Old Saying

There is an old saying that goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I was reminded of this when I decided to upgrade to Outlook 2007. I had no idea all the problems it would cause. First, I tried to use the free version Microsoft sent me. I was never able to get that to work and I couldn't figure out why. Then, I bought the 2007 upgrade version Microsoft's Professional Office suite. I received the same errors I had with the free version. I wondered if the Outlook Connector program was the problem. I uninstalled it. Eureka! Outlook started working but, I couldn't access my Hotmail account through Outlook. No problem, I just downloaded the program, installed it and it would work. Wrong! After downloading it twice and installing it twice, I realized I had to contact Microsoft technical support. I called them and got bounced around like a ping pong ball. Eventually, I did reach someone who knew how to fix the problem. They had to create a new profile so I could connect to Hotmail. I was out of the woods right? Nope. I couldn't remember the password for the SprintPCS email account. So, I had to contact Sprint who reset it and helped me set the account up on the Outlook program.

So, my Outlook program is working finally AT LAST. I hope I don't have go through this crap for a good while. I will definitely remember that old saying about not fixing something that isn't broke and hopefully follow its sage advice.

Reminder

I just wanted to remind my readers that postage rates went up today. In the case of a first class letter, it went up 1 cent. If you have the forever stamps, you don't need to worry about the rate increase. Rates for other classes of mail also went up. To find out what they are, please check http://www.usps.com/.

Grrrrrr!

Recently, I received some errors with my Outlook program. According to the automated message that explains what causes the errors, my problem was my outdated version of Outlook (2002 version). Last year, Microsoft sent me a copy of Outlook 2007 since I use their Hotmail Outlook link. I decided to install the 2007 version. To my frustration, I haven't been able to get it to work. I may spend the money and buy the proper Office 2007 version so it'll work. We'll see.

Happy Mother's Day

I wanted to wish all mother's out there a Happy Mother's Day. May you enjoy your special day. A special wish to Kay and Judy.

2009 Travel

Well, I have good news for you my faithful readers. I sorted out my 2009 travel plans and there will be some exciting future posts on this blog. In March 2009, I'll be going on a 11 day tour of Egypt. I'll get to see the famous Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Queen Hatshepsut's temple, the temples at Luxor and Karnak and Abu Simbel. It should be an awesome tour. I'm more excited about that one than I am about my future tour of France.

In June 2009, I'll get to take my 2nd cruise. I'll get to visit 4 islands I've never been to: Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua and St. Croix as well as return to St. Maarten. I'm also going to stay in a Junior Suite vice Deluxe Stateroom. I found out how much the price can go up when you hit high season cruise wise. My travel agent offered me 2 June dates for the cruise I wanted: June 7th and June 21st. As you can see, they are only 2 weeks apart. They are $400 apart price wise because the 21st is high season and the 7th isn't. Had I been able to travel a month earlier, I could've saved an additional $400. Apparently, as you get closer to high season, the price begins to climb. I'll remember that when I go on my 3rd cruise.

Lastly, I plan to do a 2 week tour of Ireland in October 2009. This will be interesting as it'll be with the tour company CIE. My travel agent says for Ireland, they do a slightly better tour than Globus. Based on what I saw of their website, I'd have to agree. The Ireland tour promises to be an enjoyable adventure filled with great natural beauty and delightful music.

Sakura's

It had been over 6 months since I last ate at Sakura's Japanese Steak and Seafood House here in Laurel. In my opinion, it's one of the finer restaurants in town. It has a nice decor, great food, excellent service and the chefs who prepare the food are very entertaining. I was reminded of the place last week when I delivered mail twice on rural route 15. The restaurant is one of the businesses on the route. So, I drove out there today.

The restaurant hasn't changed a bit. It still has a pleasant decor and service was excellent again. I was promptly seated and my order taken. The meal came with the standard soup (which is great) and salad (which is good). I had the scallops for an appetizer with the filet mignon, shrimp and chicken for the main course. The main course also came with a choice of appetizer and rice. For my second appetizer, I had the sauteed mushrooms and I chose their fried rice as it has more flavor than steamed rice.

The filet mignon was well prepared and very good. The shrimp was very tasty. The chicken was little dry. The fried rice and vegetables were excellent. The sauteed mushrooms were very good and the scallops were excellent, especially with some of the seafood sauce which the chef called yum yum sauce.

Overall, the meal was superb. My glass was rarely empty for long and my plate was filled up with food. Two people that ate across from me had to get doggie bags because of the large portions. Price wise, lunch cost me approximately $36 without tip. If you live in the Laurel, Maryland area, Sakura's puts out a 10% off coupon in the monthly Valupak you get in your mail. I used the coupon and it saved me $3.44.

I would definitely recommend this restaurant. Like I said previously, the food and service are excellent. The restaurant also has decent parking. The restaurant is located just off of Route 1 on the right before you reach the Route 1 and Contee Road intersection. Bon Appetit!

Townhome

As I previously blogged about, I've been considering buying a new townhome in Dallastown, PA. The reason is that it would be enormously more affordable than buying a place in Maryland. The downside is the hour and 15 minute (minimum) commute from PA to work. At times, I thought I had it all worked out and I wasn't going to buy then, I learned something that changed my mind to where I was going to buy. Finally, I figured out exactly what I wanted and I was set to buy and, I ran into another problem. They don't have a unit finished that has what I want. Ok, so they can build it right? Unfortunately, they can't build it before my current apartment lease expires. They plan to start building another set of townhomes this month which will be finished in late August/September. What am I going to be doing in September? I'm going to France for 2 weeks in September. Crap! Worse still, if I were to go month to month on my lease, I'd pay an extra $300 or $400 a month. So, there isn't any chance of me moving into one of those units. I could renew my lease for a year and plan on buying a place there next year however, the prices will almost certainly go up due to price increases as well as the fact that as more people move in, it's easier for them to sell the remaining units. I saw this happen with some new single family homes in Hanover, Maryland. In 2003, I looked into buying one and got price shock. At that time, it would've cost me $308,000. The mortgage, property tax and insurance would have cost me over $2,000 a month. I wasn't prepared to pay that. You can still buy homes in that development but, they'll cost you $450,000 now.

So, I'm left trying to figure out what to do. I could see if the apartment complex I live in will do a 6 month lease. However, I suspect that will be more expensive as it will be harder for them to find a new renter in February vice July. People don't tend to move during the winter time. I'm also wondering if this is what God wants me to do. Judging by the timing, I'd say not. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned.

Hobbit Update

If you haven't heard already, Guillermo del Toro was officially signed to direct The Hobbit and the link movie between it and The Lord of the Rings. Here is the press report on the news: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4496833a1870.html. Peter Jackson will be producing both movies. As Jackson used multiple directors during the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I suspect he'll still have a big part in the films so they should have the same realism and magic that was seen in the Lord of the Rings movies. Also, WETA will be responsible for all the special effects and costumes so there'll be continuity there. Sir Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis have signed up to do their parts in the movies again. (Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4501827a1870.html) McKellen was an awesome Gandalf and it'll be great to see him play the role again. My only complaint about this news is how long I'm going to have to wait for the movies to come out. I believe The Hobbit will come out in 2011 and the follow-on movie in 2012. That's a LONG time. Sigh. Oh well, at least it'll happen. I can't wait to experience the magic of Middle-Earth again.

Hobbit Update

If you haven't heard already, Guillermo del Toro was officially signed to direct the movie version (there was a cartoon version) of The Hobbit and a movie that will link it to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Here is the link to the press article about it: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4496833a1870.html. Peter Jackson will still produce the two movies. Considering that Jackson used multiple directors when he made the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I think the two movies will still have Jackson's imprint on them. Also, Jackson will be very involved in the two scripts I suspect. WETA will be doing the special effects for the movies so there'll be continuity there as well. My only complaint about this news is how LONG I'll have to wait to see the movies. I suspect The Hobbit won't be released until 2011. That's a long time. Still, it'll be awesome to get to experience the magic of Middle-Earth again. I continue to marvel over the Lord of the Rings films. They were so well made. The Hobbit should be equally great.

France Tour

I received some great news from my travel agent Joel Mills at Carlson Wagonlit Travel. The beginning of November of last year, I book the La France tour with Globus. It's an awesome 2 week tour that covers many of the key sights in France. You get to spend 3 days in Paris. You get to visit the famous beaches at Normandy and the American Cemetary. A guide shows you the historic Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the Norman invasion of England. You do a tour of Mont St. Michel. It was said to have been one of inspirations for Minas Tirith in Lord of the Rings. There is a tour of Cannes, the place of the world famous film festival. There is an optional tour of Monte Carlo where you get to see how the jet set live.

However, with the economy tanking, the hefty price of the tour ($3,400 with single supplement) and the weak dollar, I was wondering if the tour would go. I thought people might decide to pass on such an expensive tour. To my delight, that isn't the case. Joel informed me that the tour is fully booked so it's definitely going. Now, I have to wonder what fully booked means i.e. how many people. The Scandanavia tour was fully booked and we had 46 PEOPLE on that tour! It would be a trip if there were that many on the France tour. We'll see. You my faithful readers can look forward to some interesting blog entries and pictures in about 4 and 1/2 months. For me, I'm going to have to start brushing up on my French. It would be nice if I could speak some and read a little. We'll see. Stay tuned for future adventures.

Laser Comb Update

I've been using the laser comb I bought for a week now. It's too early to tell if it's having any effect. I do know that it is annoying using the thing. You have to remember to use it 3 times a week on non-consecutive days. For me, that means using it on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. You also need to time how long you've used the comb. I've never used the stop watch function on my watch much but, I'm using it a lot now. It doesn't do any more good if you use the comb longer than 15 minutes. It's definitely easier to take Propecia vice using the comb. Thankfully, the comb's teeth haven't pulled out too much of my hair. According to the directions, you have to have the comb's teeth touch the scalp so the laser will hit the scalp. In regards to the laser on my scalp, the only effect I've felt is some tingling on parts of my scalp. I don't know if that's a sign the laser is working or not. According to the manual, I should be able to see some benefit in a couple weeks. Stay tuned for more updates.

Restaurant Review

My friend Modestine Baldon works as an assistant manager at the Chik-Fil-A at Corridor Marketplace which is right next to MD-198 close to the MD-295 Baltimore Washington Parkway. I've promised her I would stop by her restaurant and give it some business because of her. Thursday, I got the chance to do so.

I dropped in around 1 p.m. and I was surprised how busy they were. Their parking lot was nearly completely full. They had lines at 4 cash registers. I ordered their 12 nugget combo meal with a large lemonade and large vanilla milkshake.

The combo meal consisted of 12 small chicken breast nuggets and an order of waffle fries. I wasn't impressed with the nuggets. They tasted fine but they were SMALL. Considering I paid over $7 for them and the order of waffle fries, I thought I got ripped off there. The waffle fries were good and I'd guess they were a medium size order.

Their vanilla milkshake is reportedly hand spun. Whatever. I thought it was decent milkshake though it could've used some more vanilla flavoring in it.

The lemonade was allegedly fresh squeezed. I thought it was decent also. One thing I did like and I wish I'd known about was the free refills. I would've bought the medium lemonade in that case and skipped the milkshake. Oh well.

If you have kids, you might like this restaurant as they have kids play area and give out free balloons to the kids.

Overall, I wasn't wiped out with the place though it was decent enough. I definitely wouldn't order the chicken nuggets. If you go there, get one of their chicken breast sandwiches instead. Do take advantage of the free refills at the restaurant. One last item of note, all Chik-Fil-As are closed on Sundays. I think it's because the owner is religious. That's what I've heard. Bon Appetit all!

Published

To my total surprise, I will soon have something published that I wrote sort of. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, Globus and their family of tour groups has a website called The Travel Exchange (http://www.exchangetravelstories.com/default.aspx). You can post stories on this website of your adventures on one of their tours. You can also earn Go Points which are redeemable for gift certificates with Amazon and Gift Certificates.Com. When I found out about the site, I decided to tell about my Globus tour of Australia. The tour was absolutely fantastic and really sold me on Globus tours. Because of that tour, I did a tour last year to Scandanavia and will be doing a 2-week tour of France this year. Anyway, to my surprise, I heard from a lady at Globus who informed me they wanted to use an excerpt from one my Australia stories in their eNewsletter. I was delighted. I'm going to be published sort of. I think that's pretty cool. A side result of this is that I've started writing stories for the site about my Scandanavia tour. I hope those stories will turn out as nice as the Australia ones did. We'll see.

Ivy Ridge Townhomes

I checked out the demo townhome at the Ivy Ridge development in Dallastown, PA. I was impressed with it. The townhome is definitely bigger than my current apartment. Also, the townhome had a very nice appearance. On the negative side for me, I found out that York County has the second best schools in Pennsylvania and the people in that county pay for it. My property taxes which include school taxes would be $300 a month. Serious ouch! Since I don't have kids and I don't think I'll be having any soon, this is a big negative. Another negative is the commute. On the drive out, I confirmed that it'll be about an hour and 15 minutes to get to work. One good point of sorts is that it'll be virtually all highway driving so I'll get the best gas milage I can but, it'll still be a long drive (about 73 miles). Figuring 25 miles to the gallon, I'll burn 3 gallons of gas (over $10) each way. I'm getting a lot of 2 hour work days at the Post Office so that would make those days pretty pointless. Also, I've heard the auxiliary route I'd like to get will only be 2 hours each day. I would like to have my own place and stop the rent increases where I live but, I don't know if it would be worth buying at this development. I'll have to weigh the pros and cons some more. We'll see what I decide.

Pictures of Old San Juan

This is a picture of the fortress walls that surrounded Old San Juan. Originally, the walls came right up to the water's edge.

This is a picture of the only surviving gate for Old San Juan. It was through this gate that representatives from a ship would pass through and go to the Governor's palace. There, they would present their proofs that they were on legitimate business with the city. The man on the left was our tour guide Jose who did an awesome job.

This is one of the streets of Old San Juan. If you look at the road, you might be able to make out that it's covered in cobblestones which originally were used as ballast for ships coming out to San Juan.

This is Il Convenuto. It was originally a convent that was converted into a very nice hotel. The building still has fixtures from when it was a convent including things in the walls that held holy water. It's a beautiful hotel and right across the street from the San Juan Cathedral. Our guide Jose did say it was expensive.

This is the cathedral of San Juan. It wasn't very ornate but, it was still a very nice cathedral. Ponce de Leon, the first Governor of Puerto Rico is buried there.

Laser Comb

I used the laser comb I bought Tuesday for the first time yesterday. It was interesting using the thing. You have ensure the laser light hits your scalp and you have to give it enough time to have some effect. The operating instructions state you are the make sure the teeth in the comb touch the scalp. You also brush against the hair so the light will reach the scalp. In order for the light to have enough time to do any good, the comb has a timer. It beeps every 4 seconds telling you to move the comb 1/2 inch. You'll work through your hair front to back and right to left in an imaginery grid. By working the grid, you hit every spot on the top of your head. Once you've completed the grid, you start all over again. You keeping combing for between 10 and 15 minutes. If you do it any longer than 15 minutes, it doesn't do any additional good. I used the stop watch on my watch so I could time myself as far as the overall time. The whole procedure is a bit tedious but, if it helps me grow new hair, I'll be happy. Supposedly, if the comb works, I'll see some kind of results in a couple weeks. I'll report on if I see any results or not.

Dr. Ballon

I got to see Dr. Jonathan Ballon today. He's the hair restoration surgeon at Medical Hair Restoration's Bethesda office in Washington D.C. I had to see him to get my Propecia prescription renewed. The prescription is only good for 1 year. I don't know why it doesn't stay good longer. Also, I wanted to buy a laser comb from him. His office treated me really well my previous visit and I was grateful. I know I'm not one of their usual high profile clients.

In regards to the laser comb, I found out that you must use it 3 non-consecutive days for 10 to 15 minutes each time every week. You have to have the teeth of the comb touch your scalp so the laser reaches your scalp. If the laser doesn't reach your scalp, it won't work. As I understand it, what the laser does is break up the male hormone DHT in the scalp. The less DHT you have in your scalp, the more hair you'll have. Using the comb more than 3 days won't have any increased effect according to Dr. Ballon. As I previously blogged, the comb is supposedly between 30% and 90% effective. I guess they haven't been able to come up with a definite percentage like they have with Propecia. Dr. Ballon showed me one example where the comb did work. It did make a very noticeable difference. We'll see how it does on my head. Cost wise, the comb cost me $577. The comb will reportedly last for 15 years.

Concerning Propecia, I have found this drug to work. According to the folks at Dr. Ballon's office, Propecia is 90% effective in stopping any further hair loss. However, it won't cause any NEW hair growth. Propecia is also EXPENSIVE. A 3 month supply of it costs me $178.37 at Costco. According to Dr. Ballon, Merck & Co. is offering a $25 rebate for those who get a 90 day supply of the drug. According to the Merck website, the $25 rebate will be good till June 30, 2008. I hope they continue it after that.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Women and children are prohibited from taking Propecia and pregnant women should avoid all contact with Propecia as it supposedly can be absorbed through the skin.

Laurel Tavern

I decided to stop by the Laurel Tavern and buy some donuts today. While there, I found out they are now open on Sundays from 6 a.m. till 5 p.m. That means, they are open 7 days a week now. Their donut selection remains fair from what I saw though remember I stopped in there today around 1:30 p.m. They may have sold a lot of donuts earlier. I don't know. Their mini-burger prices haven't changed and remain pricey in my opinion. Bon Appetit all!

Travel/Geography Game

Purely by accident, I found out http://www.tripadvisor.com/ has a travel/geography game called World Challenge. You have to locate on a map various cities throughout the world (in some cases the map doesn't show the city and country as they are too small for the map so you have to click in the vicinity of where the city would be located) or in a certain part of the world such as Canada or Europe. You have less than 15 seconds to guess each one. The game has 12 levels with each level getting progressively harder. If you manage to score in the top 20, you get to be in the top 20 list where everyone gets to see your score, the level you reached (always level 12 if you want to be in the top 20) and your travel IQ Your travel IQ can be any where between 0 and 200. When you've finished playing you can save your score and see how you did in relation to others that played the game Ex. my best score was 570,037; level 12 with a travel IQ of 155. That put me at 1,674 on the list. My mind boggles at the folks that have scored 670,000 plus in this game. It is seriously hard and challenging. It'll definitely help you learn geography

My Cabin

I had to lighten this picture so you could see my cabin as it faced the balcony. The cabin had a good size bed, tv set, couch, drawers and bath room. I thought the shower was small though.






This shows the small couch, tv set, drawers and entrance to the bathroom.









This shows the view from the balcony. I really enjoyed watching as we came into or left port. The next time I go on a cruise, I will definitely get a balcony.

Considering

Last week, the primary carrier agreed to buy a new townhome in Dallastown, Pennsylvania. She told me her townhome cost around $140,000 (this is half what a place in Maryland would cost you) and it's really nice. Her mortgage payments are going to be under $1,000 a month. The only drawback she's going to have is the commute to the Post Office. She calls it 1 hour but Mapquest calls it 1 and 1/2 hours. Barring the commute, her new place sounded like a really good deal. For me, my rent is going to go up sometime this summer to over $1,500 a month and I'm not living in the most expensive apartments in town. There are apartments just down the street from where I live that are between $200 and $400 more a month.

Another appealing aspect of living in Pennsylvania is they don't tax military retirement pay. Maryland does. That would save me probably around $2,000 a year in state taxes.

I plan to drive out to the new development and see how the drive is. Also, I want to find out if there are any military bases along the drive. I like being able to use the base Commissary and base clinic. I don't like the prospect of a 2 hour drive to get to the closest base. We'll see what works out. For now, I'm considering the option. It would be nice to have my own place and to save money on taxes. We'll see what works out.

Size of Adventure of the Seas

I hope this picture will give you some idea how BIG the Adventure of the Seas was. Length wise, the ship was 1,040 feet long. Width, it was 154 and 1/5 feet. They didn't give the height though the surface part of the ship had to be over 4 stories high. Here is another picture that might give you an idea how big the ship was.

You can see building is 2 stories high and the ship towers over it. Lastly, here is a picture of ship taken from high on a high in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

That should give you some idea just how big the Adventure of the Seas was. In my next set of pictures, I'll show how my cabin looked and some of the things they had on the ship.

Free Rice

I promised secret agent Emily (http://agentemily.blogspot.com/) that I would mention the Free Rice website (http://www.freerice.com/index.php) on my blog. I saw it on her site, checked it out and I was impressed with it. The site helps raise rice to feed needy people all over the world. How it does is pretty interesting. Advertisers on the site agree to pay for 20 grains of rice for every right answer someone answers with its vocabulary quiz. The rice is donated to the U.N. World Food Program. The vocabulary database for the quiz contains thousands of words which are placed in 55 levels of difficulty. When you get 3 answers right in a row, the program takes you to the next level of difficulty. If you get an answer wrong, you drop down to the next lower level. The program is a great way for a person to increase their vocabulary while helping others at the same time. I've played their vocabulary quiz a number of times now and I've found it very challenging. If you like challenging word games and would like to help feed the hungry at the same time, check out the link above and try it.

St. Thomas

We pulled into our last port of call. Charlotte Amalie was very hilly. It was the hilliest of any of the places we’d visited. The ship smoothly pulled into the cruise ship pier. Harvey and I had a nice breakfast, grabbed our cameras and took an elevator down to deck 1. By now, the procedure was old hat. We’d hand the security office our SeaPass’s which he/she would scan and we’d disembark. Then, we looked for someone with a sign listing whatever activity we planned to do. In this case, it was Blackbeard’s castle and shopping. An old gentleman met us who directed us to an open taxi. It was an interesting contraption as it had a number of bench like seats and no doors except for the driver’s compartment.

Once everyone was on board, we handed in our vouchers to Rupert our driver and set off. Just as we were getting ready to leave the pier area, Rupert got called back as some late arrivals showed up. So, we went back and got them. Then, we proceeded to drive up some of the hills surrounding Charlotte Amalie. It was an interesting drive.

The hills were very tropical and pretty. They gave great views of the town’s harbor. Driving to the other side of the hills, we saw great views of Magen’s Bay which was stunning. At one of our stops, we could see all of Charlotte Amalie’s harbor and found out that the Noordam (see St. Maarten blog entry) had followed us. It was tied up at the pier on the opposite side of town. Our driver/guide Rupert told us some of the history of the place as well as some of the other islands. There are 3 islands that form the U.S. Virgin Islands. They are St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. From our stop, we could easily see St. John. People from St. Thomas would take a ferry over there for a nice stroll along the beach and to relax. From there, we could also see Blackbeard’s Castle. Blackbeard didn’t own the tower. Someone recommended they name it after a pirate as it would presumably help the island draw tourists. They did and it worked. They have another tower named after Bluebeard.

After our tour of the hills around St. Thomas was done, Rupert dropped us off at Blackbeard’s castle. Here, another guide would take over. Unfortunately, I forget his name. He told us more of the pirates the island was famous for. They had a number of metal statues of the more famous ones including Blackbeard, Mary Read, Calico Jack and Captain Jack Avery who was a dead ringer for Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. He also showed us a number of old buildings and why they were built the way they were. It was a fascinating tour. At the end, he dropped us off at the shopping area of Charlotte Amalie. It was then that my next ordeal began. What gift was I going to get my step-mom Kay?

I’d promised I get her something. However, I figured if I bought her a t-shirt. I’d be dead meat. She suggested some kind of fabric but I didn’t see any bolts of it. The shops were filled with touristy stuff like jewelry, especially jewelry. I did see some lace like stuff but, it didn’t wipe me out. Another problem was funds. I needed to get some dollars. Finally, I found a bank with an ATM. It was First Bank and they only charged $2 to use their ATM. I felt like saying Nyaah at the cruise ship with their $5.50 ATM charge.

The only idea for a good gift I could come up with was getting her a real silver Spanish coin. It went with the Caribbean theme and it would be a cool gift. Where to get one though? I didn’t want one that was set as jewelry. I wanted just a basic coin.

Another concern was Harvey. While I was prepared to explore far and wide through Charlotte Amalie, Harvey wasn’t. Harvey has had a hip replacement and doesn’t care to do tons of walking. I wanted to find something for Kay within a reasonable amount of time so I wouldn’t drag him all over the place.

I think it was Harvey who spotted S.O.S. Antiques. We walked in and they had unadorned Spanish silver coins. Cool! I looked at the various ones. Then, a saleslady came over and we started talking prices. Uh oh! Real Spanish silver coins aren’t cheap. The cheapest one cost $299! I had second thoughts about getting this for my step-mom and might’ve gotten her something else except I couldn’t think of anything else to get her. I remembered I didn’t buy her a Christmas present so maybe I could make this a combined present. That made the cost somewhat more reasonable. After speaking further with the saleslady, I settled on a class 4 coin which you could see the coat of arms on and a cross on the other side. It came with a certificate of authenticity verifying that it came from the wreck of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. I thought it was pretty cool. Interestingly, since the coin was over 100 years old (and then some), it was free of any U.S. duty. The store put a slip informing Customs of the coin’s age and the law exempting antiques that are over 100 years from duty.

Finally, I had my present for Kay. I had dollars and I had stamps to mail postcards with. I bought 10 stamps at a Post Office I found when I first started walking through the shopping area. It was interesting to see the Post Office there. It had the U.S. Postal markings but, it was different.

Harvey and I looked for a way back to the ship. To our delight, an open taxi like the one we used to see the hills and harbors of St. Thomas came by and asked if we needed a ride to the pier. We asked how much. He said $10. We hopped in. As we made our way to the pier, the driver picked up a couple more fares. We also passed a Hooters restaurant which reminded me of my brother Hank who is something of a playboy. See previous blogs about the Hooters calendar I absolutely must buy him every year.

We arrived back at the pier, skipped the tourist shops there and walked back to the ship. The ship was loading supplies. It was interesting to see all the booze the ship needed for its passengers.

While walking around, we’d noticed some dark clouds. Luck was with us. It didn’t start raining until we were on-board the ship and having lunch at the Windjammer Café. It ended up being a nice little downpour. I suspected we’d depart on time this time since folks weren’t going to want to stay out in that.

Later, Harvey and I knocked back a couple brews one last time before dinner. Tomorrow, we’d arrive back in San Juan and the cruise would be over. It had been a nice cruise and a learning experience. I felt certain the next cruise would go smoother. I’d already begun looking at Royal Caribbean 2009 Caribbean cruises. I found one cruise that would be ideal. The only problem was they didn’t list cruise dates for late April and May 2009 in the brochure. I’d have to keep an eye out to see if they offered that cruise on the Adventure of the Seas. After comparing Royal Caribbean’s bigger and smaller cruise ships, I preferred the bigger ones because they have more to do. Also, I wanted to try a suite next time if it wasn’t too expensive. It would be nice to have more room and a larger shower. I really enjoyed having a balcony so I could watch as we departed from or pulled into port. The next cruise, I’d make sure I had a balcony again.

After dinner, I went back to my cabin and packed. I also reviewed the departure procedures the ship staff had left in the cabin. Before I crashed, I put the color coded luggage tags on my two pieces of check-in luggage and left them outside my cabin. Ship staff would pick up the bags and leave them in the Customs area the next morning.

St. Maarten

I looked forward to playing the proper tourist. Unlike Aruba and Curacao, I wouldn’t be rushing off to go diving in St. Maarten. After having a filling breakfast at the Windjammer Café, Harvey and I took an elevator down to deck 1, had our SeaPasses scanned and departed the ship. We looked for and found the person holding the sign saying deep sea fishing. Once the entire group of 12 got together, he gave us some bad news. The second fishing boat had broken down. They found a replacement but it would be 30 minutes before he arrived. He needed 6 volunteers to go in the later boat. I didn’t care to wait and said so. Luckily for me and Harvey, they got enough volunteers for the second boat.

The man herded us to the spot where we could board taxis. He told the taxi driver where to take us. He told us that the boat captain would drop us off at the cruise ship pier after the fishing. The taxi ride was a short one. We arrived at a marina that had a number of fishing boats. A lady guided us to ours. It was the Natalie Kate which was owned and operated by Captain Paul (last name unknown). Captain Paul told us the boat’s previous owner had named the boat after his daughter. Captain Paul for whatever reasons didn’t change it.

The boat had spaces for 5 rod and reels as well as a seat where whoever got a hit could battle the fish. After Captain Paul explained where the bathroom was, drinks were and that the guest cabin was air conditioned, we departed. We didn’t have to go far out from St. Maarten before we got to start fishing. Captain Paul used outriggers for 4 of the rods so presumably their lines wouldn’t get tangled with each other. Then, he informed us to look for birds. Where seabirds were feeding, there you find big fish feeding also. So, I began looking for seabirds.

After about 30 or 40 minutes we found one and sure enough, we got a massive hit on one of the rods. It was the smallest rod with the lightest line. Captain Paul cursed a bit over that. I helped push the youngest member of our group a kid of maybe 12 or 13 into the command chair. The kid wasn’t strong enough at times to battle the fish so Captain Paul helped him. It would take over 20 minutes before the fish was landed. It was a Mahi Mahi which weighed over 17 pounds and was around 4 feet long. It was an impressive fish. We didn’t know it but that would be the only fish we’d catch the whole time we were out.

Everyone got excited after that fish and looked forward to catching more. However, luck wasn’t with us. We looked every where for birds and saw only a few single ones barring some that were following a fishing boat. Captain Paul tried a number of different areas without any success. Our time out ran out and we had to head in. I know I was very disappointed. I’d paid $200 and didn’t get to catch anything. I thought this stunk.

As previously mentioned, we were told that we would be dropped off at the cruise ship pier. Captain Paul said on our way in he never dropped anyone off there. He said we’d have to take a taxi back and I got the impression he wasn’t going to pay for it. I didn’t bring any money with me because I didn’t think I was going to need any. The folks running this fishing trip were responsible for getting us to the fishing boat and back. Harvey asked how far it was to the cruise ship pier. We were told it was a little over a mile. We looked at each other and started walking. By the time we got to the pier, we were both royally steamed. We checked out some of the souvenir shops at the pier, looked at the Noordam which was also in pier and re-boarded our boat. I was so disgusted over what had happened that I decided not to see anymore of St. Maarten. Instead, I had some lunch and waited for us to depart. When departure time came, I watched as the ship maneuvered away from the pier and set sail for Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. I looked forward to seeing St. Thomas as I’d be able to access the internet from my laptop and could get some more dollars from an ATM there. I hoped things would be nicer there than they had in St. Maarten. Stay tuned.

2nd Day at Sea

What to do? It was my second full day at sea. I’d explored the ship and I knew what it offered as far as activities. I decided to check the Cruise Compass. The Cruise Compass was a newsletter the ship puts out daily. It listed all the special activities the ship had that day. I saw that Captain Nyseter was going to do a Captain’s Corner, there was going to be a Singles trivia game, a bingo game where the prize was a free cruise and a t-shirt sale. I decided to do all of those.

The Captain’s Corner was the chance for passengers to meet Captain Nyseter, learn about ship operations and ask any questions they might have. First, Captain Nyseter told the audience about himself, how he made Captain and how long he’d been with Royal Caribbean. Captain Nyseter worked his way up from the very lowest ranks to that of Captain. He’s been with Royal Caribbean for over 16 years now. Then, he introduced Chief Engineer Tormod Isaksen and Environmental Officer (name forgotten) who told about themselves. Engineer Isaksen was responsible for all the engines on boards and the desalinization plant. The environmental officer was responsible for ensuring the ship met all environmental regulations. He also made sure that all types of waste were properly disposed of. The ship created a lot of it with over 3,600 passengers.

When the ship was in cruise mode, it used 2 engines and maintained a speed of 13 knots (14 or 15 mph). Top speed for the ship was 23 knots. The ship’s draft i.e. the part that was underwater was a surprising 29 feet. When you see how high the ship goes up above water (at least 70 or 80 feet), it’s surprising that there is so little ship underwater. During the question and answer session, Chief Engineer Isaksen said at top speed the ship burned 20,000 gallons of fuel a day. The ship carried over 1 million gallons of fuel. The ship made all its fresh water through its own desalinization plant. There are engines in the front of the ship that enable it to push away or pull to a pier. At the rear of the ship are engine pods that can be rotated enabling the ship to push to or away from a pier. The ship has 4 stabilizers which come out when the ship is at sea enabling a smoother ride. The ship can tilt up to 45 degrees and still recover. The worst situation Captain Nyseter was ever in on a ship was during a hurricane induced storm which caused visibility to be zero. The ship rocked a bit too but otherwise life carried on. If someone went overboard, the ship could stop in approximately 3 ship lengths and go back for them. Captain Nyseter said he’d had one person go overboard though he wouldn’t illuminate the cause of the incident. It was during the question and answer session that I learned of the new class of ship that Royal Caribbean will be coming out with. It’s called the Genesis Class and will be able to accommodate 5,400 passengers. Currently, the largest class ship Royal Caribbean has is the Liberty class which can hold over 4,000 passengers. The Adventure of the Seas was of the Voyager Class which will be their third largest class once the first Genesis Class ship is finished in 2009. With crew, the Genesis Class ships will have over 7,500 people on board. They will be literally floating towns.

I found the Captain’s Corner really interesting. It was also neat to get to meet Captain Nyseter. He was very friendly and likable. I didn’t envy him his job. He has to efficiently manage a ship that is over 100 feet long and over 130 feet wide. He has an international crew of over 1,200. He has to keep an eye on ship, restaurant, hotel and shop operations. He also has to keep on eye on the passengers on board, no small task considering we had 3,689 this cruise alone. It is a huge task. From what I saw, he does a great job of it. I hope I get to cruise on another ship he commands.

After having some lunch, I went in search of the peekaboo bridge. The peekaboo bridge is a spot on the ship where a passenger can look into the ship’s bridge and see its workings. They have a display board that identifies the equipment on the bridge. The seats that the captain can use to control the ship look like something from a jet. There is a radar screen that shows everything around the ship, how far from the ship it is and if it’s another ship whether their paths will cross. They have another screen that shows the ship’s position, the planned course and how close they are to the planned course. At sea, the ship in on autopilot though there is at least 1 officer on watch at all times to keep an eye on things. In the event of a computer failure, the ship carries paper maps, pencils to chart courses and sextants so they can figure out where their position is. It was really interesting.

I’m a big fan of trivia. I like learning things even if the knowledge isn’t terribly important. I saw on the Cruise Compass that they had a single traveler’s trivia game. It turned out it was organized an Australian lady named Jacarda who hailed from Melbourne. After the game, I told her I’d visited there and proved by telling of her of the some of the sights there. The game itself was fun and to my surprise, I won. My prizes were a Royal Caribbean pen and leather luggage tag. Ok, they weren’t the most exciting prizes but, I was still delighted to win.

The ship advertised a t-shirt sail in the Cruise Compass. I wanted a t-shirt from the cruise so I decided to check it out. Little did I know how fierce some people on board could be when it came to shopping. It seems that some folks go on cruises for the bargains that can be had in the various ports. They are on the prowl for a bargain. The ship was promising as much as 50 percent off on t-shirts and other items. Those were magical words to such avid shoppers. I was surprised by the crowd at the tables. One lady refused to make any room so I had to reach around her and grab t-shirts and see if I could find my size. Eventually, I found 3 t-shirts which I liked as well as a nice looking white fleece jacket. To my annoyance, the last night of the cruise, they discounted the t-shirts even further. Still, I got some nice t-shirts which I’ll wear showing that I was on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

Lady luck wasn’t with me when I played bingo for a free cruise. You had to fill in an X on your playing card in order to win. Cards weren’t cheap going at $15 a piece with a free card thrown in if you bought 3. I managed to get down to 3 numbers of one of my cards before an unknown lady won it. Damn!

After the bingo game, Harvey and I had a couple beers at the Promenade Café. It was a nice way to relax before dinner and discuss plans for tomorrow. Tomorrow, we’d go deep sea fishing out of Philipsburg, St. Maarten. Deep sea fishing can be very exciting with the big reels, big rods and BIG fish. I went a couple times with my step-grandfather and I really wanted to try it again. I looked forward excitedly to my next adventure. Stay tuned for my deep sea fishing adventure in St. Maarten.

Curacao

It was another hectic morning. I discovered the hard way that the early bird breakfast at the Windjammer is a continental breakfast. I hate those. Continental breakfast is two words meaning starve. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to wait for them to put out the regular breakfast items. I rushed back to my cabin, grabbed my diving gear and did the same routine again. Luckily, this would be the last time I’d go diving on this cruise so I wouldn’t have to mess with security again over my dive knives.

A guy named Jeremiah was waiting for the dive group at the pier. I forget what his nationality was but, he told me was married to a Dutch girl and had worked at a dive spot in Egypt before coming to Curacao. He’d travelled a good bit of the world. He seemed pretty cool. Once everyone had arrived, Jeremiah directed us to some taxis which would take us to Ocean Encounters. The drive was interesting as we got to see a bit of Willemstad.

Once we arrived at Ocean Encounter’s dive shop, we started setting up your gear or were issued gear if we rented it. Then, we received a briefing on how things were going to work. We were going to do a beach entry. Once we were in shallow water, we’d slip our fins on then, we’d work our way out to the dive point. Once there, we’d let the air out of our BCDs and descend down to the reef. If someone hit the halfway point on their air, they’d let the leader know and they’d head back with the leader’s assistant. The rest would carry on until it was time to turn back.

We made our way out to the beach. I waded into the water and promptly had problems getting my fins on. Then, I put air in my BCD and swam with the rest of the group to the dive site. While swimming out there, I swallowed damn salt water again. That stuff is nasty. I ended coughing some of it up when we got to the dive site. Thankfully, once I started breathing through my respirator, I was fine.

The reef itself was impressive with a large variety of coral and fish life. Visibility was outstanding at 65 feet plus. The reef wall supposedly descended down to 350 feet though the deepest I went was 62 feet on the first dive and 63 on the second. I didn’t have any problems equalizing on the first dive but I did on the 2nd to my great annoyance. I tried to overcompensate and ended up giving myself a bloody nose. I was frustrated with my left ear and pretty certain I had an ear infection.

In regards to Ocean Encounter and their people, I was very pleased with them. I thought they really tried to ensure we had some nice dives. The only thing I would do differently is make sure I go out on a boat vice doing a beach entry. Boat entries are loads easier.

After we returned or packed up our gear, we got back into the taxis that brought us to Ocean Encounter’s and returned to our ship. I grabbed some lunch and decided to stay on board. It looked like it might be a long walk to some shops in town. It turned out I was wrong. There is an easy walk to a number of shops and the remains of one of the old forts.

Departure time was 4:30 p.m. Apparently, some people thought that meant they could return at 4:35, 4:40 and two ladies even showed up at 4:45. They got royally razzed by those of us who were stuck waiting for them. They also got lucky Captain Nyseter didn’t depart. If he had, they would’ve had to fly to St. Maarten at their own expense to rejoin the ship.

I chatted with my friend Harvey and found out what he’d been up. I watched as we sailed east along the coast of Curacao. I decided to see one of the shows the ship out on in the Lyric Theater. It was called “Can’t Stop the Rock.” It featured music from films from the past 40 years. It turned out to be a nice production. I wouldn’t have paid money to see it but it was fun to watch and something to do. Afterwards, I had a nice dinner at the Windjammer. Later, our ship Adventure of the Seas changed tack and sailed northeast to St. Maarten. We would be at sea for an entire day. Stay tuned.

Aruba

Land ho! Land on the starboard bow! I didn’t actually say that from my balcony as our ship arrived at Oranjestad, Aruba BUT I was tempted. I’d been at sea for 33 hours at that point which is the longest I’d ever been to sea. Aruba seemed flat and heavily built up. The cruise ship pier was easy to pull up to and it took little time for Captain Nyseter to pull along the pier. For me, I had to pull my dive bag to one of the glass lined elevators and go up to deck 11 where I checked in for the dive trip. Then, I had to take the elevator down to deck 1 to get my dive knives from Security. I had to show them my receipt for the knives. They found my knives and I returned to deck 11. When it was time, our group descended to deck 1, had our SeaPasses scanned and walked one of the gangways to the pier. A lady was waiting for us. She took us to the boat that we’d use for our dives. Sadly, I can’t remember it’s name. Ton, a retired Dutch IBM executive, was the first mate. He shepherded us to spots on the boat and told to use to start setting up our gear if we brought it or issued it to those who didn’t.

When all were aboard, we left for the boat’s dive shop as they were short 2 pairs of fins for members of our group. Once we left their shop, we proceeded to the location of the Antilla wreck. The Antilla was a German freighter which was off the coast of Aruba at the start of World War II. Apparently, German authorities didn’t warn the ship of the pending invasion of the Netherlands. When Germany invaded the Netherlands, the ship was at anchor. So, when war broke out, Dutch authorities in Aruba came on board the freighter and informed her captain that they were going to seize the ship. The captain pleaded for 24 hours. The authorities foolishly gave it to him. Once the authorities left and were out of sight, the captain proceeded to scuttle i.e. sink the ship. When the Dutch authorities returned the next day, they found out what he’d done. The captain and his crew spent the whole of the war as prisoners of war. Later, he moved to Bonaire where he opened a hotel. There, you can see a picture of his freighter. I heard this story from Ton who was explaining to us about the wreck.

On our way out, we got paired up. I got paired with a guy named Tony. We were part of a 6 diver group that went with Ton’s assistant. When we arrived at the dive site, we took frog steps into the water. Then, we followed a line to the anchor line where we began descending to the bottom.

The wreck was in good shape for a World War II ship. It was also BIG. It was 400 feet long. We dove along side it seeing the various corals growing on the wreck as well as various species of fish. Visibility was at least 35 feet. Ton’s assistant pointed out things of interest including a very long light green Moray eel. The dive lasted at least 35 minutes. When it was time, our group began ascending the anchor line back to the ship. After our group was aboard, we waited for Ton’s group to return. While waiting we changed to fresh tanks of air. Once the second group was aboard, the board departed for the 2nd dive site.

The 2nd dive site was the wreck called the Pedernalis. According to Ton, two German subs were prowling the waters one night off Aruba. The first fired a torpedo which hit a ship but it failed to explode as the crew forgot to the take off the cap which covered the detonator. This tipped off ships that subs were in the area. Luck was not with the Pedernalis which headed straight in the direction of the second German sub. The crew on the second sub made sure the torpedo detonator was uncovered. The ship sank in 25 feet of water. As it sank in such shallow waters, people on shore who owned hotels on shore didn’t like their guests seeing a sunken ship so they asked the Dutch authorities to do something about it. They gladly took care of the problem by blowing the wreck to bits. You can see various pieces on the ocean floor.

After the 2nd dive, we headed back to the cruise ship pier. Ton and his assistant did a great job. The company they’re with is called Red Sail Sports. Later, I visited their dive shop which in my opinion wasn’t very impressive. Still, I’d gladly go diving with them again.

I returned to the ship and turned my dive knives back in to security. I dumped my bag off at my cabin. I grabbed something quick to eat for lunch at the Windjammer. Then, I left the ship again so I could see a little of Oranjestad and take some pictures. From what I saw of the town, I wasn’t impressed. I was amazed by how many jewelry stores they had. I believe they were there for the steady flow tourists that arrived by cruise ship. At St. Maarten, the fishing boat assistant there told me they had 1 cruise ship come in to port every day. Considering how many people are on those ships, I suspect the stores get a good bit of business.

After wandering around for 45 minutes or so, I returned to the ship. I caught up with Harvey and found out how his tour of Aruba went. According to him, they must have driven the length of the island twice during their tour. From listening to him, it didn’t sound like there was a lot to see in Aruba.

Around dinner time, I returned to the Windjammer and it’s sister café. Departure time at Aruba was 8 p.m. This meant it was dark when we left. The Windjammer is at the end of deck 11. It has large glass windows so passengers can look out and see the surrounding area. This was a huge plus as I got to see Oranjestad all lit up at night as we departed. It was really impressive. Our next port of call was Willemstad, Curacao. I looked forward to my next adventure. Stay tuned.

Day At Sea

Monday, March 10th was our first full day at sea. We'd set sail the night before around 9 p.m. It was incredible to cruise by the old fortress walls of Old San Juan and see the city lit up at night. This morning, there wasn't any sign of cities or land. All that surrounded the ship was water.

My friend Harvey and I walked through the passageways to the glass lined elevators. We went up to deck 11 where the Windjammer Cafe is located. The Windjammer offers a continental breakfast for early risers and a full breakfast afterwards. There was a wide choice of fruit, cereal, ham, bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, pastries and juices. We found a table near the windows which gave great views of the ocean surrounding the ship. The views hammered home we were at sea.

After breakfast, we had to decide what to do. The ship Adventure of the Seas doesn't lack for options. You can rock climb, roller blade, play miniature golf, play basketball, swim, read a book in the library, surf the web on their computer terminals for a fee, work out in the fitness center (treadmills, aerobicycles, weights), do yoga, relax in the sauna or whirlpool, go to the spa, shop in the ship's 5 shops, see a show in the ship's theater, gamble in the casino, walk or jog around the jogging track, rest in one of the lawn chairs, ice skate or take ice skating lessons, sip champagne at the champagne bar, take a scuba diving course, play shuffleboard, play various board games, pray at the ship's chapel on the 15th deck, watch the ship's officers run the ship at the bridge via the peekaboo bridge, play bingo, play trivia, play sudoku, learn where the best shopping will be in Aruba (our first port call), book optional tours, book a future cruise, take a nutrition course or just explore the ship. The ship is so big that it can you days to get your bearings. You learn where certain things are the like the shops on deck 5 or the Lyric Theater on decks 3 and 4. Harvey and I decided to explore the ship first and then get some exercise. I'd heard a joke that people came on board the ship as passengers and left as cargo. I was determined to avoid blimping out.

I was amazed that the ship had a block long street on shops inside of it. You could buy discounted liquor, jewelry, cameras, t-shirts as well as more mundane items like sunscreen and finger nail clippers. Interestingly, you pay for all these items with your SeaPass. Your SeaPass was a combination credit card, room key and pass that allowed you to get off and on the ship. It is the most important card you'll have during the cruise.

Another important item passengers would receive on the ship was the daily Cruise Compass paper. The paper told you what the temperature was going to be, what the hours were for the various shops, restaurants and bars, what special activities were going to happen that day as well as their time and place, any special sales and any special procedures ex. when we were getting close to the end of the cruise, the paper told you where you had to go to wait till your group was called to disembark the ship. It was very useful and every evening your cabin steward would put the next day's issue in your cabin.

After exploring the ship and doing an hour on the aerobicycle, Harvey and I had lunch at the Windjammer. It would be another nice meal though it felt weird not paying for it. In order to get my unlimited sodas, I had to show my SeaPass which had a sticker on it showing I'd paid for the unlimited sodas.

After lunch, I checked in with the SeaTrek dive shop on board. I had to show them one of my certification cards and sign a liability form. I would do my first dive trip on the cruise tomorrow in Aruba. Also, I found out what I'd have to do to get my dive knives back and where to meet for the dive trip.

Tonight was the first of two nights where passengers had to dress up for dinner in the formal dining rooms. Men had to wear suits and ties or tuxes while women had to wear dresses. I wasn't impressed enough with dining or the company at our table to want to go through all the hassle of dressing up. I found out I could skip eating at the Strauss (or Vivaldi or Mozart dining rooms), they could eat dinner in the Windjammer or it's connecting cafe (I forget what it's called). I had another problem with eating at the Strauss dining room. It was so late. The second seating didn't begin until 8:30 p.m. You wouldn't finish dinner till past 10:30. The later I stay up, the less sleep I get so I don't like staying up late. I decided to not eat at the Strauss anymore. Instead, I ate at the Windjammer or it's sister cafe. By doing that, I was able to finish by 9 p.m. and be in bed by 9:30. So, I had a decent dinner at the Windjammer and crashed afterwards. I had an interesting day ahead. I would do my first cruise diving trip and see Aruba for the first time. Stay tune.

Cruise Begins

Note: I've returned safe and sound from my first cruise. I found it nice and I hope to take another next year. As I'd like to share with my readers what it was like, I'll be blogging for the next week or so what all happened. I hope you find my entries and possibly useful if you ever go on a Royal Caribbean cruise yourself.

The drive from the hotel to the Pan American pier was short and uneventful. The taxi driver had previously worked for Royal Caribbean and told me I could’ve checked in as early as 9 a.m. The reservation booklet said to show up at 2 p.m. When we arrived at the check-in terminal, there was a long line but, it was moving well. In about 10 minutes, I reached the part where I could check-in my luggage. After that, I had to show proof of identity and that I had a reservation. Then, I entered another line. This line was to get my SeaPass. The SeaPass is the most important card you’ll have on the cruise. It gets you into your cabin, allows you to pay for drinks, food and items from any of the ship’s stores book, pay for excursions and it enables you to get on and off the ship when it is in port. It took about 4 minutes to get my SeaPass.

From there, I joined another line. This line was to get my photo taken for the ship. After that, I walked up various walkways to the ramp on deck 4. Just before boarding, a photographer was taking photos of people that would show them joining a Royal Caribbean cruise. If the passenger liked the photo, they could buy it later in the photo shop on-board. This would be the first of many opportunities to buy a cruise photo. I thought it annoying.

I skipped the photo and boarded. I made my way to my cabin and found the gifts I ordered for myself waiting. The cabin was decent size and comfortable. The balcony featured nice views. I was pleased with the cabin.

As the last things I’d eaten were some pastries at the Normandie Hotel, I was starved. I decided to find one of the ship’s restaurants and get something to eat. I found out the Windjammer Café was open on deck 11. I found an elevator, went to deck 11 and managed to find the café. They were selling unlimited glasses of soda for the cruise with a bonus of a glass that you could keep and was less likely to slide. The cost with tax was $48. As I didn’t want a bunch of charges for sodas, I decided to get the unlimited drinks. I used my SeaPass to pay for it. Then, I got to experience for the first time the renowned cruise ship buffet. The Windjammer offered at least 9 main entrees, vegetables, salads, rolls and desserts. You could go back as many times as you wanted without having to pay a penny. As the food was pretty good, I could understand how people could manage to put on a few pounds while on a cruise.

After lunch, I decided to see if I could find my friend Harvey. I had one problem though. I wasn’t sure what cabin he was in. I had the operator put me through to his cabin and twice he wasn’t there. Finally, I did get a hold of him. It’d been 6 months since I’d last seen him. He’s a good bloke and it was nice to catch up on the chit chat. After talking for a bit, we found out about an exercise where everyone has to put on their lifejackets and stand by their lifeboat. Some people were blasé about the exercise but, I was fervently hoping I wouldn’t have to do this stuff in real life. I didn’t want my cruise that exciting!

The exercise went all right and was ended. I returned my lifejacket to its spot in my cabin. I decided to find the dive shop on board and make sure all was well with my planned dive trips. The folks at the dive shop were very nice. They tipped me off that I would have problems with the dive knives I’d brought. You weren’t allowed to have such knives on board. Security would keep my knives during the cruise. When I needed them for diving, I’d check them out from security. When I returned from diving, I’d turn them back into security. It was to be a major hassle during the cruise and I’m resolved to not take dive knives ever again on a cruise.

My travel agent arranged for Harvey and I to eat at the second seating. That meant that dinner didn’t start until 8:30 p.m. I wasn’t thrilled with eating that late. Our table was in the Mozart dining room. It was a very impressive dining room with a crystal chandelier and uniformed waiters and waitresses. The food turned out to be good average food. That would be the case throughout the cruise.

After dinner, I returned to my cabin and found out I had a voicemail. Security had the predicted problem with my dive knives. I turned them over to them and they wrote me a receipt for them. Then, I hauled my dive bag to my cabin and finally crashed around 11:30 p.m. Tomorrow, we would have a full day at sea. Stay tuned.

Cruise Update

I'm currently sitting in San Juan International Airport (SJU). My cruise ended uneventfully. Last night, I packed my bags and put them in the walkway so they could be picked up. This morning, I went to the Windjammer Cafe for the last time for a good full breakfast. I was grateful to Royal Caribbean as I probably won't eat anything else until I get home this evening.

After breakfast, I went back to my cabin and packed last minute stuff into my carry-on bags. I found the list of charges I made on the ship. All totalled, I charged $250 worth of stuff. Not too bad. I also said my good-byes to my friend Harvey. We'll be in touch and I'll see him again in six months when we do a 2-week tour of France with Globus. We also have to start working things out for a cruise in 2009.

The next step was to go to the Lyric Theater in the ship and wait for my departure number to be called. I ended up waiting over an hour. Finally, my number was called. I walked down to deck 4 and checked out of the ship for the last time. Then, I walked down a long walkway into a room with thousands of bags. I had to search for the 2 I checked. I finally found them, turned in my customs slip (first one to have ever have a ship name on it vice a flight number), and walked into the area where I would check my bags in with TeD/United. It was then that I had to find security and get my dive knives back. That went all right and I put the knives in my dive bag. I secured the bag using ties. I'm glad I won't have to mess with the bags again until I reach Dulles.

The next step was to find my ride to the airport. I'd prepaid this and I was glad. One less thing to mess with. I was directed to a bus which took at least 30 of us to the airport. The bus driver told us a little more about San Juan on the way. Once we arrived at the airport, I went to security as I already had my bags checked in and my boarding pass thanks to the ship's valet service. Security was uneventful and my gate wasn't far from there.

So, now I sit waiting for my flight. The cruise was nice but I miss the cameraderie of a Globus tour. It was impossible to have any cameraderie with 3,689 people. I still think it is the way to see the islands in the Caribbean. It makes it loads easier as you only have to unpack and pack 1 time. Also, the cruise can save you money on meals. The food on the ship was good. It was also VERY plentiful. I can understand how people can put on some weight on a cruise. I think I managed to avoid that. I kept myself to 1 plate per meal and I tried not to pile it on. Also, I made sure I exercised every day in some way. I was bit irked by the constant shop shop shop pitch on the ship. I'm not into shopping at all. Also, I didn't like the numerous pitches to gamble in the ship's casino. Gambling is a good way to throw away one's money in my opinion though I do it myself on occasion. I'm not immune to the lure of winning a few bucks.

As I previously stated, I'll post blog entries telling what I did on the cruise later. Hopefully, you'll find them interesting. If nothing else, they'll give you an idea what a cruise is like.

Cheers all!

Cruise Update

Greetings all! My apologies for not posting but, what Royal Caribbean Cruises calls nominal and what I call nominal are apparently two different things. When I got on-board, I checked into their WiFi service. I wasn't able to get my WiFi card to work on their system. I found out I would have to rent one of their cards at $50 and pay 55 cents a minute to access the Internet. I felt that was too much and so I haven't accessed the Internet the last 5 days. Today, the ship made port at Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. As the U.S. Virgin Islands are part of the U.S., I was able to access the Internet via my PCS Connection card. Hurrah! It's great to be able to post again.

Sadly, I'll be back in San Juan, Puerto Rico tomorrow. From there, I'll fly home and go back to my very dull boring life. Oh well. I plan to catch up on entries for the cruise once I get back so there will be some interesting stuff to read the next week or so. I've dived 6 times in 3 different countries. I went deep sea fishing in St. Maarten though that turned out to be a royal dud. Today, I got to learn about real pirates that inhabited the Caribbean. It was very interesting. I actually bought my mom Kay a real piece of Spanish treasure. It's a real silver coin that was salvaged from the Nuestra de Atocha wreck off the Florida coast. I hope she enjoys it.

My friend Harvey and I are already planning our next cruise. We hope to take a 7-day cruise in 2009 that makes port in St. Thomas, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados and Antigua. It would be on the same ship. We'll see if it happens.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for further posts. Cheers all!

Trip Update

I felt like a proper tourist yesterday morning. I made my way down to the restaurant the Normandie uses for breakfast. Having breakfast in the hotel restaurant is standard procedure during a holiday. The breakfast was continental which stunk. I like a hearty breakfast with lots of sausage, bacon, eggs, potatoes and a pastry or two. It'll keep me going all day. A Continental breakfast WON'T.

After breakfast, I waited about 15 minutes for someone to show up for the tour I'd signed up for. The tour was one of the main reasons I chose to stay 2 days in San Juan. I wanted to get to see Old San Juan and the Bacardi Distillery. I didn't know what to expect from the tour company RICO Suntours. To my surprise, a van pulled up and a guy called out my last name. I gave him my voucher and hopped in. There were 7 of us, all from the mainland U.S. Incredibly, all or most were from Maryland too. I remember one lady saying she lived in Bel Air which I've heard of.

We drove around old San Juan with our guide/driver pointing out buildings of note. Then, we parked and began the walking part of the tour. We walked along the old city wall to the only surviving city gate. We walked through and saw packed houses with cobblestone streets. The cobblestones were used as ballast on ships coming out to Puerto Rico and then abandoned. The city decided to take advantage of the situation and used them to pave their streets in older days.

Our tour guide took us to Il Convenuto which is a former convent that was converted into a wonderful hotel. He told us some of the history and pointed out things of note. Right across the street was the Cathedral of San Juan. It isn't a super ornate building but, it still had charm. It was neat visiting it. We continued to walk around the old city gradually making our way back to the van.

From there, we drove to San Cristobal Fort. It was 1 of 3 (I believe) forts that protected the city. The fort was huge and very impressive. It had a dungeon and thick walled barracks. It also had great views of the city. In the old days, it would've been the highest building in the city. It was fascinating to walk around and learn of its history. After that, we would drive to the Puerto Rican legislature.

Puerto Rico has it's own Senate and House of Representatives. There are 8 Senators and 30 or 40 Representatives. Politics are a lot more passionate in Puerto Rico. In the last election, over 70% of the population voted compared to around 35% in the mainland U.S. The building is impressive with 26 different kinds of marble. It also houses the Puerto Rican constitution which was adopted in 1950 something. It was a beautiful building.

Bacardi Rum is known worldwide. They have the number 1 brand in the U.S. One of the things they advertise is you can take a tour of their distillery in San Juan. You can and you can't. It turns out you get to see the outside of the distillery. You go to a presentation building where you learn the history of the company and how they make rum. After the presentation, a drive outside the distillery, bottling and administrative buildings, you come back to a pavilion where you get 2 free drinks made with Bacardi rum. I found the drinks to be small. There is also a building called Casa Bacardi where you can buy any kind of rum they make including their 151 rum which you can't take to the U.S. because it's highly FLAMMABLE. It even says that on the bottle. I bought a beach towel there as I needed one for my check dives Sunday.

After the distillery tour, our tour was over. Our wonderful guide drove us back to our respective hotels. My guide also tipped me that I wouldn't want to go into Old San Juan. There were going to be 4 cruise ship loads of tourists there. I decided to take his advice. I chilled out at my hotel room and waited for the cruise ships to depart. They finally started leaving around 10 p.m. To my astonishment, the Celebrity X ship left the Pan American pier going backwards. I can only guess that the ship is so big that it can't turn around in the harbor area. I thought that a bit of a trip. I was impressed by how fast the ships could move. I made the mistake of not checking on 1 of the cruise ship for about 20 minutes. When I checked on it again, it had departed the pier and was halfway out of the port.

The day ended up being really nice. Sunday March 9th, I'll get to do my check dives and check in to the cruise I'll be going on. Stay tuned for further updates. Cheers all!

First Trip to San Juan Puerto Rico

I finally arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico. My misadventures continued. Everyone boarded the plane at Dulles International. After everyone was seated, the Captain comes on and tells everyone that their having problems with the plane's computer but he thinks the mechanic will be able to fix it with a reboot. At the next update, we're given the bad news. The plane's computer will have to replaced. That'll take at least 20 minutes. We grit it out for 20 minutes and pull away from the gate. Tower informs the plane that it will have to wait in the waiting area for at least 10 minutes. I forget the reason the Captain was given. After being nearly an hour late departing, we finally took off. The flight was nearly 4 hours. The stewards and stewardesses were excellent. However, TeD definitely packs people into their planes like cattle. I had very little leg room. Also, if you want something to eat barring 2 cookies, you'll have to shell out $5 for a boxed snack. I bought their mini-meal. It was actually pretty decent.

Once I arrived at the San Juan Airport, I followed the signs to baggage claim. The signs said through the rotating doors to the United Airlines baggage claim. One problem, the doors wouldn't budge. Someone found out there was a long way around to the baggage claim. So, off I trudged to find the baggage claim. Thankfully, all my luggage arrived and to my surprise, TSA left my toothpaste alone and didn't open my scuba diving equipment bag. Hurray!

I quickly found out that English is NOT the dominant language in Puerto Rico. It's Spanish. All signs were in Spanish and a few had smaller words in English. I wasn't thrilled with this discovery as I'm off on my own for the next 2 days and I can't speak Spanish (except the numbers 1 to 10 which wouldn't do a lot of good). Barring getting help from the hotel, I get to sort stuff out myself. Not fun. I like having someone there just in case. It's one of the primary reasons I go on Globus tours. If I run into a jam, I can go running to the tour guide and yell HELP!

My misadventures continued at the hotel. The hotel is supposed to have free WiFi. I hooked up my WiFi card and it didn't pick up any signal. I found out the free WiFi isn't working. The hotel let me use their cable modem for free as a consequence.

After calling my friend Harvey and telling him what to expect i.e. WARM and LOTS of palm trees and LOTS of bright sun, I headed off to Old San Juan. I found out it's 2 and 1/2 miles from my hotel. I didn't feel I needed that much exercise. It cost me $10 to take a taxi. The driver dropped me off at Colon Plaza, named after Christopher Colon (I think he was an explorer though I'm not sure). I walked down to the cruise ship piers to find out where I'll have to go Sunday. The Regent Seven Seas Mariner is in port. It's on par size wise with a ferry but this ship doesn't carry any buses or cars. It is huge. I won't be going on that one but, I will leave from the same pier.

After that, I made my way to the Hard Rock Cafe. In the last 22 hours, I'd only had the mentioned mini-meal on the plane. I was ready for some food. I ended up having a vanilla milkshake, an order of chicken wings and their artery frying hickory smoked bacon cheeseburger with caramelized onions with an order of french fries. By the time I finished all that, I was happily stuffed.

It was time to burn a little of that dinner off. I walked down Paseo de la Princesa (La Princesa Promenade). It was a nice stroll. I got to see some of the old city walls. At the end, I got to see the La Princesa Fountain. It's a nice fountain though I was surprised by the bare boobs on the women in the fountain. The views over the water from there were great. It reminded me of my days at Fort Walton Beach, Florida. They were very beautiful.

After that, I walked back to Colon Plaza. I hopped into a taxi and told the driver I was staying at the Normandie Hotel. The driver gave me a quizzical look. My reaction was ah oh. Thankfully, he did know how to get the hotel and, he didn't try to rip me off. Once in my room, I called Caribe Aquatic and confirmed all was set up for my check dives on Sunday. So far, all goes well. Stay tuned for my updates.

Update: January 1, 2014. Two things. First, the Hard Rock Cafe in San Juan is closed at the time of this update. I was in San Juan April 2013 and sadly saw it was closed. I don't know why it was closed. Also, today, I checked the Hard Rock Cafe website (http://www.hardrock.com/locations/cafe3/) and, it still isn't listed. Second, the Normandie Hotel is closed. According to the following webpage: http://blekko.com/wiki/Normandie_Hotel?source=672620ff, it was closed in 2008 due to redevelopment plans and purchased by Ben Medetsky and Jack Polatsek of Interra Capital Group in 2013 who are working on redeveloping the hotel. I couldn't find anything on that on Interra's website: http://www.interracapital.com/default.aspx about that or what their plans are for the hotel though the property is a departure for this company as all its listed properties are in Texas.

Messed Up

I messed up yesterday. I should've taken the day off so I could've taken my time getting ready for my trip. Instead, I did a full day's work at the Post Office. To make matters worse there, the direct-to-point service (DPS) mail was over an hour and a half late. That caused me to be over an hour late hitting the street. I finished work at the Post Office around 5:45 p.m. I dashed home, had something to eat quickly, loaded my car with my diving gear and drove to Columbia Scuba (see previous blog entry). To be on the safe side, I decided to buy an extra mask strap and a couple extra fin straps. I was surprised to find out the fin straps cost $10 a piece. Ouch! I also decided to buy some electrical ties so I could secure my diving bag. I don't want anyone to help themselves to my diving equipment. The stuff is very expensive.

After that, I had to do laundry which took another 90 minutes. I finished packing around 10:15 p.m. and hit the road at 10:30. It took an hour to reach the hotel I was going to stay at. The one benefit I had for leaving so late was no traffic on Maryland 295 and the D.C. 495 Orbital. I got a shock when I found out I had to pay 2 tolls to get to my hotel. It's located off one of the few Virginia toll roads.

The hotel my travel agent recommended turned out to be very nice. Sadly, I didn't get to enjoy it much as I had to be at Dulles at 6:15 a.m. Considering how much sleep I've had, I'm surprisingly coherent. I suspect I'm going to sleep like a log when I get to San Juan. We'll see. That's all for this update. I'll post another when I arrive in San Juan, Puerto Rico for the first time. Stay tuned.

Dive Shop

I visited Columbia Scuba (http://www.columbiascuba.com/) today. One of the pieces of equipment I decided I wanted to take with me is a small underwater flashlight. The flashlight would be useful for looking into crevices and nooks. When I tried turning the flashlight on, it wouldn't come on. I assumed the batteries were dead so the next day, I drove to Safeway and bought some new batteries. I installed them and the flashlight still wouldn't come on. I decided to take the flashlight to Columbia Scuba and see if they could figure out what was wrong with it. If they couldn't, I'd buy a new one. It turned out that a) I put the batteries in wrong and b) the bulb was burned out. The flashlight didn't have any kind of diagram showing how batteries should be put in. As far as the bulb, the only thing for that was replacing it. To my surprise, it cost over $20.

Another diver was at the time shop while I was there. Unlike me, he had gone on a number of dive trips. I asked him what he could think of that I might need. He came up with 3 things. The first two were standard: mask defogger and ear drops. Mask defogger keeps your mask from fogging up once you get in the water. Ear drops keep you from getting an ear infection while diving. I learned the hard way how important these were. The last item he came up with was a whistle. Why would a whistle be important? It would be very important if you surfaced away from the dive boat you're using. Blowing a whistle would help you get the attention of the people on board. The whistle the dive shop sold me reportedly can be heard up to 1 mile. Another item the fellow recommended was spare fin and mask straps. These can break and there isn't any guarantee the company you're diving with will have replacements. Unfortunately, there are specific straps for specific masks so I'll have to go back to Columbia Scuba tomorrow so they can match up my mask with the right strap. Concerning the fin straps, I thought I had spares of those but, it turned out I was wrong so, I'll be buying some of those tomorrow too. Lastly, I plan to buy some electrical ties so I can secure my diving bag. If the TSA folks want to check something in my bag, they can easily cut the tie. The securing the zippers on my bag, I'll make sure some baggage handler doesn't get tempted to help themselves to a free diving knife or fins.

Heads Up

In case you didn't know, daylight savings time will be starting March 9th. At 2 a.m. on March 9th, you'll need to move your clocks forward 1 hour (or you can move them forward 1 hour before you go to bed). The earlier start date is due to the Energy Policy of 2005 (Source: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/daylight_time.php). Daylight savings time will end this year on November 2nd.

Trip Preparation

I've begun getting my scuba diving equipment together for my trip to the Caribbean. As previously mentioned, this will be the first time I'll have travelled with the stuff. It's a bit of a challenge because you have figure out what exactly to take. Some scuba diving equipment is very heavy ex. weights and because of weight limits you don't want to take those. You're not allowed to bring some equipment on board planes. I found out I can't check in my spare air tank because you're not allowed to check pressurized air tanks. My travel agent told me one person did that one time and the tank exploded causing the plane to crash. In regards to the stuff you can take with you, once you take, you're going to be lugging it with you the whole trip. So, do you really need that anchor line finder? Are you going to need a wreck reel? Will you need an underwater flashlight? Scuba diving equipment tends to be expensive so you don't want to leave something behind and then have to buy it again at a local dive shop. Some equipment uses batteries. You have to make sure the batteries are still good though you might want to replace them to be on the safe side. You don't want the batteries to die while you're diving or have to go in search of batteries in some foreign country. Lastly, you need to remember to bring your certification cards and dive log. The cards are necessary to prove you're qualified to dive. The dive log is important so you can prove later that you did the dives you said you did. When I show up to do 2 dives in Aruba, they require proof that I've dived in the last two years. My dive log will be my proof as it'll show where I did my 2 check dives and have the signature of the divemaster that accompanied me on the dives. For me, all this is new and challenging. Yet, it is exciting too. I can't wait to see underwater world in the Caribbean.

Sudoku

I started playing Sudoku again. I know I'll be playing the electronic version I bought on my flight back from Oslo, Norway while enroute and back to San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's a great way to while away some time while you're waiting for your flight at the airport as well as use up some of the scrap paper from your computer printer.

This past Sunday, I was at the Laurel Books-a-Million. I saw a Sudoku game book that offered tips on how to solve the puzzles faster. I decided to see what tips it offered. While checking those out, I found out that Sudoku has become bigger than crossword puzzles in the U.S. There are now more Sudoku puzzle books published than crossword puzzle books. All major newspapers now carry the puzzles. I suspect people prefer Sudoku because it isn't dependent on their vocabulary. Also, the puzzles are very challenging. Last night, I tried to beat my best time of 12 minutes 51 seconds. Luck wasn't with me though. I swear the machine came up with one of the harder level 1 puzzles. It ended up taking me over 41 minutes to solve the dang thing. Still, it was fun doing the puzzle and it is a great way to exercise the mind. I look forward to playing a lot of Sudoku while I'm off on my latest adventure.