My nephew playing with his Woody at the dinner table.
The Friday night before, my parents picked me up, and in typical Allen fashion, we arrived crazy late to pick up Annie and my sister Rebecca in the Hammer. We then went to Mexicali Rosa's for dinner to prepare us for southern-ish style food to come in the days ahead. We had a flight to Miami early in the morning, so we decided to stay at a hotel near the airport to make things easier.
After a few lineups and checking baggage getting on to the ship (not unlike getting on a plane), we finally got to check out the ship!
The foyer with multiple levels and fun, neat-o lifting devicesFirst day: Half Moon Cay:
Sorry Annie, I stole this picture from you :)Half Moon Cay was rad. It was kind of different cause it was owned by the cruise line for people to go to, lie on the beach, do activities on the island, and eat. So it was pretty awesome... the water was so clear, and we just layed around. Annie got burnt pretty bad, even through the sunscreen! We certainly did roast on a hot beach (it's a few posts down).
Second day: "Fun Day at Sea"
So on days when there is no stop and the ship is going, Carnival Cruises call it a "Fun Day" to try and cover up for the fact that you are really in transition between places. This caused my bro-in-law, marcus mallarkus... aka mark, to refer to it as "Mild Amusement Day at Sea". Don't get me wrong though, there was lots of fun things to do on the ship...... uhhh.... eat.... uhh... drink..... uhh... haha. Just kidding, there were awesome live shows and music, karaoke, little stores, pools, beach chairs on the deck, a waterslide, hot tubs, and all sorts of activities going on.
My dad suggested we play "a rousing game of settlers of catan", to which various snickers a-rose for whatever blessed reason. So instead we played Apples to Apples. Also, here's a picture of us eating in the dining room.
L to R: Annie, Rebecca, Mark, Esther, Chadwick, Ben-wick, Sarah, Kathryn, StephenThird day: The crappiest band ever* or the awesome day at the Virgin Islands
I think most of us agreed on this trip that the US Virgin Islands were probably one of the most beautiful places we visited. Unfortunately, it was the US, and as many of us are familiar, customs is a nightmare. Since we were in international waters and coming back on US soil (even though we left from Miami), we were subjected to a 1.5 hour lineup getting our passports checked. Some people had it worse.
We had signed up for a kayak/snorkel/hike excursion that day. It was really cool, we got to see some natural sights, hear a bit about the history of the island, and got to check out some sweet underwater fishes. We also enjoyed the beach for about 10 minutes... unfortunately due to our lack of time with the lineup and having to get back on the ship by 5ish, we didn't have enough time to stay. A good day nonetheless though.
My sister Rebecca @ Magen's Bee-ach*Edited for use of the cursive... er... swears. However I don't like the revised edition, it just doesn't describe how bad the christian answer to creed is (ironically, the previous christian answer to pearl jam), but i shall digress and accept it for the sake of prudence/being polite.
Fourth day: San Juan, Puerto Rico
This place was rad. An old spanish-founded city, open air market stuffs, a big ol' spanish fort, awesome picturesque views of the atlantic, and a killer beach. We did a lot this day, and even managed to walk around the old part of the city.
The big ol' fort in San Juan.Fifth day: Mild Amusement Day at Sea
My memory is a bit foggy as to what we did this day, but I remember seeing a killer magic show. Except I forget the name of the magician. The only disappointment was that there was no Aztec Tomb. I did think he was actually going to die with some of the tricks he pulled.
Also there was a hypnotist, check him out. His show was hilarious. The best part was when he asked only the guys to wake up and believe that he was naked, and one of the girls also woke up. Would have been weird to be her boyfriend.
Sixth day: Nassau, Bahamas
I had a great time here. My sister Rebecca and I did a couple scuba dives, saw some crazy fish, lobster and skates - a smaller version of a stingray. Some of the fish were surprisingly huge, others had stingy spines that would send us to the hospital so we avoided them like stingy spine fish that would send us to the hospital.
After the dives, we tried to catch up with everyone else at the beach. Apparently their day consisted of driving through slums, running into a guy pimping on the beach, running in to a guy dealing, really old men with gold diggers, and the like. We didn't find them or the people they ran in to, but hung out at the beach for a bit, which is just down a little ways from where the likes of Oprah, Michael Jordan, the Lloyd's of London dude, Nicolas Cage, and some other famous people who have houses.
Our experience of the beach was pretty killer
Seventh day: They rested.....?
It was sad to see it end. The trip was awesome, except for my disappointment in not seeing any carnies on the Carnival Cruise. hardy har.
Our trip home wasn't actually all that restful. We were paranoid we weren't going to get on our flight as we found out our travel agent had booked us on standby. We barely got on. More unfortunately, the more westerly-habitation-endowed portion of my family ended up traveling in 3 different groups. They had a flight to Denver that was delayed, which caused them to not be able to get on their flight back to Calgary. Additionally, the later booked ones were mostly booked. I think while we got home on Saturday, one of my sisters didn't get home until Monday morning. It sort of makes me laugh though, I guess that's not very nice of me. Ah well, it'll build character.
Trip rating: 8.1/10, killer time.
Sincerely,
Luke
My memory is a bit foggy as to what we did this day, but I remember seeing a killer magic show. Except I forget the name of the magician. The only disappointment was that there was no Aztec Tomb. I did think he was actually going to die with some of the tricks he pulled.
Also there was a hypnotist, check him out. His show was hilarious. The best part was when he asked only the guys to wake up and believe that he was naked, and one of the girls also woke up. Would have been weird to be her boyfriend.
Sixth day: Nassau, Bahamas
I had a great time here. My sister Rebecca and I did a couple scuba dives, saw some crazy fish, lobster and skates - a smaller version of a stingray. Some of the fish were surprisingly huge, others had stingy spines that would send us to the hospital so we avoided them like stingy spine fish that would send us to the hospital.
After the dives, we tried to catch up with everyone else at the beach. Apparently their day consisted of driving through slums, running into a guy pimping on the beach, running in to a guy dealing, really old men with gold diggers, and the like. We didn't find them or the people they ran in to, but hung out at the beach for a bit, which is just down a little ways from where the likes of Oprah, Michael Jordan, the Lloyd's of London dude, Nicolas Cage, and some other famous people who have houses.
Our experience of the beach was pretty killerSeventh day: They rested.....?
It was sad to see it end. The trip was awesome, except for my disappointment in not seeing any carnies on the Carnival Cruise. hardy har.
Our trip home wasn't actually all that restful. We were paranoid we weren't going to get on our flight as we found out our travel agent had booked us on standby. We barely got on. More unfortunately, the more westerly-habitation-endowed portion of my family ended up traveling in 3 different groups. They had a flight to Denver that was delayed, which caused them to not be able to get on their flight back to Calgary. Additionally, the later booked ones were mostly booked. I think while we got home on Saturday, one of my sisters didn't get home until Monday morning. It sort of makes me laugh though, I guess that's not very nice of me. Ah well, it'll build character.
Trip rating: 8.1/10, killer time.
Sincerely,
Luke
