Adventures with Cinderella

I can't believe that's what you thought of when you read the post title, you smutmonger.

So. The cruise was spectacular indeed. We arrived fairly early to check-in, after amusing a security guard with my Australian passport. I'm sure most Aussies find something more exciting to do in Sweden, or they don't know about how drunk everyone gets. The nice lady at the desk decided that we looked like wonderful people and upgraded us to a B cabin instead of a C. I think the difference was carpet, a mirror, a bigger bathroom and a couch that folded out of one of the beds. That, and we didn't have to take an elevator to the bowels of the ship. No, we were located on deck 6, one under the gaming level, two under the restaurants.

My initial reaction to getting on the boat was claustrophobia. The roof was lower than I thought it would be and I felt boxed in. That passed rather quickly. Ash and I dumped our stuff in our cabin and, spotting cheap drink vouchers, went in search of a bar. We wandered outside and watched the ship take off, then searched high and low for a bar that was actually open. We finally found one and settled into the cafeteria to drink down our Apple vodka, lime and 7-up cocktails. Eh, they were fairly good. Nothing spectacular. So, we traipsed every so slightly tipsy to the duty free.

They were pimping Jacob's Creek, which I thought was fairly funny. (Standard-ish Aussie wine, served on Qantas flights.) I passed on buying cheap tequila, figuring that having shots then sitting around here wouldn't really be in the spirit. (But I will buy some next time and bring it to NY. Hee. ) Instead, I picked up duty free Kahlua and Baileys, figuring that I can combine them nicely, and or sit around and drink them while watching TV. Such snug drinks they are. I also got my hands on a large bag of M&Ms. Mmm, chocolate. Everyone else on the ship was buying up big, most people had even thought to bring a little trolley to carry their cases of beer/several bottles of gin.

After duty free, we booked into the fancy restaurant (which was pretty much the same price as the Tapas bar, but I felt like real food) and wandered around until our table was ready. Ash played some computerised card games, and I had a go on the pokies. Annoyed that I seemed to lose, I went and played a video game instead. I shot the baddies, I shot them good.

Finally, we had dinner. I was starving! The menu was fairly elaborate, consisting mainly of fish dishes. I felt faintly queasy from the ship motion, and don't really like fish all that much anyway... so I was a bogan and ordered a hamburger. (What!? It was on the menu...) Ash did too. But I had a coke, while she had wine. I felt like such a bogan... Argh. But it was very tasty. There was a guy in the bar (just behind the main restaurant bit) playing piano and singing along. He did Norah Jones with some woman, and also The House of the Rising Sun. Surprisingly good dinner music. (Yeah, like Jones wasn't THE dinner music of 2002.)

After dinner we went to the cabin and collapsed for a while. We ended up pulling the mattresses out of the beds and putting them on the floor so we could snuggle. Still, there was bugger all room. After making out for a while, we decided to go have another drink and see what we could find to do. There was a band called 'The Good Timers' playing at the main bar/dance floor bit. You can guess what kind of music they were playing. Yes, it was Drifters and swing classics. Not that I mind. There were 20+ couples getting funky on the dance floor. Well, when I say getting funky, I actually mean clinging to each other and swaying. But they looked like they were having fun, so bless. Some of them were 60 and over. Aw, older married people are sort of cute.

Ash and I grabbed a cocktail (mojito and tequila sunrise) and found a cosy corner. When they played 'I Will Survive' I pulled her onto the dance floor. Then they played slower songs, and couples kept whacking into us. One guy shot me a filthy look. I wasn't sure if it was because Ash and I were dancing rather terribly, or if he objected to us for being girls. We left anyway, and headed towards 'Club Seven' the ship's nightclub.

The music was pretty dodgy, and there were sleazy old men everywhere, but we had a bit of a dance. We sort of wandered in and out of there over the night. There was another girl couple making out on the dance floor, and some stupid guy kept pushing their heads together. Idiot. Oh, and someone tackled another guy and punched someone out. Security was not impressed. It was slightly funny to watch, though.

After dancing up a storm, we staggered back to the cabin, had a shower and went to sleep in our tiny little bed. Twas cozy. But still, cramped. I woke up in the morning and had to get up and move around.

Breakfast was half a sandwich and a cup of tea. We were on our way to all-you-can-eat buffet, so we didn't want to fill up. We wandered the ship, bought wine, then tucked into a huuuuge lunch. Ash had four helpings and two desserts. I barely made it through two. When we were done, Ash was so full her belly had gone all hard. Aw. We also drank rather a lot of beer. Well, Ash did. I had bad, bad red wine. Yuck. Well, it was from a tap (like beer) so no need to colour me surprised.

After that, we collapsed again to recover, packed, then played more video games (Dance Dance Revolution, I kicked arse and air hockey, I kicked arse again because Ash had never played...) and went to have yet another round of drinks. Mojito again for Ash and Harvey Wallbanger for me. Mmm, cocktails. After that, we were thrown off and came home, to play dead fish.

Photos tomorrow!