Carnival Inspiration March 2007

So I got this crazy idea that taking a 4 night cruise out of Tampa before going to work at a local Tampa Credit Union would be fun. I discovered that going to work after a cruise is much more difficult than getting the work done first, and then heading out on a mini (stress releaving) vacation.

The ship is old but has been refurbished and is actually very nice (especially the cabins and hallways). Only the pool area and the buffet area showed real signs of age. My first day was a sea day so much of it was spent searching for what to do in our only Port of Call (Cozumel, Mexico). I decided that after meeting the golf Pro on board (Riley Tough) spending the day playing 18 holes of golf wuld be fun.

There were only two other guys that wanted to play the Jack Nicolous course (and they were brothers) so I rode with Riley. He gave me plenty of tips that actually have improved my game! We decided to have a few beers afterward before heading off to sea and back towards Tampa. After another sea day we arrived back in Tampa (Monday) where I now had to prepare for going back to work.

If you've never played golf in Cozumel, I would absolutely recommend it. Where else can you see Iguanas everywhere while searching for your ball? I am going to make a point of playing golf in each of the islands where possible.....the cruise lines make it so easy to do so!

NCL Pearl January 2007 With Friends and Family

After getting up at the OMG hour of 3:15AM we headed for Miami and onto our cruise ship with no problems at all. At first sight, one cannot help but to be amazed at the enormity of the new NCL Pearl. I spent Friday afternnon taking an organized tour of the ship. The show theater in the Forward of the ship is very impressive. The cocktail lounge BLISS in the AFT is furnished with plush chairs, sofas, and beds (yes beds) and draped on both sides by the bowling alleys. The art and wall murals throughout are very colorful and fun. Dinner at the Japanese restaurant on the first evening was excellent. It was here I met Steve and Jill Cooper from Seatle. My guess is they were barely in their 40's but this trip on the Pearl was their 50th cruise! Steve was writing an article for CruiseMate.Com with which he is affiliated.

After having only about 10 hours of sleep in almost three days, the first night on board was a great time to get to bed early and get lots of sleep. Our next two days were sea days as we travelled to the southern portion of the caribbean and by the time we reached the island of Dominica, everyone was anxious to go off the ship and explore. We had a whale watching excursion planned for Monday afternoon. I was preparing myself for dis-appointment thinking we really were not going to be seeing any whales. The captain of our tour boat confirmed the possibility of dis-appointment too. After travelling about three miles out of the harbor we stopped and used an echo locator only to find no whales making sounds. We soon came upon 100's of dolphins in the water splashing at the surface. They started chasing our boat, swimming in front of.... and along side of it too. All of a sudden I didn't care if I saw any whales because the dolphins were awesome. We stopped again and watched. Before long, a whale was spotted blowing out its' spout, it was easily identified as a sperm whale, largest of the whale species in the area (the same whale in the movie Moby Dick). The sperm whale is identified easily because the blow whole goes forward and to the left side (other whales blow straight up). This excursion turned out to be perhaps the best shore excursion I have ever done. Before the afternnon was over, we came across 9 sperm whales and I was able to film 6 of the tails raising above the water as they dove deep to the bottom where they feed on squid. They eat squid that is almost as long as they are and sometimes surface with squid tentacles still hanging out of their mouths!

After very little rest Monday, we took a Catemaran excursion on the island of Barbados.... on the Tiami II. We have found two catemaran companies to be awesome every time, one is Tiami and the other is Fury. If you ever get to Barbados, take the Tiami sail, snorkel, and swim with the sea turtles tour. Swimming with the sea turtles was a first for me. What an awesome creature. They didn't care a bit about the people in the water. The Tiami crew made a great barbecue chicken lunch before we headed back to the Pearl. Wednesday we docked in St. Lucia where we took a taxi ride into the inner island area and visited banana orchards and Marigot Bay. We stopped near a local community college where the students whear different uniforms depending on the course of study they are enrolled in. Thursday was another unbelievable shore excursion on the island of Antigua. We boarded the Excellence Catemaran for a high speed trip around the entire island. We stopped about half way for snorkeling and lunch on the beach at Green Island. I never knew how beautiful the island of Antigua is. Our tour showed us lavish wilderness and sea molded cliffs. We also saw many of the 100's of beaches on Antigua. The tour even showed us homes of famous people like Eric Clapton (Eric had the stones for his home shipped from Scotland). The color of the home matches the cliff it is built over and blends right into the mountain. At first glance, one cannot even see that the cliff, is really a house!

I cannot remember a cruise where we took 3 shore excursions and every one of them was such a great experience. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would have to give all 3 of these excursions a 10 (except the whale watching in Dominica was more like an 11). We have been so busy having a great time that it was not until our short day here in Tortolla, that I have had time to write about this trip. We are now getting ready to sail away from Tortolla and make our way to Miami which will take about 22 hours. Nothing but sea days left, and while there is still vacation time remaining, you can now sense the vacation mode winding down.

Back To Reality

Our last day of the cruise was a sea day and I spent most of it out at the pool. I entered the pool pole contest where two people shimmy out over the pool on a long pole and proceed to try and smack each other off the pole using a pillow case full of balloons. I almost won....but lost and was wacked into the water. Then I entered a volleyball competition and had lots of fun beating the ships crew VB team. After sailing all day Friday from Grand Cayman Island, we arrived back in Miami on Saturday morning. We were parked at the pier before 6:00 AM. Even when you get up in the morning on the last day, even before you get out of bed, you can feel the reality of what lies outside the ship. No more room steward, no more room service, and no more cruise. At this point..... it is all about how can we get you outta here ASAP. Even some of the friendliness seems to go away.... it is as if the crew is saving and storing up their cheerfulness for the next arriving customers. This view outisde the rear of the ship is the Port of Miami. The Miami arena (where the Heat plays) is very close by. The picture is of the RCCL Majesty of the Seas. Our disembarkation was very quick and very not crowded. We jumped into a cab and headed for our Ft. Lauderdale hotel. Before we knew it, the cruise port was no longer in sight and the only cruising Peg and I were talking about..... was cruise vacations for other people....In other words....back to work. I did learn that when you jump into a cab at the Port of Miami, you can ask the driver about a flat rate to anywhere you want to go. I should have done that because just getting to the FLL airport is $65 on the meter. Anyway, we are drifting out of vacation mode and back into work mode......and I mean drifting. Past cruisers will know what I mean. We have heard of the terrible snow storm up north but at this point it is hard to imagine with all the heat here in Florida. Well, I am going to spend my last 2 hours of warmth in the south...... out by the pool....where I will ponder my next cruising adventure.

Spanish Bay Resort

We spent the day at sea on Wednesday and pretty much just relaxed after working out in the gym all morning while listening to the instructor give a class about detox and learning all sorts of health stuff about toxic poisons we put into our body. I learned that the largest organ we have is our SKIN! I didn't know skin was an organ. When we put anything onto our skin and rub it in (like sun tan lotion) it is absorbed into our blood stream. So we take in poison via absortion. We also breath in poisons from the air, and consume poisons via consumption like alcohol. I was
impressed by all the instructor knew but in the end he wanted everyone to register for a detoxification for your body (only $100). I asked him a few questions but bypassed the $100 deal. After dinner, Peg and I had some wine..... and went to the dinner show which was very entertaining. Peg and I ended up on the NEWLYWED game! I talked her into volunteering but she never thought we would get selected......we DID! It was fun (we didn't win). She was asked what is the first thing I touch in the morning when I get up.....she told the crowd of 300 people he touches HIMSELF! When the guy asked me what my favorite condoment was, I said TROJAN....the crowd loved it! The guy then said, "No, not condom.....condiment, like what do you like on your meat.......more laughs. Anyway, it was all fun, we won tee shirts too!


On Thursday, Peg and I spent the day at the Spanish Bay resort. We laid in the sun, walked on the beach, went snorkeling, and fell asleep in my chair until I snored. It doesn't get much better than that. The picture is our shipped parked at Grand Cayman. Now it is 5PM Thursday and time to pull out. We are parked here next to the Carnival Conquest and the RCCL Radiance and Majesty (4 ships in port today......and waaaaaaay many people). Tomorrow is a sea day but more importantly, the dining room has Lobster for dinner tonight......and I am going for two!

Fishing in Key West

After saying so long to Tony Sunday night and going to bed early, Peg and I made it up at 3:30 AM for that 6:30 AM flight. All went pretty smoothly but one could not believe how busy it is at ORD at 6:00 Am on a Monday morning after Turkey Day. We felt we were there in plenty of time but the TSA security line took all extra time away from us and by the time we got to our gate, it was already time to board. Three hours and a bad movie later we landed in Ft. Lauderdale and hopped an Airport Express to the Port of Miami. Before we knew it we boarded the Celebrity Century we had heard so much about and were greeted with glasses of Champaign. Our room 8174 is awesome....the flat screen TV on the wall will let you order movies, review your account balance and even allow on board gambling via TV (all on your account). I passed up the TV gambling for the real thing after we sailed away and let me say that roulette was very very good to me on this our first night. We had a great dinner with 6 people from Canada (Saskatchawa) who drove to Miami 2,700 miles to go on this cruise! We were dead tired so we crashed and I got ready for my fishing adventure in
Key West. Once we pulled in to Key West On Tuesday morning I went light tackle fishing with 3 other guys and the captain aboard our Boston Whaler craft with a 200HP Evinrude motor. We went 9 miles out into the Gulf and could not see land anymore. It was really rough most of the time but I didn't even notice it because we were catching so many fish, mostly of the snapper variety. The two in my hands were typical for the morning and these fish really fight hard! The
captain was happy to have them as they were fantastic eating according to him. Our buddies in the next boat caught a 70lb. jew fish (ugly monster sort of thing) and ran into a school of cobia as well. We were not that lucky but the day was fun, the weather was great, the captain was a riot and before we knew it the Century left Key West and we were heading for Grand Cayman Island.

Saying Goodbye To London....

I am up, I am packed, I have had breakfast, and I am ready to go. It is only 6AM at home. Somehow I felt like I had to write one more time before leaving the United Kingdom. This picture I took from a river boat ride down the River Themes, going under the Tower Bridge at the Tower of London. The cool thing about the city here is that you will see an ancient structure like this right next to the most modern of office buildings. The city has truely conserved the history of this place. While under the bridge, there was a 61 gun salute going on from the Tower shores. This was not a normal 61 gun salute as they were using 8mm cannons which were drove onto the shore with military vehicles! I just happened upon all this by accident. I didn't get to go inside the tower of london and see the dungeons, torture chambers, or the crown jewels, there were just too many people!

Well, the car is waiting for me downstairs to go to Heathro (3 hours early for this international flight mind you). I will arrive in Chicago at about 6:30PM central time, but it will be past midnight according to my body clock! I am hoping a cool glass of wine when I get home will help me adjust to the drastic change in time zones. Once again, I will be at work tomorrow morning, it just so happens that it will be in a place that is 6,400 air miles from here.

If you have enjoyed reading of my travels, then that makes me even happier that I took the time to document them. If you haven't enjoyed reading this documentary, then why are you reading this now? Well, I am heading for the Air India terminal.

Until I get to see you all again ....and share perhaps, some of the video tape I have of this trip.....I love you, God Bless You, and God Bless The Queen!

Mind Your Head...........

The use of the english language here never ceases to amaze me. When listening to one speak, you find yourself familiar with all of the words that are being used, but it is the context or the accent or the combination in which they are used, that makes the language quite off. If you look at this picture, you understand all three words, but look how they are put together! Here you will see signs like this all over.....mind the gap, mind your head, way out, etc. The other day one of my colleagues had to leave us and start moving quickly to the rail (the train). He said very seriously, "sorry lads, I got to get on....straight ahead to the rail". He meant he had to start moving quickly and start running toward the train, so he didn't miss it. I understood all the words, it just sounds funny in the way they are put together.



I have learned quite a bit while here....you really have no choice but to learn if you are going to get by. I feel I could get anywhere I wanted to go on the subway....the signage, etc. makes it very easy for one to follow. Just for fun, I thought I would show you a typical view on an underground rail car while bouncing around the city.

Anyway, today I took a river boat ride down the themes river and got off at the tower of london. I didn't visit inside the tower because there were a billion people trying to get in today. I moved on to Oxford Street and did a little shopping. It was very hot today though, so I made my way back home.....and now I am starting to think of all the things I am going to be doing to get home in the next 24 hours such as transportation to Heathro, customs, times, etc. This may be one of my last posts from London England.