Ports of call

So we will be making 4 ports on this cruise:  Labadee, Haiti; Falmouth, Jamaica; Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico.

We've never been to Labadee, and we didn't do the "private island" thing on either of our Carnival cruises.  Our visit to Premier's Salt Cay was almost 30 years ago.  I'm guessing that if we want to do anything more than sit on the beach, I'm going to have to do some research.


I'm already getting excited for Jamaica.  We've never been there, either.  But I'm sure we will find something interesting -- natural wonders, like a waterfall, or something historic or cultural.

We went to Cozumel and Grand a Cayman during our first Carnival cruise in 2010.

Cozumel was our beach day, we'd seen Mayan ruins in Belize and didn't want to do a repeat.  But this time I think we're doing Nexican ruins.

On Grand Cayman, we took a submarine ride, then a bus tour to the Turtle Farm, He'll, and a store that sells rum, rum cake, hot sauce, etc.  It was fun, but I'm not sure there's much more to see and do on that island.

Let the planning begin.

And we are booked

Freedom of the Seas, October 23.  Sailing from Port Canaveral.  Western Caribbean. Ports of call:  Labadee, Haiti; Falmouth, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico.

When we cruised on the Valor 6 years ago we made port at Grand Cayman and Cozumel, but we've never been to Haiti or Jamaica.  I'm excited.

make that October 23

We were invited to join a friend and his extended family on a Carnival cruise.  We really enjoyed our previous cruises on Carnival, and Carnival was offering a great deal.

But I wasn't happy with the ports.  I thought we'd be bored.  So we said "no" to the invitation.

But now the pirate king has found a Royal Caribbean cruise he's interested in. 


I think we're going to book.

Cruise alert

Possible cruise 10/2016 to the Caribbean.

Her first cruise

My daughter and her boyfriend are sailing tomorrow on Disney Cruise Lines. A four day trip to the Bahamas. Like mother like daughter. At least she had the good sense to fly down today!

St. Thomas

Breakfast in the main dining room, where another passenger recognized us and joked with us about last night's trivia game.

And then it was time to head to shore.  Our adventure today began with a ferry ride to St. John.   What's interesting about the Virgin Islands is how close most of the islands are to each other, while we were headed to St. John, another group from our ship was headed to Tortola, a part of the British Virgin Islands, which we could see from our boat.

We also saw celebrity homes -- Michael Jordan, Alan Alda, Kenny Chesney and Madonna all vacation in the Virgin Islands.    And the owner of the White Castle chain has a home here -- a white castle.  Go figure.

And, of course, there's Pillsbury Bay, where the Carribean Sea meets the Atlantiv Ocean.

Music: a reprise of "La Isla Bonita". 

2/3 of St. John is pristine parkland owned by the National Park Service.  The rest appears to be modern luxury resorts.  We took a safari bus ride up the mountain, stopping frequently at lookout points for views of white sand beaches, blue waters and distant islands. 

Interestingly, although this is an American protectorate, they drive on the left side of the road -- the islands used to be British. 

Our tour guide told us you need a passport to travel to the British islands.

The highlight of the tour was the ruins of a sugar plantation.  I've seen many old forts and churches and etc., but this was my first sugar plantation.

And as I was walking back to the bus I saw a mongoose!  The sugar cane planters imported mongoose from India into the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, hoping the mongoose would control the rat population in the cane fields.  The mongoose have made themselves at home in these islands.

Now, I'm sure I've seen a mongoose in the zoo, but to encounter one on the road . . .and this one gave me a look, as if to say "This is my home, but what are you doing here?"

Before long it was time to ferry back to St. Thomas, where we headed for the shopping mall.

Music:  "Mermaid", by Train

There's a lovely sculpture in Denmark, it sits in the harbor in Copenhagen.  It's Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid. 

In the shopping mall in St. Thomas there's a fountain with a scaled-down replica of the famous statue.  It's pretty.  But it's the only sculpture in the mall and I don't know why they chose it. 

A word about security, customs and travelling to other countries.  Before the ship sailed from Miami each passenger had to provide Carnival with a passport or birth certificate, and those over 16 had to produce photo i. d. That was apparently sufficient for the governments of Grand Turk and St. Maarten, all you needed to show was your ship i.d. card to return to the ship.

But Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are different.   You need to show your photo i. d.  As we returned to the ship we saw a whole group of people who'd forgotten to bring their photo i.d., and were having a difficult time of it.

Music:  "Grapefruit, Juicy Fruit" by Jimmy Buffett

The evening's entertainment was a magician named Bob, who did 45 minutes of sleight of hand laced with comedy.   When he asked for a volunteer, the pirate king's hand went up.  He had to give a $20 bill to another audience member, who placed it in a sealed envelope, which she held for the duration of the show.  In exchange, the pirate king was given a grapefruit.  Periodically Bob would ask "Who's got the grapefruit?" and the king woukd stand up and reply "I've got the grapefruit!"  At the end of the show, the $20 wound up inside the grapefruit.

I expect  to hear grapefruit jokes from fellow passengers tomorrow.

Dinner in the main dining room, as usual.  Could barely keep my eyes open -- until the waitstaff danced to "Moves Like Jagger".  That certainly woke me up.

But we did call it a night right after dinner . . .

The voyage home

Music:  "It's Been a Lovely Cruise", Jimmy Buffett

Debarkation went very smoothly.  One of my complaints during our Valor cruise was that we spent far too much time in the lobby, waiting yo get off the ship.  Way different getting off the Breeze.

Public service announcement:  pay attention to your zone number.  Pirate king spent 20 minutes at the wrong luggage carrousel before I found our luggage.

Thank goodness the ride to the airport was short, the bus driver had to turn off the a/c to keep water from a broken pipe dripping on the seats.  And we had a bad moment at the airport when the TSA agent told the pirate king his carry on bag was too big and had to be checked. . .until another agent took a second look at the matter.  Took the Sky Train to our gate and settled in . . .got there before noon for a 4:00 flight.

What's good about Miami Airport -- because the terminal is so large, you have lots of choices for a quick bite.  Pirate king got hot dogs from Nathan's and I wound up with food-court Chinese.  We were both able to charge our cell phones at the Verizon charging station at our gate.

What's not so good?  They charge for wifi.  Not an issue for me, I have a data plan on my tablet . . .but after a week of paying for wifi on the Breeze and using my minutes sparingly . . .it would have been a major disappointment . . .

"Interesting" encounter as we were about to board the plane. 

During our sea days on the Breeze we spent a lot of time in the Tides pool.  Remember, the pool is very small and very shallow, and gets very crowded. On our second day in the pool we encountered so really rude behavior from a couple in their 20's.  I will call them Rude Couple.  The first time we noticed them was when Rude Guy cannonballed into the pool.   Really, I think everyone in the pool noticed him.  There was a lot of horseplay after that, including Rude Girl climbing onto Rude Guy's back so that he could drag her across the pool, shouting "piggyback rides 5 cents" over and over again.  He bumped into several people, never apologized.

The two hot tubs by the Tides pool are elevated, you have to climb a flight of steps to enter the hot tub.  And there's a bench under each hot tub where you can sit with your feet in the pool.  When Rude Couple bought drinks from the bar, he decided to sit on that bench. . .  But there were children playing in that hot tub.  They'd taken some cups from the beverage station and were using them in the hot tub to splash water on each other.  The water came out of the hot tub and over the partition . . . Rude Guy wound up with salt water from the hot tub in his pina colada.  He drank it anyway!

Anyhow, at the airport, it's time to board the plane, and who should be standing next to me but Rude Girl!  Rude Guy is behind me.  As the crowd moves forward, she moves in front of me.  Then she reaches behind her and takes his hand, and tries to pull him forward.  Only problem is, I'm standing where she wants him to stand.  If he'd said "excuse me", I  would have let him step in front of me, but I have a bit of a stubborn streak when someone tries to push me out of the way, so I didn't move. Some words were exchanged -- he told me I was being rude, I told him I didn't appreciate being pushed,  and she told me she could feel my bad breath on the back of her neck . . . wasn't worth escalating . . . He got off the line and walked around everyone else and met up with her at the door where you habd your boarding pass to the airline employee.

We got onto the plane, and guess who was sitting directly in front of me and the pirate king?  We could have made their flight pure misery . . .but we're adults. 

So it was an uneventful flight home.  And I am already depressed, because today is Monday and I have to go to work.