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64

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1992

S fitting or standing
around recalling the
words of "Stormy
Weather" wouldn't seem like
the start of a nine-day Mex-
ican Riviera cruise would be
much fun . . . and it isn't!
"Don't know why there's no
sun up in the sky" . . . plus its
song title of "Stormy
Weather" was the theme of
our first five days of vacation
aboard the Crown Odyssey.
"Gloom and misery every-
where" . . . except when in
the company of people we
knew from the Detroit area
and those we met while
riding the waves.
"Keeps raining all the
time" . . . at least the first five
days . . . and they said that it
never rains in Acapulco .. .
that the last time it happen-
ed, the natives thought an
enemy armed with water
pistols was shooting at them.
"Walk in the sun once
more" . . . didn't know if it
would ever come . . . But sud-
denly, like a chameleon
changing colors, El Sol ap-
peared out of the blue and for
four days the trip was back to
cruising normalcy.
It was as if the sun had
decided to play one way hide-
go-seek, finding a hiding
place it never chose to reveal
. . . or had an argument with
some stars and decided to
take it out on us because so
much depended on good
weather . . . or maybe El Sol
just wanted to be plain down
and out ornery.
However, things didn't turn
out right from the beginning
. . . and perhaps was an omen
of things to come . . . The
Crown Odessey was late ar-
riving in Los Angeles so peo-
ple who came there were
given a bus tour throughout
parts of L.A. that most of
them had seen before . . . and
told they would also be taken
to lunch at Century City .. .
The "tour" was bad enough
but imagine being taken to
lunch and having to pay for it
yourself! . . . Our end of the
bill at L.A.'s Stage Deli clip-
peroo spot for soup and sand-
wiches was $30.
When Ken Singer saw the
tab he joked, "Well, folks,
we've just bought the cruise
line!" . . . It was bad enough
sitting over four hours on the
Northwest Airlines trip
which, by the way, was ex-
cellent, and another three
hours on the ridiculous bus

ride . . . and having to pay for
your own lunch at a place to
which you were taken.
After the bus ride, which
was all it was, Sharon Singer
said, "Better they should
have dropped us off on Rodeo
Drive so we could do some
shopping . . . Hubby Ken was
probably glad they didn't .. .
as no doubt were many other
husbands . . . That would
have really put the icing on
the stale cake for the guys.
El Sol turned out not to be
the only bright spot (when it
finally showed up) on an
otherwise dull nine days of
cruising the Mexican Riviera
. . . Hard to beat the wonder-
ful people we were pleasant-
ly surprised to see from back
home . . . and those we met on
the cruise . . . or probably the
best quarters we've yet to
have on a ship . . . or the
smile of our waiter, Vassili
Hatzopoulos.
Thanks to Suzi Scher of
Avenues of Travel in Phoenix,
Ariz., who we met on the trip,
our table, except for her, at
lunch and dinner (breakfast is
open seating) was comprised
of all localites . . . Abe and
Joyce Epstein, Marlene Em-
mer and Jack Guz . . . Sharon
and Kenny stayed at the
original table assigned to
them because one of the
couples, Dr. Marvin and
Doris Friedmann of Penn-
sylvania practically begged
them not to leave . . . Suzi
talked to the dining room
manager and after the first
day arranged for the great
seating.

It was Abe Epstein's 75th
birthday and celebrated with
a cake as an accordionist
played while everyone sang
and he mightily blew out the
one candle . . . Abe and Joyce
spend their winter months in
Phoenix, Ariz., and will soon
celebrate their 43rd
anniversary.
Jack Guz loves strawberries
and raspberries but the ship
evidently knew he was com-
ing and when scarcely
available made sure there
would be enough for the other
1,000 passengers.
Marlene Emmer recently
sold her Ferndale Pharmacy
on Woodward and Nine Mile
Rd. . . . She is such a terrific
salesgal that Marlene once
sold her own fur coat to a
customer . . . It had been
hanging in Marlene's closet
for years.
Sharon Singer has been go-
ing to Acapulco every year for
35 years and says she used to

get sick until she met Kenny
. . . "We've been married
eight years and I've never got-
ten sick since." . . . Sharon
and Kenny go to the movies
about three or four times a
week when possible . . . Not
that they like the films so
much . . . it's the popcorn .. .
she 1-o-v-e-s those kernels and
talks more about how
delicious the bucket of pop-
corn was than the film she
and Kenny saw.
Suzi Scher celebrates her
birthday in March . . . John
and Betty Gatz of Tri-State
Polymers on Telegraph will
celebrate their 50th anniver-
sary with a trip to Hawaii.
Canadian Buffet aboard the
Crown Odyssey was a laugher
to people like Doug and Fran
Ellison of Grand Bend, On-
tario, and Ellison Travel

It was as if the
sun had decided to
play one way hide-
go-seek, finding a
hiding place it
never chose to
reveal . . . or had
an argument with
some stars.

about 30 miles outside of Lon-
don, Ontario . . . Corned beef
and cabbage! . . . Fran's son,
28-year-old David Shaw, a
defenseman with the New
York Rangers, becomes a free
agent after this year but may
have been traded by the time
this comes out.
Vassili, our 26-year-old
waiter in the dining room,
was reminded each day by
Jack Guz of what to say
before and after marriage,
which Vassili has not been
thinking about . . . "Yes, darl-
ing" and "Yes, dear." . . . The
ship went on to Hawaii and
poor Vassili may be spending
most of his time talking to
himself because of Jack.
The entertainment aboard
Crown Odyssey left a lot to be
desired . . . Didn't seem to
have the quality one would
expect from a supposed lux-
ury cruise ship . . . And im-
agine a Greek ship that
doesn't serve Greek bread or
Greek salad except on its
Greek Night . . . And even
then the bread with caraway
seeds is still only its own
version.
One of the highlights was
its talent show of ship
passengers . . . some of whom
were better than profes-
sionals . . . Kenny Singer,