Wednesday, December 2: Nearing Rio

On duty at the Coffee Connection this morning, I heard that one of the passengers was very sick. She had an intestinal obstruction and had been in the ship’s hospital for two days. Without the implements necessary to clear the obstruction, the doctor could only keep her comfortable. Her husband told friends (with whom I was sitting) that the ship was sending for a helicopter in order to transfer her to Rio and then they would go home to Palm Beach by private plane.
Most of the other conversation at Coffee Connection was (again) about who had achieved which level of privilege by traveling what number of nights aboard. Although most of those to whom I talked didn’t know how many nights were needed for what level, they all knew what level they had achieved, accompanied by which of the following perks: free laundry, free dry cleaning, free telephone service, free computer time, free daily papers (the ship provides faxes of the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the LA Times), priority of seating reservations in the two upgrade restaurants on the ship – Prime 7 (a steak house) and Signatures (a gourmet French restaurant) and deep discounts on future cruises so long as the booking is made while they’re on board. I continue to find this odd but it does establish a kind of social pecking order. “Well, we’re gold. I think Monica and Lee are only silver.”
My own status aboard is another matter entirely and not clearly established by such criteria. As I’ve said, I’m both a host and a guest, depending on the time of day and whether we’re in port or at sea. Most of the crew treats me like a guest, including Cary (“as in Cary Grant”) the Filipino head waiter in the main restaurant: The Compass Rose. But the waitress in the Horizon Lounge, where most of my duties are centered, will not pay any attention to me unless I’m seated with a paying guest. At cocktails and later, at dancing, she walks right by my table without saying hello or offering me a drink. Not that it matters much to me – I’ve had only two cocktails since boarding the ship and drink mostly soda water – but I find the distinction and the difference in the way I’m approached very interesting. But then, maybe Silvia is just a disagreeable person in general.
Today in dance class, we learned a routine in the quick step, a dance one would never use aboard because the steps are long and complicated and there would never be room to do them on the two small dance floors on the ship. This seems a shame to me. Most guests will only use them once they get home, if then, and if they’re like me, the routine will have long been forgotten. The only logical reason to learn them is because Olena and Sasha want to teach them. One of my recommendations at the end of the cruise to the firm that selects us is that candidates, like me, should have both a deeper and broader knowledge of dances like salsa, bolero, tango and meringue.
I met Gabriele (the correct spelling of her name) at cocktails. It was a formal night and she was beautifully dressed in lavender silk with a gold silk scarf thrown over one shoulder. She wanted me to help her with the functions on her camera – most of the guests know how to point and shoot but not how to take advantage of their camera’s many features. Fernando and Nayara were to give further demonstrations of their incredible dance skills and Gabriele wanted to use her camera’s motion picture recording capabilities to record them. I showed her how to do that and she thought me a genius. How little it does take to please some women!
I spent most of the afternoon sitting outside on my favorite deck, mostly unpopulated except by a few guests who have found its obscure location on Deck Five. (The action is all on the Pool Deck on Eleven.) I can hide there, pulling my baseball cap down low over my eyes and reading. I’ve just finished the “Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” (try saying that quickly five times!) and thoroughly enjoyed it. No challenge but a sweet book nonetheless. After putting it aside, I peeked out from under my Peru Rail baseball cap and tried to think about what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.
Dinner was with Diane (“from near Tampa”); Nancy (of Donna and Nancy); Anne, a gawky-seeming tall and thin lady from South Africa who, by virtue of looking at you through the bottoms of her bifocals, her chin raised to heaven, seems to breath superior air; Patrick (of the manor house) and Heinz. Nancy and Patrick were a little drunk (or is that redundant – can one be a “little” drunk?). I was stuck between Diane and Anne, trying desperately in my Overstocked Dot Com tuxedo to find something, anything, new to talk about.
After dinner, at the show, Lorraine apologized for the Captain’s absence and explained to the crowd that he was busy with the medical emergency and transfer. While we were all distracted by the Crew Follies – members of the housekeeping staff and the waiters perform traditional acts from their homelands – the medical transfer to the helicopter occurred. The plane couldn’t land on the ship and the patient had to be lifted up into the helicopter on a winch, a very difficult and precise maneuver.
At dancing, after diner, Fernando and Nayara gave yet another demonstration of their extreme talent in the samba and then split up, moving among the guests, asking members of the crowd to dance with them. Nayara came straight to me, saying through her thick Brazilian accent that she had not danced with me nearly enough. I remembered enough rumba to give her a twirl around the dance floor. The facts that she is very beautiful indeed and was wearing a balloon bottom turquoise silk dress gave me the courage to steer her comfortably through my meager routing. She and Fernando are leaving the ship tomorrow. I will miss them. They’re not only great dancers (and great teachers), they’re also beautiful and fun. How can you go wrong with that combination?
Sarge, the fat boy comedian, took to the stage after dancing and heckled the audience with his schtick. It wasn’t really funny. I left in the middle of it for much needed rest. Stay tuned.