Das Boot is a 1981 German war film directed by Wolfgang Petersen, based on Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s semi-autobiographical novel about a U-boat crew during WWII. It’s known for being told almost entirely from the German sailors’ perspective aboard U-96, capturing the claustrophobia and tedium of submarine warfare punctuated by shear terror. It’s widely considered one of the greatest war films ever made, and one of the most technically demanding productions of its era (the interior U-boat set was built to scale, and the shoot was notoriously grueling). It was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. I reference it today because I have just spent one of the four days of this cruise to Ensenada with the family. We are on a Royal Caribbean ship called Quantum of the Seas and it is a monster of a ship. We live on the 9th floor of the 16 floors of the ship and yesterday we reconnoitered the whole beast as much as we could. This is not quite the mega-ship that several other Royal Caribbean vessels represent, but it certainly is one of the big boys on the high seas. This morning, after almost an hour in the gym doing my various stretches and weight training routines, I took to the running path and circled the ship a few times just to reinforce how big it really is.
We arrived onboard relatively early for a cruise (11am) and whisked through the onboarding process with minimal hassle. We come to expect the worst of airports and ship terminals, but sometimes everything moves like silk and this was one of those times. We had a pleasant lunch in the special restaurant designated for people who bought the internet and early boarding package (who figures these configurations out?). We then went up to tour the main activity decks to see what was what. By the time I had found a shady deck chair they were were announcing that our cabins were ready for check-in. Luckily, down at the far end of our hallway, I spotted Kim’s orange carry-on bag so we were able to get ourselves situated pretty quickly. Like all cruise ships these days, they have learned how to optimize room space so that there is a place for everything and all the plugs one needs to stay fully charged with modern life. Kim and I had both given a weekly charge to our Oura biofeedback rings before leaving home, so all we needed to worry about were plugs that could accommodate our phones and watches, my iPad and my CPAP during the night. Kim probably has other things that need plugging in, but suffice it to say that everything was under control in the electrical department.
The ship left port at 3pm, so we all went on the upper deck to waive goodbye to the Port of Los Angeles at Long Beach (San Pedro Terminals). Gone are the days of fanfare and Bon Voyage with glamour. Departing port means inching past one cargo container ship dock after another. We did manage to find two or three people on the parked U.S.S. Iowa and then some small fishing boat to waive to as our way of celebrating our departure. This isn’t Kim, Carolyn or my first cruise, but it is for John Charlotte and Evelyn, so we wanted to make it all as special as possible. The afternoon shaped up with everyone following their own natural form. Carolyn unpacked her family. John and the girls went off to the arcade to play games and ride the bumper cars, I found a quiet table and chair to do work and write and Kim napped. It was a warm day and the cruise party had clearly begun on the main pool decks with Caribbean music blaring with that familiar calypso feel. While kids of all ages ran in and our of the pools in their bathing suits, the adult party animals were dancing with one drink in hand and skimpy bathing suits that were two sizes too small. It’s a spectacle fit for the Love Boat and I find myself wondering where these people come from. As I stood at the mezzanine rail watching, I’m sure they were wondering about the stiff in the long pants and button-down short-sleeve shirt, looking like he just stepped out of a BYLT ad. I guess everybody rolls their own way.
Our first night dinner at our assigned time and table in the main dining room was spent teaching our Indonesian waiter all our first names so that he could work hard to justify as big a tip for personalized service as he could possibly manage. The southeast Asian service teams on these cruise ships are never-ending. I admire their hard work and service mentality and they make cruising a delightful possibility. Imagine relying on Russians, Chinese or even Americans to bring you an umbrella drink…not gonna happen in our lifetimes. Unfortunately for me, my weekly Zepbound dose reared its ugly head and sent me to my cabin to lie down while the rest of the crew went to some strange show and to explore more of the activities available onboard. One thing I will note about Royal Caribbean versus my favored Viking cruise ships is the quality of the TV programming. I’m used to a much better selection than this ship offered and I might add that the internet functionality (provided Starlink…go figure) is equally marginal. It’s all just good enough to keep me from complaining, but not good enough to keep me happy.
The room we got is OK, at least for the relatively short four days we are on board. Longer than that and I would have to spring for the next larger size, just to keep from bumping my shins on the bed as I sidestep around it. Surprisingly enough, the compact bathroom works fine and the shower, in particular, which looked dubious with its rounded sliding plexiglass door, was actually big enough and worked well enough to satisfy me. However, the bed is fatally hard and delivered me a very light night’s sleep. At one point in the night I woke up and looked out the patio door at what I was certain was a nearby shore with trees that were blowing every which way. I stared at the rustling leaves for a long time trying to figure it out, but then we seemed to move away back into the more open sea. We may have been close to one of the Chanel Islands, but I sort of doubt it and suspect that my eyes were playing tricks on me in my sleep-deprived state. I finally chose to get up early and do a bit more work until a respectable time rolled around for me to go up to the gym for a morning stretch and workout. Unlike yesterday, the offshore marine layer has made this a much cooler day and the deck had that dampness and rolling attitude that reminds me of when I once crossed the North Atlantic on the QEII. I’ll hope for better weather for Catalina and Ensenada in the next two days and go about my other shipboard activities with the tedium of the sailors on Das Boot.