Great Adventures with Al and Karen

With our room darkening shades over the single window that provides a view to the outside world, we know little of what's going on. I do know, however, that the ship is no longer moving and I can hear the aft access door directly below us opening. Using my tremendous brain power, I have determined that we are are in port at San Diego, the end of our journey. We'll, not quite. We have one more excursion on our list, a view of the "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous in San Diego", presented by Scarlett & Jonathan, daughter and grandson. This should prove to be exciting, entertaining, different, expensive and perhaps a bit dangerous. Anyway, our day starts out very typical of the past three weeks. Thanks to the crew working below us, we're up ... read more

The light from outside wakes me up around 8am. The ship is very still. No noise. Peering out the window, I see that we're anchored in the bay off Cabo San Lucas. Our arrival was scheduled for 7:30, right on time but we have a limited day here as our all aboard time is 1:15pm. If you're the first off and last back on the ship you may have 5 hours to spend ashore. But tours booked through the ship get off first, then the tender ticket numbers determine the order of disembarking after that. We aren't leaving the ship today. I had a deal with a local hotel located on the beach where we could hang out all day, using their facilities and enjoying the poolside buffet all for $27pp. However, it's a short day ... read more

No time changes today but I was up until midnight last night sending off the Cartagena blog. We now have two back to back sea days before reaching Cabo San Lucas. I'm hoping to catch up on the blog. Although all of daily activities have been recorded, the pictures still need to be uploaded and the narrative reviewed prior to sending. Unfortunately, there's a "sitiation" brewing. First, it's after 9am. Second, we have a Captain's Reception and Luncheon to attend and finally, Karen wants to spend some time at the spa. She should. She spent $250 for two weeks of unlimited use and added me for another $150, despite my objections. She's been there twice and me once. I tried to tell her it would be difficult to optimize the value given all the other activities ... read more

It's 7:30 in the evening and I'm just getting down to writing of today's activities. I'm sitting out by the pool accompanied by a few other guests and the bartender. Karen is lying on one of the pool loungers and enjoying the warm tropical breeze created by our forward motion through the Pacific as we move northward toward Mexico. Today was spent in Guatemala on a journey that took us high up into the mountains to a lake resting 5000' above sea level. It's our last alarm day of our trip, Monday. We're both up at 6:30am since our tour leaves at 8am. I cashed an extra $100 from our shipboard credit just in case Karen finds something to her liking today. With a light breakfast out of the way, we report to the BB King ... read more

The alarm goes off at 6:30am and Karen's not happy. She says she wants to relax. She should know that traveling with me is not always relaxing. I had asked her before we left if there were any excursions that interested her. She offered no opinion and so, out of desperation and so as not to just sit in the port doing nothing, I chose several activities for a few of the ports. Now the day of reckoning is upon us and she's balking at the thought of leaving our stateroom to venture out into the unknown. But I've already spent $90pp for this tour so we need to see it through. Following a quick breakfast, we meet our group on Deck 2 at 8am. There appears to be some delay in boarding our buses. It's ... read more