CARIBBEAN QUEEN - MARCH 1986 - Part 1 - (Romance on the High Seas)
- Aug 26, 2021
- 5 min read
MARCH 31, 1986
Monday
Well World! No more crying or feeling sorry for myself for a long time! I had the most wonderful time in my life during this cruise. What did I do? Well, have your heard of the Love Boat? I thought it wasn’t possible until this week. Here goes the details.
March 22, 1986 - FIRST Night
SATURDAY NIGHT - Arrived in San Juan about 6:30 p.m. or so. Shortly afterwards, I ate dinner and then stood on the deck to watch the ship leave harbor. It was a beautiful, clear night with the steel drum band playing in the background. It was really neat. We were given streamers to throw overboard as the ship left. In case I hadn’t mentioned before, I went with Mom, Dad, Doris, Mike and their 15 year old daughter (my roommate) Andi. We roamed all around the boat and around midnight, Andi and I went to the dance place. We sat for a while, and couldn’t stand it and went up to dance together. What the heck, we didn’t think we’d see anyone again. Anyway, we danced for some time and all the time I was scoping the crowd to see if any single guys were out there. I noticed one guy ask a girl to dance and she turned him down. I remember thinking to myself how mean that was. When he sat back down, the girl got up and danced with the other girl. (What a jerk.) Anyway, this guy sat closer to where I was. Right on the floor practically. Andi then became hot and went to take off her overshirt which left me dancing by myself. I looked over, saw him there, and motioned for him to come and dance. Andi, coming back, noticed and started to sit back down when a guy came up and danced with her. I really didn’t pay too much attention to either guy. I found out the one I was dancing with was named Don and the other guy (who happened to be his brother) was named Kevin. I did find out that night that Don was the oldest (I thought Kevin was) and that Don played a trumpet. I thought they were nice, but nothing more.
SUNDAY - A full day at sea. Andi and Doris spent all day by the pool (they’re both quite dark and they feel the more sun the better) not me. I stayed inside most of the day and played what games there were, etc. At about 4:30 p.m., Mom and I went into the Grand Salon to play a trivia game they were going to have. We couldn’t find a place to sit, and noticed Don and Kevin and suggested that we sit over there by them. Is at down and begin introducing Mom to them. I said “This is Don.” He laughed and said “JOHN.” I started laughing. Then I said to Kevin (or who I thought was Kevin) and said “Are you Kevin?” and he said “yes.” Well, one out of two ain’t bad. John (not Don) introduced his parents Bob and Jeanie. We then played the trivia game. Right after, was a musical chairs game for children and we stayed and watched that also. It was fun.
Musical Chairs for Kids - sooo cute!
Later at night, it was dinnertime (Captain’s Dinner) in which you dress up. I had on formal black pants and an Emerald green blouse and tapestry jacket. It was nice.
Later after dinner, the six of us went to hear a man play the piano in the bar. There was a sign that said you can sing along with Michelle. So “I” did for about 30 minutes or so. That was fun. John and Kevin had come by before I started singing, so they heard me.
I'm not sure what I was singing, but this sweet lady joined Mom and me and we all sang Sentimental Journey
They were wondering when Andi and I were coming dancing. After singing for a while and closing down the bar (oh the bartender gave me a free drink) the four of us went dancing. Again, we had a good time, but more so that night. Andi ended up dancing most of the time with a guy from Mexico City, Sergio, that she had been eyeing all day.
After closing the dance place down, about 3:00 a.m, the four of us (Sergio not Kevin) went walking around the deck. Sergio and Andi split away from John and me. John and I talked more about music and what we liked to do and realized we had quite a lot in common. I thought he was a very nice looking, clean-cut, young man. After a while, he asked if I wanted to go touring Curacao with him; he knew I had an excursion in the morning, but wanted to do something when I got back. I said sure. We set a date. Since it was close to 4:00 a.m., we decided to part company and go on to sleep.
(not sure when we found out, but John and his family lived in RICHARDSON! - yes, 10-15 minutes from me in Garland - weird? or KISMET?)
March 24, 1986
MONDAY - I woke up early, had a cramped, Continental breakfast in Mom and Dad’s cabin, awfully small cabins, then went to the Curacao excursion. We decided that definitely was not worth it.
All the women walked around Curacao a bit (not sure if this was part of the tour - or we did this on our own)
At 2:00, even though we were very tired, I met John at the gangway.
From there, we went walking around town a while and then went to the aquamarina, which the actual place was beautiful, but the fish were no different than State Fair Aquarium, saw the fish then went to the bar and talked, talked, talked. It was there that we totally realized how much we had in common as far as music goes. Our tastes are almost identical as far as that goes. We had a couple of really good pina coladas. At one point, I was looking around, listening to the music and looked up to meet his glance. A spine-tingling chill went up my back and I couldn’t look for long, but knew then that there was definitely something there.
We stayed there for most of the afternoon, then went back to the town of Curacao to walk around and saw Doris, Mike and Andi a couple of times. We were looking for a good restaurant. Right at sundown, we found one and went inside. It was great. We both had beef stroganoff and red wine (lots of wine.) We like most of the same foods. We caught each other staring and smiling a lot. I was consumed with constant chills.
Port/town of Curacao
Walking in Curacao with John
After dinner, we decided we better hurry back to the ship since it was leaving in 30 minutes. We walked back to the ship and got there about 26 until 8:00. When we got close to the ship, John said “May I please kiss you?” I said “sure.” He did, and it was… wonderful.. But.. right after, we heard whooping and yelling from the ship saying “Whoo, look at them!” And another voice saying, “Hey, it’s 26 until 8:00, you better come aboard.” It just happened to be our whole gang. I was SO embarrassed! When John and I got aboard, we managed to stay away from them as much as possible. In fact, for the whole night until it was time to go dancing; then it didn’t matter because we were on the floor the whole time. I tell you, I knew I wanted at that time, to spend the rest of the week with John!!
John and Kevin at Captain's Dinner
Curacao at Night - John on ship below
Carribean Queen by Billy Ocean
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