Chapter 14 - Dickasons as rolling stones - and going to
sea again
In the 1980s after returning from Victoria, changes were in store for the Dickasons. Pat transferred her experiences as a volunteer docent at the Museum in Victoria to a similar but outdoor docent slot at Morrell Nature Sanctuary in Nanaimo. After training, she was called upon often to take elementary students on guided structured programs through this impressive wilderness property on the outskirts of the city. While she and students enjoyed the Pond Creatures program for example, her favourite [and that of the students] was the Meet a Tree outing which introduced the grade 5 students to the varieties of trees and their characteristics.
Pat also served during this time as a volunteer for Meals on Wheels, and provided support for Les as he moved through positions with the School District. The eight years of senior administrative work ended when Les applied for and was granted a leave of absence so the batteries could be re-charged and some other avenues explored.... friends remarked that the Dickasons were rolling stones....who seemed to change gears every 5 or so years.
Before the start of the leave in September 1989, Les was anticipating some time to work in the garden, but a call from a Dean at Malaspina College resulted in accepting a part-time position teaching two classes in the evening in what was the inaugural year of a Teacher Education program at Malaspina. Working with motivated adults was an energizing experience, and Les was very pleased to be a regular teacher again.
A friend, Allan, a full-time hearing impaired teacher, also called. Allan had begun moonlighting as the central and north Vancouver Island representative for a boutique brewery, Okanagan Springs, and for the Divino winery in the Okanagan. Allan invited Les to do work delivering kegs of beer and boxes and bottles of wine during the day when Allan was at work, and to share evening and weekend duties visiting restaurants and hotels to conduct tastings of the products he represented. This part-time position for Les resulted in trips to cities and towns north of Victoria, and was a good fit with the teaching assignments in the evening.
With an increasing number of invitations from other school districts for Les to visit and facilitate workshops, run seminars, and give keynote addresses at Professional Development days, Les and Pat took out a Nanaimo business licence for an at-home company, L.D. Services. Pat worked, and was paid, as secretary- treasurer, and Les travelled up and down the Island and later to districts on the mainland to complete contracts arranged by phone and fax. Some of the engagements made it possible to have social contact again with friends made during the University of Victoria summers, and the secondment to the Ministry.
The hodge-podge of part-time employment gave the Dickasons more flexibility for travel, and cruising moved up to the very top of the list, and became the focal point of the Christmas trip for 1989. After poring over dozens of brochures and itineraries from the travel agent, a Panama Canal cruise package with air travel included was chosen and booked.
In the fall of 1989, the Dickasons borrowed almost every local Library book on the history, economics, engineering and human tragedy of the Suez and Panama Canal projects - and brought home VHS tapes [remember those?] on the Panama as well. They chatted with friends who had taken a cruise through the Panama. One of these friends had a book on cruising in the Caribbean and the Canal and it provided hints on what to see and do in the ports to be visited before and after the canal transit - a major tip being to save money by not buying the shore excursions offered by the cruise lines.
On the 18th of December, the Dickasons crossed to Vancouver on a late afternoon ferry, dined at a Caribbean restaurant on Denman Street, and took a taxi to the airport and noticed a very heavy fog had crossed from Georgia Strait onto Sea Island where the airport was located. Entering the domestic terminal, our shoulders slumped upon seeing a departure board covered in ‘delayed’ and ‘cancelled’ alerts, then they returned to normal height when their Air Canada red-eye flight to Toronto was listed as ‘on time.’ The plane had arrived earlier in the day and was waiting for passengers at the appointed gate.
Food on this flight was limited to a dreadful breakfast served an hour before arrival in Toronto, which would have been 2am Vancouver time. The Pearson Airport in Toronto was crowded and chaotic because a snow storm had passed through earlier, and the loud Christmas carols on the PA system did little to pacify grumpy would-be-travellers experiencing delays. Many of them were students returning home for the holidays, though we began to see luggage tags with Princess, Norwegian, and Holland America logos, as other cruisers were readying for flights to ports in the south.
Our next flight was a short one to Montreal where we stayed aboard as more passengers joined for the on-going flight to San Juan. The breezes blowing through the open door while at the gate had those aboard reaching for blankets to counter the drop in temperature. The flight was delayed, but when finally in the air, it passed directly over New York City bathed in sunshine, and the Dickasons, having a window seat, had a perfect view of Broadway and of the well-known skyscrapers from thirty thousand feet - NYC immediately moved up into the top ten list for a future trip. The lunch on that flight was the exception to the rule for airline food; four courses, the components of each course were recognizable, had flavour, and the wines improved the mood of all on board.
In the San Juan airport, after a long delay, there was a herd-like stampede for luggage when it finally circled on the carousel. However, the ship was not scheduled to leave until late in the evening, so despite the delays in Toronto and Montreal and for luggage, the bus to the port arrived in plenty of time for us to board and explore Sky Princess before sail-away.
Immediately, the contrasts to the Canberra in 1969 were evident. Sky Princess had recently been bought by Princess Cruises; she had been Fairsky and before the Princess logo was painted on her funnel, a major renovation had been completed. So, where Canberra was showing many signs of wear, Sky Princess was sparkling and clean. Our stateroom was comparatively huge, with two single beds, two chairs and a coffee table, and in the outside wall was a recess with two portholes which were not battened down. The recess was large enough for us to put a bedspread on the ledge and sit to watch through the portholes when arriving at or leaving a port.
The architect who designed Fairsky must have been a random-abstract thinker because the layout of the ship was confusing, with small lounges tucked in the strangest of corners, and some public areas only accessible from one particular staircase. However, the larger public spaces such as the dining room and theatre were large and comfortable, and most passengers stopped becoming lost after a day or three.
In 1989 Princess ships had British officers and senior staff, and an international crew. So, as on Canberra, public address announcements had British accents, and the Captain, Mike Moulin, had an educated British manner of speaking when he made the noon broadcast..... and many others broadcasts which were made necessary by events later in the cruise.
Many embarking passengers arrived late that first evening, so the arrangements for the first night dinner were flexible and open seating was announced. Our table included four travelling together from Kentucky, and while pleasant, had little in common with us, so conversation was sluggish. This may have been due to the result of the ‘where are you folks from?’ exchange. We said British Columbia, and one of the Kentucky ladies asked her husband, ‘Are there many white people from there?’
She did not take part in the conversation after he laughed at her and corrected her mistake. Waiters that first night seemed remote and service from them and the sommelier was slow. We left feeling that there was much to be sorted out in the main dining room.
Sobi, our stateroom attendant, introduced himself upon our return to the stateroom, and he chatted for a time about his experience on ships, and seemed genuinely interested in our earlier P&O cruise on the Canberra.
Pat had a 12 hour gastric bug during the first night, and skipped breakfast. Les brought crackers and tea to the stateroom, then went forward to do a work-out in the well-equipped gym as Sky Princess docked in St. Thomas. After stepping on the scales to record a benchmark, and showering, Les went ashore and looked in the dockside shops and stalls. The duty free prices were remarkable, as the guidebooks had said they would be; designer watches were very cheap and Johnny Walker Black, a litre, for just $9.95!
Pat had shaken the bug by lunch, and the Dickasons tested the Promenade Deck buffet, and approved of the range of salads, freshly cooked pasta dishes, and tropical fruits on offer in the almost deserted cafe with most passengers off on shore excursions to beaches.
The afternoon was relaxing as the Dickasons took a $2 taxi into the main area of town to explore the historic buildings and modern shops, many with brand name knock-offs or duty free versions of the real thing. The walk back to the ship coincided with ‘school’s out’ as uniformed, happy students cheered as they left the building for the holidays and skipped away quickly.
While Pat was changing for our first second-sitting dinner at our assigned table, Les visited a bar and asked if he could see a dining room Wine List. While Les was taking copious notes on wines and prices, a young sommelier, Andy, came to introduce himself and to ask if he could be of assistance. A mutual interest in wine established, he asked for our table number, and was pleased to find that the Dickasons would be sitting in his section. Les suggested that he should bring two glasses of white wine [different each evening] to the table when he saw us arrive so that we could sip and taste while reading the menu and ordering. Andy was delighted with the challenge and promised to watch for us later that evening.
The Dickasons went to table somewhat apprehensively that night hoping that table-mates would be a huge improvement on the first night. They were. A couple from San Diego, and another pair from Orlando, Florida, shared many interests with us, and our waiter and his assistant were friendly and attentive, so the fears from night one were quickly dismissed. We had been concerned that our treatment from sommelier Andy might result in embarrassment and some need to order for the others, but they informed us that they did not normally order wine for dinner. Instead
they drank cocktails in their stateroom or went to a bar after dinner, so we relaxed and ordered red wine to follow the glasses of white which magically appeared following the discussion with Andy earlier.
The couple from Orlando was very excited because this cruise was a replacement for one booked a year previously but cancelled due to a mechanical problem with a Princess ship. They were so happy to be finally realizing their Panama Canal transit cruise.
The muster and boat drill took place after dinner as we sailed from St. Thomas and the first of the hired comedians entertained in the theatre. The Dickasons went to a Piano Bar for coffee and a nightcap and were persuaded to join a couple from the Bronx [Bruce and Eileen] to play a Trivia game which was about to start. The combination of backgrounds of our group - nickname BELP - was perfect. Ours was the only group of ten playing groups to answer all questions correctly, and BELP won two bottles of champagne.
The midnight buffet opened at 11.30 for those with cameras, so we strolled through, marvelling at the carvings, breads, platters of chocolate desserts, prawn towers and more, then went back to our comfortable stateroom for a sound night’s sleep with no inkling of the huge surprise which arrived the next day - the 20th of December.
To this day, the Dickasons are unsure whether the travel gods were really annoyed, or whether they were teasing as the events of the next days unfolded. It all began early on the sea day, December 20th, when Les was working out in the gym and heard on CNN that President Bush had ordered an invasion of Panama to
capture Noriega, and though Operation ‘Just Cause,’ launched at 1.00am, had succeeded, the canal was temporarily closed to shipping for the first time in history. After a nutritious breakfast, we heard a p.a. announcement informing passengers and crew that Princess was monitoring the situation and that further details would follow.
Later in the day, after Les won a table tennis tournament, the CNN announcement of the success of the early morning invasion of Panama brought loud cheers from US passengers in bars which were showing the news on TV. They seemed delighted with the result of the invasion. There was no up-date however on the status of the canal which Sky Princess was due to enter in three days time.
Sky Princess docked for a long day at Curacao and the Dickasons took a stroll through Willemstad with its heavy Dutch influence and colourful buildings in the morning, and again in the evening when Pat’s gratis 8 quarters at the door of the Casino produced $28 on her first slot machine pull. As we re-boarded that night, we overheard heated arguments over the decision that Princess Cruise Lines had made to cancel our transit of the canal and disembark all passengers in Miami instead of Acapulco.
It seemed to the DIckasons that the same US passengers who had been cheering the invasion the previous day were now annoyed with the US cruise ship company for taking this safety-first decision rather than endanger the ship, passengers and crew, by heading into the canal - if it opened in time. We felt very sorry for staff and officers of Sky Princess who were taking the brunt of the decision made hundreds of miles away in Head Office.
Meanwhile, the cruise continued - dinner had a British theme followed by Pub Night with free hats, cheap beer, and much sing-along music with some very clever audience participation arranged by the musicians.
Aruba, the port of Orangestad, was scheduled for the 22nd. There, for the second time. passengers from Sky Princess were able to chat when ashore to those from Norwegian and Holland America ships also docked there, and conversations revealed that announcements of re-routing without a transit of the canal had been made also on these cruise lines. Much to the surprise of Sky Princess passengers they learned that ship-board credit and discounts off the price of future cruises had also been offered on these ships.
The Dickasons enjoyed a day at the beach of a Holiday Inn [taxi ride there and the Holiday Inn shuttle back to town] and found a letter in the stateroom from Princess announcing shipboard credit of $35 and a discount of 25% off a future cruise booking, along with an apology for the necessary re-routing of the ship.
Later in the afternoon, there was an announcement that starting at 5pm all drinks in all bars and wine in the dining room would be free for this one night - a goodwill gesture from Princess. When Pat and Les went to their favourite Piano Bar, usually less than half full before dinner, there were no vacant seats or tables. In one corner were two very tipsy gentlemen who were working their way down the bar list of single malt scotches; at another table there were four very giggly ladies with a table loaded with tall glasses with fruit slices and little paper umbrellas decorating their drinks. The Dickasons left to stroll the decks inside and outside.
Before we entered the dining room we met Ian, the Wine Captain, and asked how he coped with a night in the dining room when wine was free. He explained that earlier he had to check inventory and discover which wines were in sufficient supply that he could choose them to serve. Then he had to divide the dining room into sections where sight -lines were critical. Having done this before, he knew that the bottle of white wine and the bottle of red wine had to be the same for all tables within each sight-line zone, otherwise, people at a table with a French white would want the Californian white if they could see it at another table, and vice versa.
Our table had a bottle of BV Beaulieu Chablis from California, as did every table we could see. We saw all other tables in our zone had a bottle of the French Mouton Cadet, and so did ours. But our bottle was empty, and alongside it on the table was a basket with a napkin-wrapped bottle of an Italian Barolo inside it. Andy admitted later he asked Wine Captain Ian’s permission to ‘treat’ us something special. Our table-mates were already quite merry from having had several cocktails in a bar, and though they allowed Andy to pour a little white wine, they graciously left the red wine for Pat and Les.
By this time, the couple from Florida was very depressed given that they thought they were the jinx because this was the second time their canal transit was cancelled. To lighten the atmosphere, Les told a couple of jokes from his keynote speaker collection, and the table-mates encouraged him to tell two more each night to make them smile. Les obliged and this had a consequence later in the cruise.
The galley tour was scheduled soon after dinner, so we were spared the wild and very noisy drinking that continued after second seating of dinner. At the end of the tour there were samples of truffles and dried fruits and photo opportunities with the Executive chef [see below]. Finally finding the Piano Bar empty we did have a cognac and port, but the bartender apologized for having to serve the drinks in old fashioned glasses - apparently, the dishwashers for the bars could not cope with the number of drinks drunk on the night when Princess Cruise Lines decided to take the minds of passengers off the change of plans for Sky Princess.
The next day, the 23rd, there was an announcement that we would visit Grand Cayman on the 25th and Cozumel on the 26th, and that shore excursion sales for these two ports would begin that afternoon. Rumours were rife; some passengers had phoned friends on ships on other cruise lines with the same problem on the Caribbean side of the canal, and their compensation was higher than what Princess was offering.
A petition circulated and was delivered to the Purser; the Captain announced after his noon report that the ship-board credit would be $60 and the discount on a future cruise would be 40%. The two sea days since Aruba were relaxing ones for the Dickasons who decided to walk away from any arguments or groups complaining. There was a Scarf Tying seminar, a bridge tour, a loss in the final of a table tennis tournament, another win for BELP at Trivia, and surprisingly, an invitation to the Captain’s Lounge where Mike Moulin welcomed us to a cocktail party for about 50 passengers, and a very convivial time was enjoyed by those present - we wondered how they had selected passengers to invite who were not angry or complaining. Dress was formal, and the dinner which followed was French Night and the food was excellent as it featured escargots, duckling, and a Cointreau souffle.
While BELP was winning again at Trivia, our stateroom attendant Sobi had closed the covers on our two porthole windows, and the seas became lumpy. A major storm passed through overnight, and as Sky Princess approached Grand
Cayman on the 25th, it was obvious that serious damage had been done to the dock, the buildings and roads nearby. The pilot was not able to travel on the roads to the pilot boat and come out to reach us, and after checking two nearby bays for potential anchorage and tendering ashore, the Captain announced that he was charting a course for Cozumel, leaving Grand Cayman behind.
Determined to enjoy Christmas Day, many passengers dressed for lunch with Santa hats, special seasonal t-shirts and more. The lunch menu had a Christmas touch or two, and during dessert, served with egg nog, the lights dimmed, and Father Christmas made an entrance and presented gifts to the children in the dining room. Later in the day, yet another letter from Princess Cruises was in the stateroom - shipboard credit now $75 and future cruise discount up to 50% if used within 12 months.
The seas calmed, the sun came out, and less grizzling and grumbling was apparent, though a large group of very rich Mexicans from Acapulco [who had earlier caused trouble by repeatedly arriving at 10.30 for the 8.30 second sitting of dinner] gathered in the main atrium and chanted some form of Spanish protest which called for a change of course to head to the canal, which was now open again.
Christmas dinner was a delight - prior to the cruise the Dickasons had made six small reindeer from corks and pipe-cleaners, and these were presented as gifts to the table-mates and to Andy [with one left for Sobi]. They really looked cute sitting on our table and along with two more jokes from Les, combined to produce a merry, festive mood.
Cozumel, intended as a replacement for ports missed, instead added to the tensions. Early in the day, a special tour boat came alongside to take off the passengers who had opted for the 6 1/2 hour tour to the ancient pyramids. Winds and tides prevented Sky Princess from anchoring as planned, and from the Horizon Lounge, the Dickasons watched a flurry of activity from bridge officers and the Mexican pilots as they tried repeatedly to find a suitable location to drop the anchor with very choppy water at the planned anchorage.
After an hour’s delay, the decision was made not to use the Princess tender boats, but to bring alongside a 650 passenger sightseeing boat from the Cozumel dock and transfer in that boat those going on shore excursions. Many Sky Princess passengers decided, as the protest rumour spread, to stage a sit-down in the atrium - the cause being ‘we’ll show them, we won’t go ashore!’ So much for logic under pressure?
The Dickasons ate lunch on board, took a later launch, strolled past the ubiquitous souvenir stalls, and enjoyed some quiet time in a small bar on the roof of the Cozumel Museum sipping on Mexican beers, and wondering what could go wrong next for Princess on this cruise.
Dinner that evening featured lobster and pheasant and the Dickasons splurged on some sparkling wine from Domaine Chandon from California - a reminiscence of Epernay and Moet et Chandon in France in 1968 and a nod towards leaving the final port before the cruise would end.
Dawn brought December 27, a final sea day, as Sky Princess steamed towards Miami. One of the Dickason’s table-mates apparently knew the Cruise Director from previous cruises and had boasted to him of the talent Les had shown telling jokes and anecdotes at the table. This resulted in an invitation for Les to do a stand-up routine in the Talent Show scheduled for the late afternoon. Back in Nanaimo, Les was planning a workshop and keynote address on “Laughter in the Workplace” and had recently discovered the International Institute of Humour which had conducted an intensive research into the world’s ‘best joke.’ Armed with a couple of these, and some from previous nights at the table, Les prepared an outline of politically correct jokes for the show, and attended the rehearsal along with the singers, musicians and a juggler.
The day passed smoothly until passengers found tickets had been delivered in their staterooms for flights or hotels after disembarkation. Imagine the chaos at Princess Head Office in Los Angeles during the previous four days, one of which was Christmas Day. There were going to be, on December 28th, four Princess ships entering the wrong ports - two on the Caribbean side, two on the Mexican side. All cruising passengers who had booked post cruise hotels and flights with Princess had to be re-ticketed. Additionally, the thousands of passengers due to arrive in port cities for embarking on these ships needed to be informed and re-booked on a different ship or flown to a different port to board a different ship. Multiply this by the same concerns for other cruises lines with ships at the wrong port - and at a prime time for fully booked hotels and flights - the magnitude of the problem becomes obvious and overwhelming.
As passengers checked their re-ticketing, the lines of angry people grew at the desk of the Concierge, the Purser and at Guest Relations. Passing through this area, once, the Dickasons overheard passengers complaining about the wrong brand of hotel, the wrong airline, the wrong connecting flight, the inappropriate time of the flight - and more. Although the Dickasons were not due to leave Miami until late in the day for a flight to Toronto with a red-eye to Vancouver, they decided not to ‘sweat the small stuff’ and not to join the would-be ticket changers in the lines.
There was a small reward for not joining the line - Les went to the final jackpot bingo and was able to call Bingo in one of the early games, unfortunately sharing the $120 prize with two others. The Talent Show was packed, and Les told his set of jokes and brought the house down with the final one which he had adapted to make our Captain, Mike Moulin, the star of the story [short version included at the end of this chapter].
In no time, the Dickasons had experienced the last dinner in the dining room, the last walk on the deck, the last nightcaps in the lounge, had packed, and had an early night knowing the travel day ahead would start early.
Though the wake-up call was at 6.00am, the end of the Customs and Immigration check-in at the Piano Bar and the call for the correct colour and number luggage tag did not follow until 10am. The Dickasons arrived at the Miami International Airport and considered the half-day rate at the airport hotel [$58] but opted to eat lunch, stroll and rest, then dine before heading to the boarding gate for a delayed Air Canada flight due out at 7.30pm.
The flight was delayed by 45 minutes which made the connection in Toronto questionable. Despite a dash through the Pearson terminal after landing, there was confusion over the luggage which we determined had come on an earlier flight from Miami and had been parked somewhere for a time before the officials discovered it. To increase the chances of making the connecting flight we took a limo to the other terminal, then with luggage found at the claim desk, jumped in another limo to return to the boarding gate. But the red-eye flight to Vancouver had left, so a reluctant agent changed the ticket to a flight the next day and booked the Dickasons into the Airport Hilton for the night. We fell into bed at 2am on the morning of the 29th.
The frowning travel gods played one final joke - delay in de-icing later that morning put the re-booked flight behind schedule by an hour. But, by this time the Dickasons were resigned to arriving in Vancouver much later than originally planned - and after the re-routing and plan changing of the past two weeks, what difference would another hour make?
[Captain Mike Moulin had told passengers he lived in England with his wife and two pre-teen children, and he loved spending his vacations with his family, and being a father instead of a Captain. The final joke Les told at the Talent Show was as follows:
When Captain Mike was last home on leave he and his wife were due to attend a Parent Teacher night at the school his children attended. At the last minute his wife was ill [had a headache?] and stayed home. When Mike reached the meeting, the Headmaster asked him if he could fill in for the guest speaker who was indisposed.
“You are a skilled speaker with your experience as Captain, could you speak for 10 or 15 minutes?” Being a generous man, Mike agreed, then discovered the topic was ‘Sex education at home for pre-teens.” Having recently read a book to prepare for his ‘birds and bees’ talk with his son, he jumped in, used hints from the book and some not so relevant anecdotes from life at sea. Parents and teachers were amused and appreciative.
When Mike arrived home his wife asked how the speaker had been, so he had to admit he had filled in for the speaker. Thinking quickly when she said “what on earth could you have talked about that would interest that crowd?” Mike replied that the topic had been “sailing in small boats.”
The next day, his wife was at the bank, and a friend, who also had a child at the school, was smiling as she told Mike’s wife how entertaining and informative her husband had been as speaker the night before.
Mike’s wife laughed and said, “Not sure how that could be - he has only done it twice. The first time he was sea-sick; the second time his expensive hat blew off.”]
