Mom Goes Down!

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Sunny 73°F





Awakening in the morning, I refrain from checking my watch and continue to lie in bed, enjoying the new mattresses just upgraded by Princess a few months ago. They are nice but it's now 9am and breakfast is over at 10. Karen's up first, buying me 20 minutes of time to contemplate the best way to get out of this bed. Staying in an inside cabin or "tomb" as we call it, there is no perception of time or space except for a clock. No light from a window, no open door offering fresh air from a balcony. Nothing. The only way we know what's the weather's like is by turning on the TV and tuning to the ship's camera station for the latest ship stats and a glimpse outside. Here we can view info on our position, wind, sea conditions, speed and weather forecast, something the more affluent guests can do simply by stepping out onto their balcony. Who's got that kind of money?

9:30 finds us on our way up to the Lido, Deck 14. Everyone else has eaten and left so we grab the usual and hang out until 10am. Mom sees on today's schedule that there is a big bazaar in the Michelangelo Dining Room starting at 10am so I fill our milk bottle for consumption later tonight and we proceed to Deck 5. Arriving at the entrance to the dining room, it's evident that Mom will need to prepare for battle. Even from a safe distance we can see the old ladies are tearing into those bargain tables, snatching up all the great deals before they're gone, at least until bargain day tomorrow. From my vantage point just outside the battlefield, it is here that "the incident" occurred.

Karen was walking just ahead of me when, for no apparent reason, she tripped and went down right at the entrance. Face first she lands. I go to help her up but I know her wrist is recovering from a previous fall at Home Depot a month before, injured when a Good Samaritan pulled her up by her hands. Within seconds, two Princess aids are there to assist her as well. She's fine and tells them to bring her a chair which they quickly do. From there, she gets up herself, saving her arms and wrists from any further damage. After thanking the two attendants who are concerned about her condition, she declines any further attention as all this commotion has lost her valuable bazaar time. "Ask them about a free cruise to help you deal with the pain and agony", I remind her but she is focused on the deals. She carefully scrutinizes the items offered for sale, finds one item and checks out. On the way out of the dining room, we examine the accident site for any visible cause but determine that it was human error. She tripped on nothing.

We have no time for further investigation. Case closed. Effy is having a jewelry sale on Deck 6 and Mom is entered in the drawing. We part, with her in the store while I return to the stateroom with her booty from the bazaar and our fresh bottle of milk for our refrigerator, filled earlier at the breakfast upstairs. Upon my return, I see she's waiting for the winning number to be called so I watch the ping pong ball contest down below on Deck 5. Unbelievably, she doesn't win but the salesman is nice enough to show her items that she could buy just as easily. I assist with her escape and we decide to return to Deck 14 for a pool experience.

Mom has her choice of a number of lounge chairs and finds one to her liking in the shade which I accessorize with three towels and an ice water. I sit behind her, writing this blog and drinking one of my "free" cokes. I won't go into how they ripped off three of my soda cans. After awhile, I get myself a small plate with fish and chips and a a salad along with a lemonade. Of course the lemonade is free. Now Mom's friends from last night's dinner, you remember, the Canadians, Larry & Ester from Scotland and Montreal, come by and sit with Mom. Blah. Blah. Blah. The lady and Karen yap forever while her husband reads his book and I type. This is good except for their laughing. Mom must be telling one of her stories. It's 2:30pm.

We hang out at the pool visiting with our two friends until about 4pm when we all depart to get ready for dinner. It's a smart casual dress night, not formal and so we get to the dining room at 5:15, wait 10 minutes and are seated at a table for 8. There's a couple from Pittsburg, CA, two ladies from Petaluma, a single guy from San Pedro and one empty seat. After ordering and eating our appetizers, this single gal takes that last seat. She tells us about getting setup by her travel agent into a free balcony room with another girl who she doesn't know but the girl gets these rooms free because she gambles a lot. Apparently, the two of them are fighting about noise, mess and the whole trip. In addition, the two ladies from Petaluma are pissed off saying that they paid too much for their cabin and want money back. These three complain throughout dinner but fortunately for us, they all leave early to see a show. The rest of our group now enjoy the balance of our evening meal without the huge distraction of these three jokers. Now we can talk freely about them and talk we do!

At 7:30pm we head to the Princess Theater to see Simon Defer-Wyatt who plays guitar and tells jokes. He's just OK. Next it's the Explorer"s Lounge for the Liar's Club game show followed by the same guys we listened to last night, Mosaic. I think they're the best entertainment on the ship. We danced to "Uptown Funk You Up", "Celebration", "Feeling Lucky" and a bunch of disco songs. It was 11pm when we made the trek back to our room for the night. We set our clocks back one more hour tonight, giving us an additional hour of sleep again but we have a busy day tomorrow. We arrive in Hilo at 8am and we're scheduled for a helicopter ride to Kilauea Caldera and Volcanoes National Park.

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Photos

Site of the Accident
Move along folks - Nothing to see here