The Cruise Culture

Monday July 8

In case, I didn't make it clear, this is a major cruise ship. It might have been more fun in some respects to take the Alaska ferries, but they travel much more slowly and would have limited us probably to traveling just the Alaskan panhandle. Only once a week they do go as far as Seward. Since they are a major highway system for Alaska, of course they make stops, load cars, etc. like any real ferry.

Our Rhapsody is a genuine cruise ship, and ensconced in our large room with balcony on an upper deck, we are enjoying the full experience. Well, let's say the full experience as far as Alaska is concerned. We have not participated in the Bingo, or the Trivia contests, and made just a marginal stop in the casino. I enjoy the indoor pool and we both like the jacuzzis. The best part is being in the same place each night and getting to see different parts of Alaska during the day. Some might add the meals, but they are too "all American" to get a high rating from me.

But of all the treats and activities of ship life, the last thing I expected was to have a cabin attendant who spent his days making sculptures out of our pillows, and sometimes our clothes. Jonathan, who is from the Carribean, seems to have an affection for the native culture of totem poles, stacking pillows high, alternating colors, and creating anthropomorphic shapes with towels and pillows. Note the "good night" mints being used for eyes below. We came back one night to find a man in my bed, constructed of pillows and my blue fleece jacket, Jonathan had him wacthing televsion (even turned it on) with remote control in hand. According to a neighboring cabin steward, this tradition of sculpture with pillows started on the Carnival lines, and now can be found on a variety of cruise ships. The cabin attendants aren't required to do it. but once you learn that others are coming back to find a dinosaur in their bed, you might be disappointed with just a traditional turn-down. One woman told me that on another ship she came back to find her nightgown laid out in the shape of a butterfly. Well there are limits....

So what motivates this pillow frenzy? My conclusion is tips. The ship goes out of its way (including a video channel presentation) to explain how and how much to tip the dinner waiters and the cabin steward. While there was a time when a person spent three meals a day during a seven day voyage across the Atlantic, receiving service from the same waiter, now both breakfast and lunch are on an open seating basis, so the waiter (and his assistant) have to hustle to earn your gratitude during just seven dinners, and some people don't even come to all of those, since there are opportunities to eat ashore during our day-long excursions.

Both our waiter and Jonathan took time to discuss the "evaluation" which they take very seriously. I wonder if discussing the evaluation is their way of focusing our attention on the need for tips. The waiter made it clear which items (numbers 2, 5, and 6) reflected specifically on him (as opposed to the cook or the head waiter) and Jonathan told me in no uncertain terms that on the form which allowed grades of Excellent, Good, Fair and Poor, that "good was not good enough." It does seem strange that there is all this emphasis on tipping three people, when there are others who moved our luggage in the middle of the night, or who made sure we didn't run into icebergs. The bar waiters get an automatic 15% on each drink and it didn't seem to affect their service one way or the other to have the amount pre-ordained. In the end we gave a little extra (beyond the suggested) to the waiter who only charged us a corkage fee for one of the nights when we brought our own wine. So much for tipping, though I am still pondering the groveling of these very nice men in contrast to the car jockey at Hertz who hustled down to the lower lot to get our car and took extra effort packing the trunk so that everything was accessible. When he was offered a tip he politely declined, and, I sensed, walked off with a sense of confidence and satisfaction in his step.

Everyone who has ever been on a cruise has had a lifeboat drill. What's interesting about our ship is that some of the lifeboats serve double service as "tenders," taking us from boat to shore when the harbor, as in Sitka, was too small for our hulky size. These lifeboats have a sturdy double hull (catamaran base) and give your more confidence about what would happen if you had to leave the ship. Of course the great danger here is neither waves nor sharks, but the freezing tempeatures. No "Mae West" type life vest can save you from that!