Hi!
Anna asked me for an update on my story (here:
http://dr1.com/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=359996 )
Anna Coniglio said:
BTW notion have you gone on your trip yet? The one where he was offering to pay for everything?
We want to hear a good story so if it all turned out well we'd like to hear about.
Thanks
Okay, so let me tell you what happened...
I must admit that as the day of my flight was getting closer I was getting more and more scared. Scared about how my life would change if I started to care for him more than I already did.
And as stupid as it may sound - I was still thinking that the whole thing might be a prank, some sort of silly bet between crew members "I bet you I can get her to the pier within 2 months of her first cruise" and they'd all stand and look down from the ship and laugh.
With all that in mind I still packed a massive suitcase and boarded the plane to L.A. almost two months ago. I had to spend one night in a hotel because I might've missed the ship if I only arrived on the day that it was leaving.
He was somewhere between Cabo San Lucas and L.A. at that point, working. I left him a message on his cell that I had arrived and tried to get some sleep. (Which didn't work by the way.)
He sent my a text message at 6 o'clock in the morning that they'd just be coming into L.A. and that he's call me as soon as he knew the pier number. I should just take it easy until then. About ninish he called back, telling me the number and that I should get a cab, he'd be at the pier just after ten.
Although the taxi ride was pretty long, I was early so I sat around at the pier for a bit, watching the passengers get off the ship and indulging in my morbid prank fantasy. I wasn't even that nervous probably because I hadn't slept for more than 30 minutes in the last 30 hours.
At some stage I recognized crew walking past and shortly afterwards I saw him. I just stayed put and watched him look for me. Man, I'm so cool!
But when he came over my heart jumped and we hugged and I was very happy that I had made the decision to go back to see him. It turned out he's an officer after all, not a high rank one, but still.
It took some time to get onboard. He imagined everything to go a lot smoother and after the ordeal I basically knew that I was the first he'd ever invited on board. He was kicking himself for having been that laid back about the whole procedure, but I think he can't help himself, he's Dominican and "mas tarde" is one of his favourite phrases (not that he ever said it to me, I get a lot of "no te preocupes").
Anyway I got on board and I got my own cabin (in the crew area) the next day. The first nigt I had to spend iin his cabin because they still didn't know which cabins would be free. It works the same way as with flight attendants. You can have anyone cruise with you but you have to wait and see whether there are any stand-by cabins left over. But staying the night at his cabin was okay and nothing happened. I was already fast asleep by the time he got back from work.
When I got my own cabin, he brought me a bunch of flowers and made sure that the cabin attendant would really treat me as a guest despite my staying in the crew area. He'd also bought me loads of presents. Souvenirs from CostaRica, a book about the cruise and a webcam, so that we could chat when I'm gone again. I only gave him some chocolate, a few postcard and a self-made music CD.
Okay, what else... He obviously had to work but I could call him whenever I felt like it and he'd always come to talk to me when he saw me around. If things weren't that busy he'd even sit down with me. We spent all of his breaks together, mainly in the crew area because as long as he's in public areas he's automatically considered on duty. At dinner he sat me with some very nice people and he'd serve us wine and he'd pay for it. My table companions were well impressed and soon the word spread that I'm his girlfriend. That's hwo he introduced me to his friends and his boss, too, even the captain knew who I was. It was so funny! Because I knew he's also be judged by my behaviour I tried to be just as polite and helpful as the crew and at the end of a cruise someone wanted to put my name down as an outstanding crew member.
Anyway - he took time off as much as he could, so that we actually got off the ship at every port together (apart from one and a half). He'd thought about what sort of things we could do together, tours, jet skiing, paragliding etc. But after the first tour (which cost a bomb) I told him that I'd rather just spend time with him talking because after all the whole trip was supposed to be about getting to know each other. So from then on we just went to the beach for a swim or for something to eat or shopped for souvenirs and just talked a lot about family and life and past relationships etc.
I think I got to know him a lot better.
We got on very well in all aspects apart from one - the money. I know it's only good and fair or whatever if he pays for everything but I found it too much. Once I went ashore on my own because it was only a short stop and he was working and he gave me 50$ to spend and told me to buy him certain souvenirs. I took a long time choosing them and got some small things for myself. When I gave him the souvenirs and the rest of the money, he wanted me to keep both. I'm sure he never actually wanted the souvenirs he just wanted to buy me something but because I always said "no" he thought he'd trick me. The things I bought weren't enough. I promised that he'd be allowed to buy me something some other time and made him keep the stuff and the rest of the money. On our last day ashore however he went to a jewellery store and sent my for a walk. After a while he found me, took me to the shop and showed me the pieces of jewellery he had chosen. They were three sets necklaces with matching earrings. One of them I didn't like and when I said that, he went ahead and just bought me the other two. Then he also insisted on paying for the souvenirs I brought my mum and dad.
Just as well that I had read your remarks here beforehand, otherwise it would've been a lot harder for me to accept all these presents. But it was just like you said - for him it was normal or even a must that he'd pay for everything. End of discussion!
Okay, this is a really long post already - so let me wrap the story up.
It was very tough to leave him after the two weeks, I've grown quite attached to him. He makes me laugh a lot and we can talk very well and he does make feel very good because he's so proud to have me at his side.
I guess others would say we're in somewhat of a long-distance-relationship now although I shy away from calling him my boyfriend. In all the time since we met (4 months)we spent so little time with each other (approx. 4 weeks) how can you call that a "relationship". We speak on the phone about twice to three time a week and write e-mails almost daily.
He's supposed to leave the ship in mid-February, we will see what happens then. Maybe I'll visit him in the the DR, maybe we'll try to get him a tourist visa. It's still not decided.
Because I know that money is always an issue in the discussion here I better tell you that I have spent some money on him now - I sent him a christmas present and a birthday presents. Neither of which has arrived yet by the way, I hope they still will, especially because one of them is an album with all the pictures that were taken of us (and man does he like picture taking I felt almost like a Japanese..).
Okay, so that's my story!
I doubt anyone has any questions but if you do - just shoot!
Kudos to anyone who's actually read the whole post!
But Anna asked!
greetz
notion