So, our cruise was a bit of a comedy of errors... i don't want to seem like i'm complaining about being on vacation, since we are fortunate to be able to travel.... but this trip, well, to quote Jim Carrey in "Liar, Liar", .."I've had better..."
Chris's sister Michelle was joining us on our 8 day cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale, and we made it without incident to FLL until we discovered that Michelle's bag did not. Oh well, ya gotta just roll with the punches when it comes to non-revving, so the next morning we took a taxi to the nearest Target before we headed for the ship.... I'm sure we looked a bit comical #1. arriving and departing by taxi to Target, and #2. towing all our 4 roller bags into the store (Chris & i each had 2 bags that had arrived without incident)...
but fortunately our ship was not scheduled to leave that day til 7pm so we had time for M to find a skeleton wardrobe for the week...
Upon arrival at the pier around 3pm, we discovered our ship was delayed so we settled in the holding area with Bananagrams to entertain us.... we got plenty of envious onlookers wishing they had something to pass the time with and at one point had a few half-serious bids for our game as the hours crept on... i considered holding an auction, but refrained since it would leave us without the game for the week. :)
We finally boarded and set sail around 9:30pm, no thanks to the drunken passenger from the previous cruise who decided to climb and fall from the lightpole, causing the medical emergency that created the aforementioned delay...
The next day we arrived to a slightly chilly and breezy day in Key West, so M & I set about exploring and looking for a few things to supplement her meager bit of necessities... we didn't find much aside from some charming architecture
and a few guys on a scavenger hunt that pleaded with M for her size 6 left flip flop and bargained a trade for a newly purchased set.... she was a good sport and acquiesced, although it ended up leaving her with a much less comfortable pair of flip flops...
We awoke the next day to slightly warmer weather in Cozumel, where we were pretty excited about going on our excursion of snorkeling with sea turtles off the shores of an all-inclusive whose amenities we were allowed to partake off for the remainder of the day... chris and i even brought our own snorkel gear for this very occasion, but wouldn't you know it - as soon as we got off the ship to meet our excursion guide, he informed us that it was cancelled because there was a "scientific study" of the sea turtles taking place.... SERIOUSLY?????? and they didn't know this until that very moment? so we were shuffled onto the last available excursion which ended up being snorkeling... in 3 different places....practically next to our ship... and not exactly off any type of secluded reef....
well, we did see a few fish, 2 rays, a lobster and a crab, as well as a french passenger who decided to blow chunks inside the boat, instead of over the side like his fellow German passenger.... (Sorry, no pictures) :P
The next day brought us to this delightful view of the Isla de Roatan off of Honduras... another place i was looking forward to, because of its reputed amazing reefs for snorkeling....
Yep, it was raining.... all....day...long....
So we played games, while "enjoying" (insert hours of snarky comments from your truly) the view...
At this point, i was going to be coming home even whiter than i left, but we did have the possibility of sunshine the next day, as the sun decided to break gloriously through the clouds and the rain stopped... but only as we hauled anchor and left.
At last, day 5 finally did bring sunshine for our day at sea, and subsequently a massive outbreak of every passenger on the ship sprawled over every possible surface that was exposed to sun, (mostly over 60's in bikinis and speedos)... now let me take a moment to describe our environment.... our ship was the MSC Poesia
(MSC is an Italian cruise line, although fortunately not the one that wrecked in the Mediterranean the day before our voyage --- reports of which on the news i could not avoid and subsequently resulted in a few anxiety inducing dreams that week... if i had to pick of the two, dying unexpectedly, please let it be in a fireball of metal falling from the sky {plane crash} rather than a slow and agonizing drowning, trampling and panic-filled sinking of a cruise ship!)
The Poesia was filled (to the brim it seemed) primarily with non-American passengers, so ALL the announcements EVERY day were repeated in 5 languages... English, French, Spanish, German and of course Italian. This way they were able to fill 15 minutes of the 45 minute shows at night with just the explanation of what we about to see... although i don't think there is a language that can adequately depict the rhyme or reason to the themes of most of the "performances"... by the end of the week, we were the embodiments of Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets with our snark. :)
I was also yearning for some exercise (and am unable to stay upright on a treadmill on a rocking ship) so during our day at sea, i headed to the middle outside deck of the ship to briskly walk laps but soon discovered why it was so mecifully uncrowded... apparently the day at sea was the perfect time to block off half the deck for cleaning so you couldn't make a full circle.... SERIOUSLY??? that couldn't be done on a day at port???? arghhhh... i still forcefully stomped through half laps for about 30 minutes before i gave up....
Day 7 brought us to Montego Bay on the island of Jamaica and our final excursion of Glass bottomed kayaking (i love paddle sports! yay! - for real!) and Dunn's River Falls... we got a little worried when we discovered we were the only people signed up for our excursion - yep, just the 3 of us, but they joined us with another group that was going to falls and we headed out on our 45 minute bus to the other side of the island...
we arrived at the "pirate town replica" which was a tourist trap of gift shops and a few deep voiced pirates that like to jump out and scare the tourists (i was immune... ha!) and say "ya mon"... we did get to see some dolphins and sharks that we part of other excursions and relaxed for a bit on the beach with rum punch for chris and tasty jerk chicken for lunch while waiting to go to our kayaks....
thankfully this was all uncrowded and soon we were on our way slipping through the lovely clear waters on our kayaks to the falls... i wished the kayaking was longer, but other than that it was delightful, except that the guide who was in my kayak kept sticking his paddle in my pictures.... not cool, mon!
these ruin-like structures are actually part of an old plantation that now is a guest house... pretty cool looking....
and this is Dunn's River Falls... a 600 ft climb (holding hands with 100's of random fellow tourists) which, in spite of all the people (notice a theme here? i'm getting to be quite the crotchety hermit) was still pretty... i managed to keep the camera dry as well as not fall into the water while we scaled the falls bare-footed (every one else had water shoes! wimps! :)
And that concluded our day in Jamaica.... after one more day at sea, which i gleefully spent mostly packing after getting a little sun on a windy part of the ship... we were finally winging our way home in true non-rev style : FLL - MCI - DEN - TUS
There's no place like home!
