Monday, November 15, 2004

Hello Again!

I hope someone missed me during the last ten days. My husband and I were on a seven-day Caribbean cruise courtesy of my father-in-law. Thanks muchly, Pop! This is something that we wouldn't have been able to do for several more years, if ever. Hmm..reading that makes it look as if we were alone. Pop was with us, and so was Dale's sister Shay and her partner Pam.

We boarded Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas on Sunday, November 7th. We left Port Canaveral at 5:00 p.m. and headed out to sea. Monday was spent at sea. We anchored Tuesday morning at Labadee, Haiti. Tender boats arrived approximately every 15 minutes to take us to the landing where we could visit duty-free shops or take various excursions. (Excursions were available at each port-of-call). We departed Labadee that afternoon for Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

Dale and I stayed onboard at Labadee. Neither of us wanted to go through the hassle of getting his wheelchair on and off the tender boats. Dale slept a lot of the day and I wandered around the ship. I discovered where the casino was located and stopped to play some video poker. If you want to play a slots-type game, video poker offers the best value. It's random play like any slot game, but you have a better chance of winning because you can use your poker skills to make winning hands. The downside is that you can't bluff your opponent because there is no opponent, so you have to rely on the deal and your skills. Well, I lost the money I played that day, but still had fun. There are two rules I live by when gambling: 1. Never gamble with money you can't afford to lose, and 2. Expect to lose your money. If you win, good for you! Dale played later that evening and walked away with $120 on a $20 stake. Yay!

We docked at the pier in Ocho Rios, Jamaica on Wednesday morning. We did go into to the duty free shops at the end of the pier, but didn't venture further. With Dale in the wheelchair it was just a little too much to go further.

Thursday morning found us at Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Again, this was a tendered stop so we stayed aboard. Dale wanted to swim, so we got him into his hermetically sealed rubber boot and he swam in the ship's pool. I sunned. And it was good.

Our ship was the first ship into Grand Cayman since Hurricane Ivan passed through two months ago. We knew that the destruction had been horrendous, but it was mostly repaired by the time we arrived. As I said, our ship was the first in, but close on our heels was Carnival Cruise's Conquest and another ship whose name I forget right now.

Cozumel, Mexico was our last stop and we docked there on Friday morning. Dale wanted to sleep, so I went ashore by myself. I wandered around the shops and found a necklace and the cutest little sombero for my puppy, Wyatt. Of course, he won't wear it, but maybe I can get it on him long enough for a picture. No, I didn't buy much either at Ocho Rios or Cozumel. That's not to say that I didn't want to buy a lot, or didn't see anything I wanted (I wanted lots of jewelry!); I just didn't have the money.

We left Cozumel and headed back to Port Canaveral. I was hoping that we would come close enough to see Cuba in the distance, but we passed Cuba at night. Saturday was spent at sea. Our departure papers were left outside our stateroom to be filled out along with instructions on how to have our luggage picked up.

My father-in-law had called and told Dale about a form we needed to fill out regarding our luggage. Because we never got it, We were assigned a departure time of 1030 am. This was not going to work because the rest of our party was departing at 830 am. We could have departed carrying our own luggage, but with 5 pieces of luggage, my purse, and Dale in a wheelchair, this wasn't gonna happen. So I paid a little trip to Passenger Relations and got the luggage tags we needed and the time changed to 830 am. We also had a Customs Declaration form to be filled out stating what we had purchased and how much it cost. As a couple, we had a duty-free allowance of $800, but fell far short of it.

We arrived at Port Canaveral on Sunday morning. We were up early enough to watch the Mariner dock and to have breakfast before departing the Mariner. Passengers departed according to the color of their luggage tags. Beige, White, Lavender and Gray were early departures. Each color was also numbered either 1 or 2. We were Gray 2, so were among the last of the early departures to disembark. However, since Dale was in a wheelchair, we were diverted to elevators or shorter lines, so we got out fairly quickly.

And finally bid a fond farewell to the Mariner of the Seas and our weeklong vacation of a lifetime.

There's more to tell, and those will come in other installments. Including, the show put on by a celebrity of the past, and getting an autograph from that same celebrity. Hint: This entertainer was part of a group featured in a movie about the 50's. They also had a TV show in the 70's. Can you guess who it was?

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