TravelStream™ news feed for member iggi on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/iggi en-us Copyright ©2012 TravelPod.com Fri, 30 Apr 2004 01:45:41 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081422000/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081422000/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081422000/tpod.html Fri, 30 Apr 2004 05:45:41 +0000 Our Olivia Cruise

Cozumel - Cozumel, Mexico

Cozumel, Mexico

The ship didn't arrive into Cozumel until noon, so we decided to sleep late for a change. I woke up earlier than my wife and scooted up to the Lido deck to bring down some breakfast. While I was standing in the omelet line, I chatted with a waiter who is famous for remembering your name after meeting you once. He was so friendly and really seemed to enjoy meeting new people. I told him that my partner, was in our cabin and he even remembered her name without meeting her! Every time I saw him on the rest of the cruise, he would ask me how she was doing. I brought back pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, english muffins and coffee to the cabin. (I told you we threw out our diets) and had a delightful breakfast on the verandah, while watching the ship pull into the port in Cozumel. It didn't take long to figure out that we were one of 11 cruise ships docked in port that day. After our ship being either the only one in port, or one of two or three ships, it was quite starting to suddenly be surrounded by cruise ships and cruise ship passengers. We docked right next to a Princess cruise line and pretty quickly decided that our ship was nicer with bigger verandahs and cabins. Cozumel was probably the one place I wouldn't mind not returning to. It was a huge shock after the undeveloped wildness of Guatemala, to enter into the tourist port area of Cozumel. It was an open-air mall, just like any mall in California. All the prices in the shops were in US dollars and everyone spoke perfect English. There was even a Fat Tuesday's bar, more on that later. We had a 2pm excursion for Snuba Diving Snuba is like scuba, except the air tank floats on a raft on the surface, so you don't have to wear it on your back. You can go about 30' underwater, which is how long the hose is that's connected to the regulator in your mouth. I've always wanted to try Scuba, but didn't know if I'd like it, so I thought this would be a great way to find out. We were driven about 10 minutes away from the port by taxi and dropped off at a restaurant/bar that had a Snuba/Scuba operation in the basement. There were about 15 of us from our ship and after a class in a tiny hot room, we were divided up into three groups. We were in group two. Groups one and three went off to Snuba pretty quickly, but group two sat around and waited for close to 2 hours. This wouldn't have been so bad, except we had wanted to see more of Cozumel then the basement of a restaurant. We had wanted to go to Chankanaab Park , a national park with a beach and botanical gardens as well as other activities. Well, that turned out not to be possible. One person from our group left without going diving, because she had made other plans she had to keep. Well, our guide finally did show up and we got fitted with masks, weight belts, flippers and regulators before heading out to the water. I had a few moments of panic about not getting enough air, while getting used to breathing through the regulator, but after getting used to it I was fine. I absolutely loved Snuba and really want to learn how to Scuba now. Both of us had a great time in the water and wanted to stay down longer than we were allowed. We were at a coral reef that had seen better days, but there were still lots of incredibly colored fish, all kinds of coral, eels hiding in little caves and lobsters just wandering around the bottom of the ocean. Amazing. We thought about going scuba diving that night, but decided to wait and take lessons at home. We're now looking into lessons and a scuba trip to Hawaii sometime. We got back to the ship around 6pm, headed to dinner. It was "Caribbean Theme Night" with a BBQ on the Lido Deck by the pool, or "Dutch Night" in the dining room. The ship is registered in The Neatherlands. I had been curious about what the food at Dutch Night was going to be like, so we made the mistake of heading to the dining room. We were the only ones at our table that night and the dining room was mostly empty, which should have given us a clue. We did get the bonus of sitting next to the window and watching the sunset and the other cruise ships leave the port. We were provided with nifty little Dutch hats to wear. My wife wore hers and looked quite cute. She had Gekoelde Drie Bessensoep or cold Fruit Soup, while I ate my Noordzee Garnalen Cocktail, or shrimp cocktail. The grouper was semi-ok and the only non-dutch item on the menu. However, this was the first time we left the table feeling very unsatisfied. So much so, that we left before dessert. We headed out to the Lido deck and found half of the ship at the BBQ. My wife even ran into her doctor from when she was in college at Florida State! It was fun talking with the doctor and her partner. The BBQ consisted of ribs, chicken, steak, corn on the cob, salad and baked potatoes. They actually had grills on deck and were BBQ'ing right on the deck. We decided to have a little dessert and then go off the ship for awhile. The ship was scheduled to leave Cozumel at 11pm, so we had some time to wander around the tourist area. We had wanted to go into the nearby city, but since we hadn't been there during the day, we didn't feel comfortable doing that. As we passed by Fat Tuesdays, we noticed the other half of the ship having quite the alcohol-fueled time. It was a major party and the locals with video cameras were enjoying it as much as the semi-clothed women inside the bar were. What was kinda sad and funny at the same time, was that not 20 feet away from the American-owned Fat Tuesdays bar, was a Mexican owned bar that was completely empty. We decided not to join the party (not wanting to be on someone's home video) and instead just walked around, enjoying the light sprinkles of rain and dancing to the music from the bar. My wife tried on a few pairs of cowboy boots and we bought a couple small things. Around 10pm, we headed back to the ship and hung out on the promenade deck listening to the music from the bar and talking. At 10:30, the party was still going strong. At 10:45, we saw people start running from the bar, down the very long pier to get to the ship. A few crew members were sent out to the bar to round up stragglers and finally the last diehard parties were back on the ship. Fat Tuesdays went dark at 10:55 and the ship left Cozumel promptly at 11:00.
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081249200/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081249200/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081249200/tpod.html Fri, 30 Apr 2004 04:09:44 +0000 Our Olivia Cruise

Belize - Belize, Belize

Belize, Belize

The ship arrived in Belize at 8am and our horseback riding excursion was scheduled to start at 9am. This would have been no problem, except that Belize is surrounded by a huge coral reef and therefor does not even provide a dock for cruise ships. They, understandably, want to preserve the gorgeous reef. So, this means that everyone on the ship had to get into a 50 person speedboat and go speeding across the waves to shore. Our tender time was at 10am. We spoke with the front desk and they got us on the 1st tender of the morning. The front desk was very helpful to us throughout the cruise. The tender ride was pretty rough, fast and very hot, but we made it to shore safely and I was thankful. We got out of the tender and into an area that was obviously built just for tourists. We were supposed to meet our guide at a flagpole in the middle of a square by a bandstand. Well, we found the flagpole, the square and the bandstand, but no guide. We were a little early, so we just waited for awhile. This would have been fine, except it was 90+ degrees and 90+ humidity and were dressed and jeans and boots for horseback riding. Sweat. After awhile, I found a guide who took us to the little shack of an office, located next to lots of other little office shacks. It was then that we were told that they were waiting for another cruise guest to arrive from another cruise line. Then we were told that the excursion was going to be at 10:00, rather than at 9. We learned Caribbean time very quickly. The people watching was interesting, as tourists are sometimes the most amusing people there are. It was just so hot. Finally, the other passengers arrived and the guide was ready, so we headed out in a blissfully air-conditioned minivan. Once we left the tourist area, I saw why there was such a thing. Belize city is very poor with a great deal of crime. I felt really awkward being the "rich" American tourist being driven through the city. There were a few nice houses, but they all had 7" brick walls with broken glass and barbed wire on top. Our tourguide said the lootings are common due to people's desperation. Outside of the city, conditions were no less poor, but it seemed like people had more options. Nearly every house had lots of fruit or nut trees, chickens and a few even had skinny looking cows. It was the beginning of Easter Holy Week, so all the kids were out of school, many just hanging out in the front of their wooden or cement, dirt floored, one room homes. I had pictured Belize to be lush and green, but it was actually quite arid. We saw lots of palm trees and Florida type scrub, along with cashew nut trees, several different kinds of mango trees, coconuts and papayas. Everything looked like it could use a long gentle rain. After about 90 minutes, we reached the Spa and Horseback riding place. It was very nice, with several pools, a restaurant and a little walk away, the Spa. It had a palm thatched roof, open sides and mahogany wood floors. Apparently they also have guest rooms for people to stay over night as well. After a quick trip to the bathroom, we walked over to the horses. We had ridden up with a Mom and her 9 year old son and a Minnatonka Minnesota Special Education teacher. Once we were there, we met up with 4 college students on spring break. The 9-year old, Michael, was going riding without Mom, so we promised we'd look after him. The horses looked well taken care of and most of them were quite feisty and ready to go. Our trail guide spoke some English, but surprisingly gave absolutely no instruction to anyone and no helmets. This was another reminder that we're not in the U.S. My wife and I both helped out a few people who obviously hadn't ridden before. The Minnesota woman happened to get the one horse that really didn't feel like doing anything, so we hung back in the pack with her and let the others go ahead. Poor Michael freaked out about a 3rd of the way into the ride, but the guide was good and held onto Michael's horse for the rest of the ride. Michael felt very proud of himself at the end of the ride and told his mom he had a great time. We assured her that he did very well. We started out crossing the savanna and saw Holler Monkeys and some odd, rather large birds. Then we headed into the jungle, which was very beautiful with huge palm and palmetto and lots of vines. The guide pointed out a snake, but thankfully neither I, or my horse saw it. My wife was behind me for most of the ride and amazingly enough, managed to take pictures and ride at the same time, even at a trot! We had a lovely ride for about an hour, which in the heat was just about enough. My horse had gotten quite excited about heading home and had a jolly time trying to run to the stable. We came to a understanding, which was "oh hell, who cares, I'm on vacation!" Of course, every time I'm on a horse, I just want to stay on, so I was bummed when it came time to dismount. I stopped being disappointed when I realized that it was time for my aromatherapy massage! My wife was scheduled for one too, but changed her mind as it was so hot. She decided to relax and have lunch instead. She had water buffalo, which she says was quite good. She also ordered a frozen pineapple daiquiri for me, which was delivered at the start of my massage. That was fun. The massage studio was of the same thatched roof construction as the rest of the place, except it had a sand floor to absorb the massage oil. My masseuse was a wonderful woman with great hands. After the massage, she brought me to a room with stone walls and floors and a big well in the center. She threw bucket after bucket of cold water on me to rinse the oils away. It felt so incredibly cooling and invigorating. Then we all piled back into the van and were driven back into town. We hustled to the tender and got on just before it left to go back to the ship. It turned out that we didn't have to worry about time because lots of excursions were late getting back. Our very sunburned tablemates had gone Cave Tubing and their 6 hour excursion turned into 10. They had a good time, but apparently hadn't been informed that they would be walking through the jungle for an hour carrying their own inner tube. I was starving after only having a liquid lunch and was very happy listening to everyone's day, while diving into my shrimp cocktail and red snapper. One couple at our table celebrated their 10 year anniversary that day, so the waitstaff and us sang Happy Anniversary to them and the ship provided a delicious, very chocolate, chocolate cake with a candle in it. We went to see a great comedian that night, . She plays on a professional women's football team, even though she looks like she's 90 pounds soaking wet. She was hysterically funny and I highly recommend catching her show if you can. Then we did more of our nightly wandering of the ship, finding concerts (classical, rock, folk and hiphop), the second night of the Olivia Idol karaoke contest and the midnight snack (no more buffet) in the Lido. Every night was a different midnight snack theme. Saturday was Dutch, Sunday night was Alaskan, Monday I can't remember, Tuesday was Mexican, Wednesday was Asian, Thursday was Tapas, and Friday was American. The ice cream bar was open until 1am. :)
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081072800/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081072800/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081072800/tpod.html Fri, 30 Apr 2004 02:54:08 +0000 Our Olivia Cruise

Key West - Key West, FL

Key West, FL

The ship docked at Key West at 6am sharp. We knew this because we were nearly tossed from our bed when the anchor was let out. By the end of the week we were sleeping through the docking procedure, but that first morning was pretty funny. My first thought was "Earthquake!" then I remembered we weren't in California anymore and went back to sleep. At 7:30am, we were woken up by the announcement that would great us every morning and throughout the day. First, pleasant little bells, going up a third and back down a third (Ding Dong Ding), then "Good Morning Ladies of Olivia!" followed by cheerful announcements from the Cruise Director, Dotty. Dotty was very nice and said she had the best cruise with us, in 10 years of her being cruise director. She announced what time it was what port we were in and what activities were on for the morning. We groaned and rolled over and went back to sleep, again. We had put out our room service breakfast card the night before to be delivered at 8am. At 7:55am the phone rang and it was room service letting us know they were on their way. Quite nice not to be surprised by the room service guy at the door. So, we gave up and got up, tossed on our spiffy Holland America waffle weave robes (my wife got us two monogrammed ones to take home) and ate our fresh yummy breakfast on our verandah. It doesn't get any better than munching on fresh, ripe melon and strawberries while watching the ocean and the beautiful day. We wandered off the ship around 10:00 and instantly got lost. Ok...no biggie. Key West is a small island. We had pre-paid for the Key West Trolley online and after a bit of wandering around, taking pictures of the ship and sleeping pelicans enjoying the sun, we found the Trolley. The Trolley takes tourists all around the island with frequent stops. You can get on and off the Trolley for the whole day. Some drivers told us we had to get on at the same stop we got off at, others didn't seem to care and no one asked us anyway. We visited a museum about the train that used to go from Miami to Key West until it was destroyed in a hurricane and then did the appropriate tourist thing and spent money in the shop attached to the museum. I just couldn't see visiting Key West without getting Key Lime Pie mix and juice! My wife got a cute wooden pelican and some Cuban cookbooks. We then found out the only bummer thing about the Trolley. They are supposed to be at each stop every 30 minutes. Well, time is different the further south you go and so 30 minutes is sometimes 20 and sometimes 40. So, we waited and debated about lunch. Once the Trolley came, we headed down the famous tourist trap of Duval street. We had to get off the Trolley after passing a shop that exclusively sold flamingos. My wife had wanted to buy pink flamingos in California to bring with us on the cruise to put on our verandah. I did not want to haul pink flamingos all the way across the country and promised her we'd buy them in Florida. Well, Fort Lauderdale suffers from a lack of flamingos and I was getting worried about being able to keep my promise. Thankfully, Key West had them in abundance. We got a couple cute little stuffed ones and some flamingo swizzle sticks as well. To keep with the flamingo theme, we went to the Flamingo Café for lunch. I had a really good pasta salad and my wife had cornbeef hash. It was a small café and the cook brought out a dish for the owner to taste while we were there. He offered tastes to anyone else there. My wife took him up on it and said it was really good. Feeling energized from lunch, we hopped back on the Trolley and headed to the Southernmost point. We passed Hemmingway's house with almost 100 6-toed cats happily living on the property and the Key West lighthouse that is located in the center of the city, about a mile from the ocean. The houses in Old Town are beautiful, with lots of lush blooming tropical foliage. Some of them are made out of conch shells, but most are wooden. There is quite a lot of history and interesting stories about the people and building on Key West. We went to the Southernmost point of the United States and had some women from the ship take pictures of us with our camera after we took pictures of them. It was really fun to walk around the city and see other women with Olivia totebags like we had. We were the only cruise ship docked that day and we took over the town. After the Southernmost point, we walked a couple blocks to the Butterfly house. My wife took lots of pictures of the millions of butterflies and I wandered around and relaxed. The butterflies really liked to land on me, so I had some companions as I wandered. Really lovely. We left the butterfly house, carefully making sure my hitchhikers didn't join us and decided it was ice cream time. We had asked directions earlier at a small ice cream place and the owner was so helpful, so we went back. I got Key Lime and my wife got Vanilla. We were the envy of everyone on the Trolley. By this time, it was getting late and we needed to get back to the ship in time to see the Indigo Girls! So, we reluctantly left the island thinking about what we wanted to come back to do: jet skiing, eat a conch fritter, see the kitties at the Hemmingway house, take a Biplane ride over the city (my wife, not me), see the old navy base and about 20 other things. This was one of the most frustrating things about the cruise. We never felt like we had enough time in any of the ports we visited. I feel like we just got a tiny sample of what each place was like and never enough time to really feel the culture or get to know the people. Oh well, it just makes us want to go back. We scurried onto the ship, had quick showers and got in line to enter the Vista Lounge Theater for the early dinner seating performance of the Indigo Girls. The Vista Lounge is at in the bow of the ship. The décor is all red, red plush seats, red walls and red carpet. It felt a little like entering a bordello. After awhile though, you just don't notice all the red anymore. We had tickets for the Main Floor of the theater, but didn't realize we were in the Balcony line until we got to the front of the line. The ticket person who worked for Holland America was going to make us go outside the theater and wait again in the main floor line, but thankfully an Olivia person intervened and just let us take the theater stairs to go down one floor and take our seats. As a result, we got 4th row center seats! Woohoo! The Indigo Girls were fantastic and were as excited to be playing on an Olivia Cruise as we were to be there. We all sang along with their songs and just had a great time. Everyone was so thrilled that they were onboard. I have all the CD's, but haven't been able to go to one of their concerts before, so it was an amazing experience to hear them live. Unfortunately, it was only an hour concert, which was way too short, but that's the way it goes. The late dinner seating folks were lined up outside the theater for their concert as we headed out. I seriously considered skipping dinner and sneaking back in for the second concert, but decided to be good and just go eat some more. We were all talking about the Indigo Girls and our day at Key West at dinner. One couple went on a snorkeling trip and only found out after she dove into the water that the ocean is pretty cold this time of year. Some others went and visited a partially built naval base stuck in the ocean about 10 minutes away from Key West. After their trip, they spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and drinking along Duval Street. My wife and I decided to order a wine package for dinner, which meant that we had four bottles of wine for the week at dinner. The wine choices were very good (lots of wine from Chili and Australia as well as California) and we shared the bounty with the table. The food was really good, although we discovered that salads just aren't HAL's strong point. My wife had some sort of cold soup every night and I think this night it was cold strawberry soup. I finally got some conch in the form of conch chowder. One of our tablemates had steak every night and it was cooked perfectly each night. I mostly stuck to fish dishes and that night had grilled mahi-mahi, which was quite tasty. I can't remember what the dessert offerings were, but it doesn't matter since they were always yummy. The portion sizes were very reasonable, so we left the table feeling satisfied, but not overwhelmed. Our table pretty much got kicked out of the dining room each night. Our poor waiter was probably pretty stressed out since he had to reset the table for the late seating after we left. We just had too much fun to leave. Every evening our Steward, Masture, placed a schedule of the next days events on board and information about the port we'd be visiting in a little cubby by our door. There were activities taking place on the ship every day from 7am until midnight. If you wanted to, you could be busy every moment. There was everything from the 7am Walk-a-Mile on the Promenade deck to Spa Seminars, Golf lessons, Blackjack lessons, Volleyball, Music and Dancing from noon on into the way early hours of the morning. When we got back from dinner, there was also a card with another gift from my wife, casino chips! I had to wait to use them until we were out of US waters though. We did our nightly wandering of the ship, found a concert being played in one of the smaller lounges and danced in the hallway to some good country music for awhile. Then we went outside and walked along the promenade deck. The ship left at 10:00 and at 9:30, we saw the Indigo Girls gear being unloaded from the ship. Promptly at 10:00, the ship left Key West. We had moved to the 10th deck Observation deck and were enjoying the view of the lights on Key West and trying to get people on shore to wave to us. Suddenly, the ship's horn blew and my wife just about leaped over the railing to the water below. Thankfully, I caught her and prevented that from happening. She was quite startled, to say the least. After getting our heart rates back to normal and stopping laughing, we headed back inside where it was a little less dangerous. As we went inside, we found a room full of video games, including an interactive cop game where you had to crouch and leap and move your body to hide and shoot the bad guys. My wife played the game until her thigh muscles gave out. Pretty good exercise. Maybe a good concept for a new type of gym - videocising. We went back to our cabin and decided to decorate our door. My wife had brought wedding themed wrapping paper and we'd brought removable tape with us. So, we papered our door and added the flamingo stir sticks and also a honeymoon themed helium balloon, which stayed up for the entire week. We had a great door and added something to it almost each night. We set our clocks ahead one hour, because of Daylight Savings Time and went to sleep.
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081508400/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081508400/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081508400/tpod.html Fri, 30 Apr 2004 02:52:11 +0000 Our Olivia Cruise

At Sea - At Sea, United States

At Sea, United States

We thought that we didn't have anything planned for our last day on the ship and our 2nd day at sea, but at 9:45 the spa called to remind us that my wife had a spa appointment at 9:45. Pretty rough life to be woken up because it's time for your spa treatment. She wandered off, half-awake, to the spa in her robe and I headed up to the pool for breakfast, lunch, drinks, whatever. It was pretty amusing that after the huge party in Cozumel, the ship had a Bloody Mary Happy Hour from 11am to 12am. There were lots of people taking advantage of that. I spent most of my day at the pool, even getting to watch an ice carving demonstration, which was pretty impressive. After her spa appointment, my wife went to the Shore Excursions desk and told them about our experience at Snuba. They refunded us half the cost of the excursion, which I thought was very nice. We met up later and went to Bingo together. We had heard all week about Bingo from one of tablemates who didn't miss a game. Apparently there are several different ways to play Bingo and the women on the ship, while really into the game, just couldn't quite figure out what all the different games were. So, they kept calling out BINGO! at wrong times. Our tablemate was having some frustration problems related to this area and I think has gone into bingo therapy now. So, after hearing all about this, we decided to check it out. Apparently, so had most of the ship. There were so many women wanting to play bingo that for the first time in the history of the ship, they ran out of bingo cards and had to run to get more. The jackpot was $6,000, the largest jackpot Holland America had ever had. Our caller was Jennie McNulty, the comedian and it turned out, one of the partiers at Fat Tuesday the night before. She was quite hangover, even at 4pm, which made the game even more fun. The game was blackout, which means every single number in the card has to be filled in order to win. We didn't win, but a very cute couple with two kids and a mortgage won, so the money was going to their kids. It was great to see how excited they were. Right after bingo, we went to the Dessert Extravaganza. It was a large buffet in the dining room, just of desserts. Serious sugar overload. Nearly everyone on the ship was there, which I think surprised the staff. They seemed a bit disorganized and stressed. However, the desserts were delicious, especially the raspberry mousse cake with a hard chocolate shell. My wife and I took a long walk around the deck after dessert. We were going to go and see the finals of Olivia Idol, but the lounge it was in was way to crowded. That night was lobster night in the dining room. A couple at our table was late because they were at the Olivia Idol contest, which ran over time. Apparently the winner was fantastic, so much so that one of the professional singers on the ship offered to record some songs with her. Pretty neat to get a recording career started on a cruise ship! The lobster was great, probably the best meal in the dining room all week. However, we were all sad because our cruise week was coming to an end. The waiting room staff sang a little song to us and then marched around the room with sparklers stuck into baked alaska, while we all cheered and twirled our napkins in the air. It was hokey, but fun after a couple glasses of wine. We had brought a fantastic dessert wine called "Joy" from a local winery we visited, and we shared it with our table and the table next to us. It tastes like golden flowers or ambrosia. Just delicious. We saw Vicki Shaw again that last night and she was just as funny as she was before. She went on the cave tubing excursion in Belize and had quite a story about her experience. She was funny. She finished up her show reminding us to all go back to our cabins and pack. So, grumbling, we did just that. We ended up having to buy another bag to bring stuff home in, which is a sign of a good vacation. The fluffy HAL bathrobes took up a lot of room, as did the bottles of California wine we brought home with us. Can't seem to escape the California wineries. We sat on the verandah for a long time that night, then set our clocks forward one more time, before reluctantly going to bed.
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081335600/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081335600/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081335600/tpod.html Fri, 30 Apr 2004 02:43:29 +0000 Our Olivia Cruise

Guatemala - Guatemala, Guatemala

Guatemala, Guatemala

We got up at 5:45am, on vacation even! The ship docked in Guatemala at 6am and we were awake for both the docking and the beautiful sunrise. Out of all the places we visited, Guatemala is my favorite. But, before I get ahead of myself, I should mention that Guatemala is just starting to be open to tourists, which is probably why I liked it so much. We docked at an industrial port, where big cargo ships were being loaded by cranes with cargo containers. There was plenty to watch as we ate our breakfast on the verandah. We left the ship at 7am and were promptly put onto a bus for our 2 hour ride to the Mayan Ruins of Quirigua. Our guide was from Guatemala, but escaped to the U.S. during most of the civil war. She returned to Guatemala a few years ago, after getting her college degree in L.A. and is living outside of Guatemala City. She was very nice and very informative and very chatty to a bus full of hung-over, sleepy women. We did get little gifts, a woven fan made out of palm fronds, "Guatemalan AC", and knitted water bottle holder. Pretty nifty and very well made. I loved Guatemala for how beautiful the country is. It is so lush and green and tropical. We passed by happy, fat, long-horned cows grazing in low-land fields and as we made our way up to the highlands, the area became more rugged with big mountains in the distance. The people are very poor, most living in huts without electricity or running water. We saw a lot of people with outside kitchen areas, stirring something in big pots set over the fire. We couldn't tell if it was laundry or food. Because they are so poor, they are very eager to have tourists purchase items from them. Before we got off the bus at the ruins, our guide implored us to purchase something from the merchants at the site. We were told that we were the last cruise ship of the season, so the merchants were pretty desperate to have enough money to make it through the long hot summer. We didn't purchase anything on the way in, but My wife got a great deal as we left, on what we thought was a lace edged tablecloth which turned out to be a bedspread. The language barrier made for difficult bargaining, but that's ok. We felt like we got a good deal and the seller seemed to be happy, so we were both satisfied. The ruins were spectacular. It's a smallish site with amazing 9-12 foot, stelea full of intricate hieroglyphs. The detail in the images is absolutely astounding. There's also a large temple area, kings and priests housing and some areas still under restoration. Apparently, the common folk lived in huts made from palm leaves and bamboo, so those have all disintegrated with time, but they've found clay pots and other "trash" to be able to start to learn about the people who lived there. Even more interesting, we found a Cocoa tree, from where cocoa pods are from and used to make chocolate! I'd never seen a chocolate tree before and told it to keep up the good work. One thing I've never understood, is why if the Mayans were supposed to be short, their stairs in the temple are so huge! My wife and I clambered all over the temple and the next day our quads were feeling it. It was also the hottest day yet and at the ruins, it was 106degrees with 90% humidity. I was thriving in it, but many in our group were very happy to get back on the hermetically sealed, air-conditioned bus. On the way back to the ship, we had to stop because of banana crossing! We were in the middle of the Dole banana plantation and the workers were picking huge bunches of bananas. Each tree is only allowed to grow one massive bunch of bananas at a time. The entire 4'-6' tall bunch is whacked off by a "jungle knife" or machete and then placed on a hook attached to an overhead conveyor belt. Our guide called it the banana train. Well the banana train goes across the road, so we stopped and watched the banana migration for awhile. Pretty interesting. We got back to the ship around noon and decided to do some shopping at the tourist area just off the ship. We were told not to go into the city by ourselves, which, while disappointing, made sense. There was a great deal of pressure to buy from every single vendor ("Special for you, today!"), but we just had a few things we were specifically looking for. I wanted a shawl for the chilly nights on the ship and found a beautiful handmade silk shawl as well as a black jade necklace. My wife found an authentic machete that was surprisingly sharp and got it for less than half of what the vendor originally asked for. We also bought a beautiful blue mask made out of pounded stone. This was the major shopping expedition of the trip and I think we brought back some unique items. It felt so good to have the rest of the afternoon to just relax around the pool. I found the taco salad bar and my wife had a polish sausage and 'kraut for lunch. I loved just reading by the pool and people watching. After awhile, my wife went off to do something I can't remember and I moved with my book into the pool. The pool had a large ledge with about a foot of water in it, so you could sit in the pool without having to swim. I hung out there with my book and pina colada and was very content. Don't worry, I wore wearing 45 SPF, waterproof sunblock the entire trip. I did feel a bit guilty about being the "rich" American tourist breezing in and out of a country in 4 hours. I'd love to find a safe way to return to Guatemala someday. Just before dinner, my wife and I attended a talk by the founder of Olivia and her new Co-Chair. While it was really interesting to hear about how Olivia was founded and their plans for the future (including retirement centers!), we had hoped to win one of the several 2 for 1 trips they were giving away. Alas, we didn't win, but that's ok. I have no idea what we had for dinner that night, but I'm sure it was good. It was always good. One couple at our table on a 12 hour excursion that consisted of: a 2 hour bus ride to a river, a 3 hour fast speedboat ride down the river, (in the brochure it said "A leisurely ride down the river where you can see all sorts of animal life), another bus ride to Quirigua and then a 2 hour bus ride back to the ship. They were pretty toasted. We had thought about doing that excursion, but I'm so glad we decided to do the more relaxing ½ day one. We went and saw comedian Vicki Shaw that night. She was beyond funny. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. Again, if you can see her, do. Her over-the-top Texas accent is worth the price of admission alone. After Vicki Shaw's performance, we went to the Newlywed, Oldywed game. My wife and I had tried out for the game early in the week, but weren't one of the couples selected. I'm so glad that we weren't selected. Couples were considered newlywed if they had been together for less than 5 years. Oldywed couples were over 5 years. There were two newlywed couples and two oldywed couples that made the cut. Both oldywed couples had been together longer than 30 years, but the newlyweds had only been together for six months! IMO, that doesn't count, but I wasn't running the game. The couples were asked several embarrassing questions, it was funny for the audience, but not so much for the couples. It was an amusing show, but again, I'm so glad we weren't one of the couples picked. The ship had sailed out of Guatemala at 6pm, so when my wife and I went for our nightly wandering around 12am, the ship was cruising pretty fast. We went outside to the very top deck and felt like we were in a hurricane. It was really wild to be able to lean 25 degrees into the wind and feel it holding me up. We decided to attempt to play basketball in the wind and I even made a basket! After that windblown experience, we decided to hang out in the sheltered area of our verandah and watch the moon on the water before, setting our clocks forward one hour and heading off to bed.
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1080993600/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1080993600/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1080993600/tpod.html Fri, 30 Apr 2004 02:15:33 +0000 Our Olivia Cruise

Cruise Day! - Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Woohoo! We found a great bagel place just down the street from the Westin, so after a yummy breakfast we had some errands to do. After driving by it twice, we found a camera store where my wife got a polarizing lens for her camera, went to Publix and got bottled water and other beverages for the ship, and then we returned the car to Enterprise. They were so nice and paid for a taxi ride to Port Everglades. We got to the Port around 12:00 and I was instantly aware of being surrounded by thousands of women! Wow! It was an amazing experience to be in the majority. A porter was immediately there to take our bags, our bottled water, a four-pack of mudslides (which we never drank and ended up giving to our steward at the end of the cruise) and a 12-pack of Yoohoo. We saw lots of cases of beer and wine being brought on ship, but we had our Yoohoo. We stood in the pretty well organized lines to get our ship cards (used as a room key and to buy anything on the ship, which was then charged to our credit card) and to get our Indigo Girls tickets. We also made our Spa appointments at a very overwhelmed spa desk. After waiting for our number to be called, chatting with fellow travelers while we waited, one couple we actually had met at the airport, we were finally on the ship! Woohoo! We were onboard by 1:30, just in time to go to the Lido and get lunch. The Lido is on the 9th deck of the 10-deck ship. It's a large multi-station buffet with nearly everything made fresh to order. There's an Italian station with pasta and sauces created with ingredients that you pick, and pizzas as well as Caesar salad. A sandwiches station with all sorts of deli meats, salads and fruit. They made a great BLT. Also an Asian station with sushi (not-so-good), and stir-fry. Of course, there were lots of desserts of all different kinds. They even had a make your own ice cream Sunday bar with all sorts of toppings. The best though was the bread pudding and I normally don't like bread pudding. It was so good though and they had a yummy vanilla sauce to go on top of it. This was our introduction to the world of cruise food. Unlimited anything you wanted. Food wasn't of super high quality, but it certainly was plentiful. Out went the diet and we just ate what we wanted to. Lost weight too.  I wish we had worn peidomoters to calculate just how many miles we walked each day. We ate at a table next to the floor to ceiling windows and watched the huge crates of luggage being loaded onto the ship. I have no idea how they manage to get the right bag to each stateroom, but somehow they do. After lunch, we went to our stateroom and were pleasantly surprised. We had a Deluxe Veranda stateroom at the very back of the ship. It was larger than I had expected with a very big verandah. On the verandah, there was room for two chairs, two lounge chairs, a footrest (which we used as a table) and a small round table. We spent a lot of time on the verandah just watching the ocean. Our room had a queen-sized bed, two nightstands, a couch, coffee table, desk and a fairly good-sized bathroom with a normal sized tub/shower combo. There were four closets, so we had ample closet space, even with our over packing. We had each gotten each other surprise sail-away gifts and many of them were in the stateroom when we arrived. I got my wife flowers, a Holland America picture frame, a "Dam Ship" baseball cap because the ship is called the Zuiderdam and some chocolate covered strawberries. Not all of My wife's gifts to me had arrived, but what was there was a large gift basket full of delicious snacks, two personalized bottles of wine, and a personalized bottle of jellybeans. More gifts arrived just about daily. She's so sweet.  We also met our cabin steward, Mastaur, who was very nice and helpful to us. He's from Indonesia, as are most of the stewards. The staff is hired to be on the ship for a full year and work 12 hour days, six days a week. There's a ridged seniority system, which people are locked into for the full year. The front desk staff is mostly Asian women, the bar staff is mostly Phillipino men and women, the spa staff are mostly from Germany, with a few Americans and the restaurant staff either Hungarian or Indonesian. Interesting cultural divisions. Despite the not-so-great working conditions, the entire staff was so pleasant to us, without any weird vibes or odd looks. They were just great. Olivia also had a help desk by HAL's front office and they were always available to answer any questions or respond to any concerns. We were too excited to unpack, so we headed out to explore the ship. Of course, we had no map and no idea where anything was, so we just walked around and ooh'ed and ahh'ed. People were still arriving, so it was a little chaotic, but the excited energy in the air was so much fun. Then came the announcement for the mandatory life jacket drill. We hustled back to our cabin and after a good 10 minutes of searching, found the life jackets on top of the closets. I couldn't quite figure out how to put mine on correctly, even with the video playing constantly on the tv in our room, but a crew member strapped me into it. I don't remember life jackets having quite so many snaps and ties. The crew got a little frustrated with us all, because trying to keep 1850 women quiet for 15 minutes proved to be impossible. We were all too excited to be there and make new friends, even during the life jacket drill, that to stop socializing was very difficult. Finally they freed us and we all trooped back to our cabins to drop off the life jackets. At 5pm, we sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale and enjoyed the sail away party. By then, we'd started drinking the "Drink of the day" which on Saturday, was vodka, cherry brandy, orange and cranberry juice. It tasted like fruit punch kool-aid and was dangerously good. I think that nearly all 1850 women were at the back of the ship for the sail away party. There was great music, food being passed around, a comedian to tell us some of the rules of the ship (don't sit on the toilet while you flush, because the vacuum suction will remove your tonsils) and of course, a conga line. We got into a conversation with some women out on their verandah one deck below us who were enjoying the party without the crowd. They passed us up a bottle of champagne for us to enjoy with them. Lots of merriment ensued as we waved to people on shore and watched the port slowly receded into the distance. We had reservations at 8pm for the ship's special restaurant, The Odyssey. The Odyssey served "Pacific Northwest" cuisine. Basically, lots of really good beef and seafood dishes. Even though we were eating later, we wanted to meet our tablemates at our scheduled dining time of 6pm. We had been thinking about switching to the later seating, but after meeting them, we decided they were way too much fun for us to switch. Plus we had a great table right at the window with a beautiful view of the sunset over the water. After meeting and chatting with our new friends, we headed off for the Odyssey. It's a very elegant restaurant and the night we went was surprisingly uncrowded. We both got a tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil salad for an appetizer. I had debated on the crab cakes, but went with the salad instead. I wish I had gone with the crab cakes. The tomatoes, while beautiful and huge, were crunchy and unripe. Bummer. However, that was the only not-so-good thing we had. I got a delicious steak and lobster combo with a nice fluffy baked potato and asparagus. My wife got lamb shanks, creamed spinach and scalloped potatoes. For dessert, I had their famous Volcano Cake. It's a very warm molten chocolate soufflé over which you glop your own whip cream and the whole thing just oozes together. Blissful. My wife had baked Alaska, which was fun to watch go up in flames. We waddled out of the Odyssey and back to our cabin to unpack and recover. We also sent some clothes out to be pressed or cleaned-n-pressed and didn't see them again for three days. However, we set out our riding boots to be cleaned and polished and we got them back within a couple of hours. I think we wandered the ship some more as we tended to do that every night. We were pretty tired and after watching the wake from the verandah, went to bed relatively early.
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081162800/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081162800/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081162800/tpod.html Fri, 30 Apr 2004 02:08:59 +0000 Our Olivia Cruise

At Sea - At Sea, Belize

At Sea, Belize

Sea days are so great. We slept late and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the dining room. It was quite a bit calmer there then in the Lido, so that was refreshing. Monday is the only day that I have lost the daily program for, and I can't remember exactly what we did. I have a feeling that I spent a lot of time at the pool sipping whatever the Drink of the Day was. Monday night was formal night and also Passover. My wife and I had signed up for the Passover dinner that Olivia offered, instead of going to the main dining room. Usually Passover dinners are quite fun and ruckus and Olivia really tried. It's just hard to find a format that appeals to everyone. My wife and I had brought little toys in Ft. Lauderdale for the evening to represent the plagues in Egypt. One of the plagues was frogs and we found a toy frog that croaked when it was bumped or hit. I had packed the froggie in my suitcase and every time it was bumped, the frog croaked. It made for some very surprised porters. I had been feeling a bit queasy throughout the evening, as the ship picks up speed at night and the waves were up to 14', so about 2/3 of the way through the dinner, I left and went to our cabin. I had taken lots of sea sickness precautions, wearing the scopolamine patch, taking ginger capsules and wearing a sea band wrist band that gave an electrical zap every 20 seconds or so. The wristband was fine, except during meals because the silverware would conduct the electricity directly down my fingers. That was very uncomfortable, although a bit amusing to watch my fingers wiggle on their own. Anyway, once I got back to the cabin and put on the wristband I was fine. After my wife came back from the dinner, we wandered and found a great Irish singer, Zrazy performing in the Vista Lounge. She was as excellent as all of the Olivia performers were. Before going to bed, we set our clocks back one hour to be on Belize time.
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1080734400/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1080734400/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1080734400/tpod.html Fri, 30 Apr 2004 01:58:49 +0000 Our Olivia Cruise

Disclamer - Oakland, CA

Oakland, CA

Ok, here's the Disclamer. I wrote this blog almost a month after our trip and the majority of it is from memory. Therefor, some of the days or times may not be exactly correct. Like, I can't really remember what day "Dutch Night" was, but I do remember what occurred on that night. Some of the concerts may have happened on different days than I wrote, but the experiences are the same. So, if you were on the Olivia Cruise, give me a break for a little lack of memory for exact dates. I was on vacation, had more than usual to drink and I'm old. :) Besides, that's one of the neat things about vacations, all the details about dates and times cease to be important and just the excitement of the experience is what matters. Ok, on to the fantastic Cruise!
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081730400/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081730400/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081730400/tpod.html Thu, 29 Apr 2004 00:41:16 +0000 Our Olivia Cruise

Going Home - Somewhere in the US, United States

Somewhere in the US, United States

The alarm went off way to early that morning. Why do planes have to leave at dark-o-clock in the morning? Our taxi we requested was even early and we made it out to the airport without any overheating happening. So, that was good. We got to the airport and was informed that our crew was resting. So, we rested with them for two hours. Continental did provide muffins, pretzels, juice and coffee, as well as "customer care kits", which were coupons for free alcohol (no more, please..no more) and free headsets once we got onboard. We filled out a Customer Response Card and actually got $50 towards our next flight with them. Very nice customer service. Everything else was thankfully uneventful, except for my wife forgetting her hat on the plane and remembering when we were in baggage claim. San Francisco customer service wasn't nearly as friendly as Ft. Lauderdale, but she did get her hat back. The Limo guy was right there and we got home around 4pm, PST. The cats were happy to see us, Iggi even hacked up a hairball of joy. I have yet to completely unpack my suitcase, but I know I'm going to have to give in and do it eventually. It's just the last stage of admitting that the vacation is over. We had an absolutely wonderful time and are considering planning another Olivia vacation in a year or two. Olivia has vacations in which they take over a club-med or another all inclusive resort for a couple weeks. We're thinking about doing that next time as we'll actually get to learn more about the culture of the area we'd be staying at. Plus, it's less expensive than a cruise. Right now, it's difficult to plan anything with the war still on, but it's nice to have the dream.
]]> http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081594800/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081594800/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/iggi/olivia_cruise/1081594800/tpod.html Thu, 29 Apr 2004 00:40:16 +0000 Our Olivia Cruise

Disembarkation - Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Bah. Disembarkation. Even the word is unpleasant. We hauled ourselves out of bed around 7am, as at 8:00 was when we'd start to be able to leave the ship. We had all been given letters or numbers, as well as colored luggage tags the night before. We put our luggage out (before 2am) the night before and had letter H, so we waited for our letter to be called. Breakfast ended at 8am, so we headed up to the Lido for our last meal on ship. We didn't exactly need another meal at that point, but, what the heck. Apparently everyone else had the same idea, because the Lido was packed. The poor staff looked really frazzled. We took our breakfast back to our cabin and ate it away from the crowds. Ft. Lauderdale was hot, humid and overcast. The city seemed to have the same feeling that we did that day, bah. While we waited to be called, we filled out our immigration form and watched a movie in our cabin. At least they no longer make everyone wait in a central lounge. We were off the ship by 10:30, passed through an extremely easy customs procedure (just handed some disinterested guy our immigration form) and quickly found our luggage. A porter was close by and took our stuff out to a taxi. We felt a bit of culture shock walking back into the very busy, very rushed real world. We waved goodbye to our friends from the ship and the ship its self and headed back into reality. Reality started to suck pretty quickly. As we got on the highway going to the Westin, the taxi driver started muttering and an alarm went off in the car. His car was overheating badly. We could smell a burning smell coming from the engine. He decided he was going to try and make it to the Westin, but my wife told him to get off the highway and avoid a car fire. I was sitting behind him and couldn't see his gauges, but she said he was in the red since leaving the port. He pulled into a Walgreen's, still muttering to himself. He wanted us to call for another taxi, but I told him that he needed to do that. More muttering. He did call another taxi from his same company. However, as we were waiting, a taxi from another company pulled up and he shuffled us off on him. He wanted his full fare, but that wasn't going to happen. We got all our stuff loaded into the new taxi and set off again for the hotel. This new guy was very nice and sympathetic. He didn't even turn on his meter and just charged us a couple of dollars. So, we made it. Instead of carrying everything on the plane, we decided to ship the wine and some souvenirs and some clothes back. The concierge at the Westin was very helpful, even finding us a styrofoam wine box, a regular box and even tape for us to use. The ship had offered a 3-day FedEx shipping service onboard, but we have an account with UPS, which makes shipping things so much easier. My wife took care of all the boxes and stuff, while I took a very long nap. She woke me up a few hours later and I sleepily fell out of bed. I was so tired and disappointed that our cruise was over. We walked over to the bagel place for lunch/dinner, only to find that they were closed. However, the tiny hole-in-the wall Cuban restaurant next door was open and that was a very good thing. We had the most amazing meal there. I've been searching for a Cuban restaurant in our area, but haven't found one. If you know of one, go and check it out. The bread alone is worth it. We got hot little round slices of fluffy, soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside bread, that we spread with a little butter and a lot of a hot green paste made from herbs and chilis. So wonderful. We shared some shrimp, octopus, squid, fish cevechi, which was incredibly fresh. I had a piece of fish topped with shrimp and squid in a tomato sauce and a side of rice. My wife basically had the same thing, but the fish was chunked up and mixed into the rice. The seasoning was exquisite, spicy, but not to the point where the heat was the only thing you noticed about the meal. That was probably the best meal I have ever had, even better than the best sushi and that says a lot. We walked back to the hotel, just in time to see a large group arriving at the hotel. They were leaving on a 2-week Holland America Cruise through the Panama Canal the next day. We wondered if there was room in their bags to be a stow-a-way. It was fun to be around a group of people just heading out on their vacation. (grumblegrumble) We had found a Pepperidge Farm outlet store and had bought a frozen white cake with white icing before we went to dinner. It sounds boring, but it was quite tasty and is my wife's favorite kind of cake. In the heat, it didn't take it long to defrost and after a swim in the hotel's pool and jacuzzi, we had our dessert while watching a movie on TV.
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