CRISIS, CRISIS, CRISIS!

Being on the Carnival Glory, you do get a sense of being away from the world. You could be on the moon for all you know, since there is nothing surrounding you but ocean. A sense of relief comes over you until you look up. There, larger than life sits a massive TV screen, tuned in to the Communist News Network (CNN). What you hope to get away from comes at you big time, and before you know it, you are being sucked into the world of ugliness once again.

The week of August 22 to August 27 was filled with constant breaking news! The ongoing revolution in Libya, where Khadafy was on the fly, to the earthquake in Virginia, where it was felt all the way into NY, news was flooding the airwaves. Then there was the threat of hurricane Irene, looming ever so large as we started to head to port. Starting out as tropical storm, it grew to the size of Texas, then Europe, and promising devastation to the whole Eastern Seaboard of the US!

In the beginning of the cruise, we hardly noticed the occasional rock of the boat, but once the news that Irene was for real, we started to notice every little creak, every little normal sway the big ship would take, magnifying it in our minds, thinking: “It’s hurricane Irene!”

Then the wind picked up to the point that we could not go topside to the upper most deck, because the wind was so strong. I went to the railing on the next highest deck to look out and enjoy the sea, and thought I better take off my glasses, for fear that they would blow off and go into the water, and I would be walking around like Mr. McGee! Sponges were floating by, and I could see large fish or whales under the waves swimming by the ship. A sense of excitement was overtaking my simple mind, but I was enjoying every bit of it. I always wondered what it felt like to be at sea in a storm on a large ship, the dangers outside of the ship opposed to the security and safe haven of the ship itself. I really would have loved to witness the ships bow crashing into the waves and riding up and down, spraying the air and disappearing once again under the waves. I can’t help but think of the opening scene in the book Shogun.

As we came closer to New York, the news about Irene became all consuming to everyone on board, as rumors started flying, and the news that we would put into port sooner to discharge all the passengers earlier than they planned. Not only was the discharge earlier, but also the procedure was changed to help expedite getting us off sooner. But why the rush, the hurricane was not due to hit until the next day? Because they the cruise line wished to get the ship ready for the next cruise, where they were heading out to sea that very afternoon, to ride the waves of the storm! Yes, if you were going on the next cruise, you were going in the hurricane, and were leaving two hours earlier to boot.

Entering NY harbor, at 6 am, we saw the city at it’s best, lit up like a woman going to a formal occasion, bejeweled in lights so fantastic, and buildings so majestic, as the “BIG TIME” city that does indeed; “Never sleep” welcomed us back to America.