http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Oceans and Seas en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:00:33 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:00:33 +0000 The holidays are here on the Carnival Spirit. For the three cruises leading up to Christmas wersquove been doing the companyrsquos Holiday Show. All of the youth programs get involved with the show so our regular activity schedule has been interspersed with rehearsals.The show starts with the band playing a variety of Christmas songs. The dancers enter through the house aisles handing out http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Pacific/blog-461875.html A few weeks back right around when American Thanksgiving passed and Christmas commercials started playing nonstop Clair my codirector and I started talking about little things we could do to decorate our club for the holidays. We picked up a couple of small things like wrapping paper and bows in San Diego and we borrowed lots of craft supplies from the childrenrsquos playroom. Soon after http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Pacific/blog-461873.html TOP PANORAMA PHOTO Palm Beach at the Marriott ResortDecember 5 2009Palm Beach Aruba Marriott Surf clubThe rest of the week we continued our decadent ways spending hours each day by the pool and in the lazy river. What a relaxing way to spend the day in the tropics. The other fascinating thing about the lazy river is itrsquos watchful herd of Iguanas. Iguanas of every color and size inhabit th http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Caribbean/Gulf-of-Venezuela/Aruba/blog-459185.html Aruba Marriott Surf ClubNovember 29 2009Karen and I were invited by Kim and Jim to share their timeshare in Aruba the week after Thanksgiving. This was the perfect way of escaping the beginning of winter in New England. We stayed at Marriott Surf Club on Palm Beach in the High Rise District of the island. The island of Aruba is justly known for its great weather fine beaches and exquisite rest http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Caribbean/Gulf-of-Venezuela/blog-459150.html Greetings Friends So its time to head to the South Island to begin my Willing Workers On Organic Farms WWOOF experience. It is a program global too that people come to other peoples property and work 45 hours a day in exchange for room and board. And if you get a good farm you will learn many organic practices as well as a cultural exchange with the hosts. I decided this would be a great http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Pacific/Tasman-Sea/blog-458903.html Greetings Friends So you've all heard the hype about me flying to NZ and sitting next to the lead singer of the Wailers Junior Marvin. Well I rearranged my vaca plans so I could attend their concert in Auckland the Saturday after I arrived in Auckland. So after some sightseeing in the city and a trip out to Raglan we returned for the Wailers live at the Power Station The Power Station is v http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Pacific/Tasman-Sea/blog-458772.html Greetings Friends Ok back to NZ and off to Raglan we go. So with Julia as the designated driver and I the navigator we hopped in Paul's car and headed down the road to one of the country's best known surf beaches. Courdory sets it has been described as. Once we got to the interstate our printed directions were a bit dodgy ... and we got lost. We pulled off at a place called the Greensto http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Pacific/Tasman-Sea/blog-458512.html As a followup to my last log entry..On November 19 I performed a speech in Kingston about my Water Adventure to raise funds for a local charity called Able Sail Kingston which provides sailing opportunities and instruction to disabled sailors.About 75 people attended and the event raised over 2000 which blew away our expectations The event was calledHitchhiker's Guide to the Oceans A 460 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/blog-458032.html Greetings Friends Before we head down the road to Raglan I wanted to wrap up my Auckland Part I series. So after my madcapped marathon through the musuem we had just enough time before meeting Paul and Inga for dinner to head over to the Sky Tower. The Sky Tower is a big tourist destination in downtown Auckland. It is the highest building in the country standing at 328 meters thats nearl http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Pacific/Tasman-Sea/blog-456856.html Kai has sailed over 8000 miles solo on his 26ft Westerly Centaur Desire. Hersquos also sailed over 17000 miles as crew on larger vessels. Hersquos sailed from Seattle to Baja California Mexico Seattle to Hawaii then Hawaii to Tahiti as well as Halifax to New York. Since May 2009 he has sailed from San Diego to the Marquesas ten weeks in Hawaii aboard Desire and back to the mainland deli http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Pacific/blog-456419.html There we were enjoying our voyage across the Tasman Sea en route to the New Zealand Fjords when our ship received a distress signal from a sailor who was in trouble about 300 miles from us. The sailor said that he had lost his steering he was taking on water and his generator had failed. According to the code of the sea it is the responsibility of the nearest ships to assist in any way possibl http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Pacific/Tasman-Sea/blog-455636.html The itinerary of my dreams an aroundtheworld vagabond type of a trip.I start and end in Regina Saskatchewan Canada. Everything else is flexible That being said there are a vast number of places that I'm dying to see so I'd like to cover pretty much everything in this itinerary maybe the order will change or the route may change slightly due to logistics of travel but that should be i http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/blog-454176.html Castaway Cay. Now this this is a beautiful beautiful island. This was actually my favorite day from the entire trip. It was relaxing no gruelling scheduling lots of food and best of all....NO kids We had both been on a Disney cruise before and knew we'd use the adults only beach as soon as the ship docked. Once we got off the ship we went to get our yummy BBQ lunch on the island and choose http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Caribbean/blog-453543.html Wonderful day at sea.This was the most relaxing day of the trip. We slept in had breakfast I sat out on a lawn chair reading. It was so windy out though and my cutsie cowboy hat that I bought for 1 kept blowing away poop. We used the hot tub and pool for a bit. of course thoughts of this is life entertained my mind. And I ate. Ate ate ate. Food is available on the ship every second of the d http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Caribbean/Gulf-of-Mexico/blog-453540.html After a long delay we are now back on the Blog safe and sound. The voyage from Safaga to Goa harbour took us a total of 14 days which is certainly a long time but on the other hand one of our lives' most interesting fortnights. In the last hour before departure from Safaga all passengers were briefed on the security threats facing the ship in the Gulf of Aden and give the opportunity of leavin http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Indian/blog-451984.html I donrsquot think either of can say enough about how wonderful our transatlantic trip has been. We were shown to our state room where our bags had been deposited. There we found a half bottle of champagne and a tray of canaps courtesy of our wonderful travel agent Joan. Have just eaten we left it for later and went to explore the ship. There were 14 floors in all our room being on the 6t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Atlantic/blog-451426.html Over my years working on ships one holiday that Irsquod yet to experience was Halloween. My contracts have always worked out that I have either been at home or traveling on my own. Looking at photos from other crew members it always looked so fun with everyone all dressed up. So when this contract was sorted out and I knew Irsquod be on a ship for Halloween I started looking for my costu http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Caribbean/Gulf-of-Mexico/blog-450292.html Washed this morning. Hopefully I wonrsquot have to wash any more before I get home. Just a lazy day at sea playing Wizard. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/Atlantic/blog-448490.html we spent a week in airlie beach which was really nice that's the longest we've been anywhere since coogee so we got quite settled. and it was a nice hostel aswell the bedswere comfy we had lots of space in the room and we even had a tv which was a real treat the shower wasn't brilliant though.. We sunbathed by the lagoon alot and there was 30 mins of free internet in an internet cafe down the http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/blog-446554.html After a reasonable 4 hr flight we arrived safely in Brisbane airport. After queing behind a lady with a low cut top on with big boobs been eagerly assisted by the baggage screening bloke who as it turned out she was a student. She only had about half a dozen bags or so which needed two people to lift them Yeah studentWe got our bags on the xray machine all went thru with no complaints we eve http://www.travelblog.org/Oceans-and-Seas/blog-446001.html