Schmidt Honeymoon #2

 We did a few activities around the ship today while the ship sailed towards Fort Lauderdale. There was a Family Feud like game where we did fairly well. Jason also watched a little demonstration by the group that is onboard for the Kickboxing seminars (a private group, I think there are like 100 of them, but there were a couple things they did that were open for whomever). They had several world champions who took part in the demonstration. The highlight was the finale of the Voice of the Ocean in which the six people who had qualified in the auditions and practiced with the Princess band performed. It was a "The Voice" branded show with the turning chairs etc. At the end the audience voted on the three finalists. The guy singing Ring of Fire from North Carolina was good, he was actually one of the other passengers on our snorkeling tour from the other day. A lady sang a Spanish song and did a really job. Really all of the karaoke finalists on the show were really good. We v...

The Caribbean Princess arrived 30 minutes early to the port of Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic, which is near the Puerto Plata area. The tour for today was the Damajagua Cascade or Waterfalls, which is a series of natural pools that are fed by a series of small waterfalls. We had about a ten minute walk from the ship to the meeting point where we found out we would have a private driver since no one else from our ship took a tour through this company yet this morning. So we got into our van and some decent AC and were driven about 30 minutes to the Damajagua park. We were given helmets and life jackets and joined a group of about 20 people who had come in together from one of the resorts. The hike up to the top dang near killed Tina as it was about 35 minutes of stairs and trails. About 3/4 of the way we stopped and had some fresh mangoes off a tree and they actually didn't taste like soap like the ones back home.  We eventually made it to the top and swam, jumped, and slid ou...

  The ship was only scheduled to arrive in Grand Turk at noon so we slept in and had a lazy morning. After disembarking we walked along the beach to the meeting point where we met the guys who would be taking us out snorkeling and then proceeded to wait for an hour or more in the heat for the family that took forever to find the place. There was a little bit of shade but it was really hot, so extra annoying that these people took so long to get there while the rest of us waited. We were disappointed to learn that because of wind we wouldn't be going out to the "wall" which is a 7000 ft drop off, but instead to another spot where it would be calmer. Halfway there the boat stopped so the one guy could dive down for conch shells to eat later. It was neat to see him do it (the bottom was about 40 ft down), but the boat was bobbing and swaying and most people onboard got at least a little bit seasick. We weren't too affected by it, but it was definitely uncomfortable. A co...

 The weather was already 29C at 7:30 AM when we walked off the ship to check out the San Juan old town. Colorful little place that feels very much like Barcelona in a lot of ways. Lots of pastel colored buildings and old masonry. We walked along the path from the cruise port to the Fortelezza del Morro and pet some feral cats ("gattos") on the way. There were a lot of them, some were friendly and some kept their distance. For Pieter, here's a "tropical" Sheraton hotel: Apparently this is a mix of a girafe and a cat: We walked around for a couple hours and saw the two 500 year old cathedrals/churches and the outside of the fortress. Tina didn't want to go into the Puerto Rican casinos. Maybe next time? The main gate into the old town is about 500 years old. We returned to the ship to get some A/C and Pi ñ a Coladas, which were invented here 60 years ago. The crew was doing emergency drills throughout the late morning. Kinda bummed to find out our favourite po...

The water was a bit rocky today so the ship was bobbing more noticeably than most days.  We checked out a presentation on San Juan, Puerto Rico and then went to the casino. The roulette wheel wasn't kind and lost $40 over the course of an hour. Tina played our free bingo cards in the mean time and came within 4 numbers of the jackpot before someone got bingo. Later, there was a passenger group from Facebook that organized a group "Slot Pull / Tournament" for $20 a person. There were 29 of us and we pooled $580 and each got 4 x $5 spins on the "Wheel of Fortune" slot machine. Two people got the bonus game and everyone was cheering. We ended up enough that each person walked away with $26 (so $6 profit each) at the end - it was a fun way to pass some time. In the afternoon we had the most awkward afternoon tea possible - we were seated at a table for 10 and there was basically no conversation. Anyway, the scones were good. I returned to play some video poker and c...

 On this island of Eluethera in the Bahamas is an area called Princess Cays. We split up as Jason had an excursion to check out some stingrays.  The stingray encounter was really neat - there's a small bay / beach that is home to probably 15-20 stingrays. Jason got to snorkel amongst them, feed them, pet them, and kiss them (which was kind of weird but apparently is good luck?). Snorkeling while they swam around was probably the best part. Really well done excursion - though getting ashore and finding the right location was bit of mess. Jason got some fun video and photos. We came back to the ship afterwards to have the Aft Pool to ourselves pretty much and hung around on the pool deck, which is actually completely shaded from the sun so need for sunscreen unlike the other pool deck areas (also it is adults only). Had a burger and enjoyed a few drinks. In the room we ordered perfect afternoon room service: A white russian, chairman of the board, and some potato chips. Room ser...

 This morning we took a "debark tour" which is a combination of transport to the airport and activities meant to normally be done at the end of the cruise (all of the excursions in the home port are setup that way) but we would be brought back to the ship instead of the airport. Most of the group was going home today (suckers).  The bus brought us to the Everglades where we got a demonstration of gator "wrestling" and explanation about a lot of things to do with gators. The guy doing the demonstration is a professional gator trapper and has been a few shows on TV on for example the Discovery Channel. Jason also got to hold a baby gator that was used to being held and was docile, but it did have a band keeping the jaws closed. After the little demonstration we went on a large airboat / fan boat out into the everglades for a half hour or so. We ended up getting very close to one gator that swam near the boat - so close we could've touched it if that wasn't dan...

Slept in until 9:30 and then went straight to the culinary demonstration by Chef Dirk (him and the maitre D Oscar have good chemistry even though they've only been working together 6 days), followed by an ice carving demonstration by Mario from the Philippines who has been competing for 15 years. We had a fancy lunch in the dining room in which Jason ordered some very nice curry. After lunch Tina played bingo and came within 3 numbers of winning the $2500 US jackpot and we watched some of a gameshow.  We went for dinner afterwards and then played in the casino a bit. We checked out the "Born to be Wild" show but weren't really feeling it so returned to the casino for: The ultimate game of skill: the quarter coin pushing machine. Jason got a 4 of a kind in video poker, so that was fun. It helps when you've had 4 or 5 long island iced teas and realize the 5 letters to collect the word "BONUS" for the jackpot include the letter "S" that isn't ...

 We spent the day at the Nachi Cocom Beach Club. It was relaxing and the beach and weather were excellent. Nachi Cocom only allows so many people in on a given day so it is never crowded. We took a taxi there and parked ourselves under a palapa for the day. The food and drinks were included and good. We liked the fish and also the guacamole. The pool had a swim up bar and hot tub. On the downside it appears that Jason has a mild case of shingles on his wrist, but it doesn't seem too bad and he's already taking the medication that is prescribed for it for his cold sore allergy so he's just taking extra to hopefully get through the shingles quickly. After the beach we headed back to the ship in the late afternoon and had a meal in the dining room. Jason had beef wellington and Tina just had a light pasta. We're probably going to take it easy for the night and enjoy a day at sea tomorrow.

 We woke up at 6:15 and had a quick breakfast in the room before going down to the theatre area to get into groups for excursions. We were scheduled to go to the Mayan ruins of Lamanai quite a ways away from Belize City. Because we were on a cruise line excursion (thanks Costco Travel) we got to board the first tender to go ashore. The tender takes 30 minutes to sail ashore. Once ashore we boarded what looks like a hertz northern school bus that had been modified to have actually really good A/C. Our guide, Denise, told us about Belize history. We arrived 90 minutes later at the mouth of a canal and boarded a boat with 4 250hp Honda engines and took a 30 minute ride down their main river. It felt like we were in Vietnam going down the Mekong on a Patrol Boat, we just didn't have the 50cal up top. The jungle was on one side and a marshy jungle area was on the other. We arrived at Lamanai archaeological site and our group was shown around for around 90-120 minutes. The mask mayan tem...

 Tonight we got to go to the chef's table event which only runs at the most once a week for 10-12 people. We only got in because we phoned the dining line the second we boarded and asked to be put on the list. We were given a galley tour and were served appetizers and champagne while the executive chef and maitre d explained how the galley worked and some other particulars. We had to wear lab coats and sanitize before this portion. Every time our glass was emptied a bit a server would top it up - Jason must've had 4 glasses of champagne. We were then taken to the dining room where a special table had been prepared. The maitre d explained his wine selections and we went through a number of courses. There was so much food, including the main course which was a combination of beef tenderloin, lamb chops, and lobster. The dessert portion was created by the executive pastry chef and he seemed really proud of it. No question it was the best meal we've ever had. The value was actu...