Nassau was hot, hot, hot

Last week Bob and I celebrated our 37^th anniversary.  He surprised me with a weekend cruise to the Bahamas.  We had a wonderful time together, just the two of us (if you don’t include the other 2,598 people).

Having been on a few cruises, we are now part of the Platinum Class.  I know that sounds impressive, but let me assure you, we put on our swim suits one leg at a time like the rest of you.  Just as I was getting all puffed up about my privileged status, I discovered that Platinum Class is the bottom rung of an elaborate cruising class system.  We have a long, long way to go to get to the top, but we can get there by taking more and more cruises.  It’s vicious; i.e., expensive.  Here’s the progression:  Above us lowly Platinum people are many classes – Silver, Gold, Diamond, Rock, Paper, Scissors.  Gold is better than silver.  Diamond is better still.  Rock crushes Scissors.  Paper covers Rock.  Scissors cuts Paper.  It’s all very complicated.

Getting back to our weekend, we arrived at the port and I went through security without any problems.  Bob, however, had his hat frisked.  I’m guessing something about it threw up a flag that implied he was a risky cruiser.  After being patted down, it was reunited with Bob and allowed through.

We boarded the lovely Monarch of the Seas, looking forward to our adventure.  We didn’t care what type of room we had since this was a short trip.  Even with that in mind, when we opened the door to our cabin, we discovered the smallest room I had ever seen.  We called it our statecloset.  I’m not saying it was small, but we had to go out in the hall just to change our mind.  On the positive side, Bob and I were closer than ever.

Before I go on, let me tell you that our ship was completely booked with 2600 passengers.   With that number of people in mind, you’d expect to find a few swimming pools and multiple hot tubs.  There was two of each.  They were open beginning at 4 pm on Friday until midnight that night and then from 9:00 am until midnight on Saturday and Sunday.  But using the hot tubs was tricky.  The maximum number of people in each was ten.  Have you ever tried cycling 2600 people through two hot tubs ten people at a time?  That’s quite a challenge!

Challenge accepted!  I put my math prowess to work to solve the problem.  I figured 20 percent of the people don’t care about going in the hot tub and that leaves 2,080 people in line to use 2 hot tubs with a capacity of 10 people each.  If each round in a hot tub lasts 15 minutes and I’m at the end of the line, at what time do I get a turn?

Yes, these are the things that keep me up at night.  I lie there laughing as I picture hundreds of people circling the ship while waiting in line to finally have a soak.  So here’s the deal, the first person to give me the correct answer to my question as a comment at the end of this post will win a $5 Starbucks gift card.  That’s right – Five Whole Dollars!  You already know that I don’t excel at math, so of course I’ll have Bob check the answer for me.  I’ll announce the winner in my next post.  And as a bonus, I promise not to give you any more math problems, no matter how funny I think they are.