2017 Cruise Journal

Thursday - our original plan was to drop off the pugs with the Colorado Pug Rescue folks and then go home to sleep. Our Friday morning flight was at 7:10 which meant we would have had to leave home pretty darn early so we decided to stay in a hotel by the airport instead. The weather was also nasty that day and the next which made us extra glad we did this as traffic would have been a nightmare in the morning.

Friday - we got up around 5:00 and had coffee and some breakfast at the hotel before going to drop off the car at the shuttle place. We ended up getting to the airport worth only a few minutes to spare to check in and get to our terminal. Boarding was about to start when we arrived at the gate. Yikes! We were lucky that we were able to sit close to the front of the plane (row 9). The flight was uneventful and smooth with virtually no turbulence. Susan got a few winks on the way and I was content to play on my phone and tablet. Mom and Janice picked us up from the airport after we got our bags amid a flurry of hugs. The turnpike had several toll stops and we did a bit of shopping at Wal-Mart on the way to the hotel. Once checked in Susan and I showered in preparation for dinner at a bar Greg had found known for their fish and chips. There we meet Bob and Nancy (Greg's sister) and most of us ordered the fish and chips. Our poor waitress took a few family pictures and we all agreed the food was great. Back at the hotel Susan and I walked to the beach as the sun went down to walk down under the pier for a bit. The water was chilly and we only allowed our feet to get wet a couple of times. On the way back we stopped at a clothing shop to look for local flair of which none sufficiently struck our fancy enough to elicit any purchases.

Saturday - departure day! Susan and I were up relatively early and ate breakfast before walking to the beach again. The temperature was warmer than the previous evening but the water was still a bit cool for our liking. Susan managed to procure a cute and intact sea shell and we went back to the hotel to await our ride to the ship. Susan had found out and soon after we were informed that fog had delayed our ship coming into port by several hours which in turn delayed embarkation. Carnival asked passengers to wait a couple of hours before heading to the ship so we did so. Susan and I had to check out at 11 and happily spent time slouching in comfy chairs in the hotel lobby doing our internet thing until Greg and Mom came by to get us. Then it was off to load up the rest of Greg, Janice, and Mom's luggage. We burned more time at McDonald's for a bite to eat and then finally we made our way to the ship. This is where things slowed down to a crawl. Literally. Traffic was stopped entering the port and barely moved. Much consternation was had as we watched the furthest left lanes moving while we sat. Something was definitely afoul as we counted four ambulances, one fire truck, and at least a half dozen other emergency vehicles as they made their way past us to presumably do something of importance. It took a very long time to eventually get to the ship where we dropped off the majority of our luggage and then parked in incredibly close and convenient spots.

The line to get in was long but between Bob in a wheelchair for assistance and Janice and Greg having priority status it was just Susan and myself queued with the plebs. It took us some time to get on the boat but the staff kept us almost constantly moving along which helped. The large delay getting on the ship meant our rooms were already ready for us when we finally boarded (a first for us) and even one of our bags was waiting for us when we got there. As usual Susan and I brought our own entertainment with us in the form of bladders full of vodka. As also usual we needlessly fretted about our hoard being confiscated. Everything made it to our room and it turned out Susan accidentally brought one of the large bladders in her carry on bag! I imagine the lady watching the x-ray screen of our carry on stuff just rolled her eyes as it went by. No doubt she didn't want to ruin our day by calling us out on it (thanks lady!). Most of us hadn't eaten since breakfast despite the stop at Mickey D's and we went to an Italian “restaurant” for a pre dinner snack. Then we had to congregate to go over what to do if the ship sinks or catches aflame. I always hate this pre voyage ritual and it was blessedly shortish (at least we all thought it a bit shorter than usual).

Eventually we made our way to dinner in the dining room. The menu was different than we were used to but we all found something yummy to eat. The service was weirdly lacking though which we attributed to it being very busy. All but Mom and Janice went to the Red Frog Pub for a round of drinks (thanks Greg!) and some live music. Afterwards we went to the spa to spend some time in the hot therapy pool. Susan and I also briefly went in the sauna room (I feel like people must periodically die inside as it is so friggin’ hot in there) and lay in some hot chairs. Twas nice. Not ready to go to bed yet we found some food in the form of pizza and turkey wraps and wandered around the ship. Finally we went to bed at some time I can't recall.

Sunday - I unfortunately was wide awake at 4 am. As the fitness didn't open until 6 I laid in bed playing on my phone. I eventually got up to get ready as the sun was coming up. Being the gentleman as I am (plus I was noisy) I woke Susan up to watch the sunrise. Our room is situated right up in the front of the ship so we stood out on the front of the ship, our hair flapping madly in the breeze, and watch the sky lighten. Add there were clouds on the eastern horizon we couldn't actually witness the sunrise but we both enjoyed watching nonetheless. The ocean is so gorgeous and the clouds wispy. Susan then went back to bed and I went to the fitness room. I found it busy and containing odd machines. I did get some kind of a workout done which was good. Then I sat on our balcony listening to my latest audiobook and the waves crashing against the ship. The waters are incredibly smooth this morning and the view is serene with very few clouds visible far off in the distance. Amazing. Susan woke up a few minutes ago as I was writing this update and is now in the shower. I really love this!

Susan and I got omelettes for breakfast which were good. I went for the “everything” approach and thus got everything they had on mine. The lines were long but not too bad. Then we headed down to deck five to play games and peripherally participate in trivia. We started with Vegas dice which Bob and Nancy had to learn. Several games were played before we moved on to dirty books. My faulty memory of the rules nuked the first game but we had another round which went mostly better. Mom and Janice knitted furiously while we played. I was in need of a nap at this point and took one right around dinner time thus I missed dinner in the dining room. Susan did go and ate lobster tail. She also went to a comedy show before coming back to the room to wake me up for another comedy show. The guy did mostly improv which was alright. Susan and I then got some food as I missed dinner before heading to the spa. As we were looking at an early start the next morning we then headed to bed. I unfortunately slept horribly as between my nap and a lot of pounding waves sleep was largely out of my grasp.

Monday - we woke up with an alarm at 6:30ish. I guess I did get some sleep as Susan said I was snoring when she got up to get snooze her phone. We both dressed and ate breakfast before applying sun block and heading to the designated place to begin our excursion. Greg also had the same meeting place so we sat with him at his table before our excursion was called over the PA. It was raining off and on all morning and we were mostly soaked as we walked along the gangway to the ground transportation. Mercifully the rain let up as we got on our open-air bus/truck. The drive was hilariously bumpy and views cool and interesting.

Our guide for the journey was interesting and had a lot of facts to relay about the Dominican Republic. Our excursion was an ATV adventure of sorts and we did get to ride around on them for a time. It was fun but a little scary as we've never driven anything quite like them before.

Then we walked along the beach and discussed the nature of the sand (the sand on this beach was made up of thicker granules than we normally see).

Susan was worried we would miss the return bus so we made our way up to a grass-topped cabana of sorts where I promptly started nettling Susan about a large spider above us. Before too long we heard some announcements we thought might be related to our tour and walked back to the bus/trucks to find most everyone loaded up for the drive back. Perfect timing. We were able to sit in the front seat which was cool as we had great views all the way back. Susan apparently acquired pink eye yesterday so we picked up Visine at the “pharmacy” before getting back on the ship. We both agreed the excursion was fun although Susan's thumb is very sore from driving. After we got back on the ship I worked out for a bit while Susan showered. We ate a little food to tide us over until dinner and watched the port pull away as we pulled away from it. Yeah. We looked for any of our family members in their regular haunts before simply knocking on doors. We heard that Mom and Janice’s experience was horrid and we're the only two going to dinner in the dining room. We're interested in hearing the gory details but don't know much as on yet. We're about to go to dinner right now. *Update paused*

Dinner in the dining room was only with me and Susan as everyone else ate earlier. Susan got veal parmesan and I steak and Caribbean/jerk chicken. Everything was good although Susan's veal was too covered in breading for her to get an appreciation of the baby cow she was chewing on. After dinner we joined everyone else in the Spotlight Lounge to await a comedy show. It turns out that it was the drive to and from Mom and Janice’s excursion that was miserable as the monkeys were adorable (fyi - they went to a monkey sanctuary to pet monkeys). Not all bad I guess. The comedian was good and we were thoroughly entertained. Susan and I then went to the spa for some spa time before wandering the ship. There was a dance party on the lido deck and we sat and watched the tail end of it. The “winners” were clearly very good at dancing and were literally doing back flips at the end. We found some pizza to eat because cruise before going to bed.

Tuesday - Susan turned 36 today! I felt like we slept in this morning when in reality we were both up before 9:00. We decided to eat a big breakfast and then a small snack later to keep ourselves hungry for our special dinner tonight. Both of us had breakfast burritos which were yummy with Susan's being yummiest. We sat with Bob and Nancy while we ate and talked about the crazy state of real estate now a days. We then split up just to converge on deck five to chat with the rest of the gang. Everyone but Susan and myself are going on a bus tour. We were to have gone on a speed boat excursion but it was cancelled. We're thinking we will just get off the boat and walk around the pier before getting back on again. Right now we're sitting outside on the shady side of the boat as I write this and Susan plays Sudoku. *Update paused*

We did get off the boat to do some perusing of stores. We didn't find much to our liking but the stores were mostly fun. The amount of jewelry stores is crazy. A lot of places selling giant sparkly watches too. After buying a magnet and fake pirate booty we stopped at Senior Frog for a couple of margaritas on the way back to the ship. I then convinced Susan to take a nap so I could get a workout in. The fitness center is located on the very front of the ship so I could watch people coming and going on the pier. Eventually I got Susan up and we went to the spa. It was nice and the water in the therapy pool was a good temperature. That evening was our chef's table excursion thing. We dressed up a bit and went to the third floor deck where we signed paperwork stating we hadn't been sick recently. Then our chef fetched our group and led us down to the galley. He guided us through the many courses and we were entertained at one point by a magician. Everything was amazing and Susan was eventually given a birthday cake and we sang to her. The entire meal lasted over three hours and we were stuffed with tasty food. I went in thinking it would be a waste but left a believer. Mom et. al. had already packed in for the night by the time we finished and we decided to as well as the next morning was to be an early one.

Wednesday - we got up around 6:00 to grab breakfast before our excursion was to start. It was another ATV adventure and after some rushing around on our part eventually got on the bus to take us to the said destination. The trip wasn't very long and we found ourselves on a large private plot of land where a variety of excursions were held including horseback riding and adventure tours. We were old hats at riding ATVs at this point and didn't need much instruction to get going. The only real issue we had was when Susan couldn't get up a steep hill as her tires kept spinning. The ATVs were supposed to be 4WD but hers didn't work for some reason. She did eventually conquer the hill and the rest of the adventure went without a hitch. There was a lot more driving than the other ATV excursion and we had fun zipping this way and that. Afterwards we sat in their cabana and drank fresh mojitos while watching the local pig, goat, no-tailed cat, and gross dog do their thing. The ride back to the pier was quick and we found a street vendor with island-shaped magnets to buy an island-shaped magnet from before getting back on the ship. We then got some burgers and found Mom and Janice on the fifth floor deck for games. We played dice, participated in the trivia (poorly), and showed Bob and Nancy how to play Cabo. It was a nice time. Eventually Susan and I went to the spa before dressing up for dinner in the dining room. It was just Mom and us and we had a nice time eating too much food including dessert which Susan and I had avoided until this point. I was exhausted and ready to go back to the room but instead had a couple of cups of coffee which did much to rejuvenate my spirits. We all sat together on deck ten playing Cabo before collectively calling it a night around 11:00. The ship was still bustling with folks which was sort of odd but such is.

Thursday - we slept in until 9:00 before I got up to workout. Then we ate breakfast and watched ourselves pull into the pier around 12:00. There is a ton of beaches here in Grand Turk and we're looking forward to getting off the boat. *Update paused*

Susan and I bided our time in the morning as our breach excursion wasn't until 1:00. When we got to the end of the pier we found that being a minute late was too late and we had missed our transportation. Fortunately we just caught another open air bus along with some other true late-comers. The drive was only a couple of miles to a house and private beach. It was all inclusive with food, adult beverages, and beach stuff. We staked out a pair of chairs and an umbrella and donned our snorkeling gear for a swim. We spent quite a bit of time in the water looking at the fishes and collecting this and that shell. Susan picked up one shell which still had an inhabitant which she eventually released/threw back into the water. The food they prepared was tasty (especially the pasta salad) as were the adult beverages. There was a Labrador hanging around named Banzi who got lots of scraps and shared the shade with us. We stayed for a few hours before catching a ride back to the dock. I managed to step on something sharp in the sand as we were about to leave which had me limping and bleeding. In port we did a little shopping before getting back on the ship. Susan bought a magnet with a map of Grand Turk and some bags. Back on the ship and Susan took a bunch of pictures of the beaches as we watched the last people coming down the pier. Our entire group came to dinner in the dining room. As usual the food was excellent we got collectively stuffed. After dinner we went to deck ten for more Cabo. We finished the prior night's game and played another entire game through. It was a blood bath as I finished with only 30 points in total. Afterwards we were all tired and split up for bed.

Friday - Susan and I lazed about until 9:00ish before getting breakfast and heading down to deck five to see Mom and Janice where I caught up on this update. *Update paused*

After hanging out and doing horrible at Friends trivia we all went to the Red Frog to play CABO again. Soon after we arrived karaoke began in the bar and we were treated to a mix of fantastic and objectively terrible singers. Much fun. I think I was a target for the other players to be mean towards after dominating last night. I was in last before getting 100 and then shooting the moon to win the game (this was the first time I’d successfully attempted the latter). Then we headed to the theater for bingo where I'm updating the update file now. *Update paused*

Bingo was played but no one in our party won anything. I ended up napping during most of the festivities. We decided to forgo dinner in the dining room as the traditional Friday night dinner largely consists of the wait staff dancing around/begging for tips. Susan and I got some food at the grill and later grabbed pizza. Once again we all met for games on deck ten. This time we were back playing Vegas dice which was fun. After splitting up Susan and I got a few more minutes in at the spa. The therapy pool was rockin’ and rollin’ with water splashing this way and that (more exciting than relaxing). We only got to sit on the warming chairs for a few minutes before the spa closed for the evening at 10:00. Back at the room we (Susan) made a mad dash to repack our bags. We went to sleep soon after.

Saturday - Around 3:00 in the morning I woke up and rushed to the bathroom to begin the saga which was to be the next few days of being very sick. It seems I caught a stomach virus or something which had me sicker than I’ve been since I can remember.  Eventually we did meet the rest of the family in one of the dining rooms before exiting the ship, picking up our bags, and getting to the vehicles. Much of this I remember through a nauseated haze. Janice dropped us off at the Orlando airport before 9:00 which implied we made amazing time. Our flight was for 3:00 in the afternoon so we had quite a wait to look forward to and we made it through alright. The flight itself wasn’t bad except for me as the guy seated next to me was very large and imposed in my space quite a lot. He was also smelly. Such it is I suppose. We eventually arrived in Denver, picked up the pugs little worse for wear, and got home around 9:00 in the evening.

While the end of the trip was marred somewhat for me the rest was fantastic and we had an amazing time. It was great hanging with Mom, Janice, Greg, Bob, and Nancy. We both wish we were still on the ship!