A Cruise Ship with no books to lend

[Mandy Muffin]

I take a cruise annually and each year I borrow a book from the ship's library, hopefully a best seller on my reading list.  This year, the Ruby Princess had no one manning the library.  All the books were on "trust" with the reader expected to return the book to the shelf as a courtesy.  Of course, the shelves were mostly empty. I did get lucky and picked up a copy of "Everything I Never Told You" http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/books/review/everything-i-never-t... which is an excellent read on Oriental culture dealing with an American tragedy. 

Most of the passengers were using an E-book system, as I had my numerous reads on my Kindle Fire.  I guess it's not worth the manpower for cruise lines to provide service at the library anymore. If they have not done so yet, I suppose most of the other cruise lines will follow and eliminate their library services as well. 

It has always been my feeling that reading and cruise ship vacations go hand and hand.  But you had better bring your own in the future. 

[rapa]

Have been wondering if you reached Rio!!!! Hope all goes well.

Enjoy your cruise home. It's cold here!!!!!! ❄️

[Mandy Muffin]

Just got back home to Florida, via Atlanta.  It was 92 degrees in Rio when I left and 13 in Atlanta when I landed yesterday morning.  Burrrr!!!  After 19 days at sea, I hopped a Delta 767 and made the 10 hour flight over the Amazon jungle at speeds of 550 mph.  The rest of the cruise was going around the Horn to LA over the next six weeks.  I have already made that voyage in years past. These old bones are really suffering after the trip and it will probably be the last I take that goes this far from home. 

[rapa]

Rest, regroup and get back with us with tales from Rio. Was it worth the trip?

[Mandy Muffin]

It absolutely was worth the trip.  I have always been a traveler and my sense of adventure drives me to go places -- Europe a number of times, Antarctica, The Gobi Desert, Trans-Siberian RR, Egypt, Turkey, Alaskan Highway (twice), Across the outback of Australia, Newfoundland, China, Japan, etc. over the years. But now into my later 70s, there is a need to bring medicine and the disruption of the daily routine is rough on the body.  I did contract a nasty case of the flu and have been trying to drive it out with Z-packs for over a week now. I expect my future travel will be far less ambitious.  But wherever I do  go, I will bring a book to read. 

My current read is "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," http://www.amazon.com/Miss-Peregrines-Home-Peculiar-Children/dp/159... where the children get to take a trip every single day of their lives.  Every day is an adventure. 

[Lip Service]

I was in resort on the Red Sea last September. There was no library but found shelves of book exchange at more than one location

It is not really an exchange but a place to leave your books after you're done so you don't carry them on the way back.

Found a few interesting ones, including the latest Jo Nesbo which I had wanted to read but the problem was that it was in the original Norwegian. Of course I left one book that I had brought with me

[Mandy Muffin]

Even though the passengers were mostly older folks - not too many kids take 3 week cruises - use of E-Books was almost universal, as actual paper books were few and far between.  I took along a hardback copy of "Caribbean" by Mitchner that I had on my

shelf for about 20 years and left it in the library when I was through reading it. It's just nice to have unlimited books at your disposal on your Kindle without the extra weight.  As I just purchased a Kindle Fire for Christmas, I was also able to use the ship's Wi-Fi to communicate with my family via E-Mail.  They did charge $99 for 200 minutes of use.