BY THE POOL ALL DAY!

Monday, February 08, 2010 / 80s and sunny!

After room service/continental breakfast on the balcony (orange juice, warm fresh Danish, and coffee) at 8 a.m., we headed straight to the Lido Deck/Pool-14. (side note: on the Carnival Spirit, if we ordered room service for 7 a.m., it arrived at 7 a.m. every day; on the Crown I circled 7 to 7:30 on the request form that is placed on the doorknob at night and on the first morning on the ship, room service arrived at 6:45-so now I circle a little later and we get up about 7:30 a.m. I am definitely not complaining about room service, just an observation!)

I was on a lounge chair next to a very white man. I noticed that I am very tan for me. I think I am now about the color of a croissant and TK is the color of very dark toast. I read my book, The Shooters, most all day by the pool. Reading all day is not my usual activity at home, so I am relaxing and soaking up sun to last me through March. TK loves the pool.

About 3 p.m. the afternoon movie, The General, was shown on the Lido Deck/pool side on the Movie Under the Stars screen. The General is a 1927 silent film written and directed by Buster Keaton. He was also the star. TK and I both watched this movie (95 minutes actually). I don’t remember ever watching a silent film in total before and decided that it was a good opportunity to observe a historical perspective.

The movie is set during the Civil War with a young Buster Keaton as an engineer of a train called "General." His girlfriend thinks he should enlist in the Army of the South, but he is rejected because his job as an engineer is too useful. She does not understand and through a series of comical events he discovers a Northern Army plot, rescues the girl, and uses “The General” to thwart the activities of the North. Honestly, Buster Keaton’s heroic adventures made Tom Cruise seem like a sandbagger! We observed only four other people at the pool watching this movie.

I have said before that TK thinks the average age of the ship’s passengers is about 80, so I guess we are going with the flow!

At the pool there was an ice carving demonstration-a horse chiseled quickly out of a block of ice the size of card table cubed.

The cruise director conducted three different pool games that would be fun at B and D’s pool—with a hula-hoop, ping pong balls, and a beach towel.

After our American style turkey dinner, including sweet potatoes with maple syrup and polenta, we went to the Lido/Pool Deck to watch Harry Potter/The Half Blood Prince under the stars. I have to say we really enjoy doing this—sitting in comfy lounge chairs (blankets are provided) with the night sky’s stars twinkling overhead, the sea rolling by, a warm Pacific breeze, as we eat our popcorn. The movie was long (until midnight) and not as good as previous ones, but we stayed awake until the “dramatic” end.

More about The General: TK and I discussed this movie over dinner and what stood out. Buster Keaton must have done all his own stunts. The movie was made about 70 years after the Civil War—the train scenes were incredible. The engines were wood-fired steam engines. A bridge must have been built for the collapsing bridge scene-would they have had the technology to make miniatures?? Why was the South emphasized and the Northern army made to look silly? Was Buster Keaton a Southerner? There was no diversity in the movie.


TK’s Takes: the music by the pool is mostly Sinatra era. No Jimmy Buffet, no rock and roll here.