Uber Soca Cruise was 5 days/4 nights of pure PACE!! To give you an idea of just how much there is going on, ASal got the itinerary in 2018 and was looking thru it and said to herself, “oh okay…this is cool. It have rhell thing to do during the time.” and then she continued reading the email only to discover that what she thought was the length of the cruise was actually Day One! You get the drift…and we were on the water sailing for the entire time except for the 1 day that they dock for j’ouvert.There are 2 big themed parties everyday, the after parties, socasize, football tournaments, lime on the Avenue, all kinda thing. Last year, we set sail at 4 pm on Friday, J’ouvert was Sunday morning and it was on Grand Turk in Turks and Caicos. That was actually my first cruise ever and we planned to take advantage of everything we could…the only thing we had to keep up with was our room keycard. I functioned on 3 hours sleep every night except the first night when I made a conscious decision to go and sleep because I’d woken up that morning at 2am to catch a flight. I had planned to go J’ouvert but at some point good sense prevailed and I realised that playing J’ouvert made no sense. It had potential to be hot (and of course it was – it was on a beach, on an island) and by the time I got back on the boat, between the heat and bacchanal that J’ouvert could be, I might have had to skip that night’s party and that was UNACCEPTABLE!
The problem with not playing J’ouvert was that I had no idea what I was going to do when I woke up on Sunday. By the time I left the room, I figured I could start by exploring the ship and see what it had to offer. Well. What I didn’t know was that I was 1 of 2 people who didn’t leave the ship. There was NOTHING happening anywhere; I mean even workers were nowhere to be found. At that point, I figured well, we in Turks and Caicos, I need to at least get off so I can say I was there but lemme get something to eat first. Dining room closed – I had no choice but to disembark, so off I went. As I left the ship, I had to walk across a boardwalk (I tried to ignore Kes belting out Savannah Grass a little ways down where J’ouvert was in full swing) that led into a duty free shop where at the entrance I had to show my ship card. There was a lip at the doorway and as I drove over the scooter stopped. Hmmmm…eh?. I turned it off and turned it back on and it was then that I saw the power gauge at 3/4 full. It was at that moment that it occurred to me that it was Sunday and the last time that I’d charged the thing was Thursday night. Now. Under normal circumstances that would not have been a big deal, but I’d been using it every night! Of course, in the parties themselves, he was off but I had to drive to all of them and everywhere else we went. I cyah lie, not once did I think, when we finally got back to the room “oh. Plug in the scooter”…the only thing on my mind was crawling into bed. And so..there I was with 3/4 tank on a strange island. 3/4 tank…I mean, that cyah be so bad right? By this time, I could eat a horse so I was looking for anywhere that I could eat and I ran into one blasting Bacchanalist. Perfect! Better fete, it had a ramp. Beautiful…I rolled in and told the hostess that I would sit anywhere cuz I was starving and just wanted to eat. She pointed me to a table, I made sure and turned off Optimus, sat down, started looking thru the menu and then I thought, “oh shit! I actually have to pay for this meal – I’m not on the ship!” WTF! All I had on me was…u guessed it…my room keycard. Well. I had no choice but to go back to the room to get a payment instrument. I had to eat meh humble pie and tell the lady that oops, I’ll be right back. Shit. By that time, Optimus had started dipping to the halfway mark – I didn’t know if I should drive at full speed or slowly to conserve the lil power he had. I really doh remember but I think I made it to the ship and back with his only stopping twice – each time I went over the lil lip by the entrance to the store.
now, not only did I have to keep an eye on Optimus’ power, I had to also be mindful of the time. J’ouvert was finishing promptly at 4 and the ship – 6. Whatever power I had or didn’t have had to get me back there for sail time. I made it back to the ship although I dilly-dallied lil bit in a souvenir shop looking for something for my niece but good sense prevailed eventually because turning off and turning on Optimus every time he stopped didn’t make sense; I was pushing my luck. If I remember correctly, by that time he was down to 1/4 or so. I wasn’t worried once I got back on the ship because at least, 1) I was on and 2) I could always put him in manual mode and ask for a push if it came to that. Once I was on, I made a beeline for my room and the plan was to plug him in and not move until he was fully charged. Well, all was good until I got to my floor…at that point, he was stopping every few feet I drove. It so happened that the handicap rooms were on one side of the floor and there were large suites on the other side where a lot of the artistes were staying. As I was “stopping and going” down the hall, I heard voices behind me and the thought I had was “shit!people around” not “great I can get help”. As they came up behind me, I said sheepishly, “it’s okay, allyuh go ahead. I forgot to charge up but I making it” and one of them said, “nah man, yuh sure yuh eh want a push?” I took it…turns out it was Private Ryan and his friend (for the people who don’t know, Prívate Ryan is a well known popular DJ and radio personality in Trinidad). I was pushed right to my room (he actually stopped twice as I was going thru the door) where I was so grateful to be and I plugged in Optimus and really did not move until he was fully charged that night!
I doh ever want to be in that position again…and I have no one to blame but myself.
