Island to Alaska with Pictures (part 2)

[camperhawk]

Carl, Congrats on moving up! Please don't become Dave ,"the no worries guy" though or what was that other guy's name? You know the one that had all the great ideas but no clue about anything? Oh well guess I'll have to go back and refresh my memory, since I am still trying to be patient...

 

Off ourselves on the Star soon, so hope the new job goes well, and the epic might come close to ending before we go? Not a chance, I'm sure!

 

But we may have to do an onboard booking, just to see the LLL's, which I've never had a desire to do until reading your take on the whole "thing".

 

Best of luck in the new position, and Thanks!

[cworld]

And now here’s Johnny. Or something similar… We were ready, we were jazzed (can you be jazzed at a rock music show?) Here it goes. The curtains came up, the music started.

 

Now this is a little different. The stage is made of metal piping arranged so that there are several "mini-stages" all around. There was a live band sitting in a Hollywood Squares looking contraption. They started playing, (they were augmented with taped music) then the dancers came out and started jumping around on the pipes... the singers started singing and dancing on the pipes... up and down they went, all over the stage... the singers sang, the dancers danced, and the musicians musicated.

 

The first number was something forgettable that lasted the requisite 3 minutes and introduced all of the singers.

 

Then the second number started an

[margord]

You are so good at leaving us in suspense. I guess that is why we keep coming back.

 

Marilee

[cworld]

d, Oh boy, this rocks. This is one of my all time favorite, Elton John tunes. I knew what the song was immediately (even though now I can’t remember which one it was). It was one of those Name That Tune moments (How many of you remember that game show?). I can name that tune in 3 notes. Which was a good thing, because that’s all they played. Three notes. Then IT happened. The dancers split. The band stopped. The singers ran off of the stage. The curtains shut, and the show ended. Just like that last post.

 

Silence.

 

 

Dead Silence.

 

 

 

What’s happening?

 

Is anybody out there? At least some of the lights are still on.

 

Silence.

 

The crowd started to get a little nervous. People started asking questions. And being the gregarious, helpful, now completely bored person I am, I started answering.

 

What happened? (The show stopped.)

 

Is the ship still moving? (Gee, I don’t know, it feels like it, why don’t you call the bridge and ask.)

 

Are we sinking? (Probably.)

 

Did anyone hear the emergency signal? (I think I did, but don’t tell anyone, we don’t want to start a panic. Besides, this is my muster station, so I’m OK.)

 

Have we hit an iceberg? (Truly, I heard someone ask that question.) (Oh, yeah. That’s it. The captain wanted to be environmentally friendly and turned off all of the radars, called in all of the lookouts, and ran in to a previously uncharted, unseen, unknown iceberg that ripped a huge gash in the side of the hull and now we’re all gonna die in the bitterly cold Alaskan waters.)

 

That was a pretty short show. Do you think it’s over? (Short? What do you mean short? That was a great show. Did you fall asleep and miss something?)

 

There was a lot of stuff like that happening. It was funny just to sit back and listen to all of the little conversations. (I’m pretty easily amused.) But, after a couple of minutes I was getting bored.

 

So we waited, and we waited. Finally, after about 5 minutes, David, the disgustingly skinny looking cruise director guy, came out and said “the show was having some “technical difficulties” and hopefully it would be back on line in just a couple of minutes. Please everyone, just sit back and relax, the great technical staff of the beautiful Island Princess is hard at work and in just a couple of minutes our great show, Tribute and it’s wonderful cast will be right back on stage and we’ll all enjoy a wonderful evening.”

 

OK. I’m BORED. Hey, dear, do you need some more Coke? No, yes, OK, No, I’ll go. So I got us another Coke. At least the Cokes were good, but they needed some snacks to go with them.

 

Here comes David, the well-dressed skinny cruise director guy, again. “Hi, again everyone. What happened here tonight is a little hard to explain. (But I'm sure you're going to try.) Our beautiful new Universal Lounge is equipped with a state of the art hydraulic stage that raises and lowers with the music. It is controlled by a state of the art computer system (state of what art? When your silly computer rebooted it was running an operating system that’s at least 3 years old, and maybe older. State of the art, yeah right). Here’s what happened tonight. Something caused a fault in our computer, which triggered the computer to stop the show, and set of an alarm to the performers that the stage was unsafe. That’s why they all rushed off so quickly. They have been trained to immediately leave the stage when they see this alarm signal (No duh). We are trying diligently to reset the computer so that we can resume the show, but for now it’s not working. I’m sure this is just a minor setback and our great engineers will be able to get us up and running in just a few minutes. But for now, we are going to cancel this showing (boo), and invite all of you back to the 10:30 show. I’m sure we’ll have everything up and running by then.” (Famous last words.)

 

No big deal, we can come back at 10:30 (That just means that we won’t get as much sleep before our morning trip to see the Puppies. Who needs sleep, we’re on vacation). So off we went. Back to our boring little cabin, to our boring little lives…

[camperhawk]

Boring lives? doubt it!:) Thanks for the Cworld mental fix though!

[margord]

Carl,

 

Don't leave us hanging. We need our fix. Please post soon.

 

Marilee

[cmash95]

where did you go? gee it's the middle of october and he hasnt hit skagway let alone the glaciers. which btw were breathtaking. have several rolls of glaciers and iceburgs. I must admit I really loved the scenery. Ok carl we are waiting with just a bit less patience I am afraid

[margord]

Yes, Carl, please come back. Don't just leave us. Mrs. Cworld, can you help, please?

 

Marilee

[flashdog_1]

Have you ever been reading a wonderful book and somehow misplaced it? That's how I feel about the continuation of this thread. Where in the heck is CWorld (my misplaced book, you see)? Hope you make the adjustment to the new job and find time to finish Island to Alaska part 2

[cworld]

Hi, everyone. I'm sorry I haven't put anything up lately. A couple of things are conspiring to keep me so busy I don't even have time to turn around. One of my best friends has had a very serious accident and I've had to spend a lot of time in hospitals, and coordinating help. He's going to be all right, but for a while it was touch and go. I should start getting a little time to breathe in the next couple of weeks. Hopefuly by then my new job will slow down a little bit, and I'll be able to spend some quality time with Island to Alaska with Pictures (Part 2). I'd really rather be here.

 

Thanks for you continuing Patience

Carl

[luv2travel2beaches]

CWorld...thanks for the update and my prayers are with your friend. I will still be here to read when you get the chance to post again, but by all means, take care of yourself and your loved ones first!

[Mrs. cworld]

...One of my best friends has had a very serious accident...

 

My DH didn't tell you the whole truth--the friend that is hurt also happens to be his cousin who lives 2 blocks from us. My DH is doing more than his fair share at the hospital and helping keep things going smoothly with his cousin's wife and 3 kids.

 

My DH maybe you will need another cruise to relax after your cousin gets back on his feet!!!!!:)

[margord]

I hope everything works our well for you cousin. I wish him a complet recovery.

 

Marilee

[camperhawk]

Carl, Back from our cruise and of course had to find my favorite read. Sorry to hear about your troubles and wish your cousin the best. Wish you and Mrs.C the best and hope you don't over-extend yourself;( but know that's hard not to do with family.) Will be here when you get back!

[cworld]

Whew, that was close. I want to thank everyone for their kind words, thoughts and prayers on my cousin’s behalf. He is going to be all right. He’ll come home from the hospital next week. Things around here are calming down a little bit. (I hope.) Football season ends Thursday, and baseball doesn’t start for a while. So hopefully I’ll have a little time and energy to squeeze in a wee bit of writing.

 

Let’s see if remember how to do this.

 

So, where were we? Hmmm. It seems like I was talking something about a boring life. You think I’d learn about saying those kinds of things.

 

Note to self – BORING IS GOOD!

 

Enough of that self pity stuff, get on with it… Sorry.

 

If I’m reading what I wrote last correctly, I left our gallant world travelers waiting for the late show of Tribute. Let’s see if I can remember how the tale went from there.

 

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap… that’s the sound my foot was making while we waited around. So, I grabbed the camera, (battery almost fully charged) and went out on the balcony and caught the beautiful sunset over Juneau as we sailed. I would have said we sailed off in to the sunset, but actually we sailed the other way.

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/351554714/351556941QfaHWr

 

Tap, tap, tap… Let’s see… What else is there? How about the program? We grabbed a couple of them before we were so rudely ejected from the theater, so, what does it say? Hey, I’m missing something, why can’t I read this thing? Yeah right, dear have you seen my glasses? There they are… Interesting cover art, could use a little more color. The inside is kinda plain. Let’s see what it says:

 

(I want to assure you this exactly what is says in the brochure. I’ve checked it twice. Trust me. What? Yes you can.)

 

Tribute

 

“This fast paced production showcases the wonderful facilities in our new Universal Lounge, celebrating the music that has touched all of us in some way. The Beatles are well represented here as our cast takes us on a Magical Mystery ride through some of their best remembered repertoire.”

 

(I’ve got to stop right here and make a snide remark. To whoever writes this drivel, you need to watch your subject/predicate agreement (or something like that), because that last sentence makes it sound like we are going to hear the cast’s “best remembered repertoire”, not the “Beatles best remembered repertoire”. And believe me this cast doesn’t have a “best remembered repertoire”. Sorry, back to the program.)

 

“The Beach Boys are also featured when our cast invoke the spirit of the 1960’s “beach-nik” generation complete with surfboard and beach ball! We also pay homage to the ultimate swingers, the three gentlemen who had the World on a string and became known as the Rat Pack to their legions of fans. Lastly we can’t forget the contribution of the great Ladies of Pop and we know you’ll be singing along with Diana, Cher, Whitney and Madonna as this spectacular show with a live concert feel takes you on a contemporary musical journey the whole family will enjoy!”

 

HELLO, Princess! Is there any one on your staff who speaks English? Just a small suggestion, you might want to send whoever wrote the text to your Tribute brochure on the Island Princess back to High School English class. (Yes I know I sometimes butcher the English language and sometimes I mix tenses, and misspell things, but I don’t publish my stuff for others to… oops, better stop right there Carl, you do publish your stuff for others to… but I’m not a professional (that’s for sure) writer… yet). By the way, in my humble opinion the sentence that say "cast invoke" should say “cast invokes”. I think that would make more sense. Or maybe not.

 

I can’t make a criticism without offering a suggestion, so here’s a couple of ways you could change your little blurb to make it more palatable.

 

If you’re looking for sophistication:

 

Good evening Sir’s and Madame’s. This fine evening, here in our incomparable Universe Lounge, the Island Princess proudly presents our world renown assembly of singers along with our fabulous dance ensemble, and our truly wonderful orchestra will be presenting for your gratification our one of a kind, musical show Tribute. Tribute is a salute to some of the finest…

 

I can’t do sophistication, let’s just aim for better than the original.

 

Hey all you guys and gals out there in the unrivaled Universal Lounge, get ready. The fabulous cast of Tribute is going to present to you our amazing show. Tribute pays homage to the greats of rock and roll both past and present. Tribute starts out with a salute to the granddaddy group of the all. Live from Liverpool England, The Beatles. Then, we’ll turn back the clock as we remember the days of surfing and beach balls with our rousing salute to The Beach Boys. The heart of our show will bring you back to the roots of rock and roll as we bring you some of the greatest entertainers to ever walk the planet. Dean Martin, Sammy Davis and the best crooner to ever walk the planet Frank Sinatra are featured as we go all the way back to the beginnings of the rock era. Finally what celebration of the rock era would be complete without remembering the Queens of Rock? From Madonna, to Whitney to Cher to Diana you’ll be singing along as we remember those Great Ladies of Rock. Come on… It’s time to ROCK.

 

Hey, give me a break. I’ve only worked on it for a couple of minutes… Give me a couple of hours and it will sizzle.

 

Or you could just tell the truth… But I’ll leave that for after the show.

 

Anyway, we waited… and waited… and right at 10:00…

 

Ding, Ding, Ding. (That symbolizes the tone that they use for announcements.)

 

“Hi, everyone, uh, This is uh, David, the cruise director guy, uh, I’ve got a uh little announcement uh to make concerning tonight’s show uh. We’ uh ve had uh a little uh technical uh problem uh with our uh stage uh and we are uh going to have to uh cancel our 10:30 uh show. We uh sincerely apologize uh for any inconvenience, uh this might have uh caused. Our uh wonderful engineers our working diligently to fix the problem, and will I’m uh sure, have it worked out tomorrow. So I’ll be making an announcement tomorrow about uh our new schedule for Tribute. I know you just can’t wait to see it. Look for updates in the Patter and listen uh for updates through uh our announcements. We’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight,”

 

Ouch, what now? I’m bored. I’m juiced up on Coke. I’m not ready for ZZZZ ZZZZZZ ZZZZZZ.

 

Again I want to thank you for Patience and Prayers. Hopefully, I’ll get this back on track and finish the longest week ever. Goodnight.

[luv2travel2beaches]

Cworld. It is good to see you back at the computer keyboard tap tap tapping your next informative, entertaining story of a minute or two on the Island Princess. We will be looking forward to your next segment with bated breath.

 

Glad your cousin is doing better and life is getting back to fairly normal for you.

[cworld]

Somebody help me. There is no music playing in my head. There is always music playing in my head, why not now. What’s happening? Am I dead? Is this all there is? I can’t even get Miss American Pie to start playing. SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!!!!

 

Hey Carl. You’re still asleep. Oh, is that what you call this? Sleep? Hmmm. But don’t I usually even hear music in my sleep? Well, yes, but tonight you are sleeping very soundly. Oh, is that really possible? Seems to be happening. Good, be quiet so I can sleep soundly some more.

 

Shhh. While Carl’s sleeping, this might be a good time to commemerate our half way point in our voyage since it happened while Mr. and Mrs. cworld were sleeping. Yep, boys and girls, we’re just halfway through this silly little story. (Can you believe it? NO!) It’s hard to believe that this started out as just a little 2 week or so project. It’s grown in to a monster. Almost 80,000 words, hundreds of your great posts, lots of new friends, and a partridge in a pear tree.

 

So what’s next? Who knows? Maybe the shadow does, cause I’m pretty sure that sleepyhead over there doesn’t have a clue.

 

Huh, was someone talking to me? No Carl go back to sleep, and the song starts out, “So bye, bye, Miss American Pie…

 

ZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZ (Yes I do snore)

 

Ring…Ring…Ring… or whatever stupid sound our alarm clock makes. Actually it’s a chirping or a beeping sound. We have one of those travel alarms that we use, oddly enough, when we are traveling. I think I was already awake, or maybe not. Mrs. c was up and getting in the shower. We were both pretty pumped about the plans for the day. We were going to see the puppies this morning and then take a train ride in the afternoon. Needless to say, we were excited.

 

The next thing I remember is Mrs. c saying something about the hot water. I probably said something like “huh?” and didn’t listen to what she was saying.

 

Note to self and to all others that don’t listen to their wives – sometimes what the wives are saying is pretty important.

 

Sorry, I know it’s not much, but it’s all I have time for tonight. I’ll try to post again in the next couple of days.

 

Again thanks for your incredible Patience.

[camperhawk]

Carl, welcome back! Will this help? lol

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=247392

[camperhawk]

Carl if you are going to start slacking........just let us know! We can quit really! Our habit of reading your thread,can be turned into another I'm sure, but we do miss the originality of your words! Hope all is well!

 

Patience is getting a little tougher here!

[cworld]

Hey all,

 

Yes I've been slacking, and I'm sorry. I'll not bore you with the boring details, but if all goes right, I should have some time freeing up after Thanksgiving. If it turns out that I don't, I promise to tell you and we'll put an end to this never ending saga. I truly hope, and believe, that things will settle down next week. I should be able to throw something up tomorrow night.

 

I am truly sorry for the delay, and thank you for your support.

 

Have a great day.

 

Carl

[luv2travel2beaches]

Hey Carl. No problem. There are most definately things in life that are more important than the boards. They are a wonderful way to keep in touch, learn great info and spend some time, but they aren't all that we have in our lives. Take the time you need and don't feel bad.

[flashdog_1]

Cworld, just as if we are on a cruise right now, we go with the flow. You post when you can. Instead of checking every day now, we'll only check every couple of days. We await Thanksgiving vacation and hearing from you.

[cworld]

Oh, yeah. I was talking about listening to the wife. Mrs. C had said something about the water in the shower, but me being a Real Man I turned the water on like I had all of the other days, and jumped right in. AND THEN I JUMPED RIGHT OUT AGAIN. BBBBRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!! That’s cold. There was no hot water. What’s up with this? No hot water. What’s going on? Have we entered a time warp and flashed back to SS Dolphin, Scourge of the Seas? No, on the SS Dolphin, there was plenty of hot water, just no air conditioning. Oh, well. Nothing can be done. You have to shower hot water or not. So, I jumped in the shower and in 1 minute and 23 seconds jumped out clean and washed. Yes men, you can shower in less than 2 minutes, and yes ladies, I did get relatively clean. A little extra deodorant and I’d be just fine.

 

We both hurried through the getting ready. While Mrs. C finished up, I stepped out on to the balcony and snapped a couple of pictures, and Oh, yes, the music returned.

 

Lots of different songs were going through my mind especially a great Cat Stevens song. It was such a great morning. Calm, still, beautiful. Another absolutely beautiful, clam, blissful morning in Alaska. As you can see in the photos (http://homepage.mac.com/cktrent2/PhotoAlbum16.html) the water was absolutely flat calm. Not a ripple. It was so calm, you could see the reflection of the mountains and it looked just like the real thing. I should probably try to sell these pictures for post cards. (By the way if this idea appeals to any of you, let me know, and I’ll sell you a couple. A couple of thousand dollars each should do.) It was so beautiful I just sat down on the balcony and sang…

 

Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning

Praise for the springing fresh from the word

 

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven

Like the first dewfall, on the first grass

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden

Sprung in completeness where his feet pass

 

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

Born of the one light, Eden saw play

Praise with elation, praise every morning

God's recreation of the new day

 

Actually, I sing pretty good (whew, that’s almost redundant). You should have been there.

 

OK, yes, it’s not much, but I have to go to bed now. If things go well tomorrow, I’ll put up another little bit. And if things go poorly, I may not. Kay Sa-ra Sa-ra. Or whatever.

[Joy2Day]

Great! Now I have 2 songs stuck in my head for the day!

[cworld]

What ever will be will be…

 

It really was a beautiful day in the neighborhood. We walked outside down to the Horizon Court for breakfast, usually we stayed inside, but this morning it was so nice that we wanted to take in the unadulterated Alaskan air. So, we went up to deck 14, and walked outside to the Horizon Court. Sniff, Sniff… Ahhhhh.

 

Breakfast consisted of (anyone remember what we have every morning for breakfast?) an omelet, some french toast, lots of bacon, and a slice of… nope, gonna skip the pineapple today, it looks a little soggy. (Who says I’m boring.) Mrs. C had her usual. I scored us a couple of Cokes and we found a seat. (See boring.) We leisurely wolfed down our grub and then we shuffled off to get ready to go see the puppies.

 

I reverted back to my “over planner” persona and asked my dear, patient, beloved, wife what was on track for the day. She very patiently told me, for the thousandth time, the days’ plan.

 

First we were going to see the puppies, then we would come back and grab the bus that would take on a tour of Skagway, to lunch at the “Historic” Skagway Inn, and then we would grab the train up into Canada. We’d get back in time for a supper on the boat, followed by another trip to see “Tribute”.

 

Again, another great day full of activity. Now this is the way to go on vacation. Busy, Busy, Busy. “That’s the way, uh-hu, uh-hu, I like it, uh-hu, uh-hu…” (Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.) We brushed our teeth, grabbed our tickets, cameras and coats and took off to board the bus to see “THE WORLDS STRONGEST DOGS.”

 

But, before we do that, I just have to jump in and say that I didn’t get anymore done today, because my new best friend called the other day and asked me to go to today’s OU game. I didn’t have any other plans (except 1000 or so honey do’s I’ve been putting off) so I said sure. Well I must say, I was a little excited when he handed me my ticket. It said is was at Row 1 Seat 10. OK, I’m thinking row 1 is probably the first row of the upper deck, and I’m going to be sick all day thinking I’m going to fall over. But, when we walked in the stadium, Row 1 meant Row 1. We sat on the front row, not the Bob Euker front row, the real smell the stinky players up close and personal front row. The only way we could have been any closer is if we would have been in uniforms. What a great day. Sorry you weren’t there. The Sooners even won.

 

Just had to rub your noses in it a little bit. I know, it’s not nice, but that’s me.