TravelStream™ news feed for member lisa.marta on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lisa.marta en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:15:54 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268813794/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268813794/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268813794/tpod.html Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:15:54 -0400 Spring Break 2010

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Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

Yay! It's my birthday J I celebrate by having waffles with cherries and whipped cream again for breakfast!

We catch a cab and head to West Bay Beach. There is a complicated process of many people exchanging money, which I don’t even try to understand, but we end up with a return cab ride to the beach for $15.00 US each. With all the people getting a cut, I suspect their money is worth much less than the American Dollar.

The cab ride is beautiful. It seems like a rural winding road through a rain forest. The vegetation is beautiful. Steve saw two police officers on a motorcycle , one driver and one packing a sub machine gun… but I erase that from my mind and enjoy the scenery. At one point the cab driver stopped in the middle of the road… I’m thinking "uh oh"… is he going to try to get more money from us? Are bad guys coming out of nowhere ? (I really need to watch less TV)… but he was just stopping at a scenic spot so we could take a picture. (Perhaps my imagination might not have run away like that if he would have said, “take a picture”, but I guess he just assumed we knew why he stopped.)

We arrive at the beach and it is very nice, but crowded. We walk down a bit and see some people from our White Water Rafting tour and camp out on the beach with them. Steve and Joezer go snorkeling and see a total of 3 fish. The approximately 120 people on the snuba tours that are in the same spot are going to be unhappy! They are only going to see seagrass and shells. Steve and Joezer figured that this would be the best spot to snorkel, because they were following the snuba guys, but it turns out this tour was simply ripping off those people. Steve and Joezer find out from Mike that they went to the wrong end of the beach, but had a fine time in the water anyway. The water is nice and warm, shallow and has soft white sand. (I wouldn’t rank it as high as Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman, but would give it a solid 8/10.) There are a lot of vendors on the beach but they are polite and leave you alone if you say no thank you. After plenty of time in the sun we head back to the ship. Steve buys a little necklace from the shops (you know how he loves necklaces), and we head back to the room for ice cream and cookies! WOOHOOOO!

After the snack out on the balcony we read a little and then get ready for formal night. (I think it was nice of them to make everyone dress up for my birthday!) We had lobster for dinner (which I thought was only mediocre) and Baked Alaska for dessert (Super YUM!). We also had a little birthday cake and song J

We head off to the show where we sit beside a nice couple. The man says he would rather I sit beside him than Steve because I’m beautiful (it doesn’t seem creepy when someone in their 80’s says it). Steve tells him it’s my birthday. When he finds out I’m 41, he tells me he was already on his third wife by then! Okay then…

The show is quite good tonight. It is the dancers and cast of singers performing to some more up to date music (even “Don’t cha” by the Pussycat Dolls… which by the way doesn’t sound that great when sung by someone with a Broadway type voice…) but the show was entertaining and energetic and the most current we’ve seen.

At 10:00 we meet Joezer, Jedith, Mike and Osla (sp?) to show them the White Water Rafting Photos (they didn’t get the CD). They love them (well, Osla is a little embarrassed)! Steve offers to make them a CD and mail it to them. Then we head off to bed (no dancing in my personal disco tonight…too tired!)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268748827/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268748827/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268748827/tpod.html Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:13:17 -0400 Spring Break 2010

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Puerto Limon, Province of Limon, Costa Rica

Today is a sea day. We have an extremely lazy day. We eat breakfast out in the sun at the back of the boat (they had waffles with cherries and whip cream today!), lay in the sun a bit, hang out in the double hammock, read, watch cheesy movies on TV, and eat ice cream and cookies.

We get a letter from the shore excursion staff apologizing for our shore excursion yesterday and a 30% refund. (Wow! One of the best excursions ever and we get a 30% refund). We wrote a letter back thanking them for the refund, but also telling them how great the tour actually was.

Steve has his final rehearsal for 'Dancing with the Stars' and then we have dinner. As usual, dinner and dessert is delicious! There is going to have to be some serious eating habit adjustments when we return home!!!

We go back to the room and I take a nap while Steve watches more cheesy movies. Then it is time for Steve to become a star!

The contest had 4 cruise ship dancers paired with 4 passengers. Each couple did their dance and then the judges told them how good they were J There were a few "Paula Abdhul" comments… you know…. “your shirt sparkles under the lights” and “you look lovely tonight”. But really everyone did a good job.

Then Steve and Adele are on last. Steve starts his routine with a side splits jump. The old ladies cheer! They start their dance and a lady close to me says to her friend, “Which one is the real dancer?” Steve and Adele do a full body shimmy. More old lady cheering J There is dancing, shimmying and jumping going on. They finish and get ready for the judges comments. My two favourites were “You actually got your legs higher than Adele” (which is a real compliment if you saw the flexibility and long-leggedness of this young girl!) and “I kept forgetting who the professional was”. Of course, Steve and Adele won. Now Steve is a dance superstar, we get a copy of the DVD so we can watch him be a superstar over and over, and we get a free dinner in one of the specialty restaurants! Steve spent the next half hour lamenting the mistakes he made… crazy perfectionist!

Next we head to Quasar where the DJ has put together a Prince montage for me… well nobody else usually comes in my bar… so I should get to hear what I want right? We dance for quite a long time, until it’s my birthday actually, and then head back to the room. I go to bed and Steve goes out for some poker.
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Puerto Limon, Province of Limon, Costa Rica



Today is our white water rafting day! We catch our tour bus
at 9AM and take a very long bus ride out to our launch site. The river they
were planning on taking us to, is too low (damn controlled and the damn people
don’t work on Sunday), so we go to a different river called, Rio Soucio(SP?).
This means dirty river…. Hmmmm I think… do I want to be in the dirty river???
Turns out it’s only dirty because it feeds from the bottom of a volcano and the
dirt is just silt. We spend a large portion of our bus ride listening to our
guide Alonzo tell us about Costa Rica. My favourite fact was that they don’t
have a military. They put all the money they would have used for the military
into education. They have a 98% literacy rate, and 40% of their population
graduates from college. Costa Rica is a beautiful country. The vegetation is
incredible. We haven’t really seen much of Costa Rica, but definitely want to
come back based on what we’ve seen and heard from our excellent guide Alonzo.
The rest of the ride is spent with Alonzo telling us how to get back in the
boat if we get thrown out (yikes!).

We arrive at the launch site. There are approximately 60 people there. Alonzo is trying to
make the groups with 8 people per group. Steve is surveying the land and
notices there are some young strong people and some not so young and strong
people (one lady had a cane…). We are quickly relieved when Steve is asked if
we’d like to join a group of 6 young and fit people. Steve announces that we’ve
got a group of 8 so that Alonzo doesn’t split us up into groups with the kids
or the cane lady. Alonzo smiles and tells us to wait off to the side (ha ha, he
doesn’t want to be in a boat with people who can’t paddle either… we get Alonzo
as our guide) Once in the boat Alonzo teaches us the commands he will use and
tells us what we are supposed to do (My personal favourite is “Get Down!”) We
start off down the river. My foot is wedged in so hard I ended up with bruises
on my legs (I did not want to fly into the rocky dirty river J).

Our group was awesome and it was REALLY fun. Because we had
switched to a different river there actually ended up being some class 3 rapids
(instead of just 1 and 2). Nobody from our team ended up out of the boat, but some
of the people from other boats did. Steve ended up being very helpful (go
figure) when our boat would get wedged somewhere, he’d hop right out into the
river with the snakes and crocs (just kidding we didn’t see any snakes and
crocs!) and help free the boat. Everyone in our boat was having a great time
except for the poor girl from Germany who was quite terrified. We ended up
having to stop and wait quite a bit because all the boats had checkpoints, and
there was one boat in the group that was having trouble. We ended up being later
than expected (we were on the water for 5 hours and it was awesome!)and then
had to head back another two hours to the ship. The bus ride back was scarier
than the white water rafting (Steve notes that we are on the highway and the
driver was great… Note from Lisa: the driver was great and it was a highway but
it was still scary!!!). The roads are not in that great of shape and the bus
driver just barrels along passing rig after rig and then zooming back into our
lane. We get back to the ship late… luckily we are on a ship excursion so the
cruise ship waits for us. We were supposed to be back at 4:00, but didn’t
return until 6:30. (The ship was supposed to sail at 6!). We have missed the
beginning of our dinner seating so when they we get on the ship they tell us we
can go to the late seating tonight. We head back to our room, and exhaustion
starts to set in. We order room service, (Did you know you can get full meals
and cookies and milk from room service?) then decide to look at our CD of
photos from the white water rafting. The photographer was a kayaker who would
stay ahead of the group and wait at the big rapid points. The photos are
awesome! Steve and I are giggling because when we look at the photos we realize
that the scared German girl (who was at the back) rarely even paddled, she was
mostly just huddled down in the middle of the boat. (Secretly I’m glad that
wasn’t me J)
After we eat we decide to just watch a movie in the room. I promptly fall
asleep. Steve planned to go out and play poker, but even he was too tired!





]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268641429/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268641429/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268641429/tpod.html Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:23:12 -0400 Spring Break 2010

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Colon, Panama



We took our excursion to the Gatun locks. In order to get
there we have to drive through Colon, and other small towns. This is a very
poor and a little bit scary place. I can see why they told people not to go out
on their own here. (We found out
later that one couple decided to just go for a walk around Colon, and the port
security tried to go with them. When he said he was just going for a walk, he
told him not to because it wasn’t safe.) Our tour guide told us a lot of
interesting facts about Panama, which I of course have already forgotten. (This
is why I need to write this stuff down. It’s only two days later and already
I’ve forgotten!)

The locks were incredible. We got to watch a couple of boats
going through. It was pretty amazing to see the water go up and down and then
watch the ships go through the gates to the next lock. The guide told us that
the most expensive ship to go through cost $360,000. The cost averages from
$90,000 - $300, 000 just to travel through the locks (based on size, weight and
passengers). I’m glad we could see the locks from the edge rather than being on
a ship that goes through. I don’t think you’d really get to see how it works
from on a boat.

After our tour we came back to the ship, had a little lunch
and read on the pool deck in my favourite shady chair (I’m still burnt!). Steve
goes for his dance practice and I have a little nap.

I can’t really remember what transpired after the nap, I’m
going to guess reading, eating and napping (I really have to work on my
memory!) and then we got ready for dinner.

Ate another delicious dinner (I can not find anything bad to
say about the food, although it seems like other people can always find
something to complain about), and then go watch the show. It was the casts
Broadway Review. It was okay. Then we head to Quasar for the best part of the
night… 80’s night. First we learn some kind of variation on the Thriller dance…
very funny. Then the DJ played 80’s music all night. YAY! We did lots of
dancing, and other people were actually dancing too! Went to bed about
midnight, and had to set the clock back an hour (I’m not sure why, isn’t it
spring forward???)





]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268456244/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268456244/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268456244/tpod.html Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:57:59 -0500 Spring Break 2010

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Cartagena, Bolívar, Colombia



We wake up and sit out on our balcony to watch the ship
pulling into Cartagena. This is the only time we have ever been to South
America, so that is kind of exciting! It doesn't look how I imagined. It
actually has quite a large "new city" with many skyscrapers. I later find out
that over a million people live in Cartagena.





We eat breakfast and meet Monica and Bob outside at 10. We
decide that Bob will negotiate the cab because he can speak a little Spanish.
Bob has managed to find a hand-fan for Monica and I, which I thank him for but
don’t think I’ll need. Holy was I wrong! We were barely out of the pier and I
was already dripping with sweat. I don’t remember ever feeling this hot! Bob
negotiates with the cabbie and he drops us off at some market in the old town.
Regular tourist junk so we decide to find the Inquisition Palace, which is one
of the places I had read about in my research. I’m feeling a little nervous
because we appear to be off the beaten track, but my super Steve manages to
figure out where we are and how to get to where I want to be using our map (in
Spanish).





We go through the Inquisition Palace, which is a medieval
torture museum and see a lot of interesting things. All the explanations are in
Spanish, which is tricky, but between Steve and I we manage to figure out what
most of the stuff is. I am certainly glad I’m not living back in medieval times,
let’s just say that! The only thing I can find in English is the 25 questions
they asked witches, and those made me laugh J
One of my favourites was something like, “Which people and demons attended your
wedding?”. I’m sure many women admitted they had demons at their wedding…





We wander through the streets some more taking pictures of
the amazing buildings… there are some amazing and beautiful looking buildings,
but the city needs some serious cleaning up. We decide to go check out the
fortress and then head back to the ship.





We find a guy who we think is a cabbie that says he will
take us to the fortress for $15 bucks. We’re hot so we just agree. He passes us
off to some other guy, who takes us out to some other guy and puts us in his
cab. They talk in Spanish and the cabbie slips guy number two some money. Steve
says San Felipe Fortress and the guy says what I think is “barca?”. This
exchange repeats a few times and the cabbie calls guy number two back. He gets
in the cab they talk in Spanish some more, we drive a little bit, and then guy
number two says $15 to the fort, and then another $15 to the boat. We say sure,
the cabbie slips him some more money and then guy #2 turns around and says how
about a few more dollars for me to get a Coca Cola? I laugh at him and say you
already got your money… he laughs, shakes our hands and gets out.





We go check out the fortress which has a great view, but a
steep climb. We take some photos and I am getting REALLY HOT. So convince Steve
to go back to the boat. Our trusty cabbie is waiting and drives us a long way
back to the boat.





Now, here is a little travel tip from Lisa Marta. When I
researched Cartagena online people said you could walk to the old town from the
ship, and you could walk from the old town to the fort. I am here to tell you
to take a cab. It is hot, far, and doesn’t look that safe. This is not the
place to save on cab fare!





We get back on the boat. I am dying of heat… I say to one of
the guys as we get on “it’s hot!” he jokes back “do you mean me?” I tell him
that’s exactly what I meant J



We go back to the room and I have a cold shower. I think of
Neil, and am reminded that Neil does this all the time. Neil… this is the only
time a cold shower is a good idea!!!! My wonderful Steve gets me some ice cream
with marshmallows and chocolate chips and we also share a little bowl of
M&M’s and sour candies. (This could get dangerous!) We decide to laze
around and watch a movie. They have tons of choices of free on-demand movies.
We start watching one, but we both fall asleep.





Luckily, Steve manages to wake up to make his dance practice
appointment with Adele, and I stay back in the room to “relax and enjoy”. Well
really, I had to… the Captain made an announcement that said “it’s time to
relax and enjoy”… being the rule-follower that I am, I decide to do exactly
that!





We head to dinner to find out that the heat kicked a lot of
people’s butts today. The dining room has a lot of empty chairs and 4 of our 6
tablemates don’t show up. Dinner is excellent again! I am trying to drink a
truckload of water to rehydrate (this is how you know it’s hot… I really don’t
like water).





After dinner we dance a little bit to the live band in the
grand foyer, then go to the show. It was a variety show with some singing and
some comedy. It was pretty good. Just when you were starting to get bored of someone,
someone else would come on.





Then we headed to the disco. No one was there. Steve chatted
up the disc jockey (who happens to be from Montreal) and he started playing
some music we liked. We did a little dancing and then sat at the bar talking to
our new friend Hector, the bartender. Hector tells us about all the places he’s
been with the cruise ship and a little about his family. He is learning to throw the bottles
around, so we watch him do that a bit, drink a few mudslides and do a bit more
dancing. We were there about two hours, and literally 10 other people came in
all night and perhaps 4 of them danced for about 1 song only. The dance
instructor (who is also the assistant cruise director) comes in and we talk to
him for a bit (he lived in Esquimalt for a month). Then the cruise director
comes in (he’s from Vancouver) to talk to him, and we all chat for a bit. We
find out that tomorrow is 80’s night in the disco and the staff are going to
teach us all a “Thriller” dance. (Ah, if only Lee was here, this night is for
him!) We head to bed after midnight and have to actually set the alarm so we
don’t miss our Panama excursion in the morning.







]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268456111/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268456111/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268456111/tpod.html Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:55:14 -0500 Spring Break 2010

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George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands



I wake up and do my regular morning typing of my blog, while
Steve sleeps. The ship is rocking a bit more but I’m not seasick at all!
(YES!). Steve wakes up and we try to get on the WIFI to post the blog and check
facebook (addicted to facebook much?), but the WIFI doesn’t work today….
Imagine that sailing somewhere out in the ocean between Grand Cayman and South
America and there is no Internet ;) We quickly recover and head up for
breakfast out on the back deck overlooking the ocean again. We decide on shade
only today as Steve is slightly crispy and I am REALLY crispy!



After breakfast we take our books and look for a shady spot
to read. We find the double hammock empty, and try that out first, only to
discover it’s in one of the few smoking sections. It’s actually the first time
I’ve noticed the cigarette smoke on this boat. Steve goes to stalk some people
in the nesting chairs, and comes to get me when he finds a spot. This is where
we lay as happy as two little pigs in mud J
Steve wants me to check if I can download a book to my Kindle out in the middle
of the ocean. I figure it won’t work because the WIFI wasn’t working… but I was
wrong. It quickly connected to the Amazon store and in a matter of minutes I
had downloaded a new book. Really quite amazing!



Steve heads off to play in the poker tournament in the casino
and I continue reading. Steve comes back about 45 minutes later. Apparently the
tournament had 3 minute blinds. (Even though he came third Steve is not
impressed… three minute blinds, how ridiculous… an entire tournament takes 45
minutes, that’s not poker!) No
pay-out so he’ll have to try again if he wants to get the Krieger Watch J I’m not particularly
hungry, but Steve goes to check out the food and comes back with cookies and a
selection of food I haven’t even seen in the lunch buffet before. He twists my
rubber arm and I help him eat it. Then he goes for round two and comes back
with ice cream and a little bowl of M&M’s and sour chewy candies. I LOVE
this place!



It is approaching 2:30. Time for our “Around the World Wine
Tasting”. We taste 6 whites and 6 reds from various different countries and eat
a little cheese and bread. We remember to “look, swirl, smell, little drink, big
drink” but are still no experts on wine. Other people have words like “spicy,
woody, ruby” on their note-taking sheet… I have words like “yuck, drinkable and
WOW!” on my sheet J
Steve likes the red wine with the
longest name the best (Tannat Blend Bodega Juanico Preludio Barrel Select Lote
No 49, Juanico from Uruguay), and I like the Cabernet Sauvignon, Casa
Lapostolle from Chile. We’re both a bit tipsy now, maybe shouldn’t have tasted
quite so much of each one… but notice the merengue lesson is going on down on
the deck below in the grand foyer. We head down there and do a little dancing.
Steve notices right away that the teacher has a new helper today (the beautiful
Adele from Birmingham!). As we are dancing the dance instructor comes over and
asks Steve to be Adele’s partner in the ships “Dancing With the Stars” show. He
will practice with Adele three times and then perform in front of the whole
ship on one of their shows. Steve looks a little shocked, but I say he’d love
to do it ;) Adele gives us her phone number to arrange practice times and says
that her style is the jive/swing dance. Steve tells me when she leaves that he
would rather do latin, but I tell him he has to do whatever Adele says J Adele is very sweet
and comes back and double-checks that I don’t mind (who me? A hot, blonde,
young skinny dancer… nah, I don’t mind) and appreciates when I tell her that I
told Steve he has to do what she says.



After the lesson Steve goes to the gym and I finish my book
because I HAD to know if the lady in the book dies. (She did.) We get ready for dinner and then I realize I
didn’t do my homework. Well it’s not due for ten minutes, so true to my
procrastinating style I scribble down some notes and we head off for dinner.
Dinner is delicious AGAIN! I tell everyone what I know about Cartagena and we
agree to meet Bob and Monica to share a taxi tomorrow morning.



While we wait for the show we do a little dancing in the
grand foyer, a nice lady admires my sparkly shoes, and we take the requisite
picture of my shoes for the evening. The show is some guy in a really sparkly
jacket and sparkly shoes playing the piano. He has major talent, but I find his
playing a bit ‘frenzied’ which isn’t really my style. We both enjoy it anyway.
We decide to go back to the room for a half hour nap (all this vacationing
makes me tired… to tell the truth it may be the wine that makes me tired)
before the newlywed show. Steve promises to wake me up in half an hour, but I
crash and he lets me keep sleeping. He’s such a nice boy J For all I know he
could have gone out and met Adele, done some dancing, played some poker and
bought more watches, but he tells me he just watched a movie and went to bed…





]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268368719/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268368719/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268368719/tpod.html Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:38:44 -0500 Spring Break 2010

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George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands



Today we are in one of my favourite places in the world,
Grand Cayman. I’m sit out on my balcony waiting for Steve to wake up. The sky
is clear and I can tell it’s going to be a glorious day at Seven Mile Beach!



We eat another yummy breakfast of egg white omelets and
fruit (they do have a lot of healthy food on here… they even have no sugar
added desserts which are very tasty), get our tender ticket and then tender
into Grand Cayman. I’m amazed to see the colour of the water again. It’s really
an incredible turquoise colour!



At the dock we see taxi drivers holding up signs that say
$4US to the Royal Palms and quickly flag one down. He’s trying to fill up his
van, so approaches about 8 college kids who after much discussion decide they
can get the taxi ride for cheaper. (Public Service Announcement: $4 for a taxi
ride is cheap! Saving a dollar is not going to make your vacation better. Everyone is not trying to rip you
off!!!!) Steve and the cab driver
both agree that the kids are idiots and Steve resists the urge to grab them by
the throat and tell them how it is. (Steve thinks: Listen you little fools, you
are in Grand Cayman, not Mexico. You don’t barter here. AND are you really
going to argue over a $4 cab ride that’s going to take you to one of the nicest
beaches in the world???) Then, we finally get in the cab, quickly drive to
Seven Mile Beach and at last I’m HERE! This is my favourite beach in the world
so far (Steve says it’s HIS favourite, not mine) but I’m making him share.



We set up our towels on the beach and lay out in the
beautiful sunshine in front of the Reef Grill (favourite place to have a
mudslide on Seven Mile Beach). Steve is almost giddy because at last there are
girls in bikinis to look at J
We take a walk, have a mudslide and some lunch at the restaurant and generally
have a fine time.



Steve mentioned to me that he noticed three local guys
sitting on the edge of the beach with a big garbage bag full of stuff. They had
an open bottle of alcohol (Rum?) and were going through a black bag. We were
kind of keeping our eyes on them (just to see what was going on) and you would
NOT believe what happened. This single girl is walking along with a plastic cup
(probably a drink from the reef grill). They call her over and she is thrilled
with the attention, so when they offer her alcohol out of a bottle, she says
sure (yes, she actually took alcohol from an open bottle from 3 guys on a beach
that she doesn’t know) and chats them up a bit more. Then she goes and sits on
her towel and one of them starts watching her. Of course we were watching too
(in case we needed to rescue her…. well in case I thought Steve should rescue
her). Eventually the guy goes over and sits with her, and is encouraging her to
drink. Anybody with half a brain can see where this is going, but I suppose if
you’ve had too much rum you might not have half a brain J I realize I’m feeling a
little toasty and decide to go shower off, but Steve stays at the beach. Suddenly,
the cops are there… one plain clothes and two undercover… they take their
alcohol, go through all their stuff and take the guy away from the girl. Crisis
averted! From what I understand crime is pretty rare in Grand Cayman, and I can
see why if the cops are that on the ball.



We catch a cab back to the ship. Our driver is Elizabeth
from Jamaica… I can barely understand her… but pick out the words that she
loves us, Grand Cayman loves us, and we should come back… who am I to argue
with Elizabeth? Oops almost forgot what Elizabeth told us about Jamaica. Her
mother told her that if you ever get the Whooping Cough you need to eat the
rat. R-A-T! Not the sewer rat, the bush rat. (I’m hoping I never get the
whooping cough in Jamaica!!!!)When we get to the pier we see a GIGANTIC long
snaky line to get through the gate. I go to get in line and Steve goes to check
if it’s the right line (it’s so nice to have systems… this is back to the
efficient part J).
Guess what? That was not our line!!! That was the Carnival line. Our gate has
NO line (this never happens to me!) We go through the gate and see the tender
is just docking. As we are standing waiting to get on the tender the staff
bring us chilled towels and fruit punch. (This is another thing I like about
Celebrity!) Steve has a moment of sadness as he realizes that all the pretty
girls in bikinis are headed back to the Carnival ships. Steve notices a young attractive couple
on the tender, and gets excited that there are actually young people on this
ship. He quickly realizes that they are staff on their break for the day J

Once on this ship we have a shower… this is when I realize
that I am BURNT. Really burnt. Not sure what happened. I had on my 30 spf
sunscreen. Parts of me will not be seeing sun again for at least a few days!



We head out for another delicious dinner. Bob informs me
that tomorrow night I need to do a presentation on what we can do in Cartagena,
Colombia. Monica would like it to include a powerpoint slideshow (note to self…
don’t tell people you are a librarian). We have all kinds of fascinating
conversations with our dinner companions (carefully avoiding the topic of Obama
and Healthcare, because that went off the rails last night!)



Then we head to the show. I can’t decide if I liked it or
not. The guy had a great voice and amazing ability playing the trumpet but he
kept jumping around and punching the air and “making the song his own” (thanks
for that American Idol)… he totally wrecked a Ricky Martin song and the Phantom
of the Opera song. Anyway, it was entertaining (and free). We walk past the disco it’s literally
empty. So we decide to go check out the “interactive theme night” in the Sky
Lounge. Turns out it’s 40’s music and the staff try to make you dance with
them. (I’m out of there pretty quickly!) We head back down to the grand foyer
where the live band is playing something. People are dancing but they seem to
be about twice my age, and we are not particularly fond of the music. I have a
brainwave that if we go to the disco, and are the only ones there that the DJ
will play whatever we want (I’m willing to let go of my rule that there must be
at least two other couples on the dance floor). We walk back to the disco (did
I mention that the sky lounge is on deck 14 and the disco is on deck 4 and we
have a commitment to take the stairs to combat all the eating?!?) only to
discover that the DJ is not there. Guess where he is? In the sky lounge playing
the 40’s tunes. (This is my only problem with Celebrity. We don’t appear to be
their regular demographic and the nightlife is not that good). Okay fine, this
calls for a drink. We ask if they can make a Vodka Paralyzer… our waiter (from
Honduras) keeps asking if I’m saying Vodka Budweiser J We tell him how to make them
and spend some time chatting with our very nice waiter. We ask if people ever dance in the
disco… he says maybe one or two couples… and giggles as he tells us there are a lot of “mature” guests
on the boat. He tells us about his wife and kids (we chat for a long time,
perhaps because nobody else was in the disco???) and wait for the late night
comedy show.



Late night comedy show was hilarious! One of Steve’s
favourite parts was when the comedian said, “The people on this boat are old. I
mean REALLY OLD! Even the old people are looking around and saying there’s a
lot of old people on this boat!” We both really enjoyed the show. It’s 12:30,
and we head off to bed. (I suppose I should be preparing my Cartagena
presentation ;) but skip my homework and go to bed. I can always say my room
steward ate it!)





]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268198196/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268198196/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268198196/tpod.html Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:16:49 -0500 Spring Break 2010

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Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States



You have probably noticed the blog is very detailed. This is not to
bore you out of your tree, this is so we can actually remember the fun stuff we
did J







At last Steve wakes up and we head out of our room. Guess
what the first stop was, even before breakfast??? The watch store J
Steve picked out a very nice watch the night before while I was sleeping (not
the $5500 one), and once I told him it was as beautiful as he thought it was he
quickly bought it.





Our new mission is to take more pictures (cause I'm starting
to forget stuff J),
and yes we even took a picture of the new watch.





We went up for breakfast where the selection was fantastic.
My favourite was the fresh pineapple… they also have an omelet station where
they make an omelet anyway you like… Steve had that (those of you who know he hates eggs must be very impressed
by this). Although Steve is braver with the eggs, when I saw the beet salad and
goat cheese tart the other night, I passed! There was a lovely table out in the
sun at the back of the boat. So we ate out there.





It was a bit chilly for laying in the sun (only 22) so we
decided to go in the hot tub while we waited for the sun to come out (Life is
terrible isn’t it? ;)) The sun still hadn’t come out so we went to lay in that
very nice nesting chair to read (Steve too J).
Then Steve fell asleep!





At Steve’s request we decided to check out the gym. We’ve
been eating A LOT so I didn’t put up too much resistance. Steve overdid it as
usual, and I realized how weak I am (0 pounds on the bicep machine) as usual J





Next was lunch.
There are so many selections I have trouble deciding what to have. I still
managed to save room for dessert though. Steve and I think that anyone that
complains about the food on this boat is CRAZY. You can eat all day, the
selection is incredible and everything I’ve eaten tastes good!





Next we go to our wine tasting presentation with Adrian from
Romania. He said a lot of interesting stuff (most of which I’ve forgotten right
now), but I learned the very important, "look, swirl, smell, little taste, big
taste." We tried five wines and a champagne, and got our own souvenir little
tasting cup (I’m not sure what to call it, it’s like a little silver flattish
measuring cup on a chain). Steve thought we might want to wear them as jewelry
to formal night and the conversation degenerated from there… and ended with Steve
suggesting I wear no shirt and just the two tasting cups. Anyway, the wine
tasting was fun, we discovered we liked the Cab Sauv the best, and I finally
tried a red Zinfandel. Definitely not a fan, and even less of a fan of the late
harvest zinfandel… too sweet!





Next we went to the latin dance lesson (now anyone who
thinks they could be bored on a cruise is crazy, I’m getting tired thinking of
all the ways I wasn’t napping). It was a beginner salsa class which was quite
fun. The guy came over and taught us how to do some turning… and you all know
how we love to dance and I LOVE to spin J
Super-fun!





Now we have to get ready for formal night. I look longingly
at the very comfortable bed… a nap sounds good… but instead turn myself into a
supermodel (ok maybe not a supermodel) for formal night. Steve takes one last
try at convincing me to wear the wine tasting 'jewelry’, and we head up for
dinner. Dinner was excellent again, and we had two new dinner guests join us,
Bob and Monica. Seriously-- Bob and Monica (not my grandparents, but another
Bob and Monica).





I love cruises… this is what really sums it up for me. I’m
eating, chatting, having the last sip of my wine and having a generally fine
time…. The sommelier appears out of nowhere and says to Steve, “Sir, I notice
madam’s glass is empty…” I need one of these guys hanging out with me all the
time!





We go to the Captain’s Toast (free champagne and chocolates)
and then watch the “Cirque Style” show. Well it was no Cirque du Soleil… but
hey they are on a moving vessel so it was entertaining… well I did almost fall
asleep… but to be fair it was dark and I’d had a lot of wine and champagne
already.





We cruise by the casino…. Once again two empty poker tables…
disappointing for Steve. Not disappointing for me because we decide to go check
out the disco “Quasar”. This is not an exaggeration… there were two couples on
the dance floor… average age of the women 65ish, average age of the men 90ish.
Hey, I loved that they were out dancing, but the DJ was playing music to suit
them, and it didn’t really suit me. We decide to check out the live band in the
Sky Lounge (almost get blown off the pool dock walking there). This place is a
little better, people are dancing and the music is okay. We dance a little…
Steve tries to be fancy, but I have my four inch heels on so fancy dancing is
out! Steve was a little disappointed and hoping for some real dance music
(Pitbull was what he kept saying) but that didn’t happen.





I’m desperately trying to stay awake for the late night
comedian (12:15), but it’s 11:30, the bands on a break, the disco has closed
and I crash for the night. I tell Steve I’ll still go to the comedian, but he
is a nice boy and pretends he’s tired too.







]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268161627/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268161627/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/3/1268161627/tpod.html Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:07:58 -0500 Spring Break 2010

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Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States

March 6 – We leave Victoria to start our "four flight" trip to Fort Lauderdale. Everything goes smoothly… the only thing that was a little strange was the shuttle at LAX. To switch terminals they send you to this gate to wait .We, and about 50 other people, all ask the two girls texting on their phones the same question “Is this where we wait for the shuttle? They could have saved themselves the trouble and perhaps put up the sign that said “Wait here for the shuttle”, which probably would have been more satisfying than what they actually said (while barely taking their eyes off their phones) which was “just sit down and wait”. Anyway, the shuttle comes… we go out a door, down a lot of stairs in the rain (I'm not sure what happened to the lady with the cane, there was no way she was making it down there) and on to a shuttle bus that probably holds 20. Jammed in like sardines we start driving in the dark through the rain around the tarmac... there are planes pulling out, planes pulling in… we just zoom around them. At one point the bus fills up with light because of the giant headlight of the plane that is coming towards us… this is when I tell Steve that the ride feels 'moderately frightening’. Of course we zoom around another corner, eventually reach a dark door with no sign, and are at our gate. The whole trip took almost 24 hours but it was worth it because now we are in sunny (well mostly sunny) Fort Lauderdale.

March 7, 2010

We arrive at our hotel “W” to discover our room isn’t ready (well it’s only 9:30 in the morning, you can’t really expect it to be ready J) We hang out on the terrace where they have these awesome big couches and take advantage of the free wifi. We decide to go find some breakfast. We find a little restaurant with tables out on the patio overlooking the main strip and the ocean. It doesn’t get much better. Steve gets some kind of healthy egg white omelet (yes he ate an omelet) and I had yummy waffles with bananas and strawberries (yes I ate the bananas!) … see it’s an adventure already J We watched the fancy cars drive past, the hung-over young people and everybody else… oh don’t let me forget the man in the bikini. I suspect he was perhaps not all there because he had on a bikini similar to one I may have owned in 1987… bright pink and blue… clearly too small for him… socks and some kind of hiking shoes… he may have also had a headband I can’t quite remember…. Anyway, he was what I would call “pleasantly plump” and hanging over and out of his bikini everywhere. This didn’t stop him from strutting up and down the strip saying hi and smiling at everyone.

We get a call that our room is ready, head back and check in. The room is very awesome. I can sit out on the balcony in the sun and look at the ocean (as a matter of fact I’m sitting out here while I type this!). We take a nap, get cleaned up and head back out.

We walk up the main drag again checking out all the restaurants (it seems like we just ate, but I guess it was a long nap J) and find a place that catches our attention right away… why?... well because they had GIGANTIC margarita glasses. We looked at the menu… looks good… we look at the giant glasses again and decide to go in. Again we get to sit on the patio overlooking the ocean and Steve and I decide to share a giant mudslide. We notice that about 1/3 of the way through the drink we are both getting tipsy (good thing we didn’t order one each). The music is great, the view is fabulous, the food is delicious and we are having a fine time J Our waiter, who seemed to REALLY like Steve, was a little slow, but who cares we are on vacation. Steve wants another mudslide, but when he realized he was talking a bit like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean I was able to convince him we didn’t need another.

Oddly, the wind has come up and we’re both cold so we walk down to the generic beach stores and get a hoody (mine is ridiculously ugly, and Steve’s is a 2X… what are the big people wearing???)

We go back to the hotel to check out the pool which closes at “dusk”… it’s way past dusk now, but the hot tub and pool both look super-cool in the dark. Being the rule-follower that I am I convince Steve we can go in tomorrow J



March 8, 2010

We wake up to beautiful sunshine and an ocean view! Oh how I love vacation! We spend the morning walking the beach, going to my favourite place for breakfast and picking up some last minute items.

Oh! I almost forgot about our walk through the beach… as we were walking towards the exit on to the sidewalk I noticed we were walking through a section of only men… Steve was walking a little ahead of me… then I noticed that lots of the men were quite interested in Steve (well come on, who wouldn’t be?!?) so I started walking slower (and maybe giggling a little bit). Anyway, when we get to the sidewalk Steve is perplexed…. Not because he noticed all the guys checking him out because he was wondering where all the girls were J Poor Steve, so disappointed to not see girls in bikinis he didn’t even get to enjoy being the hottest guy on the beach.

Next we go back to our room, check out and take a cab to the Pier. The check-in was superfast and efficient (you know how I love when things are superfast and efficient!) and before you know it we are receiving our welcome aboard champagne! (Do I even need to mention that I LOVE welcome aboard champagne???)

Steve and I decide to go check out our room, which is fabulous! We ended up with a slightly bigger balcony just because of our position on the boat, a bed by our balcony window and a BIG (for a cruise ship) bathroom!

Next we decide to explore the ship. We start out down on the third floor and work our way up to the top (can’t remember what the number is… maybe 16?). General impressions… this is the most beautiful boat we have ever been on! The furniture is VERY nice… I would even call it splishy (that is my made up word for fancy/swanky… I was hoping it would catch on so I could be famous for making up a word, but alas I appear to be the only one that likes it…)! I also love the choices for outdoor places to sit… all the deck chairs have cushions (this is how we know we are on the “grown up” ship), but there are also interesting pieces of furniture to lounge on.. there is a double hammock surrounded with netting, some nesting chairs with a half roof (kind of like a stroller roof), and lots of interesting chairs, loveseats and lounges.

Suddenly it is time for the Muster Drill which was very civilized… we didn’t have to bring the smelly dirty life jackets and we got to sit at tables… oddly the people who randomly came and sat beside us were from Sooke, had no kids and this was her birthday trip (that was a little weird….).

We go back to our room and unpack (I realize how many shirts Steve was actually able to fit in our luggage…. Let’s just say A LOT!), and get ready for dinner. Judging from the average age we see on the boat, Steve predicts our tablemates will have an average age of 55. We arrive at our table to find a very nice couple from Nanaimo (I know, it’s weird!) Soon another couple from Delaware joins us, and the last two chairs remain empty… perhaps they saw us, got frightened and decided to eat in their room??? (Just so you know I think Steve’s prediction ended up being a bit low). Anyway, we had a delicious dinner with a little red wine and some kind of cream puffs covered in chocolate for dessert. Steve signs us up for the wine tasting at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon and we head off to the show. (Bleh, welcome aboard show was just bleh… but the mudslide I drank was FINE!). We check out some of the shops (is anyone surprised that we walked directly to the men’s watches?). Steve finds the watch that he NEEDS to buy. He only needs to win about $5500.00 in the casino if he wants to buy it (no problem right?). I think it was a Krieger (sp?) watch. Steve wants me to say (for the record) the watch is rosegold, sapphire crystal face inlaid with rubies and emeralds. (Steve wants me to reiterate that he NEEDS this watch) It even came in a wooden box with a silk cushion. We go back to the room so I can change my shoes (purple snakeskin heels starting to hurt baby toes J) and head back upstairs. I am starting to crash now, so we take a few pictures of the cool chairs… guess what happens when Lisa lays down in a soft chair in the dark…J So Steve wakes me up eventually and takes me back to the room. I go to sleep and he goes to check out whatever he checks out while I’m sleeping… (Note from Steve: I am not checking out the average age 55 year olds)

March 9, 2010

I’m sitting out on the balcony in my “Celebrity Waffle Bathrobe” which has been “designed for my utmost comfort and convenience”, watching the ocean and some land in the distance which I suspect is Cuba as I wait for Steve to wake up and entertain me for another fabulous day!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/1/1264929429/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/1/1264929429/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lisa.marta/1/1264929429/tpod.html Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:44:50 -0500 lisa.marta's Great Adventure

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Santorini, Cyclades, Greece

There are reasonable places to stay in Santorini :) We (Steve, Mom and I) are staying at Sky of Thira for six nights!

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