Rocked by waves

We went to our first cruise vacation this March and I can’t believe I haven’t been able to put my thoughts together for a post, although I feel I could write volumes and paeans about it. I always wanted to take that adventure trip but we were toying with the idea for a while, when a dear friend of mine told me that they had just been on a cruise and its awesome. That just triggered it and finally we booked our trip from Miami to Bahamas.And only yesterday I watched this movie You, me aur humm…the cruise ship was exactly like the one we traveled in..maybe the same one.
Our ship, the Majesty of the Seas was truly majestic and I was held in awe by the sheer size of it!!It had 14 storeys and anything you could think of was in there. There was a huge open air swimming pool, basket ball court, mountain-climbing wall, table tennis, a fully-equipped gymn, saloon,spa , lounges, shops, world-class restaurants and theatres and auditoriums..you name it. Our room was of course not as big, but was organized and compact with a cute little bath with a tiny shower. There was a window to look at the ocean and my son loved climbing upto his loft bed!! We had food 24 hours and variety of food like a king’s buffet and free room service. And the best part was that all food was paid for in the cruise price, so we had a feast all times of the day, oblivious and unmindful of the calories and the pounds.
And the beaches at Bahamas,unlike other subfusc ones, were heavenly…. it was absolutely white sand with real turquoise waters- and that’s not an exaggeration at all. We all got tanned and itchy, despite the sunblocks we applied.And I did para-sailing for the first time in my life, my life hanging by that rope which held the parachute.That experience, I plan to write about later, sometime.But I must admit, more than the islands I enjoyed being in the ship, on the deck and just watching the waves rock us, hold us and take us places. The vastness of the ocean and the minuteness of us, humans as well as the big, mighty ship compared to the water, intrigued me all the time. And that breeze from the ocean was heavenly, instantly making you light-headed and free-spirited.
And we had this all-night dance party, an experience we had after a lot many years, the last ones being the dance parties at our college IMT, Ghaziabad. And I was amazed that the good old Macarena song still rocks the parties and we were nostalgic at that song, how everybody used to tease our fellow classmate geeky Bhalla with –“Bhalla to poora padh liya,Macarena”. And not to mention Daler Mehendi was there too once, with the DJ playing –“Bolo tara rara.” Yay, India!!
Oh, I could go on about that vacation, forever!! And they also had this supervised and organized kidscare with loads of kid activities where you could leave the kids if you wanted. And my son enjoyed being there occasionally with kids his age!! And we also caught some adult comedy shows, which I can write a little about or I would have to mark this blog as PG-13.There was this couple show, Battle of Sexes, where couples were picked randomly from the audience and asked questions separately about their spouses, to judge how well you know your partner. Men were asked if you had to buy you-know-what for your wife, what size would it be and their answers were announced in front of their wives and everybody else to check the correctness.90% of the men were wrong, because I guess, despite reality, guys always hold their fantasies near and dear. I thanked my stars that we were not picked for that game.
And the there was this fun-game Quest where there were numerous teams and the host called out from each team, people who qualified certain criteria to run to him, on stage.
Like anyone with any pills on them or a dog’s picture or a kid’s picture on them, rush to the stage. Since it was an adults-only game, many of the things were meant to have a lateral and double meaning and that made it all the more hilarious. One was that any man with a woman’s item on them, rush to the stage. And the host was an entertaining and funny fellow and he called out –
“People, you all could have simply exchanged a shoe or a ring, a bracelet, a necklace or a handbag. But you all are eager to drop your pants and wiggle out of your shirts. So, you all can see to what extent your fellow passengers can go for that petty prize key ring or coffee mug!!”