Ahoy, mateys!

For years, my parents have planned to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary by taking the entire family, however many there were of us by then, on an Alaska cruise. That particular anniversary has not yet arrived, but all thirteen of us plus one will be leaving next Sunday. My parents were worried that disaster might strike before the actual fiftieth, so we're seizing the day and striking while the iron is hot.

(Family inventory: older adults (parents); self, adult siblings, and spouses for each (total: 6); girls aged 10, 5, and 1; boys ages 9 and 7; and young German woman, former au pair now part of family.)

Coincidentally, Vicki over at I Love Orange and her entire extended family have just gone on nearly the same cruise, on the occasion of her mother's 80th birthday. She's doing a very wonderful job of documenting the whole trip right now. It's been helpful for me, because I can show Joe a little of what to expect. This is good because we discovered some time ago that the boys were very concerned about the safety of the cruise. A little library research proved that nearly all media—books, films, video games—with any kind of nautical theme (all of which seem aimed at boys) are all about disaster: pirates, terrorists, shipwreck. Yikes! No wonder they were worried. We tried to reassure them that the ship was very large and not likely to sink. "The Titanic was a big ship," they said, stony-faced. I think they still don't quite believe our claims that the trip will be more about buffets and shuffleboard than cutlasses, pieces of eight, and being stranded on a desert island.

Speaking of the Titanic, there will be two formal nights that we will be required to dress for. This is not really a problem for Henry and me, since we do go to the opera regularly and  we have decent-looking sparkly clothes. (I did consider seeing if I could find matching powder blue outfits; a tuxedo with a ruffly shirt and patent leather shoes for him, a bride's maid nightmare for me.... but this seemed not sufficiently appreciative or respectful to the givers of the gift of the trip.) My sister, however, was anxious, so yesterday some of us did some Rodeo-Drive-style boutique shopping at Value World (formerly Value Village, but they expanded. Why think small? Think Napoleonic!) I went into thrift-shop mode, scanning each rack quickly for high-end fabrics  and cuts and pulling out everything that might be worth a second look. Emma, who's 10, greeted everything with, "That's sooo cute! I love it! Can I get it?" Nadin, who's six feet tall and slim, and would look fabulous in just about anything but would rather wear jeans and a t-shirt, looked through a few racks in a desultory way and rejected everything I suggested (including, sadly, a deep purple silk shirt with pin tucks and flowing sleeves). Karen found a velvet shirt and some embroidered silk pants almost immediately, and spent the rest of the time we were there saying "I'm done shopping! Let's go now!"

I left Value World empty-handed, but that's okay. I've already got my tiara all packed.

Comments

[Vicki in MIchigan]

Too bad I didn't document the shuffleboard........ :-)

They have a kids' area that is supervised so adults can drop off kids who are too little to roam the ship alone. I don't know any more about it than that.

I was up there looking for my nephew one evening (the teen area is right next to the smaller kid area). I didn't find my nephew (who is 14), but I was challenged (politely) when I walked into the smaller kid area during my search.

I bet you already know that there will be a lifeboat drill the first evening. Just so everyone can be emotionally prepared. Everyone puts on their lifejacket and goes to their lifeboat station, and then waits for all the slackers who don't get the meaning of the word "mandatory" to be rounded up and forced to join the law-abiders amongst us.

We didn't get into any lifeboats, just learned where to go (and how to put on the lifepreserver thing).

The day between Vancouver and Ketchican is the only day you can feel the sea. At least, it was the only day we felt the sea. The ship rolled very gently from side to side. I thought it was rather pleasant, until I got a migraine (completely unrelated to the motion of the ship), and then the nausea that accompanies a migraine was exacerbated by the motion..... It was a little disconcerting to watch the horizon go up and down....... It doesn't do that, where I come from!

[Vicki in MIchigan]

Thinking on -- the only scary thing I encountered on the whole trip was a sea anemone in a tank at the Sea Life Center in Seward that we were allowed to touch if we wanted.

They told me it couldn't hurt me, and it did not hurt me, but it would have if it could have..... And that wasn't even on the ship.

Nothing scary.

You can tell him that you know that a 14-yr-old boy just went on the very same ship and had a wonderful time, no bad things happened, let alone any disasters.....

I think the baddest thing that happened was wanting ice cream at one of the times when no ice cream was available........ :-)

[Vicki in MIchigan]

I keep thinking of one more thing and one more thing.

I'll mind my manners and say "thanks for the kind words!" :-)

You know there are laundromats right on the ship, right?

I didn't want to do wash on vacation, but my sil and niece did laundry. I can't remember how much it cost to use the machines.

I went to Value World and stocked up on camp shirts so I had enough that, with a little judicious re-wearing, I wouldn't need to do any laundry.

[Vicki in MIchigan]

ps -- did you tell Karen that I wore black jeans and camp shirts to "formal nights"? I did, and no one even looked cross-eyed at me. At least, not to my face. :-)

[Elizabeth]

I told everyone about your formal wear, so no one is truly worried. :) But Karen's velvet shirt is very attractive AND comfy AND it cost $3, so what can be wrong about that?

[Vicki in MIchigan]

Not a thing. Not suggesting she shouldn't dress up, just stating it's not strictly necessary. :-)