Home...already?

So Sunday was may last day. We woke up and moved from our hotel to the Marriot in Times Square...posh diggings for the boys.

Then we went to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum which was very interesting, and very cool to be on top of an aircraft carrier!

Then it was time for me to bid farewell to the Big Apple. Grant accompanied me all the way back to the airport via the Long Island railroad and the sky train and I had good flight home.

A cruise, a fabulous dinner, and Naked Boys Singing

Chhh...I can not believe I have to go home tomorrow! Waaaaaaaaaaah! Anywho, I had a wonderful day. Steve went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while Grant and I took a three hour cruise circumnavigating Manhatten Island on Circle Line Tours. It was pretty neat...the tour guide pointed out all of the sites and gave us a lot of neat information. It was cool to see all the boroughs and the bridges and everything.

After our tour we met Steve at Time Square, but the TKTS booth was waaaay long, and the major Broadway shows we wanted to see were available, so we deciede to get tickets to an off-broadway show. We went down to the seaport TKTS booth so we wouldn't have to wait in line, and got tickets to the evening showing of "Naked Boys Singing."

Next, we went to Rockefeller Center, and saw the ice skating rink and the tree (all hid by scaffolding and large posters...) Then we went to Central Park and walked through it at night...through the south part by the central park ice skating rink...It was very beautiful.

We had dinner at Churrascaria Platforma, a Brazillian, set price, all you could eat place. It was soooooooo good. First, they had a salad bar with appetizers and such. My favorite thing there was the sundried tomato topped mozzarella, the cheese cubes (Grant enjoyed the cheese cubes dripped in honey), and the shrimp pasta salad. Grant liked the sushi, the mozzarella and sundries tomoatoes, and the octopus, and Steve liked the bow tie pasta with mozzarella and the sushi.
Then we had the main course...Here is how it worked: We had these cardboard coasters on our desk...green meant bring on the food, and red meant no food now...throughout the evening servers walked around with all different types of meats and if your disk was turned up to green they stopped and asked if you wanted what they had....they had chicken, flank steak, bacon wrapped filet, salmon, lamb, sausages, and beef ribs...it was unbelievable and amazing. The would cut or serve the meat right off of these huge skewers on to your plate. Yum.

After dinner we went to the Dodger theaters on 50th street. This place was neat...it was like a 6 screen movie theater, except each theater was a live theater! (I don't think that I have ever seen more then one live theater in the same building.) Alter Boys, The Musical of Musicals, the Musical, and other off Broadway shows were playing there. We, of course, were there to see "Naked Boys Singing," which was about, well, naked boys singing. Hee Hee. No plot, really, just a review of songs song by eight very cute, and very naked, men. It was really funny. We were in the 7th row... Lots of fun. And lots of penises. Hee hee... And no, Grant and Steve were not the only guys there.

Well, I think I'll go now, and leave you with those pleasent thoughts.

Friday in NYC

Ok...let's try this again! SOOOOO today we got to see the city more like I imagined. Walking past different neighborhoods, looking around...it was pretty cool. We started out by walking east on 94th street past a row a very nice homes. We arrived at central park and walked through it. As imagined, it is absolutly beautiful in the fall.

Next, we hopped on a subway and went down to little Italy, and found a nice resteraunt for lunch. After lunch, we walked a little bit more through Little Italky, and then crossed the street to China Town.

Then we decided to go to Times Square and see if there were any tickets available for Fiddler on the Roof or The Producers or Mama Mia or Beauty and the Beast. They had tickets to both Fiddler and beauty, so we decidee to go ahead and wait in line. The line took about 30 minutes and by the time we got up there there were no tickets for anything that we wanted to see left on the sign.... I was so bummed. We went up to the windiw and asked if they had any Fidder tickets and they said they had one. So we picked a different show and when he went over to check on availability for three, he came back and said, "We just got another pair of Fiddler tickets, seperate from the first one...do we want all three?" Um, yeah! So we got the tickets! Yipee!

So then we took the subway to try to see the Brooklyn bridge, but didin't really get a good spot. So we wandered around Brooklyn for a bit and took the B line back so that we could go on top of the Manhattan Bridge. We checked out the tOYS ARE US in time square for a nit and then went to see Fiddler on the Roof. I got to see Rosie! It was awesome! The musical was a great production...both Grant and Steve liked it. We were in the "box", which were actually like wings with just four chairs set up, Grant and I on the right and Steve on the left. Did I mention that I actually got to see Rosie? Harvey Fierstein starred as Tevya.

After the show we waited around for the off chance that Rosie would come out...Harvey did and actually signed a few of our programs! Very cool.

After the show we took the subway to the Grey Papaya, a hot dog stand, and got a couple franks for dinner, and now we are back at the hotel!

NYC Arrival

Hi everyone! Well, Here we are in New York City! I got in late last night. Grant met me at the airport (JFK) and then we took the airtrain and the long island railroad to our hotel. last night we stayed at the New York Marriot East side, across the street from the Waldorf.
This morning we got up and moved back to the Hotel Newton on Broadway and 96th. You know, the one with two twin beds...? Well good luck prevailed, and they upgraded us to a larger room...with two queen beds!!! Our room is on the 7th floor and it faces Broadway.
Well, we're going to get out of here, so I will talk to you soon!

Our Trip Home

All good things must come to an end, but as Grant said to me this morning when I was getting weepy about our honeymoon ending, this is truly just the beginning of the rest of our lives together!

Our flight from St. Croix to Puerto Rico was on American, but the rest of our return was on Delta. Our flight left at 2, giving us an hour layover before we were scheduled to depart Puerto Rico. However, we were concerned that an hour would not be enough time to claim our baggage and check in to our new flight, and we wanted to be sure that we could check our bags all the way through to Ontario Airport. If not, we wanted to fly standby on the earlier flight, which would leave us with a 4 hour layover…plenty of time to claim our bags, check in, and….sit.

So we arrived at 10 at the airport where we could indeed check our bags all of the way through. So we checked in and then drove to Christensted for lunch at Rum Runners. We also spent some time looking through the fort that once guarded the harbor. In addition, it served as the town prison.
Interestingly enough, the prison once was home to none other than the mother of Alexander Hamilton (who grew up on St. Croix!) Rebecca had been forced to marry at a young age and a few years later she decided to leave the marriage. Her husband had her imprisoned for a few moths to try to change her mind. After she was released, she eventually did leave her husband and later lived with another man for many years. They had two sons, one of which was Alexander Hamilton! Later Rebecca traveled back to St. Croix with the boys, while the father stayed abroad and was generally not supportive of his sons. Rebecca died and the boys, being illegitimate, found work as apprentices. When Hamilton was 18 or 19, he wrote a letter to his father (who lived on another island, I can’t remember which one) which vividly and poignantly described a hurricane that had hit and devastated St. Croix. The letter was published in a newspaper. Several wealthy people were impressed by the letter and decided to finance Hamilton’s education. He went to study at British colleges founded in the New World, which is what brought him to America at the dawn of the Revolution!


Anyways, we enjoyed our last morning in Christensted and got back to the airport at about 1. Even though St. Croix is a US territory, it is considered a point of entry and so we needed to go through customs, which didn’t take long at all.

Our flight to Puerto Rico on our little ATR was short an uneventful. We arrived at our American terminal and had to walk three terminals away to get to Delta. Upon arrival, we found out that our flight was delayed 2 hours, which meant we would miss our connecting flight. Witho0ut much trouble, Delta was able to book us on American home through Dallas. They gave us confirmation but told us we’d have to go to the ticketing counter to get our boarding passes. We were fairly confident that we needed to go to American ticket counters, as we were now flying American, but since we were three terminals away, at Delta, we decided to stop there first, just in case. BUT no…we were supposed to go to American they told us.

So we walked over to American and waited in line. We got to the agent at 4:10 (Our flight left at 5:00) The agent looked up a whole bunch of stuff and made a few calls and at 4:20 said that we needed actual tickets from Delta first. She told us to go back to Delta, get the tickets, and then come right back to her (don’t wait in line). SO we walked all the way back to Delta, and talked to another lady who spent two minutes bawking about how we would never make the flight before we finally said not to worry, we’d make it, if she’d give us what we needed…Back to delta we go with tickets in our hand and the blessed lady at the delta counter had everything ready for us, boarding passes all printed and a minute later we were on our way through security.

Boarding was to start at 4:35 and we arrived at 4:40 to an overflowing terminal and announcement that boarding would be delayed at least 30 minutes. By 5:30, the announcement was that there were equipment problems and they were looking for a replacement aircraft while working to fix the problem. They were aware that most of the people on this flight were connecting and assured us that if connections were missed the airline would provide rooms for all travelers needing to spend the night.

We left at 6:45 Eastern Time from a different plane at a different gate, and arrived in Dallas at 10:15 local time, an hour and 15 minutes later then expected. Fortunately, all connecting flights had delayed departures, and were supposed to leave at 11:00. Unfortunately, due to weather, Dallas was backed up, and there were 45 planes ahead of us, causing us to sit on the tarmac for another half an hour. We arrived at terminal A and took the Sky tram to terminal C arriving at 11:00 ish, with the plane boarded, full to capacity, and not taking any more passengers.

So, we got in line to rebook for the next day, and overheard that we wouldn’t be getting out of there until 8:40 the next evening. So as we waited Grant got on the phone and called American, and rebooked us himself into LAX arriving at 2 in the afternoon. When we got to the gate agent, who was stressed and slightly testy, but not exactly rude, we confirmed that our new itinerary was on the computer and wrote down our new flight numbers.

Then we asked about hotels. She said that the hotels close by were booked for the night, and the only ting she could offer us was Wyndam in downtown, where taxi rates would be phenomenal. She suggested that we just stay the night in the airport. Then she said the distress rate was $69 a night. We asked if the airline would pay for that. She said no, the airline doesn’t comp. We said that in Puerto Rico, they were pretty clear that if we missed our connection we would have hotels provided for us. The agent said that by provided they meant we would find rooms for us, but not pay for them, The airline can’t compensate for weather delays….

….that’s when we figured it out…

We told her we understood the weather policy, but explained that our delay was not due to weather, it was due to mechanical problems in Puerto Rico, and as such, we were pretty sure that we were entitled to a comped room.

“Well, “she said, “if that is the case your right, let me check you flight number.” And THAT is how we became the heroes of the night. The agent asked the people in line behind us if they were all from the Puerto Rico flight and told the agent next to her that we were all entitled to free rooms. This was met with cheers and wild applause…the man next to us busted out a bottle of wine while two others hoisted Grant and I on their shoulders and pranced us around the terminal to a rousing chorus of ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow.” While flight attendants released pressure valves around the three nearest gates sending floods of confetti into the cheering terminal….

I digress…

So were given a room at the Hyatt which was, quite literally, right across the street and through a parking garage (They had a shuttle, but it was faster to walk). Our room was really nice, room service was very reasonable, and they even gave us a travelers kit with toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, razor, shaving cream, and deodorant. I was left wondering how many other people from the Puerto Rico flight who missed their connections understood that that were entitled a free room, as well, as there were many many other passengers delayed due to the weather…and the agents seemed to assume all of the flights were weather delayed.

So we spent a lovely night in Dallas, which was actually good because we were both very tired and were not really looking forward to another 2 hour flight. We caught our first flight to Austin with no trouble met our connecting flight to LA…

Oh and bonus, we sit here on our flight to LA in row 3, which is actually the first row, bulk head, with lots of leg room…in first class…where we were treated to lots of drinks, warm mixed nuts, and a full meal, salmon for Grant and mushroom pizza for myself, thanks to the delightful women who hooked us up with the earlier flight home on the phone last evening, and thanks to grant’s foresight to call while we were waiting in line for the agent.

So, as our flight prepares for descent, I think I shall put this computer away, stretch out in first class, and hold my husband’s hand, as we prepare to land, and go home.

...the sun sets on St. Croix

Our last few days in St. Croix were very relaxing. We went to the Point Udal, which is the Easternmost point of US territory. We swam, we snorkeled, we read in the hammocks by the water. We went into Christensted for lunch and shopping.

There are lots of dogs on the island. Most of them are not strays, however, they roam like cats do at home. There aren’t yards, really, and dogs have free roam around. We went up to Cane bay to snorkel and swim and had a great time watching all of the dogs on the beach. There was this one cute dog that had a “security Frisbee.” He would not let the thing go! When he did put the Frisbee down, if someone came by to throw it for him, he would put his paw on it like, “um, no. this is my Frisbee.” Occasionally, someone would get it and throw it and he would swim out to get it in the water and bring it right back to his spot on the sand.

A little bit later, a lady came with her little dog, and she threw the tennis ball for the little dog to fetch. The other dog, wanted to join in, but he wouldn’t put down his Frisbee. So he would chase the tennis ball with the Frisbee in his mouth, but when he reached the tennis ball, he’d just sort of look at it as if wondering how to get it without putting down his Frisbee. Meanwhile, the little dog would just creep in and grab it. Finally, after about 15 minutes, the big dog ran over and used his Frisbee to scoop up the ball. He was right at the wave break on the shore so it was difficult to see, but next thing you know, he’s trotting up the beach with the Frisbee AND the tennis ball in his mouth!!!! Cutie!!!

One evening we went to a French restaurant, Le St. Tropez in Frederiksted. From outside it looked shabby, but on the inside it was charming. We ate on the patio along a cobblestone alley decorated in small white tree lights, and tables for visitors with dogs. (Many places allow dogs to join you for meals.) I had lobster again and Grant had Filet Mignon.

We also ate lunch at Rum Runners in Christensted on Saturday and again on Sunday while waiting for our flight (I’ll explain later.) We had the same waitress both days, and it was here that I finally sampled conch meat, a Caribbean tradition, in the form of conch fritters. It was quite good, but no doubt about it, conch meat is chewy! Rum Runners is another outside restaurant that runs along the Christensted boardwalk, very near where we boarded the Renegade for our Buck island tour. Little crabs frequently climb up to the edge of the tables and eat scraps that have fallen from the tables. Marie, our waitress, said that sometimes they will crawl right on to peoples feet…they don’t bite, she said, but the tickly feeling can be creepy…

We spent our last full afternoon on the beach in front of our cottage…truly, from what we’ve seen, one of the better beaches on the island, lounging on our rafts, beaching each other, and genuinely enjoying our time together.




Grant and I, I think, are truly lucky, in that we can easily spend long amounts of time together (3 weeks!), and genuinely enjoy it. I am so glad that he is my husband, because he truly makes a wonderful partner for me in so many ways.

Buck Island

Today we went out to Buck Island, a small island Northeast of St. Croix. The entire island is a US national Monument, including the reef surrounding it. The reef makes up one of the few (I think 3) underwater national monuments!

We took a boat over through “Big Beards” company, leaving from Christensted. Our group had 18 people, and our sailing catamaran had us to Buck Island in about an hour. We stopped first at one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen, with powder white sand and clear water. Nothing much really to see here, but it was a 30 min. stop to swim, and learn how to use the snorkel equipment if you didn’t know how. The beach was called Turtle beach because Turtles nest their eggs here.

Our next stop was right out in the middle of the reef. Our first mate took us on a short tour to make sure we knew what we were doing and then we were on our own. It was very cool. We were near this place called the Grotto. Underwater signs told you about the fish you were seeing. The Grotto is an area you can enter where you are completely surrounded by a huge bowl of coral. There are two main types of coral, the bright red fire coral, which grows in formations that look like flames, and brain coral, which is yellow and looks like a huge brain. The fish here were big and colorful. I think I have seen every color of fish. There are even some rainbow fish that are green and yellow and purple and pink and orange all at once. Many of the fish swam in schools, which was very neat to see.

After snorkeling the great Buck Island Reef, we sailed back to St. Croix for a barbeque lunch of hamburgers, hotdogs, mahi mahi, and chips and punch (or rum punch). It was quite tasty! Even the Mahi Mahi was pretty good.

We got back to Christensted at about 3:30 and we tried to do some shopping. (Except for some Donald Duck stuff at Disneyworld, I haven’t bought anything yet…am I weird that I don’t like to shop?) Let me tell you, though, shopping for Tammy is a piece of cake. I mean, Caribbean….pirates….there is pirate stuff everywhere!

We got back to our cottage at around 5:00, took showers, and then went to dinner at the sunset café. This restaurant, North of Fredricksted, was also on the beach, but you couldn’t really see anything because there were trees all along the restaurant. Still you could here the water, and see where parts of the sand. There was a dog hanging out there who kept going in for swims and then coming out to dig on the beach.

This restaurant specialized in seafood. I got crab stuffed lobster, so good, and Grant got grouper, which he really liked as well!

After dinner, we lit a couple of mosquito coils and sat out on our porch. We played a game of clue and a game of battleship. Then we came inside to watch some TV. A very cozy evening. I really like it here.

St. Croix continued

Waking up this morning, looking out our window to a view of a clear blue sky meeting the clear blue ocean, with a few palm trees thrown in for good measure, well, you can’t beat that, can you?

Well, Grant is becoming a pro at driving on the left side of the road…it is trickier then you’d think, especially in parking lots and such!

Today we drove to an old sugar plantation, called the Whim plantation. We took a tour of the Great House. Mostly, the overseer lived here. Often the families of the owners stayed back in Europe, as there weren’t any good schools here in the Caribbean.

The sugar cane plantations lasted until the early 1900’s, largely due to the effect of the emancipation of slaves, which occurred here in the Caribbean in 1848.

After our tour, we decided to drive around the northwest portion of the island where the “rainforest” is located. It is not a true rain forest, but it is thick and jungle-y, full of old mahogany trees and kapok trees…it was quite beautiful. It is so interesting to see how different the island can be in different places.

We came back to our place in the early afternoon and went out to swim. Grant snorkeled a bit, but I just laid on a raft. We saw a horse swimming in the water! That was neat. Then, as I am standing there, (not on the raft at this point) I look down and this big ol’ manta ray goes swimming right by! AAAAH!!! I am a lot braver with my mask and snorkel let me tell you! But it was really cool.

We sat on beach chairs reading and watching the sunset, and then ran to K-mart to get a few more things…mosquito coils and paper towels. Now we’re back making pizza here for dinner!

St. Croix - Arrival

But…there was a problem. When we arrived at our Cottages by the Sea, we found out that they were full…there was a mix up in the reservations! Paul, the manager, wasn’t around, so his dad, Tom, found us a room next door at Sandcastles on the Beach for the night, and said there would be something available the next day.

The room at Sand castles was nice. It was on the third floor, no elevator, so we didn’t bring up the suitcases or anything for the first night. It was warm though. There was air conditioning in the bedroom, but not the main room. I took a nap…I had a head ache…and then we went out and drove a bit through St. Croix, had dinner, and picked up a few things from K-Mart. That night we watched part of Harry Potter and the CoS on TV.

Paul called us later that evening and apologized. Our cottage would be available the next day, and he would give us this first night free (as in, they paid for our room at Sandcastles but didn’t charge us for it). He accidentally had us penciled in for September!

As it turns out, this was a good thing!!! Carnival was booked so we got a cottage called Coconut. It is brand new (not even listed on the website yet). It is on the second floor and looks over the ocean as well (If you look on the map, on the website Cottages by the Sea Our unit was built above the “Cruzan” unit. And in this case, new is very, very good. The unit is like a big studio, with the kitchen, sitting room, and bedroom basically in one room, so everything is air conditioned. AND our unit has glass windows (we think these new ones are the only 2 units with glass) This is good because we can keep our blinds open and see the ocean with the air conditioning on, as opposed to the other units that appear to just have screens and wooden slats that need to be closed to use the air conditioning!
The room is an ocean view as well, and is an upgrade from what we had.

So, we are very lucky, everything turned out great, and we are very happy!

So this morning we went out to do grocery shopping ( we didn’t shop last night because we wanted to be able to put it right into the unit we were staying in). Then we moved in to our beautiful unit and unpacked. We met the dog, and understood the signs that say “please do not feed the dog” as the dog is a fat little porker. Paul said she’s very friendly, but is so use to paying attention to people who have food that she doesn’t tend to hang around long.

Then we walked down the steps, and took about 30 steps in to our front yard and went straight into the ocean…yeah, life’s rough!
We did some snorkeling and swimming.

We had dinner at the café next door, on a patio on the beach. You can not beat the ambience. The tables were on a patio with white lights on the patio cover and the waves lapping in a few feet away. Grant had Mahi Mahi, very fresh, he said, and I had Past with sun dried tomatoes, artichokes and olives. Yummy!




I am going to post this now. Talk to you tomorrow!

Oh 2 more things:
1) lizards everywhere, even in your room sometimes, like the geckos in Hawaii.
2) As if we needed anymore proof that our unit is perfect, right outside of it, along the staircase, is a huge plumeria tree!

Day At Sea

Day at Sea

Today was our day at sea, as we traveled back from Barbados to Puerto Rico. You can really tell how many people are on the ship during the sea day. It is amazing how many people can be comfortably transported on this ship!

At eleven, we had a Rasul spa treatment. We were given this two room area in the spa for an hour. One of the spa specialists showed us how to use everything, and then we were left alone to wash, exfoliate, and shower. Next, we went into this steam room and covered each other with a seaweed wrap. We sat in the steam for about 10 minutes, and then these shower heads around the steam room came on so that we could rinse everything off. Once that finished we could put on some lotion and we were done. It was nice and very relaxing!

After lunch in the wind jammer, we watched some of the men’s international belly flop contest.



Next, we went on a galley tour to see what the kitchens looked like. It is amazing how systematic everything is,. But it works..they are able to serve about 1200 meals altogether, hot and good, all at the same time. The dining room actually spans 3 decks, and each deck has its own kitchen, so each kitchen actually serves about 400 meals. It was very neat, and the chef, Marco, had a lot of interesting things to share.

After the galley tour, we went back to our room to read on our balcony. It was nice having the balcony, especially on the sea day, because when the rest of the ship was really crowded, we had a quiet place with a beautiful view!

Dinner that night was excellent as usual. I had a hummus appetizer, a pumpkin soup, sweet and sour mahi-mahi, and a caramel banana nut parfait. Grant had a spinach dip appetizer, French onion soup, turkey ad potatoes, and brownie madness. This is when I started to get emotional. I am so weird, I know, but it is so sad to leave the ship. These people work so hard for you! And they are away from their families for a long time. Sigh.

After dinner, we went back to our room to start packing. We interrupted this to go see the farewell show, where Richard spacey, the cruise director, and the other entertainment crew put on a great show. It got really emotional for me at the end, when they brought our representatives from all areas of the staff, the cabin stewards, the serving staff, etc. They got a standing ovation and the singers and dancers sang this stupid goodbye, thank you for cruising with us song that had me just about in tears and grant busting a gut laughing at me. The ended the evening with everyone holding hands and swaying back and forth singing “Auld Lang Sine”

So we went back and finished packing, had our bags outside the cabin door by 11:30 and then I tried to go to sleep and of course couldn’t because I was a big ball of nerves.

The next morning I woke up at 5:45 because it was loud outside on the docks. We showered, packed our last few things, and left our cabin at 8:00, as requested. We went to have breakfast in the WindJammer, and we got to see our wonderful waiter, Lucillo, one last time. After breakfast, we went to the Lyric Theater. Our departure number was called at around 9:30, and it took about 45 minutes to get off the ship and through customs.

While we were waiting for Customs, there was the cutest little beagle dog walking around d sniffing bags for agricultural products. He was really cute, especially when he stopped at a bag and sat down. The lady got in her bag and sure enough there was banana inside. The sweet puppy got lots of pets and a treat from the immigration officer, and the lady got a good laugh! It was cute!

We took a taxi to the airport. We were too late to fly standby on the early flight, so we had to wait about 2 1/2 hours for our flight. We got a pizza for lunch. The flight was short…like 35 minutes, and the plane was small. Our rental car was waiting for us when we arrived, and we were on our way to our cottage in St. Croix without any further ado!

Our Cruise Facts

Ship Facts:

Ship: Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas
Cabin: 7620
Steward: Alejandro
Dining: Mozart Dining Room, Table 576
Waiter: Lucillo
Assistant: Subur

Barbados

Buenos Dias!
Yesterday we went to Barbados. Our cruise compass says that it was offensive to wear any military or camouflage type clothing on the island. Interesting, no?
Grant and I slept in a bit, as we had no organized tour, and went to breakfast up in the Windjammer. After breakfast, we grabbed our stuff and left the ship. We grabbed a taxi and told the driver we wanted a nice beach with good snorkeling on the west side of the island. The beach he took us to was neat. We saw a turtle and lots of fish. There are lots of schools of fish here, which are fun to see. The beach we were at had a local kids camp there, so there were a lot of cute little rugrats…
After an afternoon on the beach we drove back to the ship. I saw plumeria growing. This is the first island I’ve seen it on. Barbados seems very different. We didn‘t see as much of it, but the part we did see seemed much more modern. Our taxi driver told us they just had a festival earlier in the week for Crop-ending, to celebrate the end of the sugar cane season. He also said that people party hop on the islands and go from Carnival to carnival.
Back on the ship, we showered and got ready for dinner….it was lobster night! Grant had a salmon appetizer, Cream of asparagus soup, a chicken entrée, and a sampler platter for dessert. (The platter had a fruit tart, a slice of cheesecake, and a small chocolate fudge cake. )
I had a cream of mushroom pastry, cream of asparagus soup, the fisherman’s platter, which consisted of a lobster tail, and garlic shrimp, and then I had… another lobster tail… hee hee, and then the sampler platter. Yummy lobster.
After dinner we played ‘Win a Cruise bingo” but we didn’t win a cruise. Then we watched tonight’s production show, which was called “Velvet Rope.” The theme was taking you behind the velvet rope and into the hottest nightclubs around the world. I really enjoyed Velvet Rope. I thought it was a great show.
After our show, we went down to see the rest of our pictures and bought a few more, and then we went to see the Adventure Quest. This quest had the whole studio b ice rink (turned into a dance floor) split up in to teams. There were four team captains for each team. The cruise director would ask for things, and the team captain would need to run up with it and their team number to get points. First team got 5 points, second got 4, and so on un till the 5th team…everyone past the 5th team that completed the quest also got a point. Things were like a guy wearing girl’s lipstick, a real tattoo, two bras, a contraceptive device (which was really funny, the second he said a contraceptive device the guy from our team had sprinted up their and whipped a condom out o0f his pocket…it was all ready to go!) It was pretty funny.
Today, we are at sea all day. And tomorrow our cruise is over and so we have to pack tonight! But I’m not feeling those “end of vacation blues” yet…

St. Lucia

This morning we got up and mat our tour group at 8:40 for a jeep tour of St, Lucia. This was one of the coolest tours we did for several reasons. First of all, our tour had 5 guests and one guide. Many of the other jeeps that past us had like 15 – 20 guests. This gave us lots of time to talk to our guide about the culture and life of the islanders. Also cool was that the other three guests on our jeep were visiting from Barbados, so we got to talk a lot about their island, and here how similar and different the two islands were.



The jeep drove us through Castries, the main city of St. Lucia, and into the forests, St. Lucia is very green. Its main export is bananas which they ship to England. Next, we stopped at part of the forest and hiked down to a waterfall. Then we drove farther to as swimming hole. Our guide, Carla, said that on days she and her friends don’t have anything to do, they come down to this swimming hole and hang out all day.
Finally, we drove through Carla’s small fishing village before heading home,. On St. Lucia, villages are very community oriented. They know each other, and on the big holidays they celebrate together with huge parties in the streets where everyone comes out and dances together. Everyone on the island seems very happy and very friendly. They genuinely seemed welcoming to us…some were more pushy than others when trying to cell their wares, but many were just cool and laid back. This was a very neat experience.
Back on board, we had lunch in the Wind Jammer and spent some time reading by the pool before getting ready for dinner. This was our second formal night. Grant discovered that he packed someone else’s dark suit jacket…although we are not quite sure who’s….so he wore his other suit jacket again.
For diner, I had A Thai Lemongrass chicken soup (yum), a salad, blue cheese and sun dried tomato tortellini, and black forest mousse for dessert. Grant had I think a duck pate appetizer, clam chowder, orange salmon, and baked Alaska.
After dinner, we too some pictures and then changed our clothes. It was super windy when we were walking out and the deck, so that was fun. We went up and watched the headliner comedy show, and then looked at the midnight buffet before heading to bed.

antigua

Today we slept in…yippee. We really needed it because we were super tired. We woke up around 11 and went to Johnny Rockets for lunch. I got a St. Louis Burger and a strawberry malt and grant got the same. After lunch, we grabbed out books and headed up to the pool deck to read and relax for the next 2 hours. We decided not to go to Antigua. I didn’t feel like getting slathered up with sunscreen, so we decided to just skip it and take it easy. We went to our regular dining room for dinner tonight. I had Strawberry Bisque, Caesar Salad, Garlic Shrimp and chocolate cake for dessert. Grand had a melon and prosciutto salad, garlic soup, lamb shank and for dessert…Tiramisu. After dinner we went to see the headliner show, which was called “Can’t Stop the Rock.” The theme was songs from movies. The singers and dancers were awesome, but I think I would have enjoyed it better had I known more of the movies. After dinner we walked around the ship a bit and headed to the room to go to sleep. Tomorrow we will be in St. Lucia. Night all

Saint Martin / Maarten

Well, as I mentioned I our last post, the comedy show ended at 1, so we got back to our cabin and went to sleep as soon as we could, because we had to wake up at 7:45. Waking up this morning was not easy!
We were off the ship by 8:45. We had room service for breakfast, but I couldn’t really eat any of it…I was too tired and it felt too early…
We got a taxi to where we were supposed to meet our tour group. Our driver, Francis, was friendly. When we got to the tour group, the guy told us that our group didn’t start until 10:30…but the group we booked o0ur tour through never told us! So we had an hour to kill with not much around. We ended up walking about a half a mile up the street to a small beach near a hotel and a dive center. We went in the water for abo9tu 30 min to stay cool. There was a dog at the dive center. He didn’t come up and say hi, but he was very cute. While we were out in the water, the dog came out, walked into the water, swam around for a few minutes to cool off, and then continued on his way. (The dog wasn’t a stray…but he defiantly knew his way around his beach “back yard!” ) I wish Belle could do that!

We went back at 10:30 for our Rhino Rider Tour. Rhino Riders are small, flat bottom boats that seat two people, front and back, straddling a center console. Our guide, Sasha, took us out of the Lagoon (incidentally, St. martaan / martin has the largest natural lagoon in the Caribbean.) and up the coast, past Marigot, the French Capital. St. Martin/Martaan is the smallest piece of land owned by two governments…the north is French and the south is Dutch. Hence, the two spellings, and the two capitol cities. We docked on the Dutch side, but the beach we went to was on the French, so technically we saw bits of both sides.

So we took our Rhino Riders up the coast and stopped at Happy bay, where we had 40 min to snorkel, hang on the beach, or whatever. Grant and I snorkeled most of the time. When it was time to get back on the boat, Sasha had me turn around and he grabbed me under the armpits and pulled me in the boat…so I didn’t have to use my arm at all! That was very awesome of him, I thought.

We took our rhino riders back to the original dock…all told, the trip was about 2 1/2 hours. A lot of fun. When we got back, the guy that checked us in had arranged for us to ride back on the tour bus to the ship, which was awesome because we didn’t have to pay for a taxi!

Once back to the port, we went shopping because grant had forgot to pack black dress socks. So we bought a pair of socks and some post cards (big spenders, huh?) Also, we found a little shop that was able to replace Grant’s watch battery, which had gone out at the beginning of the cruise.



Once back at the ship, we showered and went up to the Windjammer for a late lunch. I cannot believe how much food they have in this place! It was hard but I didn’t eat much because we were going to Portofino’s for dinner.

After that we went up t our cabin to rest. Grant took a nap and I blogged.

At 6:45, we went to Portofinos for dinner. Portofino is a fine dining option that has a 20$ surcharge (that includes tip) per person. It is excellent. I had a crab and shrimp bisque, a pear, bleu cheese and candied walnut salad, and an entrée of garlic shrimp and asparagus. Grant had a salad with a goat cheese soufflé, a pasta appetizer with prosciutto, and an entrée of filet mignon. For desert, we shared a slice of flourless chocolate cake and the portofino tiramisu. The entire meal was excellent in every way!

After dinner, we went down to look at our portraits and purchased a few…I’m not crazy about any of them, but I am hoping that tomorrow night’s turn out better.

Then we went to the ice skating show called “Cool ARTS, Hot ice”. Let me tell you, it is a trip to see a figure skating show on a cruise ship. The rink is very small, and I was so afraid they were going to get hurt! But they did a very great job…the show was beautiful…

After dinner, we went to see the Love and marriage game Show, which is always funny. They had a couple who had been married 28 hours, a couple that had been married 60 years, and a couple that had been married for 17 years.

We decided to head back to the cabin because we were both pretty tired. However, I came out to the balcony to read the next chapter of Harry Potter and ended up staying up until 2 to finish the book. Let me just say, I did not know the ending. It was a complete surprise to me. I can’t say anymore. Well I can say lots more but I had better not…

St. Thomas/St. John USVI

Boy oh boy….there is so much to do here! Sorry, folks, I was just too tired to write last night! Yesterday, we were in St. Thomas. Grant and I rented a motorboat and took it all the way around St. John, stopping at 4 different beaches to snorkel.

First let me say, I LOVE the water in the Caribbean! It is so warm…ah…

Anywho, we had a great time out on the boat. St. John is a beautiful island (as is what we saw of St. Thomas) and it was so nice being just us. All of the beaches we stopped at were empty…pretty much just us. It was sweet. The very first beach that we stopped at, we jumped in the water, and I put on my mask, and there, right under our boat, was a reef shark! Yikes! (Well, I say yikes, Grant thought it was cool!) We also saw a sea turtle at another beach. We had ordered sandwiches from room service the night before, so we packed those for lunch.

We came back to get ready for our first formal night, which wasn’t so easy because I got completely sunburned! My stomach, parts of my back, my forehead, and yes, my butt (again!) Sigh. I guess the sun block didn’t stay on with all the swimming and sweating and I didn’t reapply it enough!

(oooh…we are pulling out of St. Martin right now!!!!)

anyway back to yesterday. Formal night was fun. We took lots of pictures (we’ll see how they turn out). We have two other couples and a family sitting at our table. One couple is from LA, she is a teacher, and they got married on July 23, like us. They started their honeymoon in New York and then came on this cruise. The other couple has been married 3 years…and they have a dog that is like their kid…so we got to talk about belle and kanga.

For dinner, I had shrimp cocktail, oxtail soup, eggplant mozzarella, and a vanilla soufflé for dessert. Grant had the oxtail soup, a Cesar salad, Roasted duck, and the vanilla soufflé…good stuff!

After dinner, we took some more portraits and then went to the Lyric Theater to watch the show. Neither one of us had said we really wanted to see the show…it was a singer impersonator…but it was starting as we walked by so we decided to check it out….This guy was fantastic…he was funny and very talented! He could do Michael Jackson, Elvis, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Housten, Celine Dione…I mean he was incredible!

After that, we went to watch some karaoke. Then we walked through Jester’s which is this totally fabulous two story night club that is themed renaissance style…just to see the glow party…Its such a cool place inside…we checked it out earlier when it was empty and it was very cool…during the glow party, there were lots of strobe lights and loud music for dancing, and all of the drinks were served in glow cups.

We ended our night at the adult comedy show, which started at 12:15. It was an awesome show…it was worth the sacrificed hours of sleep! We got back to our room at 1:00.

I need to get ready for dinner, so I will tell you all about our day in St. Martaan/Martin later on!!!

All Aboard!

This ship is beautiful! Ok, let me back up…this morning we packed and checked out of our hotel. We arrived at the ship dock and checked in, and then ran up to see our room, even though it was only noon and the room wouldn’t be ready until 2. Our room is in an awesome location. It is on the hump, so we can see both what is in front and what is behind the boat. We have a balcony…and it is very nice having a balcony. The room is right off of the main hallway, across from the library, so we don’t have to walk down the hall.

Next, we left the ship and took our rental car back to the airport and took a taxi back. The line was a bit longer then, but it was nice to bypass the line and just board the ship because we had already checked in. We looked around the ship, made reservations for dinner at Portofino’s and scheduled a couple’s spa treatment called the Rasul for Saturday.

Dinner was awesome. I had an onion pastry – basically like an onion quiche -, tomato soup, chicken stuffed with prosciutto and Gruyere cheese, and a chocolate berry fondue. Grant had a fish appetizer, a spinach salad, a cod entrée, and the same dessert as I did.

The muster drill was hot, but quick enough, and now we are chilling in the room. We have an early day tomorrow in St. Thomas so we are going to skip the Welcome Aboard Show and go to bed early….well, I am going to go to bed early…hopefully grant does, too!

Yunque Rain forest

Today, grant and i went to the yunque Rain forest. It was very cool. it is the only protected rain forest in the US national Parks...We spent some time at the visitor's center looking at the displays, and then we drove up in to the forest and did a mile and a half hike down to the base of yuni falls and back. The hike went along the river, and there weremany places where you could go into the pools on the way to the falls. On our way back up we stopped and found a little pool to ourselves. We waded a bit to cool off before heading back to our car.



The forest was very neat. The plant life was amazing and lush, the scattered warm showers completed the scene, and it smelled beautiful.
We took a differnt route back so that we could see more of the island. puerto rico is truly a beautiful land, very green. It is interesting because it is so hybrid...very American, with Walmarts, kamrts, taco bell, burger king, sizzler, curves, etc., but almost everything is in spanish. The gas is sold in liters, but the speed on te highway in miles per hour...intersting.
We got back to our hotel at 8ish and decided to order room service for dinner. Grant got salmon and I got a chicken wrap.

Tomorrow, we start our cruise!

Puerto Rico

Yesterday was a traveling day, and it felt like a long day..We left Disney World and got to the airport with no problems. They boarded the plane and we sat and sat and sat...the plane was supposed to leave at 10:40...11:15 rolls around and we are still sitting...no announcements or anything....eventually we discover (the flight attendants come up and down telling us) that the PA system blew a fuse, hence, no announcements, no take off. Eventually they deplaned us so we could walk around instead of sit...all in all we took off 2 hours late and arrived in Puerto Rico at 3 something. Grant and I were in Spirit Plus, so that was nice because we had free snacks and lots of drinks and big seats.
Once in Puerto Rico our bags took forerver to comeout....we were like the last group of bags, and there was like a 20 min delay between each group.
Getting our rental car was no problem, and after sitting in some traffic due to some sort of accident, we got to our hotel and checked in with no problems...
Last night, after visiting the executive lounge for some snacks, we decided to drive around to fin d a k-mart, but directins are very confusing, as highways are listed on the map by their numbers, but mostly b y their names on the actual streets. We never did find the k-mart, we just had dinner at taco bell and came back...which was fine as I was very tired.
I read a few more chapters of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and then we went to bed.

Last Day at WDW

Its our last day here at Disney World. We just finished packing for the evening. Grant went to take two of the suitcases out to the car so we don’t have much to bring tomorrow morning.
We spent today at the Magic Kingdom, doing all of the stuff we wanted to get done…we got fast pass for splash Mountain and then rode Pirates of the Caribbean. We ate lunch in Cinderella’s castle, and had an awesome table right next to the window…

next we rode splash mountain, the train, and the Carousel of Progress. We used our fast pass for Big Thunder, saw the Country Bear Jamboree, walked through Tom Sawyer’s Island, and enjoyed a Dole Whip float during the afternoon rain storm.
We ended our day in the park with a ride on the Haunted mansion, Space Mountain, the TTA, and Winnie the Pooh. We took the ferry back to our hotel and did our laundry and packed… Tomorrow morning, we leave for Puerto Rico!

MGM Studios

Yesterday was hot…hot…hot…even I thought so. We got a later start then expected, and we arrived at MGM studios at around noon. It was crazy crowded…not sure why as it was not an early entry day. After eating lunch, we grabbed some fast passes, and rode the Great Movie Ride, and Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
By this time we decided to go back to the hotel and swim for an hour, but the water was almost too warm to feel good (yes, this is Bobbi talking!) We got back to MGM at 6 to see the new Lights, Motors Action! Stunt show, which was very cool (all though nerve racking for me…I was so afraid the cars were going to crash!) After a quick trip on Rockin’ Roller Coaster, we went to dinner.
We ate at one of my favorite restaurants, Boma, flavors of Africa buffet. As usual it was delicious. As usual, I didn’t get to try everything I would have liked. But I sampled many dishes and all were very good.
That evening we drove out to Wal mart for a few things and got to know the area around Disney World a little better…
One more day at Disney world….today we are going to the Magic Kingdom, and possibly Animal Kingdom as well…

Tuesday, July 26

Good Morning! Have I ever mentioned how much I love Disney World? Yesterday Grant and I woke up and had breakfast in our rooms. Then we went to EPCOT! We went straight to Mission Space to get a fast pass…but there was only a 15 min wait…so we got a fast pass to test track instead, and then went on Mission Space.
We were both a little worried about the spinning that creates the G forces on Mission Space, but the ride was great! As long as you look straight ahead and keep your eyes open, you don’t feel the spinning at all! But if you close your eyes or look to one side, you can really feel the spinning and get dizzy. In any case, I really liked the ride!!
Next, we did the Universe of Energy, which is always a favorite.
We ate lunch at La Cellier in the Canada pavilion. I had a bbq chicken sandwich with Canadian bacon and cheddar cheese, and grant had a steak sand with blue cheese. Of course, we started with the cheese soup that everyone raves about, and it is very good!
After lunch, we went to The Land to get a fast pass for “Soarin” (which is what they call “Soarin Over California” at WDW) but the line was 80 min and the fast passes were for way late at night so we decided to skip it and get a fast pass for Living with the land instead. Next, we went to use our test track fast pass…which was good because the line was very long!
To finish our afternoon at Epcot, we rode Journey Into your Imagination with Figment, Living with the Land, and of course, Spaceship Earth.


TIP: NEVER WAIT IN LINE FOR SPACESHIP EARTH. This is one of our Epcot mottos. Go after 2 or 3 and it is always a walk on!

After EPCOT, we hopped on the monorail to the magic Kingdom. We went straight to Tomorrowland to get a fast pass for Space Mountain We wanted to ride Stitch’s Great Escape, but they were out of fast Passes, and the line was too long. As it turned out our Space Mountain fast pass was a t a perfect time…9:30 – 10:30, which meant we could use them after the 10:00 fireworks but before the 11:00 Spectromagic parade.
We rode the TTA (oh how I miss our PeopleMover) and then we went on… The Carousel of Progress! (I was afraid that it might have been closed!) As we walked out of Tomorrowland, we walked across the bridge and had one of those “thinking the same thing” moments, and both commented on how this bridge would be a fantastic place to watch the fireworks and how it was nice that the Magic Kingdom had so much more space to view the fireworks from.

Next, we went back out of Magic Kingdom and took the monorail to the Polynesian resort. We walked around and looked at the pool, and then had dinner at Kona Café. Grant had macadamia mahi-mahi, and I had Asian noodles with chicken. We shared an appetizer of Pot stickers and then had two AMAZING desserts…chocolate macadamia torte with coconut ice cream, and a caramel banana brulee. Oh me gosh, they were fantastic!
We walked out of dinner at 9:30 and caught a monorail immediately, and we were back to that Tomorrow land bridge at 10 minutes to 10:00, ready to watch the fireworks. We had an excellent view of the fireworks and the castle…really, I don’t think the view could have been any better!

We used our Space Mountain fast pass, and then walked on to Stitch’s Great escape. I am sad to say the Stitch truly is rather disappointing…plus the theater we were in was filthy…trash all over the floors… :o(
After Stitch, we went to Liberty Square and found a great spot to watch the 11:00 Spectromagic Parade from. It was the perfect end to our incredibly lucky day of great timing!
Speaking of great timing, just as we exited the park, a launch was pulling up to take people back to the wilderness lodge... no wait, we hopped right on!

WDW - Arrival

Grant and I few to Orlando on Song airlines, which was really nice - we had DISH NETWORK on our seats, and there was a trivia game that you could play from your seat against other passengers. You could also listen to over 1600 MP3's!!! Most games I did ok, but not great, but one game I scored high enough to make the 6th highest score of any game during that flight!

We rented our car, stopped at the grocery store, and made it to the hotel 30 min before our dinner reservation . We got to our room...the view and location are awesome. we are near the pool, the lobby, whitewater snacks, and the boat launch...and the laundry facilities are across the hall! We are on the first floor facing a small pond surrounded by trees, and, as I had suspected....the Magic kingdom! You can't see the Magic Kingdom from our room, but you CAN see the fireworks!!! We discovered this after dinner at Artist's Point.

We were also given a certificate for our honeymoon and two baloons and a card sighn ed by all the disney characters wishing us a wonderful honeymoon!!! (o:

night!

Grand Californian

Hi all! Grant and I are going to try to keep a blog on our honeymoon...so we have a nice trip diary to share with you and remember our special trip.

Our honeymoon has been awesome so far. We spend two nights at the Grand Californian Hotel. Our room faced Redwood Creek Trail Challenge, right above the waterfall. We had nice music playing all day and at night the sound of water. We could also clearly see the sun wheel and golden zephyr, which were especially pretty at night all lit up...and to the left we could see Grizzly River Rapids. What a great balcony!

Steve got to the hotel early and checked in for us. He decorated the room with roses and rose petals and candles, and it was beautiful.

We had dinner on our wedding night at Napa Rose, and on Sunday, we had our families come for dinner at the Story teller cafe...

Let me say sorry now for the bad typing (lack of caps, spelling, etc.) I offer three excuses: broken wrist, fake nails, and I'm too tired to fix things!