Story for the Week
Corinne and I just returned home from vacation—our third Disney cruise vacation. And when I say just returned, I mean less than 48 hours ago. 😁 We had an amazing time with both of our besties, stopping in Nassau, Bahamas, and Disney’s private island Castaway Cay.
Our first cruise together was in 2020, when my husband Dennis was still alive and just a few months before everything shut down because of COVID-19. He suggested that we invite my best friend Stephanie so I would have someone to hang out with while he was resting in the stateroom (he was in the middle of chemotherapy treatment) and Corinne’s best friend Aly so she wouldn’t be bored. After Dennis passed, we booked another cruise as a girls’ trip in 2022 and decided to make it a biannual event.
One of the benefits Disney offers is the option to make an advance reservation for only a $250 deposit while still onboard, a significant discount on the normal 20% down payment. It’s fully refundable if you don’t sail within 24 months, but assuming you book another cruise, you also save 10% on the total cost if you avoid their blockout dates. We’ve already started looking at potential dates for our next trip in 2026 once they open. 😉
As we arrived at the port early last week, Aly mentioned something about not ending up in Disney Cruise Jail. Corinne laughed and asked what she was talking about, and we informed her that of course the cruise ship had a jail of sorts. What would they do if someone committed a crime on board? A little shocked at first, she realized that it does make sense. A cruise ship really is a kind of self-contained city while at sea.
When I mentioned to her that they also have a morgue, her reaction was not quite so little. I believe it went something like this: “A MORGUE?!?!” I said of course they have to have something. Not that we like to think about things like that on vacation, but it makes sense. Then, of course, we had to look it up and discovered they actually are required to have a morgue.
As I started writing this post, we searched for information on crime statistics on cruise ships. (What a rabbit hole that was!) The numbers are pretty small considering the number of people who go on cruises every year, but the more we looked, the more Corinne wanted to hear the crazy stories. We were kind of happy when we found a forum where someone asked about anything bad that happened on a Disney cruise and many of the responses were along the lines of they had to get off the ship because their cruise was over.
All of our cruises have been amazing experiences. We had a couple of excursions on our first one that were less than spectacular, but overall, they have been the greatest vacations I’ve taken. We spend a lot of time playing Bingo (it’s more fun on a cruise than you might think) and a huge amount of time relaxing. The food is fantastic, the staff are incredible, and the experience is truly the best ever.
When we caught our shuttle back to the airport from the port, the four of us were too many to ride in the minibus that was leaving, so they put us in a minivan typically reserved for private rides. The agent for the shuttle company asked the driver if he minded doing a prepaid run to the airport because it would be about an hour round-trip for him. I heard him tell her that we just came off a Disney ship, and people always come off a Disney ship happy. He’s not wrong…at least not in my case.
After our first cruise, I told Dennis that I would be happy never taking another vacation that’s not on a cruise ship. I stand by that statement today. And less than 48 hours after the last one, I can’t wait to be planning the next.
And if I ever take a cruise that goes to Paris, I will definitely remember the book reviewed below. 😮
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle
305 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Trade Publishing, Park Row Books
Publication Date: June 11, 2024
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, Park Row Books in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher’s Description
When Stella met Adam, she thought she had finally found a nice, normal guy—a welcome change from her previous boyfriend and her precarious jetsetter lifestyle with him. But her secure world comes crashing down when Adam goes missing after an explosion in the city square. Unable to reach him, she panics.
As the French police investigate, it’s revealed that Adam was on their radar as a dealer of rare and stolen antiquities with a long roster of criminal clients. Reeling from this news, Stella is determined not to leave Paris until she has the full story. Was Adam a random victim or the target of the explosion? And why is someone following her through the streets of Paris?
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Main Characters:
- Stella Knox – former flight attendant, high-end caterer to A-list celebrities, married to Adam for the past three years
- Adam Knox – owns a shop in Atlanta that sells reclaimed antiques to builders and architects
- Ben Sully – Stella’s former love interest, she met Adam shortly after leaving him, works in international finance
- Arnaud Collomb – lieutenant colonel on the Paris Police Force
- Lucas Fournier – from the Citizens Services department of the U.S. Embassy
I discovered Kimberly Belle last year when I read The Personal Assistant through a book club (No One Escapes Their Internet Past), so when I saw The Paris Widow on NetGalley, I immediately requested it. You’ll want to pick this one up.
The Prologue introduces us to someone smuggling something in her luggage while passing through France, and then the story cuts to the present day with Stella and Adam in Paris on vacation with a little work for Adam mixed in. The story proceeds through a dual timeline alternating from Stella’s point of view in the present and Adam’s point of view beginning 18 days prior. Stella’s timeline consists of trying to figure out what happened to Adam. Adam’s timeline explains how we got to the explosion.
This story contains a lot of players, twists, deception—all the makings of a great thriller. I had a lot of questions as I worked my way through it, and the deeper I got into the story, the more questions surfaced. Not only did I question what exactly happened to Adam, I started to question Stella and her past.
I do not want to give anything away here because I really enjoyed getting to the ending. This is suspenseful all the way through. It is easy to get lost in all of the developments, and I’m still not convinced that I know all the good guys from the bad guys. That’s all I’m going to say. I will look for Kimberly Belle again and again.
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