Shopping Abroad

Sometimes, I wake up with 2 or 3 topics running through my mind that I just can't wait to share with someone.  Since I live alone and the cats, while good listeners just don't have the same travel interests that I do, I share them with you, the 12 or 13 people inclined to read my blog on a semi regular basis.  I've been super busy lately since returning from a 7 night cruise and working two bridal shows in the last month.  So I haven't had much time to share my travel thoughts with you.

This morning I knew that I had two clients who needed to be taken care of very early so that we could try to get their friends booked before prices to Punta Cana go up further.  So, I began that bright and early.  Now that I've done all I can do on that until I hear back from my clients, I find myself with a little bit of time on my hands and suddenly I can't remember a single topic that I have been putting off writing about.  Weird....

So, I think I'll just tell you about one of the purchases I made during my recent cruise.  On the day that we were in Roatan, I told you all about the great shopping area and beach at Mahogany Bay.  I probably bought more there than in any port I have been to in the last 5 years.  I don't generally like shopping on vacation.  It seems like a waste of time.  However, if I am going to shop, I like shopping in places that we don't have at home.  And I am a total sucker for those little markets in foreign places where it seems like everything is one of a kind and the person showing it to you is probably the daughter of the craftsman.  Then you walk 3 stalls down and they are selling the same "one of a kind" item for $3 less.  That's when I turn the artistic piece of Honduran woodwork over to see if it has a Made in Indonesia sticker on the bottom.  This place had a little bit of that.  But for the most part, it actually seemed pretty authentic which put me, Mom and Doris into a shopping frenzy.

I bought a really nice set of wooden dominoes since my dominoes were the ones that come in a tin and are the multi-colored train dominoes.  I always get embarrassed when family comes to my house and I have to whip out the childish train dominoes.  We're big game players and you would think that by now I would have invested more than $8 in a set of dominoes.  But I digress.  Mom and I each got Roatan polo shirts, because you can never have too many of those.  While I was paying for my dominoes I noticed that Mom was talking to a man at the booth next to the one I was in and I couldn't believe that she was about to make a purchase without me.  So, I quickly finished my transaction and rushed over to see what she was buying without me.  I'm not sure it would have mattered what it was, I just blurted out "I want the same thing she's getting!"  It turned out to be Honduran coffee and coffee flavored jelly.  I'm thinking that he probably was a little surprised to have made the sell to Mom and then was totally shocked when I tagged on.  I'll admit to you now that the coffee is still unopened and is sitting in my freezer.  The jelly is unopened as well and in the pantry.  I'll get around to using both eventually.

As the morning went on, and we made our way around to each stall in the little market the stalls became more sparse as you headed to the western side of the market.  Surprisingly there isn't a huge market for authentic Honduran handbags made from recycled beer tabs.  Shocking, I know!  But on that side of the market there was one stall that was doing a booming business.  In fact you had to get in line and as we got closer to the front, we found out that they were passing out samples of flavored Honduran rums.  Yep that's right....  Mom and I hit the jackpot.  They had 3 flavors, chocolate, coffee and something....  I honestly can't remember since they had me at chocolate and coffee.  I didn't even taste the third one.  It was probably some sort of fruit flavor.  You can never trick me with fruit when there is coffee or chocolate to be had even it it's only flavoring.

So Mom and I each tasted the chocolate and coffee flavored rums.  I have to tell you that the chocolate rum was really bad.  It just seemed wrong on so many levels once I had it in my mouth.  But the coffee was a grand slam!  Oh my!!!!  As I sipped it I thought about all the amazing drinks I could make with it and before I knew it I had a bottle of the 33% alcohol rum wrapped up and ready to take back to the ship.  So, here is my rum. As you can see there is a little bit missing from the bottle and I know what you're thinking..... Oh dear... Susan must have bought a bottle with a leak!!!!  Well, no.... You see the problem is that since I have returned from the cruise the weather here in Dallas has been pretty darn cold and you all know how much I hate cold weather so the other night I decided to test the coffee flavored rum in a little cup of Hot Buttered Rum.  Folks, I only have one word of advise.  Never use plain rum in your Hot Buttered Rum again.  The coffee flavor made this the best hot toddy I have every tasted and I'm a little bit of a hot toddy aficionado. Now the challenge is going to be making this bottle last until my next trip to Honduras or finding a way to get the same thing here.  Hmmmmm.... I think I am up to the challenge.

Have a good Thursday and if you have a similar item that you have purchased during your travels, drop me a note and tell me about it.  The world needs to learn about these amazing finds that we come across.

You Can Get It at the ABC Store

Guess where it's warm today.....  Hawaii!  Yep that's right, if you were in our 50th state today you wouldn't need a coat and ear muffs.  I find one of the nicest things about traveling to Hawaii is all of the stuff you don't need.

Pretty much the things you do need are sunscreen, a couple pairs of sunglasses in case something happens to one of them, a couple of swimsuits, a couple of cover ups, a few pairs of shorts and tops, a sundress and lots of flip flops.  Anything else you carry would just be frou-frou.  And who needs frou-frou in Hawaii?  I really think it would be possible to pack for two weeks in Hawaii with just a single rolling carry on.

One of the things I learned early on when I began researching Hawaii several years ago before I went was that people there take the concept of island time and attitude to a whole new level.  The other thing I learned is that anything you need in Hawaii can be obtained at an ABC Store.  If they don't carry it, you don't need it.  If you get on Trip Advisor and ask something like, I'll be spending the next 6 weeks in Hawaii and I only have a backpack to bring all my stuff in, what do I need to bring?  The responses would be something like this....

Answer 1:  6 weeks?  Bring 2 swimsuits so you can wash one each night in your hotel sink and hang it out to dry.  2 pairs of shorts, 4 tees, wear flip flops and bring another pair and you can go to the ABC Store for sunscreen, laundry detergent and toothpaste when you arrive.
Answer 2:  Don't listen to Answer 1, he doesn't know what he's talking about.  You need to wear hiking shoes on the plane so that you'll have them and pack 2 pairs of flip flops. Oh! Don't forget to bring a rain poncho!
Answer 3:  Aloha!  You're going to love living in Hawaii for 6 weeks with nothing but a backpack.  Forget the rain poncho.  Those things are $2 at the ABC Store.  All you need to bring with you is your favorite board shorts and your Aloha Spirit.  Anything else you bring is just stuff.
Answer 4:  They're all wrong.  You need to bring your drivers license and a credit card so you can rent a car.  You don't want to be in Hawaii for 6 weeks without a car!
Answer 1 Again:  No, no, no.....  Bring everything I told you and ignore Answer 4 completely.  You don't need a  rental car, parking on Oahu costs a fortune.  Just take The Bus!  It can get you anywhere efficiently.
Answer 4 Again:  HA!!!!  The Bus?!?!?!?  Are you kidding me?  Answer 1 must work for the mass transit system.  You would need a day and a half to get to Pearl City on The Bus.  Bring the following and don't read any other responses....

• Drivers license
• Credit card
• 2 pairs of flip flops
• 3 swim suits
• 2 pairs of shorts
• 3 tee shirts
• something to sleep in
• a cap

Then once you get here, stop at the first ABC store you pass AFTER RENTING YOUR CAR and get sunscreen, sunglasses, a bottle of water, a chair for the beach, snorkel gear, a power bar, a new cell phone, and a months supply of Advil, allergy medication, lip balm, and a beach towel.
Answer 2 Again:  Okay, Answer 4 has a pretty good list, but don't forget to wear the hiking shoes and buy a rain poncho at the ABC Store.
Answer 5:  Did anyone mention underwear?  You'll want that....
Answer 4 Again:  Hey Answer 5, we all assume that people on the mainland know to bring underwear.  But if they don't they can get it at the ABC Store.
Answer 6:  When you are at the ABC Store be sure and pick up one of those styrofoam ice chests to keep in your hotel room and get a 6 pack of beer or Cokes to keep at your hotel.  Don't buy ice.  You can get that for free at your hotel.  Aloha!!!!!
Answer 7:  You can also pick up a hibachi at the ABC Store and a can of Spam so you can cook dinner on your hotel's balcony each night.

Basically, I found out that the answer to just about every question asked on Trip Advisor was, "You can get that at the ABC Store once you arrive."  It's like the residents of Hawaii all are ABC Store stockholders and this is their strategy for continued growth in the business.  The big controversy on TA is always whether visitors should rent a car or rely on The Bus.  There are very clearly two camps on this argument and both have very strong opinions.

Before we went, we decided that both had valid arguments and we were trying to travel on a tight budget, so we decided to rely on The Bus for most of our getting around, but to rent a car for 2 days so that we could drive up to the North Shore and see a few of the places that weren't as easy to get to without a private car. After my experience, I can tell you that the people in Hawaii who say The Bus is the way to get around are either insane, employed by The Bus, or have never in their lives needed to arrive anywhere in a timely manner.

Oahu is 44 miles long and 30 miles across.  It shouldn't take more than an hour or two depending on traffic and red lights to get anywhere, right?  I once spent what felt like 3 days on The Bus driving from Waikiki to Pearl Harbor.  According to Google, it's a 27 minute drive.  But literally we were on The Bus for close to 2 hours after waiting more than an hour for The Bus to arrive so that we could get on.  If you go to Hawaii, RENT A CAR!  It's worth whatever you have to pay to do so just so that you don't spend half of your vacation angry over long bus rides that stop at every single corner in Honolulu.

Beyond that, sit back, relax, pack lightly and don't worry.  If you forget something you can always pick it up at the ABC Store.

A Recap of my America's Cup Race

I opened my computer today and the temperature in the upper right hand corner read 16 degrees.  I get slightly pissy when the temperature drops below 60 so you can probably imagine my attitude this morning.  I was supposed to go to Chamber of Commerce this morning.  But when it's 16 degrees outside and your bed is all nice and warm, that's not really possible.  So, let's talk Cozumel instead.

We arrived in Cozumel on Thursday last week.  It was our final stop before returning to Houston and I had an excursion planned.  I was doing the 12 Meter America's Cup Regatta Sail.  Now I had done this same excursion in St. Martin several years ago during a Celebrity Cruise and it was the best excursion I had ever been on.  So, you can probably imagine how excited I was to do it again and in a port that nearly every ship in the Caribbean hits at least twice a month.  Imagine the possibilities if it turned out to be as great as it was in St. Martin.  I could find myself on a 12 meter America's Cup boat twice a year if that were the case.  

The excursion was supposed to meet in the theater on the ship at 8:30 AM.  I was really excited and didn't want to miss a thing.  So I got there at 7:45.  As I arrived, I was told by one of the cruise directors staff that I could go on down to the dock and meet the excursion there since customs had already cleared the ship. So I got on the elevator to go downstairs and leave the ship with a couple who had been told the same thing. It turned out we were all going on the same excursion.  So, we walked together and chatted as we made our way to the meeting place.  Their names were John and Freda and they were from Longview. John seemed to be as excited about this excursion as I was, but Freda might have walked away if it was left up to her.  

John and I continued to talk about the excursion, their sons golf and various other topics as Freda regularly checked in with the guy in charge of the excursion.  Finally a little after 8:30 we were told that it was too windy and the port wasn't allowing small boats to go out but they were going to check again at 10:00. So I decided to go back to the ship and see if I could find Mom and Dad.  When I arrived on the Aloha Deck, Mom, Dad, Doris and Don were all having breakfast out near the pool so I sat down and visited with them and we all decided to go to shore after they finished their breakfast.

You probably don't need to know all the details, but eventually the excursion was allowed to proceed around 10:30 or 11 and we were taken over the 12 Meter Regatta office which is just a few steps from the dock to wait for groups that were coming from other ships.  Once we were there they showed us a video of the 1986 America's Cup in which they raced some of the boats we would be boarding and there was time to scout out some tee shirts to purchase after we finished sailing.  After everyone arrived, we were lead off to a boat which would take us to the sailboats.  In route we were each given assignments.  I was assigned the job of Wench Witch, ironically the very same job I had when I did this in St. Martin.  Basically, I was to sit at the back of the boat and wrap rope around a wench or let rope off the the wench when we needed to make a turn.  I was on the True North IV.  The boat we were racing against was the Stars and Stripes.  In St. Martin there was a 3rd boat.  In Cozumel, they only have the two boats to race.

We were told along the way that a Canadian started the business in St. Martin a number of years ago after obtaining a number of the old America's Cup boats.  Once it was successful in St. Martin, he expanded to Cozumel.  In St. Martin, all of the crew members on each of the boats had America's Cup sailing experience. In Cozumel, the two captains had regatta sailing experience.  But I'm not sure that anyone had been in an America's Cup race.  These two captains in Cozumel were brothers from Australia.  Our captains name was Ian and as is generally the case with Australian men, they were both pretty good looking.  The other crew members were all from Cozumel.

In St. Martin, during a straight away, a boat came up behind us and the captain had us all turn around for a photo that turned out to be awesome and we were able to purchase after our race.  They didn't do that in Cozumel which seems like a missed opportunity for them to make some money since just about everybody bought the photos in St. Martin.  We ended up losing the race in Cozumel which makes my personal America's Cup record 1 and 1.  But, we did protest.  The judge seemed to have it in for our captain, Ian. Probably a jealousy thing since Ian was so good looking.  During the race, my foot slipped as I was tightening the rope at one point and my knee hit the bottom of the boat resulting in a scraped knee.  I was pretty happy that this is the closest I came to falling down during the entire cruise.  It was all very minor and for me, a real victory.

After the race, we were taken back to the office where we could buy tee shirts and caps and had a rum punch.  Then I walked on back to the ship.  I didn't do any shopping in Cozumel.  After all, I have plenty of vanilla and I'll be back there in June.  Back on the ship, I spent time on my balcony taking pictures of the next group doing the sail boat racing which is where the picture below came from.  Mom and Dad said they watched my race from the ship and took lots of pictures, but I haven't seen those yet.

Dinner on Thursday night was formal and it was steak and lobster night.  So we were all in attendance in the dining room.  I even got to have escargot which I love.  After dinner Mom and I stayed downstairs and played a game before going back to our cabins.  Princess didn't do much as far as the normal cruise games go.  I never saw a Quest or Newlywed game to attend.  There wasn't much Karaoke which I would NEVER participate in but love ridiculing those who do and believe that they are really good singers.  Karaoke singers who actually are good bore me a little.  To me, it's not good Karaoke unless there are a lot of participants who have mothers who have allowed them to go through life believing that they are among the most talented people in the world despite evidence to the contrary.  But that's a blog topic for another day. They did do a lot of trivia type games at all hours.  They also had a number of opportunities for ballroom dancing which I think is neat.

Friday was our last day at sea and it was a little chilly out as we headed back into the Gulf of Mexico.  I bought a few charms for my cruise bracelet and a couple of bottles of alcohol to take home from the duty free shops on board.  We made the rounds saying goodbye to Joseph and attended a cooking show in the theater where we were entertained watching the chef create a few of his signature dishes and by one of the head waiters, Hector.  I haven't told you about Hector yet.  He sang to us almost every night in the dining room.  The man is from Mexico and has an amazing voice.  It's hard to believe that his job title on the ship is head waiter and not entertainer.  Here's a video of Hector's amazing performance during the show.  Sorry it's a little shaky.  But I'm not a videographer.  I must say that we were entertained in the dining room better on this ship than on most others that I have been on.  However, the shows after dinner left a little to be desired in most cases.  But we did have a good comedian on Wednesday night.  There was a magician scheduled one night but he apparently got sick and couldn't perform.  That was good news for me since I don't really like magicians.... they creep me out.

All in all, I had a good time.  There are things that I like a lot about Princess and other things that I think Royal Caribbean and Celebrity do better.  As I said at the beginning of these posts, Caribbean Princess will be going into dry dock at the end of April and then she'll begin to sail out of Port Everglades.  If you want to get on board before she leaves Houston, you should get in touch with me.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.

If It's Wednesday, We Must Be In Belize!

Today we talk about the Belize stop during last weeks cruise on Caribbean Princess.  I've been to Belize several times, but I've never been there on a day when it didn't rain.  I have always been there with only one exception between November and February so I thought it was my timing.  I was trying to give Belize the benefit of the doubt and had decided that this must be the rainy season.  Nope!  It turns out that November to April is the best time of year to go.  So maybe it's me.

Since my cabin was on the starboard side of the ship and we were once again traveling north, I had access to sunrises now from my balcony, I mean assuming I could manage to get out of bed in time to catch one. As luck would have it on the morning we arrived in Belize I woke early enough to catch the sunrise and although it was overcast. there was still some pretty color to capture.

Belizean Sunrise

We arrived in Belize early in the morning on Wednesday.  I had no excursions planned for Belize.  On previous stops there I have done a city tour that ended up at a little resort/museum on the outskirts of Belize City and I have done several different snorkel trips.  For some, snorkeling in the rain may not seem like a problem.  For me, it's a problem.  I know, I'm going to get wet anyway when I snorkel.  But the rain makes it cold.  Plus without the sunlight to shine in the water, the visibility is greatly reduced.  On top of that, it seems like the snorkel boats take you to really deep water for snorkeling in Belize.  These might be great diving locations. But I don't like being 30 feet above the fish.  There are other excursions available in Belize, but I just didn't feel like planning one for each stop this trip anyway.  So considering my excursion experiences there in the past, this seemed like the right spot to skip one and I am so glad that I did.

Belize is a stop that is always tendered meaning there is no dock for the ship to tie up to.  The ship anchors off shore and they load you on small boats and take you to the dock.  The tender ride is about 15 to 20 minutes each way which I think makes it wise to plan your day so that you only leave the ship once.  So if you have an excursion, you need to plan your time so that you shop along the dock either immediately before or after the excursion and then you only have to make one trip back to the ship.  I don't have the patience to wait in line for ship tenders more than twice a day.  The reason that they can't dock in Belize has to do with the water depth and the reef.

Our ship at anchor as we pulled away on the tender.

So on  this stop in Belize we all planned to take the tender over after most of the excursions had left so that we wouldn't have to wait around too long.  That meant that we had a later than normal breakfast and then were ready to go to shore around 10.  Mom had read somewhere about a chocolate factory on the dock that did a tour and she was determined that we should do that.  So, it was really our only plan for the day.

I should tell you that as we were sailing into Belize on Wednesday morning we were followed by two NCL ships and one Carnival ship.  So there were to be 4 ships in port on this day, making it very crowded in Belize.  I think by now, you are all aware of how I feel about NCL and Carnival so I won't go into it.  Let's just say that most of the people on the dock in Belize last Wednesday weren't the sort of people to wait patiently and allow someone using a walker step in front of them to use a ramp.  These are the sort of people who block the accessible ramp so that they have a convenient place to smoke their cigarette and watch the person using a walker try to make their way around crowds to finally make it to the stairs, fold their walker, have someone else carry it down the stairs and get another person to help them walk down the stairs just for entertainment.  Since our friend Doris needed a walker to get around Belize, this was a little annoying at least to me although Doris never expressed any concern.

Once we got to the dock, we started following Mom's directions to get us to the chocolate factory.  Mom's like a homing pigeon.  You can blindfold her, spin her around in a dark room then take the blindfold off and tell her to point north and she'll get it right every time.  The chocolate factory was located at the far end of the pier away from where we got off the tender.  The name of the chocolate factory is Moho Chocolate and to say it is a factory is somewhat of an overstatement.  It is a small building with a couple of different rooms enclosed in glass so that the customers can see what is taking place inside and all chocolate production occurs in this space. From what we saw, there seemed to be fewer than 10 people running everything from production to sales and tours.  So, when I say it is a small operation, I mean small.

Lady in one of the glass enclosed rooms making chocolate

While Mom, Dad and Don helped Doris make her way past the countless idiots blocking ramps, I went on in to inquire about the tours Mom had read about.  The small shop was so crowded I could hardly get inside and finally got in line at the cash register to ask.  When it was my turn, I asked the girl about the tours and was told that a tour was about 5 minutes long, it cost $2 per person and the "tour guide", Charles was currently conducting another tour (5 feet away) but would be ready for us in about 4 minutes.  So I gave her $10 and told her that we wanted to do the tour. She told me that we should sit down and would be called when it was our turn.  So we all made our way to the corner indicated and took seats.  Soon afterward, many other people began to sit around us.

Charles the tour guide explaining the process and going over the different flavors of chocolate bars available

When the girl came to get us for our tour, apparently some of the others felt they should have gone ahead of us.  I'm not sure why, these were the same people blocking the wheel chair ramps earlier out front that we went around to get inside.... But we went ahead and began our tour which consisted of us walking behind a rope line 5 feet away and then Charles began the $2 tour.  He told us about the entire process of making the chocolate, showing us both roasted and unroasted cocoa beans.  In fact while he conducted the tour he took a batch out of the roaster (I guess that's one of his side jobs), and told us about the various items they produce within their little factory.  It was actually a very interesting tour and I highly recommend it.  Mom had read that at the end of the tour you were allowed to make your own chocolate bars.  But we didn't get to do this.  I think it was because they were just too busy while we were there.  One of the funniest things about the tour was the two men standing on the other side of the rope who listened to every word of the tour and followed us along the rope line. Apparently, the $2 fee for the tour was out of their price range so they just listened in on ours.  During the tour we got a little taste of milkshake and then were given samples of as many different types of chocolate that they produce as we wanted (the tour crashers got no samples).  It helped us to figure out what we wanted to purchase.  I wound up with  3 dark chocolate bars, one with chilis, one with ginger and the last one with cocoa nibs.  I've already eaten the ginger one.  It was to die for.  The other two bars are currently in my freezer and I plan to save them for a special occasion.

The last stop of the tour - the cold room

They produce both dark chocolate and milk chocolate along with cocoa powder for cooking.  I would love to have gotten some cocoa powder, but since I just bought a two year supply of Hershey's Cocoa during the holidays, it seemed like a wasteful thing to do.  They also sell soaps and a few other items and have a coffee bar where you can get your favorite chocolate flavored coffee drink whipped up.

After leaving the Moho Chocolate Factory, we started making our way back down the dock toward our tender shopping along the way.  Dad and Don went and found a place to sit while Mom and Doris went into one of those big duty free stores and I visited my favorite shop in Belize The Loom which is apparently closing. :-(  The girl working in the shop told me that they were being forced out by the mega duty free shop next door which Mom and Doris were shopping in.  She said that the owner of that business has already taken over 6 other shops and theirs was the last hold out.  But they were down to their final days.  So, everything in the store was being liquidated.  It's a shame.  The Loom is a local textile shop that sells hand woven items for the home including comforters, shams, pillow covers, table runners and rugs among other things.  The quality of the textiles is remarkable.  I bought 3 pillow covers while I was there and am kicking myself because I didn't buy one of the table runners.  Each time I have ever been to Belize, I have looked forward to shopping in The Loom.  But now, most of what will be left on the dock is the mega duty free stores which I refuse to spend money in.

Belize Harbor - despite the flag it's not an American territory.  But most of the businesses on the dock are now owned by Americans.

Once we were back on the ship, Mom and I had decided to get in a hot tub.  But sitting in a hot tub in the rain had no appeal.  So, we wound up going to visit Joseph in the Lobby Bar and then having a lazy afternoon.  It was wonderful to tour the chocolate factory but it would have been much nicer if it hadn't been so crowded and I was happy to have one last chance to visit The Loom before they close.  But maybe next time, I'll work a little harder to find an excursion.

Since we were heading back north, I was no longer on the correct side of the ship to photograph any sunsets.  So my evening was much less busy than evenings past.  In fact, I got to the Lobby Bar where I was supposed to meet everybody for dinner about an hour early giving me plenty of time for people watching. Tomorrow I'll tell you all about Cozumel which was our final stop of this cruise.  Have a great Thursday and try to stay warm!

Mahogany Bay - Roatan

Yesterday I told you all about our first two days at sea during last week's cruise.  The third day of the trip we arrived in Roatan, Honduras.  If you know me at all, you already know that I LOVE Roatan.  It is one of my favorite places on earth.  I love it mostly because when you stick your head underwater, it's like sticking your head inside a perfectly clean fish tank.  I can't believe that any place on earth has better snorkeling.  During previous cruise stops in Roatan I was always on Royal Caribbean or in one instance, on NCL which means, I have only docked at Coxen Hole on previous cruises.  But Carnival Corp who owns Princess along with Carnival, Costa, Holland America and various other cruise lines built a new dock there a few years ago and this was my first visit to Carnival's Mahogany Bay dock.

On the day we were in port, we were the only ship at Mahogany Bay.  It is equipped to berth two ships at once.  But fortunately for us, we were the only ship in town, so to speak.  I had planned an excursion to Tabyana Beach which is a terrific location for snorkeling.  I've been there twice and loved it both times.  But after arriving at Mahogany Bay and seeing all there is to do there, I didn't really want to go off on an excursion by myself while Mom, Dad, Doris and Don stayed there.  So after 20 minutes or so of walking around with them, I decided to skip my planned excursion and just wing it.

A view of the ship from the shopping area

To be honest I can be easily swayed by shiny objects and the "flying beach chairs" at Mahogany Bay while not shiny were a little bit of a distraction for me.  So, we walked around from shop to shop for an hour or two haggling over prices in the little market area and buying all the things that we suddenly felt like we couldn't live without.  Then the 5 of us went back over to the ship.  Mom, Dad and I dropped our purchases off and I had time for a quick shower before we headed back into the port to ride the beach chairs, shop a little more and sit down for a relaxing beer and nachos.

Dad and Don found a bench to sit on while we shopped.

The flying beach chair thing is really more like a ski lift than anything else. It takes you above the walkway and they charge $12 for adults to ride it. I think kids were $6 or $7. If you chose to walk there is a nature trail that you can take and they have labels for a lot of the flowers so that you'll have an idea of what you are looking at.  Or you could just sit on the beach chair thing like me and say things like, "that's a pretty flower, I wonder what it is...." as you fly by. It is a great vantage point for taking pictures and as I'm sure you're all aware, I only ever go on these trips so that I can inform you when I return.  It's not about me at all.... It's about you!  So, Mom, Dad and I paid our $12 each and took a ride on the beach chairs.

A rest area on the walking trail

Apparently, there is plenty to see and do on Mahogany Beach.  We never even got off of the beach chair, but I got plenty of pictures of all you can do there.  Of course there's the beach with all the wonderful beachy things you love.  Additionally, there are non motorized water sports like the couple in the kayak to the right are experiencing.  They have captive dolphins that I suppose you could swim with although I don't condone that.  But if you're able to do that and still sleep at night, it's available.

 As we rode the beach chairs, Doris and Don sat on their balcony and waved at us.  You can probably see them in the middle of the photo to the left.  By the way, you can see that their balcony is located just one floor below the main pool.  They said each time one of those chairs was scraped across that pool deck area, they heard it in their cabin.  So, take my advice and never accept a room on a deck just below a major public area on a ship.

We decided not to get off the chair lift on Mahogany Beach so we just made the turn and continued on.  But you can see in the photo below just how nice the beach is.  It didn't seem overly crowded but again we were the only ship in port and the dock does accommodate two cruise ships.  I wouldn't want to be on this beach on a day when two Carnival ships were docked.  Ugh!  Just imagine all the drunk guys named Bubba....  Not for me!

Although there were a lot of mean looking clouds we experienced sun most of the day.

The ride really does give you great views of your ship. So, if you're having trouble getting a good photo of your ship, maybe you'll want to take a ride on the Flying Beach Chairs.  Below Mom and Dad posed for a picture while on the chairs.  Your ship doesn't have to be docked in Mahogany Bay to visit the area.  Anybody is welcome. I would think that on a day that there is no cruise ship docked there, it would be an amazing place to go.  There is a calendar on their website indicating what days a ship is in port.

 To the left is the area where the non-motorized water sports are housed as well as the captive dolphins.  We could see the dolphins swimming around in the enclosures. :-(  The bridge serves the walking trail.  The walk didn't look like it was very long.  So if you don't want to pay $12 each to ride over to the beach, the walk looks pretty nice.

Below you can see the shopping area as we made our way back into it. There is a bar called Fat Tuesday's there in which nachos seemed to be the only food on the menu.  But your cruise ship is just 100 yards away with all that food you're already paying for.  So what do you need with a big menu.  Dad and I each had a local beer which wasn't bad.  Mom had a pina colada there and seemed to enjoy it too.

Mom and Dad with our waiter at Fat Tuesday's

Once we were back on the ship, I had a few hours back in my room to relax while taking photos of the Roatan sunset.  As we left port we all met up on deck to take a few last pictures of Roatan.  It was a pretty great day and the cruise was only half way over.  Tomorrow we'll cover Belize.  Have a great Wednesday!

Days at Sea

Today I'm continuing my trip report for the Princess Cruise on Caribbean Princess that I just returned from. Since the ship left Houston a little late, our itinerary had to be altered slightly.  Now, don't ask me what the original itinerary was, because I cannot tell you.  Even the Princess Cruise Atlas shows the itinerary to be exactly the same as the one we sailed leaving Houston on Saturday, spending 2 days at sea and arriving in Roatan on Tuesday, Belize on Wednesday and Cozumel on Thursday followed by Friday at sea and returning to Houston on Saturday.  But during muster the captain announced that since we were leaving late, we were going to move Cozumel to our last stop (I thought all along it was the last stop) and make Roatan the first stop after 2 days at sea.  Again, color me confused because I thought that was what we were supposed to do.  So, as you might guess, this news did not effect me in any way.

Waking up the first morning at sea, I went to breakfast a little late and discovered that most of the other 2,999 people on board had the same plan.  Since the previous week's cruise had a Norovirus outbreak, you were not allowed to serve yourself in the Horizon buffet.  So, they had workers standing in front of each station to serve you.  But that made it difficult to get around because you would have to walk around the workers.  So it took me about 30 minutes just to get my food.  Now I'm not a fan of a buffet in the first place.  But there has never been any buffet food worth waiting 30 minutes for and the scrambled eggs on this cruise probably weren't worth waiting 30 seconds for. After breakfast, I found a fruit carving exhibition in my Princess Patter that I was interested in attending so I went to that.  

 If it hadn't taken so long to get my breakfast I would have called Mom and had her meet me at the fruit carving.  She would have really enjoyed it.  But there was no time before it began since I was running so late.  When I did catch up with Mom and Dad they told me that there were no lines in Horizon before 9 AM so I made plans to get to the buffet earlier for the rest of the cruise.  In fact for the rest of the week, I met Mom, Dad, Doris and Don for breakfast each day.

After the fruit carving I caught up with Mom and we went to the Lobby Bar where we met Joseph. I will tell you that any hard feelings caused by spending 30 minutes in a buffet line were totally erased by meeting Joseph.  He became our bartender of the cruise.  To begin with Mom and I went to the Lobby Bar and I ordered a Bloody Mary and asked him to make it spicy.  It was still a little less spicy than I like so I asked if he could make it spicier.  He did and then he knew exactly how I liked my Bloody Mary's.  So we called Dad to let him know that we had found a good Bloody Mary and he came down to try it for himself. Joseph was from the Philippines and was just a really friendly person.  He told Dad and I about the Princess drink punch cards.  It's a program where each time you buy a drink you receive punches on a card based on what type of drink it is, beer gets 1 punch, wine and cocktails get 2, premium drinks get 3 or 4 and buckets of beer get 5 punches.  A card holds 30 punches.  When you get a card all punched out, they drop it in a box for a drawing that is held the last day at sea of each cruise.  The winner of the drawing has their bar tab comp'd.  But here's the thing.  If you are friendly with the bartenders.... they'll give you extra punches.  If you're rude, they don't.  When it comes to a free bar tab, I can be very friendly.  I got 3 cards filled during my cruise.  Of course, I didn't win.  But c'est la vie.  Joseph worked from 9 AM to 11 PM each day at the Lobby Bar with breaks for lunch and dinner.  So he was always easy to find.  He became our very own Issac. But I will tell you that it's a little sad when the bartender doesn't need your card to charge your drinks because he has memorized your folio number.... Just sayin'....

Mom, Alex, Hope and Doris

So, anyway a couple of Bloody Mary's later, I went back up to my room and relaxed on my balcony until time to get ready for dinner.  Apparently that last polar vortex even effected the Caribbean so it was kind of chilly on the first day at sea and the last day at sea.  Even in Cozumel the high temperature on the day we were there was only in the 70's.  So I saw no pool time on Sunday. Below are a couple of photos of the sunset on Sunday night. Sweet, huh?

Hey wait!  How did that wine glass get in there?

Sunday night was one of the two formal nights on this cruise. Doris and Don didn't make it to dinner on Sunday since Doris was still recovering from a bout of bronchitis that she had before we left. So Mom, Dad and I met our waiter Alex and our assistant waiter Hope. Alex was from Mexico and Hope was from the Philippines. They were both very nice throughout the cruise. The photo of them with Mom and Doris was taken on the last night of the cruise.

The view of empty chairs from where I was sitting.

On the second day at sea, I spent several hours out by a pool.  One of the things that I love about Princess is that they have multiple small pools rather than just one or two large ones.  I found a spot on deck 16 near a pool with less than 20 people in the area.  And the weather couldn't have been more perfect for laying around drinking a few beers and reading a trashy romance novel.  

Yeah.... Places You'll Go was represented on the ship

This was the view 10 feet behind where I was sitting.  That pool is on deck 14 and is adults only.

My chair!

The pool area that I was at actually had a small regular pool, a kiddie pool and a hot tub.  I know what you are thinking.  What was Susan doing at a kiddie pool????!?!?!!  But there were only about 10 kids on the entire ship.  So, it was just about the quietest  place around! While I was there only 1 kid showed up at the pool and she was traveling with her grandparents who weren't taking any flack from her.  It was pretty great!

The one and only "kiddie" in the kiddie pool!

While sitting at the pool I got a bucket of beer and could only drink two of them so I took the rest of them to my room where they lasted me most of the rest of the week.  That's just another perk of having a fridge in the room.  Upon returning to my room, my mission became to get the best possible pictures of sunset from my balcony.  So that's what I worked on until dinner that night.  I must say, I kind of liked a few of them.  All in all, it was a very relaxing day.  Tomorrow we'll touch on Roatan and maybe even Belize if there's time.  

Have a great Tuesday!

I'm BACK - And It's Trip Report Time!

Well, it's been a busy 10 or 12 days since you last heard from me.  You'll be happy to know that I did eventually get packed for my cruise although I didn't actually start until 4:30 in the afternoon on the day before the ship pulled out of the Bayport Cruise Terminal.  In addition I was able to unpack on the ship, pack again to come home and have nearly unpacked for the final time.  I say nearly, because I'm still living out of my carry-on bag in my bedroom floor.  But I fully anticipate that it will be unpacked sometime later today.  But you don't open these little literary jewels I like to call a travel blog simply to hear about my status as far as packing goes.  I suppose some of you want to read about the actual trip.  So here it goes.

Just to get everyone up to speed, I'll recap.  I've just come off of a 7 night cruise on Caribbean Princess which is a 10 year old Princess ship currently sailing a singular Western Caribbean itinerary out of Houston's Bayport Cruise Terminal.  She carries a little over 3,000 passengers and has 18 decks if you count the Sky or Star Deck and who wouldn't?  I was traveling with my parents and our family friends, Doris and Don Bailey.  The itinerary is Roatan, Belize and Cozumel.  Caribbean Princess will be making this run weekly until the end of April when she'll go into dry dock.  Then in November, Emerald Princess will come into Bayport Terminal to take her place beginning with the first cruise on November 16th and staying through April 2015.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you that this cruise was not without it's mishaps.  Although, none of them were a great inconvenience for those in our travel group.  For the most part, things went fairly smoothly for us.  To begin with, once I finally began packing on Friday afternoon, I got a call from my Dad who informed me that the Bailey's had received either a phone call or email (I can't remember which and it really doesn't matter) from Princess stating that they would have to board late because there was a Norovirus outbreak on board during the previous cruise which was currently heading into Houston and the entire ship was going to have to be disinfected before we could board.  He asked if I had heard anything, I had not.  So we both started checking email regularly.  I eventually got one around 9:45 PM on Friday night. Dad's came through a little after 7 PM.  All of the messages said that we could start boarding around 2 PM instead of the normal noon.

So I got up bright and early on Saturday morning to make the drive to Houston and was still about 30 minutes away from the cruise ship terminal around 1:15 when my Mom called and said that they had just been turned away from the terminal where they were told that the ship had just made it into the port due to fog the previous night.  They were now anticipating a 6:30 PM embarkation.  They had suggested that all 3,000 arriving passengers spend the day in Kemah on the boardwalk.  Now, I don't know how much time you have spent in that area.  But on a normal Saturday without an extra 3,000 people who are itching to get onto a cruise ship, it can be a little crowded and hectic.  So, there was no way we were going to deal with those crowds.  So we all headed to Texas City to spend a few hours visiting my Aunt Lou.  Following the visit with Aunt Lou, we went to a Mexican restaurant for some good ol' TexMex and then drove back over to the terminal even though it was only 5:30.  As luck would have it, they had just begun to let cars into the lot for dropping luggage off.  Although the process seemed to take a great deal of time.  We were in line and waiting to check in by 6:15.

After getting on board we all split up and went to our rooms.  I was on Baja Deck in room 437.  Mom and Dad were down the hall from me in 315. We were all on the starboard side of the ship in balcony cabins. Doris and Don were up on the Riviera Deck in cabin 518 on the port side also a balcony cabin.  The ship is fairly nice but in need of a few updates, which it will receive in dry dock this spring.  I was pleased with my cabin.  It was slightly smaller than a superior oceanview balcony on Royal Caribbean which is what I'm used to.  But it was still nice.  One thing that I like about Princess is that the cabins all have mini refrigerators and you don't get that on Royal Caribbean.  Here are a couple of pictures of my room as I arrived.

The bathroom was like any other on a cruise ship, small! The only difference is that the shower had a curtain that sort of goes out a little allowing just slightly more room in the shower so that it didn't stick to you.  I hate when it sticks to you!  There was no sofa in the room.  So you only had the desk area and one chair to sit on in the room.  The balcony was pretty nice though and let's face it... when you have a balcony in the Caribbean how much time are you really likely to spend inside a room anyway?  Right?  I do have to say that this is only the second time I have had a cabin to myself on a ship and when they push those two tiny little beds together, it makes one enormous and comfortable bed!

I will tell you that muster takes considerably longer on Princess than on any other cruise line I think I have ever been on.  With that said, I've only been on Carnival once and that was many years ago before all of their much publicized problems.  So, I would guess that theirs mirrors Princess now since they are both owned by the same company.  I would say that from start to finish muster might have taken close to an hour, much of the time was just getting into place and getting someone to scan your card so that everyone was accounted for.  Then they talk about what to do if you see someone go overboard, (you know, because those crazy people on Carnival are always taking headers over the edge so the lawyers have gotten involved) and then the captain had to talk about a minor itinerary change due to our late departure from Houston and we had to be lectured about washing our hands because of the Norovirus outbreak on the previous cruise.  Also on Princess they make you take your life jacket to muster and you have to put it on, to be sure that you are capable of putting it on.  I think the true test would be if they had everyone drink 6 or 7 cocktails first and then attempt to put it on while still holding a cocktail in hand because honestly, that's more probably the condition you will be in should the need arise to quickly don your life preserver.  And here's another thing about muster while I'm on the topic.  Why do people put that nasty little whistle in their mouth and blow on it as soon as the ships personnel mention that it's attached to the life jacket?  That is probably the single biggest spreader of Norovirus on any cruise ship!  Do you really think that the whistle is disinfected following each cruise???!?!?!?!  STOP BLOWING ON THE WHISTLE PEOPLE!!!!!!

After muster Mom, Dad and I met at the Wheelhouse Bar near my muster station for drinks.  I didn't bother taking my life jacket up to my room since I was only steps from our meeting place during muster.  But Dad took theirs upstairs while Mom came on over to meet me. This was to be our only visit to this particular bar during the cruise.  Dad and I both got Bloody Mary's which is one of the true tests of a good bar.  It was basically some watered down tomato juice with a little bit of vodka.  Mom had a Pina Colada which she said was okay.  By the time we had finished our drinks and gone upstairs it was after 9 PM, so we went to the Horizon Cafe which is the buffet on Princess and had a little late night snack before calling it a night.  Since we boarded so late, we never even made it to our assigned dining room.  We were wrapping up muster at our assigned dining time.  So, having dinner there was not an option.

Back in my room, I stayed out on the balcony until around 11 PM watching us make our way through the ship channel and out into the Gulf of Mexico.  It had been a long day and at times a little trying but still all worth it when you considered that I was going to be spending the next 7 days on board a ship.  Tomorrow I'll post a lot more pictures (sorry the pictures were so scarce today - I still haven't even downloaded all of them) and tell you all about the next few days of the cruise.  For today, I have a lot of follow up work to do looking into honeymoons and destination weddings for prospective clients following yesterday's Signature Bridal Show where I had a booth on Sunday!  Have a great Monday!

What's the Word for Parental Recovery Trip Following a Wedding?

It has been a super busy week at Places You'll Go Travel!  I worked a bridal show last Sunday.  I will tell you that working a booth at a bridal show by yourself is hard work.  But it has seriously paid off.  I have several new clients already whose honeymoons I am working on.  Many of the brides attending the show still don't have a wedding date set.  So I am hopeful that there will be many more honeymoons to come from this show.

Honeymoon planning is a lot of fun.  One of the nice things about planning and booking honeymoons is that as a travel agent I get to plan little surprises for the happy couples.  Most all inclusive resorts have honeymoon packages that don't cost a penny extra for the couple.  I just make a note on their reservation that it's a honeymoon and then when they check in, they have to prove that they were married in the last 30 to 90 days depending on the resort's policy and then the freebies start coming in.  They'll receive anything from free upgrades, to bottles of champagne and breakfast in bed.  Sometimes, they'll get all of the above. And the groom who is generally responsible for the honeymoon can take total credit for it scoring tons of points with the new wife.  

One of the things I discovered in talking to attendees at this bridal show that I was unaware of before is that a lot of mom's and dad's of the bride apparently plan a little vacation for themselves immediately following the wedding to get away following the rigors of being a parent of a bride.  Based on the expressions of many father's of bride's last Sunday, I would say that the only thing more stressful than being a bride is being the parent of one.  So I can see how they would have a need for a little R & R after the wedding.  

The problem is that I don't know what these get aways are called other than just vacations.  But vacation doesn't really cover it.  On my ad for an upcoming bridal show at the Dallas Convention Center on January 19th, I list some of the things I can book for brides and grooms, you know, like destination weddings, bachelor and bachelorette parties, and honeymoons.  But I was talking to a friend the other day about the bridal show and said that I had gotten a lot of interest from parents and she said, I needed to come up with a name for those trips parents take after a wedding.  I totally agree.  But I have been racking my brain for a couple of days and I have nothing.  So I'm going to enlist your help.  I need a concise but descriptive name for a parents of a bride or groom recovery trip to use on my next ad.  There's a copy of my ad for the upcoming show at the top of this blog. This word or phrase would be listed along with the other services I perform. This name needs to be one or two words, it can be a made up word (I'm sure honeymoon wasn't always a word) that people will be able to figure out means, recovery trip for parents.

The person who can gives me the word or phrase that I eventually use, will get a free personalized luggage tag.  You know you have been dying for one of those!  You can comment at the bottom of today's blog, or you can comment on Facebook or even on my Google+ page or Twitter with your word or phrase.  Or if you have a really great one that you think could win this thing and don't want to share it with everybody else, you can send me a private message or email me.  I'll judge the contest on January 18th.  In the event that two people send in the same idea, the person to send theirs in first will win.  

So, have fun with it.  Be creative!  But be careful!  I don't want anyone getting their brain in a knot from thinking too hard.

Have a great weekend!

My Aversion to Packing

I'll be leaving on a 7 night cruise on Princess Cruise Lines Caribbean Princess in about 77 hours.  Ask me how my packing is going.  No, really, go ahead and ask me.....  Ummmm... My response is, Packing???!?!?! Yes that's right, I'm sure you'll be shocked to discover the the Queen of the Procrastinators can even put packing for vacation off until the last minute. It's not that I'm not excited about the trip and nearly dying with anticipation, because I am! I just hate packing.

If you think my procrastination to pack for the trip is bad, you wouldn't believe how bad it is to pack for coming home.  That gets down right ugly! My travel buddy who goes with me on most of these trips, though not this one, has commented on my foul mood during that last day at sea on a number of occasions. She usually excuses herself around lunchtime on the last day at sea and quietly goes to the cabin to pack while I suck the last few hours of the cruise in taking advantage of every last second near the pool. When she rejoins me, it is now her custom to be very quiet about the subject of packing. She generally doesn't even bring the topic up in conversation anymore. I think if she could, she would try to keep others around us from using the "P" word in my presence.

I've been on a lot of cruises.  On every cruise I've ever been on, the last full day you are out, you are at sea all day traveling to the disembarkation port (that's cruise talk for place where they make you get off the ship or pay to go again). During that last day at sea, there are tons of activities to participate in around the pool and all over the ship. There are many contests around the pool, bingo games with free cruises up for grabs (if you're into that sort of thing), activities that involve drinking like cocktail making or wine tasting, giant poker tournaments in the casino, and some great (by cruise ship standards) deals in the shops. They work very hard at keeping you entertained all the time when you are on the ship. But that last day at sea they put it in high gear. I suppose their goal that last day is to make you wish you didn't have to get off the ship or at least make you want to go back home and re-book immediately if not run to the Loyalty Ambassador's office and re-book before leaving.

I, however, like taking that day to spend doing absolutely nothing. It's my last day to act like a princess being waited on hand and foot. I like that on a cruise ship, someone actually comes around and puts the bread on my plate for me. I don't have to reach in the basket for a roll like the peasants on land. Someone brings coffee to my room each morning and I sip it on my balcony. I don't have to go to the kitchen and wash cat dishes, feed the cats re-fill their water bowl and feed the fish before I can get a cup of coffee on a ship. A nice man just brings it to me, I walk to my balcony and voila!  Coffee! So on my last day, I soak it all in to reflect back on until I can get on my next cruise ship. The problem that I run into is that eventually, at some point you do have to pack your things up so that you can get off the ship bright and early the next morning.

You see, generally, cruise ships reach their disembarkation port around 5 or 6 AM.  They have to get there early so that the customs agents can get on board, do whatever it is they do (let's face it, they're probably sitting around with the captain, the pilot who came on board as the ship was making it's way to port to guide it in, and the dance choreographer from the shows swapping stories about life upon the sea) then release the ship so that everyone can disembark, luggage can be off loaded, crew members who are leaving can get away, new crew members can board, everything can be cleaned and made ready for all new passengers, repairs that can only be made in port can be initiated, a week's worth of food and drinks can be loaded on board, the previous week's trash can be removed, and 3,000 new passengers can be loaded back on beginning at noon and completing by 4 or 5 PM.  It's a lot to get done in a short period of time. So, the crew members do not take kindly to dawdlers. After a week of absolute leisure and pampering, they expect you to get your stuff together, go where you are supposed to go and stay out of their way so they can get their jobs done.  And really, it's not too much to expect. So, if you wake up on disembarkation day with clothes strewn all over your room and suitcases still stored under your bed,you're probably not going to be out of the room in time for the cabin steward to start doing his job.

So here's what they do. You have two options on disembarkation day and you have to decide ahead of time which you are doing and let them know. If you want to take all of your luggage off the ship yourself with no help from the crew, you can, but that means you have to be ready to go at 8:00 AM.  When they announce that the ship has cleared customs and passengers carrying their own luggage to shore can disembark, you have to get in line to leave. As you exit the ship they scan your Seapass card so they can keep track of who they still have on board that way. If you are in this group you will find that there are a lot of people who severely over estimate their own ability to drag multiple pieces of heavy oversized luggage all around a ship, down a gangway and through a port terminal and customs on disembarkation day. Because they didn't think this through on the previous day when they had to get luggage tags if they wanted to have their heavy luggage taken to shore for them, they are now gumming up the works and making the people who took the time to pack their luggage around lunchtime the day before and determined if it was going to be possible for them to drag it around a ship and terminal for a few hours on their own, wait on them. This is what my friend Jenny is really good at. She gets her stuff packed and has a plan the day before we disembark.

I eventually get my luggage packed the day before.  But it doesn't happen until I am ready to dress for dinner. Then I'm running around the cabin in a complete state of panic trying to get dressed, and determine how I am going to fit my snorkel gear in my suitcase or if there are any clothes I can just throw away so that I can fit everything in my luggage, all at once. It's not pretty.  But still, I'd rather do my packing like this than to do it in the middle of the perfect last day at sea. To me once I start packing, the vacation is officially over and it's back to reality. Packing to leave is one of those "must do's" in life. There aren't a lot of "must do's" on a cruise ship beyond muster. And that's why I hate it so much. Seriously, once I begin to pack to leave the ship, my mood becomes horrible.  Nobody wants to be around me for the remainder of the cruise.  So, every time somebody says, "Have you packed yet?" and reminds me that I have to leave, I get a little pissy. When I'm pissy, I'm not fun to be around.  That's why Jenny, my travel buddy has learned to just sneak away and pack and not mention it to me. It's not an effort on her part to make me happy so much as a self defense mechanism. I get ugly when I think about leaving a ship.

So getting back to the two options you have for disembarkation... If you determine that you will need help getting your luggage off the ship, they assign you luggage tags on that last day at sea.  The luggage tags are color coded with the color indicating what time you'll be allowed to leave the ship.  When they call your color out, you must get in line and disembark.  Then once you get to the ships terminal, you go find your luggage, get a porter who loads it all up for you on a cart and proceed through customs. It's all much more civilized than taking your luggage off yourself.  There are a couple of issues you face if you go with this option, however. The first is you usually have to sit around in a public area on the ship for a few hours waiting for your color to be called.  You can't stay in your room, because they are preparing it for the new passengers and unless you are highly entertained by people watching there is very little to do.  After 7 days with your traveling companions, you really don't want to say another word to them and if they say anything to you, you could become homicidal.

The other issue is that if they are going to remove your luggage, it has to be packed and sitting outside of your cabin door on the night before, usually by 10 PM so that it can be picked up and stored in a holding area.  Then the following morning as soon as the ship clears customs, they begin removing the luggage from the holding areas to the port terminal so that you can claim it after you disembark. It's a pretty good system assuming you have the self discipline to pack your luggage the day before and you don't do something hair brained like leave your Seapass card in the pocket of the shorts you wore the day before which have been packed in a bag that was left outside your cabin door the previous night and picked up and removed from the ship before you woke up on disembarkation day.  Believe me, I've seen it happen. I spoke to someone on a cruise recently, who had to have her husband disembark, wait until their luggage was available in the terminal, open her luggage up, go through pockets of dirty clothes, find her Seapass card and have a crew member take it back on board the ship to her so that she could disembark. What I'm saying is, you can't just throw stuff in your checked luggage willy-nilly.  You have to think these things through. I'm not much of a thinker while I'm on vacation.

So you can see just how stressful ending your vacation can be and why I would prefer that the vacation just not end.  I will tell you that since I now have a job that I love, leaving a cruise ship is not as stressful for me as it once was. Even Jenny commented on the last day of our cruise last January that I was not nearly as bitchy to be around at the end of the cruise as in previous years simply because I knew that when I got home, I didn't have to go back to a job that I hated. Strange how an unhappy job can even screw up your vacation. Stranger yet that her comment about my normal bitchiness didn't offend me in anyway. It's always good to know your level of bitchiness at various times and the triggers for said bitchiness.

Well, I've put off packing long enough.  I have several clients to take care of before I can go upstairs and get this started. So, I'll end this blog entry by wishing you a happy Hump Day and happy travels.