The Traveling Blogcrastinator: A Tale of Two Ciders

The weekend will be scrunched together into one long burst of indolence (and very few photos to show for it). It was extremely pleasant.

We were originally scheduled to be in Maui on the 14th, but we all know how that sad story ends. Lahaina became another victim of climate change, fueled by mismanagement. We will be stopping in Moorea later in the cruise instead of Maui.

The most notable thing that happened on Saturday occurred when I ordered some cider at dinner time, right after we sat down. (I prefer hard cider to wine - it doesn’t give me a headache.) I didn’t get the cider until dessert, and only then due to a heroic effort by the servers, the waiters, the bar staff, our head waiter, and the maitre d’.

There are around 17 bars on this ship. It turned out that 16 of them had run out of cider. The 17th had two bottles left - Angry Orchard, if you’re interested.) Strongbow is on the menu, but I only had it once on this cruise, so far.

This is the story of how I got cider: after a long wait, the waiter came back to tell me he had checked everywhere and the ship was completely out of cider, but he had one more bar to check. I said that’s ok, don’t worry, no need to keep checking, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He went somewhere and called the final bar, and came back to tell me they had two bottles, and would I like him to get one for me. I thanked him and said that’s ok, don’t worry, I’m almost done eating, I don’t want it now, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He said he would get it. He was gone for a long time.

He came back with a bottle of Angry Orchard and apologized for the delay, saying the bar that had it was at the far end of the ship and that’s why he was gone so long, and would I like it now or tomorrow. I said I would like it now, thinking to myself that I wouldn’t be back in this dining room after tonight. But he wouldn’t take yes for an answer. He said, okay, I will keep it for you and have it ready for you tomorrow. By this time, I think at least one other waiter was there trying to solve the problem. I said I think I would like it now. He said it would be ok if I had it tomorrow. I put my head down on my arms. I raised my head and tried to talk, but could not find my voice. Someone said I wanted it now. The waiter went away again and came back with a beer glass full of ice (!) and poured me some cider. By this time, the head waiter had arrived to help solve the problem.

Every time I tried to drink it, the ice slid toward the top of the glass and hit my nose, but I was determined to drink the cider. The ice started to melt and dilute the cider, but I kept drinking it. Ken spooned the ice out and poured more cider into my glass. I drank it and it was much better without ice hitting my nose, but I still had some in the bottle, so I brought it with me. On the way out, the maitre d’ and the hostess stopped me to make sure everything was ok. They told me they would have cider waiting for me tomorrow. So now I am The Cider Lady.

On Sunday, the cider arrived as soon as I sat down. There was no ice. All was good and I was grateful and relieved to know that this was the last bottle of cider on the ship. They really do try hard to get things right. And they did get it right!

Sunday’s cappuccino was very cute. A whale and Nemo!

We had lunch with some new friends from Ontario. The lunch in the buffet had a Hawaiian theme, complete with fruit carvings of a monkey (I know, it’s not a Hawaiian animal) and a tiki god.