Sand, Surf & Barracuda

This weekend Deanna from NY came to visit.  I got a little lecture on my lack of blogness, so I promised to be a good blog girl and catch up on my posts.

So… Back to our cruise.  Our first day was supposed to be a stop at the island of Half Moon Cay, the private island of Holland America.  At 8:30am, our Australian Cruise Director- Drew comes on to announce that the seas are so rough today that we will not be able to take our tender service to the island.   For those who don’t know, a tender service is when they get a couple of the life boats and haul people to the island because there is not a dock available to house a humongous cruise boat.   

So we are off to a great start.  Our first island is cancelled and I’m convinced that my day is going to include a session of seasickness.

We spent the day at sea reading, playing trivia and going to a culinary seminar where they demonstrated Blue Cheese & Orange Swirl Canapes.  

Our cruise line allows you to bring on unlimited wine and champagne.  So we had stocked our room like a wine cellar.  I don’t have to tell you that buying alcohol on a cruise boat is like buying beer and hotdogs at the ballpark- before you know it you have to take out a home equity loan.

Dave pours our evening cocktail and we are off to dinner.  We met some new friends Allen and Ellen from New York but who are now living in Florida.  We check out the evening show- the Ballroom Blitz.  It stinks and we sneak out the back. 

We make it back to the room.  Luckily, I wore flats because we are walking like a pair of pin balls down the hallway because the boat is a rockin’. Shew- I made it through the day with my belly in check.

Next morning, the seas are calm and we are docking in Grand Turk.  What a beautiful beach!  Dave and I are tight wads and we are going to try to avoid going on too many shore excursions through the cruise line.    Since the beach is right next to the dock, we are golden.  We brought our snorkel gear and it is perfect.  We drop in and putz around checking out the Angelfish and the Barracuda.  After we see what there is to see, we head over to Margaritaville where they have an awesome pool that is free to use.  So we splurge on a couple margaritas and lay in the sun. 

This is the life.