Well, now I'm back from three (and almost another half) days aboard Celebrity Cruises' Summit ship, along with a day on each of the islands of Antigua (St. John's - not the university, though; the capital of the island of Antigua), St. Kitts (Basseterre, although we never quite made it over to Nevis...), and, lastly, San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we witnessed the mere beginning of the incredibly long road ahead for that U.S. territory...
The ship itself first sailed in 2001, as one of the company's first ships of the new millennium, for a company that has, surprisingly, only been around since the late '80s, and, honestly, the ship still looks the part, despite apparently having been renovated a few short years ago - if nothing else, the company's "green" placards placed inside every (stateroom) bathroom onboard still looked like they were from the late '90s, with white lettering against a teal/turquoise background, although those with views out to the ocean/sea provided quite the views, although those down below a certain point - roughly halfway up the ship, likely still had views, albeit of the ocean itself, instead of seeing any sort of land formations up above the water, although most of the lounges/restaurants aboard the ship had these massive windows with views outside, and, obviously, there were a few top levels open for people to hang out on, which provided incredibly wide views of the ocean/sea!
The other day, down in Antigua, I mentioned the overall "demographics" of the ship, and while, in retrospect, I take back part of what I said about the age groups - there might have been very few other people around my age, but there were some of them, I noticed, although, again, that very well might have been the least represented age group there, with just about everybody, again, being older overall, unless they brought (younger) children along, although even the "toddler" population there might have been bigger than the "teen" population aboard that ship this past week!
That afternoon, I also mentioned how just about everything costs "an arm and a leg", and, turns out, that even includes the supposedly "free" stuff, with 18% added for all size groups to things like drinks in restaurants (specifically of the "alcoholic" variety, although there's a "package" along those lines that the company apparently sneaks onto everybody's eventual bills, to force them to get it off before leaving, or risk getting stuck making said payments) and spa services, along with various levels of Internet access increasing in both length and price anywhere from hourly access, to the entire length of the cruise, with, obviously, the hourly (starting off) costing the least, although adding up little by little, and the length-of-cruise deal putting all those costs together!
As for the "free" stuff, there's a cafe up top, right across from the gym/pool(s) (multiple pools, whirlpools, and a "thalassotherapy" pool in this "greenhouse"-type structure up top!)/spa facilities, and, again, a few restaurants down below, with the cafe switching between breakfast and lunch/dinner every day, before closing at night, with some of the restaurants not requiring, yet still recommending, reservations, while others (French, Italian, Japanese, etc.) were more along the lines of what you would see anywhere on the "mainland" here, with reservations required, and various parts of a sort of "menu" all costing different prices, so it's up to each group/individual, in the end, to determine where to go each day for their "nourishment"!
The crew onboard the ship, on the other hand, couldn't have been friendlier/more "personable" if it tried to do so, as seemingly everybody brought a different personality/stories to the week - some of them were more "comical"; others were more "joyous", and still others were more "personal", being able and willing to discuss some of the "behind-the-scenes" stuff that happens on cruises, along with some of the "hidden fees" the company tries to sneak into peoples' payments, and how even the crew members, of all people, have to pay for things like Internet access, along with how their families have dealt with them being "at sea" for months at a time, in some cases, before returning home for "vacations", and they came from just about every part of the world, with just as many Asians as ("non-hyphenated") Americans, and just as many Europeans as Latinos, as part of the ship's 1,000-person crew!
On the entertainment side of things, having mostly been to sporting events throughout my life, the TVs throughout the ship more than sufficed for keeping up with those things (except for the NHL), specifically the continuation of the NFL season, along with some early NBA action, and the first few games of this year's MLB World Series, although I, personally, didn't even bother with the casino down on one of the lower levels, despite passing through there quite a few times to catch a few comedy acts, along with a few Broadway-esque shows, and a Beatles "cover/tribute" band, along with a few games (mostly Celebrity's take on a few various "game/quiz" shows, along with some more generic trivia things), (other) live music performances, and dance parties - personally, I didn't care much for anything other than the comedy and stage shows, despite at least one of the live music performances being a jazz show, since I've always been one to occasionally pop that particular genre of music on at home to just sort of "unwind", and, overall, the comedy acts were quite "edgy", with the pair of comedians who performed taking shots at just about everybody and everything they could think of, and one of them just so happened to be from Jersey, getting off in St. John's, Antigua, to attend a wedding back here this weekend, and, among others, his favorite "targets" were our "esteemed" current Governor, especially his weight, and especially how he actually gained weight after his infamous lap-band procedure near the beginning of both of his terms as Governor here, along with midgets (quite the contrast from making jokes about Chris Christie, I must admit...), and midget wrestling in particular, along with the "hospitality" industry in general, especially airlines, and how he's always preferred cruise ships over airplanes, simply because cruise ships tend to be more "equal" compared to airplanes, which mostly have "first class", followed by everybody else in "coach"...
The various stage shows, meanwhile, took from just about every genre of music imaginable, across just about every era, although, with the exception of the first of them being about this - I guess you could call it "haunted" hotel, they seemed to have neither much of a story, nor too many "speaking parts", per se - they mostly just consisted of the ship's "cast" of performers working through various songs across about an hour or so each, although they almost effortlessly pulled off not just that stuff, but even a few acrobatic/almost "levitation"-type scenes, with curtains and wires and whatnot, which is much riskier than simply "covering" a few songs from various eras, as all those shows contained... (full disclosure time, I guess: I've only ever seen Broadway's Memphis (the story of the beginnings of "rock n' roll") and Wicked (the "untold" story "behind the scenes" of the story of the Wizard of Oz) before, so, despite seeing just about everything Disney has had to offer up across the decades, I'd say I'm not the most experienced Broadway person, despite having passed through there an untold amount of times so far...)
The Beatles show was interesting, also, with a "quartet", obviously, of Beatles impersonators, and even some, dare I say, rare (nowadays) footage of the actual group making its initial trip to N.Y.C. back in the mid-'60s, along with footage from some of the films the original group starred in way back then, although the screens on which that footage was shown, as you might very well see in the links I'll pass along to you later, were incredibly tiny, although I guess TV screens like those were what people watching those original guys watched them on back then...
The other comedian, last but not least, was born in (rural) LA, moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, area, later, where he said his parents still live to this very day and then finally moved to the Atlanta, GA, area, where he still lives, again, without his parents, and mostly made jokes about parenting and poverty/wealth, along with marriage/relationships, before asking various groups of people to stand/otherwise make themselves known, like military and law enforcement, before moving on to this somewhat bizarre half comedy/half saxophone segment, when he played a few notes, stopped to tell another joke (mostly puns by then), played a few more notes on the sax, told another (punny) joke, and so on and so forth! (also, both of them called upon people leaving those shows early to explain their reasons for departing early, before proceeding to joke about those little situations anyhow...)
As for the various ports, I'd rank them (even prior to the various hurricanes) (1) St. Kitts/(presumably) Nevis; (2) Puerto Rico; (3) Antigua, since Antigua happens to be an under-developed island to this very day, with roads and sidewalks alike being dangerous to travel along, although, unlike Aruba, that seems to have kept "commercialization" off the island, with only Burger King and a few American (or western hemisphere, I guess) banks populating the downtown area; the rest is just local restaurants and shops, while St. Kitts/Nevis actually have a more "primitive" "highway" system in place, although the same Burger King/western bank "duopoly" exists there, as on the island of Antigua, along with (reportedly) more monkeys than people, and even quite a few cats/cows/dogs/goats/sheep roaming both of those islands, so there was more "wildlife" than people on various parts of that particular island, while the opposite is true throughout the rest of the Caribbean!
Puerto Rico, on the other hand, at least currently, in the weeks following the devastating hurricanes recently, doesn't have any of that, since, although the infrastructure was in place before last month, as we headed from the ship terminal to the airport that morning, there was everything from a Hyatt Place hotel building that looked as if it had suffered no damage whatsoever, to a pair of completely shuttered Burger King locations, quite a few shuttered gas stations, and a few shopping centers that had been cut off from access, along with, obviously, downed power lines and trees, and buildings ripped apart by the rain/wind, although, amazingly, some people still had the audacity to take a tour of what little of the "old" part of San Juan was already open that weekend, which the cruise ship had the audacity to even offer to begin with, considering the situation of the vast majority of the island's residents, although, on a (somewhat) more uplifting note, just about every (digital) billboard that hadn't gotten shut off by the storms displayed messages of "solidarity" with the people from various Puerto Rican "big business" firms, although getting through the airport was a total mess, with some of the signs directing people through the terminal parking lots having been ripped apart by the storms, and people just gathering wherever they felt like doing so in order to reclaim their luggage that had been brought in these tiny vans, although, thankfully, everything inside was back up and running, with air conditioning being of utmost importance, followed by eating establishments and seating areas in the waiting rooms, although the (3G) wireless service inside the airport was just pathetically slow, and the Wi-Fi was non-existent, since it would connect initially, only to then display messages proclaiming it to be "offline", forcing everybody to clog up the already-slow 3G wireless connections, which themselves were likely not back to full capacity, never mind 4G, with electricity, obviously, preceding that in terms of "importance" to the locals there!
(etc.)
In terms of my plans for the upcoming month, though, those include, obviously, a return trip to MSG for (currently) #6 BU v. (unranked, although you could make the case for top 20 or 25 right now) Cornell, the last Saturday of the month, although, before then, I'm looking at various places around here, including Princeton hosting Colgate (not the toothpaste brand) and Cornell back-to-back the first weekend of November (Fri. 3 and Sat. 4), UConn being at home all weekends leading up to Thanksgiving weekend (v. Vermont 3 @ 7/4 @ 3:30; Ohio State 10 @ 7/11 @ 3:30; UMass Lowell 17 @ 7/18 @ 3:30), Army hosting Holy Cross twice the weekend before Thanksgiving (Fri. 17 and Sat. 18), and, even, at the D-III level, Manhattanville College (Rye, NY, playing out of the historic Playland park ice rink in Westchester County) hosting Neumann University (Aston, PA) 11/10, Stevenson University (Owings Mills, MD) 11/11, and King's College (Scranton, PA) 11/18, along with Michigan State v. Minnesota @ MSG (Sat., 1/20, 8 P.M.) being on sale these past few days, so it's not just this next month/the "holiday season" I already have to look forward to; it's also the beginning of next year that I'm suddenly able to look ahead to!
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