Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Proper Koffee & Dryer Protocol

 

 On board the Queen, the seas have been calm, almost flat. Last night I had to go out on the deck to make sure we were still moving. We were. It has even been nice enough to sit out on the deck, read and enjoy the sights and sounds of the Atlantic Ocean. Last westbound crossing several years ago, the weather was wet, windy, and we could never enjoy being on the balcony. We could barely open the patio door; the wind was so intense.

Our stateroom has plenty of closet/storage space. Maybe the most of any ship I have sailed on. We have complementary bottles of water, that are in real glass bottles that are from the oldest spring in Great Britain. We have a complementary bottle of champagne that I haven’t opened, but I think Mimosas are in the future  

Water In A Real Bottle

Since we are repeat cruisers on Cunard our status is silver, and our deck, deck 12 gives us special dining privileges, none of which we have used as we normally eat in the Kings Court Buffett. We will try the dining room on a causal dress night before the end of the trip.

Not having a guest laundry back in Brooklyn, we embarked with more dirty cloths than clean. I thought it would be a cinch on the first day to do laundry, but it took quite a while for our bags with the laundry to get to us, and by the time they did when we went down to the laundry all the washers and dryers were in use.

No worries since I always get up early, I thought in the morning I will just go down around 6 am and get the wash going.

Unfortunately, the laundry doesn’t open until 7:30 the sign on the door stated. Ha, I thought I will just go down at 7:30 and get the job done. I did go down at 7:30. I went to the laundry on deck 11, and 10 and all the washers were already working. You think the laundry could have opened early?

All other ships I have been on, in every hotel I have stayed at, and at every camper park the laundry is pay to play. Not on Cunard. The washers, and dryers are   provided at no cost, and even washing power is included.

The washers wash for 45 minutes, so back up at our stateroom I set my timer for 35 minutes and went down to the laundry on 10 just about when the timer was up.

A very nice little lady was just finishing up her load, tossing her laundry into the dryer. We exchanged pleasantries, and I tossed our laundry into the washer. I set my timer for the 45 minutes cycle, went back upstairs for a bit, and returned when the timer had about 15 minutes.

When I got back to the laundry there was a couple using the dryer above my washer. This was the same dryer that the little lady had put her clothes into. There was also a basket of laundry sitting on the ironing board, but it was just sitting there, and I never checked it to see if it was dry or damp, and I couldn’t because this couple was blocking the way taking one piece at a time out of the dryer, ironing it and placing it in their baskets. I knew something was up because people that iron their underwear, are not to be trusted

I watched the underwear being ironed for quite a while before these people finally moved on.

When they did, I took all our cloths from the washer, and put them in the dryer. Exciting stuff here.

Our cloths were going round and round when the little lady from the earlier washing machine showed up with her husband

Apparent the basket of laundry sitting on the ironing board was theirs, and it was still wet.

She was up on step when she asked me why I took her laundry out of the dryer. I explained that I hadn’t touched her laundry, that there was a couple before me using the very same dryer, ironing their underwear, and when they finished, I put our cloths into the dryer.

She wasn’t readily accepting the truth and continued to accuse me of removing her cloths from the dryer. She just didn’t want to accept the truth that someone else had removed her laundry from the dryer. She also told me that they were very responsible and would have never left their laundry just sitting in the dryer. I’m thinking it’s been at least 1 hour that your cloths have been sitting in the basket. But I kept that information to myself. About the 7th time she accused me of removing her cloths, she. left me no choice but to make myself appear larger than I am. Very much the same maneuvers you would do with a bear or other wild animal.  And Being as polite as I possibly could be, and in a very clear and loud voice I looked right at her and stated that I didn’t remove her fucking laundry from the dryer, that my clothes were in there now, that they are staying in there until they are dry.  and you had left your laundry unattended for over 1 hour. They might have both peed their pants at that point, but they recovered by apologized to me excessively, and I stepped aside so they could remove their basket of laundry, and themselves from the laundry room.

Its Small But Clean, And No Charge

With the laundry all put up, it was time to just enjoy the voyage, and search for Homer Simpson.

Yes, that Homer Simpson. The Queen has several large resin panels of art, and on one of them is Homer Simpson seated in front of his television, with a beer and remote in hand.

It was quite the search that took us all over the ship only to find Homer in one of the first panels I had looked at. 

Homer Where Are You?

Ah Ha. Found You

There is plenty to do on board. The other morning, we went to a talk given by Roger McGuinn of Byrd’s fame. According to him he single handily invented the folk-rock music genre His talk was quite interesting, and he even sung a few songs. This is probably a much better gig than state fairs, and the food is better.

Roger McGuinn 

The coffee on these ships is instant. Not to worry I have Trieste, a press, and the room comes with a hot pot, and  plenty of Nescafe for backup

There is also espresso on board but being a total koffee snob, my experience with these venues is the people pulling the shots are soda jerks not real actual Barista’s

My traveling compadre wanted to try a espresso beverage so I thought I would give it a try.

Now years ago, I gave up trying to order a proper Lungo. I even have given up on insisting the water go in the cup first, not the shot. It just isn’t worth it.

At the coffee venue I ordered a simple Americano with only 1 inch of water, and specifically instructed the soda jerk do not fill up my cup.  How hard could that be?


Very hard, because when the fellow handed me my cup it was full to the brim. I told him that is not what I ordered, and I should have insisted he remake my drink. But the jerk was one step ahead of me that morning. He pulled another cup off the rack poured half of the beverage he made for me and handed it to me. Problem solved. I should have tossed the drink in his face and insisted he re do the drink, but I was so amazed that someone making espresso would do something like that I just took the drink and sat down. Good grief.

This morning my compadre wanted to give it another try so this time I asked the waitress if she knew what a doppio is. She said she did so that is what I ordered. The results were much better

Espresso Was Good This Morning


I’m still not tipping these people though.

One Nice Night To Be At Sea

 

 







 

  

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