Blogs from Caribbean, Oceans and Seas
January 25th 2012
After all the excitement of the sting rays yesterday, today has all been about rest and relaxation. A trip to the gym, a leisurely breakfast, an interesting lecture on the slave trade (there was a lot of it in the part of the world we're in right now). Had a wonderful lunch with two totally diverse couples. One was a dinosaur from Yorkshire who thinks computers are a total waste of time and money and who firmly believes that big band music is making a rapid return to major popularity at the moment! The other couple we met on the yacht yesterday and they're right up our street with a lot of interesting things to say and a brilliant ascerbic wit which was put to great use the moment the dinosaur left the table! We got ... read more
January 24th 2012
Not only did our wildlife list expand today, it did it with serious style. We dropped anchor at 7 o'clock this morning just off George Town, the capital of Grand Cayman, one of the British West Indies. That meant we got a fun ride ashore in one of the ship's lifeboats and then we killed time meandering around the shops. And Grand Cayman is famous for being a tax free island so it is a haven for jewellery shoppers. I actually managed to resist all temptations to buy but I have indulged in a fabulous trying on day. At one point I had a diamond and emerald bracelet around my wrist that had a price tag of $39,500.00! That's well on the way to paying for two round the world cruise tickets so I didn't take ... read more
January 22nd 2012
1/20/12 Well first thing that happened today, neither my alarm nor my roommate’s went off this morning so we did not wake up for breakfast and only woke up because the voice over the speakers gave the announcements of the day and mentioned that the first meeting would be starting in ten minutes, oops! First things first, we are still in port and they updated us on the missing passengers with visa problems. We were told that they would be boarding today, but not until later in the evening. Everyone seemed very disappointed because we were all very ready to get going and start our exciting adventure. Everyone was also worried that this meant we would be arriving late in our first port, Dominica, and therefore change the dates of the entire trip. There was another ... read more
November 22nd 2011
You work all day every day, spend a few hours ashore once in a while, and the next thing you know another month has gone by! The last month has been one of the more interesting onboard actually. A week after my last blog update was Halloween. Now being onboard this ship was surprisingly interesting. The creativity of the crew was astounding, and the guest participation was amazing. The promenade deck was packed with a few thousand costumed guests all dancing to the monster mash right up until Thriller started playing… This caused nearly 50 crew members all zombified to appear out of what seemed like thin air and then be joined by the cruise director filling in for Michael Jackson. Seeing 50 crew members all do the Thriller dance amongst a promenade covered in spider ... read more
November 16th 2011
Tuesday, November 8 - St Marten's As Ger is into another good book, he has let me do the blog update on my iPad. Forgot to mention in last blog that on one of our "busy" days at sea, I scaled the rock climbing wall at the stern of the ship. A good feeling of satisfaction to ring the bell at the top and enjoy the free fall (being rappelled down)! A very hot day ( low 30's with high humidity) for our 1st Caribbean port of call at St. Marten. Ger opted not to go with us on a local bus ride over to the French side of the island to Marigot. The outing for the 5 of us (Maureen, Fred, Barney, Anna and Jill) began with a water taxi ride from the ship terminal ... read more
Cruise! Oct 2-9, 2011 - Carnival Legend
Published: October 17th 2011Oceans and Seas » Caribbean » Gulf of Mexico
October 9th 2011
October 2-9 marked a cruise I had really looked forward to. I finally got to return to my favorite ship (Carnival Legend) and my favorite itinerary. Jason and I had another couple join us for all the fun. Ryan and Dana came along for their first cruise ever – and it was Dana’s first flight ever to get to the port in Tampa. I have some other blog entries for each of the ports: Oct 4 – Cozumel (Bar Hop) Oct 5 – Belize Oct 6 – Roatan (Beach!) Oct 7 – Grand Cayman (Sting Ray Sandbar) The ship had actually changed a little in the 2 ½ years since we’d been on it. The firebird lounge had a new backdrop making it a comedy club (Punchliners) and the Serenity area had some great lounge areas ... read more
August 24th 2011
Well I have absolutely no idea where the time is going. It’s surprising that it’s been over a month since my last post. I was going to say that not much has happened, but that’s far from the truth. Lots of things have happened, just not a lot of it in trips ashore. In no particular order; here goes: One of the Eastern Caribbean cruises our planned voyage didn’t go over too well. This was because we didn’t do an eastern Caribbean cruise. Tropical Storm Emily caused us to reroute to the other side of the Caribbean. This meant 2 big things for me; Getting to go to a new port, and doing some hardcore navigation planning. Nobody had made any hard decisions until a few hours before departure, so the navigation officer made the route ... read more
August 23rd 2011
The day we boarded our cruise in San Jaun was the same day that Hurricane Irena passed through Puerto-Rico. Considering that we were traveling to the Caribbean during hurricane season we should not have been surprised. But we were surprised. We actually made it a point to keep track of storm activity every time we had internet connection and last time we checked, about 48 hours prior, there was no storm heading our way. Irene formed in the duration since we last checked from nothing, directly into a tropical storm and was forecasted to head directly to us and to intensify to hurricane level winds of over 120 km/h. We were not really sure what to expect. Part of us was excited to experience our first such major storm. Part of us was curious how this ... read more
Sharks, Barracuda, and Sea turtles oh my!
Published: June 17th 2011Oceans and Seas » Caribbean » Gulf of Mexico
June 16th 2011
First things first; Sorry that it’s been ages since my last blog. I promise that this one is going to make up for it. Of the people that email me, most of them ask me what the craziest thing that I’ve done so far is, and normally I really have to scratch my head to think up something. But I can outright say that it’s now a no brainer. Last week the Captain let me take the control of the vessel coming into port when we stopped at St Thomas! Although officially he still had the control as I don’t have a license, I was making the wheel orders. Last year on the Independence I was at the wheel quite often, but that meant I was taking wheel orders from someone else. Being the person giving ... read more
June 9th 2011
Getting ready to go on our trip - this start page is a test of using the travelbog and inviting readers... read more
