Home and Zaandam....

I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve update this, so I figured it was time!
Here’s what’s happened since I got off the Prinsendam back in January… I was home for about 6 weeks then I headed back to the Veendam for just one cruise. That was quite an interesting week to say the least. It was the thing where you go thinking that it’s going to be like it was before you left, when in reality it is absolutely nothing like you remember. Some of the people were the same, but there were several new faces. At the end of the day, I was definitely ready to get off the ship. Things just weren’t the same and I was not very happy about it. So after I got off, I was home for a week then joined the Zaandam, where I am now.
So my flight to San Diego was an adventure. I left out of Indy with no problems. I had a layover in Dallas, so I made my way to the gate and boarded the plane. We were waiting for the plane to pull back, but instead the captain came on the speaker and said that there was a mechanical issue that they were trying to resolve. After about a half hour, the captain came on again and said that the plane was not flyable. So we had to leave the plane and they were working on getting us another plane. We were in the terminal for about an hour when they announced that there was another plane for us… in terminal A. We were in terminal C. That meant that we had to get on the people mover to head over to terminal A. So we headed over to the other terminal. In the meantime, I met a couple that was going to be joining the Zaandam with me, so they were worried about missing the ship as well. We made it to the terminal and the flight that was coming in made it ok so we started to board. Once onboard, the captain made another announcement that there were more electronical issues. A guy from the corporate office came on the speaker and gave us a sincere apology and said that it would probably be about an hour and if we wanted to get off and have lunch, we could or we could stay onboard and wait it out. I got off and went to get lunch. Finally when we could reboard, we were able to take off. So my 45 minute layover turned into 4 hours. Not so fun! I got onboard the Zaandam and immediately saw Belinda! Yay!!! The itinerary that we are doing is a 15-day Hawaii out of San Diego. That means 4 sea days out, 5 days in port, then 5 sea days back. Long cruises!!
So my kids that were onboard were fun. Kinda crazy, but fun. The second night two members from the cast were rehearsing in the Loft and they came over to say hello. So from then on, every time the kids saw Daniel and Casey, they got so excited! When we went to the shows, Daniel and Casey would wave to them and they were so happy. We had a lot of fun onboard up in Club HAL all cruise long.
The time that we were in port was great as well. In Hilo, I went with Linda, the associate art auctioneer, to a Hawaiian hot spot… a “only found in Hawaii store”… a place that all visitors want to go when they get here… Wal-Mart! I had to pick up a few things and Linda needed to get some stuff as well, so we made our way there. Waiting for the shuttle wasn’t so fun. We waited for about 45 minutes to go there, then about a half hour to get back to the ship. Long lines! Then the wait to get through security was insane. We had gotten in line just after a tour got back, so there were a ton of people in line.
We had an overnight in Honolulu which was great, but I had to stay onboard for both days. I wasn’t too happy about that one. I can totally understand because I was the new girl onboard, but at the same time, if you took all of the others time that they’ve been onboard and added it up, I would still have more than them. Go figure! Oh well. I’m doing my time, so what can I say? I just lei’d out by the pool both days. A girl’s gotta work on her tan!!!
We then went to Lahania, which is on the island of Maui. Belinda and I got off and had Thai or lunch which was great! The pad thai was fantastic!!! After, we went to Jamba Juice and had a yummy shake! There is a park that is just off the tender terminal that you can sit in and we were chilaxin there, and inside the park is a huge tree, that I can’t remember the name for, but appearantly it is the world’s largest type of this type of tree. Cool! Once we got back onboard, I went for a walk around the deck and while I was there I saw so many whales jumping and splashing! It was pretty sweet! What a great day while in Maui!
Our last Hawaiian port was Kona. I remembered somewhere last year when I was on the Ryndam going someplace in Hawaii and getting a henna tattoo as well as going on a dance boat thing, but couldn’t remember where. Once we got to Kona, I remembered where it was that I had done it! Kona! But this stop I couldn’t do anything because I was going a crew tour that was the Captain Zodiac which was an inflatable motor boat that could get massive air time if you hit a wave the right way. A lot of fun!!! We went to a cove where Captain Cook got killed and went snorkeling. On the way to the cove, we saw some whales puffing in the distance, but nothing too close. The water was…well… refreshing. In this cove, there is a tall cliff that is about 350 feet high. Apparently, near the top somewhere is a farm. About 3 or 4 times a year, a cow gets too close and falls off the cliff. Then the body drifts out into the ocean and sharks get to it. It was a pretty cool story to hear. After snorkeling, we headed back to the ship, ready for 5 long sea days back to San Diego.
The hardest part about going back to San Diego was the hour forwards. There was a 3-hour time difference between Hawaii and the west coast, so we’d lose an hour 3 times back. Not so fun. It was just exhausting losing an hour, but still working all day.
Once San Diego came, it was good to have the kids leave. 15 days is way too long to spend with the same 6 kids, especially with 9 sea days. Ouch!
My second cruise we had 35 kids, which meant that another Club HAL person was coming. He name is Christine and she was on the Zuiderdam before. We’ve compared many Big Zed stories! The kids were all insane! At first, they seemed normal. But as the days went on, we realized how weird they actually were. There was a family of 3 that the oldest had ADHD and autism, the middle girl was normal, and the youngest had cerebral palsy. There was another kid that never wanted to do anything, but was at Club HAL all the time. Whenever we suggested anything, he never wanted to do it. And he complained about everything. There were 2 brothers that at first were ok, but as the cruise went on, became more and more annoying. We had 2 sisters that when they showed up had to be the boss of everyone else. And now my favorite, there was a Mexican family onboard that had 10 kids (between 3 families) and only 4 spoke English. Not so fun for us! And that was just the kids, not to mention the teens! The teens were actually pretty cool tho. There were 5 that came regularly, so they were fun to hang out with.
The sea days out were fine, since we had hour back nights, but we just realized how strange all of the kids actually were. Once we got to the islands, we had the same stops, except instead of having an overnight in Honolulu, we went to the island of Kauai. Of course, I had to stay onboard for Kauai. I had to stay also for Hilo. But in Honolulu, I went ashore with Jillian, who is a girlfriend onboard. We did a long walk to Walgreen’s, then had lunch at Duke’s on Waikiki beach. After many mai tai’s, we headed back to the ship. Good day in Honolulu! After staying onboard, I was off in Lahania again and was able to go whale watching. It was great! We saw a mother with her calf and her male escort. The baby was jumping and splashing! It was great! I was hoping to get some sun, but I didn’t get as much as I was hoping for. While in Kona, I was able to get the henna tattoo that I wanted to get last cruise. I got a turtle on my ankle. It is way too cute! That was my only mission for the day and it was accomplished! Yay!
Holy long sea days back, Batman! The days seemed so incredibly long! Although, to give both of us a break, we decided to have the kids and tweens combined so only one of us was with them and the other one of us was with the teens. It worked out well so we each got a bit of a break from the terrors! The sea days back were definitely long, but somehow both of us made it through.
I forgot to tell the most fun thing…. once we got to Hilo, there were people who were getting sick a ton and we went Code Red… basically, the highest level of sanitization and precautions possible. That meant no serving yourself in line in the Lido, no games in the library, and no games in Club HAL. So the whole time in port (which wasn’t that bad because we were not as busy) and the sea days back we were super sanitizing everything constantly. But we were unable to get out once we got back to San Diego so we had a team come on to basically do the whole ship… and we got to help! Christine and I did the kids room in Club HAL and the team did the rest, then after we did that we got to help do the 3300 books in the library! Not a fun way to spend my morning! There was no crew shore leave until an announcement from the bridge was given, which ended up being 2:00 and all-aboard was 4:00, so it was pretty much pointless to get off.
Now I’m into day 3 of my 3rd cruise and we finally got out of Code Red! Yay!

I promise I'll write more often (Natalia!!!)

The Prinsendam in the Caribbean

A funny thing happened last week… I asked Janice to email in my next ship request on Friday after everything was all set up and ready for the upcoming week. No problem. On Saturday I was checking my email after lunch and I had an email that was from HAL regarding “Your next assignment”. That was quick! So I opened it and had my current ship: the Veendam from July 29 to December 15 then the Prinsendam from December 17 to January 3. WHAT?????? This isn’t right?!!?!? I asked Janice what it was and she said that I was being transferred! Smart… transfer the one that knows what’s going on in Club HAL and bring on 3 brand new people… I don’t know…

So Saturday night I packed quickly and I had my flight for Sunday afternoon. I got to Ft. Lauderdale Sunday evening and I had a room reservation for the night. It felt good to get a good night’s sleep… I needed it! When I got to the port Monday morning, we arrived at the terminal, only to find no ship! Apparently it was in Nassau in dry dock and didn’t leave on time. It was scheduled to leave Sunday morning to be there, but it didn’t leave until 9:30 and it was about 5 hours to get to Ft. Lauderdale. So I was just sitting in the terminal forever. Finally others started showing up. There were some people I knew from the Veendam. So it was good to see some familiar faces. I also met the 2 boy cruise staff and a couple of people from the cast.

Finally around 6:00 we were able to board the ship. First impression… not good! It still smelled from being in dry dock and things just looked dirty. When I first got onboard, the HRO people said that I didn’t have a room! I met up with the Cruise Director and he told me that I was rooming with the other girl cruise staff, so yes I did have a room. I finally was able to take my stuff to my room, and I was told that my room was on deck 5, a passenger deck. Sweet, it’ll be a decent room! NOT SO MUCH!!!! The room was absolute crap! The shower floor is disgusting and to this day I wear flip flops when I take a shower and the best part… I don’t have a hook for the shower head to rest on, so when I shower, I have to hold the shower head! Awesome! So where my room is, there are only 2 rooms in our little hallway, actually, it’s called The Hideaway! The room next door is the boy cruise staff.
So our new itinerary… it’s a 17 day cruise, with 4 sea days! Awesome, right?!?!?!? So here it is…
12/17 Ft. Lauderdale
12/18 Sea Day
12/19 Sea Day
12/20 Sea Day
12/21 Castries, St. Lucia
12/22 Basse Terra, Guadelope
12/23 Bequia, St. Vincent
12/24 Bridgetown, Barbados
12/25 St. George's, Grenada
12/26 Fort-de-France, Martinique
12/27 Basseterre, St. Kitts
12/28 Phillipsburg, St. Maarten
12/29 Gustavia, St. Barts
12/30 Ponce, Puerto Rico
12/31 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
1/1 Sea Day
1/2 Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (our private island)
1/3 Ft. Lauderdale
Pretty sweet, right? I did do some pretty fun things in port, but I started getting to the point where I just didn’t want to get off the ship or do anything. But when I did get off, I had a blast! In Barbados, I finally got off the ship! What I mean by this is… when I was on the Veendam, twice we went to Barbados, and TWICE I couldn’t get off the ship. So I was finally excited to be able to get off! I did a turtle encounter excursion where you get to swim with turtles. I kinda forgot about the part wher you can swim with turtles! I forgot to take a bathing suit so when the boat driver said that we’d be swimming with the turtles, I jumped right in with my clothes on! Yes I did!!! It was a lot of fun! After the excursion, Adam and I went to the Boatyard, the bar where ALL the crew from ALL the ships go to hang out. There was a ton of stuff to do there and the two of us had a blast! It was also Christmas Eve. We had a choir performance for the passengers. There were three choirs; the Philipino, Indonesian, and International. I was of course in the International choir. It was a really nice evening and everyone involved had a really nice time. After was a midnight mass that was also nice. Grenada was Christmas and of course Santa came! And of course, I was an elf. We had our 6 kids (and 1 baby) get their presents and sit on Santa’s lap with pictures and they loved it! The old people also came up to get their picture with Santa. Too funny! It was a fun morning.

In St. Maarten, I went on the “voted best tour in the Caribbean” also known as the America Cup Regatta Race. This is where we were the crew for one of the regattas that has been raced in an America’s Cup race. The boat that we were on was Canada 2 and it raced in the 1987 America’s Cup. Basically, we controlled the direction of the sails. There were 3 professionals onboard to help us. Two were there to tell the main and primary grinders when to grind (turn the crank to move the sails) and one to drive and tell the wenches when to wench. I was a primary grinder, along with 7 others. We took turns and there were times that we were listing so bad that we were touching the water! It was pretty cool! It was a crew tour, so it was only crew members onboard. We all had a blast! Just kickin’ back relaxing and having such a fantastic time that none of us wanted to leave. Oh, but the next day, my back was so sore, it hurt to sneeze! Well worth it tho!

St. Barts is the playground for the rich and famous… and man could we tell! The yachts were everywhere! While we were passing out tender tickets, a gentleman offered Adam and I his tour tickets to go on an ATV tour around the island. So we gladly accepted! Although since we were both working and we couldn’t get off work until we went to open tender, we were in a kind of time crunch. The tour was scheduled to leave at 11, but we didn’t get off until about 11:15 and it was about a 15 minute tender ride over, so by the time we got to shore and able to find someone, it turned out that the tour had to leave already because the same boat that would be taking us was taking another tour as well. So total bummer, but we didn’t make the tour. Boo! So we just walked around the island for just a bit and headed back to the ship. Also, while we were doing tender tickets, the yacht “Octopus” was pulling in. Holy Cow!!!! It’s owned by one of Bill Gates’ partners I guess. Do a google search on it…. You’ll find pics of it!

2 more cruises done...

In the past 3 weeks you would think that something exciting has happened… or at least something exciting for me to write about. Well, I hate to upset you, but nothing has happened. We had a 2 week cruise and a 1 week cruise, but that’s about it. I did go swimming the waterfalls in Guatemala. I went ziplining and cave tubing (freakin’ awesome man!!!!! Wicked cool!!!!!!) in Belize. I hit up Margaritaville in Grand Caymen. Other than that, I just hung out and I’ve been working on my tan. It’s rough, I know.
Next cruise we are getting 2 new peeps to get ready for the holidays. The ship has been decorated and it’s nice and Christmassy, but it’s funny walking around Belize seeing the decorations and hearing the Caribbean carols. We’re also rehearsing for the choir for Christmas Eve. I’ll update more next week when something exciting happens… like paintballing in Cozumel! Yay!

Thanksgiving week was a lot of fun… but there are some bummer things that happened, as well as some great things! So let me start from the beginning… We were informed about a month ago that we would have 6 staff for this week. Beath from the cruise staff was supposed to get off before Thanksgiving, but she extended a week to do Club HAL for the week. We got closer and closer and still hadn’t heard who was coming. So Thursday night of the previous cruise, Moyra tells me that we’re getting 3 girls, for a total of 5. We could have 2 on kids, 2 on tweens and only 1 on teens. No problem. Moyra said the name of the girls… Jennifer, Alicia, and Kaitlin. (She also said last names, but I’m not telling!!!) When I heard Kate was coming, I was ecstatic! Someone who knows what she’s doing!!! Plus to see her again is great! So Sunday rolls around and I have to stand in the terminal for 3 hours… ugh… passing out info to all the kids. It wasn’t that bad, but I didn’t really like it all that much. When I finished I headed back into the office and I saw Kate and both of us went crazy! I also found out that the other 2 girls were onboard, just taking their Environmental training. So we had our welcome aboard meeting and right after Kate looked at me and said “What was that???” and I told her that was the welcome aboard meeting that we’ve had every week…. Oh my. So anyways, we have our night activities and there were no problems. The next morning was Key West morning. We were supposed to get in at noon and leave at 6. This meant that we had morning activities and night activities, but nothing during the day. I got a page at 8:15 from Moyra and she said that we weren’t going to Key West. Something about engine troubles. So we’re in the Lido having breakfast and the captain comes on the announcements and he breaks the news that we won’t be getting in today and explains more. It was because of one of the propeller shafts not working correctly which meant that we were going way slow and we couldn’t make top speed to get in on time. Bummer. Ok, so two sea days in a row, not bad. On the second sea day, the girls were about ready to die! They weren’t used to constantly going, but they were fine. Wednesday we got into Belize fine and I went zip lining and rappelling! So fun! Thursday was Guatemala… Happy Thanksgiving! None of us got our tours that we put in for so we decided to make our own fun. We went to a resort that was still in the works of getting done, but there were hammocks, beach chairs and of course a bar, so we were good! What a way to spend Thanksgiving! We had turkey for dinner, but for some reason, turkey out of a bag just isn’t appealing. I can’t imagine why… So Friday, there were rumors going around that we wouldn’t be going to Cozumel either, but nothing was set in stone until the captain made the announcement. He had made an announcement the night before saying that we’d get in on time but we’d have to leave 3 hours early. So that’s what we were all planning for. So that was the change for Cozumel. Everything that I’ve heard we were right on schedule. Well, until 9:30 at least. He came on about then and said that we’d be skipping Cozumel as well. The shaft just wasn’t going as fast as it could be and we wouldn’t get in until 3, and we’d have to leave at 6, so it was pointless for us to go. Ugh, another sea day! We had a Mexican Fiesta up in Club HAL for the kids in the afternoon. It was a lot of fun! Everyone was bummed, but I think overall they were in good spirits about the whole thing. The last day was finally coming and it was definitely bitter sweet. My girls were so fun and it was so great having them onboard and I can’t wait to have a posse back for the holidays. So sad going back to just me. We played flippy cup until 3 and Kate wanted me to get up to have breakfast with her at 7… ouch! So I got up to say goodbye and hang with them for the last few minutes. It was a great cruise for the company but a total bummer about missing the ports.

Aaaahhhhh the Caribbean!!!!

Well we’ve finally made it to the Caribbean… and man, were we ready! On the Montreal to Tampa cruise, nothing really exciting happened. I had three kiddos that were great. While in Bar Harbor, I was able to go on a lobster bake tour that also went to Acadia National Park (which I went to the cruise before) and there were 3 busses for the tour, which meant that three escorts could go, so it was me, Tisa, and Elaine. Tisa is the library manager and Elaine is the future cruise consultant. We had a blast! We went to town on the lobster! For starters, we had oysters. I’m not so much a fan of oysters, but these were fresh and good! Then, there was corn, bread, coleslaw and potatoes… and of course LOBSTER!!! It was so good! For dessert, what else do you have in Maine but blueberries! We had blueberry cake! Holy cow… so good! I got the recipe too, so I’ll try it when I get home. I highly doubt that it’ll be as good as it was here tho. While in Charlestown, I didn’t realize the history. I took a horse and carriage ride around town and it was beautiful to see all the mansions and to hear the stories from the Civil War. That was also our first glimpse of sun! We had a beautiful day there so a lot of us were getting excited for the upcoming months of sun.

Ah Tampa… I got Annie on as a visitor and that was definitely trouble enough! Well first off, we have a “crew window” which means that we can only get off at certain times for a little bit. For example, if the window is open at 11, it may close again at 11:15 and we can’t get off again until the next window at noon. So it sucks basically. Plus, I had stuff for Leslie (the port lecturer that got off 1st New York) to take off to give to her, so I had to go with the disembarking crew to go thru customs. So about 10:00 Annie was able to come onboard and about 10:15 they called the disembarking crew. So we took that stuff off, but the window was now open on the top of the hour. So I took Annie around on a quick tour of the ship and we had a quick lunch in the Lido and we got off at the 1:00 window. We went shopping… mainly for Club HAL stuff. So that was Tampa. Then we had boat drill as usual. Well, super complainy if you can believe it… I had a set of parents from H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS!!! The dad started complaining right away at boat drill because he and his wife were in adjoining rooms and they were at separate boats. Ugh. Then at our welcome aboard meeting we mentioned that port day activities were available, but very limited because it’s only me. We haven’t even left the port yet and the dad says to sign up the kid for every single session. Not only is he three, and not only did he run around and scream the entire meeting, but he’s not even a cute kid! I told Moyra right away that I would not do well with him! The parents also wanted Key West for port day activities, but Moyra said with the short notice before port, schedules couldn’t be changed for tomorrow, so no port activities for Key West. So he came to the 8:00 activity and was absolutely terrible! He was even worse there than in the meeting. The next morning was Key West and we didn’t arrive until noon, so I had morning activities for everyone and mom came to pick him up and asked about the hours for the port day activities. I told her that I needed to talk to Moyra for the exact times, and she said that afternoons are better for him. I definitely made a mental note to have them in the morning instead! Moyra and I agreed that for Belize and Guatemala I would have the activities 9-11 and Cozumel 12-2 because we had another late arrival. I told the parents that and they said that that would have to work. The next day was a sea day and again, he was terrible. But the good thing was that he didn’t come at night because he was in bed. So Belize City is a tender port, so mom brought him up at 9 and I guess dad and the baby sister got off earlier. At 11 he was picked up and I heard them talk about going out again, so I wouldn’t see him again until night. I was talking to Tisa and we said that we wanted to go to lunch ashore, so we made a meeting time of 12:30 on the gangway. We got on the tender boat and guess who got on 5 minutes later… that’s right… the not-so-smart family. Dad came over to me and said “Oh this is why you didn’t want to have the port activities, so you can get off!” I just sat there and chuckled. Why do some people have to be so stupid???? I got back and got a call from Moyra that she was going to have a meeting with the dad and she would have to give him full hours for the activities. He was mad because I got off the ship to have lunch while in port. I’m not happy about this…. So basically I’m on the ship babysitting for free this pain in the butt for the week. My thoughts…. if you’re not going to spend any time with your kids while on vacation, why bring them??? Guatemala was ok, and he’s still a pain in the butt, and Cozumel morning, since we didn’t get in until 1, they said that they would take him ashore and cancel the activities. THANK GOODNESS!!! Shore Ex was able to put together a tour for 15 crew members to go swimming with dolphins and they asked me earlier in the week if I could go. I was panicking and trying to re-arrange schedules so I would be able to go. When they told me they cancelled, I was so happy! So when we were in Cozumel, I went swimming with dolphins (again… I went last December in Tortola!)!!!! It was so fun and because it was all crew members it was a lot of fun! Cozumel is going to be the crew’s “play port” because of all the amazing things to do there! The last sea day was fine… and for the afternoon activities after the not so smart parents picked him up, all they said was thanks… no tip at all! For all that time I spent with him, I deserved something! I was not happy!!!! Not to mention, for all the kids I had and as big as brats they were, I got nothing for the cruise… Oh well… I didn’t even mention the goofy teens I had… that’s another story entirely!!!

The second 1-week cruise went much better! It was Halloween! I had 5 kiddos and 4 teens, but I never saw them, and the kids were a lot of fun. There was a brother-sister, 2-brothers and one girl on her own. This week, no one even mentioned port activities… but then again, I found out that that since I’m the only one in Club HAL that I’m not supposed to have port activities… why didn’t I know this last week???? Halloween was so much fun! The two brothers came as a ninja and an army guy, the brother-sister came as a Renaissance Princess and an ostrich jockey (it was one of those blow-up and step into costumes… too cute!!!) and the one girl forgot to bring a costume, so I made her a puppy. Too cute! And I forgot to mention that I went as Glenda the good witch! We went trick-or-treating around the ship and everyone loved it! There was a costume party for the adults up in the Crow’s Nest… there were several categories and winners… one category was “Never to be seen again” and the winner was a lady dressed up like Brittney Spears with bright pink hair braids… ugh… and there was of course a “Best Costume” and the winner, well it was a pair, was Adam and Eve… two OOOOLLLLLLDDDDDDD people dress in a flesh-colored costume with drawn on, um, “parts” and fig leaves drawn on specific areas as well. When I first glanced, I really thought they were naked! It was funny, but kinda gross at the same time, and really scarring. When we were in Guatemala, I went horse back riding and it was at a resort where after we could go swimming or lay by the pool. I definitely chose the swimming part… right along with the swim-up bar and the water slides! It was a lot of fun and I met some really cool guests. The rest of the cruise was fine… no major hiccups at all, so it was fun.

This cruise we’re on a 14-day southern Caribbean cruise. So far, we’ve been to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, Grenada and Venezuela and we’ve got Bonaire, Grand Cayman, and Aruba left. It was so fun to go back to St. Thomas after not being there since January. I went snorkeling on a catamaran and of course on the way back… open bar! The girl bartender was serving up Painkillers, a mixture of pina colada mix, orange juice, rum and nutmeg (I think that was all…). I’ll tell ya, after 3 you were definitely not feeling any pain! I met three crazy ladies onboard and we talked about getting lunch after and I said that we needed to go to the lookout up the hill. We took the tram up and had a great lunch! Not to mention a Bushwhacker each! Oh how I’ve missed those! While in Dominica, Tisa, Stephanie and I rented a taxi and headed up to the famous water falls. They were gorgeous! I’ll need to get my pics from Tisa tho… I forgot to take my camera with me! Silly Katie! We were able to splash around in them but not really swim. There was a hot water spring and a cold water fall. The cold was super cold! I couldn’t get off in Barbados, but next time I will… and in Grenada, Stephanie and I walked around the pier then under a tunnel to the other side of the island. That island was so gorgeous, I couldn’t believe it. I guess 30% of the world’s nutmeg comes from Grenada. That’s a lot of nutmeg! In Venezuela, people had heard rumors that there was nothing to do and that if it were possible to just stay on the ship. It would be easier than tendering over to do nothing. Well, I’m not the kind of person that stays onboard just to stay onboard… Viv, James and I (Viv is the asst. shop manager and James is a musician) found a beautiful beach that was a 5 minute walk from where the tender dropped us off! It was gorgeous! The water was warm and there were very few waves, but when they came they were fun! It was great!

The one thing that I’m surprised about is that I’ve been in the sun quite a bit and I’m getting a slow tan, but that’s ok… I’ve been wearing my sunblock and re-applying as necessary. Another two months and it’ll be GREAT!!!!

Sorry this was so long and I will try much harder to update this regularly. I’ll also include pictures when I get a place that has free internet. But it’s hard when I HAVE to go to the beach!

Montreal.... what???

This past cruise we said from New York to Montreal and it was a pretty quiet cruise. While in Bar Harbor, I took a tour that was a carriage ride around Acadia National Park, then we drove to the top of the mountain. After, the thin to do in Maine is of course get lobster, so one of the guests that was on the tour with me and I went to get a lobster roll! Yummy! It was quite amazing! The next day in Halifax, I went to Peggy’s Cove, a small fishing village that was started by a lost lady named Peggy. I can’t remember the details…. But while we were there we had a lobster lunch. This was a full-on lobster! We got the whole thing, eyes included! We got down and dirty and it was great! While in Quebec, it was Canada’s Thanksgiving, so pretty much everything was closed. That meant that it was a great day to catch up on emails! There is free internet in the terminal so we set up shop and had a long day online. We left at 10pm and headed to Montreal. Quebec night we had a party in the bar that was a sports theme. I went as a lady golfer and of course I had a caddy! Everyone loved it! There were cheerleaders, a swimmer, Serena Williams, a couple of boxers, and a surfer just to name a few. It was great! That was to celebrate on of the officer’s birthday. Glen’s birthday is coming up this cruise and the theme for his is going to be “Bright and Tight”. Yeah, not to sure about that one. Still haven’t heard about any other Club HAL staff coming… but then again we won’t have a lot of kids until Thanksgiving. So I think I can handle the few number of kids on my own until then. While in Montreal, Viv and I were able to see Marie Claude! So here’s the story… I turned in my visitor request form, and she was approved, no problem. We were due to get in at 9:30 so I emailed her and told her 9:30… on debark days, we’re usually on time, if not early. So I was guessing that I would be able to get off right away and have a long morning with her and have a nice visit. Not so much. We not only didn’t get in late, but we had only one gangway, which meant that crew couldn’t get off until all of the passengers were off. So we were finally tied up by about 10:15 and debark started about 10:30. So I’m trying all I can to get off and security won’t let me pass. Ugh. Marie Claude told me that she had a yoga class at noon, so I was getting worried that she wouldn’t make it, or if she did, that I wouldn’t be able to see her. So after an hour and a half of waiting, I was finally able to get off to see her. She was there of course, and had been there since 9:30, so she missed her class. I asked her what she wanted to do, and she said the only thing she wanted was lunch in the Lido. But we had one little problem. The lady in the terminal wouldn’t let her pass without an ok from her supervisor. After trying to get him, it didn’t work. So I saw Mike, our Hotel Manager, and explained what was going on, and he said that since she’s on the visitor list then she should be able to get onboard. So with some extra persuasion, she was finally able to come onboard. We were finally onboard at 1:00. Security told us that visitors had to be off by 2. Ugh, only an hour after all that waiting! So the three of us went up to the lido to have lunch and we got up to date with everything and it was almost 2 and we had to go. Viv walked us to the gangway, and Marie Claude asked if I wanted to drive around with her for an hour. So we quickly ran down to my room and got my sweatshirt and purse and headed out. She said that her house was about 15 minutes away so we could go there for a few minutes and come back. It’s a plan! That was before traffic. It took way longer than 15 minutes, which meant that we only had a few minutes to stay at her apartment. All aboard time was 3:15, so we thought that leaving at 2:45 was enough time to get back on time. Again, this was before traffic. So she’s weaving in and out trying to get me back on time, and we turn down the street that the terminal is basically straight down from , and we have all green lights! Yeah, I’ll have no problem! Well, then we get to a school bus that has it’s lights on. So we’re pretty much parked in the street. The only street that is next to us is a one-way in the opposite direction that we want to go. So there’s no where we can go. This time it was about 3:00. Now I’m starting to get nervous. I hate cutting it so close to all aboard time. Finally we start moving and we pull into the parking lot at 3:09 and I make a mad dash for the ship, get thru security and back onboard at 3:14! Yeah! Never again am I going to make it that close! I had a great visit though with Marie Claude an Viv did too, so it was well worth it. But next time with an hour before all aboard, maybe just somewhere close to the port is the best place to go!

I’m just looking forward to the last Canada/New England cruise before the Caribbean. We all need some sun!

Pics!!!!

Hey all! Here are the pics I promised! Sorry it took so long... I had to wait until I could use free internet in port to upload because of how long it would take to do. There's a bit of everything! Enjoy!