Hello from somewhere in the Caribbean

Hello from somewhere in the Caribbean

Friday afternoon    November 5, 2010   (Fourth travelogue of this trip).

I will spend most of this post talking about the ship.  However, there is one item that I forgot to mention.  Pat got very sick late Tuesday night.  Acted like the flu.  She was pretty puny most of Wednesday, but felt reasonably good on Thursday for the wedding.  No one else got sick, so I doubt it was the flu.  We all ate about the same things, so that was probably not the problem.  The doctors have to really minimize her immunity system because of the RA and it could have been a very benign bug that got her.

We are having a kind of exciting day.  The captain announced last night that we could not leave the dock due to high winds.  They did not seem all that high to me, but what do I know.  Well, this morning  I woke up early and we were still at the dock!  We finally departed at 8:00 AM Miami time and that gave us 24 hours to travel 6-700 miles.  We were supposed to leave Thursday at 5:30 central time.  After we had been at sea for a couple of hours, the captain announced that we would arrive in Miami at 10:00 AM Saturday.  That really puts us in a bind to make our flight.  I have acted as the group correspondent with the travel agent to establish contingency plans.  She seems to think we can make our flight.  I think that is optimistic, as just about everything would have to go perfect (including clearing customs which can take quite a while).  We will keep you posted.

Up until today the seas have been like glass.  However, this storm really has us rocking.  The waves are said to be at least 15 feet.  I am surprised that a ship of this size with all of the latest stability technology is rocking as bad as it is.  Most everybody is feeling OK, but the ship is handing out sea sickness pills to anyone that wants them.

Now to the ship.  Before I start in with that discussion, which will be a bit negative, I need to be clear that we have enjoyed this cruise.  This has not been our favorite ship for several reasons.  First, the rooms seem to be designed by someone who does not have a clue.  The theme is curved surfaces/walls and that resulted in separate toilet and shower areas -both of which are frosted glass enclosed and just plain uncomfortable from a privacy standpoint.  The sink is very shallow and tends to splash. Indeed, they changed our faucet (without our asking) with the stated reason being to minimize splash.   The sink is at the foot of the bed.  There is almost no room to walk around the bed. 

As a side note:  I often talk about the book “A Corporate Tragedy”.  It is a story of the terrible mistakes that IHC made many years ago that took them from a company much larger than John Deere to a shell of itself.  One of the major stories in the book was how they told the engineers to go to hell and had the marketing folks “design” a tractor.  It was a terrible failure that caused the farmers huge amount of problems and they ultimately were courted by John Deere and many made the switch.  This ship looks like it was designed by the marketing folks.

Next issue is a personal one with me.  I have very sensitive hearing that is easily overloaded.  The public areas have blaring music and then everyone tries to talk over the music making it even more obnoxious.  The most annoying noise issue is in the spa.   The thermal pool is quite noisy by its nature.  The problem is that they have it in the same room as the supposedly relaxing heated ceramic lounges.  That problem gets worse when people try to shout over the water sounds.  At times I have had my iPod cranked and still could hardly hear the music.  On other ships, the pool is in its own room as it should be.

Now let's talk about the crowds.  I have told the story many times that mom and dad took me on several cruises before I was 16.  All but one were on freighters that had accommodations for about 100 passengers.  This was because my dad hated crowds.  I guess I take after him to a degree.  We have been on ships that had almost as many passengers and it did not seem to bother me as much as this cruise.  As I think about it, it might the the demographics.  The other cruises were with Stampin' Up! folks.   Indeed they even chartered the entire ship for some of the cruises.  These are pretty conservative folks who do not drink a lot and who are not out to impress everybody.  Many of the passengers on this boat seem to drink heavily.  That results in very loud discussion and some pretty obnoxious behavior.  I am not a prude, but it just seems to grate on my for this trip.

Ok having said all of the negative things, I need to make sure that folks understand that this has been a wonderful cruise.  We are part of a group of 26 great folks and we had a lot of fun together.

Maybe my bitching is based on the fact that we had to pay for this trip {grin}.

I have attached a group photo at the wedding.  Looks pretty neat huh?

That is all for now.

Hello from Cozumel, Mexico

Hello from Cozumel, Mexico

Thursday evening November 4, 2010 (Third travelogue of this trip).

I have had the best of intentions posting more often, but I just can't seem to find the time. I have a lot of catch up on, but the first thing that needs to get reported is the wedding.

Shawna and Bryan exchanging vows (note her parents in the background)

Man and Wife!!!

Today we departed the ship and took vans to Mr Sanchos where the wedding was held. This is a small little resort with some neat facilities. The weather was pretty good. A bit windy, but that made the surf really spectacular. I have included a few photos. The setting was absolutely beautiful with the beach and surf in the background. The actual wedding was on the beach and the sand was very clean and white. Shawna looked beautiful and Bryan was quite handsome. Bryan wrote the ceremony and it was very well done. The parents looked approvingly on the wedding and seemed very proud of the couple.

We returned to the ship after the wedding. After lunch, Pat and her sister Judy went shopping and I started working on this blog. We will have a reception dinner in one of the restaurants later this evening.

Now lets do a bit of catching up. Sunday was an at sea day. In the evening they had a big Halloween party. We were amazed at the number of folks dressed up in costumes. We estimate that it was several hundred. Many of the costumes were quite elaborate and/or unique. We positioned ourselves in the walkway that led to the party area and had a wonderful view of all the folks/costumes.

On the last couple of cruises we have splurged and joined the spa and we did that again on this trip. They have a very limited membership, so the place is quiet and relaxing. There is a huge hydrothermal pool, two saunas, a steam room and the wonderful heated ceramic lounges. We have gone every day.

Another splurge is purchasing internet time. The ship gets the internet from satellites (much like we do on the bus). However, the connection is pretty slow and you buy internet connection by the minute. I usually chase some business related activity and it has been kind of busy on this trip. Unfortunately, not much in the way of sales.

I mentioned that I was going to do a dive at Roatan, Honduras. Roatan is an island off he coast of Honduras. It has a mixture of beauty and poverty. When we drove to the dive support area, we passed lush tropical areas. These were intermixed with areas of what looked like shanty areas. These areas were on the main road. The houses were in poor condition and there was trash everywhere. A real dichotomy.

We did a two tank dive and both dives were spectacular!!!. The ship dictates that the dive masters not take us to a depth of more than 70 feet. It was obvious that they were not going to police that rule rigorously. Indeed, my dive computer watch recorded a depth of 95 feet. Both dives were what they call wall dives. We swam at a depth of about 30-50 feet for a while and then we came to a complete drop off where we could not see any floor. The coral was absolutely gorgeous. It was almost like parts were sprinkled with gold leaf. The fish were beautiful and the coral formations were quite varied, some of which I had not seen before. We even got to see a turtle and some lobsters. The second dive was supposed to be a drift dive. This is where the boat drops you off and picks you up some distance away. The current was not strong, so we had to do a bit of paddling with our fins, but we traveled quite a ways.

We could have made it from Roatan without an “at sea” day, but our ship had to perform some mandatory maneuvers. All ships that have been in service less than six months must perform these maneuvers. The process takes about three hours. One of the maneuvers is a 360 rotation of the ship. This is done in the length of the ship using the bow and stern thrust propellers. In addition to that, the ship is put in “anchor mode” where the various propellers maintain the ship in exactly the same location and orientation using a sophisticated GPS system. It is said that they can maintain location within 5 feet.

That is all for now.

Hello from Costa Maya, Mexico.

Hello from Costa Maya, Mexico.

Monday Evening November 1, 2010 (Second travelogue of this trip).

We are at our first port (of three) on this trip. Costa Maya is a pretty plain Jane port. We could not see any good beaches and the area is.... well, kind of plain. We did not plan any shore tours. Instead, we walked around the dock area for an hour or so. There were the typical vendors selling mostly tourist type stuff – imagine that. We were the only ship in port, so things were not crowded.

Sunday was a day at sea. We always enjoy that, as it is a bit laid back. Having said that, it seems like we have not had too much time to relax. Sunday night we went to see the “Blue Man Group”. This is the “headline” group for the Epic. It is a very interesting show with lots of drums and all kinds of antics by three men in blue makeup (including blue skull caps that made them look bald).. Kind of like mimes. Very hard to describe. Since I love drums, it was a lot of fun for me and the rest of the group seemed to have a fairly good time.

The seas have been very calm and the weather has been good, but fairly hot. We should be thankful as a tropical depression went through here last week. I think today is the end of the official hurricane season and we have not heard of any storms in the area.

As mentioned in the first post, this is a huge ship. It is quite unique in its design and we are not convinced that they gave a lot of thought to creature comfort. I will talk about that in a post I hope to make on Wednesday which is another day at sea.

Tomorrow we will be at Roatan, Honduras. I, along with several members of the group, will be doing a two-tank scuba dive. It is supposed to be a pretty good diving area.

That is all for now.

Hello from Miami, FL

Hello from Miami, FL

Saturday morning October 30, 2010 (First travelogue of this trip).

We are in Miami, Florida where we will depart on a cruise later today. This is a very special cruise since our niece Shawna and her fiance Bryan will be getting married later this week. Rather than getting married on the ship, their ceremony will be held in Cozumel.

Just a bit of background here. When we first heard of the wedding cruise, we knew that we could not afford to go. However, Pat was determined that we would go since most of her family was going. She decided to set a goal of paying for the trip with earnings from Ebay selling. Darned if she did not get the job done and we are not having to dig into our meager savings (wonderful economy {frown}).

Yesterday we flew from Denver to Ft. Lauderdale. What a trip that was. We flew Southwest Airlines and had fairly high seating numbers (no seat assignments on SW). We got all settled in and the pilot announced there was a problem. We ended up changing planes. Everyone was supposed to take the same seats – yeah right!!!! When we got on, almost every seat was filled except center seats. The stewardess talked a passenger into moving and we got to have a window and center seat. I don't like window seats (space seems too cramped), but it worked out OK for the long flight. When we did get to take off, the flight was pretty uneventful.

There were 20 people on the flight in our party. Additional folks will join us for the cruise – 26 altogether.

The travel agency that made all of the reservations arranged for a full size bus to pick us up at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale and transport us to the hotel in Miami. That normally takes 30-45 minutes depending on the traffic. It was probably longer last night, as we were in rush hour traffic and the Miami Heat (basketball) game traffic.

We are staying at the Marriott close to the dock. Indeed, if you look closely in the photo taken from our balcony, you will see some cruise ships. We are not sure if one of them is ours.

Photo of ships from our hotel balcony

Our cruise will be on the Norwegian Epic. It is a brand new ship (July 2010) and it is huge. It is rated at a bit over 4000 passengers! The ship details are detailed here . We will have more details as we cruise.

That is all for now.