Caribbean Cruise, Day 7: Sea Day, Continued

January 11, 2013

With another day on board the ship before we arrived back in Florida, we spent a large part of it hanging out in the sun. I was on my own for most of the morning, and lounged around in the sun. I went down to the back deck area (where I was on the third day) and got a few drinks, to help cool myself down.

At one point, while I was sitting at the bar, I looked over and saw two women huddled near the phone. The lady closest to me was instructing the other woman – who then got on the phone, dialed a number, and began semi-shouting into the receiver:

“Please help me! My baby fell into the water, and she’s not breathing. I don’t know what to do! Please somebody, help!”

Of course, this kind of freaked me out and I couldn’t pull myself away. From where I sat, it looked like they were playing some kind of really terrible, cruel prank on someone. But the woman on the phone was insistent with her fake distress, and kept it going. The woman closest to me saw my puzzled look, and gave me a wink.

“You need to talk to a crew member?” asked the woman on the phone. “Here, here” and she shoved the phone towards the bartender, who was standing around looking pretty non-plussed. The guy basically re-iterated where they were at (Deck 15, Cafe Caribe) and handed the phone back.

At first, I thought the woman had said her baby had fallen overboard, which was an entirely different thing. But listening closer, she seemed to be saying that her baby had fallen into the pool.

After they hung up the phone, the woman asked how she did. The lady closest to me gave her praise, and said that they (the people on the phone) sounded genuinely freaked out. Both ladies seemed happy with what they had done, and the woman on the phone then turned around and left.

At this point, I received my drink… but asked the remaining woman what the phone call was about. My hunch was that it was a drill, and the woman (and her clipboard) verified that they were just doing a simulation: a test to see about response time, and what could be done to improve the response.

I asked her what outcome she was expecting, and was told that it differs with each incident. The main thing, she told me, was that she was looking to see that the right people showed up, with the right equipment, in a timely manner.

I took my drink and sat down at a nearby counter, and kept watch. After a minute or two, I heard some beeps over the loudspeaker and the captain announce something like “Alpha Papa, Deck 15.” In talking with Liz and Julie later, I learned they also heard this rather mysterious message, and were wondering what was going on.

A bit later, I saw three women rushing out the door looking around. When they saw the woman with the clipboard (standing behind the girl with the backpack), they had a look of immediate relief.

Pretty cool thing to witness, while waiting around for a drink.

One of many lifeboat signs, posted around the promenade. Originally, I thought the larger tender boats were the lifeboats… but in actuality, the lifeboats are much more compressed, and reside in these barrels that are attached to the railing.

And I agree with AJ: it does look like directions to find pie.

After basking in the sun for a while, Liz and I hung out on the side deck and watched the water pass by.

While looking over the railing, Liz spotted several schools of flying fish. From where we were at (pretty high up), the fish looked almost like tiny bugs. But once you spotted one, you could see that it was a fish… flying like a small airplane, just a half a foot or so above the surface of the sea.