Formal night

Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! That was what the maitre' d at the dining room would say every night and it was hilarious. It became one of our catch phrases of the vacation. On the first day at sea, we had formal night that evening. We were seated with two other sets of women who were travelling together. One set of gals only came the first night, so the remainder of the evenings, it as me and LaLa and the Houston-area sisters. The sunburned gal was celebrating her 30th birthday.

We attended the captain's cocktail party and that was entertaining. Here he is. Then, there was our waiter, Wilmer. He was very good and we liked him a lot. I attended a tour of the kitchen and learned a lot about the way the waiters are trained on the ship. They are recruited from around the world and then they spend eight months serving in the five dining rooms of the ship's staff before they make it to the guest dining rooms. Then, they start there serving bread and drinks before becoming a head waiter. The service was impeccable.

Every night, the waiters sang, too. It was very funny. People celebrating birthdays got the international-tinged "Hoppy Bursday" songs. We would laugh till our sides hurt.

And, there were are at formal night. I managed to get a new black dress on sale before the cruise and I paired the dress with a lovely scarf my father-in-law brought me from the Phillipines. I really liked the way the outfit turned out. Of course, I was ditching the heels and hose as soon as humanly possible.