Cruisin' with a Monkey

At Sea and Back

The last day of our cruise was spent entirely at sea. We started the day with breakfast together with several of our fellow passengers. It was a nice and somewhat nostalgic atmosphere, and we all reminisced about our time in the West Caribbean.

After breakfast, Andre and I decided to check out some of the on-board activities, and we were immediately drawn to the 10AM magic show. It featured two up-and-coming magicians, Tell and Penner, who turned out to be a wonderful comedic duo as well. Andre and I were staring in wonder and guffawing in turn, and we were having a great time. I don't know how Tell managed to conjure those flowers from thin air, or how Penner managed to swallow the Captain's keys without getting fired. Amazing.

In the middle of the show, we had a shock, though. The magicians were busy sawing each other in half, when they called on stage a magic assistant to help out. Turns out she was a female monkey, all decked out in a shiny red dress. Andre went completely quiet, and I'm pretty sure I saw him turn red too, blushing so hard it showed through his fur.

The rest of the show he was very quiet, watching the monkey assistant deftly help the magicians put each other back together in the right constellation. Wouldn’t do to have Tell's legs on Penner's body, would it?

I encouraged Andre to go talk to her when the show ended, but he refused. Instead, he hurried inside without a word. I had to go around looking for him for at least an hour, it's a big ship. I found him right before lunch time, sitting by a slot machine in the Casino. He was wearing a pair of large sunglasses (indoors, mind you) and a bucket hat that shielded him pretty well from view. I recognized him anyway and talked him into coming to lunch with me. I had to make promises of banana pie and more casino time afterwards, in order to convince him.

And so, we went to lunch, and had a nice meal with the other passengers. Andre kept looking around the room nervously, so he wasn’t much good for conversation. The food was delicious, though, and I treated myself to a banana martini. Andre declined, which would have had me call the doctor on a normal day, but I could still see a faint blush on him, so I didn't comment on it.

Instead, we went back to the Casino and played roulette for some time. After a while, Andre relaxed enough to enjoy a cigar with me (my first time, I coughed more than I smoked, and was more red faced than Andre had been earlier), and this time he did not decline the banana martini. The world was right again, all it took was patience and some dice and adrenaline.

We had fun at the table, whooping and laughing whenever the wheel was spun. We had some wins, but overall it was a definite loss. Not too bad, though, and definitely worth it to get Andre back on form.

The rest of the time we spent sitting on deck relaxing and chatting with our fellow passengers. It was lovely, we heard many fun stories.

In the afternoon, we reached Ft Lauderdale, and thereby our journey had reached its conclusion. We disembarked with great nostalgia. There were many hugs, laughter and tears, and exchanges of addresses so we can stay in touch with new friends, before we finally found ourselves back on the Ft Lauderdale beach by ourselves.

We still had time before our flight, so we went back to our last, vaguely remembered, location before we boarded the ship several days ago—the Wreck Bar. The staff at the underwater, ship-wreck themed mermaid bar greeted us like old friends, and showed us to what was apparently our designated table.

When the mermaid show started, Andre was so excited to show off his new diving skills, that he got in the water with them. It was a fascinating sight, seeing a monkey swim around with a bunch of mermaids. Luckily, I had convinced him to wear a pair of swim shorts, a nice green pair with flamingos. I was so caught up in watching the show, that I didn't notice the figure sliding into Andre's empty seat next to me. Suddenly, Andre's eyes went wide underwater, as he looked in the direction of our table, though. Only then did I turn, to discover the female monkey magic assistant sitting right next to me. Andre shot up out of the water with record speed, as she laughed and screetched, jumping up and down on the chair next to me.

With some help from the staff, a sputtering, coughing Andre got dressed in a dry beach kimono, and I gave up my seat so that he could sit and talk with his new lady friend. They both got Mermaid Margaritas with mashed-up bananas in them, and I got a Zombie, with three types of rum, by the bar.

Andre seemed shy and embarrassed at first, but it didn't take long before the two were laughing and chatting loudly. I think they like each other. They're right over there, do you see them?

And that's how I found myself sitting here at the bar, talking with you. How about you, have you been traveling too? Any stories to share?