Many times I am asked what my favorite cruise was. I always say I loved them all, which I did! However, I must admit that the one I'm reminiscing about today always pops into my mind--for several reasons. It was certainly our most unique.
It began at the Long Beach, CA airport on March 6, 2003. Now I DO have a favorite ship, and we were cruising on it--the Crystal Harmony. And it was a Big Band Cruise. Jack loved big band music. Oh, and the destination? Tokyo by way of the Hawaiian Islands!
The timing was a little questionable--there were lots of rumblings in Iraq. This made Jack more nervous than it did "the eternal optimist." In the lounge where we waited to board the ship, it became very obvious that we weren't going to have a big crowd on board! Well, that was an understatement. This ship holds 954 passengers (love the size), but there were 90 on board as we sailed away. There were many more crew members than passengers.
(Hot Chocolate out of my Crystal Harmony mug as I blog!)
When the 7 longs and 1 short sounded for the life boat drill and we opened our door, there was not one person in our hall! (It is usually a mob scene--at that time with everyone in his or her life vest!) It was downright eerie. Here we are at our first formal dinner
After asking the first couple of nights for one of these much sought after "tables for two by the windows," we noticed the maitre 'd was snickering as he granted our request! We looked around and realized everyone was sitting by the windows! Just lined up along each side!
Here was our Big Band--Ted Herman. The singer is Beryl Davis, an amazing 85 years young! Her signature song from many years ago was I'll Be Seeing You sung with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
This was a 16 day cruise. I think our kids were worried about our ability to stay busy and entertained for that long. The main reason that was not a problem is that Crystal has more activities than any other cruise line I have ever been on. In addition to the big band, we had a physician whose lectures we never missed, a darling little Japanese girl who taught us to speak a few phrases and write our names in Japanese, something called "Repertory at Sea," like mini plays, and more. I took a John Grisham book to read and did not even finish it as I remember.
One of my most fun memories of the trip involves a special live camera set up in the Harmony's computer lab. We coordinated times with Jay and Terri (the Metzgers were out of town), went to the lab, and J & T were able to see us! Of course, it wouldn't do for us to just hold up our "Aloha" sign, I had to have us dress up! We put on our life jackets and our old dead leis. My humor did not transmit well, and J & T couldn't imagine what was goin' on! (Neither could the few fellow cruisers who saw us!)
P.S. The captain told us during the trip that the assault on Iraq had begun. I'm glad that didn't keep us from going!
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