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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!