I had never been on a cruise of this magnitude - only having done such things as SF bay cruises on the Red and White Fleet or on a Coast Guard ship, and little jaunts, say, from the Yucatan over to Cozumel or Isla Mujeres - but nothing even close to the magnitude of a cruise ship. Some of the time you don't feel like you're moving at all, at other times you felt a gentle roll, and still others you could really feel like you were moving. My first shower at home, I really noticed that my shower was still!Overall, it was a fun time - of course, the presented theology was questionable, and I did manage to get sick at one point, but all turned out just fine.
We sailed out of Long Beach, right next to the Queen Mary, with stops in Catalina Island and Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.
Our schedule was:
Monday: Board ship - register for conference - dinner at assigned spot
Tuesday: Morning sessions for the pastors - then afternoon in Catalina
Wednesday: Morning session - rest of day and evening in Ensenada
Thursday: Divine Service - rest of day at sea
Friday: back in Long Beach
Now... my thoughts on each day? So glad you asked. =)
Monday:
We had to check in (long line) at the Queen Mary for our trip on the Carnival Paradise. Of course, there had to be a snafu with my ID card, so instead of being released to another long line to board, after going through security, I had to get a new card printed. OK, now that's done, do we really have to get back in line to wait to board? Well, no, we just sidled along down the customer service section into what we thought would be boarding. Oh ho, no. What happened next was the first of many similar experiences: Take a photo. Of course, to get your photo, you have to pay, but they also don't want you to necessarily pass on the opportunity for the photos, either. Joy. Photo done - can we board now? No. Take the escalator upstairs for your official record photo for ID/safety. Glasses off, please. Now can we board? Ha ha ha, noooooo - another "fun" photo!
We just went behind the folks on this one and boarded!OK, uh, now where?
We can't get to our room until 1:30... which is still almost an hour away. 
Oh, well, let's at least try to find our room so we know where we're going, then we can see about the conference stuff. We get to our deck and the stewards are not terribly happy that there are people in their halls: "It's not 1:30 yet." "But we just wanted to FIND our room." "It's not 1:30." Uh, yeah, got that, thanks. At any rate, our steward was actually working in our room at the time, and finished it right away, then calmed down.Lots to see! How big is this ship? Will we see everything? Pictures! Camera! I really like these blue egg things!
Let's go outside. But first let's look at the pretty glass
Sensory/stimulus overload much?By this time, we still hadn't left the harbor, and a nice couple offered to take our photo
I wonder if the order of these flags has significance
We were not given a conference packet upon check-in, nor were there signs stating "Welcome PSW Pastors" or "Conference in such-and-such room at such-and-such time" so we finally went to the customer service desk on board ("passenger service") and, hoo hoo, she couldn't find any information, either. She called a couple people and confirmed we actually were on the right vessel - the conference registration is going on NOW, she told us. OK, hightail it up to whatever deck and whatever room! Whew, we're here and must be at the end because there's hardly anyone here. Ha ha - yeah, it hadn't even started yet. In fact, we were told to "sit down" by the District VP because they weren't ready yet. Funniest thing of all? They had not packed the conference schedule, so no one had one. So we just sat. The conference was actually held in a "lounge," which is a fancy name for a bar, really. Here you go: The Queen Mary Lounge
This is also where we saw a really bad karaoke show later that night and comedy shows a couple different nights.Because registration was running late, we had to pretty much go back to our room to get ready for dinner, since we had assigned seats that night. We were at an interesting table - but did meet one really fun couple. After dinner we ended up going to a game show which was really silly, then wandered to karaoke. Wow. That's all I need to say, I think, on that.
That's enough for one post, I think! The other days will get their own posts, too.
