Butchie Boy

Saturday, December 3, 2011

This was another day at sea. The water was a little rough again and we felt a little queasy. I was taking a nap at one point when the phone rang. It was the activities director saying the placement of my letterbox had been approved. I asked him to give it to the librarian so it would be more official, but he said I should just pick it up and take it down there myself. I knew this meant that I was going to have to explain the whole thing over again from scratch. I had not said a word to the librarian before. Since I dropped Glenn’s name it was easier than I thought. While skeptical at first she progressively warmed to the idea. When she asked if I thought they would be the first cruise ship to have a letterbox, she grinned when I said yes. I knew I was in good shape. We took the box over to the reference section and she found a good place for it. The name of the book was “Sons of Fortune” by Jeffrey Archer. I know it doesn’t sound much like a reference book but it doesn’t matter. You only need the name to pick it out on the shelf. It is located in the reference section, which is the bottom two shelves under the History books.

Earlier in the week, our “activities of the day” notice said that Mah Jongg players would meet in the game room. I went there to see what it was all about. There was only one woman there but another was hovering about. Unfortunately, they played American rules, something I had abandoned in my earliest days of Mah Jongg playing. We didn’t have a foursome anyway. But I found out you could check out a set from the librarian so in the afternoon of our “at sea” day, Sue and Linda joined Karen and I for a couple of rounds. The lady from earlier in the week happened by while we were playing but thought the way we played looked pretty crazy to her and didn’t hang around long. It was fun though.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

By the time we woke up we were back at Tampa. We had been given departure tickets. The captain would call out a number, Blue 3 for instance and all those holding that ticket number could depart. Ours was one of the last called. We took the shuttle to the motel we stayed in the first night of our adventure. We arrived at 11:30 but learned our rooms would not be ready until 3:00. We had lunch, lazed by the pool, went to the bar for a drink and had pizza in our rooms. We more or less killed time till it was time to go to bed.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Our flight wasn’t real early so we didn’t have to rush around. We had bought the “A” level boarding classification again so we had no trouble getting aisle seats. They said it was going to be a full flight again. I watched the later boarding passengers looking for seats and when I spied a skinny young lady I indicated that the seats next to me were open. She thought that was great. In the end, no one sat between us so we had a comfortable flight. As we flew along she would shift this way and that bringing her knees up and fitting her entire body into the seat. It never ceases to amaze me when someone can sit in an airplane seat without having to be pounded into it with a giant mallet. I also have to get a seat belt extension every time. At first I thought these were just props for when the stewardess gives her little talk at the beginning of the flight to tell you how to adjust things properly and where the exits are. But lo and behold their real purpose is so porkers like me aren’t cut in two just sitting there buckled up.

It was a good deal colder in Milwaukee than Tampa and we were happy that Patti had brought our coats and had the car all warmed up when she picked us up. She had decorated their house for Christmas and the reality of life in the real world started to hit us. It was winter and almost Christmas and we were no longer in warm, beautiful paradise.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

We had an uneventful drive home. We were happy to be back and be able to sleep in our own bed again.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Our next stop was Belize City and even first thing in the morning it was 75-80 degrees. We were supposed to get there before dawn but it was later than that for sure. This place is different from the other destinations in that the boat anchors about a mile off shore and you take a “tender” in to the dock. This is another reason we had a problem with our excursion. Our tour was with a non-sponsored provider. The ship told us that we couldn’t take the tender until all the people on the sponsored tours had gotten ashore. It worked out that we wouldn’t have been able to start until about 3 hours after the tour company said we had to be there and they wouldn’t guarantee that we would be back in time to catch the last tender. Simple, cancel that tour and hope we could get our money back.

We hung around the ship for a while. Later on, we took the tender into town just to have a look around. Karen had heard of a crafts market that she wanted to go to. The souvenirs there were a little above normal and we bought a beautiful, handcarved ziricote wooden bowl.

I had been thinking about the letterbox and the problem with the camouflaged container. Linda had finished the novel she was reading and offered it to me to make into a book safe. I went around the ship seeing if I could get an exacto knife that I could use to carve out the chamber, but knives were in pretty short supply. It occurred to me that I might be able to find one in Belize City. After we visited the craft market I asked a police officer about an art supply store and they said there was one called Angelos Press just a couple of blocks away. We went there and got the knife.

The heat and walking were starting to get to Sue so we made our way back to the dock and found a bar/restaurant right outside. We ordered some cervesas and nachos and I started trimming out the inside of the book. It was hard work and took at least three beers to get the job done. I worried about taking the exacto knife back on board but I showed it to them and told them it was a craft knife and they had no problem with it. I took the carved out book to the activities director and switched it out with the camo box and they were a lot happier with it. The woman said she still had to get it cleared with the higher-ups so I just left it with her.

We were back on the ship by 1:00 and spent the rest of the day just lazing around.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

When we woke up the next morning we were at Mahogany Bay on the island of Roatan in Honduras. The bay was completely surrounded with jungle and a little ways off there was the wreck of a ship. The insurance company said it wasn’t worth the cost to salvage it so there it sits. The landing spot was the most beautiful of the whole trip.

Our activity today was a Dolphin Encounter. We got in our bus and drove across the island to the north shore. At Anthony’s Key they had fenced off an enclosure that was home to 47 dolphins. All of them were trained and they rotated them throughout the day. They said that all of them were free to come and go but they stayed because the constant activity and endless supply of free fish were a big draw for them.

After the trainers gave us the rules, we all lined up shoulder to shoulder in a straight line and marched down into the water in the lagoon. Our trainer was there with our dolphin, Alita. They explained that the line was necessary because the dolphins saw open spaces as an obsticle course and would dash in between us. At 300 pounds and able to swim up to 30 mph, they can do a lot of damage. Next to us was another trainer. Her dolphin was Alita’s baby that was full size but still nursing.

Our trainer brought Alita along our line. As long as we did not touch her head, especially her eyes and blow-hole, we could rub her skin as she swam past. She had a slick, soft, rubbery feel. Quite pleasant. He had her do a few tricks out in the open water. Her baby got excited when she was doing one of them and swam out to join her. After that he took us two at a time and had her swim between us.

We joined hands under her and gently let her rest in them. He gave a signal and she smiled and raised her head and tail. There were two photographers capturing the scene. Then, one at a time he had us lean forward with our hands behind our backs and she swam up and gave us kiss on the cheek. When our entire group had gone through the procedure, the encounter was over. We were all thrilled to be near such a wonderful creature and be allowed to touch her.

They have a souvenir shop for you to buy stuff at and a CD of the pictures they took was available to buy. They had a scammy approach to selling them with different prices depending on which sales person you got, but the cost was ok to us. Sue bought a copy and when we got back home I copied the pictures for each of us. The Dolphin Encounter was the best thing we did on the entire cruise and we enjoyed it a lot.

Back at the ship I tried to contact the ship excursions people. Since we missed the Mayan ruins at Belize City, I still wanted to see some if I could. We were scheduled to have a jungle trek the next day which the others still wanted to do but I changed my excursion to a trip to Chacchoben, a fairly newly discovered ruin. It only had a small portion excavated so far. I got my ticket exchanged, all ready for the morning.

We had another great meal at the Rotterdam Restaurant but it was an early evening because the ladies had to leave early for their jungle adventure.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Over the night we had sailed to Costa Maya. Bright and early the ladies were ready and off the ship. I didn’t have to leave for another hour so I was taking it easier. I was gathering up the things I wanted to take on my excursion when I realized I couldn’t find my ticket. I figured Karen had gathered it up when she was getting her stuff together. I hurried off the ship after them. This was one of the longest piers we had docked at. I figure it was almost a mile from the ship to the shore. I hustled as fast as I could thinking that they would leave before I could catch them. They hadn’t gone thank goodness but Karen didn’t have my ticket after all. I dreaded the thought of going all the way back to the ship and then back to the dock again. Karen said that the excursion people were just right over there and why didn’t I go over and see if something could be done about it. I did go over and they recognized me because of our dealings over the last couple of days and they just wrote me a replacement ticket. Whew!

It was about an hour’s bus ride from the dock to the ruin. Our guide Daniel spent the time giving us all sorts of interesting background information and slipping in subtle plugs for products he just happened to have with him. The first thing he showed us was something that looked like what you would think was a ruined temple. But it turned out it wasn’t a temple, just some of the landscaping the Mayans had engineered into the site. When you climbed to the top, there was the real temple. Most of the excavated buildings have been reconstructed so they look like what they would have originally. We also saw the ruler’s temple and a smaller temple that looked the nicest of all of them.

Meanwhile, back in Costa Maya the ladies were having their Jungle Jeep Adventure.

Karen: Our tour guide was also named Daniel. Hmmmm, I wonder if this is just a nice English name they use to keep things simple. Anyhow, he was very enthusiastic and full of fun. We loaded up on an open air troop transport bus and traveled to a resort which was the base for the jeep tour. Our journey was very windy and we traveled over roads filled with potholes. When we arrived at the site, Daniel made much of the thatched bar area and promised that we could buy margaritas at the end of our ride. Since it was only about 8:30am we were a little doubtful that we would feel like a margarita in an hour and a half.

He gave us each bandanas and told us that we may want to wear them over our mouths and noses during the ride to avoid clouds of dust or mud. We all looked at each other and wondered what we would be getting into. The jeeps were small two seaters with roll bars and side windows. We were given helmets and goggles and a brief lesson about driving the jeep. Linda drove one and I teamed up with her. Sue drove another with Celest, who was thankfully feeling better, as her passenger. We started off down the road from the resort, then made a sharp turn down a slope with a sharp right into the jungle. From then on we were on the most ridiculously rugged drive of our life. We drove through foot deep ruts, over tree roots, up steep hills, and down and around sharp turns. The little jeep lurched and bucked like crazy. The drivers held onto the wheel and tried to keep up with the jeep ahead. The riders just held on for dear life! About half way through, we stopped to let everyone catch up. They handed out cold water and we took a breather. I turned to Linda and said, “I believe I will go for that margarita in the bar when we get back.” She assured me that she had decide that after the first hill! It was the craziest adventure I have ever had and fun in its way. As we drove along, Linda asked me if she was missing any beautiful flowers or jungle wildlife. The truth was, I wasn’t able to look any more than she was. The trees and plants brushed the sides of the jeep and the path twisted and turned every which way.

When we got back to the resort, we enjoyed margaritas, chips, and pico de gallo. We strolled down to the beach and sipped drinks as we dipped our toes in the white sand and the warm turquoise water of the Caribbean. We had survived our ride and were standing in the middle of paradise. What could be better?

We went to the Pinnicle Grill again tonight. Sue treated us the first time and the travel agent did it this time. The waitress from last time recognized us from earlier in the week and made a special effort to point us out to this evening’s waitress. We got the whole Charlie’s Angels business all over again. All in good fun.

Monday, November 28, 2011

This was a whole day at sea. The day dawned gloomy and gray. There was a steady strong breeze and the sea was rough. Karen had put on her seasick patch on Sunday. I wanted to hold off and see if I could get by without one. Sometimes they could have some unpleasant side effects. I did pretty well as the day went on but by suppertime I was starting to feel a little dizzy. I was not nauseated but it felt like it could head off in that direction any minute. I had Karen put one of the patches on me. Since we had a couple extras, we gave one to Linda too.

Celest’s jaw had been hurting her right along. She was NOT having a happy time. She missed a lot of the things we were doing and stayed in her cabin much of the time. When she did join us for a meal, she just got the soup or something soft to eat. Spicy or acidic things hurt her just as much. Karen: Sometimes she could force a drink down which was a mercy.

We had breakfast in the dining room. I had the full English breakfast with bangers and fried tomato. Lunch was on the Lido deck. But the big deal that day was dinner in the Pinnicle Grill. This is the ship’s fanciest restaurant and you have to pay extra to eat here. This was Sue’s treat. The quality of the food in the Rotterdam dining room is so good, the food in the Pinnicle isn’t much better by comparison, but they take that extra little step in preparation. They do things like toss your Caesar Salad at table side or flambe your Steak Diane in front of you. We joked around with the waitress. Because I was the only guy with three women, she called me Charlie with my three angels. We said Karen must be Farrah, Linda was Jaclyn and Sue was Kate. Karen: the resemblance was, of course, obvious for each.

Some of our group wanted to gamble in the casino. Not me. I watched them a little but lost interest quickly. When it was time for the stage show we were heading for the theater when Sue pointed out the activities director to me. He had introduced himself at the previous evening’s entertainment which I did not attend. The others continued on to the show while I talked to him for a couple of minutes.

I wanted to meet him because I wanted to plant a letterbox on the ship. This could be a dicey thing but when I explained what I wanted to do, he invited me to drop by his office the next day and show him what I had. Before we left on the cruise I had carved a rubber stamp for the Ryndam and prepared a journal. The only problem was the box I had to store it in. All that was available to me was one of the camoflaged ones that I usually hide in the woods. You can imagine how that would look if someone found it under a gangway or something. Bomb squad front and center. I would have to think about that a little.

I had no interest in seeing the stageshow but the others did. After that, Karen and Linda went up to the Crow’s Nest bar and listened to oldies over one last glass of wine. Karen: we chatted with a woman who had been on many cruises. She noticed we were using the seasick patch. She asked us if they gave us a dry mouth. That was an understatement. All of us were so dry we could barely swallow. It could have been a ploy to make people buy more drinks in the bar but the things were working. Only about a third of the passengers made it to the evening meal because of the rough seas, but all of us were fine.

I think my bottle of bourbon arrived that evening so I went back to the room and read for a little while over a relaxing bourbon and ginger ale.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The ship docked in Cozumel in the wee hours of the morning so we were all tied off and ready for the day by the time we woke up. We had an early breakfast at 7:00.

Exploring Cozumel by Jeep and Snorkel was our first excursion. Our guide was Eduardo, a very likeable and informed fellow. There were 16 in the group, all told. That meant 4 jeeps, 4 to a jeep. I drove one with Karen, Sue, and Linda along for the ride. Because the sea was so rough the day before, most of the water activities in Cozumel were cancelled. Eduardo was aware of this and had scouted out locations on the east side of the island where the water was generally calmer. He found a beach where we could do our snorkeling.

The snorkeling turned out to be an interesting matter. First off, almost half our group had no intention of snorkeling whatsoever. They were content to sit on the beach and watch the world go by. The rest of us got ready and went to check out our equipment. Sue, Karen, Linda, and I had bought masks and snorkels before the trip because you never know what kind of contamination the ones provided by the tour might have. But we figured the fins would be fine. We got some but mine were too small. They said ok, try these. But every pair was too small. We had to wait till an earlier dive group returned to get men’s fins that were big enough. All this time Eduardo is putting the hustle on us so it created a little tension.

Since I first started diving, my vision has deteriorated quite a bit. There is nothing I can clearly focus on in my entire range of vision. I have to have bifocals to see anything. This was going to be a problem since you can’t wear glasses and a diving mask at the same time. I don’t have contacts either. When I was trying to solve this problem before the trip, I came across an old pair of glasses that still had a fairly current prescription. I removed the bows and tried securing them to the front of the mask. I worked like a charm, but my friends told me I looked like a dork.  Better to see and be kidded for being a dork than to not see at all.

Getting into the water turned out to be another challenge. The beach had a gradual slope out into the water and there was nowhere to sit to put your fins on other than the bottom. Karen was helping Sue get hers on but was not paying a lot of attention. When she met some resistance, she just started jamming the fins on, only to find that Sue had 3 toes in and 2 toes outside. With that corrected, Sue was set up. Next she helped me and other than it being like helping a beached whale, it went more smoothely. Linda had headed out in the mean time but got salt water up her nose and decided to pass on the whole deal. Karen flat out decided to skip this adventure and sat on the beach and basked in the sun.

The beach had a long gradual slope out to open water. By the time you were 50 feet out, it was only about 18 inches deep. This is too shallow to either walk or swim so I pulled myself along alligator style till it was deep enough for me to start using my fins. I hurried over to where Eduardo was and he led us around. There were sea fans waving in the current and Eduardo explained that if they were purple they were looking for food, but if they were brown, they had gathered some food and were digesting it. The reef was brown and not very colorful. It had received some pretty bad damage last year when there was a severe hurricane in the area and it had not revived yet. There were all sorts of colorful little fish about a couple of inches long. There was not as much wildlife as I had hoped for, but what was there was nice.

When we got about as far out as we were going to get, I had the horrible realization that my wedding ring which I have worn for 42 years, had fallen off my finger somewhere along the way. I was just sick. I did not look forward to telling Karen about it at all. On top of that, the $10 disposable underwater camera that I bought for this dive had fallen out of my pocket too. As we returned to shore to get out, I came up the slope the same way as I went out. As I crawled along I was looking at the bottom and I saw a small, but interesting sea shell. Next to it was something unusual, a thin silvery circle. I reached down to see what it was and I’ll be damned if it wasn’t my wedding ring, 95% buried in the sand. I cannot believe only coincidence was at work here.

What I saw underwater and my wedding ring restored to its normal if untraditional place on my hand (a reconstruction)

The next part of the excursion was a visit to an “eco park.” This is a natural area that has been set aside as a wildlife sanctuary. It’s mostly a mangrove bay that forms a barrier between the ocean and the island. Eduardo’s first trick was to show us the crocodiles. He led us out on this boardwalk and did a couple of high whistles. He figured it would take a few minutes for them to get there and investigate what was going on. Only problem, they never showed. So back to the road where he showed us the ruin of a small Mayan temple. It was to the goddess Ix-Chel. The configuration of the windows, doors, and the tower on the top made it sound a warning when the wind blew a certain way. It served as a warning systems for storms. We also stopped at another beach where they had prepared a Mexican lunch for us. It was simple but tasty. Last stop was at a lighthouse; those in our group who wanted to could climb the 109 steps up to get a more panoramic view. I chose to go into the adjoining Mayan museum.

All this time I had been driving the four of us in one of their jeeps. You can hardly imagine worse roads. There were potholes a foot deep in places. I would swerve to miss them, but that only made me hit another one. At long last we finally hit one of the island’s main roads and it was a direct trip back to the parking lot. By 3:30pm we were back, filthy and tired but we had a pretty fun day.

After supper we started trying to figure out how the next day’s excursion was going to work. The more we thought about it the less we thought it was going to work out. Karen: the ship was scheduled to dock much later than usual – about 7:30- and leave much earlier -about 4:00. That kind of timing wouldn’t allow for our Laminai tour which we were really looking forward to. We had hoped to see jungle wildlife and Mayan ruins. With the help of the front desk people we managed to get in touch with the excursion company and cancel the one we wanted. We also put in for a different excursion but by then it was too late and we didn’t get that one either.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The whole idea for our Caribbean cruise came from Karen’s sister Sue. At first it was supposed to include the 4 Spicer sisters and their husbands, but complications caused Linda, Dan, and Diane to drop out. That left only Sue, Karen, and Butch. To make the best use of the cabins, Sue invited her friend Celest to come along too.

The reservations for the flight to Tampa and the cruise itself were made and we started trying to figure out what to do on our side trips. The way that works is the cruise ship departs from the home port and makes its way to several stops, returning to the home port in the end. At each of the stops, you can book an excursion. You can also just stay on the ship or go into the town to have a look around. We chose an excursion for each stop.

Some of the complications resolved themselves and in the end, Linda was able to go too.

Since the trip was to be just after Thanksgiving and since our kids go to Cherise’s parents on Thanksgiving Day, we decided to spend the holiday with Sue.

We left early Wednesday morning with the idea that we would drive to Sue’s house at a leisurely pace and do a little letterboxing on the way. When I plan out our route, I look for letterboxes a few miles on either side of it. I found 12 that might fit the bill and marked them on the map along with printing out the clues to finding them. We ended up finding 4 of the 5 we looked for.

Sue had supper on when we arrived.

We visited a bit and caught up, then went to bed at a decent time.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Next morning, Thanksgiving Day, Sue was at it early. She put a turkey in a roaster so it could cook for a while unattended. She and Patty prepared a great Thanksgiving feast. They wanted to watch the Packers game so we ate around 3:00.

Friday, November 25, 2011

We were going to try to do some letterboxing in the Racine area but that never seemed to happen. Sue’s friend Celest arrived in the middle of the afternoon. We all went out for dinner at a tapas restaurant that evening. It was called Olde Madrid. The deal with tapas restaurants is that the menu items are small and you order several and share them. While the concept of small portions can apply to any type of cuisine the inspiration came from Spain so that is usually what is featured.

Celest had gone to the dentist a few days before and he had done some gum surgery that turned out to be very painful for her. For the first few days of her vacation, she had almost nothing but soup. Bummer!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

At last it was time to go. Patti, Sue’s friend, drove us to the airport in Milwaukee and from there we flew to Tampa. The flight was less than three hours so it wasn’t bad at all. We arrived around 3:00 and waited around for about a half hour till Linda’s plane arrived from Indianapolis. We caught a shuttle which took us to the Best Western Bay Harbor Hotel. It was close to the airport but a little farther from the dock. We decided to have happy hour and went next door to Crabby Bill’s, a seafood restaurant. After a couple of drinks and some appetizers, which were delicious by the way, we decided to have dinner. The dinner items were nowhere near as good as the appetizers. The motel had a swimming pool right outside our rooms and there was direct access to it from the rooms. We sat around the pool relaxing for a while then came in and read when it got dark.

Karen has been doing a lot of reading on her iPad. When she retired she got a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble, the bookstore, from her friends and had bought several electronic books. You can download them to about six different personal devices so I did just that on my smart phone. I chose “Bossypants” by Tina Fey. It was a humorous, light autobiography.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

The boat wasn’t scheduled to leave till late in the afternoon so there was no rush in the morning. We were back at Crabby Bill’s for breakfast. Then we had another little rest by the pool. Most of our luggage was packed so we only had a little bit of final packing to do. In the late morning we got on the shuttle and went to the ship. We did have to hustle around getting our tags on the suitcases and they had to be just so. You had to fold them just right and staple them to the handles.

When you got to the ship, you dropped off your bags curbside. There were redcaps there. Someone was designated to tip them and they paid for all of us. But this wasn’t enough for the somewhat greedy, intimidating baggage handlers. “How about showing some gratitude for what we are doing?” they shouted. Had they said that first, they would have gotten nothing from me. The bags showed up in our rooms later.

We had to go through Security just like at an airport. We also had to fill out a health questionnaire. Celest felt she had to be honest and confessed she had a slight queasiness of stomach, which sent her straight to bench “C”. When she didn’t come we looked around and saw her sitting on the other side of the room. She was waiting to see the nurse. At first they were going to quarantine her in her room for a few days, but after about a half hour of wrangling we managed to wiggle out of that. We found out later that the cruise line was particularly sensitive about this because the ship had just come over from Europe and one of the passengers who really was sick, did not stay in their room and contaminated the ship. They had to dock in Miami and disinfect the entire ship stem to stern and it cost them quite a bit.

Our cabin was 351. Sue and Linda’s was 353 and Celest was a few doors down the hall at 363. We were on the starboard side. We unpacked all our clothes and put them in the closets and drawers. Our deck was called the Lower Promenade. Next up was the Promenade Deck and above that was the Upper Promenade. I have no idea why they gave them these names because our deck was the only one you could go outside and promenade around the ship on.

In the middle of our deck was the atrium. It had offices for the crew members that took care of the food and activities, etc. I don’t know where the command staff had their offices. The decks below us had more cabins and the gangway to the dock when we were in port. The two decks above us were where most of the “cruising” took place; shops, restaurants, the casino, the library and other activity types of areas. There were a couple more decks of cabins and above them was the Lido deck. It had the pool and an informal restaurant where you could get something to eat about any time of the day. The Lido deck was mostly open to the sky but it had a retractable roof that could be closed in bad weather. There were a couple more decks above the Lido but they were small affairs and  had the occasional bar, sports activities, and that type of thing.

We had a buffet lunch in the Lido restaurant and then had drinks out by the pool. Most of the wait staff was from the Philippines which led to the occasional translation problem. When I ordered a gin and tonic without lime, I got a gin and tonic without ice. Then I tried a bourbon and ginger ale which was just as bad. We decided to stick with what they knew best so we had our fair share of the “drink of the day” – usually tropical and fruity. About 5:00 the ship got underway and we saw a lovely sunset as we sailed south out of Tampa Bay.

For supper we went to the Rotterdam dining room. The Rotterdam was on two different floors. The upper floor was reserved for “fixed” seating. Which means you are assigned a table and you sit at it for the entire cruise. We didn’t want this so we went to the lower floor dining room which allowed you to make daily reservations or just walk in. The food in the restaurant is great, gourmet level with a nice presentation.

Our welcoming brochure confirmed what Sue had told us which was that you could order a bottle of liquor to have sent to your stateroom. When we were strolling around after dinner we stopped by the liquor store and tried to order some bourbon. But the liquor store was only for duty-free sales. They told me I had to call room service to order the booze. Only problem, they never answered the phone. After a few days I did get through and things got better. Outside the duty-free shop there was a sampling table for tasty liqueurs. We tried a taste of Kahlua which had a slightly different flavor than I am used to. I figured it was intended for the internal Mexican market and not for export. It was only $25 for two one-liter bottles so we got some to take home. Duty free purchases were delivered just before we got off the ship.

Later we went up to the show lounge. They gave you a free bingo card to get you started. True to form I didn’t win anything. Neither did anyone else in our group. Around that time the show started. The singer was really bad. Bad enough that neither Linda nor I could stand it so we left. The others would watch the occasional show during the voyage but I avoided them like the plague.