Travel Rogue

May 11, 2005

Did I say Chicago? I meant a cruise ship...

What I said yesterday about the Chicago summer making up for a loooong winter...nix that. Woke up this morning to the sound of thunder and lightning right overhead, and a very chilly wind blowing in off the lake. We're right back to the beginning of winter, but whoops, it's May.

In the only fantasy I can summon given the circumstances: It's not a massive storm front, but rather spray coming off the ocean as I lay snuggled in a king size bed in my balcony suite on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Then again, I have been on a cruise once, for business. Not so much. 24/7 I had to be "on." It was business/social networking all around the clock, and there was absolutely no escape. My room was positively tiny, with a twin size bed. The even tinier shower stall had enough room to step in, turn around, and step out. Instead of little bottles of frou-frou shampoo, conditioner and lotion, we got product samples from various manufacturers. If I have to rip open an envelope of shampoo with my teeth, I am not a happy camper. I ended up spending more time in the one and only redeeming spot on the entire ship. The gym, which was glorious with its hot tub underneath a skylight, and the stationary bikes angled so that it felt as though you were biking right into the ocean. Even the gym showers were nice, beautifully slate tiled with rain showerheads and the minty smell of eucalyptus. When the ship docked at its one port, Nova Scotia, everything was gray and flavorless. I couldn't even tell if I had left the States. Everything was so bland, we could've been dropped on Staten Island. Alas, we disembarked, walked down a sidewalk that curved not out of necessity or decor, but rather out of habit, and spent three hours in a Canadian Irish pub. The quaintest bit of the whole onboard experience were the face cloth frogs left on our beds instead of mints. I suppose I would give the whole cruise deal another shot, but only with a bunch of friends and nothing in my briefcase but a passport, a bikini and a bottle of tanning oil.

Posted by carolyn at May 11, 2005 10:33 PM

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