Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2018

Sunday, October 14, 2018

2018 October Family Cruise - Day 10 - Disembarkation day, San JuanPuerto Rico

The ship life finally caught up with me last night. At about 2 AM, I got up to use the bathroom and I instantly knew I was in trouble. My stomach was rumbling. And as I write this, my stomach is still rumbling horribly. The cruise gambu has got me unfortunately. Nonetheless, we must get home. So I was up and down most of the remaining hours with chills and so on.

AT 7:30 AM, we all met in the dining hall for one last meal together. I could not bring myself to eat. Nothing sounded good anymore. I tried a yoghurt parfait, which normally would have been fantastic. But after a couple of spoonfuls, no mas.

After eating, we headed back to our rooms to get our gear and start to go off the boat. However, the boat had other ideas. As we got to the elevators, the creepy voice on the boat came on and said that disembarkation had been stopped for a while. That while was for about 20 minutes or so. Not too bad. We were soon off the boat. Mike and Cassidy found a place to tender their luggage and they took off walking to through the old town of San Juan for a while. They eventually caught an Uber and picked up their luggage and went to the airport. The rest of us, we just headed directly to the airport. A week ago, we decided to cancel the shuttle van that would have cost us $89. Combining all our Ubers, it cost us $40. It worked out great for all.

We are all now sitting at the airport waiting for planes. Cassidy and Mike will be going through JFK and then to Las Vegas. The rest of us fly to Fort Lauderdale and then to SLC. I think we are all a bit tired from a great trip and a bit sad to get back to reality. :-)

Another trip in the books!

Pictures....

A couple more rain pictures from yesterday that were sent to me....

Denise wanted the world to know that her head is improving but she is now starting to sport a 'shiner' over her left eye. She can go the distance in a fight with a stair.

Waiting with all our luggage at the elevator to get off the boat...

Atticus having a great time in the airport! Such a handsome dude!

And to wrap things up, here is a link to an awesome video that summarizes the trip. Makenzie and Travis put this together for us. Thanks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4feV_C-TkPo&t=530s

2018 October Family Cruise - Day 09 - St. Maarten

Well today is October 13th, 2018. 37 years ago I made the best decision of my life...to marry the prettiest, funniest, deepest faith girl in the Salt Lake Temple. That decision has not only blessed my life but the lives of the 5 children, 5 spouses and eight grand children that we now have. We have and continue to have a wonderful life together. And I am not a fool to think that I had much to do with it. She has created such a great home for all of us. She has led us with her example in choosing right, being faithful to things that are right and important. She has taught us all how to love, through thick and thin so to say. I look forward to many years together with her here in mortality and then my faith tells me that we will continue our marriage beyond the veil of the grave. Something to live our lives in such a way that such a blessing is materialized. I love you tons Denise!

We all met for breakfast in the dining hall except Mike and Cassidy. They had purchased excursions off the cruise ship to go zip lining at a new facility that had been built after the big hurricane that destroyed St Maarten. Breakfast was good. But for me, the food is growing old. I try to cut back. But I could do a much better job of it. Anyway, after breakfast, we headed to our rooms to gather our gear. It was a pretty lazy morning. I think we got off the boat (all of us except Mike and Cassidy) at about 10:30 AM. We walked out to the little town of shops that most cruise ports have in case you don't want to go into town. We took some pictures at the Welcome to St Maarten sign then headed out to find a taxi that would take us to Maho Beach (Airport Beach). This is the beach that sits at the beginning\end of the runway and you were supposed to be able to almost touch the tires as the plane lands. They had taxi stands and for $16 per person (round trip), they would take us to and from Airport Beach. The ride was about 20 minutes in length on a small, single wide road that took us over the mountains and into another port area...and area actually more developed than where the cruise ships come in. As we went over the mountain, we could see the zip lines that Cassidy and Mike were taking. They looked amazing...amazingly steep!

We arrived at Airport Beach and went out and found a spot right on the end of the runway. Some of us immediately we not in for a swim. The beach was quite nice and the waves felt good. Over the course of an hour and half, or so, we saw numerous planes land. Most were prop planes. But we did have one 737 come in and land. That was pretty darn cool. It felt like they were going to land right on the beach!

As were enjoying the beach, the clouds began to come in. Out to the south we could see a big storm approaching. Little did we know, this was going to be a monsoon type storm. When it started to rain, it soon became what Noah probably saw in his times...a flat out down pour! And it rained and rained and rained. Eventually, we said, we need to get a taxi back. So getting soaked, we fought the elements to the taxi stand. They loaded all 7 of us (and Atticus) into a mini van that already had 5 people in it! Pretty crowded. We sat there for about 10 minutes hoping the rains would slow down. But they really did not. But I'm glad we left. Because our 20 minute ride back turned out to be 1 hour and 15 minutes roughly. Emergency vehicles closed lanes. A mud slide closed a lane....and so on. And we were told that, on average, each house has 4 cars on this island. So many cars! But we made it back ok...but pretty soggy. We wondered how Mike and Cassidy did. They did great! They had fun. They thought it might be a little over priced...but still it was all taken care of. They were done before the heavy rains hit.

After our adventures, we went up and trapped some lunch and talked about our day. Eventually, some went back to their cabins. Denise went to get a manicure as we were given a $50 off coupon for my birthday. Ashley, Brent and I went to a 90's trivia game spot. Mike and Cassidy eventually joined us. Both Ashley and Cassidy knew a lot of the songs. And both of them would start to dance a little. But Ashley caught the gals eye who was leading the event and encouraged her to come up and dance when the full songs were played. It was fun to watch. At one point, she was dancing with a pair of 8 year old girls.

Dinner came and went. Food starting to feel the same. I'm glad that is coming to an end. After dinner, we thought we'd go to the PG-13 version of the comedy club. But at the last minute, we all decided to go up and play cards. So we played Skum and 5 Crowns for an hour or two before we all retired to pack and get ready for the trip home. It has been a GREAT trip. Love my wife. Love my family.

PIctures....

Welcome to St Maarten picture....

Loading into the van to take us to Maho Beach (Airport Beach)...

One of the pretty ports we passed by. Clouds coming in....

Kenzie and Atticus....

Denise, Atticus, Kenzie and Ashley....

Brent chillin on the beach....you can see the end of the runway behind him.

Enjoying the salt water...Travis, Karlie and I.

Group shot...Brent, Ashley, Denise, Atticus and Kenzie.

The anniversary couple....37 years of wedded bliss.

Karlie and the handsome little man....

Atticus...always smiling. He did so well.

The storm coming in....

A prop plane approaching to land....

Another shot of another plane with Brent and Ashley...

The big jet coming in...so close. It was amazing...and loud!

Huddling in the bar area as the storm pounds. I wish we had a picture of how many people were huddled trying to stay dry.

Look at the water coming down. It was like that for a good half hour or more. But we left quickly...

Karlie and I crammed into the van to go back to the ship....

The rest of the gang crammed into the van....

Atticus got a great nap while we were all squished....d

The crazy zip liners...Mike and Cassidy. I highly doubt those little helmets would do much in the event of a high speed crash!

Cassidy is flying....

Great view of the port below...

Adios St. Maarten....Cassidy and MIke.

Ashley was given a 'ship on a stick' trophy for all the dancing that she did at the 90's trivia game show. So funny....

Last night of games on the ship. We have had such a wonderful time. We missed others so much. But those that came...we had a very memorable trip.

Friday, October 12, 2018

2018 October Family Cruise - Day 08 - St Kitts

Separation day....we all had different excursions today. They all started around 8:30 AM. Denise, Karlie and Atticus were going on a Rail and Trail excursion. Mike and Cassidy were going on a Rail and Sail tour. Ashley and Brent were fulfilling Ashley's dream to swim with dolphins. Travis, Kenzie and I were going scuba diving on last time. I was a bit concerned in that my ears were still really popping. And I was a bit congested which is not a good scuba diving thing. It turned out that were all back on the boat telling stories of our adventures. But before I describe some of them, go back and read about Barbados and St. Lucia. More pictures have been added for those days.

Rail, Trail and Sail people had a great time. Denise, Karlie, Mike and Cassidy had a nice train ride that exposed them to the entire island. They were told about the sad history of how island life evolved and the domination that occurred against these people over the years. Mike and Cassidy had a very wet, very bumpy Catamaran ride back as the skies swelled up and it really rained hard for quite a while. This was concerning to all of us...not for Cassidy and Mike as much as Ashley and Brent. They had tickets to swim with dolphins. But they would cancel in bad weather and they did not get their money back....only a credit. It turned out that Ashely and Brent got there early and were able to sneak into the 11 AM show instead of the noon show...which they canceled. They had a great time mingling with two dolphins one on one. It fulfilled one of Ashley's bucket list items.

As for the scuba divers. We went out with Pro Divers St Kitts. We arrived to a wonderful boat, great equipment and great dive masters. The first dive took us to a reef about 60' down with ledges on both sides that dropped way off. We just hovered over the reef...with a ton of shark!!! It was crazy having shark swimming all around us. The coral was as beautiful as St Lucia. But to dive with shark...pretty crazy. Our 2nd dive was going to be over volcanoe vents. We were told there that we should see a number of Moray Eel. Which we did!!! Many! The crazy event down there was the fact that a nurse shark showed up at the same time our dive master was feeding an eel a lion fish. Kenzie had the camera and was watching the eel try to consume the lion fish when all of the sudden the nurse shark appeared and the eel freaked out and took off leaving the lion fish which the shark immediately grabbed on to and took off. It is all on film.

We have had 4 FABULOUS dives the past two days. Unbelievable. We were talking and saying how glad we are that we all certified to do this. The dives today were our 11th and 12th. Hard to believe. What a cool thing to do. Not sure how much longer I'll be able to do it. But I hope Dustin, Kerri, Mike and Cassidy will get certified and dive with us someday. I have the same hope for Karlie and Neza...but I kind of doubt that Karlie would ever consider it. But I know Neza would. Maybe someday for him too!

More to come later for this day...so check back.

The afternoon on the boat was a lazy one. After our excursions, we spent time out by the pool eating tacos, burgers and stuff while visiting and talking about our fabulous day in St Kitts. Little Atticus is the star of the boat. The ship help is constantly stopping and admiring him. One young steward wants to hold him all the time. They don't see many this age on the ship. Probably reminds them of their young families back at home in the countries where they live. All the ship help is so kind and working so hard to support their families whom they miss very much.

Dinner tonight was a casual dinner. Mike was absent though, apparently not feeling well with an upset stomach. Probably too much family for one week of time! :-) I'm just teasing. It has been so good being together and enjoying our wonderful kids and their special 'others'. We love them all! I can't imagine the eternities and not having everyone of them by our side. After dinner, we went to the 'Latino' show. It was a good show full of upbeat, very fast, Latino music. The performers did a nice job of dancing and singing. Atticus loves these shows as the lights, sounds and so on just memorize him. After the show, we gathered upstairs to listen to more Latino music and play cards. We had some nice rounds of Skum. Denise thought she might dominate until Brent...I think it was Brent...took her down from the Skum position. Pretty funny.

Denise is doing better. Looks like a battered wife though. She has little aches and pains all over her body which is not surprising. I'm sure she hit lots of things as she tumbled down those crazy stairs.

St. Martens tomorrow. Only Mike and Cassidy have a planned excursion. The rest of us have to figure out what we want to do. Hopefully it will be a lazy day as we prepare to make our journey home on Sunday.

Pictures....

Excited to be at St Kitts...

The welcome plaza at St Kitts....

The scenic railway with Karlie and Atticus getting ready to board...

On the train....

Mike & Cassidy in front of their train car....

Mike and Cassidy on their Catamaran heading back to the cruise ship....

Some island shots....

Brent and Ashley were thrown monkeys to catch and then the person wanted $10 for the picture moment. It is a trick that folks will do in places like this. Brent and Ashley paid. :-)