If this cruise stopped at Nassau instead of the port of Charleston, I'd have passed on taking this cruise. Yet, if I had known it was going to rain, I wouldn't have selected this shore excursion. Go figure....
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I decided to take the afternoon trip to Fort Sumter, even though it was drizzling all day. I had paid for this trip before the cruise, and I didn't want to consider the $100 I spent on the tour wasted money. This was a good thing, as I met a new friend who I'd dine with at the Gem's Specialty Restaurants later in the week, and that I got a much better understanding (in a 10 minute presentation by a park ranger) of the causes for the Civil War than I ever got from the history books I've read.
After getting back to the ship, I ended up dining in the main room with the same lady I dined with earlier in the week. This lady is a former opera performer, and we seemed to hit it off well. (Too bad I wasn't in Mario mode. But then, just as well, as she had already been divorced 3 times. I don't want to be number 4.)
There seemed to be fewer performers on the ship than in the past. They may have been given easier duties, but required to perform longer than usual to keep staffing levels down. But then, with lounge areas this empty, I'd expect that the cruise line would need to use gimmicks to make people feel like they were getting their money's worth of entertainment. (No, this is not a criticism of the cruise line. Instead, this is a recognition that they have to be careful with every dollar they spend until the ships are running at full capacity again.) When I looked at the shows on the main stage, I noticed that one of the shows is the same as I found on the ship over 2 years ago. I guess that they needed to get a show up and running quickly, and re-staging an old show might be the most efficient way of making sure that each ship has at least one "theatrical" production.
PS: You'll note that I've said nothing about being transgender. With the exception of showing my legal ID when returning to the ship, my gender and presentation wasn't an issue for me....
