Days 46 - 51: Jamaica, Sea, Florida, Sea, Sea, Netherland Antiles

November 29, 2011 19:39

Wow has it really been almost a week since I last wrote? The days here are really starting to go by insanely quickly. Time flies when you're having fun? Time seems to go by much quicker when I'm having to put up with bs at work. Over the past week I've had some serious ups and downs and even started looking into ways I could get fired to get off this ship. Extreme? yes but that's just how annoyed I've been over the way couple weeks. If I didn't hate quitting so much I'd find a way off but I'll just grin and bear it, at this point it's only another 4 months and I'm outta here. And besides, Mom and Dad booked their cruise today for Feb 11-17 so I should probably stick around for that. :p

Jamaica was very bitter sweet. We had VERY limited time (2 hours) in port because of a crew safety drill but we made the most of what little time we had. We tore off the ship and headed right for a restaurant on what they called "The Hip Strip" in downtown Montego Bay. We hit up a pub right on the water with a beautiful beach with private access. We ordered lunch then tore off into the water while we were waiting for our food. Did a little bit of snorkelling again and saw some small white striped fish about 5" long. I was about to put my feet down and stand up for a sec when something told me that looking where my feet were going first was a good plan. I looked down and saw that I was about to step on a beautiful white flat fish with light sky blue circles all over it. Glad I didn't step on the poor guy! After our short swim my lunch of Jamaican jerk chicken was ready. Delicious! Once we paid and left we had about 10mins to look in the shops before boarding the bus back to the ship. Happy Thanksgiving to us! Short lived but awesome, luckily we go back a bunch of times.

Another uneventful sea day and we were back in Fort Lauderdale for a delightful 11 hour day. I was off for the morning and used the time to find a diner for a nice breakfast, some good internet, and a chat with mom before grabbing some groceries and a delicious Boar's Head sub from Publix before I dove back into the craziness at 12. We worked 12-12 with a one hour break from 6-7, makes for a long day. It was a really strange embarkation day though because it really wasn't that busy. That is until about 11:20 when the entire ship started calling for extra pillows. I've never heard our night housekeeping manager sound so depressed and he sounded that way every time we called for another pillow order. I was actually worried that at some point we were going to call and he was going to tell us that we simply had no more pillows. Luckily that wasn't the case. Most passengers were very accepting with the fact that it took a bit of extra time to get pillows because of the high demand. Most of them. Tina had one guy tell her off so badly over the phone that I could hear him yelling through the phone from the other end of the desk. "Just get me some fucking pillows!!!!!" He was so heated about this he came to reception to continue to take a strip off of her while threatening to make as much of a scene as he had to to get some pillows. While he was doing this I was on the phone with the housekeeping supervisor quietly instilling a sense of urgency to get some pillows to the desk as fast as possible. They showed up a couple minutes later, he grabbed them and we never heard from him again… Some people…

The past two days were relatively uneventful except for the fact that after working 11hours and finishing at 12 our genius boss scheduled us in at 7am the next day. It's always nice to know the person you're working for cares about you eh? On top of that I was traded to the other shift for some unknown reason and in the process lost all the people I like working with and that I go out with in port every time. Awesome. OH! and to make yesterday even better my new shift and I apparently missed some test call from the elevator emergency button to which we were all given an extra hour of work. Highlight of the day was the massive rubber band fight Patrick, Viktoriia, Cathalina and I had. Best job ever maybe? How many days left in my contract? Just over 4 months? Crap. First and last time with this company? Booyah.

Today we were in Curacao in the Netherland Antilles which, from what I was told is quite similar to Europe. I went out with Anatollio, Stacey, and Viktoriia to their downtown which was packed full of high end shops, low end vendors and some incredible colours and architecture. To reach the shopping district you have to walk across a floating bridge that will pivot out of the way when ships have to get past it; pretty cool. We saw it happen while waiting to cross over. It was super hot and muggy and a late morning rain was very welcome before heading back to paradise for a 1pm start.

Right now I'm sitting in my cabin listening to The Black Keys trying my best to escape reality before I have to be back at the desk in 20mins. Tomorrow we're in Aruba and I get to go out with my old shift and work with them on account of the fact that we missed Costa Maya last week or whenever it was. Aruba over another Mexico day? I'll take it! Here's hopping for a good night and a great tomorrow. :)

Where we had lunch in Jamaica

Private beach in Jamaica

The view from our table in Jamaica

Bridge in Netherland Antiles

Downtown Willemstad

Local market in Willemstad

Days 39 - 45: Sea, FL, Key West, Cozumel, Honduras, Sea

November 23, 2011 12:16

This block of days goes in two very distinct directions. The sea day, Florida, and Key West were great… The rest? Not so much. Let's start with the good news.

As usual the last day of the cruise was hectic with question after question about disembarkation followed by a crazy morning in Florida filled with passengers just trying to get off the ship and on with their lives. The nice thing about that day though was that whereas I worked first thing in the morning that meant I had the afternoon off to spend some time running errands and relaxing in Lauderdale which is a nice simple port and an easy place to get some peace and quiet for a bit.

Now I'm not saying that all of Key West is like this, but in the area near the port it is extremely tacky. Gift shop after gift shop with crappy tours galore. The saving grace of this day was when I found a nice pocket of wifi I was able to steal for a while and then a lovely 2nd floor restaurant with a nice patio for lunch. It was so delightfully serene. I had a nice shady table overlooking the street below that was just enough removed that you could barely hear the vendors and passerbys. I was able to have a couple beer, a nice lunch and read for an hour or so before returning back to the ship. Really a lovely end to my time ashore.

From here on this cruise has been pretty shitty.

Monday we were back in Cozumel and it was our turn to stay on board for the day while the other shift had their turn out; not fun but no biggie. Then yesterday we were in Honduras, a place we'll be back to a few times. We had to tender in and my shift was scheduled off all morning then starting at 1 ensuring we had no chance to leave the ship in the process. 2 days in a row locked on board with nothing to do while the other shift got 2 days off in a row. When I asked my boss about this she said "sorry that's just how the schedule was". I'm sorry, don't you make the schedule? Was there any particular reason we got the crap schedule while the other shift got a drastically better one or are you just playing favourites?

Now today, while we're at sea, we finally get a shift where we start at 7 and have the afternoon off… on a day we can't leave again. And to make it even better we're scheduled to be able to go "out" tomorrow in Jamaica however there's a crew safety drill so by the time it's all said and done we'll be lucky if we get a couple hours ashore. Real glamour job we've got here.

What really kills me is the complete lack of leadership and motivation that we receive. We only hear about the negatives. If something goes wrong we get a firm talking to right away. Yet have I once been commended on all the positive comments I know for a fact get written about me on the comment cards? After we had some poor scores for Reception and were told essentially to improve or else and I took it upon myself to make sure that our scores improved (which they did, drastically) did I/we get a "good job" talk or a pat on the back? No.

We hear all the day that "you're not a team" and they're right. The problem is it's coming from our direct supervisor who has apparently forgotten or just doesn't know that every team needs a leader and in the work place the leader needs to be the middle manager. It's their job to direct and motivate the staff on the line. It's their job to be there for the line and to support them so the line can focus on the guests and not have to worry about all the bs that goes on behind the scenes. Instead of being there for us though we're constantly fighting battles against the person who's supposed to be our leader. The same leader who's always looking to place blame in the process creating animosity between team members. Gee, I wonder why we're not a team?

What kills me too is that just today we all got individual sit downs about logging absolutely everything we get called for. "I've told you all over and over again that his needs to be done and it still isn't". OK, in that case maybe it's time to look inwards instead of passing the blame to your staff. Is there a chance that the methods being used are flawed? We're all competent people and possess the basic skills to log requests but still aren't. Why not try a different method? A different approach? Because I'm pretty sure that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is a sign of insanity. It's like continually pushing a door to try and open it when all you had to do was try pulling.

Sorry for so much negativity I'm just pissed off. There's no excuse for bad moods all the time. People really need to lighten up. I mean come on! We're living on a cruise ship going to some of the most beautiful places in the world every day. Who shit in your cereal?

Day 38: Cozumel, Mexico… Finally!!

November 18, 2011 01:25

Ok, so for as crappy as yesterday it only made today that much better.

After a nice easy four hours on the desk to start the day we were off at 11 and we didn't start again until 5 which gave us more than enough time to enjoy our time in Mexico. We kept it simple today and just stayed local. We had heard from the other shift that this place Margaritaville had everything we were looking for: food, drinks, swimming and wifi. When you work in this industry that's like the perfect combination so we headed straight for there.

After some delicious margaritas and awesome fajitas, Tina, Patrick, and I grabbed our snorkels, borrowed some flippers and made our way into the sea. The great bit of all this was we literally just had to walk a few feet from our table and hop into the water off their pier, so convenient.

The water was SO clear. Buying a mask/snorkle the last time I was in Fort Lauderdale is already the best decision I've made yet. At times it was easily 30 ft deep and you could see clear to the bottom. There were fish everywhere. At one point a whole school of 4" ones were circling me, at another I was swimming with a school of 6" blue ones. Some of the guys we saw a lot of were about a foot plus in length and were coming close enough to touch. Some of the cooler things I found out there was the fuselage of a couple air planes. Around these I spotted a big anemone, a star fish the size of a dinner plate, a flat fish, and a sting ray. I'd say the highlight tho was when we saw a puffer fish shoot out underneath us. It went and hid in some rocks for a while and when we swam down you could see all the spines along it's side and on top of that it had these incredible bright blue eyes. Very very cool.

Work after my time off was business as usual but was almost extra lame simply due to the fact of what I was doing only hours before. Once my shift was over my day went back to being awesome tho. As part of ShipRocked, Hinder was playing in our theatre tonight and they brought all that they had. Like most people the only song of theirs I knew was "Lips of an Angle" but the whole gig rocked and when they finally played "Lips of an Angel" the place went crazy and everyone sang along.

So that was my day in a nutshell. Prob my best day so far and come to think of it, the shell's came right off my eggs… I've said it once, and I'll say it again… The eggs don't lie.

Ciao!

Hinder

View from the pier.

Where we spent our afternoon. :)

Day 37: Costa Maya, Mexico… kinda

November 16, 2011 23:12

Two days in a  row! Maybe I'm actually back on pace with this whole blog thing.  I just need to leave myself a couple mins before I go to bed each night and I can get back on pace with actually writing about the day that happened as it happened.

So as I mentioned yesterday we've got this ShipRocked thing onboard right now which is pretty cool. I just wish they sold out the ship as opposed to selling only half the ship cause then we wouldn't have to worry about any noise issues.  So last night when I got off work I headed down to the theatre to check out a band called Sevendust.  Personally I'd never heard them before but I knew the name and know that they're a pretty popular metal band.  Basically I figured I might as well check out a free concert of a big band when I had the chance.  It didn't get started until 2am but it was worth the wait. It was really cool to go to a metal show in our classy 1200 person theatre. Even cooler because there were prob only 300-500 people there for this.  There's something special about a show for a crowd that small and these guys gave it their all. It was cool too because I think it was pretty special for them too because at one point their lead singer said "Thank you guys for being here. This is the latest gig we've ever played. I can't believe we're playing on a ship in the middle of the sea in the middle of the night."  Shit like this makes the shit I deal with at work not seem to mater so much.  The this morning I'm working away minding my own business when  these guys and their wives come asking normal questions about the port and whatnot when I realize that they were the guys from the band we saw the night before.  Very normal, cool and nice people. I love when people don't let success go to their heads.

Today was pretty lame. We worked all day while the other crew got to spend time on shore. This isn't wasn't a big deal until Mandy (my boss) realized that she messed up and that we're only in Costa Maya once.  But you know what? Mistakes happen and that's ok. The thing that drives me crazy is that I checked to see if the other crew were still on shore and I found out that they were ALL ON BOARD!!! They pissed away the afternoon napping in their cabins on a beautiful 35C sunny day while we worked away a beautiful day without the ability to leave. Oh well, what's done is done. Tomorrow's a new day and I'll feel better.

So that was my not so exciting day in Costa Maya. My only saving grace was a cold beer with Roby and Tina after work and then Shameem dragging me out of my cabin to join her in the crew bar for a bit before bed. I guess that's what friends are for. :)

Tomorrow we hit Cozumel and we work til 11 then are off until 5. Can you say day drunk?  I can't wait. I guess right off the end of the pier is a bar called Margaritaville where there's good drinks, good food, free wifi, and swimming right off the pier. I can't wait.

Days 32 (Sea Day), 33 (Key West), 34 (Bahamas), 35 (Fort Lauderdale),36 (Sea Day)

November 15, 2011 17:25

So just as I got all caught up on my days my google account had some "suspicious activity" logged form Dubai and as a result shut me out. This locked me out of my email and blog which was a bit of a worry. The tricky part was to get it back I needed to enter a code that was texted to me. Kinda tough to do when at sea and I've cancelled my cell. Luckily when we got back to Fort Lauderdale I was able to pop my sim back in and use it long enough to get what I needed. Those few mins will prob jack my final bill up nicely but it's one of those things that had to be done. A pain in the ass but at least it's covered.

ANYWAY, enough of that boring stuff. Let's see, what's happened over the past 5 days… Well we had the fun boys onboard who actually weren't nearly as crazy as we had expected. The only day it was a little much was when they came back onboard after Key West all boozed up and screaming. There was a group of them in the lobby cheering and yelling whenever another from the group came back onboard but aside from a few blatant dick grabs it was just another group of drunk passengers. It only really got ridiculous when one of them thought that while drunk, wearing a sailor hat and no shirt was a good time to come and complain about something random. Or maybe he wasn't even complaining, maybe that's just how he talked… Who knows.

I don't have much to say about Key West because it was another one of those trade off days where we worked all day and will get off all day next time. The crappy part was I didn't have anywhere near the amount of work to do as I did last time we worked all day in port so the day crawled by. No worries tho, Tina and I passed the day by having a rubber band war. Gotta work with what you've got.

Nassau however was a different story. It was our turn to get out for the day and we were ready and willing. We finished work at 11:30 and bombed off the ship and headed straight for Señor Frogs. We grabbed some margaritas and had a nice lunch while being entertained by the staff, and their schinanigans. As expected it was nice and ridiculous in there and right out of the gates shots were being passed around and everyone was having a good time. Eventually they started running a trivia game where they played the theme song to a movie or TV show with the prize being, you guessed it, more shots. Luckily I'm an 80s baby and so when they played Duck Tales and Inspector Gadget I was right on the ball and won myself some free booze.

The water was this incredible aqua blue and after sitting next to it for a while we just had to find a way in. On top of that we could see a private hotel beach from where we were sitting so beach time was teasing us. We found out that the beach was part of the Hilton and after a short walk we found the front door. Getting access was much easier than anticipated. We simply walked into the hotel, out the back and onto the beach. Easy as pie. The water wasn't as warm as it was in Columbia or Costa Rica but still felt amazing. The extra nice bit about it being a private beach was that there were no crazy locals trying to sell us crap and there were beach chairs! After a dip I had a nice nap on the beach before the wind blew some dark clouds in and the beach lost it's appeal. We walked around town for a bit and called it a day. When we're back we're def gonna go check out Atlantis instead of pissing away time in the uneventful town and shanty shops.

We hit Fort Lauderdale again the next day but this time I didn't have much time on shore as I started work at 11 and worked pretty well all day. (Gotta love 11 hour embarkation days). Tina and I got up early and headed into town in search of a dive shop. After a few swim days and not being able to see what was underwater we were both fed up and with places like Cozumel on the horizon a good mask and snorkel was def in need. We found a shop and a nice set, grabbed some breakfast and headed back to the ship for the shit show that ensued.

Currently onboard we have what's call "Shiprocked" which is essentially a music festival on the water. We've got bands like Hinder, Buckcherry and Filter and assorted others playing gigs around the ship and about 1000 tattooed up rock fans to go with. That's all well and good and they're great people but the issue comes from the 1500 others who didn't realize that Shiprocked was going on the same time as they had planned a quiet relaxing cruise. Unfortunately it makes for some very upset and disappointed guests. To help deal with the complaints and extra late night traffic I'll be working until 1:30 this morning; can't wait for that one.

Tomorrow we're in Costa Maya and my shift will be onboard all day. The day after however we'll be in Cozumel and I plan to do nothing but drink stiff drinks, eat fajitas, snorkel and be in the sun all day. It's going to be amazing.

Anyway now that my account is back up and running I'll see if I can't actually stay up to date on my writing. Who know's what the coming days will yield… Ciao!

It's like the ship watches us no matter where we are.

View from where I had lunch.

Downtown Nassau

Hilton's private beach.

1 Month Onboard! Days 28, 29, 30, and 31: Sea Day, Cozumel (kinda), Sea Day, Fort Lauderdale

November 11, 2011 00:43

I've been the laziest blogger lately and for those of you who enjoy reading my random ramblings I apologize for this. I've been so tired and over worked lately that sleep and beer have won over blogging the past few nights, sorry.

On the plus side, you haven't missed out on much. Sea days and all pretty much the same. Busy and work and nothing exciting when I'm not working. And Cozumel was just a tease this time around. On the desk we take turns getting off for the whole day when we're at a port we go to more than once and it was our turn to work all day while the other shift played all day.

Before I get to the Cozumel day though, I first need to address a couple things from my post that were raised to me in and email from mom. I said I had a great meal in Costa Rica but didn't tell you what it was and there was a picture of 3 random girls who went unidentified. My bad. The meal was a chicken breast seasoned in some local manor the tasted awesome with rice and black beans. To top it off there were friend plantains that tasted amazing. Sweet and delicious, yum. The girls are Rosanna, Roberta, and Tina. Rosanna works at accounting, Roby and Tina work with me at reception and I spend pretty much 24hours with them. These are the people in my life these days. :)

The day in Cozumel actually wasn't so bad. I had lots of work to catch up on so with all the passengers on shore I was able to do 5.5 hours of comment corrections which really made the time fly by and I actually forgot were were in a great location until I got a call from Cheryl, Anatollio, and Renetia from shore to tell me about how drunk they were and the great time they were having. Thanks jerks, love you too.

On one of the sea days, I went to eat at our fine dining restaurant Obelisco with my buddy Patrick from reception. There was a promo of $20 for a 4 course dinner and whereas we typically eat crap onboard we couldn't pass it up. The food was AMAZING. I had a seafood app with salmon, and king crap followed by john dory stuffed ravioli which were both fantastic and wrapped up with a nice cheesecake. The star of the meal however was my main course which was a pistachio crusted lamb with blueberry sauce. Now, in my life I've eaten a lot of lamb and I can safely say it's my favourite red meat. That being said this was hands down the BEST lamb I've ever, ever had. The chef cooked it perfectly and when paired with the pistachio crust and the blueberry sauce it literally melted in your mouth. Let's put it this way; the ship could have gone down and I wouldn't of cared as long as I was able to finish my main. Wow it was good.

Today was disembarkation/embarkation in Fort Lauderdale. These days are typically crazy but today actually went by pretty smoothly. We do however have a 300 person group that embarked today called "invasion" or "ingaysion" if you will…. Yup, we're currently dominated onboard by boys who like boys and that spells trouble for me. Already tonight I've got a story to tell…

As I was nearing the end of my shift I had my head down doing some work. Roby (Roberta) poked me and told me to look up. Not sure what she wanted I stopped and looked ahead. On the stairs in front of me were 6-8 of the guys that had stopped on the stairs to get a good peek at yours truly. When they saw that I had looked up they scattered like cockroaches exposed to light. Needless to say it's going to be an interesting few days… Oy.

We're at sea tomorrow before hitting Key West on Saturday and Nassau on Sunday. The most disappointing bit about all this is that my great friend Darby is going to be in Nassau on Tuesday. I can't believe I'm missing her by 2 days. :(

That's all for now folks. I'm finally caught back up and I'll do my best to stay on top of things again. Bed time for me now, night.

Day 27: Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

November 9, 2011 15:45

Ah Costa Rica, a great day that started off so poorly...

So I started work at 7am and as usual my alarm went off at 5:55 then 6:05 to start my day. I hopped out of bed and into the shower to start my usual morning routine. As I was finishing up my shower, I checked my watch in the bathroom to see how I was doing for time. 7:19… Hmm, that's odd. I could of sworn I had already changed it back a couple days earlier for day light savings, better check my iPhone and iPad when I get out, something's odd. When I came out of the washroom Anatollio told me that the desk had called to tell me I was late for work! WTF!? I checked my iPhone and iPad, sure enough they both read and hour earlier than the watch in the bathroom. At this point I knew that something had gone wrong but it still made no sense. When I came onboard I turned off the "Set Automatically" feature to avoid something like this from happening. Turns out that 2 days prior when the ship had done day light savings it wasn't actually the day for daylight savings and that it actually happened over night and my clocks automatically adjusted themselves thus making me late for work. Jerks.

So that was fun. Luckily it happened to about half the staff and a ton of the guests so management just brushed it all off which was good because being late equals an extra hour of work and I couldn't' afford that on this day because I was meeting my good buddy Jeslyn who I went to NSCC with.

There's something extra special about seeing a familiar face in a completely foreign place. We came out of the port and I didn't' really know where or how I was going to find her when out of sheer dumb luck I saw her sitting in a little coffee shop across the street. After some yelling and hugging it was off to the beach!

We met a nice cabby who was the proud father of 16 kids (buddy, you need some condoms) who took us to this little touristy place on the beach where we were able to get my best local meal yet and then head into the crystal clear water.

There's something about being able to see my feet when I'm in water that's up to my shoulders that just makes me smile. The only bit about today that was a bummer was how quickly it all went by. The food was great, the swimming was spectacular and getting to spend time with a true friend was the best of all.

To date this was my best time ashore even if it was only for a few hours. :)

Day 26: Cristobal and Colon, Panama

Novemeber 7, 2011 16:00

Ok first thing's first. I know, I know I've been lazy at writing but that's only because I've been too busy exploring new countries and when I haven't been doing that I've been working or getting MUCH needed sleep. K, now that that's out of the way… on to Panama!

I didn't work until 1 so we got up early and headed out into the city. Just like in Columbia we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into and were just flying by the seat of our pants. After batting off the hordes of locals trying to sell us on cab rides and other assorted crap, we found out that it was a national holiday and as such most of the city would be closed however there was going to be a parade and festivities around the city.

After a little aimless walking around the immediate vicinity we met a local who worked for the cruise port named Ray. He offered to walk us around town, show us the sights, keep us out of the bad areas and then bring us back to the ship. He said he'd do all this as long as we tipped him at the end what we thought he was worth. We went a long with this and it turned out to be a great decision.

Shortly after we joined up with Ray we found ourselves being stopped on the sidewalk and told we couldn't go any further because the president of Panama was up ahead for the festivities. Pretty cool! Just after that we met the current light weight boxing champ but whereas I don't know anything about boxing I couldn't tell you his name. There's a picture below of him with Renetia though, maybe someone will recognize him. Either way we told him we were big fans and took pictures with him. There's one of me and the boys with him on someone's camera, I'm sure it'll turn up on Facebook at some point. When local, it's always best the suck up to the locals.

As we walked through the city we came upon rows of men and women in red uniforms lined up on the street saluting a man in a white coat who was exiting a firehall. Just then the sky's opened up and it began pouring (a welcome sight as it was apron 35C and humid). The man in white turned and went back indoors then everyone in red turned and charged for cover from the rain. Here we found out that the man in white was the President and that everyone in red were the fire fighters for the city. Yet another fluky local encounter.

The city was incredibly alive as different marching bands prepped for the holiday parade and Ray took us through all of it. Colon was really a tale of two cities. There were parts that were so poor and run down that there was just garbage and debris covering the roads then other parts that were beautiful and more refined. In fact some of the houses in their "downtown" looked like they would come down with one strong gust of wind. Have a peek at the picture of the KFC… A flower in a pot of dirt.

When out in these cities there's been no better sight then seeing the ship after being in town for a while. It's incredibly encouraging to know that you've completed yet another successful day in a completely alien city. I look forward to many more just like it.

Days 23, 24, and 25: Sea Days and Cartagena, Columbia

November 5, 2011 1:30

First off I'm sorry. I know I haven't written in a couple of days but I have a good excuse. Nothing really happens on sea days and instead of writing I've been busy attempting to build on my limited social circle.

Before I get to Columbia first some social life updates. The friend list is growing and I've managed to break into a trio of wonderful South African girls who are quickly becoming some of my favourite people onboard. Shameem, Rennisia, and Stacey are the newest additions to circle and are especially nice to have onboard because they're the first people that I don't' work with that I've become close with. Don't get me wrong, I love the people I work with, but I'm with them 24 hours a day. You have no idea how nice it is to have good friends outside of our Guest Services clique.

Today was a big day for me. As pathetic as it is today was the first day in my life that I stepped foot on a continent other than North America and what a place to have it happen. It was surreal looking out the office port hole as we came into town today. The downtown of the "new city" is made up of all white sky scrappers but then when you look around you just see this incredible green foliage everywhere else. Quite the contrast.

We moored at a container port and had a short walk into the cruise terminal. Upon coming out we were instantly approached by a local cab driver offering to take us around town. Right away it was clear I wasn't in Kansas any more… After some negotiation and group decisions (aka me telling them this was our best option) my group of 7 agreed to have this gentlemen and his cab company take us to food and drinks on the beach then back to the ship for $20 per person. The clincher was that he didn't want payment until we returned to the terminal. No cash up front in a country that I other wise would have been worried about someone driving us into a container and then never being seen again? Deal!

Driving through Cartagena was crazy. The type of scene I experienced was the kind of thing I've only ever seen on the Amazing Race. Cars, motorbikes, and people everywhere. Horns constantly honking and brake pads being ground down at every stop. The architecture was beautiful and getting this cab turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we got a nice tour of the entire city as we drove through the old city on our way to our beach side meal in the new city. We even passed a donkey drawn buggy on the way.

We at at this little hut on the water with a menu that was completely in spanish and no one there spoke English. Thank god two of our group knew spanish, we'd likely be getting the inside scoop on human trafficking other wise. I had a seafood medley thing that consisted of shrimp, octopus, snails and some other unknown crustacean that was actually quite good. While we were eating street vendors kept trying to get our attention in an attempt to sell us al kinds of assorted crap. We weren't exactly in a tourist locale and in fact I think we got a pretty real experience as there wasn't another white person or English speaker in sight. Needless to say we stuck out.

When it really got crazy was when we went onto the beach. All we wanted to do was go for a swim and maybe get some sun but in order to achieve this we had to negotiate the horde of locals that was no following us down the beach offering us everyone from tshirts and bracelets to sun screen and massages. Once we finally found a place would could leave our things we took shifts while we went into the AMAZING Caribbean water. It was so warm, I could have stayed out forever and although it wasn't forever I was still in the water for a god hour or so just floating around and loving my life. To make things even better and more cool it started raining part way through our swim but as it was 100F with the humidity and we were swimming it was incredibly welcome.

We headed back to the cruise terminal where we found all kinds of parrots and some other wild life waiting for us just outside. You'll see below that I can now check off having a parrot on my arm and asking a real life toucan to follow his nose and where I could find some fruit loops.

To wrap up we had some genuine Columbian coffee and made our way back onboard. Overall an incredible day and a great way to really kick start my cruise experience. I love being out of my comfort zone and with Panama tomorrow and Costa Rica on Sunday it's only getting better.

It's official, you can hate me now. :)

Days 21 & 22: Sea Day and Fort Lauderdale, FLORIDA!!!

November 1, 2011 15:45

Currently I'm standing at the bow of the ship in Fort Lauderdale, FLORIDA!!! I see palm trees, blue sky, and yachts. Now this is what I'm talking about.

When we left NYC 3 it was right about freezing and snowing. 3 days later I'm wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and flip flops and it's 25C. Life is good friends. Life is good.

Only minor snag in all this is due to a lack of proper information from US customs I'm a prisoner onboard as I don't have an I95 form and my US passport isn't here yet. Minor details, we'll be here tons of times over the next few months. It'll all be sorted by the time we're back here on the 10th anyway. And besides, look when I am right now! How could I be anything but happy?

Halloween came and went yesterday as nothing more than a hiccup. There was no party for the crew but the ship did a good job of putting one on for the guests at least. Easily my least extravagant Halloween but then again nothing will even match the Anchorman year.

Tonight we set sail for Columbia. From here on out every day is going to be a true adventure. After Columbia we got to Panama, Costa Rica, and Mexico before heading back to Florida to start the next round.