Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Cruise


John and I had a wonderful vacation in the Caribbean. Many unexpected things happened, but we always enjoyed each other's company and really enjoyed the food and snorkeling. The night we left was the first eventful night. While we were enjoying our first dinner, the director announced that the captain was going to turn the boat around and head back towards Miami so a passenger could be airlifted to a hospital. (After the cruise was over, we heard that the person died in the hospital.) The second mishap was on St. Thomas where we were supposed to dock at the pier, but the Harbormaster had overbooked the harbor so we dropped anchor very far away and had to borrow tender boats from another cruise ship to get to and from St. Thomas. Many people were very upset about that because they had to wait a very long time to get onto the island. John and I had gotten up very early and were on the first boat to the island. The final major event happened early Sat. Morning (on my birthday). I looked out the window at about 3am and noticed that we weren't moving. A searchlight was shining out over the water. John and I prayed then went to the pool deck to see if anyone else was awake and knew what had happened. A crew member had fallen overboard. Off in the distance we saw the light on a life jacket flashing. As we got closer we saw it was empty. Someone informed us that the person had been rescued. As soon as the person fell overboard, the captain was informed and it took 3 miles to slow the ship down to release a rescue boat. I am amazed that they found the person. It is a big ocean and is very very dark at night.
Besides those 3 things, we had a nice time. We watched some movies, spent a little time at the pool (but not too much time because it was always crowded), walked out on the lower decks and felt the spray from the waves as we cut through the water, and watched live shows. My favorite activity on board was our dance class. It was short, but it was fun. We learned very basic cha cha steps.

As we walked into our room for the very first time, we saw that, instead of seeing the darkness of an interior stateroom that we had paid for, we had a big room with a big window. That was very exciting.

I have posted some photos in the photo album on the column to the right. Just follow the link. Some pictures are still in the camera so they will have to come later. I took out photos of the ship because I don't know if I am legally allowed to post those. If you really want to see some, let me know and I will e-mail them. I don't have many of the boat. Most photos are of our fun time snorkeling on St. Thomas. That was our favorite thing about the cruise.