I was already starting to brush my teeth. I mumbled out that I knew it and finished brushing my teeth. I also shaved quickly while she finished up, and then hopped into the shower as soon as she was out.
When I got out of the shower, Marilyn was in the room pulling some clothes on. She had on her bra and panties again, and I just smiled at her. She shook a finger at me. "If you think I'm traipsing halfway around the country without underwear, think again!"
I shrugged and grabbed my pants. "I'll punish you later. I'm too tired to punish you now."
"And just how were you planning on punishing me?", she asked, pulling a sport shirt on.
"I'll have to give that a lot of thought. You're just not submitting very well."
She laughed at that. "You're not going to let that go, are you?"
"Not for another forty or fifty years. Maybe longer!", I replied.
"Much longer.", she agreed, and then gave me a quick good morning kiss.
We packed and were down in the lobby by half past five, just in time to see the shuttle bus leave. We were assured they would be back in ten minutes, so we dug our luggage out of the vault, and lined it up outside the door. The weather had been lovely all weekend long, and looked like it was holding. The last time I did this, Marilyn delayed the wedding until hurricane season, and the weather on the cruise sucked! We went cruising to Bermuda and hit Hurricane Ella on the trip down and Hurricane Flossie on the way back. I fed the fish for the entire week! Now it looked like it should be good.
When the shuttle came back, we loaded up and headed over to the airport, about a five minute ride. Everything went fairly smoothly, much smoother than it would become after 9/11. I had my passport, in red like most military people, but Marilyn only had her driver's license. She did pack our wedding license in her handbag though, since her license still said Lefleur. That was a project for when we got back. We got to the Eastern counter, and before we handed over our luggage, tied onto the handles the special luggage tags for the cruise ship. Once we landed at JFK, our luggage would be directly sent to the ship. We wouldn't need to pick it up at baggage claim.
It wouldn't be much different for us. There would be shuttle buses at the airport for arriving passengers to be driven to the dock. That was a good thing, because I hate driving in New York City, and Marilyn simply refused to even consider it. She's just not much of a city girl. The flight to JFK took about an hour and a half, and was on a fully loaded 727 without any first class. We suffered like sardines, but at least we were together. Once back on the ground, we shouldered our carry-on bags - okay, I shouldered our carry-on bags - and made our way to baggage claim and the exit, to find our shuttle bus. We made it to the port by 1100.
From that point on, it was a matter of hurry up and wait, just like the Army. Our boat was on a seven day schedule. We were cruising to Bermuda. The boat left Sunday afternoon, and would arrive in port very early Tuesday morning. We would stay in Bermuda until Thursday night, at which point we would sail away, and fetch up back in New York Saturday morning. At that point they would off load us and restock the ship with food and booze, and give the crew a night in Sodom on the Hudson.
What Marilyn didn't know yet, but I already knew, was just how much she loved a cruise ship vacation! No question about it, taking a cruise beat out any other type of vacation we ever took, as far as she was concerned. We probably went on at least a half dozen, maybe more, and she just loved them! She liked visiting new ports, and the meals and the shops and the ships themselves, and when they invented balcony rooms that just settled it for her. We never took another cruise after that that didn't have a balcony! As far as Marilyn was concerned, heaven involved sitting on her cruise ship balcony while reading and knitting as we passed by the rest of the world.
We were sailing on the Sun Viking with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. We had been on a number of different lines over the years, but always seemed to enjoy Royal Caribbean the most. The Sun Viking was their newest cruise ship. Positively tiny by later standards, she seemed pretty damn large at the time. She carried about 725 passengers, and it seemed like just about as many crew to cater to them. Future ships would be many times larger, with atriums, multi-deck restaurants and theaters, ice skating rinks, rock climbing walls, and even sillier stuff.
My wife (God, I loved that word!) was practically jumping up and down with excitement by the time we finished processing on the dock and were able to board. Her eyes were glowing like a kid at Christmas underneath the tree. Then we started looking for our room. Cruise ships haven't changed much since the days of the Titanic, at least in how they treat the passengers. The more money you have, the higher up in the ship you are. Rich people live on the upper decks. Poor people live at the bottom and row the boat. On our first honeymoon, we were so far down towards the bottom that we were handed oars as we walked on board!
Now we were a little higher. I think there were six decks on the ship, and we were now on the Promenade Deck, which was number two from the top. Maybe number three, but the absolute top deck actually was considered the Owner's Deck, and only had four cabins, all oversized suites. They cost a ridiculous amount of money, something like $10,000 or $20,000 a week, for a room not much bigger than a decent suite in a hotel.
I wasn't anywhere near that silly. We had a small suite, but it was about as much of a suite as a room in your average Holiday Inn. Still, we had a window we could open, not a porthole, a sitting area with couch and chairs, and a king size bed. Marilyn was entranced when we entered our room. I was a little more practical, looking for the bathroom and closet space. There wasn't much, but they made use of every cubic inch of the room. We would survive once our luggage got there.
They promised our luggage would be in our rooms before dinner. They simply loaded it in giant containers straight from the airport into the belly of the ship, and then sorted it out. Marilyn came up to me and wrapped her arms around me. "We're all alone in our honeymoon cabin. Whatever will we do to pass the time?"
I laughed and hugged her back. "Not as much as you'd like. I can guarantee that about two seconds after things get interesting somebody is going to barge through that door with our luggage! Are you that much of an exhibitionist?"
"Maybe not.", she answered ruefully. She looked over at the small built in desk and drawers, and noticed a bottle of champagne in an iced cooler, with a couple of flutes standing next to it. "Champagne?"
"Hmmm?" I turned and saw what she was pointing out. "Well, if we can't fool around, let's have a drink!" I opened the card next to the champagne and read it then passed it to Marilyn. It was from the travel agent. Next I pulled the bottle from the ice and twisted off the wire and popped the cork. Marilyn held the glasses up and I poured them.
We had barely sipped our champagne, when an intercom in the room loudly announced that the mandatory Coast Guard lifeboat practice would start at 2:15 in the afternoon, and that everybody needed to find their lifeboat station and show up there with their life jackets on. This had also been told us during the processing on the dock, and they were pretty serious about it. From past experience I knew they would check your names off a list and if you didn't show up, they would track you down, and not too politely, either.