Where to this time...

Wow. Its been four months since my last blog which is as long a gap I've missed since beginning this blog. Originally this blog was started to chronicle my retirement from Pinnacol Assurance and a trip on the Alaska Highway to Fairbanks and points North. Call it writers block or simply having nothing to say (which is totally not like me). Now, having nothing to say is perfectly fine and as the adorable rabbit Thumper, of Bambi fame, would say, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. 

So how's your Spring been? Here in Colorado its been a wet and cold one until recently. Now the days are starting to warm, though we did have snow over the weekend. In other words, its been perfectly normal. Not so for much of the country which has been dealing with unusual heat, and down in Florida they've had unusual flooding. I think it was Fort Lauderdale that received a month's worth of rain in seven hours and the news showed airliners taxiing through water that was almost up to their jet engines. We were just in Florida, Miami specifically, and fortunately had gorgeous weather. We were there, like thousands of others, to catch a cruise ship to the Caribbean sun and sand. Like I said, Colorado's Spring being normal and all, made some of us yearn for some tropical rays. We hopped aboard the good ship Norwegian Sky to take advantage of one of their early season deals and spend 9 days visiting 6 sun-soaked islands including the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Antigua, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas. Tough to go wrong  with that.

My young nephew was taking a cruise to the Gulf Coast of Mexico with his girlfriend and her family at about the same time, and while I haven't yet spoken with him about his trip, hope they had as much fun as we did on ours. When we took our last cruise aboard the Royal Clipper sailing ship last Fall on her transAtlantic crossing some of the sailing purists poo-pooed the notion of cruising on the behemoth cruise ships that are more the standard of the industry today. I don't share their sentiment and have no problem enjoying all that a more typical cruise (and cruise ship) have to offer. We've sailed with both Norwegian and Royal Caribbean (as well as Star Clippers) and thoroughly enjoyed being pampered at sea by them. 

Cruising's not pefect and does have its own set of challenges and our recent cruise out of Miami was no exception. Crowded (o.k. - overcrowded) pool decks, lines at the buffets (which we hadn't experienced in the past), an inexplicable scheduling of some entertainment shows into shipboard venues that couldn't accomodate all that wanted to see them (picture folks standing in the aisles because there wasn't enough seating), and the usual disembarkation snafus (you'd think they'd have mastered getting folks off the boat at the end of the cruise as well as they get them on at the beginning) were a couple of nits on our trip. That said, those nits were more than made up for by the wonderful staff and service onboard, the great food (no one ever starves on a cruise ship...), the great shows (even in the sometimes cramped spaces), and all the standard amenites (fitness center and classes, spas, choice of restaurants, casino, duty-free shopping, etc.) cruisers have learned to enjoy. The Norwegian Sky seems to be one of Norwegian's smaller ships in terms of guest capacity (2,000 guests) but she certainly doesn't lack in the fun factor. 

For my wife and I though, its the ports of call that largely determine whether to take a cruise. This trip offered the chance to see some islands we hadn't seen before (Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas) and we were excited to experience what these new places had to offer. Cruise companies have the challenge of disgorging thousands of passengers into sometimes quite small islands and ports and figuring out what all those people are supposed to do with their time ashore. The shore excursion staff aboard the ship were as busy as any staff onboard. We had selected and booked our excursions ahead of time and as folks who have cruised before, especially to the Caribbean, know, some of the shore excursions from one island to the next can get a little repetitive. For example, there's almost always a catamaran snorkeling excursion complete with rum punch (and sometimes, if you're lucky, foot massages!). We love to snorkel but sadly with the decline of reefs worldwide the number of good snorkeling sites is diminishing so the chances of seeing a turtle at Turtle Cove (Virgin Islands) seems to be slim though my wife finally spotted one totally unexpected in the Bahamas. 

The trick for passengers is to sort through the myriad shore excursion offerings featuring something  perhaps they haven't seen or done before. For us, two of the islands, St, Maarten and Antigua, set themselves apart on this trip. In St. Maarten we had a chance to sail aboard the Americas Cup yacht Stars and Stripes that Dennis Connor helmed to victory in 1987. And I mean you really get a chance to sail - from 'grinding'  the winches to trimming the sails, and even a short stint at the helm. Everyone aboard had a great time on this excursion and if you're ever on the beautiful island of St. Maarten check out the "12 Meter Regatta" excursion. 

On Antigua, which we had visited before, we signed up for the "Stingray Swim and Snorkel" which involved taking a small boat out to a sandy reef where, yes, you really got up close (touching and feeding close) with stingrays. And not just one or two - the stingrays seem to know when the tours come and they show up by the dozens to be fed squid by the sometimes squeamish snorkelers (as you'll see in the video as my wife makes friends with a companionable and very hungry Hypanus Americanus). Again, not something we had ever done before and for two landlubbers from Colorado one of the highlights of the cruise. When we were last in Antigua we had done the Canopy Zipline tour and we were tempted to repeat but in the end went with the new and unique.

One other note from this cruise that we really enjoyed was having enough time in most ports to not only do a shore excursion in the morning but also having several hours afterwards to simply, and leisurely wander around the port before reboarding the ship. With some of our other cruises its been a rush to get back from the shore excursion in time to get back on board and we never had time to explore the port town. 

Well, I guess my writers block is over at least for the moment so apologies for the length of this blog. Still, it was a great trip, and if you want to see more here's the video of our trip to paradise: