Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Tyla and I aren’t going back to Indiana for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year so we picked a cheap weekend in October instead. Luke, Rachel and David came over from Toledo and we all had a great weekend! It was a nice lazy, relaxing weekend with some Catan, pumpkin carving, and visiting a petting zoo and corn maze! Being back home always brings back a lot of great memories and it was fun to add a few more to that list.

Photos are available in the photo gallery.

We’re back from our 10 day Caribbean cruise! It was an incredible adventure which we thoroughly enjoyed. Our last cruise was with Royal Caribbean and we visited the western Caribbean. This time we went with Celebrity and cruised the eastern Caribbean. I have thousands of pictures and videos to work through. I do plan to post the best photos to the photo gallery and make another video of our trip, but until then, I thought I would post my very lengthy (11 pages, 6500 words) cruise journal. Every night I would write for a bit about what we did that day. I honestly don’t expect many (if any) people to read this, but I do want it recorded for posterity. Stay tuned for some more concise posts that will probably be more interesting.

Friday, March 16, 2012

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale and had retrieved our bags by about 1:10AM. The hotel shuttles had quit for the night so we waited in a very long line for a taxi and finally crashed into bed around 2AM local time. Thankfully the 3 hour time difference worked in our favor and we weren’t too tired.

Our ship tickets said that boarding was between 1 and 4. Last time we arrived right at 1 and were surprised at how many people were on the ship already, so this time we tried to get on board a little earlier. We arrived at the terminal a little after noon, walked right through with almost no lines and got on the ship! Our room wasn’t ready yet but we had a nice lunch at the buffet while we waited.

It’s a much different feeling getting on the ship this time. Last time we were amazed at every turn, but this time it was more of a comparison to our previous experience. This ship, the Celebrity Equinox, is very similar to the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas. Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are two different brands by the same company and the two ships were built at nearly the same time. It’s still very exciting, but in a different way.

We walked around the upper decks by the pools, took a little nap, enjoyed dinner in the main dining room and spent a little time in the hot tub after dinner.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

When we booked the cruise, we knew that Celebrity was the “upscale” brand compared to Royal Caribbean. The amenities are a little nicer, but I think the biggest difference is the age group. It’s like we took the people from our last cruise and added 20-30 years to them. It’s not an exaggeration to guess that 80% of the people on this cruise have grandchildren. I think it’s largely a function of the type of activities offered on board. There are a lot less athletic games and late night clubs. It’s very easy to get in the relaxing groove here!

At lunch today we happened to meet up with a couple that we ate lunch with yesterday. They’re from England and we’ve been having fun chatting with them. We’ve been helping them translate some American culture. For example, today we were trying (unsuccessfully) to explain what root beer tastes like. Unfortunately there isn’t any root beer available on board or we could have just handed them a glass of it.

We spent some time relaxing on the top deck in the sun today. It’s pretty windy up there since we are underway. The relative temperature with the wind is in the mid-70s. It’s warm enough to feel the sun but you don’t get sweaty sitting outside.

Tyla was perusing one of the shops while I stood outside looking into the casino. There I witnessed a “slot machine tournament.” It consisted of 8 people furiously smashing buttons to see who could get the most points in three minutes. Every minute you would switch either to the right or the left so there was very little you could do to guarantee your victory. The second time they played, they couldn’t get an 8^th player so I volunteered. It was pretty funny and I didn’t win, but we got a complimentary $5 to spend on the slot machines and we promptly lost that.

Dinner tonight was one of our two formal nights. We had a different waiter than last night and really enjoyed this one. We’ll have to see if we can request him tomorrow. He convinced Tyla to eat one of her favorite animals: frogs! After dinner we went in to the theater to watch the show called “Equinox.” It was something like Cirque du Solei with lots of acrobatics.

We have two full days at sea before we get to St. Thomas. It’s about 900 nautical miles and we’re averaging about 17.5 nautical miles per hour. Then we hit five islands on five consecutive days and then have two days coming back home.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

After attending the late show last night, we didn’t get in to bed until about 12:30 which, when combined with lingering jet lag, meant that we slept in a bit this morning. We woke up just before breakfast ended in the main dining room so we went there instead of the buffet like we always have before. The food was pretty good, but I think for simplicity’s sake, we’ll probably eat at the buffet for breakfast in the future.

Immediately after breakfast, we went into a different part of the main dining room for a behind the scenes tour of the galley. One of the head chefs led us through the main kitchen. They serve about 14,000 meals per day! It’s incredible how much food flies through that kitchen. Nearly all of it is brought on board on embarkation day and carefully stored on the lower decks so that it’s fresh even on day 10 of the cruise. And with 2800 visitors and 1000 crew on board, there are a LOT of dirty dishes. Their dishwashing machines cover an entire cycle (including drying) in just 30 seconds. There was some time for Q&A and one of the most interesting questions was what they do with all the food waste. Pretty much all of the foodwaste is mixed up with sea water and then dumped into the ocean once they are at least 25 miles from land. The chef joked that they feed the fish and then catch them.

After the tour, we went up to the grass lawn area to watch a glass blowing demonstration. They have a whole studio up there in cooperation with the Corning Glass Museum.

The rest of the day was spent lounging around the decks. We didn’t eat lunch in the buffet since we had a late breakfast. Instead we snacked on burgers , hot dogs and fries from the grill up on the top deck. Then later on we visited one of the smaller cafes for some gelato.

We haven’t spent a lot of time in the room today, but when we do come back here I have been flipping on the TV to catch glimpses of the NCAA tournament. There isn’t a lot of live TV available on the ship, but there is one channel that flips back and forth between the various games that are going on.

We heard today that Celebrity is the “top rated premium cruise line in the world.” I’m not sure exactly what that means since I know there are extremely nice cruise lines with smaller crowds, but it’s still interesting to experience this. They also said that the Equinox has won their internal company award as the best cruise ship experience for the last two years.

The show tonight was a jazz musician who has toured the world and is frequently on some radio stations like NPR. He played the violin and went through an incredible variety of music from Charlie Daniels to Mozart and Riverdance. He had the ship’s orchestra and a string trio that is also playing on the ship backing up. At the end of his set he called up his five year old son who made his big debut and played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and then sang Amazing Grace with the orchestra and his Dad playing behind him. And then he called up his three year old son who couldn’t play yet but had a little mini violin and bow and knew how to hold it under his chin. He followed his Dad around the stage pulling the bow back and forth while his Dad played. It was very cute and it went over extremely well with the audience full of grandparents!

Tonight we tried to find a good spot on the ship to star gaze and we ended up on the top deck near the front of the ship. We found out that you can’t get to the helicopter pad on this ship which was the best spot to watch from on our last ship because they left the lights off. But this spot was pretty good and we had some nice music wafting up from the pool area. I, of course, got distracted and ended up taking some nighttime pictures of the ship. Even though the ship bucks quite a bit, you can get a great long exposure since the whole ship moves at once and everything else around is blackness.

Monday, March 19, 2012

I’m almost at fifteen hundred words already and I haven’t even started writing about our fourth day! If I got to pick one day from our trip so far to do over again, it would be today. We woke up this morning as the ship pulled into St. Thomas. It’s a gorgeous island, and since it’s a US Territory, we felt right at home. Shopping came later though because first we were off on our excursion.

This one was called “Cruise to Christmas Cove and Honeymoon Bay.” We boarded a pirate ship with 33 other people plus three crew members. The boat holds 49 so there was plenty of room. We started by motoring/sailing out to Christmas Cove where we hopped in the water with snorkel gear and got a guided tour around the cove. We spotted sea turtles and swam over a reef. We decided to put our little Kodak Zx3 to the test and I jumped right in the water with it. Thankfully the “waterproof” line on the box has lived up to our expectations so far and I think we got some fun videos.

We got back on the boat and they started dishing out the rum punch. We’ve come to expect stinginess when it comes to drinks on these excursions, but wow, you could not physically outdrink their generosity. I went below decks and saw a room full of about 20 bottles of rum. They were well stocked and weren’t afraid to keep refilling your glass.

We sailed over to Honeymoon Bay and on our way over, the skies opened up and it poured on us for a bit. It was enough to soak us but it didn’t last too long. There was only one other excursion there so we had the beach mostly to ourselves. Tyla and I opted to swim to shore instead of waiting for the dinghy. Thankfully we hadn’t had too much rum so it was an enjoyable swim. Once on the shore we had a delicious barbeque lunch and then played a very rousing game of beach volleyball. It turns out that in a group of older cruise guests, I stand out as a good athlete.

It’s hard to describe how fun this was, but you really had to be there to witness the guides. Our captain (Jim) was a 74 year old quiet guy who had been doing this for 30 years. The main character (Jason) was a Texan who seemed to thoroughly enjoy his job, and the third crew member (Rikki Dee) was a girl who had been doing this for about four months and led the snorkel tour. They were all wonderful people and either they really were having fun with us or they were so good at acting that I don’t care. I’d love to do the trip again just to hang out with them.

After a swim back to the boat, a couple flips off the railing in to the water, and some more rum punch, we ended up back in port with about an hour to spare. We did a little shopping and sent postcards back to our parents. Since it’s a US Territory, there was a USPS office right there and it was all incredibly convenient.

I’ve mentioned that this ship has a lot of nice extra amenities. One good example is when we got back on the ship today. There were people there waiting to give us cold towels to clean up with after getting sweaty on shore and another employee was there passing out small glasses of water and fruit punch. It was completely unnecessary, but it was a nice touch.

We watched the ship start to leave port from the top deck and then watched the rest of it from the privacy of our balcony. Tonight’s dinner was delicious as always and now it’s time for a little bit of an earlier bedtime since we have an early start tomorrow. The ship arrives in St. Kitts at 7am and leaves at 3. Good night!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

It must be a good vacation because when I sit down at night to write up the day’s activities, I not only have to look up the date, but also the day of the week!

Today we landed on the beautiful island of St. Kitts. We were signed up for the “Quad Biking and Beach” excursion. A bus took us through town, naming off some key locations along the way, and we ended up at a little plantation where our ATVs awaited us. If you remember that we’re on a cruise full of grandparents you can probably imagine how quickly the tour moved down the trail. Thankfully the guides put Tyla and I in the back of the line so we could lay back and have some fun as we caught up to the group. But even at a slow speed, it was really interesting to climb part way up the volcano past farms and old sugar cane equipment. We paused at the top of the trail for a beautiful view over the bay. I got some time to talk to one of the guides named Addison. I told him that I work with a guy from St. Kitts and they were both very interested in that. The island is converting its main industry from sugar cane to tourism. They built a huge pier to hold 6 cruise ships in the late 90s and it was immediately destroyed by a hurricane leaving only room for 2 ships. The island is poor and only has 40,000 people so they’re still paying off a pier that is only a third of what it originally was! But the tourism is picking up. The guides didn’t seem too impressed and thought that they should have stuck to farming, but the government does what the government wants to do. We asked them about the numerous colleges that we saw along the way. Apparently there are a few big veterinary schools on the island populated mostly by foreign students. There are no laws for animal cruelty on the island so vets will come here to learn without oversight by a government. Again, our guides weren’t very impressed with the schools because they are so expensive that local people can’t attend. The guides talked about some of the dangerous animals on the island one of them was the centipede. It has two pincers on the front that will give you a nasty sting and would probably land you in the hospital. They had caught a live one the day before and removed its pincers. Tyla and I both held it and snapped photos with it. They said anyone from St. Kitts would freak out if they saw the photos because people normally run the other way screaming when they spot one.

This tour was probably our least favorite one, but it was still interesting and I don’t regret doing it. If you’re looking for anything beyond a leisurely cruise down some dirt roads, this probably isn’t for you.

It was an early departure from St. Kitts but we had time to pick up a little souvenir in the cruise terminal area and I tried one of the local beers (Carib.) Once back on board, we ordered room service and sat on our deck to watch as we left port. We’re now steaming through the night to Barbados at the southern end of the Caribbean.

After a delicious and delightful dinner with our favorite servers, Karim (from Turkey) and Darel (from Jamaica), we hopped in one of the outdoor hot tubs for some relaxation. We started talking about what it would be like if we both live to see our 50^th wedding anniversary. I said, “When we’re having our 50^th wedding anniversary, we’ll be on a space cruise instead of a Caribbean cruise.” Tyla said, “I’d rather do this one.” “Really? You don’t want to go to space?” “No, it’s too far.”

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Today marks the halfway point in our cruise! It takes a few days to really get into vacation mode, and I guess I’m there, but I do still find myself thinking about work or projects that I want to do at home. Are the days of really falling headfirst into a vacation over or am I just not giving in enough? I don’t know the answer, but I’m enjoying the trip!

Today we landed in Barbados and our excursion was the “Tiami Five Star Catamaran and Sea Turtle Snorkeling.” We took a short bus ride across the harbor and boarded a large catamaran. I never counted the number of people on board but it was probably around 50 and the boat was maybe 2/3 to half full. We sailed/motored to the first stop where we got to snorkel with turtles. The experience felt very fabricated compared to our first excursion because this time they were feeding the turtles, but this time the turtles came extremely close. The underwater video camera worked out great again and we got some good shots.

Then it was back on board to head over to another spot that was an underwater marine park. There were a lot of big coral formations with hundreds of fish of all kinds. There was even a ship wreck in some fairly shallow water.

Once we were back on board, they opened the bar and we enjoyed some delicious rum and local Banks beer. I had a Carib beer in St. Kitts yesterday and I thought that one was better, but free beer is free beer. Our final stop was the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen. It was ruined a bit by the beach chairs and jet ski rentals, but still, it was incredible. I guess Barbados is known for beaches like this and it makes me want to go back to explore more of them. Finally we sailed back to the harbor and took the short shuttle ride back to the boat.

We did a little shopping in the cruise terminal like normal. It’s never the best place to find unique gifts at a fair price, but since we do excursions, we don’t have time to go into the real city to find better deals. So we always laugh when we see the thing we bought in the last port in the new port with a different country name on it. Such is life. I did pick up a Mt. Gay Rum shirt here which made me happy. Barbados is the home of Mt. Gay Rum. I asked one of our tour operators how he drinks it since I usually just drink it straight at home and he said he likes to add some soda water. I’ll have to give that a shot.

As we left port, I had the camera set up on the tripod on our balcony. I’ve been capturing timelapse shots as we leave each port. I’m not sure how interesting it will be when it’s all pieced together, but it seems like a decent idea. The only downside is that the shutter click every three seconds is probably annoying Tyla and our neighbors.

We continue to get to know our waiters better and better. The hostess knows that we love them and makes sure to sit us in their section. Tonight we were chatting with Darel about his life on the ship. He said he has signed an 8 month contract and he’ll work with three or four different waiters over that period. (He’s an assistant waiter.) He said the people who work in the main dining area will be paired up with a different head waiter for every cruise so the select dining offers a little more stability which is good or bad depending on how you get along with the waiter. After he leaves the ship, they’ll ask him how long he plans to stay at home and then he works with them to figure out where his next contract will take him. 8 months is the longest contract we’ve heard about yet. Most of them seem to be in the 4 month range. I don’t know if you get to pick how long your contract is or if it’s different based on your position or seniority. The whole cruise ship industry is very intriguing to me. I wish I could sit down with someone and ask 100 questions about stuff like this.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Today’s port of call was Rosseau, Dominica. Up until today, I had been pronouncing it completely wrong. I learned that it’s Roh-soo, Doh-mi-nee-ka. However you say it, this island is gorgeous. They call it the eco-tourism capital of the Caribbean and it’s easy to see why. There are 365 rivers on the island (one for every day of the year) and 12 major waterfalls (one for every month of the year.) Our excursion today was a hike along one of the rivers to one of the larger waterfalls, Middleham Falls.

We met our excursion at the end of the dock and hopped in a van along with the 11 other guests on our trip. The drive through town and up to the trailhead was quite the experience. After we got out of town, we quickly climbed up 2000 feet on a very steep, narrow road along the side of the mountain. You’ve never seen a road with this many turns in it! Our tour guide says that in Dominica if you’re not going up, you’re going down and if you’re not turning left, you’re turning right.

The excursion is one of the few trips listed in the Celebrity books as “strenuous” and that’s a good label for this one. I’ve been on tougher hikes, but this one was pretty high on the list mostly because it would be very easy to sprain your ankle or take a tumble. The roots grow very thick right on the surface of the ground and closer to the waterfall, there are lots of wet, mossy rocks requiring a scramble on all fours.

There was one older couple on the trip who severely underestimated the hike and probably should have turned around, but the guide was intent on getting them to the falls. It took the rest of us about 45 minutes at a leisurely pace to get to the falls and it took this couple an extra half hour. Along the way we chatted with one of the ship crew members, Mauricio, who was enjoying a day off. It was really interesting to talk to him and hopefully he didn’t mind us peppering him with questions. He’s from Mexico City and is on his first 8 month contract. He started off with the boat in the Mediterranean and then sailed with it across the Atlantic. Along the hike we found some vines hanging from way up in the trees and Mauricio and I played Tarzan for a few minutes.

The falls really were beautiful. They’re about 300 feet and end up in a beautiful pool. The hike down from the viewing platform to the pool was pretty sketchy. Tyla and I made it most of the way down in an attempt to swim in the pool but finally gave up. If we were at home I might have tried it, but the idea of breaking an ankle in the middle of a Caribbean island did not seem appealing. But still, it was a beautiful hike with a gorgeous payoff.

The hike back took us about the same amount of time and we all waited at the trailhead for 30 minutes as the couple made their way back. We hopped back in the van and made a quick stop at a hotel in the mountains for some very potent rum punch and beautiful vistas. Then we made another quick stop at a roadside stand with another viewpoint. We ended up buying a rattle made from a local fruit. It felt more crafty and probably something that we won’t find in other ports. Or maybe it was all a scam and they’re made in China.

While we were on the hike, we noticed that another couple was both wearing Brooks shoes. We had ours on too so when we were at the waterfall, we sheepishly asked one of the other guys in our group to take a picture of all four of us. Hopefully it turned out and I can send it in to Chelsea. I think they show those kinds of things off on their Facebook page or newsletters sometimes.

I’d love to come back here and spend some time hiking and camping. I wonder how safe it is to be off alone doing that type of thing?

We came back to the ship for a much needed shower and a quick lunch and then headed back out to walk the waterfront. There were a lot of little shops and craft exhibits. It was a welcome change from the standard fare we get at most ports, but we didn’t feel safe venturing too far into the city. That coupled with the heat and our full bellies meant that we went back to the ship before too long for a nice nap on the sundeck.

After watching the ship leave port and our afternoon ice cream break, we came back to read on our balcony and watch the sunset. To our surprise a whale surfaced about 100 feet from the ship! Tyla spotted it right away. We snapped a couple quick pictures before it threw it’s tale up in the air and submerged. About 20 minutes later, Tyla again jumped up because she spotted dolphins playing in the ship’s wake! They stayed in one spot in the wake so we watched them until the ship had moved too far past them. We’ve heard that frequent cruisers often see these types of things but it was a first for us!

We had also spotted some flying fish near the front of the ship earlier in the afternoon and also on the catamaran yesterday. They look like small birds and they actually have some kind of wings that they flap really quickly as they skim above the stop of the water. We ate some for lunch on the catamaran. Delicious!

We’ve been going to the show every night before we eat dinner. None of them have been super impressive, but tonight’s was really good. It was Adam Kato (sp?) and he did a variety/comedy/juggling act. He’s the two time world champion juggler, and he kept us laughing for the whole hour.

Friday, March 23, 2012

We awoke today in St. Maarten on the Dutch side of the island. The water in the harbor is an incredible turquoise color. Our excursion today was the “America’s Cup Sailing Trip.” They had three boats that were raced in the last 80s and early 90s. One of them, the Stars and Stripes, is fairly famous, but I’ll have to look up the details at home to remember everything. We were on True North, one of the two Canadian ships. There were about 14 guests on each boat plus three crew members. They gave everyone a job and then barked out orders as we raced the other two boats around a marked course. It was pretty exciting to be on a racing sail boat. Tyla and I were both primary grinders which meant we were two of the four people on the large handles near the center of the ship and we controlled the front sail. Our boat came in last but it was still a great excursion.

It rained briefly when we got on board the sailboat but then it was sunny until we got off the boats and it looked very threatening. We made our way back to the cruise ship quickly and got inside just as it started to pour. We showered and ate lunch and then headed back outside. It was sprinkling and raining but we went in some shops anyway. This looks like a really nice island to visit for a longer time. We didn’t really get to see much of it since we were just sailing around the harbor.

Last trip I don’t think we ever came back on board the cruise ship in the middle of the day but we’ve done it quite a few times here. It’s nice to take a shower after the excursion, get cleaned up, and eat lunch in the cases where lunch isn’t provided on the tour.

During the excursion I tried some of their local Preisdente beer. Yesterday I had Banks and the day before I had Carib beer in St. Kitts. I wasn’t that impressed with Banks but the other two were pretty good.

After we came back to the boat the second time, we changed into dry clothes and then lounged out on our balcony. We both ended up falling asleep and when we woke up, there was a bottle of champagne in our room with a note from our stateroom attendant! I took the bottle out to the balcony with the two glasses, took the cage off the cork, loosened it a tiny bit and then decided to wait for Tyla to come back outside before I opened it. She came outside just as the cork exploded off the bottle and over the railing landing on the pier right next to the boat security guys. Those on the balconies around us and the security guards got a good laugh out of that.

I caught up with our attendant later to thank him. He said that he was embarrassed when he entered the room and saw us on the balcony but that he got a laugh when he realized we were both asleep. I don’t know if that’s something he does for all the rooms or not, but I didn’t see anyone else on their balconies drinking champagne as we left port. As we motored past the last mooring, we spotted a stingray swimming in the water.

This is our last port before we set sail for Ft. Lauderdale. It’s always a bit disappointing when the end of a great vacation is in sight, but we’re happy to have two more days at sea to relax. Tyla hasn’t been feeling great since last night so hopefully she’ll get back to 100% with some rest. We kept things simple tonight and just ate at the buffet instead of going into the main dining room. Every meal there is four courses so it’s hard to do portion control!

We did stop in and see tonight’s show, and I’m glad we did. The performer was a singer who starred in the Lion King in London. He was a bus driver who stopped in at open auditions and ended up playing Simba’s Dad in the play. He sang a variety of songs from Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble, the Lion King and many more. At the close of his performance he received a standing ovation from the audience. It’s the first one we’ve seen on this trip.

I haven’t talked much about the other people on our boat, but every day we’re meeting more and more interesting, fun people. As soon as we stepped on the boat we met a nice couple from England and then on every excursion we’ve met a few more great people. Today there was a pilot who flew for some company that specialized in North and South Pole flying. We’ve really only met one family that we didn’t like. They were on the catamaran and all three of them couldn’t stop telling us how rich they were (or at least how rich they wanted to appear.) We ended up moving to another part of the boat at the first opportunity. Now as we walk through the ports or around the boat, we often hear our name called out by friends we’ve made in the previous days. It’s fun to catch up with them and hear what excursions they did. We can’t remember talking to almost anyone on our last cruise. It’s probably a change in our own behavior but we’re loving it!

Tonight’s sunset was pretty nice. It was the first one that we could watch from our balcony and while we never saw the sun itself, it turned the clouds some very beautiful colors. I’ve been taking timelapse photos every time we leave port so I tried to do timelapse sunset photos. We’ll see how that turns out.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

We didn’t need to set any alarm this morning because there were no excursions waiting for us. This was our first of two days at sea as we return to Ft. Lauderdale. We were in bed before 10pm last night in hopes of helping Tyla get over the stomach bug that she has picked up. It’s slowed her down a little but hasn’t stopped us from enjoying ourselves too much.

This morning we examined some of the items they had on display for purchase and went to a talk about the history of pirates. Around 3pm we headed into the main theater for the crew talent show. About 8 different crew members got up to show various skills from fancy bartending to singing and tap dancing. Some were good. Some were not. But it was interesting to watch.

The rest of our day was spent lounging up on the top deck in the sun. We were probably up there for 5 hours total today. While we were up there, it occurred to me for the first time on this trip that I’ve spent the last 10 days right by Tyla’s side. Aside from bathroom trips, we never split up, and in all that time, I’ve never been anything but thrilled to be here with her. I’m sure these places would still be beautiful if I was traveling alone, but they mean so much more when I can share them with her!

We only have one more day of sun to go and it seems that we are doing a pretty good job of managing our exposure to the sun. On the last trip I burned within the first few hours of being on the boat and spent the next week peeling. Tyla is starting to peel a little bit on her head but it’s not too bad yet and neither one of us has gotten a really severe sunburn. We’ve definitely had the aloe out each night to manage some red spots, but our heavy applications of SPF50 are doing the trick. Even with all that, we’re both still picking up some color.

Tonight was Tyla’s favorite dinner. It was our second formal night and they had lobster tail. The cruise director also came in to introduce all the waiters and food crew. We got to take a photo with our waiter, assistant waiter and sommelier. The sommelier even took us back into the wine storage area. It was amazing to see all those bottles and it’s displayed in a very prominent portion of the eating area.

This was the first night that we skipped the show but on formal nights the shows are later and we decided to just head for bed. Relaxing all day is tough!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

It’s hard to get too excited about the last day because all day long we’re thinking, “Oh it’s our last time to go take an afternoon ice cream break” or “It’s our last time to see the sun on the boat.” But even with those thoughts in the background, we still had a great day. We spent the entire day lounging around on our balcony and our in the sun on the top deck. Tyla got some sunburn on her arms so hopefully that doesn’t get too painful.

Last trip we chose to lug our own bags off the ship which meant that we had to be off by 7am. This time we opted to leave a little later and let them move our bags off the ship to a baggage claim area. The downside to that was it meant we had to get our main bags packed and outside our door by 11am but we would have had them mostly packed anyway

Packing was also a little more complicated because I decided to bring some liquor back and see how that process works. You’re allowed 1 liter of duty free liquor per person so I got two liters of some Mt. Gay Eclipse (their nicer rum that isn’t available in Washington) for only $19/bottle!

We said goodbye to Karim (waiter), Darel (assistant waiter), Onur (sommelier) and Natalie (hostsess) tonight. They’ve become friends as much as you can make friends with someone in 10 days. On this boat it didn’t seem like they put people with the same waiters in the select dining area but after we got Karim and Darel on the second day, we asked Natalie if we could always sit in their section and she kindly obliged. It was so nice to see them smile and wave as we walked into the dining room! I usually had a pop with dinner each night. Darel usually got it for me even without me asking. One night he forgot but I figured he was busy so I didn’t ask. When we saw him next he said he realized that he forgot my pop while he was lying in bed that night and he felt terrible. Ha!

The show tonight was a recap of some of the more popular acts. I think our favorite show of the whole trip was Philip, a baritone singer from England who starred in the Lion King in the West End. He has a fantastic voice and a great stage presence.

Monday, March 26, 2012

And now the end is here. We woke up this morning already back in Fort Lauderdale. We ate one last delicious breakfast in the buffet and then went back to our room to pack our final items into our bags.

We were assigned to meet in the theater before leaving the boat at 8:35am. When they finally called our number, we headed up to deck 5 and exited the ship. Our bags were waiting for us in the baggage claim area and we breezed right through customs.

We didn’t arrange a transfer to the airport as part of the cruise but there were plenty of taxis ready to take us. We hopped in one of the shared vans for $11/person and it was a quick ride to the airport. Then the phones got turned on and we were back into the real world.

It was such an incredible vacation and it’s hard not to be sad about it ending, but wow, we have made some wonderful memories that will last us a lifetime!

For our first anniversary, we headed out to San Juan Island to stay at States Inn & Ranch. It’s not your typical bed and breakfast, but it was perfect for us. As the name implies, the inn sits on a working ranch, and we were able to roam wherever we wanted. Tyla spent hours and hours watching and petting goats, pygmy goats, horses, sheep, alpacas, chicken and a llama.

We got the explore the island a little bit as well. The remnants of the Pig War fought between the British and Americans are still visible on the island. In fact, the British camp is the only place where the National Park Service raises a non-American flag.

All in all, it was a very relaxing trip punctuated by great food and lots of animal interaction. The California room where we stayed is visible in the picture below. it’s on the second floor and has enormous windows. We had a great view!

I’ve uploaded our favorite photos into the photo gallery under the tag San Juan Island. A few of them have gone into my dSLR Favorites gallery as well.

Since we had a laptop on the ship, I took some time each day to write down what we did. Don’t feel like you have to read this. It gets pretty bland. I just want it on the blog so that we can look back in the future and reference it. In fact, if you’re planning to go on your first cruise, I actually recommend that you do NOT read this. Part of the fun is discovering a lot of the things that I discuss below. Plus, when I write this much I tend to sound like a sixth grader recounting their summer vacation.

And for those of your suffering from cruise post overload, rejoice in the knowledge this is the last one that I have planned except for the video which I’m still editing.

Sunday

You knew I couldn’t go a week without blogging, right? We brought Tyla’s laptop along to offload pictures and video from the cameras and so I could record some thoughts along the way.

We arrived in Miami on Saturday night just before midnight. Thankfully all our luggage arrived with us and the transfer to the hotel was simple via one of those shared blue shuttle van deals. We stayed at the Holiday Inn right at the entrance to the Port of Miami. It turned out to be a great spot because in the morning we walked across the street to a park, shopping center, and marina with wild dolphins. We ended up eating dinner at a nice Cuban restaurant right on the water, headed back to the hotel to pack up and then took a quick taxi over to the cruise ship.

The ship is enormous. I knew it would be big but this is incredible. Up until the end of last year, this was the biggest ship in the world and it’s not hard to believe that fact. There is a running track along the top of the ship and it’s the same length as the park where Tyla walks her dog! And the track doesn’t even come close to touching the ends of the ship!

We spent the day exploring the ship, eating our first dinner in the main dining room, and enjoying the view from our balcony. After a soak in the hot tub, we were about ready to call it a night when we decided to go check out the parade in the promenade. That turned out to be a great decision. Think carnival in Rio. Costumes and Caribbean music made for a fantastic show!

It’s surprising how many other cruise ships we saw around us today. There were two Carnival ships that left port at the same time as us. One has been in view in the distance for much of the day, and at dinner, the Oasis of the Seas was spotted. The Oasis replaced this ship as the biggest ship in the world.

It’s hard to explain how weird it is to on the balcony and read a book. Staring at the book you feel like you’re in a hotel. But then you look up and see the water speeding by (about 18mph) and remember you’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean beyond sight of any land..

After dark we headed up to the helicopter pad where there aren’t many lights and stared up at the stars for a while. I saw my first ever shooting star in the arms of my beautiful wife on our honeymoon.

Tomorrow is a full day at sea so we’re looking forward to relaxing and some fun activities. You could triple book yourself all day long with the activities they have available!

Monday

Today was a full day at sea and we took advantage by doing… not much! The morning was a bit of running around as we went to a presentation about shopping at the port cities. We thought it was going to be tips and tricks for spending time off the boat, but it was all about jewelry and which stores to go to so we left early. Here’s a tip: they spend a lot of time recommending that you go to this show, but unless you’re planning to do a lot of shopping, skip it. While Tyla took a quick nap in the room, I headed down to the Promenade and picked up tickets for an ice show on Wednesday night.

Next up was the FlowRider. This is Royal Caribbean’s surf machine, but when we went it was set up for boogie boarding on your stomach and knees. It took about 15 minutes to wait in line but we both got a shot. It’s a great activity to sit and watch because there are a lot of great wipe outs.

The entire afternoon was spent poolside and in the hot tub. Throughout the day we’ve caught glimpses of various islands including Cuba. It’s quite windy today (20 mph wind plus about another 20mph due to our ship speed.) It makes the top deck very breezy but they have done a good job of organizing the top few decks to keep the pool area sheltered.

While we were by the pool, we caught the bellyflop competition. About nine guys duked it out for top honors. Two of them got a perfect score and had a flop off. I’m not sure what the winner got for his victory except for a red belly, but we enjoyed his pain.

We also ate at the Windjammer Café for breakfast and lunch. I had just assumed that there would be a 24 hour buffet on the ship, but it turns out that there isn’t. So I was very happy to see that the Café is the buffet and it’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner with little breaks in between. When the café and main dining rooms are closed, room service is the way to go. Last night we ordered chocolate chip cookies, milk and spinach dip.

We felt the ship rocking for the first time today. I had thought that if we felt the ship moving, it would be very slow since the ship is so big. Quite the opposite is true though. This feels more like plummeting from waves. It’s a side to side motion and it’s pretty rapid.

Here’s another thought: when will Europe get the memo that male swimsuits are supposed to reach your knees? There are too many guys walking around with what may as well be women’s bikini bottoms. And as for European and Asian women, what’s the deal with the sensual/serious poses for pictures? It’s not just an “I don’t like to smile” face, it’s the “I’m posing for a magazine photo shoot” look. It cracks me up every time I see it.

Tuesday

Today was our first day off the boat and we had a wonderful time in Labadee, Haiti. It’s a private part of the island owned by Royal Caribbean. You can cover the whole area in a half hour, but we enjoyed laying in beach chairs and swimming in the ocean. Lunch is provided on the beach with food from the ship.

Here’s a tip for anyone stopping there: When you get off the ship, the natural flow directs you to the beach that faces away from the ship. That beach doesn’t have a good swimming area (lots of coral in the water), and later in the day people were getting sandblasted by the wind. Instead, head over to Columbus Cove where it’s secluded from the wind and the whole swimming area is very nice.

We did feel a little weird thinking about the destruction that is probably still evident on the other side of the island. Sure we gave some money to a Hatian relief charity before we came, but it’s still hard to ignore the difference in lifestyle. We were happy to see huge pallets of food, water and clothing being unloaded from our ship for the Hatian relief effort.

Walking through the market area on Labadee felt like being a fish in the stream. Every guy you walk past walks out to try to “show you something in my shop.” We ended up buying a little wooden jar from one of the quieter shopping areas. Do the guys who attack you get more business than the ones who don’t say anything? Maybe it doesn’t matter since the quiet people just end up with lots of people browsing but not buying?

Tonight we stepped into the Platinum Theater for the second time. Last night they had some semi-odd dancing, flying music review. Tonight was a singing comedian. Both shows were ok, but I was mostly impressed with the enormous theater. I’ll have to look up the exact number when I get home, but there are well over 1000 seats in the theater.

The boat has been rocking much more like I expected today. It’s very long, slow side to side motion. It takes about 15-20 seconds to do one full back and forth cycle. I wonder if the shorter oscillations I felt yesterday were due to wind and not to waves? I also learned that this ship has stabilizers on it to keep from rocking too much. I can see how this would get to you if you had a weak stomach though. There were lots of those little ear patch medicine things around today. Neither one of us had any problems though.

We’re going to get up early to see the sunrise tomorrow, but we decided to stay up late anyway and watch “Dancing in the Streets” in the Royal Promenade. It was an hour long show and consisted of singers and dancers performing a bunch of disco hits. Of course the Village People showed up and danced above the crowd and then came down to dance with the crowd in the streets. It wasn’t quite as impressive as the parade on the first night but was still worth staying up for.

Wednesday

I’m sitting on the balcony the laptop staring out at ocean while we sit in the Ocho Rios Port. The other cruise ship (a Princess cruise line ship) is leaving the dock before us and I have a front row seat. Not too shabby.

This was a very early morning as we decided to get up at 6:10 to watch the sunrise. There were some beautiful colors to see but unfortunately we didn’t actually see the sun as there were too many clouds. It was worth getting up to see though.

After going back to sleep for a while, we got up to watch the ship pull into the Jamaican dock around 9am. It’s amazing how well they can thread the needle with this enormous ship. They have pods on the bottom of the ship that spin 360 degrees so it can turn on a dime.

If the retailers yesterday were annoying, it’s only because we hadn’t seen Jamaica yet. I wanted to scream at them all to leave me alone. First you walk through the mob of taxi drivers trying to drag you into their cars and then you get to the retailers ready to suck you dry. I understand it’s their livelihood but their livelihood annoys me.

We killed a little time by walking around a shopping area right by the ship and then headed back to the excursion departure area. Around 11:30 we headed out in a small bus to the Chukka horse camp for our horseback ride and swim. I had no idea what to expect but we had a blast! We ended up being first and second in line and the guide in front spent most of the time turned around talking to Tyla. We took about a 20-30 minute ride through fields and along the coast to a small cove. There we switched to water saddles which basically let you ride bareback on a pad. They then took us out into the water. The horses could touch bottom the whole time, but even on my big horse, my butt was getting wet. I’m pretty sure that swimming with the horses will be one of the highlights of our trip… except for the part where I was following Tyla pretty closely and her horse let go a stream of poo which I rode right through. Yum. The guide in front acted as our private photographer. He took my camera multiple times and gave us some great shots. He even held Tyla back while everyone else dismounted at the end and took her on a trot around the corral a few times. If you go, be on the lookout for Ryan. He’s a great guy!

Ok I’m back. We took a break to go play trivia. They have quite a few trivia games throughout each day that last about 30 minutes and have various themes. We arrived a few minutes late to yesterday’s game. We almost won even though we got there after four of the twenty questions. Today we arrived one time and came in somewhere in the bottom half of the pack.

Before leaving Seattle, we signed up for My Time Dining. I think it’s something that only Royal Caribbean offers. Normally, you spend every night eating at either 6 or 8:30 and you eat at a large table with a number of other people. We decided to try this new option which allows you to make a specific reservation time for every night and you can choose to either eat along or with a group of random people. It didn’t cost any extra money and I’m not sure why you wouldn’t do it. Maybe they only accept a limited number of people? I highly recommend that you check it out. It’s very nice to have the flexibility depending on what your schedule is.

Speaking of schedules, I’m amazed at how busy we are. I really pictured long stretches of time with nothing to do where we’d be sitting in our rooms. That pretty much never happens unless we schedule it in. Every day, we get a list of all the activities for the coming day.

After dinner we headed to the ice rink. That’s right: ice rink. There is an ice rink in the center of the ship with stadium seating on three sides. They have public skating throughout the week as well as numerous showings of an ice show. We had tickets for the 9pm show tonight. The tickets are free. They are just used to spread out the crowds. I’m never one to watch ice dancing on TV but this show was incredible. So far it is my favorite show on the ship. Don’t miss it!

We were planning to head for bed but decided to go see the show in the theater. They put three couples on stage and played a newlywed style game. They had one couple that was married four days, one that was 13 years, and one that was 50 years. The cruise director was the MC. He did a great job of keeping it moving and keeping it funny, but we ended up opting for bedtime about half way through the show.

They really have thought of everything on this cruise. Dinner portions might seem a little small but that’s because everyone is stuffing their face all day. Shows aren’t so long that you feel like you’re making a big commitment (and it’s easy to leave whenever you want.) There is a knob in the room so you can choose whether you want to hear the captain’s announcements or not. Every member of the staff has a smiling face and it happy to answer any questions you have. There’s a channel on TV that shows your current position along with sunrise, sunset, speed, direction, etc. It’s all very polished and smooth.

Thursday

This morning we arrived in Georgetown, Grand Cayman. This was a completely different experience compared to Jamaica. The island is very wealthy due to the 430 banks here. In fact, there are no taxes! They make all their money through banking and tourism. During the busy season, November through May, there are 3-4 cruise ships in the harbor. In the low season there is about one per day. Today there was a Carinval ship and a Princess ship anchored alongside our ship. Later this evening, our cruise director said, “Didn’t those two other ships look so cute parked next to our HUGE SHIP?”

There is no dock in Grand Cayman so we got onto a tender for the 5 minute ride to shore. Sit near the sides in case someone tosses their cookies. At least you’ll get a little fresh air. Neither one of us had any trouble on this trip, and thankfully I don’t think anyone else did either.

We arrived in the port and quickly found our dolphin and turtle excursion. A 20-25 minute bus ride took us out to Dolphin Discovery. We started by walking across the street to Turtle Town where we saw tanks full of enormous turtles and got to hold baby turtles. We picked up a couple souvenirs in the gift shop and then headed back across the street to the dolphin area. After some instruction on how to interact with the dolphins, we donned our life jackets and stepped into the pool. For about the next half hour we got to touch the dolphins, kiss their noses, have them push us on a boogie board, and hold onto their pectoral fins as they swam upside down in front of us. It really was an incredible experience!

After drying off, they herd you back into the gift shop to look at your photos and video. It’s hard to stomach the prices, but it’s our honeymoon and how many times do you swim with dolphins? We opted for the full package (6 photos total and a video of us playing with the dolphins.)

The last tender left at 3:30 so by the time we got back to port, we didn’t have much time to wander the very nice downtown area. We did walk down the street a little bit and step in a few stores, but after that it was back to the port for the tender ride to the ship.

We had a later dinner tonight (7:45) so we headed to the buffet for a late lunch, took a nap, and then lounged in the pool and hot tub. Believe it or not, this is the first time that we have been in one of the pools on this ship!

After dinner we stepped into the theater to see what tonight’s show was. There have been so many good shows there that we are pretty much willing to give any of them a try now and we just leave if they aren’t what we’re looking for. We ended up staying for the entire show tonight though. It was a Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons tribute group. Obviously I’ve never heard or seen the real thing live but these guys were great! It was my favorite stage show of the trip so far.

We finished up the night by going up to the heli-pad on front of the ship. They keep all the lights off up there so it’s fantastic for viewing the stars. It has become one of our favorite nighttime activities. I’ve seen a number of shooting stars and standing on the very front tip of the ship in the dark is quite an experience.

I’ve been having weird dreams on the ship. Last night I dreamed that I was driving a race car and was doing pretty well until I felt like I had to go to the bathroom. After a discussion with my crew chief on the radio, we decided that I should come in for a pit stop instead of going in my seat. Luckily when I hit the pits I woke up and was able to head for the bathroom. Not weird enough? How about this: I dreamed that Patrick Duffy (the actor who played the dad in Step By Step) was piloting a starship, firing on an enemy and shouting “Feel my epic Vulcan-ic wrath!” I remember thinking that Vulcanic wrath doesn’t really make sense since Vulcans don’t have emotions. I did not, however, think it was weird that I was dreaming about a TV sitcom star from 15 years ago flying in a space ship yelling about Vulcans.

Friday

It’s hard to not think that we’re leaving in two days. All day long that thought was going through my head as we stopped in our last port of Cozumel, Mexico. The first thing I learned today was that Cozumel is on a pretty flat island. I had been thinking it was part of the mainland.

Our excursion, All Terrain Jungle Buggies, said to meet ashore at 11:15 so we were nervous when we found out that the boat wasn’t docking until 11 and it takes about a half hour for them to get ready to let us off the boat. We just made sure that we were among the first people to get off the boat and it all worked out fine.

We started with a 20 minute bus ride away from the port area to the other side of the island. A good portion of the population here travels on mopeds and small motorcycles. It wasn’t uncommon to see three people on a little 125cc bike. I even spotted a lady with a very young baby strapped to her front with a 3-4 year old hanging onto her back. Yikes! A lot of the houses are small concrete structures. There’s not a lot of money on this island but all the people seemed very friendly and waved as we went past.

The vehicles were Polaris Ranger RZR’s. They are two seat, four wheel drive vehicles with a roll cage. Going into this, I was expected to putz along at 5-10 mph along some smooth dirt roads, but boy was I wrong. We started by driving down the road in a caravan of about a dozen vehicles and then turned off onto the bumpiest road I’ve ever driven on. It was a single lane road with about 8 feet of vegetation on both sides. Every once in a while, one side would open up for a beautiful view of a rugged coastline. Tyla did her best to take video but it was so bumpy that it was a nearly impossible task. She did manage to snap a few good photos though. As for the driving itself, woohoo! We were flying. Luckily we were two cars behind the leader because nobody behind us could keep up. At one point I told Tyla that I don’t know how much faster I would have gone even if I had the chance. We obviously went pretty slow for the rocky, bumpy sections, but there was a long smooth stretch where we really stepped on it. If I wasn’t able to see the car in front of me, I wouldn’t have been confident enough to go that fast. We were only going between 30-40 miles an hour, but on a tiny sandy road barely wide enough for the vehicle that was enough to be drifting around corners and catch a little air twice. I kept waiting for Tyla to ask me to slow down but she was apparently enjoying the ride. The guide would stop to let the rest of the group catch up and we knew they had arrived when we heard the couple behind us bickering about how fast they should be driving.

The 35-40 minute drive ended at some Mayan ruins on the beach. Unfortunately most of the building had been destroyed by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, but the guides did a good job of explaining what it had looked like. It served three purposes when the Mayans lived there. First, it was a religious spot that they were required to visit once per year. Secondly it was a sort of smoke/light house to help sailors navigate. Most interestingly, it was used as a hurricane warning station. The wind would blow off the sea into the building, get funneled into specially designed chambers and blow on 13 well-placed conch shells. When a hurricane would arrive, the conch shells would all blow loud enough to give the villagers time to gather supplies and head inland. Archaeologists estimate that they would have had 3-4 hours of warning from the structure! There is still one in tact on another part of the island.

We took mostly the same path back (with some detours along the beach), hopped back on the bus and drove to a resort. At the resort we got the chance to wash off the layer of dust that had caked on our faces and eat a delicious lunch. Since we were in Mexico, I broke my personal ban on tequila and had a margarita with Tyla. We had a little time after lunch to walk along the waterfront and snap some pictures before getting on the bus and heading back to the port area.

The boat didn’t leave until 7:30 tonight so we had a few hours to spend walking around the shops. We have been picking up a little souvenir from each port so we snagged one here and then ended up at Senor Frogs. Tyla had a huge rum punch and I had a Dos Equis. It was great to sit at a bar on the beach and relax. They say they don’t let tipsy people back on the boat, but luckily Tyla was able to keep her cool, pretend the stumble was caused by the rocking of the ship and sneak past.

All in all, Cozumel was nice but it was once again annoying to have vendors trying to lure you into their shops. We took advantage of a few of their offers just to get into the air conditioning and ended up getting suckered into a souvenir that was $10 cheaper elsewhere. The ship provides a list of recommended jewelry stores and it’s probably wise to pay attention to that list even if you’re just looking for souvenirs.

At all of these ports we have been expecting to have the chance to sit on the beach, but that really doesn’t happy unless you pay to use a beach (or at least we didn’t see anything.) We actually didn’t see any beaches in Cozumel that were the sandy, sunny beaches you picture when you think of the Caribbean. They were all extremely rocky and rugged. Our guide told us that some of that is debris from the hurricane.

Speaking of guides, if you get a quiet minute with them, ask them how long they’ve been working or some other question. We’ve always gotten interesting glimpses into island life. The ports (and sometimes the whole island) are driven by tourism so these jobs are very coveted. The guides are thankful for their jobs and put out an enormous effort to make sure the trip exceeds your expectations.

There were four boats in the port today: two Carnival ships and a Princess ship docked along with us. It’s a lot of fun to be on the biggest ship in the port!

After taking much needed showers back on board, we headed down to the theater to see tonight’s show. I don’t remember the exact name but it was something about fairy tale characters coming to life. After about fifteen minutes we decided to head to the top deck to see if we could catch the sunset. It was obscured by clouds but we did get to see the Princess ship leave the dock. They were right next to us so we could see into their ship and check out their amenities.

Tonight’s dinner was surf and turf and it was delicious as always. Our waiter and assistant waiter are a blast and we always look forward to seeing them. If you get the chance to have Catalin and Fermolito as your servers, you won’t be disappointed! We did a little shopping in the promenade (it’s hard to resist duty free shopping) and then came back to the room to relax. (Duty free shopping tip: Each person can bring back a liter of alcohol and up to $800 in tax free items. Keep your receipts to make this forms simpler.)

This is a long post already but I’ll tell one more story and finish it up. We asked Catalin a couple questions tonight. We found out that he is in the ship for seven months at a time. He has a wife and 8 year old girl back home in Romania. As you can imagine, it’s very hard to be away for so long, but he said he wants her to grow up with a better life than he had. Later we asked about My Time Dining and why some people choose not to do it. It turns out that of the 3300+ guests on board, they only take about 500 for My Time Dining. So when you’re booking your cruises, make sure you select this right away! I’m sure the regular dining is fun in it’s own way, but it has been extremely nice to eat at times that we choose and to have a private table every night.

Tomorrow is a full day at sea as we cruise back to Miami. We’re heading into the wind so we’ll be rocking most of the way. The top deck has a 40mph relative wind, but the way they have the top area designed, you can still sit in any of the pools and be sheltered. I’ve been typing this whole thing while sitting on the balcony staring out into the dark ocean, but now I’m headed for a relatively early bedtime with no alarm clock in the morning!

Saturday

This was our last day of the cruise. The day definitely had a different feel to it because the impending disembarking was looming in my mind. We sure crammed a lot of fun into this day though!

We started in the morning by playing mini golf on the sports deck. The wind made for an interesting game of golf as we tried to factor the breeze into our putts. We then decided to try out the rock climbing wall. We both made it all the way to the top and proudly rang the bell. I wish I had taken time to look around more while I was up there. It’s probably a good view, but I was just focused on getting down safely.

All week long I had been thinking about whether it was worth the extra money to do the golf simulator. Today we finally pulled the trigger. I’ve only done it once before, but I’m glad I got to play again. We both played and had fun, but I was ready to move on about the time that our hour was up. I feel like the simulator must not be very popular since it’s only open for part of each day and reservations are an hour each. That means a very small percentage of the guests could actually reserve it if they wanted to.

After gorging ourselves at the buffet, it was time to relax. We headed to our favorite porch swings on the solarium deck. I had my book and fell asleep while Tyla sat over by the pool to get some sun and enjoy the water.

Later in the afternoon, we headed back to the Flow Rider. They had a surfing competition for the best guests and some of them were quite good. After they finished, the workers put on a little show with some pretty impressive tricks. The best was probably three guys on boogie boards as the base of a three level pyramid!

At dinner tonight we said goodbye to our wonderful waiters, Catalin and Fermolito. Both of them were fantastic and we’re going to miss seeing them every day. On the way back from dinner, we watched the pirate parade in the promenade. It wasn’t quite as good as the first parade but was still fun to watch.

Tomorrow morning we elected to carry our own luggage off the boat so that means we have to be gone by 7am. Our flight isn’t until 12:30 and then we have a three hour layover in Atlanta. It’s going to be a long day but it will give us time to look through our wedding pictures and pictures from this trip. I spent the day trying to soak this all in and burn the memories into my mind. This was one of the best vacations ever! I love you Tyla!

UPDATE: Thanks to Mom for reminding me to post the results to my weight gain poll. The crowd was split between 0-5 pounds and 5-10 pounds. The final result? 3.5 pounds. I was so full for the whole cruise that for most of the time, I couldn’t think about eating more food. We didn’t even have very many alcoholic drinks because we were always so full that they didn’t even sound good. I’m not sure how it ended up being only 3.5 but I’m not complaining.