It is indeed a small world. The first chance we had to chat with them was squeezed into their performance schedule and we only got to say hello. We decided to meet after a show in a lounge amid-ships after we left Nassau.
We watched Dany and Seba as they finished their set and began to pack up their gear. They were relocating to a different part of the ship for their next performance. Two crew members took apart the microphone stands and rolled up cables and power cords.
Dany and Seba were doing forty-five minute segments, as most of the performers on the ship, and after a short break, would resume somewhere else on the ship. The entertainers all played the same locations in the ship, we just didn’t know who was playing where if we didn’t check our cellphone app.
Seba suggested we get together for drinks after they finished their last show, or even possibly having dinner during their one day off while the ship would be in San Juan.
Ilse and I headed back to the ship early in San Juan, our planned walking tour in old town cut short by constant, intermittent heavy rain showers. We laughed and hoped Dany and Seba were having better luck in their precious, controlled excursion to the Plazas las Americas in San Juan. The crews and staff don’t get to go ashore like they did before Corona virus. It is a new, controlled world for all of us.
Ilse and I went up top to watch our departure from San Juan in the evening light and are disappointed the old Moro Castle is no longer lit at night as we depart past on of the most iconic landmarks in the Caribbean. We’ll have to do with the memories of our first visit here,
We met Dany and Seba as we headed toward St Croix and made tentative plans to have drinks after their last show tomorrow. We are all cautious, yet warmly surprised by the same chemistry that drew us together seven years ago. They are oddly enough, half our age, from another continent and speak a different mother tongue, yet we converse as if we have known each other for years.
“We’ve altered our schedule a little bit so we have our last show tomorrow before dinner. Would you like to have dinner tomorrow with us after we finish our last performance?
“Absolutely,” We answered, We decide to meet in the Metropolitan dining room, our regularly scheduled dining room at six thirty.
Ilse and I stood in front of the Maitre D's pedestal at 6:25, so we could greet them and enter together. The gracious Maitre d offers to show us to our table and show them in when they arrive, but we decide we would rather walk in together. Ilse and I move discreetly to the side of the alcove.
Seba arrived some ten minutes later, after Ilse and I have excused ourselves to numerous arrivals who didn't want to intrude on our obvious position as first in line.
“Dany will be late, I’m sorry but we couldn’t alter her on-board appointment and it has run almost two hours longer than we thought.” Seba says. “Please forgive us, I’ll go in with you and Dany will join us as soon as possible.”
We were seated and chatting cordially with Seba, I apologized to Dave, our waiter as I had told him previously we would have guests, but in the anxiety of the moment. I forgot to introduce our guests. Dave smiles, and quietly introduces himself. I felt like I was still in highschool.
Dany arrives with a smile that illuminates the entire dining room. Within minutes, we are chatting and laughing as if seven years had been seven minutes.
The world is indeed a marvelous place.
