All About Trey: Copenhagen-Warnemunde-At Sea

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Copenhagen-Warnemunde-At Sea

So I land in Copenhagen a little after noon and head immediately to the ship. Check in is the usual organized chaos. The good thing is that it is frakkin hot in the check in area. Yes the weather has changed and it is sunny and gorgeous. What a great change! So while I’m waiting for my turn to be processed, I check out my fellow shipmates. I do see some people I know who were coming on the trip. The average age is a little bit higher than average for the usual Atlantis cruise. I’m thinking it was more upper 30s-low 40s. Let’s be honest, the cruise isn’t cheap, plus airfare to Europe, so it’s not going to draw the twink crowd. Which is fine by me. Plus it only makes me feel younger!

I check in, get to the room to find my luggage already there and to find a note from Atlantis about the rules of engagement when doing a share. So yes, I was doing the share program and I knew the name of the guy sharing the room with me, but that was it. Anyways the letter recommends spending some time to get to know each other before deciding on how to split up the room, who gets what bed, etc. So I just pulled my luggage into the room and decided to roam for a bit until my roomie showed up. Now this is actually the same ship that I did my first Atlantis cruise on. So I basically knew the floor plan. Anyways I headed up to get some lunch and then to just wander. So it’s hard to explain just how relaxing it is on board the ship. It really does remind me of bring in Ptown. Where everyone is relaxed, in a good mood, happy to be on vacation. So there’s very little attitude. Which is great.

I hook up with the couple I met on my first cruise and have my first cocktail with them. Then it’s back down to the room where I find my roomie. So in it’s a small world after all, my roomie is from Tulsa and friends with the guy I did a share with during the med cruise last year. Just too funny. So we had a good time as we chatted, unpacked and prepared ourselves for the cruise. After the mandatory boat drill (does this big orange life vest make my butt look big? Bigger?), it was time for the ship to set sail to Warnemunde Germany. So we did the sailaway happy hour and toasted our cruise as we left Copenhagen! That night we had our first dance at night club on the ship called “The Bar At the Edge of the Earth.” Let me tell you, it became a running joke on how badly you could make fun of that name. But DJ Abel kicked of the entertainment with some great vocals and I finally got a chance to get my groove on.

The next AM, I think over half of the ship boarded trains to take a 2 hour ride to Berlin. Not me. Today was my personal day. While we did have one day at sea, I was afraid that it was going to be cold, so while we were in port, I just wanted to camp out by the pool, read my book, and have someone bring me my cool frozen drinks. And let me tell you, it was just the most perfect day. Warm, almost hot in the sun. There were enough guys left on the ship to make the scenery interesting. And I felt like it was the first time I really got to decompress while on vacation. Part of me felt guilty about not getting off the ship at all. Warnemunde looked like a cute little German town. Apparently it was where the big whig members of the East Germany communist party would go to vacation. So it didn’t have that overcommercialized feel. Or atleast it didn’t seem that way to me. They brought an Oompah band onto the ship to play on the pool deck which isn’t exactly music to relax too, but they did serve some great bratwurst and pretzels for lunch that day. So I did get a taste of Germany.

After a very strenuous day of tanning, I figured it was time for a disco nap, then the singles dinner, and then time for entertainment. Well the Berlin crowd didn’t get back till late and they said that they all had a great time. But I’m sorry, 4 hours in a train is kind of hard core for me. I’ll get there (again) some day, not on this trip. So the theme party for the night was the Kit Kat Club to kind of play off the night club scene in the Weimar Republic days. Now in addition to the fact that I had the whole weight issue with my luggage. What exactly were they wearing in the Weimar Republic days. I keep thinking about Cabaret and I think of black skimpy outfits (not for me thanks) and black uniforms. Well some people live for the theme nights and there were some good costumes. Since we were at sea for the evening parties and the weather was a bit too windy/cold to have the dances on the pool deck, all of the dances were inside at the Bar at the Top of the Hill Overlooking the Ocean. Which was fine, but my attempts to take pictures were hindered by the fog machines that diffused the flash and washed out the pics. But I tried. DJ Warren Gluck spun that night and it was great. Plus I could stay up late because we were at sea the next day.

Now I love sea days. There’s no rushing to get breakfast before your excursions. There’s no rushing at all. Get up when you want. Do you own thing. Just kick back. And despite my fears, the weather was again amazing and even with the ship underway it was quite pleasant laying out on the pool deck. Now I did go to the gym first, but then it was back to my lounge chair Olympics. And I was burning through some of the books that I had brought. And every once in awhile I would take a little stroll around the pool deck and the solarium to check out the scenery. It was really quite nice.

And you’ve got to give it to Atlantis for their entertainment. It rocks. After a good 4-5 hours of laying out, I headed down to Dixie Longate’s Bingo Extravaganza. Bingo you’re thinking? Yeah, not so much. But I love Dixie. She’s just hilarious and it was worth it to listen to “Oh-69” to hear her vicious and amusing quips. One of my favorite lines, “I’ll beat the bleach off your teeth.” Just too funny. She rocks! And she’s apparently going on a national tour so I definitely want to get a group together for when she comes to DC.

After Dixie it was time for the traditional Dog Tag Dance. Now, this is always one of the best dances on the ship. Lots of opportunity to flirt and to check out who’s single, who’s partners, and which partners are willing to play. So lots of fun and finally some good pics of the hot guys on the ship.

That night, it was the Atlantis Comedy Showcase with Jim David, Shann Carr, and Alec Mapa. Now Jim and Shann are regulars on the Atlantis cruises and are just hilarious. Both had great new material. Apparently Shann got asked if she was from “that ship” in Warnemunde. So apparently the local folk do know we are coming. But Alec Mapa was the hit of the evening. Just too funny and I loved some of his jokes, but they are definitely NSFW. He did make the comment that he was originally afraid to come on a gay cruise. That it would be this floating orgy and that he’d be stuck in a hot tub with some cracked out porn star who was deep in a K-hole. It was just too funny. After that, I caught the tail end of the dating game starring some guy from DC. Who apparently confirmed to the whole ship that he’s basically a slut. Hey, truth in advertising I guess. I'm sure he won't be lonely.

And then finally it was time for the Conquest party at the Bar Around the Corner On Top of the Island in the Middle of the Ocean. So you were supposed to dress up as Vikings, Cossacks, kings, or serfs or just whatever you wanted to wear. So seriously, what does a Cossack wear? I’m just not that gay. I wore shorts and a tank top. I figured that was good enough. DJ Abel again who killed. I think I made it to 2AM before crashing. I had a relatively early tour in Tallinn the next day.