Day 5: FRIDAY

It took two cabs to get us and our luggage to the pier, but we made it somehow! Checking in and boarding was a breeze (MUCH smoother than it used to be; our first several cruises, we spent aeons in line waiting to check in). We boarded the Mercury just before 12:00; our staterooms weren't to be ready until 1:00, so we went up on deck, where they were serving a lunch buffet, and lounged in deck chairs with books until our rooms opened up.

(I finally finished Vampire Hunter D, by the way. To amuse myself, I started counting grammatic and spelling errors as I read. After three chapters, I gave up counting, because I had already found eight or nine mistakes and it was starting to depress me. Honestly, people! I know we don't have editors anymore, but don't we at least have spell check? This is a published book! There is no excuse for “woah,” or “they must have rode at least five miles,” or “I'm loathe to do this.” Grrrr... Anyway.)

A little after 1:00, we went down to check out our rooms, and the ship. The Mercury is virtually identical to the Century (on which we took our last four Celebrity cruises), so it's not hard to find my way around. Some of the lounges and rooms even have the same names. There are slight differences in décor that confused me the first time I walked around a corner expecting to see a certain painting or mirror or something, but the basic layout of the ship is very similar. The Mercury has a couple of things the other ship didn't have, though, like an indoor swimming pool. (The Century spends most of its time in the Caribbean, while the Mercury is specialized for cooler routes.)

Our stateroom is pretty standard; Mom and Dad have the two beds pushed together that function as a double (probably about as wide as a queen-sized bed, but not as long). Opposite the desk, there is a little tiny couchlet – less than four feet wide – that unfolds into a bed. This is where I sleep. Unfortunately, when my bed is unfolded, it blocks access to our balcony, so they'll either have to climb over me or fold up my bed if they want to go outside. Nearly the entire wall opposite the beds is mirrored; Laura and I have been making jokes about using it as a choreography or workout room.

Our luggage arrived a little later, and we worked on unpacking for a while – it was a little difficult to fit three people's belongings in one room – then relaxed for another hour or so. We weren't scheduled to leave Seattle until 4:00, so we had some time to kill. Jon and I read some more on deck, and Dad photographed Seattle from the upper decks of the ship. At 3:30, we had to run through the customary lifeboat drill, which was delayed by the ship's PA system going down, so we just sat in the casino and chatted with Mark and Cindy for a bit until they sorted things out. Consequently, we didn't pull out of port until close to 4:30.

I was starting to get a little draggy by this point, so I went back to the room, compressed myself into a fetal position on the 3-foot-wide couch and attempted to take a nap. I got up about 40 minutes later, not having really fallen asleep, and dressed for dinner. (First and last nights on the ship are always casual dress, but they've now decreed that “casual” means “no jeans allowed.” This really threw a wrench into my clothing plans for the week. It's a really good thing I went shopping in Seattle...)

Ironically – but not uncommonly – all of us ended up dressing alike. I wore the black silk pants I'd bought in Seattle with a red sweater; Laura wore black leather pants and a sleeveless red shirt; Mom wore black pants and a red knit T-shirt; Jon wore black dress pants and a burgundy Oxford. Dad alone was different; although he too wore a red shirt, the pants were khaki. The LaVier and Watkins clans were amused by this. (It was unintentional, really! I don't know why this always happens to our family.)

Laura and I also wore our Kazuki hair wraps, which got a LOT of attention. We elicited a number of gasps, pointed fingers, and interrupted conversations. :) I kept mine pretty short; it added only another twelve or eighteen inches to my natural hair length. Laura's was considerably longer, and added probably three feet to her hair. The only problem was, a lot of people seemed to think we belonged to some hair-wrapping religious cult...

We had arranged to be seated with the LaViers and Watkins at dinner, which will probably be the most we see them while on board the ship, since we're all going different directions during the day. Dinner was delicious, as can be expected; Celebrity is known for its award-winning cuisine. Five courses, and I cleared my plate of each one. Mom, Jon and I had prime rib; Laura had veal Marsala; Dad had Cape Hake. Yum. At least eating so much on the train stretched my stomach in preparation for these meals...

After dinner, we went to the opening night show, which was pretty much just advertising all the services available on the ship. There was a performance by a nice a capella group, though. Apparently they wander around the ship and sporadically burst into song wherever it's convenient. :)

After the show, we went to one of the nightclubs for a trivia contest (which, for once, we didn't win! They've finally changed the trivia questions). We lingered for a few minutes after the contest, and when the band came back up, Laura dragged Jon to the dance floor. Then Dad and I went up and danced a bit, and when Jon and Dad left the floor, Laura and I stayed. We improvised our way through a set of eight or ten songs, trying not to smack the other dancers with our long hair wraps, and finally quit because I was about to pass out from heat and dehydration (I was still wearing a sweater – not ideal dancewear).

On the way back we wandered through several of the lounges, where men in white jackets urged us to eat as many tiny hors d'oeuvre and desserts as they could fit in our hands. We finally made it back to the room, where I guzzled ice water and then crashed on my sagging hide-a-bed, which runs distinctly downhill from head to foot. Long day, and I'm going to have sore abs tomorrow from all that dancing...