Things that might be decidedly odd…

Returned

Well, I’m back from my week long Caribbean cruise. It was definitely a good get away, but now I think I need a vacation from my vacation to relax I booked for next year on the ship since it’s cheaper that way, but I still need to decide if I’m going to go or not. I think I have until around August to cancel without penalty.

I had an excellent time on the ship except for a couple bouts of mild queasiness induced by rough seas. Lots of sun, food, drinks, entertainment and parties both official and unofficial. The trip was much more about being on the ship than the destinations. Grand Turk was surprisingly small and uninteresting, although I hear the coral reef was great for those who went snorkeling or diving. I walked around the beach for a little while, but it was a duty free shopping mall more than anything else and I didn’t care to buy any cheap booze. St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands was the next stop. Unfortunately, we didn’t even dock until 2pm and I wasn’t off the ship until at least 3:30. I taxied through the surprisingly horrible traffic to the other side of the island to check out Magen’s Bay and the gay clothing optional beach at one end of the bay (Little Magen’s). It was rather late in the day by the time I got there and the clouds kept blocking out the sun, but it was still a nice time. I chatted with these two nice guys from Boston on the taxi ride back to the ship. Labadee was better than I expected. Sure, it’s essentially a Royal Caribbean Haiti Disneyland but it was nice to get off the ship and spend some time in salt water and a white sand beach.

I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures regularly, mainly because the batteries in my main camera died on the second day and I just got tired of carrying a camera around. However, a bunch from the dog tag tea dance and some other assorted shots are here.

Getting back from Miami was an excruciating ordeal. I don’t even want to go into all the horrible things that happened so I’ll just list them–difficulty finding ground transport to the airport from the cruise terminal, awful counter customer service agent, secondary screening, the contents of my carryon bag spilled all over the ground in security, an angry woman claiming my hoodie which had just spilled out of my bag was hers, screaming children, waiting for 4 hours for my flight since I was so early, smoke wafting in from the outdoor smoking area while listening to announcements about it being a smoke free airport. Let’s just say I never want to fly out of Miami airport again.

My connection in LA was tight and made tighter by a slightly delayed plane. Since I was switching from American to Alaska, I had to run to another terminal on the other side of the airport and go back through security. Fortunately, security was empty at that terminal at that time. The plane was so empty there were half rows that were completely unoccupied. I haven’t seen that happen since before 9/11 when all the airlines began packing their flights fuller.

Unfortunately, my luggage probably didn’t make the connection. It’s still missing in fact, although both Alaska and American say they’re looking for it. Of course, the one time my luggage gets lost, I’m a dumb ass and accidentally pack my house keys in my bag. Doh! Good thing Ben’s never here so he can lend me his keys for a while. The problem was that I sent my two roller bags down as luggage off the ship while carrying my complementary Atlantis bag off the ship packed with my passport, keys, a change of clothes, etc. However, after fetching all my luggage I repacked into just two roller bags–one to check at the airport, one to carry on. I don’t think I took my keys out of the Atlantis bag which was subsequently packed into my checked luggage.

On the Boat

As you can see from the pictures I just posted, I’m on the boat. We’re still docked in Miami but will be departing in a few hours. The ship is huge! I just finished taking a nap and partially unpacking. The rest of my luggage will hopefully come soon. I should probably do some more exploring around the ship though.

Cruise

Well, Robert convinced me to book a space on the 2008 Atlantis Caribbean cruise which runs in January of next year. Jerry (my roommate for the cruise) and I got a nice room with a window near Robert/Ken’s and Drew/Jeff’s rooms. I also booked my plane ticket to Miami today. I’m getting there a couple days early to just relax, adjust to the time change, etc. Pretty much everybody that I know who’s been on this cruise before seemed to have a good time and for reasons that varied a lot per person, so hopefully I will too.

I’ve never really booked a vacation out so far. It just seems weird committing 8 months out, but apparently this thing sells out in a couple weeks usually. There are three payments though, which makes it a bit less painful.