Yes. We made the return from the Cruise. Back to the land of traffic, deadlines and stress. Today has been quite the day. To me this is always a good measure of how your vacation went. If you can return to work and hit the ground running then your vacation could not have gone that well. If on the other hand you are having a hard time adjusting to the surroundings then congratulations. You had a most excellent vacation.
Here are the details of the cruise.
Friday. Arrived in Ft. Lauderdale in the early afternoon. We checked into our hotel (after a few hours waiting for the room to become ready). Mostly sat at the pool drinking too much beer and talking about the cruise before us.
Saturday. Caught the shuttle from the hotel to the dock. Went though the check-in process. Set out at 4:30pm to Jamaica. Nice pictures of the mainland as we sailed. Spent the rest of the day trying to get familiar with the ship and layout. Signed up for the spa pool. Just $60 gets you usage of the pool for as many time as I would like over the next 7 days.
Sunday. This is a full day at sea on our way to Jamaica. Passed by Cuba on the way. This is also our first of two formal nights. Bought a tux for the occasion. Makes me feel like I was going to a prom. Getting the feel of the ship and the feeding cycles. Wow 18 hours of food service available. Interesting to see what weight I will gain by the end of the cruise.
Monday morning. Arrive in Jamaica. Take the party cruise to our first excursion, Dun’s River Falls. This is fantastic. The brochure states this is a 600 ft climb. I’m not sure. Basically, you climb the rocks to the top of the falls while holding each others hands and getting video tapped by the guide. Afterward you get to purchase the tape of the adventure for $30. We did and couldn’t wait to get back to watch this.
Tuesday. Next port is Grand Cayman. Here we do not pull up to a dock like in Jamaica. Instead we must be ferried (tendered) via life boats. First attempt. Get into the second boat. Half way to the island the boat returns to the ship. Seems the water is too rough. The Capitan announces there are issues due to weather conditions. Trips to the island are cancelled. This means we will miss out planned trip to ‘Stingray city’ where you get to snorkel with the stingrays. Bummer. After about an hour the Capitan announces the tendering may resume as the weather has become better. This time we are on the 4th or 5th boat and actually make it to the dock. Attempted to tie off and off load passengers. Waves were still to rough. Actually saw mooring ropes snap. Tried again from a different dock. Worse. Tried again from original dock. Finally was ale to get everyone off the boat who now wanted to get off the boat. Picked up a guide for $15 a person to take all 4 of us around the island and show us things. So we sent to Hell (actual town). Very interesting rock formations. Then we went to the Turtle farm. Passed by 7-mile beach. But did not see anything because of the resorts blocking the views. Came back to Georgetown and the ship was gone! Seems the water was so rough the ship moved to the other side of the island. Had to take a taxi and get in line to return to the ship. What a nightmare. Left around 5 for Cozemel.
Wednesday. Arrived in Cozemel. This time we are docked. We had brought along our snorkel gear and had no real plans for the day. A couple in our party (Mary & Doug) suggested a local secluded location. Spent the day floating around. Lost the mother of the clan. Seems the tide or whatever had pushed her to the next area. We all panicked when she could not be found. Had lunch at Ernesto’s. Just some nachos and coke for me. Had three beers while snorkeling and was trying to not get wasted. Returned to the ship to cleanup and go out for dinner downtown. Another suggestion from Doug & Mary was an Italian restaurant. Great food and plenty of it. Made it back to the ship just in time to depart.
Thursday. Another all-day at sea day. This also means another formal night. Time to realax from the three ports and rushed days. And spend some time at the spa. This is supposed to be a vacation. This is also the night of the midnight buffet. This is a fantastic feast made of anything edible. Great looking carvings or fruit and other items
Friday. Arrived in Key West. Sondra and I are the designated tour guides. We finally found a good scooter shop and rented transportation for the gang. Gang members included Bob and Cicci (Meet them on Dun’s river falls trip in Jamaica). Very nice couple from Minnesota. Steve and Cindy. Sondra works with Steve here in Austin. And Sondra and I. So we tooled around Key West. Went to the public beach. Took some pictures. Had lunch ad Sloppy Joe’s. Went to Southernmost point and everyone took pictures in front of the buoy. Stopped and had a piece if Key lime pie at the Hotel on the dock. Made it back to the ship just in time.
Saturday. Arrived back in Ft. Lauderdale.
Getting pictures developed today. So should be able to upload some to the site tonight. Can’t wait to see them. I have the digital ad most of these look good. But I also have 10 rolls of film from 4 disposable cameras and 6 I shot with my 35mm that are being processed. I pick these up on my way home.
