We left almost all of our luggage in the hotel’s vault, and simply took a couple of travel bags up the elevator with us. We also left a wakeup call for 0500 the next day. Our flight to New York City was at 0700, and from there we were going to the dock to meet the ship. All of this had been coordinated by the travel agent, and we both had our tickets and tags and identification stashed in my carry-on bag. That I was protecting like my life depended on it, because if I lost it, Marilyn would kill me!
Once we got in the room, Marilyn tossed her bag on the floor and goosed my ass! “That’s for being so mean in the limo!” she said.
I tossed my bag over with hers, and started moving towards her. It was a small room and I backed her into a corner by the bed. “I don’t think I was all that mean. I think you actually liked it!”
“No, I didn’t! You’d better give me back my stuff!”
“That wasn’t what you agreed to!” I replied grabbing her and pulling her towards the bed.
“I lied!”
“Wives have to submit to their husbands, remember!” I teased her. I flopped on the bed and pulled her with me.
Marilyn sprawled on the bed next to me. “No, there was some other stuff, too.”
“Yes, but only after the submission part!” Marilyn giggled at that, and I started unzipping her dress, while she worked on unbuttoning my shirt and unzipping my pants. While it would be nice to say that our first lovemaking as husband and wife was with candles and champagne and beautiful lingerie, it wouldn’t quite be the truth. It was more hurried than that, with Marilyn’s dress around her waist, and my pants around my ankles. It was still very, very nice, and I told her we’d save some of the romance for later. Marilyn agreed, and then stripped her dress off while I pulled my remaining clothes off, too, and we went at it some more!
It was about nine or ten that night when we were laying there on the bed, breathing hard and cuddling, that I asked her, “Are you hungry?”
“Not really. Are you?”
“Not enough to go out and try to find a place open now. Maybe a Coke or something?”
“I’d like that.”
“You want to go with me?” I asked, grinning.
She looked down at her nudity and smiled. “In your dreams!” I just laughed and pulled on my pants and grabbed my wallet.
The vending machines were down at the end of the hallway. I grabbed a couple of cans of soda, and some pretzels from the snack machine. By the time I got back to the room, Marilyn was asleep. I just smiled. That sounded like a good idea, too. I drank my Coke and ate the pretzels, and then curled up next to my wife.
When the alarm went off the next morning I was not amused. I know I’d been getting up early for years, but sometimes that dedicated exercise and wakeup shit was a bit too much. I dearly wanted to go back to sleep. Then the phone rang with our wakeup call. I slapped Marilyn’s ass to rouse her, and she muttered nasty things and pulled the covers over her head. I paddled her bottom some more and she started swinging at me. “Is that any way for a wife to treat her husband?” I asked.
“Do you really want me to treat you the way I want to treat you right now?” she asked.
I steered her in the direction of the bathroom and sorted through the travel bag for my clothes and toilet kit. As soon as I heard the shower running, I went into the bathroom myself. “We don’t have time for that,” she told me.
I was already starting to brush my teeth. I mumbled out that I knew it and finished brushing my teeth. I also shaved quickly while she finished up, and then hopped into the shower as soon as she was out.
When I got out of the shower, Marilyn was in the room pulling some clothes on. She had on her bra and panties again, and I just smiled at her. She shook a finger at me. “If you think I’m traipsing halfway around the country without underwear, think again!”
I shrugged and grabbed my pants. “I’ll punish you later. I’m too tired to punish you now.”
“And just how were you planning on punishing me?” she asked, pulling a sport shirt on.
“I’ll have to give that a lot of thought. You’re just not submitting very well.”
She laughed at that. “You’re not going to let that go, are you?”
“Not for another forty or fifty years. Maybe longer!” I replied.
“Much longer,” she agreed, and then gave me a quick good morning kiss.
We packed and were down in the lobby by half past five, just in time to see the shuttle bus leave. We were assured they would be back in ten minutes, so we dug our luggage out of the vault, and lined it up outside the door. The weather had been lovely all weekend long, and looked like it was holding. The last time I did this, Marilyn delayed the wedding until hurricane season, and the weather on the cruise sucked! We went cruising to Bermuda and hit Hurricane Ella on the trip down and Hurricane Flossie on the way back. I fed the fish for the entire week! Now it looked like it should be good.
When the shuttle came back, we loaded up and headed over to the airport, about a five minute ride. Everything went fairly smoothly, much smoother than it would become after 9/11. I had my passport, in red like most military people, but Marilyn only had her driver’s license. She did pack our wedding license in her handbag though, since her license still said Lefleur. That was a project for when we got back. We got to the Eastern counter, and before we handed over our luggage, tied onto the handles the special luggage tags for the cruise ship. Once we landed at JFK, our luggage would be directly sent to the ship. We wouldn’t need to pick it up at baggage claim.
It wouldn’t be much different for us. There would be shuttle buses at the airport for arriving passengers to be driven to the dock. That was a good thing, because I hate driving in New York City, and Marilyn simply refused to even consider it. She’s just not much of a city girl. The flight to JFK took about an hour and a half, and was on a fully loaded 727 without any first class. We suffered like sardines, but at least we were together. Once back on the ground, we shouldered our carry-on bags — okay, I shouldered our carry-on bags — and made our way to baggage claim and the exit, to find our shuttle bus. We made it to the port by 1100.
From that point on, it was a matter of hurry up and wait, just like the Army. Our boat was on a seven day schedule. We were cruising to Bermuda. The boat left Sunday afternoon, and would arrive in port very early Tuesday morning. We would stay in Bermuda until Thursday night, at which point we would sail away, and fetch up back in New York Saturday morning. At that point they would off load us and restock the ship with food and booze, and give the crew a night in Sodom on the Hudson.
What Marilyn didn’t know yet, but I already knew, was just how much she loved a cruise ship vacation! No question about it, taking a cruise beat out any other type of vacation we ever took, as far as she was concerned. We probably went on at least a half dozen, maybe more, and she just loved them! She liked visiting new ports, and the meals and the shops and the ships themselves, and when they invented balcony rooms that just settled it for her. We never took another cruise after that that didn’t have a balcony! As far as Marilyn was concerned, heaven involved sitting on her cruise ship balcony while reading and knitting as we passed by the rest of the world.
We were sailing on the Sun Viking with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. We had been on a number of different lines over the years, but always seemed to enjoy Royal Caribbean the most. The Sun Viking was their newest cruise ship. Positively tiny by later standards, she seemed pretty damn large at the time. She carried about 725 passengers, and it seemed like just about as many crew to cater to them. Future ships would be many times larger, with atriums, multi-deck restaurants and theaters, ice skating rinks, rock climbing walls, and even sillier stuff.