November 4, 2013

Monday, November 4. 2013

Last day at sea and I missed half of it sleeping. I sort of woke up at about 8:00 and decided to sleep some more so reset the alarm to 11:00. Then Mark came in and woke me at 11:45, and that's when I realized that I'd accidently set my clock back two hours instead of one. Ah well ... So we finally had our room service lunch on our balcony. Lovely. No rain today and calm seas again.

After lunch Mark began packing. I sat by in amazement watching him try to put the proverbial ten pounds of sausage into a five pound casing, or actually two twin beds piled two feet deep with clothes and purchases into two normal sized suitcases. And he actually managed it to my total surprise. Since I have not bought much of anything that I didn't eat or drink on this trip, my packing was easy 

So now the sadness of its being the last afternoon to watch the sea go by...the last evening dining with fun people...the lasteriod of relaxation before tomorrow's chaos of disembarkation and traveling. It's been a good relaxing trip.

November 3, 2013

Sunday, November 3

Today we are at our last stop, Cozumel, Mexico. I have been here before, but a really long time ago. The city has grown tremendously. There is a new port area for the big ships a couple of miles away from the center of town with a wide variety of shops selling stuff to the touristas. Since I've put more Mexican souvenirs into yard sales over the years than most people ever see in their lives, there's not much that I would spend money on here. The weather is at best cloudy, and at worst rainy. I'll see how the day progresses and maybe go in after lunch.

By the way, the expensive hair style didn't quite survive being slept on overnight. The front is okay, but the rest looks like the open back hatch of my Subaru Forester. I'll have to work on that later and meanwhile sit outside for a while and let the humidity take the blame for it.

Later: the weather was at its worst for most of the day, and almost everyone who made the rather long hike to the landward end of the pier got soaked to the skin including Mark. Guess what ... I stayed aboard and nice and dry. Just after we sailed the clouds parted for a moment and two weak rays of sun were spotted.

After we sailed from Cozumel, we had a rather bouncy ride for the rest of the evening. Even I felt a tad queasy at first, mostly, I think, because the ocean this trip has been smooth as glass the whole way until now. The right pills, taken early will fix that and did. 

November 2, 2013

Saturday, November 2

Anchored just off Grand Cayman today with tender service to shore. Neither Mark nor I went ashore although all our table-mates did. Helen and Don took a local tour out to Hell and to some of the island's other sights. Leah and Rob went to 7-mile Beach. I happened to see the latter pair as their tender got back to the ship, and judging from 3 decks above them, Rob should be glowing pink at dinner, but hopefully not actually burned. (Later: both Rob and Leah were pretty pink, but should be okay if they're careful tomorrow in Cozumel.)

The bird is gone from our balcony. I figure either it died and fell overboard during the night, or it emigrated to Grand Cayman after we anchored this morning. Either way, at least we have the exclusive use of our balcony back.

We had a big breakfast in the dining room then sat in the shade on Lido Deck all morning. Right after lunch I went and got a very expensive haircut and styling. I hope the cut will work for me after the style is either slept or washed away. After that, I hunted Mark down on Promenade Deck where we sat and watched the various kinds of boat traffic in the harbor and one rainstorm that rained only in one limited area of the island but went on for over an hour and was still going strong when I went back inside.

Quiet evening and early to bed ... partially because I'm sort of planning to go ashore to look at the shops at the pier area tomorrow, and partially because of the time zone change.

November 1, 2013

Friday, November 1

At sea, still headed for Grand Cayman. It's an off and on rainy day, so no one is sitting outside which puts seats inside at a premium if you just want to sit and read, people-watch or crochet where there isn't some silliness or other activity going on. You'd think that, on a ship that holds over 3,800 passengers with only about 1,800 on board, it should be easy to find a good seat, but no. Any area by the atrium is subject to things like a paper plane contest or a contest to design a container to let an egg survive a two deck drop, or loud music. Most of the other lounges have events going on from "enrichment" lectures to art auctions. So I spent much of the afternoon in our cabin. I didn't open the door to go out on our balcony as there is a little brown bird that appears either exhausted or ill out there. Having once experienced a bird in my cabin, I really didn't want to do that dance again.

Tonight was the second formal night. Mark and I had planned to go to the Captain's Circle cocktail party at 7:15, so we got gussied up early and went down to our favorite bar about an hour before that. By the time our drinks had arrived at about 6:20, the line-up waiting for the party had grown to over a third the length of the ship! All that waiting in line just to nod to the Captain (they don't shake hands any more for health and safety reasons), be seated with total strangers, swill down a glass or two of sparkling wine (not real champagne, y'know) or rum punch, and gobble a mystery hors d'oeuvre or two. We gave it a miss and stayed right where we were until dinner.

I must say that our table-mates polish up pretty well for formal night. Leah was particularly sparkly in emerald green sequins. As always, good food, lots of wine (which tonight included some REAL champagne thanks to Helen and Don who had been given the bottle won the night before by the "Zombie Passengers from a Carnival Cruise" none of whom drink alcohol), and much hilarity.

After dinner Mark and I went to see the magician's show in the main theater. As a show, it was quite spectacularly staged. As a magic and illusion show it was good. 

An early night tonight as we plan to get up early and go to the dining room for breakfast. The ship will be anchored off Grand Cayman with tenders running people ashore. I have been to Grand Cayman multiple times and never lost anything there that I feel pressed to go look for. 

October 30 and 31

Wednesday, October 30

Today at sea was pretty much like the first 2 days of the cruise except that, in the early morning we turned south between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico and moved from the Atlantic into the Caribbean. In the afternoon there were several birds ... not seagulls ... flying with us dining on the flying fish that our passage stirred up. I am really enjoying our balcony on these sea days.

Thursday, October 31

Up very, very early as we arrived at Curacao and tied up to the new pier. Mark's tour to some caves to see Arawak petroglyphs went at 7:45, and my tour of an ostrich farm went at 8:45. The weather was rainy off and on, and many who walked to town or went on other tours got soaked, including Mark. My tour got some rain while en route to and from the ostrich farm, but only a few drips while there and out of the bus. (Thanks, Jill, the weather magic is still working wherever you are.) Our driver/guide, Kenneth, kept thanking us for bringing the rain as our present to the island. Having been there before and seen it with no rain, I can sympathize with him.

This ostrich farm has hundreds of ostriches, a few emus just to show people the difference, and lots of other animals that wear feathers including peacocks, several sizes and varieties of parrots, guinea fowl, turkeys, several fancy breeds of chickens, etc. Beyond birds, they have an assortment of other animals like regular pigs, pot-bellied pigs, Barbados sheep which look rather like goats because they don't grow wool, some goats also, and three alligators who are the butcher shop's clean-up team. All very eco-friendly as they use every part of the ostrich for food, feathers, leather, and even the bones are eventually used by a local craftsperson. They took us around in safari trucks with hard, narrow seats and zero knee room. Our young guide was very knowledgeable. But in the end, I've got to say that a wet ostrich is definitely the poster child for the word "bedraggled."

Back on board, I located Mark and went for a quick bite to eat. We then camped in one of our favorite bars near the ship's central atrium until some highly amplified activity started up several levels down. Meanwhile the ship set sail for Grand Cayman which we should reach on Saturday after another day at sea.

As it is Halloween, there were a few people wandering about the ship today wearing t-shirts with pumpkin or ghost faces on them. There is quite a display of carved pumpkins in the atrium. As Mark said, "If you can carve a watermelon, you can carve a pumpkin." Supposedly there is a costume party tonight after dinner. It would have been nice to know that ahead of time. Ah well ...

And yes, there were costumes galore on both staff and passengers! After another really fun dinner where the group swapped brain teasers that I only hope I can remember, Mark and I went to the Halloween costume party and dance with Rob and Leah. We had a great time watching all those in costume and the judging. They even had a category called "What th'...?" for ones that required a lot of explanation. There were some great ones, but my favorite was a pair of folks dressed as pieces of candy corn that won the "Home-made" category. Or maybe the "Group" category winners who were "Zombie Passengers on a Carnival Cruise." The music was excellent, rock and roll things that even I knew most of the words to. 

October 29

Tuesday, October 28

Docked at Grand Turk this morning, cheek by jowl with the Niew Amsterdam, and a long hike to the shore end of the pier. Since we were only here from 7:00 a.m. To 12:00 noon,  I gave it a miss. After breakfast in the cabin, I spent the morning in the shade up on Lido deck crocheting ... well, some of that along with plenty of people watching, just looking at sun sparkles on the water, all with an attention span of ... "Look! Squirrel!" We did get lunch there on deck before the rush of returning passengers. In the afternoon, I did pretty much the same as in the morning except on our own balcony. I think Mark was coing the same in a deck chair on Promenade deck. I do know he complained that, for the first time he hadn't read a whole book today. (Did I ever mention that at least half of one suitcase he brings is all books?) 

The weather was quite warm and humid today, but then that's what we paid the big bucks to come experience. There are quite a few folks aboard who are experiencing sunburn as a result. Later, just before dinner we saw a bright rainbow that only went from one cloud to another. After dinner, Rob reported seeing a ferocious lightning storm off to starboard.

We have such a good table at dinner this cruise! We're just about the last ones out every evening. Tonight we all adjourned to the Wheelhouse bar after dinner to keep the party going. I finally gave up and returned to the cabin leaving the others still sopping up wine and swapping stories.

October 28

Monday, October 28

Up at a reasonable hour this morning, but slow getting out of the cabin because I took time to post yesterday's blog entry and check e-mail. The internet service at sea is always snail-paced. The saving grace is that Mark and I each get a lot of free minutes, and I can use his after I run out of mine.

Today is another gorgeous one to be sailing on the Atlantic! At least it was when I wrote that before lunch. By the time we finished lunch, we were sailing under heavy clouds and occasional rain storms which continued for the test of the day. The ocean, however, remained smooth as glass with the only bits of white water being those caused by the passage of our ship. During the evening there was a small amount of motion as we crossed the Bahamas Trench, but that went away once we got inside the islands. Despite the rain we spent some time out on our balcony as there is enough overhang from the deck above to protect our chairs except in the harder showers.

We had fine time at dinner with one of the couples at our table, Don and Helen from somewhere in Illinois. The other couple, Rob and Leah from London, UK, went to one of the other specialty restaurants for the evening. After dinner Mark and I went up to Skywalker's which is the disco nightclub perched at the top over the stern of the ship reached by a glass-enclosed ramp. They were playing 1970s music, but there were only a couple of songs that I had ever heard before, and all of it had a loud, body-thumping bass disco beat. I was more that happy to leave after an hour.