End of a Fantastic Trip

I'm writing on Tuesday from home in Portland, having returned on Saturday. The trip had a wonderful mix of time in the water, other interesting experiences, socializing, and, for lack of a better phrase, post-pandemic normalcy.

Toward the end of the cruise we had our first “weather.” A bit of rain and wind, and a lot of the boat rocking. One night at dinner, in a moment of pure geeky fun, a few of us tried to calculate how far the boat rocked side to side. What angle is the rocking at – one person pulls out a protractor on their phone, I pull out a level, a third person pulls out a different tool and we agree to use ±2^o for calculation purposes. Where’s the ship’s center of gravity, hmm, we know deck 4 is just above the water line and the center of gravity is below the water line, let’s assume deck 1. Assume 10 feet (about 3 meters) per floor even though we know there’s some variability, assume 15 decks (the buffet is on deck 16 but there are some higher decks and there’s no deck 13). So given the length of one side (150 feet) and one angle (2^o) we should be able to calculate the rest. We referred back to our fading collective knowledge of trigonometry and convince ourselves that tangent is opposite over adjacent so we calculate that the “short side” of the triangle (the port-starboard rock) is 5.238 feet which we round to 60 inches or 4 inches (10 cm) per floor.

Don was at the other end of the table, so he didn’t get to participate in the calculations. I shared it with him later and he said “Chief Soh-Coh-Toa.” I’d never been introduced to the Chief, and Don explained sine over hypotenuse (soh), cosine over hypotenuse (coh), tangent over adjacent (toa). Who said cruising couldn’t be educational! In any case, I was pleased to have Bonine (meclizine, an antihistimaine used to treat motion sickness) available.

Although our ship did in Costa Maya – at least one other ship did not – my snorkeling expedition was cancelled which wasn’t exactly disappointing since I’d actually had enough time in the water after three incredible consecutive days. So, no snorkeling in Mexico though I did get to snorkel this trip in Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Honduras and Belize (I’ve previously snorkeled in Hawaii, Thailand, US and British Virgin Islands, Australia, Dominica, St. Lucia, Bonaire, Curacao, and Aruba in some world-class snorkeling locations). Guess this means I’ll have to return one day.

Instead, Don and I took a long, hot, humid and sweaty walk to and back from the nearest cache, probably about 2 miles/3km total. On the way we met some cachers from our group who were returning. On the way back we met different cachers from our group who were headed there, and also stopped at a store I’d noticed on the way. Needless to say, the store offered much better and more authentic shopping than the fake “experience” at the cruiser-only pier shops – one of which sold sorbet for $10 a scoop which I of course declined.

After making a purchase after a modest negotiation, we left the store and I saw someone dressed as an ape just outside so I asked, “photo ok?” and they nodded. After the photo they held their arms out as if wanting a hug so I handed my phone to Don who took a picture of me with the ape. Seems Sasquatch is much smaller in Mexico than in Oregon, who knew?

The last “day at sea” was sufficiently relaxing. We did have a moment to excite the adrenal glands. Don and I had paid for the ship to transit our bags from the ship to airport check-in and we would see them at our final destinations. The instructions said to place bags outside the room by a certain time, so we placed them outside just before dinner. After dinner, we returned and the bags had been picked up but luggage tags had been delivered. Uh-oh, Houston we have a problem. The first call to Guest Services resulted in….nothing. The second call, a few hours later, led to a quick and appropriate response, with our bags returned, the correct tags affixed, and then the bags went on their merry way and I next saw mine in Portland.

Disembarkation was impressively smooth. The airport offered to gate check carryon bags for free and I happily accepted their offer. My flights home were both on time, and not only did I successfully make a tight connection in Chicago, both of my bags did as well. Interestingly, there was turbulence on both flights that I typically would have found challenging, but after being on the ship I didn’t mind it all. However, three days later I’m sometimes still “feeling” the ship roll.  

Now I’m basking in the glow of a fabulous trip with a wonderful group of people, getting to see friends I rarely see, and getting to make some new friends. I will soon start planning my next adventure which will include a cruise from Rome to Amsterdam with many of the same people.