Easter Island

Today has easily been the best day of the cruise – and those of you who talked to me before I left should know why. I’ve wanted to visit Easter Island ever since I can remember; where’s Easter Island and why did I want to go there so badly? It’s just a small island in the Pacific Ocean between South America and Tahiti, officially belonging to Chile. Remember those National Geographic magazine covers with the stone heads? That’s Easter Island! The Moai are scattered across the island, acting as fallen mysteries of the tribes and cultures that previously inhabited the land. The smallest of them measures approximately 8 feet; the largest was just over 40 feet. The huge statues took up an estimated 25% of the entire island’s resources to construct and their movement from the volcano quarry to their final resting places is the common theory as to the deforestization of the entire island. Steve, Christine and I grabbed a cab and Heiman (our driver) sped around the island (up to 120 km/h) to make sure we saw everything before we all had to be back aboard for work. Amazingly extraordinary day, without a question. It goes without saying that I highly recommend Easter Island to anyone… even though I doubt you can actually get here by any means besides a ship without a ticket costing a small fortune.

Black and White Ball

Great night as usual... except for the fact that ALL the guys were forced to wear the hideous sequent jackets that weigh more than I do. Its not often that a guy wears more glitter than the girls! Not to mention just how hot those damn things are - all my Superbowl crew from last year know what I'm talking about... imagine wearing those things for the entire ball!
Internet signal is in and out as we're completely in the middle of no where... hope all is well back home and where ever you're from when you're reading this (Switerland!).

Lima, Peru

What an awesome day! Lori, Ronan, Jon and I left the ship at around 11:30 am and only returned at 6:30 pm. We went to Pachacamac, an ancient Inca city from around 1100 AD. Besides being quite hot - although not nearly as hot as the pervious days and not even close to Somoa hot - it was a great day... well I guess the screaming tour guides wasn't exactly a highlight. There was one section of the ruins that wasn't roped off or anything remotely like that and we saw some other crew (Freddie, Brandy and Julia), so we decided to venture into the ruins a little further. When we all finished our self-guided tour and took a picture with a random skull (that I named Pinky), we began our treck to where our taxis were waiting; surrounding them was a couple Holland America tour busses and frantic tour guides yelling at us. During doors, back on the ship, the guests all labeled us as the trouble-makers and told us that their guides were calling the police on us and trying to flag down the armed gaurds that randomly walk around the ruin grounds. All in all it was a great day that including some good bonding time between all of the people in these pictures. A special shout out to Guillermo (sorry for the incorrect spelling but that's how it sounds), our taxi driver who had to put up with the randomness of Lori, Ronan, Jon and myself all day long! Highly recomend visiting Peru if you get the chance - it's beautiful... just wish I could have made it out to Machu Pichu.

Oh Lori...

So on Lori's schedule was football toss at 10:45 am. At Cruise Staff lunch time (11:30 am), Steve comes into the office and we realize that the football was still in its package. As it turns out, Lori didn't use the football at all and told the guests that it was European football toss and decided to use a soccer ball instead.

Oh Lori...

Bruce's B-day

Happy Birthday Bruce!!! Well this is the team (minus Susanne the Explorations Cafe Manager). Starting from left to right: Lizzie, Jon, Bruce, Lori, STeve, Christine, myself and Ronan. More to come about everyone later, but thought you'd like to put a face to whom I talk about!

Panama Canal & Neptune Ceremony

This has now been my fifth time through the Panama Canal and I still love it; but we all know it's all about the Panama Rolls (yes, I put that as a "don't miss"). As usual the day was filled with humidity and extreme heat in the morning with a crazy strong wind encompassing the ship all afternoon.
Today we crossed the equator and had the King Neptune Ceremony. Same as last year I was a merman. Nothing too fun to report just a good time.
When I have more I'll write a hilarious story about Lori - oh Gypsy!
Oh Ecuador, here I come!

A Little R&R

I'm so happy for the last cruise to be over with and the GWV is now underway. Our last day before heading to Fort Lauderdale was Half Moon Cay where we spent a good chunk of the afternoon on the beach! Yes... so that was some much needed rest and relaxation. The next day was an overnight in Fort Lauderdale where six of us raided Walmart for ALL their yarn and needles (Gifts of Love). The women working there thought we were mad when we were racing down the isles (going to be late for work as usual) with eleven shopping carts overflowing! About the GWV - all the regulars are back, including special guest appearances from Maryanne (Jen, I know you're happy for that one), a multitude of HH's, Dolly, Matt & Jane, Joan and even Call Me Now! It's turning out to be an awesome time even though we're only a couple days into it all. But wait, Neptune ceremony is is two days time... As for Wiggles, I'll try to post more group shots. And Uncle Mel, the tonnage is 61,000.

Well at least I had a good time in St Thomas... besides having four other huge ships in with the tiny-in-comparison ms Amsterdam, the place was beautiful. Every two seconds you get honked at by taxis asking if you need them. It's as though you're walking the entire time and only THEN realize that, "Hey, yeah! That honking makes me want to take your taxi!" As we were paying for one taxi after getting back to the ship another taxi driver across the road was yelling at me if I wanted a taxi. No shortage of taxis in that city!

Master Chef Dinner

Well for those of you who have no idea what the Master Chef dinner is... another fantastic HAL idea! Actually, I quite enjoyed watching it the first time around. There are only five spots for Cruise Staff so Christine and I sat this round out. Then, Lori got quarantined for NLV because her roommate was showing symptoms. Any excuse to wear the random costumes for me! And on went the apron and chef's hat and I had to learn the entire routine in about two minutes. The entire thing was quite funny and all the guests loved it a ton.

Still busy doing a ton of World Cruise prep right now so I'm not really spending time in these ports of call, which at best are no better than an East Hastings back-alley. And, the weather is terrible too! Also, I'm having some troubles with my webmail server, so writing emails out is becoming problematic.

Country Night

I'd forgetton what it's like to have a regular theme night and we all know how amazing Country Night is for everyone - that's right, I tush pushed my ass off all night! These Caribbean ports we're sailing to are all quite... quaint. Not exactly the top of my places to see list, which works out well with the amount of work there is to do with the World Cruise.

Philipsburg, St Maarten

Well I did arrive in Fort Lauderdale safely after a fantastic flight bewteen two screaming children for four hours and a mentally challeneged man who kept kicking my seat for the last two!

The ship is awesome and it's great to be back aboard - as it was my very first ship I sailed on. I've been mad busy trying to prepare all the programs and such as well as tidying and cleaning up the mess that had been accumulating over the past months.

The picture is me on a beach in Philipsburg, St Maaten... although I've never done a Caribbean run besides my free cruise with Lee, I'm really not all that excited for these ports; maybe beacuse the Caribbean is all just beaches and electronics shopping (which I definately do not need more of right now)! Had a blast just wondering around and attempting to get some colour to my pale skin - I hear glowing white isn't in this year. We have seven more ports out in the Caribbean before returning to Fort Lauderdale on the 14th, overnighting and embarking the World Cruise guests on the 15th. Hope everyone had an amazing New Year!