Bermuda Triangle Survivor

Here we are, back on terra firma. At least, I’m fairly certain I disembarked our cruise ship on Saturday, but my inner ear is still sailing the high seas. Hopefully this drunken sailor sensation will wear off in a few days and doesn't develop into Mal de Debarquement Syndrome. I was surprised to discover that despite the massiveness of the ship, it‘s movement is easily felt.
We arrived in Miami on the 21st, and sauntered through the airport to find our shuttle to the pier. The Miami airport is kind of shabby and had freaky blue migraine-inducing carpet. This trip is off to a dubious start, I thought. Then we saw the palm trees outside - hey, neat. I’d never seen any before, so I made Nate take a picture.

I had never been to Mexico or the Caribbean or anywhere, really, so this trip had a lot of firsts. First time seeing the Atlantic - the water really is blue. We’re not on murky Lake Waconia anymore, Toto. In Fort Lauderdale the embarkation process went smoothly and I was pleasantly surprised to find our stateroom was a comfortable size. Our ship was the Ruby Princess, a relative baby, only 3 months old.

Here we are on deck before setting out to sea. It was cool (I think I’m gonna run out of adjectives) to see the other large ships sail out of the channel before our turn. It was a party atmosphere - everyone was on the upper decks, drinks in hand and music playing. We set sail for Ocho Rios, Jamaica and spent Sunday at sea. I was disappointed that a ship with over 3,000 people didn't offer Mass on Sunday, and later no mention was made of Ash Wednesday & the beginning of Lent. So, I thought, super…we’re sailing the heathen boat of the Caribbean, and God may surely smite us.

We decided not to schedule a specific activity while in port at Jamaica on Monday, since we had tours lined up for Tues. & Weds. This turned out to be a bad idea. There was a beach right off the pier which we thought we’d lounge on for a while, but we had to make our way through hoards of Jamaicans who wanted to sell us souvenirs or taxi rides or snorkel gear or jet ski rides et cetera ad nauseum. Finally, we made it to the beach and paid our $6 admission. We hung around a while, then some dark festering clouds blew overhead and we were in a downpour. We ran back to the ship while trying to keep the camcorder & camera dry in the backpack. Here’s Nate giving our ship a push out of the pier:

Tuesday we arrived at the island of Grand Cayman where we did some snorkeling over the wreck of the Callie and then over a reef. I found a youtube video of snorkeling over this particular wreck - it’s a bit long and boring but gives the general idea. Snorkeling was a fun, weird experience - having to defy the basic mammalian survival rule of not breathing when your face is in the water took some getting used to. The shipwreck wasn't particularly old. It ran aground in ‘44 and was purposely blown to bits in the ‘50s. We saw some colorful fish while snorkeling over the reef, and a couple little squid who eyed us suspiciously.

From Cozumel on Wednesday we took a ferry to Playa Del Carmen, and then the bus to the Tulum Mayan ruins. Our tour guide Juan spoke fabulous English, unlike many of the crew of our ship. He told us some of the interesting history of the Mayans. Basically, they were mathematical astronomer human sacrificers. It made sense that the structures were roped off, but it was a bummer not to be able to explore the ruins more closely. This was the only place that felt hot to me - the other locations were mild or warm, and it was cool enough at night for a sweatshirt or light jacket.

Thursday was another day at sea. By now, I was feeling like I’d had enough of ‘the experience‘, and was ready to go back to my babies, but first we had Friday's stop at Princess Cays. This is the cruise line’s private beach on an island in the Bahamas. Overnight on our way there, the seas were quite rough, enough to wake us up at night. At breakfast we overheard a man jokingly conjecture that we must have hit a dead whale. That’s pretty silly. Princess Cays is in the Bermuda triangle, so it’s more likely that it was dead aviators or pirate ghosts trying to capsize the ship to steal our booty. Anyway, the whole private beach thing sounds nice, but it was full of people. We had to stand in long lines to get through the lunch buffet. Before getting back on the ship, Nate and I used a transparent hull kayak for our allotted ½ hour time slot. There wasn't a whole lot to see, though, besides the pretty sparkly blue water.

So, all in all, lots of good memories to take home. During our time on the ship we took advantage of some of the classes and entertainment options. Three dance classes - the merengue, cha-cha-cha, and waltz, saw 3 comedy shows and a Vegas entertainer, and watched the Oscars & The Dark Knight on the big screen over one of the pools at night. Nate played the slots at the casino a few times. We were a bit disappointed with the food. Much of it was good, some of it was so-so, and most of the desserts were bland. We hypothesized that it was diabetic-friendly food since most of the passengers were retirement age and a few were in wheel-chairs with oxygen tanks (think I'll stay closer to home when I'm 95). I remarked to Nate how strange it was to go a whole week without seeing every third person or so with a cell phone plastered to their head. We were all just living in the moment, being where we were, if that makes sense...I guess that's what's nice about vacation.