We are ready to embark on our new adventure this summer. We decided that since June will be our fiftieth wedding anniversary, we would take a Mediterranean cruise around Italy ending in Barcelona. After many days of surfing on the web, John found a perfect cruise that would satisfy our quest for dipping into the Italian peninsula. He found that the Carnival Cruise Lines was presenting a great deal on the refurbished carnival Sunshine. He looked into it and found that it would be a great adventure with an element of risk and the potential to explore great ports of call. The risk comes from the recent problems that Carnival is having with its cruise ships, and the possibilities of risk with a new furbished ship may spark another mystery novel in my wild imagination.
The ship first set sail in 1995 under the name Destiny. After seventeen years of service it sailed into dry dock in northern Italy. For the next forty-nine days it sat in the Fincantieri ship yard near Venice to get a complete face lift and organ transplant! Three thousand people from all over the world came together for this transformation. One thousand workers and two thousand contractors lived together on a cruise ship docked in an adjacent slip. They worked day and night to refurbish the ship. State rooms were remodeled and some were added in module form. The Lido deck added more restaurants remodeling the Italian, Asian, Latin restaurants and added a state of the art steak house. The show lounge is one of the biggest changes making it possible for use all day and night with the game shows going on during the day, the shows in the evening, and then the night club and disco evolving into play until the wee hours of the night. The show lounge has added huge LED screens for lighting and visual effects that will add excitement to the performances. We can't wait for this delight!
Since we are still kids in spirit, we are going to also make use of the sports activities outside. The ship has a sky course similar to the Tree UMPH three miles east of our home in Florida. The system has suspended walkways that people maneuver as they cross walking on ropes, logs, nets and slide down on zip lines. There is no fear of falling since you are tethered to the top line at all times. This new ship will also have a water park with water slides that snake around the deck measuring three New York City blocks! A pair of slides called, The Race Track, is fifty feet high and two sliders take off at the same time and slide down parallel slides racing to the finish line. Now that will be fun and a nice science experiment to find out who wins: a one hundred pound female or a one hundred-sixty pound male????
We selected a state room with a balcony above the Serenity Lounge. This is an area for adults only with its own pool and spa. This whole section was lifted onto the ship with the huge crane just like the top layer of a cake. Our room on the eleventh floor will be quite different from our "honeymoon suite" three decks below the main deck on the last voyage of the Lurline. Fifty years ago I got the choice of top or bottom bunk. I chose the top because I didn't want my lover-husband falling on me in the middle of the night! Thinking about that time now seems like a blur filled with champagne, sea sickness and all... With the passage of time the only remembrance is a black and white photo taken of us winning the costume contest dressed as Anthony and Cleopatra. We were both look trim and young with stars still shining in our eyes!
Out next adventure on a ship was the brief week of working on a ship. We entertained the thought of working on a ship and traveling all over the world. Since we were in between jobs, we joined the ship as personal trainers in the gym which was right up our alley. Well, being a worker is not all its cracked out to be, and we decided it was not for us. The experience did give me an incentive to write a mystery the novel, "Cruise of Deception," which launched a new literary career that is still unfolding . Who knows maybe this will be anew adventure that will spark a fresh idea for another novel!
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