As we walked aboard the ship we were welcomed warmly and then directed to our cabin.
Having been around ships all my life the first thing I noticed was the lack of engine noise.
 My expectation had been to step onto a throbbing deck but this ship was silent and still.
I figured it must have something to do with the size of the ship since this was the third largest cruise ship in the world exceeded only by the QE2 and the Norway. These days it would be considered small at only 38,000 tons.
We went right to the cabin but as our cases had not yet arrived we were about to leave when a young man came up and told us he was our cabin steward. If we needed anything at all we were to call him and he would be right there. Otherwise we would never see him because he would only be there while we were out. Fat chance, I thought, since there were five of us and we'd be in and out all the time. It turned out he was right. It took a couple of days to get used to but if one of the kids came in and threw their clothes on the floor, next time we came in they would be neatly folded and put in the correct drawer or hung on a hanger in the closet.
While we were at dinner each night the cabin would miraculously change into a bedroom with the correct night clothes laid out on the beds. How he knew which beds we slept in I'll never know. (It was the days before video surveillance so we weren't worried about that.)
 We had brought up the kids to be independent but on vacations we seldom let them out of our site. On a cruise ship, however, we immediately relaxed and let them go to do whatever they liked. It gave the two of us a tremendous sense of freedom we never realised we had missed.
We made the rules right away. Everyone would have breakfast and dinner in the dining room at our table on our assigned time and Scott would not go in any of the pools unaccompanied.
The second night out was formal if we wanted to go to the captain's cocktail party so we all dressed up and met the captain.
When I remarked to the captain about the silence and stillness of the ship he told me that it was a turbine. He said that the ship had been a Trans Atlantic passenger ship before they aquired it and turbines were rare.
After this experience I expected to see a lot more of them but they have never caught on. Every ship I have been on since still throbs.
Knowing the ship had stabilisers I mentioned that they made it feel like dry land instead of a moving ship but he told me they seldom used them in light seas such as this with only twelve foot swells. To me twelve foot swells was just a bit more than a light sea.
This ship had everything. So many places to eat and so much to do we wondered if we needed to visit any ports.
There were pools, a casino, bars and cocktail lounges with entertainment, a disco, a spa to name but a few and then there was the huge show lounge with two top class shows each night.
Scott had found some friends and was spending time in the video arcade and Sheri could always be seen in a group of four.
Mike found a beautiful young lady and we seldom saw him after that.
One extra rule we had to put in place occurred because I had forgotten that we were in International waters and laws were up to the captain.
We came across Sheri in a lounge and she showed us the drink she was drinking. She said it was really great and offered me a sip.
I was expecting a Shirley Temple or something like that but it turned out to be a whisky sour. We didn't embarrass her in front of her friends but at dinner that evening told her that the rules about alcohol were the same as at home for her. 
When we found Scott at the slot machines he said he had asked and was told that he could play as long as he could reach the handle.
We didn't bother to stop him because, after all, he was winning.
After a few days of being pampered beyond belief we wondered if we could find some way to afford a staff at home. This was heaven.
We found out later that the staff to passenger ratio was almost one to one. Actually 940 to 1000.
At dinner the service was as good as the meals.
Kim, one of our waiters, really took a shine to Sheri.
And then there was the singer who really took a shine to my wife.
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