Visiting the Largest Cruise Ship in the World

Thursday morning we were up early to join a small group that Royal Caribbean was treating to a "Day on the Oasis". As it turns out, The RCCL Oasis of the Seas was in port docked in Cozumel while we were too so we were invited to go over to that ship and enjoy it for the day. We ran into a few security delays along the way but once we were all on board the champagne started flowing and we were all walking in Central Park. After taking some photos and visiting the bar "High Tide" we made our way to the promenade for a parade that was orchestrated just for the group. We all then went to the acqua pool for a special performance of diving and synchronized swimming and really too much to mention here. It was a great show and a great day aboard the massive ship. We stopped at a number of bars and restaurants to sample everytthing and then walked just about all the public areas and entertainment venues to take pictures. It was a fun day on board and a great way to see what it would be like to go on the ship. After making our way back to the EPIC we decided to skip the formal dinner and just hang out by the pool and watch the ship sail away.

Just when you'd think the lines would be cast and the ship would pull away from the pier, we noticed a man and women riding in the back of a bike transport on the pier...back toward the bars at the end of the pier. There was clearly a delay in leaving the dock and a problem of some sort. After a short while they were ridden back to the gangway down the long pier and we could tell the people were very upset as their heads were hanging in their hands. It seemed they were looking for someone who was missing and they could not find them. The ship then waited while the man grabbed a few things out of his cabin (including his passport no doubt) and he left the ship. The lines were cast and the ship pulled away as everyone watched the guy take that long walk down the pier. Clearly he was staying for someone who at this moment, was nowhere to be found. It was sort of a grim reminder that while there are plenty of fun things to do in ports, one has to be a bit careful when wondering off on their own.... perhaps going to far away or having to much to drink, etc. Anyway, that was our drama for the day as Peg and I watched the whole sequence of events over the side of deck 15. As we pulled away, 90% of the people on board were having so much fun, they didn't even notice.

Meeting Old Friends Can Change Everything

The day in Costa Maya went nothing as we had expected. We found our way off the ship and started walking the long pier leading to the welcoming people on shore. I immediately realized I had forgotten my sun glasses but now we had gone so far, there was no turning back. We then realized we had forgotten to to bring beach towels with us and just then, we ran into some friends we had met on the 2009 National Conference Cruise (Ed and Teri fro PA). They were hanging by the greAt pool they have on shore in Costa Maya complete with swim up bar service. We started talking with them and then joined in with a few other TA's who were well ahead of Peg and I in the drink department (it was about 11:00 AM). I did all I could to catch up though and before long we were all dancing on the bar at the side of the pool. We didn't have our camera but plenty of photos were taken so I do believe that pictures are forthcoming! Anyway, one of the travel agents ended up in a wheel chair and was completely passed out. I volunteered to roll her down the 1/2 mile long pier and back to the gangway. When we showed up at the end of the gangway, the look in the eyes of the securityu officers letting people on board said it all..... "here we go again"! It was truely a fun in the sun day. Once back in the cabin, I completely passed out only to wake up 3 hours later wondering what day it was, where my wife was, and did we miss our dinner reservation? Oh' what a Monday....

Tuesday morning found us docked at the port in Roatan Honduras. We looked outside at the crowds of people getting off the ship once again and we decided to just enjoy the ship for the day. I went on the waterslide "down the tubes" and had more trouble landing backwards than anything else! It was a fun ride down and no line to speak of being a port day. Lasat night we went to Circus Dreams and saw the incredible show while having dinner. It was one of the most entertaining, non-stop, high energy performances I have ever seen. You simply have to see it to believe it. We also visited Headliners and caught the Second City Comedy show last night as well. Today is more work related sessions, oh yeah....we are here for work reasons!

Changing Mind Sets.... To Vacation Mode

We spent Sunday afternoon wandering the decks and getting to know the ship a little. We found water slides all over that have multiple landing locations. I had to learn where all the sports bars were as well as the big screens for watching football Sunday. The center of the ship has a 40' screen that can be viewed from at least 3 decks. Our rooms were ready at 2:30 so we did some unpacking before the sail away party on the top deck at 4PM. NCL had a plane flying over the ship on the way out welcoming all the CruiseOne agents on board. After passing by South Beach we were headed for Costa Maya, Mexico. We went to an Italian place for dinner and ended up in a blues bar called Fat Cats. The band was incredible and I seriously wanted to ask them what they were doing on a cruise ship!

Peg spent much of the sea day Sunday in conference sessions while I watched the NFL games and kept up with my fantasy team. My day was blemmished by seeing my starters not score and the guys on my bench getting touchdowns left and right. We spent the evening on the ship at the National Conference Award ceremony (which was very well done) and took some photos around the ship. After taking a group picture which included some 800 travel agents, we went to the Ice Bar for a drink and took some pictures. They have special coats to wear in the ice bar as the temperature is 17 degrees. It was a fun experience but the drinks were pre-mixed in jugs and the vodka content was so low my drink actually slushed up and froze in my hand!

Sunday was very relaxing and I got some work done too. This morning we are docked at Costa Maya so Peg and I will head over to the beach and spend a hot sunny day there. The beach here has turned into a great thing to do as they have jet skis, snorkeling, massages.....you name it, all within a 5 minute taxi ride of the pier. Well....time to go have some fun. I am starting to fall into vacation mode now.

CruiseOne National Conference 2010 Starts Now....

After taking our liesurely time flying into Miami yesterday, Peg and I are in the Miami Hilton Downtown and packing up to board the brand new NCL EPIC. It is the CruiseOne national conference meeting (boy do these folks know how to throw a party). Our only obstacle between us and the ship (2 miles away) is a gathering of 30,000 people for a marathon and walkathon for breast cancer. Today is 85 degrees and sunny in Miami and we can only hope the weather follows us to Costa Maya.

The NCL ships are known for free style dining so we are going to be eating food from different countries all week. I am especially anxious to watch my fantasy football team beat Cut N Run tomorrow (well, it may take until Monday night) on the 40' LED screen in the center of the ship.

I will be taking photos once we get on board and posting them here. For now, it is time to make our way to the gang way for embarkation......fun!

Dickinson Bay Beach in Antigua

For our day long visit to Antigua, we had arranged a day pas for the newest Sandals resort on Dickinson Beach. The resort is fabulous. We enjoyed the pool, the sun, the drinks, and the food. We met Mary Dawn and Tim who were hanging out down the beach just a short way. Mary and I spent the afternnon horseback riding while Peg, Tim, and Shawn just enjoyed the sun, the beach, and the water. The beach is awesome. For anyone looking for something to do in Antgua, I would just head to Dickinson Beach and hang out al day. For a fee, one can use the Sandals facilities but the entire beach is actually very nice. We had a great day in the sun before returning to the ship.

Boarding the Caribbean Princess in San Juan

The long awaited trip from San Juan to New York City has finally begun. We left home about 6:30 AM for our ride to ORD. After parking and checking in, we enjoyed breakfast at the Macaroni Grill in Terminal 3 before boarding our AA flight to San Juan. Everything started out without a hitch. After a long flight we landed at a partly cloudy, partly wet San Juan airport. All we wanted to do was get our luggage and head to the ship. When I saw the first two bags come out on the belt I thought to myself this is great....all is going so well. I turned to Peg, smiled, and jokingly said, well.....2 out of 3 ain't bad. Little did I know at the time, that it would be the only two bags we saw of ours on that day. After the belt stopped and the people were all gone, all I could think of is that I need to file a missing bag report (mine) with the AA baggage service counter.

We were told to go to the ship and report the problem to them as well. We boarded the ship and all I could think of is that I may never see this bag again (we were sailing one way to New York). I told the passesnger services desk of my dilema and they told me that when the bag arrives on the next flight, the AA people will coordinate the delivery of the bag to the next island (St. Thomas). Between the ship and the port agents and the AA people, my bag did arrive in our stateroom at about 4PM the next day. I was impressed and surprised. I was never really certain I would get the bag so I ended up having to go shopping in St. Thomas and pick up a number of things. Once the bag arrived, all my stress was gone and I was ready for vacation to begin...now with more clothes than I need.

Peg was just going to do some shopping in St. Thomas and possibly visit a local beach. I was determined to spend the afternoon sailing on a catamaran out to Buck Island for some snorkeling. The 45 minute ride out to the island cove was great. The water was crystal clear, there was a sunken drug runner boat to explore under water, and the fish were everywhere. I learned about Parrot Fish and how they eat rock particles. A single Parrot Fish can produce 1 metric ton of sand a year via their digestive system! After snorkeling for an hour or more, we sailed back to St. Thomas to the tunes of Bob Marley and thirst quenching rum punch. Seeing my suitcase outside the door of Baha B-226 sort of made my day.

A Welcome Back....To Reality

We enjoyed many things about sailing on HAL (Holland America Line). We always tell people that we have no favorite cruise line really, because they all differentiate themselves by a collection of little things. One of the little things HAL does is that they allow you to stay in your stateroom as long as you like on dis-embarkation day, even after your number/color is called for leaving the ship. The other nice little difference on HAL is that they will still deliver you a room service breakfast on the day of dis-embarkation. Most other cruise lines have no room service on the last day. A difference of much larger proportion is the HAL beds, I think the matress on our bed was about 16 inches thick and perhaps the most comfortable of any of the cruise lines!

By 8:30AM, our number (one of the last) was called so Peg and I began to leave our sureal European experience. The airport Marriot in Barcelona was more efficient than expected upon arrival on the dock with their shuttle driver waiting for us / our luggage right outside the terminal (holding up a sign so we could find him). For 10 Euro each, the driver was bussing people to the Marriot by the airport (BCN). We dumped our bags in our tiny European hotel room (which had no normal electrical outlets for anything) and was about 1/3 the size of a normal hotel room.

Peg and I jumped on a free shuttle to the city center in Barcelona. The driver left us at Plaza Espanya (sort of in the middle of things). Ironically I was telling Peg how fun it was in London to take a double decker Red bus around the city when one of these busses pulled right up. We thought it would be a great way to see all of Barcelona by jumping on the Orange line for the east side of town and then transfer to the green line for the west side. I got some great pictures of churches and other architectural marvels including some of the facilities used for the 1992 Olympics held in Barcelona. We walked down the Las Ramblas area where everything seems to be happening in the city except being Sunday, most businesses were closed. It was odd to see so many stores and shopping centers completely closed because it was Sunday! After shooting pictures all day we ended up in a small cafe enjoying some of the local wine and food (pizza and payeia....a seasoned rice dish filled with seafood in this case). After we had our dinner, we headed back to the main plaza and found hoards of people heading up to the local stadium for a footbal game (these people are more passionate about soccer than Amercians are about the NFL). We were amazed at all the people. In the midst of it all was a large group of young people dressed in goth / completely black clothing and weird wigs. We could not for the life of us figure out what these demonstrators were trying to say or what their point was. Even the locals looked at them weird.

We caught our shuttle back to the airport hotel and were now totally exhausted. I felt especially worn out just thinking about the 4:00AM wake up call for the 6:55AM flight to Paris and then the change of terminals / more security checkpoints / more passport station checks / topped off by our 8 1/2 hour flight to Chicago where we would fly ahead of the sun all day. Right now we are decending into the Chicago area and the local time is 12PM Non. My watch says 7:00PM still. As we fly over Lake Michigan, the monitor on the seat back in front of me says we have now travelled 4,082 miles since leaving Paris this morning, and we have about 60 miles to go!

We are definitely back in reality now.