Random Details

Because I'm a dork and I can't help myself....although Bob is responsible for some of these, too!

 REALLY cool hurricane shutters in St. Thomas.....

 Very cool ceiling detail on the ship at the pool deck. It's a wood trim detail with a canvas fabric inset lashed to a metal frame.

The sliding door on the Rising Tide bar. Bob added the bottle for scale.....

 The other side of the glass panel.

Mort and Carol

Mort and Carol were an older couple on board. Bob and I first noticed them dancing down in the jazz club -- they are a bit elderly, but have obviously been dancing together for YEARS! Turns out that this was their 59th anniversary -- they go away on every "9th" year, then let their family do whatever they want for a big party the next year. Turns out they dance every night when they're home (in Florida). Anyways, they were awesome and and had rockin' MATCHING outfits every night.....that first night was black and silver sequins....then we saw them a night or two later and asked to take pictures with them....

 Don't be fooled....those are pink LEATHER pants that Mort has on!

 We spotted them dancing a few hours later.....

Towel animals

Can't forget the towel animals.  We forgot to take pictures of all of them, but we remembered a few.....

 The elephant!

 Stingray! This was particularly cool because we'd been at Magen's Bay that day and watched a stingray swimming along the shore in about 2 feet of water.....very cool. (It was brown with white spots!)

The monkey!

Day 7 - Nassau

Day 7 had us pulling into Nassau around noon. It was pretty cool watching the ship dock and checking out the other boats.

 For those who went on the family cruise in 2004, we pulled in right next to the Carnival Pride! (yes, it was smaller.....but SOOOO many fun memories!!!!)

 Wow, we're so good at being cute!....and just over Bob's shoulder is the Atlantis Resort....

 Looking back from our snorkel adventure boat.....Oasis is on the far right, Carnival Pride left already, then Disney's Dream (VERY pretty ship), then Carnival's.....um, can't remember.....

 Hanging out on the way to the snorkel-spot!

Bob being goofy back at the port.....

....um, yeah, me being goofy....

 It was a gorgeous sunset that evening!!

 More pictures of the ship. From deck 16 (?) overlooking some of the pools and then into Central Park....

 Yep, that's Central Park down there!

 Beautiful sunset!

Awww......

Ann, this shot is just for you! On our LAST night we discovered that they had Strongbow at the English Pub on board (go figure)......

Day 6 - At Sea

Day 6 was a day at sea. That meant that Bob and I slept in until just before 8, got up and put on work-out clothes, went up to the Windjammer (deck 16) for breakfast, then down to the track (deck 5) and walked 2 1/2 miles. Then we cooled down with a cup of coffee (don't ask, but yeah, that worked), changed into our suits, grabbed books, and headed up to the pools (deck 15). It was SOOO hot that day that we ended sitting in the shade, still pretty much poolside, and yes, we ended up with peach daquaris (insert little toast to my Mom!). About the time we looked up, it was already 12:30, so off to lunch, then back to the pools for a while....

 Chillin'......then at 4:30 some of the guys decided to join a volleyball tournament.....

 ....somethings going on....

 Andrew serving....

 Jeremy serving....

Bob running to get the ball....

 Matt serving....

 Bob served.....

 John serving.....he has the highest toss, I think I'd get dizzy....

 This night was also the second formal night, so here we are, all cleaned up!

How handsome! There was a really cool bar that was called Rising Tide....it was basically a huge elevator that went from the Promenade (deck 5) up to Central Park (deck 8). We hadn't had a chance to hang out there yet, so this seemed like a good time.....

 ....and we got someone to take our picture...

 Just as we started up, Eric and Betty showed up....so we took pictures of each other! Oh, and as the bar went up, then a fountain turned on at the lower level.

 The view down the Promenade as we went up....

In the dining room, we just snapped a couple of random shots of our table....we had three and rotated most nights. This night we had Jeremy, John, Kendra's parents (Nadine and .....I'm totally blanking, sorry....)

 ....and Betty and Peter. Love the look on Jeremy's face!

By the way, the food was fantastic, but perhaps the best part was that I didn't have to make it or clean up!!!

Day 5 - St. Maarten

Day 5 landed us at St. Maarten. It was an absolutely gorgeous day!! We had an excursion planned and needed to meet them at 10:30.....but since we docked at 7am, Bob and I decided to get up a little early and head on into town beforehand. We discovered that my very cute bright pink flip-flops (thank you, Beth!!) were not good for walking any distance in humidity. By the time we got back to meet our excursion group, I had a blister. Thankfully we were early, so we were able to go back on board and switch them out....and to grab the back-up camera since my battery finally died. 

 Ah yes, there were 2 boats docked. Ours is the one on the left. Yes, it really is HUGE!!!!

 Just for fun!!

The dock's shopping area at St. Maarten. About a half-mile walk lands you in town....
Unfortunately the storm had hit the island the day before and the water was pretty cloudy and also very choppy on the south side -- where we were supposed to go snorkeling. So we were offered a choice -- take the boat ride and just go swimming, or take a refund. We all took the refund. 
Paul and Mindy had bought a book about all the islands, so they thought said if we wanted we could maybe all go together (there were 9 of us) and try to get a taxi out to a different beach or two. At first no one wanted to take us since we wanted to go a ways away from the dock (over to the french side of the island), but once they realized how many of us there were, they got us a van and off we went! It was a bit of a drive through lots of traffic, but our driver was great, and Bob did an amazing job of asking her questions to keep her talking. We FINALLY got to the first beach and walked down to see it:

It was beautiful! But it also was VERY rocky on the shoreline and the waves were breaking on the rocks. Another problem was that there were NO amenities.....no drinks, no food, no bathrooms. So we piled back into the van.....and silently wondered if we'd made a mistake....

And then we got to Baie Rouge! SOOOOOO incredibly beautiful and absolutely perfect!!! It had a little shack of a bar with a grill, the sand was incredibly smooth and the water, oh, the water was gorgeous!!! Here's Mindy heading down to take pictures of everyone else already in the water!

....and Paul heading out to go snorkeling over by the rocks...

Mindy again....but that group in the water IS our group this time!!!

The little 'restaurant'.....it was a little more permanent than a lean-to, with a grill! The food was phenomenal!!! Best chicken skewers EVER!!!!

...and who could possibly forget the drinks? These fabulous people introduces us to the Guavaberry rum that is only made on St. Maarten. I needed mine blended (wow, was it strong straight!) and that's when we noticed the power supply for the blender....yup, that's a car battery, folks!

Our whole group for the day with our driver!! She took us to a little shop to pick up some of the yummy guavaberry rum.....

Another pretty alley-way......

We stopped along the boardwalk before walking back to the ship, and a man was inviting people to try to play the steel drums. Elise gave it a try!

Then Bob gave it a try.....apparently it's MUCH harder than it looks and is almost nothing like playing the drums.....

Happy couple on the boardwalk....our boat is the HUGE one on the left in the background....

Awww.....we're being cute again....

Hands down, this was the BEST day of the entire vacation!!! And THANK YOU to Paul and Mindy for getting us there!!!!