March 28th-Our last post!

Well, our wonderful trip is over and we are at home unpacking now. We had alot of fun and enjoyed all your comments about our blog. It was fun and we hope you all enjoyed it too. Hopefully next time I will learn more on how to add pictures, etc.
We had a good flight home but didn't get back to California until very late on Sunday night so Monday was not fun getting back into the swing of things!

I am currently downloading my 700 pictures as I write this! I deleted almost 200 of them. If you 'd like to see them just email me at:
clynam@cbnorcal.com and I will forward you the Shutterfly link.

Hope you all have a wonderful 2010.
Until next trip....
Cathy & Mike

March 27th-Sea Day #2

Well it is our last day on the cruise and it is a “sea day”. Last night we discovered we were supposed to meet at 9:15am in the Casino area to disembark, but that wouldn’t give us enough time before our flight, so I had to go down to the desk to get it changed and buy a transfer pass to the airport.

I wanted to get Mike to the gym today since it was our last day but I gave him the choice of walking the Promenade Deck again or going up to the gym. He said we would walk the deck. So, I said we have to do at least 2 miles and he said “I’ll see your 2 miles and raise you a mile”……haha……so I said, “I’ll see your 3 miles and raise you a mile”……to which he said, “I’ll see your 4 miles and subtract 2 miles!!” But since he already agreed to 3 miles we walked 3 miles!

We got done with our walk and had a light breakfast. My plan was to go to the Princess Theatre to watch the movie, “Precious” at 10:30am and Mike was entering a Texas Hold’em tournament. Well, we went by the casino to register Mike but when we walked to the theatre they were having a cooking demonstration and no movie. So, I went to the Purser’s Desk to grab a “Princess Patter” and discovered that the movie was going to be at 10:30pm not am…….uggg! So, I stayed at the cooking demonstration which was followed by a tour of the galley (kitchen) and that was cool. Mike made it to 3rd place in the tournament but it only paid through 2nd place.

I came back to the room and did a load of laundry so we wouldn’t have to put dirty clothes in our suitcases and then we went upstairs for lunch and played cards for awhile while the laundry washed.
After lunch Mike took his afternoon nap and I went up to the pool deck where I saw some dolphins jumping and a wedding taking place. I found a lounge chair in the shade (hard to find) and read my kindle for about 3 hours. It was fun watching all the people dance in the pool to the Caribbean Music. They did a conga line and everyone was having so much fun. I guess I should have been going to the pool area more often. After Mike’s nap he joined me on a lounge chair and read for awhile. We had a daiquiri and it was so yummy!

We came back to our room around 6:00pm to watch the sunset and it was a good one tonight. We had our last dinner in the dining room and said goodbye to our waiters. Then we had to pack all of our things. What a hassle after 2 weeks. We got it all in and had to put our suitcases out in the hall by 11:00pm tonight. Now we are down to our carry-ons and hopefully didn’t forget or need anything. We are paying our last respects to the casino and off to bed for an early wakeup call tomorrow.

I will write one last blog when I get home and settled. Until then……
Hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed writing them. Now at least I will be able to remember what we did and where!

Cathy & Mike

March 26th-Barbados

The islands earliest inhabitants were the Arawak Indians, a tribe from South America. In 1536, a Portuguese explorer discovered Barbados (meaning the “Bearded Ones”). Barbados became a plantation island, and slaves were brought to cultivate the cane fields. George Washington came to the island with his brother, Lawrence, for a vacation. Unfortunately for George, he contracted the smallpox that took his life. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Barbados’ economy followed the sugar trade’s success.
In 1966, Barbados became an independent nation, administered by a Governor General appointed by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, and a Prime Minister representing the majority party in the House of Assembly.

Well, this is our last stop because tomorrow is a sea day. We both woke up many times last night because we ate too much for dinner! Can you say indigestion? When I finally got out of bed we were pulling into Barbados at 7:30am. I woke Mike up and we went down to the Promenade deck to walk 2 miles while we docked. The port in Barbados is all commercial so it isn’t very pretty at all. In fact it is one of the worst ports for pictures. We walked around the ship 6 times and watched the guys tie us up to the dock.

We still have about 2 hours before our last excursion so we went up to the buffet to have some breakfast and we played cards. When it was time to go, we got off the ship and went through the terminal to meet our bus. We were taking the “Finest Blends of Barbados” tour, which is a tour of the “Mount Gay Rum Factory” and the “Banks Brewery”. It wasn’t one of our favorite tours since both places weren’t running today and we couldn’t take pictures inside of them.
Our options were limited since we’ve already done so much this past two weeks. Anyway, it was nice to see Barbados but it wasn’t our favorite stop.

We shopped a bit at the terminal shops when we returned and then we got back on the ship. We weren’t hungry for lunch so we just went to the “International Café” and had a snack and a latte while we played cards again.

It is our last formal night tonight for dinner and I can hardly eat another bite! I am going to have to fast for a month when we get home. I have fallen into some bad habits in this past two weeks and need to get back on course again.

After waking up Mike from his nap to watch the sun set in Barbados, we got ready for dinner. We took pictures of each other on the balcony in our dress up clothes. We went to dinner and didn’t even finish our food……….enough is enough! Then we headed up to the “Movie Under the Stars” and watched “New Moon”. We didn’t even have room for popcorn or ice cream cones this time! It’s really nice outside right now and it is 10:45pm.

We are on the way to San Juan and it will be our last day.
I will blog again tomorrow but not on Sunday. I will have to do our last blog when we get home. Maybe then I could add some pictures if anyone is interested. I think I’ve taken close to 1,000 so it will take awhile to download all of them.

Tata for now,
Cathy & Mike

March 25th-St. Lucia

Christopher Columbus had traditionally been given credit for discovering St. Lucia in 1502, but some relatively new theories challenge this view. St. Lucia was alternately occupied by British and French forces as they battled for control of the West Indies. In 1802, the Treaty of Paris established France’s sovereignty over the island, but by the following year, the two nations were at war again. The 1814 Treaty of Paris ceded St. Lucia to Britain, and the island remained a British possession until 1967, when it became a self-governing associate state of Great Britain. In February 1979, St. Lucia became an independent nation within the British Commonwealth. The island is 238 square miles with 160,000 population. The main language is English.

This morning we woke up and watch our arrival into St. Lucia. It was pouring rain and didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon. It was 7:00am and we were planning on doing a Zipline tour today. We ate breakfast and then had to meet on the dock. We met our tour guide in the pouring rain and got into a van which drove us up the mountain on windy roads for about ½ hour. We got up to the Rain Forest Sky Ride Park and the guides put our equipment on us. I think we got the best guides; their names were LaToya and Akim. We boarded a gondola which took us through the Rain Forest for about ½ hour and it was beautiful. It rained on us but we put rain ponchos on and made it to the top. We hiked for about 20 minutes through the rain forest and got onto the first platform for the zipline. It was so much fun.  We did 11 ziplines and then hiked back up to the drop off spot to take the gondola down. After our ride back to town we walked around and shopped a bit but didn’t buy anything. It was still raining and we were getting hungry for lunch (it was about 2pm). We got back on the ship and went up for lunch where we played cards. After Mike whipped my butt in “Nickels” we came back up to the room and Mike napped while I went to the gym. I decided after he slept for 2 hours that I would wake him up and have him walk around the ship on the walking track. It stopped raining and was nice out. We took some more pictures and walked around the ship until the ship left St. Lucia heading for Barbados.

Tonight was our dinner at “Sabatini’s” and OMG my tummy hurts. It was a 17 course meal (which of course I didn’t eat) but Mikey liked it. I did however eat more than I should have. It was so delicious.
Our reservations were at 7:00pm and we didn’t get done until 10:00pm. Now I just want to curl up and cry! The menu was so extensive I was going to post some of it but the thought right now is just too much.

I must go lay down now and stretch out my stomach so that I can get to sleep.
We only have a couple more days left. It actually seems like a long time away from home but it’s been wonderful too.

Until tomorrow,
Mike and Cathy

March 24th-Antigua

Christopher Columbus sighted Antigua on his second voyage to the Americas in 1493. He named the island Santa Maria de la Antigua at that time. The British mispronounced the name as “An-tee-ga” and it has remained so ever since. Sir Christopher Odrington, a sugar planter, came from Barbados in 1674. The islands sugar economy was dependent on slave labor so when slavery was abolished in 1834 the economy was hit hard. Despite the collapse, sugar remained an important industry in Antigua. In 1967, led by V.C. Bird, Antigua achieved Statehood with Britian. On November 1, 1981, Antigua achieved full political sovereignty, with V.C. Bird as Prime Minister. Antigua is 108 square miles and has a population of about 70,000. They speak English and use US currency as well as the Eastern Caribbean Dollar.

Woke up early again this morning and watched the ship dock in Antigua. The water isn’t very deep and the ship is really stirring it up a lot. We got ready and rushed up to breakfast. We only had about 20 minutes and then we had to meet in the Princess Theatre for our excursion. We got into a taxi and drove across the island to the North Coast where we got onto a speed boat. The speed boat then took us across the water through the mangroves to a floating platform. We were excited to go kayaking for our first time! We had some brief instructions and then we got on our two person kayak. Ladies in front and the guys in the back….. They said that the guys would be doing the work and steering but I’m not quite sure that’s how it went! First of all I couldn’t see Mike back there so who knows what he was doing and second of all he couldn’t see in front of me! I think we worked well as a team since he did what I told him to do!! We kayaked for about an hour and saw different kinds of sea creatures. Then we went back to the platform and got back on the speed boats where we headed over to “Bird Island”. Mike went snorkeling and I hung on the beach with some other people. When they were done snorkeling we all hiked up a hill and saw one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. It looked like a fake background. We saw two blow holes and took some pictures. We hiked back down and boarded the speed boats to go back to the departure point where we took the taxi back to the ship.
It was a long day but so much fun. That was a lot of exercise and now Mike is sound asleep. Poor guy!

It is 3pm now on Wednesday and I am doing another load of wash to get us through the rest of the week. We should be leaving Antigua in a couple of hours and heading for St. Lucia.

We got ready for dinner early tonight and went to the lobby and watched the juggler. He was really good. Then we went to one of the bars and played cards for about an hour. We decided to eat alone tonight and got the same table that we had last week with bad service. Anyway, we didn’t get done with dinner until late but they had wonderful biscotti and amaretto cookies for dessert.
We went into the casino for a bit but didn’t win anything, then we went to our room. We are both exhausted and have to get up early tomorrow for another wonderful day.

Until then,
Mike and Cathy

March 23rd-Tortola, British Virgin Islands

In 1648 a settlement was built by Dutch buccaneers on Tortola. In 1666, English planters seized Tortola and annexed the islands in 1672. For almost 150 years after the British took over, Tortola was the home to many pirates. In the 1700’s, planters and Quakers took over and made the island prosper with sugar, cotton, indigo and rum. The British Virgin Islands became a separate colony in 1956, and then in 1967, a new constitution gave the islands a ministerial system of government.
The island is only 36 square miles with a population of 21,000. They speak English and use the US dollar.

We woke up this morning before the ship docked even though we had time to sleep in. I guess I should say I woke up and decided Mike should get up too! We watched the ship pull into the dock and then we headed up to the gym. Our excursion isn’t until 1pm and I’m excited about it. It is the morning now but I will fill you in later today………

We had a quick bite to eat for breakfast and walked into town to shop a bit. I bought a cute sundress that I’m planning on wearing to dinner tonight. We rushed back to the ship to change into our swimsuits and lather up the suntan lotion then we got ready for our excursion.

Ok, were back from our amazing excursion…..we went to the “Baths at Virgin Gorda”. Virgin Gorda is a separate island near Tortola. We got onto a large boat and took a 45 minute ride to Virgin Gorda and then hopped onto an open air taxi truck that took us to the baths. When we got there they told us we could hike 20 minutes to this beach called “Devils Bay” and then go through the “caves” arriving at the “baths” or just walk to the “baths”. Well since we didn’t want to miss a thing we did it all! It was awesome. We walked along this wooded trail that ended up at “Devils Bay” and when you came around the corner it opened up to this unbelievably gorgeous beach (I can’t even explain it). Then we walked through caves where the water came in and out of. At the end of the caves you came upon what they call the “Baths”. Ok, so I fell and cut up my knee and toe………such a dork……..who knew moss was slippery! The whole area is a bunch of huge (and I mean huge) boulders that surrounds bodies of water that you can swim in. The water is so clean and pure. You’ll just have to see the pictures……….paradise! Unfortunately after I fell I couldn’t swim because the salt water burned my cuts. Mike had a great time swimming in the baths and I took pictures. We sat on the beach for about an hour and then hiked up to where we started. They have a restaurant/pool area where we had Rum Punch.
We took the taxis and boat back to the ship and got back around 5:00pm.

We rested a bit and watched the ship sail away at 6:00pm then headed down for dinner. We met some people from Canada again and another couple who had met in China where she was teaching English and he was teaching Russian. They are an odd couple! She writes text books and is now writing one in Farsi. Interesting! The girls from Canada were sisters and one of them has been living in Ireland for 18 years now and has an Irish/Canadian accent! We always have such a great time meeting all these new people.

So, Mike is winning millions in the Casino now and I am up in the room relaxing and writing my blog.
We have more fun excursions tomorrow so I think I’ll get some rest.

Enjoy,
Cathy & Mike

March 22nd-St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands lured more foreign nations than any other territory. The flags of six countries have flown over the islands. Settlements date to 1500 BC, and people lived here 1,000 years before.

Not much history for me to tell since we were just here last week!
So I set the alarm for 7:00am but got up at 6:40am to go to the gym before our long day of excursions.
The gym was crowded……much younger group this week……much to my dismay.
All the macho guys were using up the weights and machines. I hate to work out with them! It was too early to use the treadmills so I opted for 45 minutes on the elliptical even though my ankles are still swollen.

I came back up to the room to wake up Mike and after a quick bite to eat we got off the ship to explore on our own. We got into a cab (which is an open air vehicle) and took it to Havensight where we bought tickets to go up on a Sky Tram. We went up about 9:30am until about 11:30am. The sights up there were amazing and we took lots of pictures of the city. We took a hiking trail and saw some cool landscaping too. After we came down we got onto another taxi to head back to the dock just in time for our scheduled excursion. We met up with a couple from our ship that was on our tour yesterday and hung with them a bit. We went to “Coral World” which was a submarine ride and an aquarium type park. We saw lots of fish, turtles, sting rays, starfish, and iguanas. The iguanas were everywhere and we had to watch where we walked. We came back from the tour around 4:30pm and now were resting (or I should say Mike is!) before we get ready for dinner.

Tonight is formal night again and we tried to get into one of the nicer restaurants called, Sabatini’s, but they were booked so we are going there on Thursday night.

We had a nice dinner at a table by ourselves again and the only thing we don’t really like is the fact that the menus are all the same as last week. The movies and entertainment are the same too. I guess we just have to do the opposite of what we did last week and deal with it. We went to see the comedian (even though Mike doesn’t like comedians) and he was pretty funny. I caught Mike laughing a time or two!
Then we went to the casino for a bit but it was really crowded.

We have a late excursion tomorrow so we get to sleep in and go to the gym at a reasonable hour.

Until tomorrow,
Mike and Cathy

March 21-San Juan

The crews of Christopher Columbus first sighted the island over 500 years ago, in 1493, when Juan Ponce de Leon arrived with 50 men. The Spanish empire began in 1540, with the completion of La Fortaleza. The fort, El Morro, was completed 51 years later to resist an attack from the British privateer Sir Francis Drake and it still stands today. When the war ended in 1898 and the Treaty of Paris was signed, Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States. In 1917, Congress granted Puerto Ricans American citizenship.

Today was a busy day. We got up at 7:00am to get ready for the day. People were everywhere coming and going. Today was the day where most people were checking out of the ship while we are staying on for another week! We planned a tour of the Old San Juan City and the Bacardi Distillery. We had a quick snack for breakfast and off we went on the tour bus. We toured the Fort San Felipe del Morro, San Cristobal (the towering fortress built by the Spanish between 1634 and 1771, and enjoyed the amazing views of San Juan Bay and coastline. We walked through the Ballaja Barracks, formerly a military barracks which now houses the Museum of the Americans. We took a tour of the Bacardi Distillery and enjoyed a couple of yummy cocktails. At the end of the tours we were supposed to be brought back to the ship but we had the bus driver leave us in Old San Juan to do some more exploring by ourselves. We walked up and down the cobblestone streets and shopped. Then we ate a wonderful lunch at a little restaurant called, “Lupis” which was a Mexican Sports Bar. When we were done we hailed a cab and had him bring us back to the ship where we checked back in for our second week of relaxation.

When we got back to our room I took off my shoes and realized why my legs were so sore…….my ankles are so swollen you can’t even see the bones. Mike says I have elephantitis now.  I wanted to go to the gym since I didn’t have time this morning but can’t seem to walk up there. Maybe tomorrow.

Mike took his usual afternoon nap and I watched a movie and worked on my blog. Then I had to go out and change over all of our internet minutes, keys, and excursion stuff for this week.

By the time we got our stuff together it was already 7:00pm so instead of going to the dining room for dinner we opted for a quick bite out by the pool and watched “Up” as the “Movie Under the Stars” movie tonight.

There is a different kind of feeling around us today……..lots of kids and younger people on the ship this week. We’ll see how it goes!

Until tomorrow.
Mike and Cathy

March 20-Sea Day

Probably not too much to say today since it is a “sea day”. We’re just catching up on laundry and trying to get Rum Punch out of Mike’s beige shorts!! Someone spilled it on him….not mentioning any names! 
We went to the gym together (yes I said WE!) after we slept until about 8:45am. We didn’t go to bed until after 1:00am so we were tired and the drapes keep it nice and dark in our room. Last night and this morning there was a bit of rockin and rollin on the ship so when we tried to run on the treadmills it was like running drunk! We opted for the elliptical and weights today!

We skipped breakfast and went up to the dining room for lunch. Mike was in heaven because it was “Sushi Day”…..ugg!! While we had lunch we looked over all the information to book our excursions for next week. I am having Mike step out of his comfort zone on some of them so he said he is happy he just updated his “will” before we left home!

We played in a Slot Tournament but didn’t do well enough to make the finals. In fact I totally sucked and never got a score until about the 10th spin. Then we played “Let it Ride” again and I got 3 (8’s) in my hand so that paid rather nicely! Where was that fourth one?? The dealer was joking around and said that they only play with 3 of them on Saturdays!!

We got ready for dinner and decided to eat by ourselves at our own table. It was nice and relaxing. We had a funny waiter that sang and danced……he thought he was Tom Jones but he sang a Prince song!!
We didn’t get done with dinner until 9:00pm so it was quite late. We went and played in the casino a bit more and then got some shut eye. We have a long day tomorrow in San Juan again.

It’s weird seeing all the people packing their suitcases knowing we still have another week…..it’s a good feeling……..can’t wait to do it all again this next week.

Mike and Cathy

March 19th-Aruba

Aruba was claimed in 1499 by Alonso de Ojeda. In, 1634, during the 80 year war with Spain; the Dutch took over the island. Aruba is part of the Dutch Commonwealth and had its “Status Aparte” in 1986.
Gold was discovered on the island in 1824 and mined until 1913. The mining became unprofitable and the aloe plant became the primary agricultural crop. In 1929, the Lago Oil and Transport Company, built a large refinery at the tip of the island. The Lago refinery became the largest in the world and since 2004 it has been owned by Valero Energy Corp.
Aruba is one of the islands that speak their native language, Papiamento. It is one of the Dutch “ABC” islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) that speak the language. It is a combination of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, African and Indian words. It sounds really nice, like a song, when they speak!
The island is only 74 square miles and has 30,600 people who live there. Seems like they keep getting smaller as we travel!

So, we’re here in Aruba. Just docked and it is 7:30am. I set up a wake-up call for this morning to Mike’s surprise!! He jumped up and got his clothes on for the gym just in time for me to tell him that we aren’t going to the gym this morning because we have an excursion………he was so disoriented! Crap, I could have gotten him to go to the gym again……..hehehe! Hopefully later this afternoon. 

Well, we’re back from our excursion and it was fun. We went on the “Aruba by Land & Sea” tour. We boarded our luxury bus (with air) and went to the Casibari Rock Formations, the California Lighthouse, and the Alto Vista Chapel where the Spanish Missionaries are said to have converted the island’s Indians into Christians. The bus driver, Howard Stern, (who knows if that is his real name….he was a character) filled us in on the island life and told us many things. One of the things that cracked me up was that they don’t have too much room on the land so in the cemeteries they dig up family people who have died and add the next person to the same plot. He said instead of saying “Rest in Peace” they say “Rest in Pieces”!! The average person here earns about $18-20k a year. He calls the Jeep Tours, Shake n Bake (since it is so hot here)!! He drove us to the pier where we boarded a tour boat called, “Sea Star”. It took us on a nice ride along the white sand beaches and famous resorts. We were also served Rum Punch………OMG! After our sail we walked around the shops and ate lunch at “Iguana Joes” where I had not one but two of their island beers called Balashi and Mike had some fancy liquored lemonade. They were really good……Mike said that I just doubled my liquor intake for the whole year!

As I may have mentioned before, these islands are very humid and tend to make my body swell…….so needless to say that after the tour, walking around and drinking beer I can hardly walk. I had to put my legs up against the wall for about ½ hour so the swelling would go down in order to go to the gym.
Since Mike was in his prime REM I snuck out and headed for the gym deciding to be a nice wife and let him sleep. It was really crowded because everyone had just gotten back on the ship and it was almost ready to take off again. We have a sea day tomorrow so I’m sure there won’t be much to talk about.

We have our second formal night tonight so I will take some pictures of Mike in his tux, Lisa. After tomorrow we head back to San Juan to pick up and drop off passengers then continue with our second week.

We met another great group of people at dinner tonight. One family from New York (their son goes to boarding school and that was interesting) and a couple of gay guys. Brian is big in the fashion industry and the other guy, David, is a “Spin Doctor”, public relations for celebrities and politicians. They live in Florida. We were going to go to the movie tonight again at the late show but realized we already saw the movie so we went to the casino. We played “Let it Ride” and I started off slow but then got some good hands and a full house so that helped me come out ahead!

Well, its 1:00am so it’s off to bed.

Until tomorrow….
Mike and Cathy

March 18th-Bonaire

In 1499 a group of explorers sighted Bonaire on one of their voyages. They found natives living in Stone Age conditions on the island. The Dutch arrived in 1634 to claim control of the island. The Dutch returned in 1816 and established plantations for the growth of dyewood, cochenille, and aloe. In 1863, the economy collapsed with the abolition of slavery. In the 1950’s Bonaire was discovered as an international tourist destination and the first hotel on the island was opened in 1951. It is now known as the diver’s paradise.

We got to sleep in today since we weren’t getting to Bonaire until 11:00am, so we got up at 8:30am. I went to the gym to work off the “desert bar” last night. The water is amazing here…..it is so light green in areas and so clear. The island is really built up, more than I expected it to be. It is only 112 square miles but looks bigger than that.

We got off the ship when we docked and walked around the shops. The water is so clear that we saw lots of colorful fish from the shore. We had an ice-cream cone……yes…..I even had Mike take a picture of me with it to prove that I had one! We made our way back to the ship for lunch and then we had arranged an afternoon tour of the island. We boarded our tour bus about 3:15pm and had a great tour guide. She told us all about the history of the island and what it was like for her and her family to grow up there. They go to school at the age of 3 and they go through High School (which there is only one of on the whole island), then most of the kids go to school in Holland.

The island is full of caves and tunnels that were made from volcanic rocks. The caves have Indian writing in them and some run from one village to another. We saw lots of Flamingos and Donkeys! When the Spanish people came to the island many, many years ago they brought Donkeys, Horses, Pigs and Goats. The horses didn’t make it but the rest did. In fact the Donkeys run wild and they are never to be killed or hurt. The Dutch people have control of the island and it is a law. They protect the Donkeys more than the people I think! If a car accidently hits a Donkey then they send an ambulance for the Donkey not the person. There are cactus and aloe plants everywhere. They use cactus to build their fences too.
There is an incredible amount of open space here to build.

We got back to the ship about 6:15pm and the ship sailed at 7:00pm.
We got ready for dinner and then we went up to the sun deck to catch the “Movie Under the Stars” again……it was, “The Boys are Back” with Clive Owen. It wasn’t that good but it is fun to do outdoor movie night. Seems like all the shows inside are comedians (if you know Mike he doesn’t like them) or some song and dance show that is corny!

So, now I am writing my blog and downloading my pictures from the day while Mike is trying to win some money in the Casino!

Tomorrow we arrive in Aruba.

Mike and Cathy

March 17th-Grenada

Grenada was sighted by Christopher Columbus on his third voyage in 1498. The island was established by the French but during the 18th-century the island was held alternately by France and England until 1783 when the “Treaty of Versailles” ceded Grenada to the British. Grenada is known as the Isle of Spice because it is the largest spice producing island in the Western Hemisphere. It is only 133 Square Miles.

This morning we woke up to the Captain’s voice announcing the arrival of Grenada. We both must have been tired last night because we were out cold! It was 7:00am……thanks for the wakeup call Captain! We watched them dock and watched another smaller ship come in. It was a cruiseline I’ve never heard of. Anyway, we got our workout clothes on and went to the gym. It was about 7:45am by then and we aren’t allowed to use the treadmills until 8:00am because there are rooms below them. So, Mike rode the bike and I did my Abs workout and my P90X legs workout. Then about 8:15am we got on the treadmills. Yeah…..Mike went to the gym again!!

We cleaned up, went to have breakfast and did our laundry. Yeah clean clothes again! The weather in the Caribbean right now is so muggy that your clothes just get soaked when you walk around outside.

Grenada is so small that we didn’t book an excursion so we just walked off the ship and explored. We found a Fort called, “Fort George”. It was used in the war and is now being used by the local police department. They have a workout room, shoe repair, and a uniform repair inside the Fort. We got some great pictures and had a local woman guide us around and tell us all about it. They actually executed the Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop, and his people against one of the walls on October 19, 1983. Seems weird to me that it wasn’t that long ago and this still happened.

We walked back to the ship and it was still early since there wasn’t much to see or do so we got our books and went up to the sun deck to check out the festivities. They had an ice carving demo and the guys were really good and fast. One guy carved out “Nemo” and the other one carved a dolphin. They had some “Adult Wet, Wild and Wacky” pool games…….they were hysterical to watch.

We are now sailing our way to Bonaire. Mike is napping again and I am writing my blog. I am also watching “Twilight”.....I could watch it over and over………I will write more after dinner.

We got ready for dinner and decided to dine alone for once. They gave us a pager and we waited about 10 minutes for a private table which was very nice. We shared a great bottle of Pinot Grigio….yummy!
We thought we’d go see the stage show in the Princess Theatre since we haven’t seen one yet but when we got there it was just ending…….oh well……I guess we don’t get to see it again! We had planned to enter the slot tournament tonight also but the line to play was so long that we wouldn’t have gotten to take a turn until almost midnight. Us old folks aren’t staying up that late.

So instead we found the desert bar………big mistake………BIG!
Let’s just say I am happy we won’t be docking until late tomorrow. I see extra time the gym in my future! I think after I write this I will read my book and call it a day. So, until tomorrow……
Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!!

March 16th-Dominica

The people of Dominica are called the Caribs. Christopher Columbus discovered the island as he sailed by on November 3, 1493 and christened it Dominica. The island was ignored for 200 years and then the French & British sparred for it, with the British winning control in 1805. Dominica gained independence in 1978. The following year the island was devastated by Hurricane David. The island is only 298 square miles. Their main income is from Agriculture. Banana’s……They speak English.

We woke up this morning and headed to the Princess Theatre to meet up with our tour. We toured “Dominica’s Favorites”. Can I just say driving here would be a challenge! They not only drive on the left side of the road……they nearly miss crashing at every turn!
We toured the city of Roseau to Morne Bruce for panoramic views of the city.
Drove to the village of Trafalgar and hiked up to a beautiful waterfall. The tour then took us through the rainforest to Trois Piton National Park and we hiked about 20 minutes to the Emerald Pool which is a gorgeous waterfall and swimming hole. Our bus driver was Thomas and our tour guide was Lynn, who was very knowledgeable and funny. She said that they call speed bumps, “Sleeping Police” and when something stinks they call it, “Devil’s Shit”!!

On our way back to the ship our van broke down. We were stranded in the middle of the forest but walked to a shack where we met a guy who calls himself, “Mr. Nice”. He gave us all the fruit we could eat! He had Bananas, cut up Coconuts, Pineapples, Papayas, Grapefruits, and homemade Coconut Candy. He was so funny….he entertained us until they sent a new van. Damn Toyota’s!! They even have problems with them over here. I guess they haven’t gotten the recall message yet 
We made it back to the ship a couple of hours later than planned but had a great time.

We ate lunch finally at 3:30pm and then went back to our room to relax for a little while.
After showering and getting ready for dinner we went down to have some casual pictures taken. So far we haven’t had one that we both liked! We thought about buying a picture of another couple because ours have been so bad! We really weren’t hungry so we decided not to go to the dining room for dinner. We walked through the buffet and picked up some snacks. Then we headed out to the sun deck to watch the “Movie Under the Stars” which happened to be “The Proposal”……it was really fun. It is a giant movie screen that is over the pool area. There are 3 levels that you can watch it from. They cover the lounge chairs with blankets and pillows and served pizza and popcorn. I think we’ll have to do it again sometime. They actually show movies there all day every day.

After watching the movie we walked through the casino but didn’t win our fortune yet.
Off to bed! We will be in Grenada tomorrow.

March 15th-St. Thomas

The Virgin Islands is the home to the Cruzan Rum Distillery. The island has a lot of Danish architecture.
During the First World War, the United States bought the Virgin Islands for $25 million in gold. In the 1950’s, St. Thomas became a tourist Mecca! Just a bit of history for ya!

We woke up this morning to the sound of room service banging on the door next door. It was about 7:00am. It turned out ok because we actually got to sit on our deck and watch the captain maneuver the ship into the dock. Not much room at all…..amazing!

We got dressed & went to the gym. BOTH OF US! Yes, Daniel I did my P90X Abs, Shoulders & Arms Workout, then I ran 2 miles on the treadmill. We showered, had a bite to eat, and headed into town.

We got a swag bag from Del Sol & many free jewels at other stores just from attending the shopping seminar last night. We walked through town and there was a cool open air flea market. There were also some awesome yachts in the harbor.

After making our way back onto the ship we had lunch and decided to just hang out up on the sun deck (in the shade of course) for the afternoon.

We got all of the tour guide info so that we could sit down and create a plan of attack for the rest of the trip. We were told we could only book this first week. So, we planned trips for Dominica, Bonaire and Aruba.

Not sure if this is good news or not but the ice cream/frozen yogurt bar is free on this ship……OMG!

It was our first dress up night so Mike got all snazzy in his tux and I threw on something nice and we took a picture down on deck 7. We went to dinner and met some really nice people. We seemed to have an education theme at our table. Almost everyone was involved with the schools!

We went to the casino for the first time on this trip and tried our luck. So far we still have to keep working! They have this new set up though and you register your room key to play the slots. It keeps a balance on your card for you.

Well, off to bed to get some rest before our excursion in Dominica tomorrow.

March 13-14th

Caribbean Cruise
March 13th/14th

The beginning of our trip was quite interesting. We left home at 8:00pm for our 11:00pm flight to Fort Lauderdale and then onto San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Daniel took us to SFO 3 hours early (just in case) and boy were we surprised at the long check-in line.
Apparently all flights in and out of JFK were cancelled so that caused major chaos with every check-in counter. We waited in line for over 2 hours until we were actually checked in. Even then the printer wouldn’t print our boarding passes. At least our luggage was going to San Juan!

By the time we finally got our boarding passes we rushed through security (I had to ask if we could cut to the front of the line) we were running to the gate in socks with our shoes in hand! Now SFO has a full body scan of both of us! We boarded the plane at last and were happy (temporarily) that we got the exit seats………until we realized that the seats didn’t recline. So, we spent the next 5 hours overnight trying to sleep sitting in the upright position. I tried to catch some shut eye laying on my tray table but no luck since the lady behind me kept kicking my seat and eating the whole night.

We started to stress a little because we left SFO an hour behind schedule and only had a one hour layover in Ft. Lauderdale. This was short lived as we found out the plane we were on was also the plane that was going to San Juan. Hard to miss that connection. For some reason even though we were flying on the same plane, they had us all get off so that they could clean it and change the crew. We sat in the Ft. Lauderdale airport for about 30-45 minutes and then re-boarded. At least this time we got row 3A &B. When we got on they told us that the free Direct TV channels won’t work on this flight so they were going to give us all free access to the onboard movies. So, we picked “Up in the air” to watch. It was a good movie even if the plane landed right before it ended! I guess we’ll have to watch it again sometime.

We got our luggage and grabbed a taxi and headed to the pier. The taxi driver told us that the ship was already boarding so that was cool since we thought we’d have to sit in line for another 2-3 hours. We got on the ship and went to the Purser’s desk to see if they would upgrade our room. She put us on the wait list…..so…..fingers crossed. She said if someone cancels they will let us know in a day or two. Our room A640 is a nice room with a nice balcony. We went up to the Horizon Café for lunch while we waited for our luggage to be delivered.

So, first thing first……….we went and checked out the gym. It is really big and has lots of equipment and no time limit on the cardio machines!!

Now Mike is officially taking his first nap while I’m writing this blog and we haven’t even left the dock yet. We passed our Mustering test and are official cruisers now.

After getting ready for dinner and trying to figure out where we wanted to eat tonight we decided to go to the Coral Dining Room. We sat with 3 other couples that were very nice. One from LA, one from NY, and the other couple were from Virginia.
We had a nice dinner and good company. Then Mike and I went to the shopping seminar (as if I need help with that)! We learned where to go to buy the goods tomorrow in St. Thomas.

Now we are finally up in our room (11pm) waiting to set sail. Boy are we tired. I better set up that wake up call for the gym before crashing.

Here we go again........

Since our South American trip was cancelled we decided to book a Caribbean Cruise. Here is our itinerary:

1
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Depart 11:00PM

2
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Arrive 8:00AM Depart 6:00PM

3
Dominica, Dominica
Arrive 9:00AM Depart 6:00PM

4
Grenada, Grenada
Arrive 7:00AM Depart 2:00PM

5
Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Arrive 11:00AM Depart 7:00PM

6
Aruba, Aruba
Arrive 8:00AM Depart 5:00PM

7
At Sea

8
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Arrive 6:00AM Depart 11:00PM

9
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Arrive 8:00AM Depart 6:00PM

10
Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Arrive 8:00AM Depart 6:00PM

11
Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda
Arrive 8:00AM Depart 5:00PM

12
St. Lucia
Arrive 8:00AM Depart 6:00PM

13
Barbados
Arrive 8:00AM Depart 6:00PM

14
At Sea

15
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Arrive 6:00AM

We'll try to keep up a blog while were gone.
We will be cruising from March 14-28th!!