Photo of the Day March 3rd

Happy Birthday Grandma Jones!

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We're slowly working our way through the unpacking process, with Chris taking the lead (God bless him) on the mountain of laundry that just keeps spilling out of our suitcases. If you can overlook the laundry aspect of unpacking it's actually kind of fun - we keep finding little treasures tucked in amongst the clothing... crafts that Sophie did in the Adventure Ocean program, a Dutch candy dish from Curacao, spices from several of our island stops, a wooden honey pot from Dominica, a silly light-up glass from the "drink of the day" I ordered one evening, the matching Mommy-Daughter bracelets we bought as a special reminder of Sophie's first cruise, and a couple bottles of rum. Actually, sampling a bit of that rum also takes the edge off the unpacking process... now all we need is to play some Caribbean music and we can complete the vacation flashback!

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Photo(s) of the Day March 2nd

Goodbye blue skies and rolling waves...

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Hello shovel, waiting in the darkened snowbank by our front door

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Home sweet... who am I kidding? Whahhhh! Where's my balcony? Where are Rolvino and Sidney to make my meals and clean up after me? And where, oh where, is the warmth I was so enjoying? At least we had blue skies today, so despite the very large snow banks unshoveled driveway and sidewalk we came home to I could look up and remember that the skies just a couple of days ago looked much like these ones. And really, I can feel a touch of spring in the air... if you listen closely you can hear the sound of running water as icicles melt, and the sound of birds chirping in far-off trees. It's a start...

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Photo of the Day March 1st

One last look at the blue skies and palm trees before we're back to looking at snow and... well, more snow

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Chris, Courtney and Sophie enjoy a final swim in the pool before getting ready to depart San Juan

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Sophie enjoying every last minute of sun she can get...

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We wore our bathing suites under our clothes when we went down for breakfast this morning so we could get right out to the pool with as little time wasted as possible this morning... the reality that we'll be home surrounded by snow is inspiring us to get every last second of sun and warmth that we can. After much swimming and lounging by the pool we checked on our flight and discovered that it had been delayed by two hours... it was expected to leave before three and was now set to depart at almost 5pm. We were lucky that the hotel agreed to let us stay for an extra couple of hours so we had time to grab some lunch without having to bring all our suitcases, and we headed for the airport around 2:15pm. Turns out we needn't have rushed, as our plane was further delayed until 6:30pm. That gave us plenty of time to fight with Delta Airlines about baggage fees (I came out victorious and didn't pay for our checked luggage), wait in a very long lineup to get through security, and then spend a few hours thinking of ways to keep Sophie entertained before trapping her on an airplane for 4+ hours. Thank goodness I had downloaded a few new movies and TV shows onto my netbook, because we were able to set her up with it and some earphones and she spent over an hour happily catching up with Blues Clues and the adventures of Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure - good foresight Mommy! The flight, when we finally got on it, was uneventful but I certainly won't be going out of my way to fly with Delta again... aside from my baggage issues, the plane we were on was very, very cramped and they didn't offer movies or earphones or anything to keep the masses entertained, so after such a long delay at the airport combined with the four hour flight passengers were getting pretty crusty. We arrived in Detroit, changed into our cold-weather clothing, grabbed our bags and headed for Canada, finally arriving home just after 2:30am. Long day of travelling = very sleepy vacationers.

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Photo(s) of the Day February 28th

One of our new little friends - Sophie was charmed when she said "Ola!" to him and he said it right back...

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The colour and beauty of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

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One happy family, hanging out in the pool in Isla Verde... and yes, that really IS Chris in the pool!

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Well, if a vacation has to end this is the way to end it. Our disembarkation tags had us leaving the ship around 10:30am so we had plenty of time for breakfast and one last leisurely chat on the balcony before grabbing our carry-off bags and heading for our departure point, the Lyric lounge. We didn't even get inside before our group was told they could leave the ship, and the actual disembarkation process was smooth and uneventful. We grabbed a taxi and headed for Old San Juan, where there's a small restaurant & shopping area called Barrachina Village which offers a baggage-check service for tourists wishing to unload their luggage if they have time to kill before catching their flights home. Bags checked, we wandered around Old San Juan for a while peeking into little shops and enjoying the sights and sounds - which for some reason involved a lot of Boy Scouts, as they seemed to be having some sort of rally in Old San Juan today. We saw literally thousands of Scouts in their troupes as we walked just a five or six block area... it was a bit surreal. We also saw some beautiful art work, the smallest Chihuahua puppy I've ever seen, two talking parrots, a wonderful spice shop and a central square full of pigeons just right for sneaking up on (at least, if you're Sophie.) We eventually caught another cab to the Embassy Suites in Isla Verde, where although we were a couple hours early for check-in they allowed us to store our bags and use the amenities until our rooms were ready. We had our bathing suits on and were pool-side in a matter of minutes. The hotel was nice but the pool was especially lovely, and after a couple hours of swimming we checked into our room, enjoyed a few cocktails at the "Manager's Reception", grabbed a bite to eat, and settled in to watch the Olympic Men's Gold Medal Hockey Game. We had more than a few moments of homesickness when the US team scored the goal that tied the game with only seconds left in the third period and the entire crowd around us went wild - Chris involuntarily yelped "Awe F*ck!" and got a whole lot of frosty looks from the largely American crowd. That's alright - we Canadian's got the last laugh when our guys took the Gold in overtime, and we hooted and hollered then (the American guests were strangely quiet then - go figure.)

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Photo(s) of the Day February 27th

Some of the amazing yachts docked in St. Thomas - note that the one half cut-off on the right side of the frame has a helicopter on top!

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The absolutely beautiful Megan's Bay... we enjoyed a couple of hours but could easily have stayed all day

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Sophie and Daddy hard at work on a sandcastle

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Sophie saying goodbye to Rolvino, our waiter each night in the formal dining room

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I cannot believe that we’re on the last day of our cruise already. This week has been so lovely that it’s just flown by, and I hate knowing that it’s almost over... especially when we lost half our day to the fact that Sophie was feeling under-the-weather this morning. She was complaining of a “bubbling feeling” in her throat and ended up throwing up a few times before settling into bed for some rest – although she still had the strength to fight me tooth and nail when I tried to get some anti-nausea medication into her. So, we missed out on our plan to take the Sky Ride up the mountain here in St. Thomas... but luckily she bounced back after a quiet morning and was able to enjoy an afternoon at Megan’s Bay beach. The beach is simply spectacular, with green mountains sheltering the sandy shore on three sides and the ocean stretching out in front. The ride to get to Megan’s Bay is something else too... with driving on the left hand side and some amazingly steep and twisty inclines it’s certainly not a road I would like to be responsible for driving on. Sophie was back to looking ill part way through the drive, and I think many of the other passengers on the bus had that slightly-green look too, just from the wildness of the ride. It’s a good thing the beach was worth the journey! We swam and made sand castles, and Chris even got in on the action and went into the ocean, which for someone who isn’t a water-lover is a pretty big step. It was a great afternoon, and such a relief after Sophie’s rough morning. I was glad that she held her own through the evening as well – I was worried that she wouldn’t be well enough to come to our last dinner in the formal dining room to see Rolvino and Andy one last time, or have the chance to say goodbye to the staff at Adventure Ocean who made such a positive impression on her... she so wanted the opportunity to give big hugs (and our little home-made thank you card) to “Goofy Goober Gabby”, “Nemo” and “Raspberry Roberta”. And we can’t forget the high-fives and big hugs owed to Cabin Steward Sidney – there really was such a big team of folks that worked so hard to make our vacation a special one. So with thank you cards in hand we made our rounds, then packed our bags and drifted off for our last night of being rocked to sleep by the waves... sigh.

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Photo(s) of the Day February 26th

Sophie is right at home on the sea, it seems

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One very happy Whale Watching family!

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Victory!

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Today started in tears for me, as we almost lost our opportunity to do the one thing that I was most looking forward to during this vacation. Our whale watching excursion in Dominica was set to be one of the absolute highlights of the trip for me, and it was certainly the event that I had spent the most time researching to make “just right”. Based on comments from other Cruise Critic members and reviews in Trip Advisor we chose to book a private Whale Watching charter with Island Style Fishing and Whale Watching, and disembarked the ship in the morning to meet Captain Jerry at the Fort Young Hotel. When we met him he looked pretty unhappy, and we soon found out it was because a gasket had blown in his boats engine and he wasn’t able to take us on our excursion after all. I was devastated, having so looked forward to our private tour of the area where sperm whales give birth and raise their young... thanks to Chris’s quick thinking we headed back to our ship and straight to the excursion desk, where with 10 minutes to spare we managed to slip onto the cruise line’s official Whale Watching tour. It may not have been exactly what I had envisioned, but what I had most hoped for came to pass anyway... throughout our three hour trip we saw three groups of sperm whales, including at least one with a baby. The whole thing was incredibly beautiful – the whales were silent and graceful despite their enormous size, and we were lucky that our guides knew enough about the whale’s movements that they were able to let us know exactly when they were going to surface and dive. One pod we saw was lunching on a giant squid, which while slightly macabre also made for some interesting viewing – all in all it was a success, despite the day’s rocky beginning.

Other Vacation notes for today:

Sophie has become quite the little celebrity in some circles on the ship... the other day when we were walking through the Grand Promenade the Cruise Director Mercedes spotted Sophie from across the hall and called "Hello my little star!", prompting Sophie to run over and give her a big hug. Now, Sophie had told us that she "made a video" in Adventure Ocean the other day, where she answered some questions about herself - we assumed that it was one of the activities they were doing to prepare for the kid's talent show. Turns out she was actually chosen to be interviewed by the cruise director, and her interview was shown on the on board television channel for all to see - what a hoot! Our favourite moment was when the Cruise Director asked her if she had or wanted a boyfriend, to which Sophie answered "no" and then volunteered that her cat Georgie at home really wanted a boyfriend though (she was in heat shortly before we left for vacation.) We video taped the interview when we saw it on the television in our room, and I'm pretty sure our hoots of laughter drowned out the next question that Mercedes asked her!

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Photo(s) of the Day February 25th

The kids take to the Adventure's ice skating rink

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Taking a tour of the ship is a great way to spend an at-sea day - what's out this window?

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Chris basks in the excitement of seeing Charo in concert - LOL!

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We spent the day at sea today – no island stops and plenty of time to explore the ship and all of the amenities it has to offer. When you’re presented with so very much to do, it’s almost hard to decide what to choose... but considering that (as mentioned in a previous post) the Adventure of the Seas is one of the very few ships with an on-board ice rink, we just had to take Sophie ice skating. What a surreal experience – to go from outside on deck where the sky is blue and the sun is shining to the indoor ice rink just a moment later. Sophie skated several laps with Courtney and Brandon and then impressed all of us by deciding that she wanted to skate on her own for a bit instead of holding one of her cousin’s hands – the first time she’s been brave enough to do so. Another “first” for our cruise!

Other vacation notes for today:

Last night when we returned to our cabin we found an invitation on our bed to a special luncheon hosted by the Captain and the Executive Chef, but no explanation of why we had been invited... naturally we were curious and decided to attend. It turns out that the Captain of the ship is Canadian, and that he hosts a lunch especially for the Canadian passengers during each sailing... it was quite a surprise when we sat down at our shared lunch table and discovered that our table mates were from London and Waterloo respectively!

The Charo mystery has been solved... in today’s Cruise Compass (the daily newsletter of the ship) it was announced that the cruise director was presenting a special one-night-only appearance by Charo at the Lyric Theatre tonight. It was quite the topic of conversation between Chris, Mary, Courteny and Brandon today... and presented a significant generation-gap, as both of the kids looked at us blankly while the adults tried to explain who Charo was. I think we lost them when we said that she was a sex symbol, and was about the age of their Grandmother... the whole thing became one big joke from that point on (hence the photo shown above). It didn’t stop Chris and I from attending the show that evening and cheering our hearts out though... in fact, in the afternoon we “accidentally” broke into her rehearsal after lunch and watched her “Coochie Coochie” her way through half a song before the Stage Manager kicked us out, and we ended the evening buy buying a signed CD of Charo’s flamenco guitar music as a souvenir. This is really the exact sort of thing that Chris and I thrive on... good, campy fun all around!