{"id":1573,"date":"2022-06-22T14:52:35","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T20:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/?p=1573"},"modified":"2022-06-22T14:52:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T20:52:35","slug":"sea-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/2022\/06\/22\/sea-day-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea Day 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Just across the walk-way from the Pig & Anchor is the American Heroes lounge. Walking in there brought tears to my eyes. Yes, really tears. There\u2019s a big sign, \u201cWELCOME HOME.\u201d There\u2019s a whole generation of heroes out there who never got that \u201cwelcome home.\u201d So, it is to them that I dedicate the rest of today\u2019s post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WELCOME HOME BROTHERS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps now it is \u201cWelcome Home Brothers & Sisters.\u201d And I\u2019m glad it is that way today. But there was a time when those who went off to war zones were virtually 100% men. And it is to the \u201cBand of Brothers\u201d to whom I\u2019m speaking now\u2026 no mater their gender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In particular, I\u2019m speaking to those who never got the welcome home. You know who you are. Perhaps it was best said in Shakespeare\u2019s historical play, Henry V:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;<\/em>\nFor he to-day that sheds his blood with me<\/em>\nShall be my brother; be he ne\u2019er so vile,\nThis day shall gentle his condition:\nAnd gentlemen in England now a-bed\nShall think themselves accursed they were not here,\nAnd hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks\nThat fought with us upon Saint Crispin\u2019s day.<\/strong>\n\nWilliam Shakespeare, Henry V, speech given by King Henry V<\/em><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll say it again\u2026 WELCOME HOME BROTHERS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here at Carnival they have taken tributes to our Military Heroes seriously. They have a Military Tribiute in the main theater. It is well done and everyone should go\u2026 not just my Brothers & sisters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The tribute opened with words of thanks and unity.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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It even included our newest brothers & sisters, the Space Cadets<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And before closing… a fitting tribute to those who never came home.
NEVER FORGET<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The American Heroes lounge has comfortable overstuffed chairs and couches. All around the lounge are walls with memorabilia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The American Heroes lounge is also the closest thing to a sports bar on the ship. Except it really isn\u2019t a bar and they only show ESPN and ESPN2 on the two big-screen TVs. Except\u2026 ESPN is really not the U.S. version of ESPN. Rather, it is the international version. So, this afternoon I\u2019m really looking forward to watching a most important cricket match between two \u201cWest Indies League\u201d teams. Who really wants to see Baseball and the like anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hummmm\u2026 the game of Cricket. Few Americans understand the game. So let me relay to you what I learned from a friend when I lived in England a few years back:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c The object of the game is for two guys, the batsmen, to stand out by the wickets and try to stay out there as long as they can so their mates can drink beer in the pavilion. The object for the opposing team is to get the batsmen out as soon as possible so they can go the pavilion and drink beer. The winning team is the one that drinks the most beers.\u201d <\/p>Paul Lathem-Jackon, Oxfordshire, England<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Seems today I\u2019m diverging from the cruise stuff, so I\u2019ll get back to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve promised to report \u201cthe good, the bad, and the ugly\u201d while doing my \u201clive froms.\u201d I\u2019ll get to those later, but today I\u2019m adding a category\u2026 \u201cThe Weird\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first weird is the way the floors are laid out on this ship. I\u2019m sure this is to amaze, confuse, and bamboozle everyone. You see, the lowest passenger accessible deck is deck 3. And that is the deck you use to get on\/off the ship when going ashore in port. This is the equivalent to deck 0 on every other carnival ship. On the Party Grass, Deck 4 is really the first passenger deck and has cabins only. The same for deck 5. Finally, you get to deck 6 which is where the promenade deck is located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now\u2026 if you were to apply Carnival\u2019s conventional numbering system\u2026 starting at deck 0 for the on\/off deck, the Prominade deck would be deck 5 on this ship. With the existing numbering system starting at 3, it appears there are 18 decks. I\u2019m sure this is to amaze you. Are you amazed? However, you\u2019re really bamboozled because there are three fewer decks than that. Actually, there are 4 fewer because they skip 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next weirdness is the floors themselves\u2026 they aren\u2019t level in a lot of places. Instead, there are little ramps between different sections of the ship. These little ramps seem to connect different sections of the ship. The ramps go up or down maybe six or 8 inches in some places, and as much as s foot or two in others. It\u2019s almost as if the engineers who designed the sections of the ship didn\u2019t talk to each other until the pieces were brought together. Then it was, OH S^&*T!!!. So they welded the pieces together as best they could and then built the little ramps to make up for it. I suspect there were some jobs lost over this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ordinarily, the little ramps aren\u2019t a big deal. Except after a few frozen concoctions to help you hang on, these little ramps surprise you. As you stumble up\/down the ramp, you grab the closest thing to get your balance back. My apologies to the buxom woman with the low-cut top. I\u2019m sure none of those pics will appear on any of the social media places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last weirdness for now is all the doors to the outside of the ship and especially doors to the bathrooms. In stead of overhead \u201cpeople sensors\u201d to open the doors to the outside areas of the ship, they have installed no-touch sensors (about 3 inches in diameter). You wave your hand in front of to get the door to open. Alternately, there are smaller \u00be inch diameter buttons you do touch on the sliding door. In the early days of the cruise, the hoards going in\/out were backed up down the isles trying to figure out how to open the doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The no-touch sensors present another couple of problems when it comes to the public bathrooms. When you wave your hand over the sensor the door opens\u2026 and stays open for about three hours. Ok\u2026 it only seems like 3 hours. If you\u2019ve really got to go, several of the doors open to expose the urinals where the men are standing. I\u2019ve seen men dancing with tears in their eyes waiting for the door to close\u2026  or exposing everything because they can\u2019t wait to get to the urinal. I sure am glad I don\u2019t drink beer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other problem with the no-touch bathroom sensors is that passing closely by them will accidentally open the door. Again, the open door exposes everything in the bathroom. I\u2019ve heard the shriek of more than one woman when someone accidentally opened the door. EEEEEK! And I\u2019ve heard numerous choruses of \u201cOcupado.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s all for today. Next up, as promised… the good, the bad, and the ugly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stay tuned\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kokomo Man<\/p>\n\n\n\n
P.S. As usual, this post with high resolution pics is posted on www.kokomoman.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just across the walk-way from the Pig & Anchor is the American Heroes lounge. Walking in there brought tears to my eyes. Yes, really tears. There\u2019s a big sign, \u201cWELCOME HOME.\u201d There\u2019s a whole generation of heroes out there who … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[84,1],"tags":[15,18,31,85,16,81,17,80,86],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1573"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1584,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1573\/revisions\/1584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}