Every cruise, indeed any vacation, has special, unique, or funny incidents that make for lifelong memories that are discussed year after year when talking about our travels. This trip already has a few of those memories.

The first situation actually has two incidents associated with it. Our group chose to try “My Time Dining”, which means that you do not have a set seating time or an assigned table for dinner. You go to the restaurant any time of the evening between 5:45 PM and 9:30 PM for your dinner. If there are a large number of participants in this program that goes to the restaurant at approximately the same time then there is the possibility of not being seated immediately. This is certainly not unexpected and there is definitely the probability that it will occur on an occasion or two.

Moment number one and one.five happened the second day of this cruise. This was the first day at sea and a lot of people decided to eat at about the time we chose to. The hostess in the restaurant said that it was very busy and it would be about a 45 minute wait. We were given a pager and what better excuse to go have a cocktail at the bar next to the restaurant. We weren’t in any hurry and besides where the heck were we going?

A bar waiter came over to our table and weall place our orders. There was a Jim Beam and Coke, special of the day, scotch and soda with a twist of lime, my order of a regular vodka martini with three olives. I always order my martini with three olives. We all discussed the day and sat there waiting for the drinks to be delivered. They never showed up. People whom had arrived and ordered drinks long after we had placed our order were being served. We didn’t even see our server anywhere so we flagged down another waiter and asking where our drinks were.

The drinks finally arrived with an apology. As the drinks were being handed out, the waiter repeated what had been ordered. Ofcourse my martini only had two olives not the three I had ordered. Not totally unexpected, it happens probably 90% of the time. When the final drink was delivered the waiter said, “Butterscotch and Soda”. All six of us, and probably simultaniously, snapped our heads back, eyes got big and either said or thought, What, butterscotch! No one was more surprised than Bob, who had ordered a Scotch and Soda. Is there some sort of Butterscotch liquer? The proper drink was procurred and by now the 45 minute wait time for dinner had quickly passed and off to dinner we went.

Returning to our staterooms each of the three couples had a covered plated waiting for us. Inside was six pieces of fancy, desert type candy. On top of the plate was a small card that stated, “We are Sorry”. Sorry for what? My first thought was that the bar had sent this to our staterooms for the delay and mix up on the drink order. It wasn’t. The restaurant had sent them because we had to wait 45 minutes for dinner. What a nice touch. Totally unnecessary but appreciated.

Incident number two also involved a drink order. After dinner another evening my wife and I went to the Atrium Bar to listen to songs being performed by a guitar player. The waitress came over and asked if we would like to place a drink order. My wife just wanted a Diet Coke. After some deliberation because I was still very full from dinner I said that “I would pass on it”. My wife turned to me and said that she thought that I would also be receiving a drink because the waitress wrote some thing down. I said I would pass on it, how the heck could that be misunderstood as a drink order? Sure enough, I could see two drinks on the waitresses’ tray. The diet Coke and a bottle of beer. The beer was a BASS Pale Ale. I guess with such a large international crew that there can be a language barrier and words sound different or have different meanings. It is possible, no it was reality, that the waitress in her interpretation heard, “I’ll have a BASS” and not what I meant, “I’ll PASS on it”.

Until tomorrow,
Bon Voyage.