John & Carol's first post

We have a week under our belt on the ship and we thought we had our sea legs under us until we entered the Atlantic last night. The Caribbean was calm compared to the considerably rougher Atlantic with swells in the range of 10 to 15 feet. The vomit bags that have been scattered about the ship are now in short supply. As our first entry to the blog, below is a summary of different aspects of our trip so far.

Preparation Highlights
• Ironically we both had surgery (Carol wrist surgery and second level neck fusion and John a second laminectomy) 2 months before we left from home and getting all our stuff to the ship in 5 fifty pound duffle bags plus our carry-ons was a challenge but we did it successfully without reinjuring ourselves. In one of the duffle bags was a tempurpedic mattress and pillows for comfort due to our injuries. In one of the carry-ons was a 24” monitor so John can organize his thousands of pictures as we cross the longer stretches the oceans.

• Pete and Ramona arrived at our house a week prior to our departure and we taught them what they needed to know or who to call while they are care taking our house, horses, cats and dogs including delivering puppies. We have been texting with them and all sounds well.
• On our 3.5 hour drive to the airport in Denver, we learned our flights to the Bahamas had been canceled due to a storm on the east coast and we had to rebook our tickets on another airline. The new flight was supposed to leave at 11:55pm but we didn’t take off at 3:30am. By 12:30pm, we were in the hotel in the Bahamas and sound asleep.

Ship highlights
• Our room is very nice and spacious. All of our stuff has found a home and we even have a pantry.

• In the Bahamas we loaded up on supplies like snacks and booze and we were warned to be discrete with our alcohol on the ship when we boarded carrying a Jose Cuervo box full of rum, vodka and wine. On the second day when boarding, we were reminded not to keep food in our cabin when we boarded the ship with a box of Dunkin Donuts.

• The satellite Internet connection is limited to 50 connections at a time out of the 1000 passengers on board and once you get connected you have about 15 minutes before you are disconnected and have to login again which is like playing the lottery.
• Before departing the ship at our first stop in Dominica (pronounced, Da-min-ee-ca), the whole community participated in a meeting to learn some do’s and don’ts while on shore and the doctors had a funny skit with the following information:
Don’t get bit.
Don’t get hit.
Don’t do it.
Don’t get lit.
Don’t eat shit.

Classes, ports and extracurricular activities
• Every other day, we attend the Global Studies class (if we are not sea sick) and there have been some very interesting speakers which some of our fellow bloggers are writing about. The main professor reminds us of Robin Williams.
• In the first port Roseau, Dominica, Carol and I walked around the town and we restocked our pantry at a local grocery store where they sold mostly products from the US. The streets were quite narrow

and they drive on the left side of the road like a bat out of hell so you have to remember to look LEFT before you step off the curb of varying heights and onto the dilapidated uneven streets. We also went on a 4x4 tour to the rainforest where we swam in a gorge where part of Pirates of the Caribbean was shot. The gorge was about 5’ wide at the mouth and after swimming about 30 feet into it, it opened up into a cavern where two waterfalls poured into the cavern. Many tourists climbed up the first waterfall and were jumping into the pool in the cavern. On the tour we also saw the ONLY school bus that has ever been on the island. Take look at the picture to see its fate (no one was injured). The last activity we did was snorkeling at Champaign Reef where bubbles were percolating out of the ocean floor from a volcanic vent. The islands in this region are relativity young and this island is known as the nature island and looks quite similar to when Christopher Columbus discovered it.

• To no one’s surprise, another activity we have been participating in on a daily basis is playing hand and foot (cards). So far, we are the team to beat.