BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Editor In Chief/Investigative Reporter
One thing I can say about this cruise as opposed to the first one I was on, is that this has been a very smooth ride. So smooth that you don’t even know you are moving unless you look out a window or go out on a deck and look at the wake in the water that the ship created. Normally I can’t read or write in a moving vehicle, without getting nauseas, but this one, like I said feels like you are standing still.
Sleep came early on Saturday into Sunday. Wake up came early too. About 5:30. I got up to take care of some personal matters, only to find that Guillermo was in there. After I took care of what I had to, I couldn’t get back to sleep. Ended up getting out of bed at about 6:00. I got dressed and headed for breakfast. I had promised a person I met on Saturday as the ship was leaving Miami that I would be in the steakhouse to cover a chess tournament he was involved in.
The people there were very interesting. There were people playing from all over the world. I got to speak to a couple of them. The people in charge had to first get people registered and they had more people than they had tables, so they had to break it up into two sessions. Then they had to set up 17 boards. I played chess from a young age myself, I even played on my high school team , but i never played tournament and these people were way above my pay grade.
Adam Porth, from Idaho, was one of the people helping organize this event. He is relatively new to playing chess compared to a lot of people who started when they were very young, as he says, but he took to it and has become very good at it.
One of the players named Mason Woodruff from Decatur Texas was one of those who started playing very young. “My father taught me when I was five. I would play with my older brother and when I beat him he never played again.”
Michael Smith played when he was a kid but when he got married, he stopped. “When the movie the Greatest Game Ever Played came out, my wife said that I should start playing chess again. So I did.” He also said he loves reading about chess and studying it. He has played in a number of tournaments. “Last year I played in seven tournaments and didn’t win any of them.”
Smith and Woodruff played each other in the first round and according to Woodruff, it ended in a draw.
Before I had to leave to meet up with my friends, Woodruff had one more thing to say about his being on the cruise and in the tournament.
After leaving the tournament, I met up with the guys and we walked around checking out the activities. At one point we split up and Guillermo and I went to the casino. We sat down at the roulette table. I had never played this before. Whenever I went to a casino, I played blackjack or tried my luck at the slot machines. I had plenty of luck, unfortunately it was all bad. I followed his lead and had a mixture of luck. Although I ended up losing about 74 dollars. The high point for us wasn’t even anything that happened to us. We got to witness something that you only see in the movies or on television. A guy sat down at the end of the table. He just happened to be from Rockland County, and he put $1000 in cash on the table. He got two $500 chips and placed them both on red. He won. He let the now $2000 ride and won again. He packed it in and walked away with $4000 in two rolls of the wheel.
When we decided to call it quits, we went back to the cabin and met up with Bill and Jose and went to lunch. When we were finished, we went back to exploring the ship and the activities. It was then that we saw a lady doing Cha Cha lessons to a group of people.
As we were walking over there, Guillermo asked me if I was going to get up there and dance. I responded, “Not on your life. I have three left feet. My mother tried to teach me how to dance. After many years of no success, she finally resigned herself to the fact that I would never get it. I had no dance rhythm.
Dinner time rolled around and we went back to the cabin to change into long pants. Can’t wear shorts to the restaurant we were going to for dinner. Here is where tragedy struck. Bill put on a button-down shirt and I thought about doing the same thing. It was then that I realized that I didn’t see my garment bag with my dress shirts and more importantly, my brand-new Star Trek 60th anniversary jacket. I really didn’t care if the shirts were lost, they were older and could be easily replaced. The jacket on the other hand was not. I went to find the concierge assigned to us and I ended up getting another one. I told him what the story was and he said he would look into it. Now I am totally depressed. First I lost the back of my communicator pin and then my jacket. Not starting off to be a good cruise.
We went to dinner at the Japanese Hibachi place. It was difficult to enjoy the festive atmosphere but I did my best. The food was good and the chef was a character as they all are in the business. It is all a part of the show they put on for the patrons. He did things with the eggs that I had never seen any hibachi chef do. He tossed three of them into his hat and after gently cracking them open, he made a heart out of the egg whites.
After dinner, the guys and two of their female pool team friends went to see a show. I was not in the mood. I just wanted to be in the cabin if the guy showed up with the garment bag. I even tore the room apart again to see if wee had missed it. We didn’t. I watched some Star Trek TNG (The Next Generation) to calm down and then went to the lounge to try to write. Neither had much success. I finally went back to the cabin to get some sleep and hope that the next day would be better.
Part 4 coming soon