InnerSea Discoveries Alaskan Adventure part 2 Windham Bay to Frederick Sound

Posted on September 25, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger
Safari Quest yacht on wilderness adventure

Safari Quest in Windham Bay

Windham Bay Alaska

Day three: In September of 2010, we went on a wilderness adventure with American Safari Cruises, testing the itinerary for InnerSea Discoveries, which begins its inaugural season in 2011. We began the third day of our journey, which is actually the second day of the cruise, in Windham Bay, Alaska. After a tasty buffet breakfast, the crew handed out rubber boots to all the guests.

Alaskan Tennis Shoes

Alaskan Tennis Shoes

“These are Alaskan tennis shoes,” they said. We heard that again from locals we met all through our Alaskan adventure.

These boots are soft and flexible and very comfy. Much nicer than the barn boots I have at home. Great to wear anywhere Alaskans go, on boats, hiking in the woods, I even saw people wear them in town when we stopped in Wrangle.

Walker Cove, Misty Fjords National Monument Alaska

me paddling kayak

The energetic (translation: young) group set out for a 5 mile paddle up to the head of the inlet. The not so energetic went for a skiff ride in an inflatable boat. We decided to try out a kayak on our own and did neither. I had never used a kayak before, but I did win some rowboat races growing up. We paddled down the shoreline a bit, past a stream where many seagulls feasting on post-spawning salmon dotted the landscape in white. We headed for a point of land that always looked just a short distance away, yet never seemed to get any closer.

catch and release

rockfish on Point Wilson Dart

We gave up trying to reach it and stopped. We dropped a line with a 3 ½ oz green pearl Point Wilson Dart. No matter where we are, or what swims beneath the surface, John loves to go fishing. Minutes later the rod tip dipped down. I got out my camera while John reeled in the line. Closer and closer to the boat it came, revealing a small rockfish, which we let go. After catching and releasing a couple more rockfish we paddled across the bay toward a tiny island covered in evergreen trees.

Four furry brown heads popped up from the water whuffing loudly in an angry sounding way.

Sea Lions basking on sunny rock

Sea Lions

Sea lion #1: “What is that?”

Sea lion #2 “Let’s go see.”

John (rather smugly) “They’re coming right over to where we are.”

Me (having never before been in the vicinity of large beasts in such a small boat) “Can they tip us over?”

John “No.”

Sea lion #3 (Heading toward the kayak) “Do you think it’s hungry?”

Sea lion #4 “I wonder what it eats?”

Sea lion #1 “US!”

Four brown heads popped back out of the water, noisily snorting and puffing. They dived back under and zipped off, resurfacing in the distance.

Unlike the sea lions, a group of seals on a rock nearby completely ignored us. They seemed intent only on basking in the rare southeast Alaskan sun.

We stopped and dropped a line down to the bottom, using the same dart fishing lure as before.

Cluster of rock fish near the bottom:”What is that?”

“It sure looks tasty.”

“Mine, mine, mine, mine,” (ala the seagulls in Finding Nemo.)

“Oh, yeah, it’s mine……..Yiiieeeeee”

“Hey where did Fred go?”

“He got that thing and took off in a big hurry.”

“He never shares.”

Back at the surface, Fred Rockfish blinks at his first sighting of sun and sky. Once removed from the hook, he races to the bottom, debating over whether to warn the others or wait for them to bite the hook so he can have a good laugh.

Being the fastest sinking jig on the market, the candlefish dart reached the bottom before Fred did. Still looking for Fred, the other rockfish missed it and a small unknown stickleback sneaked in, grabbing the hook for its own quick ride to the surface. Point Wilson Darts catch everything.

American Safari cruise, Alaska

seal splashing in the distance

Over at the seal rock, the fast rising tide quickly immersed their sunning area. The bright red kayak stealthily approached in hopes of photos. Too late, nothing left above the surface but heads. We should have come sooner before the water covered their rock. An eagle flew overhead and the seals spooked, splashing off into deeper water while the eagle’s shadow passed over their submerged rock. Like many furry spotted ping-pong balls, they bounced back to the rock as quickly as the eagle faded into the distance.

We paddled back to the Safari Quest, the silence of the watery wilderness broken only by the occasional call of a bird or voice from the ship carrying across the glassy bay. As much as it felt like it took forever paddling out, it seemed like no time at all on the way back. We hitched the kayak to the stern and climbed on the yacht, marveling at the weather. Michelle said it has never rained when she visits Alaska. So perhaps it was her last minute addition to our group that changed the weather rather than my lack of a sun hat.

We joined a group for a skiff ride to the beach and a hike on Marce’s trail. Marce herself, captain of the Wilderness Discoverer came along with the group. The odor of decaying fish invaded our nostrils, ever stronger the closer we came to shore. We walked along a beach populated only by seabirds and the occasional pink salmon swimming near the shoreline in search of its spawning stream. Dead and rotting salmon littered the banks of the stream. A few live ones still swam in the creek. Nature in action, nutrients for the ecosystem as well as scavenging birds and animals. All along the banks of the stream, we had to be careful not to step on slippery slimy spawned out salmon. How do they get so far from the water? How squishy that rock feels under my foot. Oops, not a rock. Thank goodness for those Alaskan tennis shoes!

Marce's trail, Windham Bay Alaska

King of the Stump

We followed a game trail where we could find one and bushwhacked where we couldn’t, always on the lookout for bears (which we did not find) and boot-sucking mud (which we did.) I found I could avoid the boot-sucking mud by walking mainly on roots, or at least green mossy areas tested for solidity with a poke of my walking stick. A rainforest is a very wet place even in the sun. We took a true wilderness hike with no man-made trails. Often we had to double back and seek a different path, always climbing over, ducking under, or squeezing through trees and brush. We came across some bushes dripping with sweet ripe blueberries.

“Release your inner bear,” Marce advised, munching happily.

Back on the beach as we awaited the skiff for the return trip, Nitakuwa, first mate of

Photo courtesy of Go Fish Magazine

spouting whale

the Safari Quest, told us everything we never wanted to know about the life cycle of barnacles. Starting with the fact that they are hermaphrodites. They possess the longest male organs proportionally to their size of anything in the animal kingdom. As they sit there on that rock, they can invade a neighbor some distance away. The larvae swim with the plankton, easily recognizable by their fan of legs. Barnacles are a crustacean, related to lobsters (though no doubt not nearly as tasty.) The larvae have a cement gland on their heads and swim with one chance of finding a good rock to stick it to where they will spend the rest of their life standing on their head. Perhaps that is why some prefer the bottom of a boat or whale. Those that appear upside down are actually rightside up. Such is the random life of a barnacle.

We returned to the ship to the delicious aroma of cooking food and a tasty lunch of pasta and brownies. As the boat got underway, we slipped into the steamy hot tub, the warmth enveloping our bodies as the jets massaged our feet and backs. What a view from the top deck of the ship. We could see the distance clearly, but not anything close to the ship from down inside the hot tub. Whales will poke their heads up now and then to look around, which is called spy hopping. From the hot tub,we did the same, looking over the side for whales while we cruised through Frederick Sound where humpbacks often hang out. Once we spotted whales, our inner photographers just didn’t let us stay there and watch. We all had to jump out dripping all over and grab our cameras. I had a bit of lens envy as all those folks with long lenses clicked away and I looked sadly at my little point-and-shoot while no whales came within its range. There’s a lot of photos on this cruise, but all do-it-yourself shots rather than the posed photos they take to try and sell you on the large cruise ships.

humpback whale in Alaska

whale tail

A mother humpback dived deep below the surface, leaving her calf above on its own. The (not so) little one popped its head out as if in a spy hop, then thunderously slapped the surface. It repeated this behavior the whole time it was alone. The calf splashed and jumped about joyfully when mama whale returned with a blow of her spout.

The day ended with a dinner of prawns and berry tart and anchorage in Thomas Bay.

InnerSea Discoveries and American Safari Cruises combined and are now known as Un-Cruise Adventures.

Posted in Alaska, Un-Cruise Adventures | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

InnerSea Discoveries part 1, Seattle and Juneau

Posted on September 19, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Safari Quest

Misty Fjord National Monument, Alaska

Safari Quest in Misty Fjord National Monument

InnerSea Discoveries – the Uncruise

There’s an old saying that states if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Normally that is the truth, but once in awhile it’s not. When the offer came to take a media fam trip to give the new InnerSea Discoveries Alaskan adventure itinerary a preview on an AmericanSafariCruises yacht, it was way too good to pass by. We’re pretty much Motel 6 people, and this would be like Holiday Inn people staying at the Four Seasons. Granted it’s a working vacation, but who can complain when the work is this much fun.

photo courtesy of Go Fish Magazine

Necky Kayaks

When I learned they had Necky Kayaks aboard, it added to the excitement as I’ve wanted to see one in action for years. During the week leading up to this cruise, I checked the extended weather forecast online every day. Not a pretty sight. It called for rain every day of our trip. We packed a lot of extra clothes so we would have dry things to change into several times daily after exploring the great outdoors in the wilds of Alaska. I opened my hat drawer and picked the closest thing to a stylish warm hat I had. I looked at all my sun hats, almost grabbed one, and then shut the drawer thinking what for?

Day One: We met our travel group in Seattle at the lovely new Maxwell Hotel, a quaint boutique hotel near the Space Needle. Some of the people in our group came from as far away as Spain. We had about an hour drive to get there, with a stop along the way to leave our beloved dog at the PetSmart PetsHotel. The Maxwell had a stand of cupcakes and coffee in the lobby, a free treat for guests. Quite a nice hotel. We never got a chance to try the indoor pool or the bicycles available free for guests to use.

After checking in, our group met for a tour. The rest of them climbed into a stretch limo, while we got in our car and followed someone from the cruise ship company so we could leave the car in their parking lot during our cruise. We saw the Wilderness Adventurer at the dock along the way. We met up with the rest of them at the dry dock for a tour of the Wilderness Discoverer as it undergoes renovations, including an underwater bow camera. These are the two ships InnerSea Discoveries will use. Eventually all the ships in the American Safari Cruises fleet will have the bow cam feature as well. The flat screen TVs in the rooms will have a channel dedicated to the underwater camera where guests can relax in comfort as they watch life under the sea. With much smaller vessels than the major cruise lines, American Safari Cruises and InnerSea Discoveries explore the wilds up close and personal where the larger ships can’t go. Captain Dan plans for the decor of the Wilderness Discoverer to look something like an early forest service lodge. When he mentioned donations of old sporty items, I immediately thought of the saddle that has sat in my hay loft unused for years ever since a horse I once owned threw a bucking fit so intense he broke the saddle tree. Captain Dan seemed interested so perhaps if you sail on one of his ships someday, you will see that saddle as a lamp.

After the tour we had a wine tasting. My sister, the wine connoisseur, would have appreciated that. It was wasted on me since I don’t drink. My husband, John, did give me quite a surprise by drinking wine though. Not since the very early years of our marriage have I ever seen him drink, though he did admit to sipping a bit of wine in China to be polite to his hosts. Following that, we enjoyed a very informative presentation about the unbelievable, unforgettable, unimaginable uncrowded uncruise upon which we were about to embark. We learned that they are a green company. We also learned that they have culinary cruises on the Columbia River featuring local wineries. My sister would love that if it weren’t for the food part.  She’s allergic to just about everything normal people eat.  Through camping trips with her I have learned to appreciate things like brown rice flour, amaranth crackers, and shopping the hippie section in the grocery store.

Before turning in for the night we checked the extended weather forecast for Juneau and Ketchikan. Much to our delight it suddenly changed from the rain it had said we would have for the entire trip to sunshine for the whole next week. Probably because I didn’t pack the hat. Oh well, a sunburned nose might work for a good luck charm.

Day Two: We all met outside the hotel with our luggage. Most everyone else had one little wheeled suitcase and a backpack. We had a whole one of those bellboy’s hotel carts full. I find it quite embarrassing to stand there with all that luggage while everyone else has so little. John had more, than me, but that included camera gear and fishing tackle. I used to have a normal size rolley suitcase, but it broke in Australia, so now I only have tiny ones. Some of the other people actually used those tiny ones. Perhaps they didn’t bring spare shoes. (How does one pack for all that rain we were supposed to have without spare shoes?) I had to borrow John’s mega bag from China, and well if you have the space you just keep filling it. At least I do. So will we pack lighter next time? Probably not, but I will make an attempt to get a normal sized bag.

One stretch limo ride later we arrived at the airport. We took a long walk down the c-gate wing just in time to find out they had switched us to a d-gate. Sigh. Turn around, go back to start and head a different direction. With no further mishaps we boarded the plane and soon headed to Juneau. Our bags made it fine, but they lost some of John’s equipment.  So while the rest of the group visited restaurants and tourist shops, or took the tram up to Mt. Roberts or the bus to Mendenhall Glacier, we went to the plumbing and marine supply store looking for a substitute. We did see a lot of salmon hanging out in a riffle of water under a bridge that everyone else missed out on though. We had a bit of time left so we wandered into a jewelry store advertising end of season sales.  I just couldn’t quite negotiate the cost of the bracelet I wanted down a price I wanted it badly enough to pay.  Sadly, I left empty-handed.

Off we went to tour the Safari Explorer (very nice) before boarding the Safari Quest. These ships belong to American Safari Cruises, parent company of InnerSea Discoveries. So we are getting a bit of a sample of the luxury life onboard a yacht as well as the adventurous side of the InnerSea itinerary.

Once onboard everyone settled into the salon for a welcome aboard drink.

“We have two kinds of fruit punch, raspberry or pineapple/coconut,” the girl behind the bar said.

I chose the pineapple/coconut, which tasted so good I was just thinking about asking for seconds when John said “That has rum in it.”

“The girl said it was fruit punch,” I replied.

Turned out it did have rum in it, and here I hadn’t had alcohol in over 20 years.  Must have been some pretty good stuff for me not to notice it at all.   She did not say it had alcohol and I didn’t ask.  I probably should have known since it came from a bar.

photo courtesy of Go Fish Magazine

thar she blows

We saw 3 humpback whales on our way to the night’s anchorage at Windham bay. After a scrunptions dinner, we had a dessert that reminded me of a challange I saw on the food network channel. Contestants had to upscale a familiar comfort food into something ritzy. It made me think of strawberry shortcake, with bits of fresh strawberries, yet the cake had been replaced by a tasty pastry and the whip cream by an amaretto mousse.

American Safari Cruises and InnerSea Discoveries are now known as Un-Cruise Adventures.

Posted in Alaska, Port Cities, Un-Cruise Adventures | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Spirit

Posted on September 8, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger

In 2005, America was in the middle of a huge poker craze.  Like many other people, my husband and I spent many Friday or Saturday nights at the local Indian casino playing low-stakes poker in their non-smoking poker room.  (This was before the ban on smoking in public places so it was the only place I could play as I am allergic to cigarette smoke.)  I had not managed to talk him into going on a cruise until we discovered Card Player Cruises. Finally, my chance to get him onto a cruise ship!  We chose the Mexican Riviera cruise on Carnival, due to both the date (December) and the cost (low).  Being the cheapskates that we are, once again we had an interior room.  I learned on my last cruise where not to stay (rooms were assigned and mine was under the stage.)  This time we had a choice, and we selected a nice quiet room on a floor with nothing but other rooms not only on that floor, but the one above and the one below as well.  I also carefully selected a room near the middle of the ship as the closer you are to the middle, the less movement there is, and I sometimes have problems with motion sickness.  I was always the kid who got carsick, seasick, or sick on the rides.  Now even a swing can make me nauseous, but amazingly enough I have yet to have problems on a cruise ship!  Anybody who does have seasick problems on a cruise ship might also want to select a room on a lower deck because the higher you go, the more exaggerated the motion.  You also get the added advantage that rooms on the lower decks tend to be cheaper.

At the time we took this cruise, my niece lived in San Diego.  She picked us up at the airport, and following a nice visit and a night at her house, she dropped us off at the dock.  After the usual embarkation procedures we came on board and found our room.  Unlike my daughter, who enjoyed posing for all the pictures cruises take, my husband had no patience for them.  He waved them off with a glare, in spite of the fact that he is a photographer himself.  Rarely ever would he stop for a photo.   We hardly had any pictures to look for, and none worth buying.  I rather missed the fun I had with my daughter looking for our photos on the previous cruise.  Although I am about as photogenic as a baboon with diaper rash, if there are enough photos I can usually find one I can live with.

My husband spent practically every waking moment on board in the poker room, but I like to have some time to do other things.  So I explored the ship by myself and found several nice quiet places near windows to sit and read.  And the gym, the shops and the promenade deck where you can walk (or jog) around the whole ship outside.  I even found little laundromats to wash and dry clothes for a few quarters, and iron them for free.  Overall the Spirit was quite a nice ship.  I was a bit disappointed that the water slide had a sign on it that said closed for repairs for our entire voyage, yet I never actually saw anyone working on it.  I really wanted to try it too.  Then again if it was open it might have been infested with many noisy children and I may not have tried it anyway.  I haven’t got much patience for waiting in line for anything if I don’t absolutely have to.

There was one thing I seriously did wonder about in the design of the ship though.  Who in their right mind would put a cigar bar right in front of the entrance to the main dining room where everyone has to go?  Wouldn’t that be better located in some out of the way place where you wouldn’t stumble across it if you weren’t actually looking for it?   So every mealtime (unless eating on the lido deck)  I had to hold my breath and make a run for it.  OK walk fast enough not to run out of air before reaching the dining room door.   Actually running probably would not fly.  Obviously some people liked the cigar bar or the cigars would have stayed harmlessly unsmoked in their boxes while the lonely attendant stared into space wondering if his shift was over yet.  I wonder if they have relocated that cigar bar to a less populated area by now?  It is not currently listed on the deck plans to the ship on their website, but I do not recall whether it was back then either.

There were two poker rooms, open only to the people who booked through Card Player Cruises, and not the other passengers on board.  One of them was near the entrance to the dining room and thus, my arch-nemesis, the evil cigar bar.  The other was up one floor and quite nice.  To be fair, the games rotated from room to room, so I only played when the low-stakes games were in the upstairs room.

I found a little miniature replica of the ship in the form of a Christmas ornament in the gift shop, and it has hung on my tree every year since.  I bought 2 and sent the other to my daughter to hang on her tree in Australia where she has lived since her senior year in high school when she went as an exchange student with the famous last words “It’s only for 6 months.”  Don’t let your daughters be exchange students. They’ll never come back!

I think the other passengers had assigned seats in the dining room, but the ones who booked through Card Player Cruises could sit anywhere that had a Card Player sign on the table, so we pretty much sat somewhere different each meal.  Some of the waiters were definitely faster than others.  More experience perhaps or just more efficient.  The poker room closed for dinner and whenever the ship was at shore.  Otherwise some people may have spent the entire cruise in it.

Our first stop was in Acapulco.  We booked a shore excursion on a bus tour that took us to see the cliff divers.  The tour guide was one of the best I’ve ever seen.  He had previously lived in the US for a time and spoke English quite well.  He taught school full time and only did tours a couple times a month or so, yet made more money in tips than teaching.   He explained that the reason many Mexican houses have rebar hanging out the top is that the occupants add rooms on to their homes as they can afford it.

“Don’t feel sorry for those people,” he said as we passed a group of squatter shacks pieced together with whatever scraps of wood or metal people could find.  The group surrounded their hovels with barbed wire, and spliced into nearby powerlines for stolen electricity.  “In a few years these will be nice homes,” the guide claimed, hard though it was to picture that.  “And whoever’s land that was will have lost it to the squatters by then.   People who want to keep their land have to keep the squatters off of it.”

Even the Mexican government loses land to squatters.  You learn some interesting things on a bus tour if you have the right guide.

The cliff divers were quite spectacular, diving from great heights into a narrow channel where they had to time their jump so that they would land as the waves came in to avoid bashing their heads on the rocks below.  They passed a tin through the crowd to collect tips when they finished, and I must say, they certainly earned whatever people gave them, though they seemed to quite enjoy earning it.  Good thing they are not in the United States where L& I or OSHA or some such agency would probably shut them down.

After the show, the bus took us to an open air restaurant in a quiet cove where we had a nice snack.  We walked across the road to a beach where we saw people riding horses.  Probably rental horses.  I was quite glad I was not on them as they looked somewhat thin and one struggled under the weight of a person too heavy for it.  People there do what they can to earn a living and even the animals work hard for a meal.  Most anywhere there are people selling things, and cute little boys calling “lady, lady, lady” as they try to get you to buy something.

Next, the ship stopped at Zihuatenejo. This was a tender port, so the ship anchored out in the bay and they dropped the life boats that double as tenders to take people to shore.  We did not schedule a shore excursion for this port, so we just got off the ship and went to see what we would find.  We passed some people on the beach renting jetskis.  Or at least most people would call them jetskis.  I once had a friend who was a jetski fanatic, who insisted that only the stand up sort are real jetskis, so in his opinion those were watercouches.  Not having swimsuits with us, we passed them by and checked out all the little shops.  Many of them were in temporary tentlike structures rather than permanent buildings, and most sold the sorts of things tourists like to buy.  I bought a bracelet that I thought was opal at the time, but is probably actually some sort of shell.  Still pretty though.  When we ran out of things to look at, we asked the jet ski guys how much.  The price was not bad and as it was kind of late, they were willing to negotiate extra time into it, so back to the ship for swimsuits we went.  We just rented one and rode double (cost half as much that way and as I mentioned before, we like things cheap.)  It was really fun, I had never ridden one before.  We did circles around the ship and zipped all over the bay.

After we got on board and it was nearly time to leave, they kept announcing several names to check in with the crew.  Perhaps they hoped these people had somehow managed to slip in without sliding their cards through the scanner that keeps track of who is or is not on board.  Because when they say the ship leaves at 6:00, they mean it leaves at 6:00.  Not 6:05.  A quartet of people from the card player cruises group learned that the hard way as their cab pulled up to the dock just in time to see the back end of the ship cruising out of the harbor.  They had one expensive cab ride to the next port.  They did get a joke award at the end-of-cruise presentation for the card player group though.  That was one pricey award.  I’ll stick with my free card player cruises t-shirt.

One day they had a formal night where everyone was supposed to dress up for dinner.  My husband did not want to dress up, and did not bring any nice clothes with him.  So that night we ate on the lido deck.  And found out that the menu in the main dining room included lobster.  LOBSTER!  We missed lobster because he didn’t want to dress up.  You can bet that the next cruise we went on he brought some nice clothes!!!!  Even though we missed the lobster, he still says the food on the Spirit measured up to his standards, which are quite high as he has been to many 5 star fishing lodges.

Another night they had a midnight dessert buffet.  That one we didn’t miss.  All the deserts you can imagine lined up one after the other.   More things than any one person could possibly try.  YUM

Our last stop was Manzanillo. We took another bus tour there, but without such an interesting guide.  This one stuck to the scripted speech.  We drove past two active volcanos, one of which had a plume going, and on to Colima and Comala.  We saw some recently discovered pyramids under partial excavation, a church with scenes of the Mexican Revolution painted in large murals on the interior walls, and a museum of the history of the area.   The early residents of the pyramid era had a lot of artifacts involving fat dogs, which it seemed they raised for food.

Too soon, the ship returned to San Diego, the end of another cruise.  We could hardly wait to book the next one.

Links to information about Carnival Australia

My trip on the Spirit was taken long before Carnival Australia existed.  For information relating to Carnival Australia, see my blogs about the Legend.  If you are looking for general ship information or differences between Carnival Australia and Carnival America try Carnival Legend.

For views inside cabins on a Spirit class ship see Cabins on Carnival Legend.  Want to know what’s for dinner?  Try Carnival Australia Dining Room Dinner Menus.

Posted in Carnival, Mexico | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ocean Breeze

Posted on July 12, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Ocean Breeze

Welcome to the My Cruise Stories blog for CruiseNewsSite.com.  Since this is my first blog, I’ll start with my first cruise, on Imperial Majesty’s Ocean Breeze.  While there is still a website to Imperial Majesty, they no longer have a ship, so no links included here.  Sadly there was a site that said this boat has been scrapped.

My husband purchased this 3-part vacation off a fax from a time share, then kept putting off actually going.  Finally when it got to the use it or lose it stage, I went with my daughter.  Good thing too, as she and I are easily amused.  He is too accustomed to 5 star fishing lodges and probably would have spent the whole time complaining, where we had a great time.  If one cares to Google Imperial Majesty, there are all sorts of comments and not all of them good.

After getting off the plane in Orlando, the first stop was at the car rental, where we were pleasantly surprised with a Mitsubishi Eclipse instead of the cheap tiny economy car we were supposed to have.  I drove to Cocoa Beach for the first part of our journey, where we entertained ourselves for 2 days with $2 Styrofoam boogie boards and ocean waves.  I did say we are easily amused.

From there we went on to Fort Lauderdale for the cruise.  We took the crowded freeway, as we did not discover the parallel toll road until the way back.  The toll road was well worth the money because of the lack of traffic and the rest stops like little shopping centers with gas stations, gift shops and food places.

Finally we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, in plenty of time to board, but not early enough to beat the crowd.  Oh well, can’t have everything.  We waited through the usual lines, had our pre-boarding photos taken, and finally got on board. Tropically dressed crew members selling welcome aboard drinks they called Bahama Mamas greeted us as we set foot on the ship.  I must say I save a lot of money on cruises because I don’t drink.  My daughter was only 18 or 19 at the time so she could not drink alcohol whether she wanted it or not.  One could blow through a lot of money in very little time buying alcohol on cruise ships.

We had a bit of time to explore before the mandatory life boat drill.  We found the tiny pool that made for good jokes by the ship’s comedian, the hot tub that never seemed to be open at convenient times to use it, and the fitness center we never bothered to use.  But exploring is always fun, whatever you might find.  At the lifeboat drill I wondered why we had to go so far to find our assigned lifeboat when we could practically stand under one after exiting our room.  I hadn’t considered that people who did not have rooms on that deck would have a greater distance to go, so we had plenty of time to walk down to the farther boats while they didn’t.  Luckily I have never been on a cruise that needed to use the life boats for anything other than tenders for ports where they couldn’t dock.  It might be kind of fun to see one of those barrels pop up into a boat, but only for a test and not out of need.

I have no idea why they assigned us to the room we had.  The ship was not full, and the cabin boy said that he had to move all his spare sheets and towels, as he normally used that room for storage.  The room resembled a hallway with one single bed at either end, and a couple feet of floorspace between them.  The closets, drawers and mirror lined the one wall that did not have beds against it, with about a foot or so of space to walk on between them and the beds.  At one end was the door to the largest bathroom I have ever seen on a cruise ship.  It had what looked like a cement floor, a toilet, a sink, and a shower head on the wall with an old curtain that pulled around it.  Not very fancy, just big.  So when the ship’s comedian made jokes about the tiny bathrooms, I guess he had not seen our room.  Peeking into other people’s rooms as we walked past when they had open doors, I saw that the layout there was much like that of any other cruise ship, and nothing like our room at all.  (Does everyone peek when doors are open, or am I just weird or snoopy?  I’m always curious to see what the other rooms are like.)  The ceiling vent spewed a constant stream of cold air.  Unable to find any controls, we asked the very nice cabin boy how to shut it off.  He said it didn’t, but he did tape cardboard over it to reduce the air flow and gave us extra blankets.  Other passengers said that their (more normal) rooms had controls for the air flow and temperature.  Hmm. One room is not as good as another.  Next time look for those free upgrades.  Live and learn.

Once the boat got underway, the casino opened.  My daughter’s first time in a casino.  We found a couple nickel slot machines side by side and each set to work on one.  After putting a few nickels in, she was quite dismayed that no money came out.  I managed to keep a straight face amongst my internal laughter while I explained that Las Vegas was not built on slot machines spewing out money like ATM’s.  That pretty well dampened her interest in the casino.

The people at our assigned table were quite friendly, and the food and service both good.  We decided to go to bed early that night, as we had an early shore excursion the next morning.  After going to bed we discovered from all the thumping and banging overhead that our room was directly under the stage.  Should have gone to the show.  We made sure to go the next night.  Might as well see it since we were going to hear it anyway.

From our windowless interior room, we could not see what went on outside.  Heading out to breakfast we saw that the boat was already pulling into Nassau, where it was dwarfed by the other cruise ships already there.  More picture taking as we left the ship.  My very photogenic daughter loved posing for all those pictures they take.  I just hope not to break the camera as I am about as photogenic as a rabid orangutan.  We did have fun looking for all our pictures.  Mostly she looked great and I looked horrible, but we did find a couple where the camera lens was still intact after contact with me.

We followed the rest of the people on the same excursion to the boat that took us out to a reef for some snorkeling.  We bought some little bags of fish food pellets so we could coax the fish up close.  I have not seen that done anywhere else I have ever been snorkeling.  In fact in some places they specifically ban feeding the fish.  I don’t know if it was the location or the fact that this was some years ago, but whatever the reason we set out with our little baggies and a cheesy underwater disposable camera in search of brightly colored fish.  We did not have to search far,  lots of fish everywhere.  The most abundant type of fish seemed to be the only ones interested in the fish food, so perhaps we’d have seen more of the others without it, but would not have had the fun of feeding the hungry ones.

When snorkel time ended, the boat dropped us off on a small island they called Blue Lagoon Island.  The movie, Blue Lagoon was filmed there, they said, as was Gilligan’s Island.  After I got home, I mentioned to my family that we had been to the island where Gilligan’s Island was filmed.  “When we went to Hawaii,” my parents said, “They told us it was filmed there.”  “I took a studio tour in California,” my sister said.  “They said most of the filming for Gilligan’s Island was done in the studio.”  So who is telling the truth?  Who is lying?  Or were bits and pieces of it filmed in various places?  Or maybe the show had some outdoor shots in one location and the movie made many years later in another?  Maybe I should have Googled that instead of wondering all these years.

The island did have a lovely shallow lagoon with white sand beaches and crystal clear blue water, which was great for swimming.  A good thing too since the exterior beaches were too rocky and had quite a heavy surf.  They served a nice barbecue lunch buffet under a shady roofed area.  Exploration of the island revealed a multitude of comfortable hammocks in various places,  some with excellent views of palm trees and bright blue seas.  After spending a pleasant afternoon there we caught a boat back to the dock.  Walking back to the ship, we passed an adorable little local boy who called himself “Cheap Charlie” and tried to sell us some wooden turtles with bobbley heads.  Also cute, but what would we do with them?

We went to our room to shower and dress up for the formal dinner, and found the room already occupied.  There, on one bed, sat a towel dog wearing a pair of sunglasses my daughter left in the room.  Not having been on a cruise before, this was our first introduction to towel animals.  At the time we thought we were quite special for the cabin boy to have made that for us.

More photos.  They set up a backdrop depicting the famous Titanic stairway for the formal photos.  I’m not sure if imitating the ill-fated Titanic on a moving boat is a good plan, but it did make for some nice photos.  At dinner there was a new person who had not been at our table before.  He said he lived in the Bahamas and went to school in Florida, but did not like to fly so he used that cruise for transportation.  “Just wait until desert,” he said.  “The crew will dance around with fire on their heads.”  And so they did.  All the lights went out and here came the conga line, the crew dancing with fire on their heads to serve baked Alaska.  I have not seen that on any other cruise!

“What language do they speak in the Bahamas when they aren’t talking to us,” I asked him.

“English,” he replied.

Oh.  Way to feel stupid.  Oh well, learn something new every day, so they say.

Pretty much about the time we finished breakfast the next morning, the ship had already reached Fort Lauderdale.  So it really didn’t need much in the way of pools and things as most of the time spent on board was eating or sleeping.  This was just enough of a cruise to whet my appetite for a longer one, one that did have some time spent at sea while awake.  Alas, it took several years and a poker cruise to convince my husband to actually take one, but once he did the cruise bug bit and now he can’t wait for the next one either.

My daughter and I spent the last bit of that vacation in Orlando.  We had to go to the presentation for the time share through whom the trip was purchased.  We declined to buy one and skipped off with our prize for attending.  We each got tickets to both Disney World and Medieval Times for less than it would have cost just to go to Disney World without having attended the time share presentation.  If you have a few hours to spare and the willpower to say no, you can get some pretty good things for listening to time share blurbs.  My husband and I have gotten tickets to Cirque de Solei in Vegas and a day’s guided fishing on a panga in Mexico.  Still don’t own a time share either.

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Hello world!

Posted on July 9, 2010 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Welcome to my cruise stories blog.  My goal is to write entertaining stories of the cruises I have taken that also provide helpful information to other cruisers (or people who want to know more about cruising,) whether for a specific cruise, ship, or port, or for cruises in general.

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