Tonight's picture was taken on July 29 of 2008. If you look closely you can see that Mattie's veins in his hand are black and blue from IVs. Mattie was just like me, starting an IV in our arms is close to impossible. So the hands are usually used! Which is painful. However, you will also notice a bandage on Mattie's arm. This was from the bone biopsy he had to confirm that the tumor in his right arm was indeed osteosarcoma. Mattie had several biopsies since he had four primary tumors. Which is why his case was so rare. Needless to say it wasn't only the treatment of cancer that was frightening, the whole diagnosis process was terrorizing for us and especially Mattie.
Facts of the day: The Alboran Sea is the westernmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, lying between Spain on the north and Morocco and Algeria on the south. The Strait of Gibraltar, which lies at the west end of the Alboran Sea, connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean. The Alboran Sea is habitat for the largest population of bottlenose dolphins in the western Mediterranean, is home to the last population of harbour porpoises in the Mediterranean, and is the most important feeding grounds for loggerhead sea turtles in Europe. The Alboran sea also hosts important commercial fisheries, including sardines and swordfish.
Ahoy and hello from the Alboran Sea! We are now sailing towards Barcelona paralleling the south coast of Spain. Early this morning around 4am we passed through the straits of Gibraltar, and having cleared them we are now continuing onwards to Barcelona where we will arrive on Wednesday morning. Since this marks the fourth day we are at sea including counting the day we sailed, I will get the requisite ocean and water shots out of the way up front! Sorry I do not have more interesting pictures of the ocean, but here are a few from this morning. I do have to comment though that it is refreshing to actually see land for a change even if it is off in the distance. I can only imagine what life was like back in the days of early ocean voyages on wind-powered ships when they would go weeks and months without seeing any signs of land, and the joy they must have felt once they did find land. Having been at sea for three straight days with no land sightings, I must say I was pleased to actually see some terra firma this morning, not to mention mountains with snow on them!
Last night in the dining room, we learned an interesting dimension about our cruise. But first let me tell you about dessert last night. When preparing for the cruise, one may request that a special event or date be recognized while on board Examples include the typical milestones like an anniversary or a birthday (they tend to be events that can be celebrated and are a happy affair).
Vicki’s parents notified the ship during the booking process that Vicki would be celebrating her birthday, so sure enough Vicki received a happy birthday card and placard taped to the cabin’s front door yesterday wishing her a happy birthday, and at dinner, she was surprised with a little chocolate cake and the wait staff sang happy birthday to her. I captured Vicki and her dessert below in the picture. I also snapped a picture of Vicki and her parents at our table (#19) which is seated right next to a window.
The human element of any cruise is always a source of endless entertainment and intrigue. From the wait staff, to the other staff on the ship, the entertainers and the cabin stewards, we always find out something about each of the people who interact regularly with us. Working on a cruise ship has to be a very hard routine with long hours, lots of hard work, living within the confinement of a ship that is only so large, and of course the isolation from your family and home. During the many cruises we have taken and through careful and thorough questioning, we have come to learn in part what life is like working on cruise ship. I will spare you the details, but I give a lot of credit to all staff who choose to work on a cruise ship as it requires great dedication and commitment and struggle.
The other interesting component to our cruise is of course the obvious: our fellow passengers! We always speculate who they are, where they are from and we watch the dynamics of how passengers interact with both each other and more importantly with the staff of the ship. Our interesting aspect learned last night was about this last point of how the make-up of the passenger population really influences the tone, pace and feeling on a ship. We learned last night that over 90% of the passengers on this cruise are British. In fact, the ship has been doing cruises out of Southampton for the last three months, but curiously (or not so curious once you keep reading below), the cruises to the warmer destinations have been dominated with British passengers. The heavy representation of non-Americans on our cruise is a real change from all of our prior cruises.
We began learning from some of the crew and staff that they too see the differences in how the composition of the passenger population impacts the routines, preferences, scheduling, entertainment and even the menu selections on a cruise. We peppered our wait staff and others last night seeking their input and observations about some of the nuances and differences when a cruise consists predominantly of Americans versus the British. Some the differences we are seeing are marginal and other differences are actually refreshing. However, we have noticed that we are frequently in the minority on multiple fronts. Here is what we have observed and learned so far: the “British” typically get up later in the morning versus the “Americans” who get up and get out and moving very early (this was an actual quote from one of the staff). The British usually take a light breakfast later in the morning, and save themselves for afternoon tea and then a late dinner whereas Americans tend to stay scheduled for a midday lunch and an evening dinner.
These differences are not that dramatic nor are either group right or wrong, but rather, they are just different. The net effect though is that breakfast at the buffet topside is very slow first thing in the morning, and then gets mad-crazy late morning as the balance of the British start rising and wanting something to eat. On prior cruises the buffet had to be reach early or else you would not get a seat. Lunch in the formal dining room is practically deserted as most Brits have taken their morning meal already and are waiting for the mid-afternoon tea to fresh-up their appetites, and then dinner is late, starting at 8:15 and is very busy. The Brits tend to stay up later at night and then the cycle repeats. This creates a different feeling on the ship relative to our own habits and behaviors as we keep wondering “where are all the people?!” Having this insight helps us to make better sense of what we are experiencing on board.
We have also noticed that the menu selections vary from prior years. Mind you we took many US-based cruises that catered to an American population on-board, and as a result, Princess catered to the traditional food preferences seen in America. However, now that the vast majority of this cruise and the last three months of warm destinations on this ship have catered to the British crowd, we are seeing this reflected in the food selections on board. For example: lamb, in some way, shape or form, has been on the menu each night since we got on board. We have also seen a lot of beef and pork with cuts that include the bone, and lots of fish, particularly fried fish as well as potatoes served in a myriad of styles and formats. In fact, each day there is an English Pub Lunch run out of the Wheelhouse Bar where they serve fish and chips and other traditional English Pub fare, not to mention serving beer (since they are in a pub). We also learned that the British tend to remain consistent regarding their menu choices and finish their meals, whereas the Americans tend to sample everything and a wide variety of it thus causing the ship to stock out of certain items more frequently (again, another direct quote from one of the ship staff).
The entertainment is also geared towards the British crowd as we have seen English musicians, performers, and comedians. To be honest, I really do not get British humor, but I will always play along. But let me tell you how disconcerting it is to be sitting in an audience of 500 plus people where everyone is laughing at jokes and you don’t understand why. It is almost like they are speaking a foreign language, one you recognize but cannot understand.
We have also heard, but not yet seen in action as we have been at sea since we sailed from Southampton, that the Brits tend to spend only a few hours on shore at a port and then spend the rest of the time back on the ship, whereas the Americans tend to jump off the ship and spend as much time in port as possible thereby leaving the ship deserted during the port days. So we’ll see if this happens once we hit Barcelona and the subsequent stops starting on Wednesday.
The final difference has to do with the sun-seekers. We have noticed a huge propensity for the people on the cruise this time to seek out the sun. We can now almost predict where the people will congregate on the ship when the sun is out! We suspect that since the weather may not be as good in England that many travelers have come aboard to reach the Mediterranean and soak in as many of the sun’s rays as possible starting with the days at sea. I must say that there is a disproportionately large concentration of people seeking the sun on this particular cruise more so than I have seen on prior cruises to the Caribbean. I have to admit though, if the sun were not so bad for us then I would be right along-side them also soaking in the sun!
Just to be clear, when I say “British” I mean people from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. I know most of the groups other than the English would probably bop me on the head for saying they are British, as we are seeing the differences firsthand between these groups on board. It is the differences between these groups that I find fascinating! We met many people on board and chatted with them including a lovely lady from Wales who told us all about Wales and the copper and coal mines. We also chatted with several ladies from Scotland and England commenting on topics like the challenges of the zumba class as well as the difficulty in knowing where one is on the ship at any given point and the confusion that creates. I have the blessing of a great sense of direction, so I am regularly providing navigational directions about the ship to those lost souls (not to mention to my own tribe as well).
So enough about the differences between Brits and Americans on the cruise! I got up early this morning and hit the gym once again and did my workout, and then returned to the room and accompanied Vicki to zumba. It was another good zumba class and had me sweat-soaked after 50 minutes! What this tells me is I need to increase the intensity of my existing workouts as I am now up to 90 minutes of aerobic activity per day and it feels good. We then attended a lecture that is part of a series of sessions presented by Dai Davies, the former head of security for the British Royal Family, and who is an entertaining and captivating speaker. Dai spoke about what it was like to protect Princess Diana and to deal with threats against the Royals including the sequence of events on the night that Diana died from a car crash in Paris in 1997. We then had lunch in the dining room, and afterwards we searched in vain for a deck chair to sit upon topside, which proved to be a fool’s errand (see comments above about the sun-seekers). We’ll see what the rest of the afternoon and evening have in store for us, but if prior days are any indication of what might lie ahead of us, then it should prove to be interesting to say the least!
Last, I cannot leave the blog without sharing my own experiences regarding why this blog was started in the first place. As I mentioned a few night ago, I have two pictures of Mattie posted in the cabin so that I can see him regularly when I want to. I’m sure some of you probably think me strange or morbid, but the pictures are all I have left of my son, and with each passing day (today is day 1,421 since Mattie died), Mattie’s memory gets one further day away from all of us. It is a special torture to have had someone so dear and so special and so full of possibilities and a bright future ripped away from you, especially when he was only 7 year old and had only begun to live his life. But it is an equally awful torture to slowly see the memory of who Mattie was and what he was all about slip away from you and the world one day at a time. My advice for those who have to interact with someone who has lost a child: be brave, have courage, be strong and ask that person about their child. Do not be afraid that you might cause them pain or make them feel worse, as there is nothing you can say that will make them feel any worse than they already have. The greatest gift I receive, albeit less frequently with each passing day, month and year, is being asked about Mattie and seeing that someone remembers him or remembers to ask me about him. Like any good parent, I could go on forever talking about my child, and although mine is no longer alive, I still want to talk about my son….
On that brighter note, we continue to sail east/northeast hugging the coastline of Spain and we will be doing so until tomorrow morning when we pull into Barcelona harbor and tie-up to the dock. We have a tour scheduled of Barcelona that will take us to Parc Guell and Gaudi’s famous (and unfinished) cathedral La Sagarda Familia and some other sights, and then back to the ship, so be on the lookout for pictures! Thank you again for following along and for continuing to be interested in our story!
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