Monday, May 22, 2006

Western Caribbean



First night, our welcome parade in the promenade. It was neat to see them manage to throw a parade in such tight space, but it was also kinda cheesy.


First stop: Labadee, Haiti

Sea Kayaking, visiting the village of Labadee. It was kind of sad visiting this small worn down fishing village. Our guide informed us that they fish all day long because the size of the fishes they catch are no bigger than 3-4 inches long. All the big fishes are gone.




Formal dinner night on RCCL. We have the same waiter every night, Sydney (far left), who had to put up with a lot of shit to please our table. My aunts and uncle sat with us and their lack of English created havoc every night. They got upset over wrong orders, as if it was Sydney's fault, calling him several times to change orders. But Sydney kept a smile every night and eventually the aunty's started to like him. They thought he was so cute with his big eyes so they'd call him over repeatedly to chat with him instead of harassing him. And I get to do the translation while eating dinner.. yippee. I switched seats after the 3rd night.

ROOM SERVICE
The service on RCCL is impeccable. Our rooms are made every time we step out of the cabin. It's as if our stateroom attendant peeped out everytime we accessed the room to clean it after we leave. I've never had to use the same towel twice! We liked the animals they folded for us at night.




Second stop: Ocho Rios, Jamaica

After hiking up a waterfall for an hour we enjoyed a local Jamaican jerk chicken at Mama Marley's.


That's my uncle sampling a cup of Jamaica's famous Blue Mountain coffee. This was my dad's highlight! He bought 16lbs of coffee, CB bought about 9lbs, our whole group walked out with about 50lbs of Blue Mountain!



The down side of the trip was the storm that hit Grand Cayman, which raised the water levels at the port. Ships were not allowed to dock so we missed Grand Cayman and my sister had to reorganize her wedding to take place on the ship insteadWe were all disappointed, but the wedding pulled through and as Peter (my brother in law) said "life is full of unexpected surprises and Brenda and I will take care of each other through any unexpected events.” How sweet.





I've been asked if my sisters and I look alike. I'll let you decide.


The highlight of my trip was Cozumel.

We woke up early to go Power snorkeling!

Then we arrived at Playa Mia around 3pm. Half an hour later all the tourists were called back to the shuttle for transportation back to their ships (RCCL and Carnival). Since my sister, CB and I arrived on our own we stayed behind and the beach became very quite with only a few people left. I passed out for a few minutes and when I opened my eyes I found myself floating far from shore, it was the most amazing feeling. Then I started to get spooked because I WAS all alone in the water. I quickly paddled my way back to shore. All the dark areas under the water seem to be creeping up towards me...

This was CB's favourite table.



This poker table automatically takes a percentage of the pot everytime it deals a hand. I think it's 3%. So the pot could be $300, but you only take home $100 after all the "self tipping" is accounted for

Other onboard entertainment.. ice skating


Final Stop: South Beach, Miami

(picture of miami from our ship)The people are so much better looking over there. The guys are HOT. I'd go back there to party again. CB and I ended up at The Mansion
It was nice to step into a club where people dressed up and didn't have guts hanging out. It was also nice throughout the entire trip to get drunk and be able to walk back to our cabin/ hotel.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Cruisin'


My sister's getting married at Grand Cayman next week and it's all happening on a cruise.

One week on The Navigator of the Seas with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.



Ship Facts for Navigator of the Seas
Maiden Voyage: December 14, 2002
Passenger Capacity: 3,114
Godmother: Steffi Graf
Gross Tonnage: 138,000
Length: 1020'
Max Beam: 157.5'
Draft: 29'
Cruising Speed: 23.7 knots

Destinations: Labadee, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, Cozumel.

email pet peeve's

*I write a concise short email asking a few important questions and adding some useless chit chat so the email doesn't seem so direct.

They reply with useless chit chat.

*I resend the email bulletting same few questions minimizing useless chit chat. Remind receiver to answer questionS.

I receive one answer

*forwarded spam, the one's about "get a free ___ if you fwd this to 10 friends and they have to fwd to 10 friends and so on until infinity and you will receive your free ___" yup, that's right, your free (blank= NOTHING)

*forwarded email from friends pleading "I never send forwarded stuff but...." And the end of the email reads something like this "send this to 10 friends and make their lives miserable or you will have bad luck for the next 7 years."

*I write a nice long email and I get back a two liner.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Lost Items

You ever wonder where some of your stuff disappear to?

I get really hung up on lost items. Why would something just disappear?? For example I packed away my yoga mat then went looking for it a month later and I can't find it. It's already been a year!! Here are a few items I'm still hoping will show up on their own.

Sport Radio arm band, disappeared
Jessica Black pants, part of a suit.
White shawl.
Enterainment book.
Bikini top.
5 white missing sock, 1 black. perhaps the dryer ate it
2 Starbucks travel mugs
Blue Contact lenses
Soft Lips chapstick cherry flavour
Yoga bag and Mat
4" Christmas tree

that's all I can think of for now.