Theynine

I was in a piano bar,

the piano player was this Irish guy who was pretty good.

He always had a big crowd of drunken folk singing along.

One night, this gal walks in,

the the piano man says, " Hey so and so, you ready to do your song?"

And shes like, " sure",

So Im assuming shes been in there a few times during the cruise,

and theyve done this before.

And he starts playing, and she starts singing some song from

' The little mermaid' or something, some Disney type tune Ive heard before. And I was thinking,

" wow, shes good, she sounds just like Ariel or whoever"

and come to find out, IT WAS the actual singer from the movie.

She was just cruising like everybody else.

That was pretty cool.

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Been cruising out of NYC the past ten years.

This year we went out of Baltimore.

Why?

SAME BOATS OVER AND OVER AGAIN!

I recall taking the Carnival Miracle twice.

And halfway through the cruise said,

" This show is familiar."

And upon inquiring discovered that a ship leases the same shows

for years!

No. I dont want to ride the Norwegian Gem again.

They finally brought in the BREAKAWAY,

but that pretty much runs back and forth to Bermuda.

Would be nice if the cruise companies would mix it up more often.

Not sure why they keep the same ships in the same area for so long.

By the way,

Baltimore knows how to get you on and off a ship better than NYC.

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Not sure about Aruba. Never been there.

Bought some nice Partagas series E Habanos from Stogies in Nassau last week.

Not cheap. Spent 25 bucks a pop on em.

The selection wasnt great, they are one of the few spots well known

by cruise smokers , so they get picked over quickly.

But I've never purchased any from them that I would consider suspect.

Problem with Nassau is every liquer store on the main drag has big

'CUBANS' signs in the front window. For eight bucks you can buy em.

And the only thing Cuban about the cigars inside, are the Cuban guy in

the back rolling them out of whatever and slipping a nicely counterfitted

band on the things.

Smoked one on the boat on the way back. Delicious.

Smoked it until I couldnt hold onto it anymore.

In all the cruises Ive taken, 9 so far, Ive never had customs go through

my luggage looking for cigars. Dont know if they have some mandatory,

search every 100th bag thing or something, but they havent bothered yet.

Can you tell the difference between a Cuban and a Nicaraquan grown

from Cuban seeds?

Absolutely.

Not sure if its the soil of Cuba or what that imparts the difference.

I recall last summer when I went out to mow the lawn.

I lit a cigar I had grabbed out of my humidor,

and suddenly realized something amiss.

It was wayyy too good to be smoking mowing a lawn.

I looked down and noticed I had accidently lit one of the three cubans

I had in my stash.

Best lawn mowing experience in my life, though I would rather have saved

the thing for a special occasion.

Maybe its my imagination, but they just have a certain taste,

they tend to have better quality control in the rolling department,

and I find the ash often burns darker.

Have I smoked a Dominican or something that is just as good as any

Cuban? Plenty of times.

Lots of great cigars out there,

the Cubans dont have a lock on good tobacco,

but they do indeed have their own special thing going on.

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