Cruise?

We're going on a cruise in April, our first. Jerry resisted the idea for about 30 years, but I finally prevailed, largely due to bad traffic in Seattle last summer. A cruise brochure arrived in the mail while we were gone--A Sign!-- full of enticing photos of people lounging with cocktails while somebody else was in charge. We were so fried by navigating freeways, so overheated and disoriented, that the idea of a boat being driven around the Mediterranean by someone who knew where they were going seemed like paradise. Why drive IN Italy, which we'd been thinking of doing, when you could float AROUND it?

So I signed us up. To be on the safe side, I booked a cabin with a veranda and made sure there was room service and a mini-bar in case we wanted to escape the other 1258 people. We're going on a brand-new ship with a "Lalique Grand Staircase." Also, a "Bon Appetit Culinary Center," with hands-on cooking classes, my idea of hell. But no assigned restaurant seating and no formal nights.

Yesterday, I found a website called "Cruise Critic," which is very helpful about ports and shore excursions and exactly what kind of jeans aren't allowed at dinner. It turns out there are "roll calls" for every cruise. You sign up with a chat group for your particular cruise so you can meet people before you meet them. Our cruise has people bonding like mad, arranging shore excursions with perfect strangers, and trying to get a jump-start on the cruise by meeting for drinks in the U.S. ahead of time. I recoiled. Doubt Has Set In.

The ship is coming to San Francisco on February 25-26, and we plan to drive over and gaze at it (can't go on due to security). Will there be any passengers coming and going who look like introverted curmudgeons?

Stay tuned.