December 14-21, 2013 Carnival Liberty

Had a fun filled week on board the Carnival Liberty. She's a bit bigger than Ramblynn: 952' long, 116' wide, 27' draft, 13 decks, goes 22.5 knots, 2974 passengers, 1150 crew). We were on Deck 6 which would have been a perfectly central location had we been midship instead of at the back. We got lots of exercise running up and down the stairs and often the entire length of the ship. I recommend getting a balcony cabin, feels very spacious and we did spend time out there. I somehow got on the “allergy” list so I got special dinners with no spices. One day I went off menu and asked for pasta and mushroom with parsley (steamed). I wish I had taken a photo – I got pasta, a bowl of mushrooms and an entire bowl of parsley! Was pretty funny.

Day at Sea – we tried to figure out where everything was (still got lost on the last day). Dinner was formal so Gerry had to put his big boy pants on, poor guy. The comedians put on a great show, better than the main show.

Ferry seating up top

Cave attire

Cozumel - a very bumpy 45 minute ferry ride to the mainland (some people were green) for our tour of Rio Secreto. Another bumpy ride (in a van), a cold shower (to wash off oils etc.), suited up and into the caves we went. Weren't allowed a camera and their photos were too expensive to buy so we don't have any pictures of the amazing stalactites etc. Footing was very uneven, we were glad for our walking sticks. The best part was actually swimming through the caves.

Back to the dock

Inside the ferry is posher.

Belize – weather was rainy and we hadn't booked a tour so we just shopped until we dropped (Gerry dropped early). We didn't hire a local taxi for fear we wouldn't get back to the ship on time so unfortunately we just stayed at the port.

Belize is a tender port

Tender close up

Immigration office

Belize shopping

 Roatan – we had a private tour so we checked out a fancy marina (too expensive) and another that just had moorings (but they were free). Gerry and Chris went ziplining (I've already done that) and had a blast. We then went into the monkey cage to have Hector jump all over us. They had a monkey named Jerry so we had to see him. Wish we hadn't – he stole my hat and when I wanted it back he bit me!

Roatan - very poor island, safer than mainland Honduras

Mobbed by kids selling shells.

Chris

Gerry

Hector (the one in the middle)

Bad Jerry (one in the middle)

Serious mooring lines

I prefer the towel monkey

Grand Cayman – it was sunny and hot but the seas were too rough for Chris's catamaran tour and our jet ski tour. The beach appeared to be nearby but after walking forever we only found a stoney stinky one and after walking another mile to no avail we hopped a bus to the tourist beach. It was horrible – there were 5 cruise ships in port and I think all the passengers were at the beach. We didn't stay long.

The kind of beach I loathe

Rocks in the water and stones in the sand

Day at Sea – Chris spent most of it in the sun, Gerry fell asleep in one of the extra large round basket chairs on the adults only deck and I played a few trivia games. Then the hard part – trying to get everything into our suitcases and going home to the cold.

Boynton Beach to Kudjoe Key

We've been at Rick and Jean's in Boynton Beach for 3 days and it's time to move on down to the Keys. We had a great time, shopping, beaching, shopping, eating, swimming, shopping, and playing the game (like Aggravation or Parchisi but with cards instead of dice and much more fun)! Can't thank them enough.

Eating the pizza and then the table was cleared for the Game!

The Game - fierce competition

Swimming and catching some rays in the backyard.

December 10 - 12 we explored Key West without the hordes of tourists that are there during Fantasy Fest (which we didn't attend this year). Visited lots of shops, stopped at the beach, a bat tower and a garden built in an old fort. Ginny, at one time, was a volunteer and one of the things she contributed was this pathway!

Ginny's path

Great orchids

Garden gazebo

Amazing trees

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Shopping for Crocs on Duval

Bat Tower that never had bats - a case of if you build it they won't come.

Thanks so much for the hospitality and fun. Tomorrow we drive back to Boynton Beach, hopefully it will not take 7 hours as it did to get down here. A quick visit with Lerry and then on to the cruise ship Carnival Liberty on Saturday!

December 7 Two Drunken Goats

No, the drunken goats aren't Gerry and Chris (maybe). It's a bar where Steve plays on weekends and it's just a half hour drive from Rick and Jean's on Singer Island. Spent a few fun hours, reconfirming how much we miss Janice and Steve on Grand Bahama.

Celebration to Florida December 5, 2013

We've taken the cruise ship Celebration over to Palm Beach,  3 of us squished into a small inside cabin. This will make our balcony cabin on Carnival look opulent.

I'm standing just ahead of the bathroom door to take this picture, which is an indication of how small this room really is. Only one person at a time can get dressed and you cannot open the bathroom door and the cabin door at the same time. There is however, tons of room under the bed for luggage.

The fancy dining  room was spacious but poor Gerry had to wear his big boy pants so he could join Chris and me or he could have gone to the buffet. They did let him in wearing sandals thank goodness because he didn't bring any real shoes. Oh oh, hope that's not a problem on Carnival.

They had a silly contest and Gerry got volunteered (can you guess why?) to be kissed on the head by all the women contestants. I'm sure he liked that, but then the men had to put lipstick on and kiss him too. It's possible he might have liked that as well.

Alas, the picture doesn't show all the lip prints.

Doesn't pay to be handy (and a tid bit of culture)

Les has gone home and is probably happy that he's back home and no one is asking him to fix things with the promise that it's only a little job. How hard could it be to change a light bulb in the head, rework a winch or 2, reset stanchions and help Ruediger? Turns out it wasn't just the light bulb it was an entire electrical problem brought on by leaky bolts in the track that holds the cars that control the jib sail settings. The ceiling had to be taken down and all the bolts had to be reset - took hours.

Stanchions

A lot of holes in the ceiling.

Ruediger

Winches

Some of the pins in the winches refused to come out so that took hours; stanchions didn't put up much of a fight so that was a quick job;  hoisting Ruediger up his mast took up most of a day. Not to mention they took apart the 30 amp power inlet (in the cockpit) thinking it was shorting out the GFI circuit breaker. In the process had to take the engine control panel off which was fastened with 5200 (a virtually permanent bond). Another simple job, took hours and that wasn't even the problem.

Don't know if he's ever coming back..........

And in the meantime Chris, Gerry and I attended an art show - now no one can say the 3 of us ain't got no culture. Les didn't want any culture.

Chris and I made the newspaper. Artist and neighbour Boryana is sitting next to me.