubs who think they can bluff the socks off of someone or think that there great card players because they’ve been watching poker on TV, and I’ll skin ‘em. But on a table of great sin, with just me against a dealer without bluffing, nah, the odds aren’t in my favor. Give me games of skill, not games of chance and I’ll win, but...

As for Mrs. C, she had never been in a place where they had one armed bandits, and tables of great sin, much less no how to operate one. This could be dangerous.

I got Mrs. C to agree to just look around and go back to the room and look at the Patter to see if there was something we wanted to do, and we could come back to the home of the one armed bandits, and the tables of great sin if there wasn’t anything better to do. At least we could change clothes and get comfortable. She agreed. Whew, dodged a bullet.

We got back to the room and I picked up the patter. Hey dear, did you drop this thing in the sink or something? I don’t see anything here but some blue lines. What? My what? Glasses. OH, that’s better. Let’s see...

There’s dancing. No, that doesn’t work. How about a takeoff of the Weakest Link? No, don’t care to be insulted all night. I get enough of that at work. Here we go, Hey dear, how about Cigars and Cocktails at Churchill’s? Oops, we don’t drink, dance or smoke and those seem to be all of the choices left for tonight. SO...

Back to the home of the one armed bandits, and the tables of great sin.

A song is coming to my mind about now. It’s another of those “Dr. Demento” songs. It’s title was “Please Mr. Custer, I don’t want to go.” It was about the battle at Little Bighorn, and a guy that didn’t want to end up bald. It was pretty cute, and about the way I felt about going to the casino. That’s probably not a good attitude to have when you’re going to the home of the one armed bandits, and the tables of great sin. I should probably put on my Cape of Invincibility and march right up to that table and demand for them to take my money.

Did you know that’s it’s illegal to gamble in most states in the USA?

[Mrs. cworld]

[quote name='cworld'] Oops, we don’t drink, dance or smoke... [/QUOTE]


Sounds like a song from "Grease"!

And by the way, my DH, the night your taste buds had multiple orgasms over the crab, I had the pasta with a green pesto sauce. Needless to say it wasn't very memorable since you thought I had steak and I only remembered it yesterday in the shower. (You know how the water pounding on my head clears my memory!)

[margord]

You two (Mr & Mrs. Cworld) are so funny.

Marilee

[cruzluvr2]

Mr. & Mrs. cworld - you are too funny!! I wish I had the opportunity to meet you while on this cruise. Thanks to you I have been able to enjoy the cruise many, many times. I think I'll just go look at the photos again to reminesce a bit.

Gail

[zachnlucy]

[quote name='cworld']In the immortal words of Cat Stevens, "The new jobs a hassle and the kids have the flu." [/quote]
Hey there Carl! I haven't been around the cruise boards since September (planning my upcoming Disney vacation on the disboards which you so graciously directed me to), but I just got an email that there was a posting to your thread, and just had to respond.

Happy Chapin! Not Cat Stevens! duh. heh heh.

[zachnlucy]

[quote name='cworld']Really.

And by the way, I do know it was Harry Chapin not Cat Stevens, I was just in a hurry.

Carl[/quote]

Ut oh. I hadn't read far enough. My bad.

[cworld]

Sorry for the delay, I'm having a little problem getting the next segement together. I probably won't get anything up until Sunday. Sorry. and yes dear, our life is a little "Grease" like, at least if you're talking about the "Sandra Dee" factor. We're pretty dull.

Gail, Thanks, Maybe one of these days we'll all get together on a big reunion cruise.

Cindy, Glad to hear from you again. Did you go to Rodent World? How was it?

For everyone else, thanks again for your PATIENCE.

[cworld]

Warning: The following is rated M for MATURE – (Language, Violence, Adult Content.)

So off we went. Walking slowly, very slowly... I’m still saying to myself, this is a bad idea. We took the elevator down to deck 7, and walked down the long hall to the area that housed the object of my uneasiness. The Princess Casino, which according to the Princess website is a Paris-themed casino. (Wonder what that means? I tried to figure out what a Paris-themed casino was. All I could come up with is that in Paris a lot of people smoke cigarettes. This also seemed to be the case in The Princess Casino.)

The Princess Casino on the Island Princess is located on the Promenade Deck. It’s behind the Jewelry shop, which I thought was pretty wishful thinking on someone’s part. The casino has 2 entrances, one off the main hallway by the Jewelry shop, and the other that leads to the Purser’s desk (easier for passengers to go get more money that way.) The one by the Jewelry shop is very open and let’s you see a lot of the casino. The opening by the purser’s desk is more limiting, but comes in right by the table games.

Mrs. C and I walked in. This caused the earth to turn over on its axis. Mrs. C had been pretty adamant about not going to the casino earlier in the week. But now here we were. Both of us. In the casino, together. Standing in the casino. Now what? Mrs. C said she was off to play the slots, and I should go play some cards. Oh, joy. She made her way over to the Sheriffs office, and I sat down at a blackjack table. This is a bad idea.

The helpful dealer asked me how many chips I’d like to buy, and I handed her $40.00. I know that’s not a lot of money, but for me, it was like turning over my whole paycheck. I can be a bit of a tightwad at times so this was hard. I did figure that at $5.00 per hand my $40.00 might not last too long. I vowed that if I actually got ahead, I’d get up, cash out, and leave, never to play poker again. It took about 20 minutes and 30 hands or so, it’s amazing how fast a hand will go when you’re playing by yourself, for my stack of chips to disappear. So being the tightwad I am, I got up, thanked the dealer for her time, and went in search of Mrs. C.

Mrs. C, where are you? I scanned the room. No Mrs. C. Did she get mad that I played so long and leave? I walked around a little. Maybe she just took a bathroom break. Mrs. C, where are you? I walked around the room again. I’m starting to get that empty feeling, like I did something wrong. Mrs. C, where are you? Finally, I found her. She was at the very back of the casino, hidden from view by a curtain of invisibility or something. There you are, I said. I’ve been here for a while, she said. Did you win? She asked. Nope. You? Not yet, but I’m just getting started.

We sat there for a while and I educated her on the finer points of losing money in slot machines (kinda like the blind leading the blind thing). I taught her how to lose more than one coin at a time. She actually did pretty well. She made $2.00 of nickels last for almost an hour. Let’s see... Me I lost $40.00 in 20 minutes and she lost $2.00 in an hour. Who had more fun? You’re right, she did.

We decided that we were tired, and it was finally late enough to go to bed. So off to the cabin we went. I figured that we had seen the last of the casino, but as we walked to the room Mrs. C commented, “that was fun, we should do it again tomorrow.”

I’ve created a monster.

Forgot to put in bad language... I think I might have said “Dad burn” once.

[Joy2Day]

[quote name='cworld']It’s behind the Jewelry shop, which I thought was pretty wishful thinking on someone’s part. [/QUOTE]

It worked for me ............. once. We were playing slots late one night. Suddenly my machine started dumping coins out. They actually had to come add quarters to the machine. With my newfound money, I got CRAZY and put a $20 in the dollar slots. 3 pulls later, I hit $60. Taking my newfound riches, I immediately put them on my ship account -- and bought myself a nice watch the next night.

[Sea Fan]

What a good idea you can put your shipboard winnings on your account! Wonder husband didn't mention that, he was pretty lucky we could of paid for our drinks! Okay next time!!!
Carl please keep them coming you and Mrs C make my day, but I live a sheltered life.
Thanks, Dianne

[margord]

Keep it coming Carl. I thoroughly enjoy your stories. Just alittle over 3 months to go for my cruise.

Marilee

[cworld]

And the evening and the morning was the sixth day.

Pssssst, Carl... That was only the fifth day.

What? You’ve got to be kidding. I’ve been working on this for what, nine months, or something and you tell me I’m only 65% done?

Yup.

There is something seriously messed up with this whole picture.

You can say that again.

[cworld]

Forgot this.

Rating for the casino – C – No real poker games, and too much cigarette smoke. Plus, we didn’t win. Mrs. C did like the slots, but what does she know.

PS. Dianne, thanks for the encouragement. (Mrs. C says you need to get out more.)

[Sea Fan]

I'm heading out the door to do something special today actually getting in a light aircraft and recharging my batteries. The slot's are fun especially "Wheel Of Fortune" You just think your going to win more!! Think is the key word, I haven't done it as yet.

Oh well have a wonderful day!!!

[mich2]

I just found this thread. It is the best thread I've found in the two years I've been involved in cruisecritic! Mr & Mrs. C, you are absolutely entertaining. I love the story, can't wait for more. (Even though I'm actually reading the thread backward----I'm on page 10):eek:

[Sea Fan]

Mich2- I know what you mean, I only found out about CC this last February and Mr & Mrs C are the one's that got me hooked!! I started reading and could not quit. Very creative people!!!