Deal With It: The Cruise

Since this is technically a blog about Lucas and he didn't accompany us on vacation, I'm going to keep this (relatively) short (Yikes, I just finished writing this entry after an hour an a half, and I really need to look up the definition of "short" because it's anything but). Suffice to say, though, that the cruise was great. Of course, anything that keeps me away from work for 2 weeks falls under the "Awesome" category for me, so I'm a bit biased. We could probably have sat in the middle of a harbor somewhere for those 10 days, and I'd have been just as thrilled.

The vacation got off to a less-than-fantastic start when we discovered at the airport that we'd left the camera and videocamera back at the house. Thankfully, my mom has been wanting a new digital camera so when we arrived in Manhattan, we found a Best Buy and bought the latest version of our Canon camera to use on the trip. Once I've got all the photos downloaded, we'll then give the camera to my mom and everybody wins.

As it turned out though, I didn't use the camera nearly as much as I expected. Rather than view the vacation through a lens, we just experienced it instead, forgetting about the camera the majority of the time. We still used it for so-called Kodak moments, such as when we were high above a town in St. Thomas, but the majority of it is pictures of the boat or shots as we pulled into harbor.

As with any cruise, there was much eating, drinking, and laziness. I think I'd break a scale and/or cholesterol-checking machine if I were to use either today. Red meat every day and an unhealthy amount of vodka over the last couple of days on the cruise will do that to you. :)

I'm going to post a bunch of pictures below for your convenience, but if you'd like to see the rest, you can check them out in the photo album, which should be updated later on this weekend.

One last thing before the pictures. The only downside to the cruise was that we left out of New York. Why is this bad? Well, that meant that about 70% of the people on the cruise, by our estimation, were from the surrounding area, and let me tell you, the Long Island/Brooklyn/New Jersey accents were wearing pretty damn thin by the end of the trip. Don't even get me started about how they did nothing but complain about the cruise nearly anytime I overheard them (which was often since New Yorkers apparently have a broken volume button in their heads). Other than that, the cruise was a success, but if I never go anywhere near NYC and its wretched accents ever again, it won't be too soon.

Now, on with the pictures...

Crossing under a bridge as we left NYC behind on the first day.

Hanging out at the nightclub on Day 2. That was the only time we got up there during the trip since despite my goal to be buzzed over half of the trip, eating enough food to keep a large family satisfied makes it hard to find any extra space for alcohol.

Marilu poses in front of our ship after we disembarked in San Juan. We walked around a bit, but it wasn't one of the more thrilling stops. Maybe it's just me, but Puerto Rico just doesn't strike me as terribly exotic.

Here's one of the aforementioned pictures from high over St Thomas. We got these pictures done just in time since a massive downpour came through minutes later (see foreboding clouds/fog on the right side of the picture).

Later that day, we took a boat to nearby St. John and snorkeled in the lovely bay below. That was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We took some pictures on a disposable, waterproof camera so once we get that developed, I may post a picture or two from that.

The next port was Tortola, but we didn't have much time AND it was a Sunday so not much was open. As a result, no memorable pictures from there. However, the following day was at Grank Turk, which was probably the best port from a beach standpoint. That's because the beach was right there and didn't require any effort to get to it. As far as I could tell, pretty much the whole island was nothing but beach. I wouldn't mind going back there sometime.

Here's a view of the beach from our cabin. In the foreground is another ship that was docked there. It looked like it might have been some sort of British military boat. The complex behind the beach was comprised of several duty-free shops as well as Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. That place was really cool, but the food was EXTREMELY over-priced. For lunch (just sandwiches), 2 beers, and 2 mixed drinks, we spent over $70!

Long before we left for the cruise, I came up with idea that it would be hilarious to take a picture with my buddy Jason (who got married on the cruise) in matching Speedos. We're far from the ideal body types for Speedos so I figured it would be an amusing gag photo (no pun intended, for those viewing it). Unfortunately, Jason bailed on me at Grand Turk, and since that was the last beach day, I decided to solo it. For those of you with sensitive stomachs, you may want to look away now since this may not be pretty. Of course, just wait until you see the ones that didn't make the blog cut when I upload the rest to the photo albums. :)

On the trip back up the East Coast, I took a few pictures of the pool areas on the ship to give you an idea what the upper deck was like. The first one was the most popular, and hence most crowded of the pools. I only sat by that on the last day since the New York accents and kids running around were almost too much during other days.

The other main pool was where the Movies Under the Stars screen was located. This is a pretty nifty concept since it allows people to watch almost first-run movies right by the pool during the afternoon and again at night. A lot of people seemed to enjoy this, but I only watched one movie, an 11:30 PM showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Kristen (Jason's new wife) and I even stood up and did the Time Warp dance. Fun stuff.

And finally, this is the pool I spent most of my time in or around (while baking under the sun). It was an adults only pool, which kept it a little more sane than the other ones. There was still quite a few floating New Yorkers, but the sheer relaxation value more than made up for it.