Sammie of course was very worried about the alligator that legend had prowling the ship at night. She awoke several times that night to a mysterious growl, but couldn't figure out why the growl seemed to come from the bunk above. I can't imagine Captain Hook of Peter Pan fame was any more worried about his alligator than Sam was about hers.

This was the day we started our dance lessons. By and large the dancing on our trip was a near total failure. The reality was that there was no single place on the ship large enough for a group our size to dance the way we are used to at home. Various Cruisers pointed out to the deck at the aft of the ship (that is the ship's backside for you landlubbers) and we thought we would eventually use it for a big dance.

At this point however we did not know our dance plans were as doomed as the Titanic   (but we did have vague suspicions), so we went merrily about our way tracking down Dan Stapleton, the Cruise Director. Dan would eventually prove to be the most interesting person on the ship, but early reports on him were thumbs down. He was described as arrogant, sarcastic, full of himself, ladies man, blah blah blah.  I sized things up and realized it was probably was not in the ship's best interest to have much dancing since they made most of their money off of gambling and the shows (which were opportunities for drinking)...any attempt on our part to draw away from their standard operating procedure was probably doomed to failure.  So I rounded up several Cruisers to meet with Dan. He was overwhelmed by our group presence and wanted to meet just with me, but we talked him into meeting with all of us in the library.  He agreed to let us have two big dances...a Sock Hop and a Western Party...and asked if we would mind conducting dance lessons. Of course !

Our dance lessons were very interesting since there was so little room for so many people (30 plus). We discovered that if you moved some of the chairs around, we could create a circle of sorts that we renamed the Obstacle Course. Since the main lounge was the place that everyone passed through on their way to somewhere, we created quite a spectacle. However several people from other parts of the country were thrilled to join us and the Cruisers were marvelous about helping everyone. Pictured are infamous Cruisers Rick, Maureen, Marla, Lindy Hop, BJ and in the lower picture Joanne, Vickie, BJ, and Renee.

One thing we hadn't counted on was the incredible roll of the ship. Constantly during line dances (the Monster Mash was big, what can I say ?), we would nearly topple over in the middle of the Cotton Eyed Joe. Needless to say we didn't always feel graceful.

Tomorrow :  Tales of Ancient Cozumel !