Cruise Control: Days 6 & 7

Just to tie up the loose ends of our cruise, Saturday morning, we got up at a decent hour, got dressed and went up for breakfast. The debarkation process was very structured, and unless you had an early flight and wanted to carry all your luggage off the boat yourself, you were assigned numbers to keep everyone for trying to leave at once. Our numbers were fairly high, and we wouldn't be leaving town until the next day, so we took our time eating and then leisurely headed down to the 3rd level when our number was called.

Upon leaving the boat, we had to go through what was essentially baggage claim and then customs, which we managed to do without incident. Upon completing that process, Brandon went off to find a van to take us to our hotel.

This was the view upon entering the van:


It was all we could do to keep from busting up laughing.


Let me explain: all week long, at a table near ours at dinner time there was a very large black lady, who apparently looked like someone from one of those Eddie Murphy Nutty Professor movies that I've never actually seen. All week, we were trying to get a decent photo of her. Up to this point, the best we'd gotten was this:



So, to find ourselves in the van with her, out of all the thousands of people on the boat, was just too funny. We managed to get this final, better photo of her:



Anyway, it was funny to us to end up in the same van with her and her husband after noticing them all week.

The van took them to the airport first, and then us to our hotel, which was near the airport. We relaxed by the pool for a bit, then took a walk to a Wendy's a few blocks away for lunch.

At some point in the afternoon, we decided that we ought to try to find a movie or something to do that night, so with the help of the internet (Fandango + Google Maps, FTW), I managed to find a few nearby theaters that looked like they'd be near a place we could find dinner as well. I printed out the movie listings page from Fandango, that also had the address for the theatre on it.

I'd looked at the directions from our hotel to the the theater and it seemed pretty straightforward. Pretty much just 20 blocks or so, straight down the main highway near our hotel. The 8 of us had to split up between two cabs, and as the other group was getting in their cab, I asked if they knew where they were headed. They didn't, so I handed Mel the sheet with the theater listings and pointed to the theater address on it. Unfortunately this sheet also had another theater listing at the top, and when she handed it to the driver, the driver assumed she meant the one at the top of the page. We didn't realize this until 15 minutes later our cab was at one theater and the other cab was at another one. Sad! Given that it had cost us about $20 to get to our respective locations, we ended up deciding to just stay put and see movies where we were.

Brandon, Eric, Julie-Ann, and I found a Qdoba for dinner and then decided which shows to see. Brandon and Eric opted for Inglorious Basterds, and Julie-Ann and I saw (500) Days of Summer (which for me was the 2nd time, but still very enjoyable, and maybe less bitter and more sweet, than the first time I'd seen it. There's a lot in that movie that makes me laugh, and also some sadness and frustration that hits close to home for me. The other group (Cara, Colleen, Mel, and Kellen) saw Julie & Julia much to Kellen's chagrin.

We all ended up back at the hotel fairly late, and hit the sack.

The next morning we got up, walked to a fairly nearby McDonalds for breakfast, took the hotel shuttle to the airport and dragged our way through a long day of airporting. About an hour layover in Cincinnati along the way. Airport food for lunch (Pizza Hut) and dinner (Great Steak & Potato), finally arriving home to Salt Lake in the evening.


Julie-Ann rocking her airbrushed tattoo in the Cincy airport

Kind of a long, tiring day. Definitely good to be home again. Quite a great trip overall, though. I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up!

Cruise Control: Day 5

Our 5th day on the cruise brought us to port in Nassau, capital of the Bahamas, and home of the world-famous Atlantis resort. I only mention it because it was all I knew about Nassau prior to my going there. I've seen it featured on ESPN's late night broadcasts of "World's Strongest Man" competitions, and also heard recently that the Miss Universe pageant was hosted there, just the week before we were in Nassau.

Oddly enough, we never actually went over to check out the resort. We ate breakfast and then headed down to the pier to wait for our "Catamaran Sail and Reef Snorkel" excursion to get started. Once we'd been rounded up with the rest of the group, we hiked over through part of town to where the Catamaran was docked and started "sailing" out to the reef. I use quotes because on the way out to the reef we were just going by motor. Which was still fun, just not quite sailing. Anyway, it was a fun ride out, once we got comfortable with the boat and with relaxing on the netted area suspended over the water.


Atlantis resort in the background


I included this photo only because if you look close you can see the bruise on my right arm where I got stung at Grand Turk.


I'm on a boat!


I'm (also) on a boat!

Upon arriving at the reef we were issued snorkel gear and released into the water to check things out. About that same time, they started feeding the local fish, so that worked pretty good to get a lot of them swimming toward the boat. And there were lots of fish. Fish with fancy colors and a variety of sizes, though mostly relatively small.

My mask didn't fit quite as well as the one I'd had the day before, and the life jackets they gave us to use didn't have a strap that went through my legs, so it was a little more in the way than the ones we'd used previously also. So the snorkeling was a little trickier and I got a mouthful of ocean water a couple times. That said, it was still very fun swimming around out there and watching the fish. Once we were all out swimming, it got pretty tough to find any of the others in our group. I started swimming toward a bald guy several times that I thought was Eric, only to discover that it wasn't him.

I don't remember exactly how much time we spent snorkeling, probably 45 minutes or so. Then we got back on board the catamaran, returned our gear and began the trip back to port. This time, they did get the sails out and we really did sail on our way back. Felt about the same as when the motor was on, but not quite as noisy. They also gave us some snacks (chips) and drinks (punch or water or rum punch for those who wanted it). We enjoyed our relaxed trip back to port.


Eric with some "punch"


The sails


Sailing back


All the cruise ships in port. Our is the 3rd from the left with the big blue thing on top.

Upon leaving the boat, we were all ready for some food, and someone said they'd seen a Burger King during our walk through town to the boat, so we headed out in search of that. It was strangely comforting to know that Burger King is pretty much the same in the Bahamas as it is in America (I know, the Bahamas are right next to America). Except that the bathroom was out of paper towels. Okay, maybe that's the same as American Burger King.

After lunch, we headed over to a big flea market type building in search of cheap souvenirs. This was a big metal warehouse tightly packed with rows of people selling T-shirts, hats, jewelry, handbags, cigars, toys, and other similar stuff. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't take a photo of this place, but I guess at the time it didn't seem that noteworthy.

The funniest part to me is that anything you saw for sale in one place, you could find for sale at least 4 or 5 other times as you walked through. Made for fun negotiating, as you could ask each vendor their price and get a feel for what would be the best price you could get. Every thing was "for you: special price, half off". Who knows what the original price was. :) I ended up buying a necklace, a T-shirt, and a beach towel that looks like the Bahamanian flag. The first vendor I asked about the towel gave me an initial price of $20, which I passed on. Then I saw another one, and decided to ask again. Brandon asked me before I went over there how much I'd be willing to pay and I said, "$10". Then I asked the lady selling it how much it cost and she said "$10". I felt like I probably should have negotiated for a better price, since she started at $10, but since that was already what I felt like I'd be willing to pay, I decided to skip the haggling and just take it.

After we'd finished shopping, we decided to head back to the boat. We were all pretty worn out at this point. After getting cleaned up, we went up to the deck to relax. After a bit of that, I headed down to check out another trivia game which turned out to be a "Name the person in this picture" game, but of people from the black and white era of film. Needless to say I didn't win that one. Around 5 there was a meeting to discuss the debarkation process for that evening and the next morning. Then it was off to our last dinner.


Picture of Atlantis taken from on board the ship

It was a little sad to realize that this would be the last night I'd be enjoying our delicious cruise dinners, with warm chocolate melting cakes. Eric and Brandon managed to order steaks again as they'd done every night (sometimes along with another entree). As it was Colleen's birthday the next morning, we had our wait staff sing her happy birthday and they put a candle in some baked alaska for her to blow out.


Da bringing Eric his last steak :(


Happy Birthday, Olean!

After dinner, we finished packing our bags and set them out to be picked up by the porters. Then we went up to the deck and watched "The Express" on the big movie screen, then headed down to bed.

Cruise Control: Day 4

Sorry for the lapse in cruise blogging, I had to take a few days off to celebrate my birthday. Maybe I'll get around to talking about that in a day or two once I've dealt with the photos a bit. Suffice it for now to say I had an enjoyable evening of dining and bowling on Friday, and Sunday a few friends made the trek to Grantsville to enjoy some of my dad's cooking.

Anyhow, back to the lecture at hand...

The 4th day of our cruise was probably the most packed with fun and activities, which is saying a lot considering everything we did throughout the week. A new morning found us at a place called Half Moon Cay, a private island owned by the Carnival cruise line. Because this island was not fancy enough to have a pier for docking the boat and disembarking, you had to get on a small ferry (called a "tender") to get over to the island. As we'd signed up for a "Stingray Adventure" excursion, we were able to leave the boat earlier than the general populace.


Arriving at Half Moon Cay

Most of the folks heading over with us had excursions right away, but ours wasn't for a couple hours, so we went over to check out the beach, and were pretty much the only people over there. And what a beach it was. This sand was unlike anything I've seen before. Like flour from your kitchen flour bowl. Nary a rock to be felt. And the water was a spectacular beautiful blue. Quite the place for sure.


Our own private beach


Enjoying the beach


All of us with the ship

After we checked out the beach for a while, we headed back towards where we got off the boat to get a quick ride in a packed truck over to our "Stingray Adventure". Upon arriving, we were given snorkel gear and the headed down to a little hut by the shore where we got a little bit of information about the sting ray situation. They had a fenced in area where they had 9 sting rays. We would get 10-15 minutes to go down and snorkel around in that area (while there was a shallow area, most of it was probably 10-15 feet deep) with the sting rays, and then we'd form a big circle in the shallow area and get to see and feed the sting rays up close.

I'd purchased one of those "underwater camera" things to take some pictures during the experience. Upon returning home, I had some issues getting the film to rewind, so I had to open the camera and expose a few of the frames, but overall, with a little fill-light help from Picasa, they turned out fairly well.


With our snorkel gear


Best underwater shot of people and a sting ray


Making a splash

The sting rays are coated in a filmy substance that makes them feel kind of soft and squishy to touch. While we were standing in the circle, they were swimming around our legs and would often squeeze in between two of us to go from outside the circle to inside, or vice versa.

To feed the sting rays they gave us each a small, dead squid to hold in our hands and then the main lady in charge came around with a sting ray and had it suck the squid out of our fist. Kind of a neat experience, but over very quickly, without really getting an idea of what was going on at the time. Another trick they would do with the sting rays was to pull them up out of the water and then the ray would spit water out of its mouth, often at someone (though not intentionally). They also got one of the rays to show off its stinger, located not at the end of its tail, but midway up. In addition to the sting rays, they also had a sea cucumber, a sea star, and a conch that they passed around for us to check out.


Brandon in his snorkel gear


Feeding the sting ray - if you look close you can see it taking the squid out of my hand


Others feeding the sting ray

After our adventure, which I really felt was worth the $25 we paid, we hiked halfway back across the island to get our lunch, a barbecue provided by the boat's staff at some facilities they had on the island. Kind of a big mess, especially when it came to getting beverages in the world's tiniest cups, but it was livable.

After lunch, we headed back to the beach for more swimming and sunbathing. The beach had tons of chairs and shade devices for relaxing on/in. We did that for another couple hours before finally heading back to the boat. Definitely the best of the two beaches we hung out during the cruise, not that Grand Turk was terrible by any means. Just a good job by Carnival to have the other beach first.


Julie-Ann enjoying the beach


No longer all to ourselves


Brandon relaxing in the shade

After riding back to the boat on one of the tender ships, we headed back to our rooms to shower and recuperate a bit. Then we headed up to the deck to relax and enjoy a last look at the island before leaving.


Waiting for Brandon to get out of the shower, with my trivia prizes


The guys with Half Moon Cay behind us


Hanging out on the deck

As we headed out for the evening, the sun was setting next to a nice rainstorm in the distance,


Sunset & Storm




Enjoying the sunset


Sunset over the Caribbean

Before dinner, we went to another song and dance show in the theater. Then it was off for another delicious dinner. And also, another dance number from our entertaining wait staff.



After dinner, we hung out on the deck for a while. Rather than a movie on the deck that night, there was a big party with lots of fun line dances (Electric Slide, Cha-Cha Slide, Follow the Leader, the money dance, Chicken Dance/Macarena combined together, Cupid Shuffle, probably a couple others) that we took part in. Sadly we don't have any photos or videos from that, but it was definitely one of my favorite parts of the cruise.

Finally, we called it a night and headed off to bed.

Cruise Control: Day 3

Our 3rd Day on the ocean brought our first port of call: Grand Turk, part of Turks & Caicos. I really don't know whether that's part of the Bahamas, or part of another country or what. Just know that when we woke up, we were at some land. :)

That morning we stopped by the shore excursions desk to sign up for the excursions we had planned for the next 2 stops (nothing planned for Grand Turk), only to find out that the two we were thinking of doing (parasailing and sailing to an island for snorkeling and stingrays and stuff) were both sold out. I'd been a little uncomfortable waiting so long to try to sign up for something, since my cousin had said that the good ones would sell out. We'd had a big planning meeting trying to work out what everyone wanted to do, and hopefully find some things that would be fun for everyone. Now, in the matter of about 30 seconds, we scrambled and came up with some other options that were still available (stingrays not on their own island, and sailing on a catamaran to a reef with snorkeling) for a reasonable price ($25 and $55 respectively).


Grand Turk - view from the pier

After getting that worked out, we headed down to get off the boat. This shore stop was the shortest of the 3 we did, and we were only going to be in port until about 2 pm, so it was okay that we didn't have anything big planned, other than hanging out at the beach and swimming in the ocean. Speaking of which, swimming in the ocean would be about 10 times as fun if the water didn't make you want to throw up the minute it got in your mouth. Do people who grow up by the beach get over that aspect of it?


Our ship


Group shot on the beach

Anyway, the water was nice and refreshing and we had fun swimming around. Floating on your back in the ocean is much easier than in a pool. Guess that whole salt water aspect goes both ways, huh?

While we were swimming around, we swam out to the rope that divided where were bathing from the open ocean (not sure what the point of this was, other than to perhaps let you know you were far enough out and not to swim too far from the beach and die). I tried to rest on the rope, but found that it wasn't nearly buoyant enough to support me, so I moved over a tad to a plastic buoy on the rope. As soon as I put my arm up on the buoy, I felt a sharp pain in my arm, and quickly pulled my arm off of the buoy. I couldn't see anything at first but on closer inspection found a tiny red pinprick of a mark where the pain originated. I'm assuming I was stung by some type of jellyfish, but was surprised at how tiny the mark was. It continued to itch/burn/mildly bother me and eventually it blossomed into a minor bruise along with some red welts. The bruise faded quickly enough, but surpisingly the welts are still faintly visible even now (3 weeks later!), though not at all painful. Good one Mother Nature!

After some swimming time, we wandered around the tourist trap of stores located on the island and eventually I went for a walk down the beach with Eric and Kellen to see what we could see. Which really wasn't much of anything. After that, I decided I was ready to get back on the boat, and Julie-Ann and Brandon also joined me.


Brandon and Julie-Ann by the welcome sign


Grand Turk - view from on deck

We got back on the boat, had a late lunch, showered, and then found a nice shady spot (due to some clever thinking on our part about which way the boat would be going once it left port) for some reading that quickly turned to napping.

I woke up in time to go downstairs and win a medallion playing Win, Lose, or Draw (I was way too competitive for the crazy way that had that set up, but our team ended up winning anyhow), and then another "Piece of Ship" trophy (along with a hat and some cheap wine) for sports trivia in a trivia round that went to sudden death overtime. I gave the runner-up the wine (after getting my photo taken with it).


Me with my sports trivia prizes

After trivia time, we went to the theatre for the nightly show that consisted of, first a guy who sang old Motown hits who was hugely popular with the audience. When he said he had to end his show, I thought people were going to riot. Did I mention a huge portion of our cruise consisted of African-American families? After he had left the stage, we were treated to a redneck-type comedian who bombed unlike anything I've ever seen. He was not funny. Painfully so. Probably didn't help that the crowd wasn't happy about the first performer ending his set.

Anyway, that was an awkward 30 minutes, and then we got to go to dinner. Another delicious meal, I'm sure, followed by more warm chocolate melting cake, which Eric managed to misname every time (Molten lava chocolate cake? Chocolate molten cake?). Probably the highlight of Wednesday's dinner was a dance number put on by the wait staff, to "Jai Ho".


Wait staff getting their groove on



After dinner, we wandered up to the deck and hung out and watched part of another movie on the deck (Quantum of Solace). I lasted about 5 minutes before falling asleep, and when I woke up, I headed down to bed.

Cruise Control: Day 2

Today's getting old(er) moment: Being halfway to work and realizing I'd left my laptop at home. Having to turn around and go get it, because without it, what am I going to do at work? Have meetings? Read something on paper? Seriously though, without my computer I really couldn't get anything done. Anyway, that was an extra 30 minutes of commuting that I hadn't planned on.

Our 2nd day on the boat (our first full day), was our "Fun Day at Sea", which basically just meant that we weren't going to be stopping anywhere. So it was kind of a day to get used to being on the boat. We did some laying out in the sun, though it was quite windy, and for about 10 minutes a fairly severe rainshower showed up and forced back inside.


Chillin in the room

We ate breakfast and lunch at the main buffet. Played some more trivia -- I won at TV Theme songs, but only due to some major assistance from some older ladies who clearly had watched plenty of TV in their time, so I gave them the "Piece of Ship" trophy. Honestly, they got more of the answers than I did. (Gomer Pyle? Dynasty? Johnny Carson? who knows those songs?)

Tuesday night was "Formal Night" for dinner, so we got dressed up and went up to enjoy some more delicious food. Not sure what I ate that night, other than that I got something called Blanc & Bitter for dessert which was a combination white and dark chocolate bread pudding that was delicious, even if mine only had a tiny speck of dark chocolate (a personal fave) in the midst of all the white. Brandon and Kellen weren't feeling too good so they missed out on dessert. :(


Getting ready for dinner


Dressed up for Dinner


Me with the Ladies

After dinner, we took a couple photos, then changed into more relaxed attire, and hit up a dance show put on by the cruise dance group. After that, we wandered around the boat, checking out the dance club where only a handful of people were dancing while probably over a hundred people stood around drinking, and finally ended up on the deck watching a movie (Eagle Eye) for a while before calling it a night.

Cruise Control: Day 1

So, I'm finally getting around to blogging about my cruise a mere two and a half weeks after getting back from it. When did time start to move so fast? September is past half over, for heaven's sake. Before I know it, I'll be 31. (Actually on Friday, please no gifts, just cash, thanks).

Anyhow, a while ago, I went on a cruise with 7 good friends from here in Salt Lake, 2 of whom happen to be my roommates, and the other 5 of whom are in my ward. Brandon and Mel can argue about whose idea it was, but I'll just say that Brandon is the one that invited me to join in on this cruise to the Bahamas, and I, having never been on a cruise, and suddenly finding myself with both the money and barely enough PTO, decided to give it a go. I especially love going on trips that other people have planned (see my trips to St. George and Yellowstone in July).

Anyway, as soon as we put our down payments in, I started working on getting my passport renewed (yes, it's been more than 10 years since I left on my mission), slimmed down (not specifically for cruise purposes, but hey), and started spending several hours a day standing on a teeter-totter. Okay that last one isn't true, but maybe it would have been good preparation for being on the boat. I can gratefully say that at no point did I ever feel like I was going to throw up, but especially in the first couple days I did feel a little dizzy, like the room was moving (which it was), something that seemed to be most noticeable in large enclosed spaces like the dining room and the theater. I didn't take any Dramamine or anything for motion sickness, but managed to get by alright without it.


Waiting at SLC

Our trip started in the dead of night, with a 12:50 am flight from Salt Lake International to Atlanta and then on to Miami. Julie-Ann and Kellen had flown down a couple days earlier and stayed with Julie-Ann's brother who goes to school down there, so it was the other 6 of us on this flight. On rare occasion, I do sometime wish I'd been involved in planning things, and I would have opted to skip the red-eye, but it probably saved us money on a hotel and just on ticket prices. I was better off than most, as I had pretty much no trouble sleeping on either flight. On both legs, I was out before they went through the safety presentation. Sadly, this meant I missed out on snack and drink time. Brandon was nice enough to save me one of his bags of peanuts on the 2nd leg though. Anyway, even with two longish naps, totally maybe 4 or 5 hours of sleep total, I was still pretty tired, and I can only imagine how the others felt, including some who couldn't sleep at all.

We arrived at Miami Int'l around 9 am, and figured we'd need to find somewhere to eat breakfast and then head to the ship. The van driver we found thought if we just went to the boat, we could get onboard and eat there and not have to buy food somewhere else. We trusted him and while we didn't end up getting on the boat until 11:30, it was better than we'd feared (we thought we couldn't even board until 1 or later).

He dropped us off and a nice young man in serious need of some orthodontic work introduced himself as our "porter" and not-to-subtly suggested that we needed to pay him to ensure the save transfer of our bags to the boat. ("Sometimes you gotta grease the wheels. With some THICK grease. I'd say about $5 per person.") After that, we went through an airport-esque security checkpoint and then into a big room like an airport lobby that had a tall wall of windows where you could see the boat. We got checked in for the cruise, and then waited another 30 minutes or so before boarding and finding some lunch.


Waiting to board the ship

After a quick meal, and some exploring up top, we headed down below deck to get into our room and hopefully take a nap. Our room had 4 beds (2 above the other), but the two top bunks had yet to be lowered from the ceiling, so Brandon used an ottoman and some pillows to make a bridge between the two other beds, and we got some well-needed catch-up sleep. I always slept very well on the cruise. The beds were very comfortable with good pillows, and having an inside cabin meant our room was pretty much pitch black at any hour of the day.


Main deck area


Nap time

Kellen and Julie-Ann got on-board a few hours after we did, and we saw Kellen poke his head in briefly in the midst of our napping. A few hours later, we finally were up and ready to start vacationing for real. First stop? Trivia. Trivia was a common activity on the boat, happening several times a day, and when I could I tried to hit up the games. At this first installment (theme: General Knowledge), I won my first of several rounds, and earned myself a super-cheap Carnival Destiny (our ship) trophy.


Trivia time

After trivia, we headed up to the deck to watch as we sailed out of Miami. Definitely lots of impressive housing there along the route we took. It was kind of funny watching people wave at us, and even cars on the highway honk as we cruised on out into the ocean. You'd think they'd see that stuff all the time, but maybe not.




Leaving Miami

After that, we wandered around the deck some more, some of the girls got airbrushed tattoos, and then we went back to our rooms to see if our luggage had been sufficiently greased to make it to us without incident. Thankfully they had, and we did some unpacking and relaxing until time for dinner.

Dinner turned out to always be one of my favorite moments of each day. Plenty of exciting and tasty choices, and a good time to sit and relax. Plenty of time, too. Dinner started at 8:15 and usually we were getting done right around 10:00. Between bread, appetizers, main course(s), and dessert(s), there was plenty of serving and clean-up and waiting time in between courses. I know the first night I had a steak, and my first of many melting chocolate cakes (with sugar-free ice cream on the side). Can't remember what I had for my appetizer, but I'm sure it was good, too.

After dinner, there was an opening show in the theater where the dancers danced, and the singers sang, and the cruise director cracked some jokes, and then there was an actual comedian who was fairly funny (especially compared to the guy we saw later in the week).


Opening show

After the show, we went up on the deck to chill for a while, and then called it a night.


Apparently everyone needed some space. Not sure why everyone is so spread out in this photo.