Our last day on the cruise was a sea day. I kind of find them a bit difficult as much of the things going on is not that interesting to me. Nonetheless, we did go up and play some corn hole getting beat by a young couple. They kind of kick Jeff and my behind. Others went to the ropes course, watched the hairy chest contest, did the water slides and other fun things. At one point, Denise and I found a shady spot on the boat and just watched the ocean sail by as we headed through the Caribbean back to Port Canaveral.
In the evening, we all met for dinner again. Last time for the cruise. I was tired of the dining room food, so I grabbed a Cubano Sandwich at the Deli and brought that to dinner. But they did have a great Mango (cold) soup as well as a French Onion soup to go with my sandwich. I also had grabbed some chocolate cookies and ate them with some chocolate drizzled vanilla ice cream. The food was all good...very similar to the last cruise we were on in October.
Cruising was\is fun. But doing it 3 times in one year is a bit much. It has been a crazy year though. So it is understandable. We are glad that Dale seemed to have a great time. The whole family (minus Nadine) was there making it be a memorable one.
Saturday morning, I got Denise and I up an hour early. I pulled a Dale and Julee and was confused by what was island time and ship time. In Italy, Dale and Julee got totally mixed up with time and were ready to go at like 2 AM in the morning. That will always be a funny memory to us. Anyway, after getting ready, we all met in the buffet at about 8:30 AM to eat and wait until our number was called. We were in no hurry....or so we thought. But then Kami was traveling with us and wanted to try to get on a noon flight to Denver. So that caused us to pick the pace up. We got off the boat and could find all our bags except Dale's. We went all over the place and in the end, we had just overlooked it where it was supposed to be. At this point, the wheelchair woes began. They force all wheelchair people to use their own line...and let me tell you...there were a lot of people in wheelchairs or using large strollers on this cruise. They also forced us to use a Porter for our bags. Kind of weird. Anyway, he pointed out as we approached TSA that no food products could be brought back into the country. You would have thought Dale and Julee were about to be robbed. They grabbed out their precious apples and started consuming them as though they had not eaten in a week and this was going to be their last meal. So darn funny it was. Anyway, we made it through without fines or jail time and headed out to get our shuttle. We found Corey alright, but he had added another family to join us. All good except for the fact that one of the ladies had fallen and 011 was called so she could be attended to. We were not sure for a while if they were coming or not. Kami was getting anxious as she wanted to try to get to that noon flight. It was about 10:45 and we had a 50 minute drive. Finally, our driver (Corey) forced the family to decide and it turned out that they put the woman on a stretcher to take her to the hospital. They kind of thought she had broken her arm. Poor lady. So off we went. We arrived just in time to know that Kami could not get her bags on the plane even though she probably could have made it. So she called an audible and listed herself to San Francisco instead at 5 PM.
The Orlando airport was a zoo. Disneylanders, cruse ship people and tons of wheelchairs. Even though Denise and I were pre-TSA and could have skipped right through the long lines, we had to get into the 'wheelchair line' which was 2 miles long. I think it took us about 45 to 50 minutes to get through it. And of course, Julee had some liquid product in her bag that caused her bag to be pulled and the product surrendered to the authorities. It was a painful moment. We finally arrived at our gate, sat down for 5 minutes and then they started calling those to board who might need help. It was pretty close actually now that I think about it. Anyway, off we went to Houston.
At Houston, Denise and I peeled off and went to Landry's Seafood for lunch\dinner. This was her free club perk from the Visa card that she acquired, We each got $28 to spend for lunch. Dale and Julee, we left them to their own demise. Since we passed Subway, a tuna sandwich was the only option for Julee (and poor Dale). She did go buy him french fries and we did bring some french fries back to him too. So they were all good. Denise ordered a shrimp PoBoy sandwich that could have fed us all. It was huge. We ordered way to much. Live and learn. We'll be back there and use this again.
Since we had our own wheelchair, we had to get it tagged every time at each gate. This time Denise went up and somehow she was able to get me moved up by her and got Dale and Julee their whole row. They were so nice to us in Houston. The flight went well. Denise and I watched 'Wanted'...and Australian TV show on Netflix about two innocent ladies on the run as they try to prove their innocence. It is pretty good TV show.
We arrived home around 10 PM after waiting for our bags about 40 minutes and then having to go to Park-n-Ride to get Julee and Dale's car. So good to be home!
I will have more pictures to add to the blog pages later today. My IPad gave me fits on this trip with the Blogger application. So I had to use the web page version and Blogger to get something up there. But now I'm using the laptop and will come back later today to clean things up a bit and add a bit more.
Another trip in the books! Pictures to come....
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Saturday, January 26, 2019
2019 January Hunter Cruise - Day 6 - Grand Turks (Diving)
This cruise has felt different in that we don't arrive to some ports until mid-day. It is kind of nice as you don't feel like you have to get up early and hustle off the boat. Today, we did not arrive to Grand Turks until 12 noon. It was nice as we slept in and just had a lazy morning. I went to breakfast fairly early while Denise had a bit more beauty sleep than normal. I did go up top to see how windy and rough the seas were. But they were not bad, unlike the night before. The sea was crazy rough last night. Anyway, at some point, I met Kami and Dale up in the Buffet. Kami wanted to go to the gym so I said I'd come up and help Dale get around. It was funny in that Dale wanted more sugar in his oatmeal. Kami, being the health conscience person that she is, kind of poo-poo'd the idea. But nonetheless, she went and got a bit of brown sugar in it. I watched Dale swirl it around, taste it and kind of make a face. Soon after Kami departed to go work out. Knowing Dale's condition and figuring what the heck, I said, 'Dale do you need more sugar?'. He smiled and said 'Yes''. So off I went to the coffee station to pick up some packets of sugar. It only took one more small packet to meet the sugar need. Dale was happy.
After just doodling around until we arrived, Jeff and I gathered our stuff to go scuba diving. I don't know why, I was a bit more anxious about this dive. I guess I was worried that Jeff would not have a good time as he told me how hard it was for him to get in and out of the boat the last time he dove years ago. Well, my fears were not needed. All went really well. The excursion was sold out. I think it was about the only excursion that was not cancelled. A lot of the snorkeling and other water excursions got cancelled. Who knows why. Anyway, there were 16 divers on our boat. Pretty crowded. Once we had our paperwork filled out, we got on the boat and went down the beach to a shack where they had all their gear. I was hoping for a BCD that would internally hold the weights. But no, I got a weight belt. The darn things won't stay on me! Whatever, I had to make it work. Once we had all our gear, we got back on the boat and headed down the shoe line for about 10 to 15 minutes. Once at the spot, we started to hook our gear up. This is the first time I had to do it...and I totally blew it. I had my regulator backwards. I asked for help and the guy just laughed and turned it around and then it all sealed up great. I got into my new shorty wet suit, which felt great, got all the gear on and then waited to get in. Naturally, Jeff and I were the last to get off the boat. Once in the water, we did a weight buoyancy check. I seemed fine. But naturally my weights were sliding down my behind headed towards the ocean floor if I did not grab them. I called the Dive Master over once he was in and had him really tighten them up. I have to do that in the water. I gave them a good pull, locked it down and all was good. Down we went. I went down pretty good. Jeff took a bit, but got down fairly good too. We dove along a wall that had a 7000' drop in some places. It was fun going in and out of crevices looking at plants and some sea life...but not much. We were down about 30 to 40 minutes. On this dive, I took my GoPro and took some video and pictures. But I find that so distracting.
We surfaced and then both of us were able to get in the boat quite easily. That was a good thing for two heavy weights. Up top, we got out of our gear and prepared the next tank to go down with us and our gear. Because the tank that they gave to me had only 2800 PSI, he had to fetch a couple of tanks from shore for both Jeff and I as Jeff's new tank had zero air in it. Anyway, the Dive Master hooked it all up again once we had the new tanks and away we went. Sitting on the boat seemed like an eternity, especially when you need to use the bathroom so darn bad! It hit me pretty fast after getting on the boat...and what do you do? Boy, getting back into the water never felt so darn good....sorry new wetsuit.
For the 2nd dive, I did not take my GoPro and I added more weights...3 lbs. I think that put me up to 19 pounds. I did this because on the first dive, I tried to stop my ascent at the 15' safety stop and I couldn't. I just kept going up. I tried to go back down...I could not. Fortunately, the last part of dive I was above the shelf and fairly shallow. So all was good. As for not taking the GoPro...that was a mistake. The marine life on this dive was much more prominent and pretty. I could have gotten some really nice photos. Oh well, live and learn. Again, we were along side the wall. This one had fewer crevices...but it was prettier.
Both dives were great...as they always are. We were back on the boat by 5:15 PM. Back on board time was 5:30 PM. That was the closest I've ever been. Anyway, we quickly showered and headed to dinner (at 6 PM). Denise will have to add her comments here about her day with her family. They had a great day on the beautiful beaches here in Grand Turk. She will have to describe the tumble Julee took into the ocean while looking for sea shells. She has it on video too.
Dale was too tired and weak to go off the ship today. I think the past two days got to him. So he had a restful day on board all day.
At night, most of us went to the main show called 'Flick'. They did a great job with lighting, magic, dancing and singing. I really enjoyed this one. After dinner, Denise and I went to the piano bar to watch and listen. The crowd on this boat was much bigger and rowdier than the last boat. And they wanted to be raunchy even though it was not 10 PM yet. After about 30 minutes or so, we left and headed back to our stateroom to go to bed. We watched a TV show on my IPad and then both of us were lights out quickly.
Tomorrow...our last and it is a sea day. I'm ready to be home but not go back to the snow and cold. That sounds horrible to me. :-)
Pictures:
Mike, Denise and Julee having fun off the boat on the beach....
The scuba dive adventure. Look closel, you'll see a great white shark....(Jeff).
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
2019 January Hunter Cruise - Day 5 - San Juan, Puerto Rico
Day 5 already.... we are in San Juan Puerto Rico again. Seems like we were just here. It was Denise's turn to stay with her father and do some easy things with him. She thought that she would just take him off the boat to get some supplies but when he heard that I wanted to grab the city trolley and circle the city a bit, he was all for that....wheelchair and all.
It turned out really nice even though the 10 minute trolley took over 45 minutes to pass by and it was not the one that we wanted. But we took it anyway. It took us into the heart of Old San Juan through some very narrow city streets. Pretty crazy. We were back on the boat around 1 PM feeding our faces yet again while Dale took a nap. Most everyone was also back on the boat from having snorkeled, gone on a Jungle Trek or seen the top 10 sites in San Juan. So far....great lazy day. I could get used to this...but then my stomach would explode and I would need more frequent colonoscopy's! More to come about our evening activities. We are having some fun.
Evening activities were fun. We had a Filet Mignon dinner with some nice desserts. Following dinner, we went to the main show. It was supposed to be full of singing, dancing and lots of theatrics. However, the sea has become quite rough and apparently they were going to cancel the show. But instead the performers decided to do a 'concert' version of the 88 Key Piano show. And they did a really nice job of singing lots of 'piano' oriented rock tunes. I quite enjoyed it. Following dinner, we again went upstairs and played cards with Dale, Julee, Kami, Jeff and Michelle. Nanette, Bruce, Mike and Jenny retired to their rooms after this show. I think they were feeling queasy due to the rock of the boat. It has been rocking pretty good. Card playing was a lot of fun just playing and visiting (for those of us with iron stomachs). These are good moments being together laughing and just enjoying each other's company. We retired around 11 PM...well past my bedtime. But a few of the others were still going to go to the comedy club...something we'll never do due to the language and content of the later shows. We don't need to hear such language and thoughts expressed in that fashion. But others really like it. I'm sure it is funny if you can filter the 'bad' stuff out. Anyway, we'll soon be in Grand Turks. And hopefully the sea will be calm enough to dive.
Denise happy to have AT&T....
On our trolley ride...whose that creeper behind them?
Lunch...Mongolian BBQ, plate of French Fries topped off with Key Lime pie.....yum!
Thrill riders in the 4D theater...
2019 January Hunter Cruise - Day 04 - St. Thomas (Zip Lining and Snuba)
Day 4 is here, I'm up, have eaten breakfast and now starting my blog before we do anything. Pretty different. We don't get into port until 11:45 AM to St. Thomas. It has only been a couple months since we've been here. Most of Denise's group will do a zip line excursion. I plan to go with Jeff to do a Snuba excursion where you kind of scuba dive without the tank. You are tethered to a hose that is attached to a boat. Should be interesting. We are to meet at 12:15 on the dock. Ship leaves at 6:30 PM today.
Well, the day was a fun day. It started a bit with Dale having a few issues. But Kami and Denise kind of dealt with them. Being sick is not fun, even though he is not taking his chemo treatments at this time. He is having a fun trip however. So we are glad things are going fairly well.
Jeff and I headed out to Snuba...a cross between snorkeling and scuba diving. It was a lot of fun. We drove about 30 minutes to Coral World. There we were out fitted with a regulator and some weights. We were then taken down to some stairs where we were hooked up to an air line. We were with two other people and our dive master. The max limit they would let u s go down was 20 feet. And you can't get far from anyone as you are all tethered to the same tank of air that is floating in a raft on the surface. Nonetheless, still better than snorkeling as you get to stay under water. There was some pretty large fish and some pretty coral. I was given 15 pounds of weight which got me down just fine.
Snuba...pretty fun. Look at my darn regulator...constantly wanting to come out!
The biggest fish in the sea....
After diving, Jeff and I sat and visited. Jeff did have one close call. He was putting on his showes and socks and leaned a bit awkwardly on this plastic chair and the darn thing exploded and Jeff went falling to the ground. I was worried that he had hurt himself. But he was ok. That chair really shattered.
A bunch of tree huggers...no zip liners.
Beautiful evening in St. Thomas...
Dale entertaining the island girls...
Being loved....
Denise and those who went zip lining had a lot of fun too. Denise will have to take a minute to share her thoughts about her day.
In the evening, we kind of went different ways. Some went to their rooms for a bit, others to the game shows that were going on....and so on. A few of us eventually ended up by the 'Swirl' machines playing cards, eating popcorn and being tempted by soft swirl ice cream. It was a very fun day.
Pictures:
Dale entertaining the island girls...
A snuba video....
2019 January Hunter Cruise - Day 01 - 03 - Arrival,SeaDay,DominicanRepublic
Well another cruise has begun. This is a Hunter Family cruise in honor of Bruce and Nanette's 40 year anniversary and Dale's request to join him and Julee on the cruise. The cruise begins in Port Canaveral, Florida and will go to Amber Cove (Dominican Republic), St. Thomas VI, San Juan Puerto Rico, and then Gran Turks Island. We boarded on the 19th of January and it will conclude on the 26th of January. Actually, from Salt Lake City, we began our journey from Utah on the 18th taking a red-eye flight on Jet Blue that left at 10:30 PM arriving at 5 AM in Orlando. We had the opportunity to accompany Dale and Julee, which is so fun and always full of surprises like, "I can't find my Fitbit cord."...which came to us at 7:05 PM from their home when they were supposed to be on the road to our home...and then on the plane having just landed, Jullee blurting out, "where is my tablet?" then getting Dale, Tim and Denise on all fours on the floor looking for it while people unboarded from the plane. Crazy! Fortunately, the flight attendant at the head of the plane came on the speaker system saying a tablet had been found clear up at the front of the plane. I guess Julee set it on the floor and the tablet went skipping under seats when the plane hit its brakes. And oh....I forgot the trip from our house to the park-n-ride where the inside temperature was a sweltering 100+ degrees and Dale was looking like it was Alaska inside with a large sweater and large coat on with a blanket on his lap. I guess I have to cut him some slack since his chemotherapy causes crazy things to rage in his body. We are so grateful he is feeling well enough to go with us and look forward to getting him on the boat so he can rest.
Another plane ride....red-eye no less!
Julee is happy....Dale thinks he's in the north pole!
Now that is how you use a wheelchair!
Welcome to Amber Cove, Dominican Republic. Denise and Nanette...
Off to our catamaran excursion on a bus....
Denise and Michelle...
Nanette and Bruce.....
Tim and Denise....
As we left the plan was to meet Michelle and Jeff at a hotel they had booked near the Orlando airport. Well that all changed when their flight was delayed out of SLC and they were told they would miss their connecting flight out of Dallas to Orlando. So Southwest booked them on a 6AM flight the next morning from Dallas, so no hotel in Orlando. After re-arranging our shuttle to Port Canaveral to pick us up from the airport and at an ealier time, Denise, Julee and Dale checked themselves into one of the lounges that Denise's credit card covers. She can get 3 guests into the lounges in airports around the world. But Tim, he was the wicked step child who ended up as a pauper child, begging for food and sleep just outside the door of the lounge! But no worries, Tim struck up a nice conversation with a nice man from Las Vegas who apparently was retired and loved to sail boats all over the world. He was going back to Vegas after having been sailing in many of the Caribbean islands since Christmas. He seemed to be quiet wealthy talking about ranches he owns in Utah and boats he has purchased to meet his sailing needs. I also eave dropped on a women's rowing team from Rhode Island, I believe. Time went by really slow, but I survived. Eventually my travel mates came out of their palace, well slept and fed, grabbed the wicked step child and took him to baggage claim. Fortunately we got there just as the Jet Blue team was starting to contact people whose bags were never picked up. We never left the terminal after arriving for about 4 hours. We hoped our bags would be there. They were. So we grabbed them and waited for Jeff and Michelle to arrive. They showed up about 10:30 AM and our driver arrived around 11:30 AM to take us to the boat.
The 50 minute ride to the Carnival Breeze Ship went by quick. It was so good to get on the ship and begin the over indulgence that would go on for the next 7 days. The boat embarked around 4 PM. We were all pretty tired but we had early dining so we could not just go to bed. Plus it was funny trying to figure out how to get Dale around in a wheel chair since we got off on the 6th floor and all the elevators were only supposed to stop on the 5th and 10th floors where the food was. One elevator finally stopped that had some room on it that was going down, but it had a bride on it and the people would not let the man in the wheelchair get on. It was pretty cold by them. Anyway, Dale eventually had to walk down the stairs while Julee and Kami packed the wheelchair down the stairs. Pretty crazy it was for them. Denise and I had left to try and figure out where to go to get the food more easily and then we lost them. Anyway, we all ended up eating at different locations. I thought that was pretty funny.
After dinner, Denise and I arrived back at our cabin at 8 PM. I kid you not, this guy was snoring at 8:10 PM having been up all night the night before. Day 1 was in the books.
Day 2 was a sea day. We started by meeting for brunch, at least some of us, around 10 AM. We then headed to Latin dance class where we all started to learn some steps. It was kind of fun. It was funny watching Julee fixate on Kami and Jenny dancing trying to get videos of them dancing. Denise and I got tire of showing everyone how it was done and left. We went up stairs to just sit and watch the ocean go by for a while. We went to the Serenity area (adults only) and got a cabana...only because it was about to fly off the boat the winds were so great. But our large behinds held it in place for about 20 minutes and then the security came and set our behinds were not big enough for the winds that were happening and asked us to leave...they were closing the area. At that point others, were indicating that they wanted to go to Guy Feiri's BBQ place on the boat...which we did. Pretty darn good BBQ it was. After that, Denise and her sisters went and bought an unlimited 4D movie pass ($15). They have a bank of shows that the can watch over and over. They are all like the Star Wars ride in Disneyland...something like that I guess. Jeff, Dale and I found some chairs on the deck and watched some of the Saints\Rams football game. We watched that to about halftime and then we had to get ready to get pictures and go to dinner. It was Prime Rib and Lobster Tail night! Yum! It was also formal night. And adding pictures right before didn't cause it to taste bad. We made it through getting pictures done with only a few folks not able to quite make the event. Nonetheless, pictures were taken and the food was good. After dinner, some of us went to the Motown Show. They actually do a pretty good job. This theater is much better than the last theater we had on our last cruise. But this ship is significantly bigger. Anyway, after Motown, the girls wanted to go do the 4D movie thing again so I went to the pool deck and watched the Chiefs choke a win away from the Patriots. I'm sick of the Patriots. They are SO LUCKY! The Chiefs had them beat but a defensive lineman lined up offsides that nullified an interception with a couple of minutes to go. Go figure. Anyway, I was snoring again at 10:30 PM.
After waking up 5 times to use the bathroom through out the night (and I'm not exaggerating), we had arrive to Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. Most of us had purchased the excursion to go on a Catamaran to sail and snorkel. It was a beautiful day here. Seas were calm, Blue skies...just really nice. We drove through Puerto Plata and then to a cove where we exited the bus after a 45 minute bus ride. We then walked into the water to board the boat. We did two snorkel stops. The first one had some pretty nice corral formations where the sea life was pretty good. But the 2nd one had a lot better seal life. The water clarity was really good and lots and lots of fish. At the 2nd stop, I took the GoPro out. And I'm glad I did because this time, my wife, with only a waist belt flotation I device swam and snorkeled all by herself! She swam all the way back to the boat and had a GREAT experience doing it. I'm so proud of her and overcoming her deep fears of swimming in deep water. It was amazing. We are now going to get her a mask and snorkel so she has better equipment next time we do this. It was really great. After baking on the boat for about 45 minutes, we headed south towards Puerto Plata, sailing for about 1.5 hours while we ate lunch, tanned and relaxed. WE eventually pulled up to a beach, got off the boat, and walked to a waiting bus for a 25 minute bus ride back to the cruise ship. It was a nice afternoon doing things that I really love to do. And I think Denise is starting to like it a bit more too.
Upon getting back on the boat, we were all pretty tired. It was about 3 PM. I wanted to see how my GoPro videos turned out. So I pulled out the SD card and started to upload them to my IPad. At some point, I got an out off space condition and then my IPad would not function. I forced a re-boot but that took almost an hour or more to finally get to a point where I could kind of interact with it. I figured out what I could delete and started deleting things. Eventually it began to run better having more space to operate in. But as I waited for this thing to re-boot, I kept dozing off. It was pretty relaxing. We all got a lot of sunshine and that caused some of us to burn a little bit, but not too bad.
Everyone joined us tonight for dinner. Last night Bruce and Nanette preferred to go to a comedy act instead of eating with us during formal night. I think they knew of the comedian and really wanted to see that person again. After dinner, some of us went to the comedy club to listen to the PG version of the comic. We took Dale with us and I think he really enjoyed it. The guy was so quick on his feet with his comments. I don't know how they do that. Apparently he was runner up on some show called Last Comic Standing...a comedian competition.
After the comedy show, we went upstairs to the buffet area (not to eat a given...thank goodness) to get a large table there. It started with Jeff, Michelle, Dale, Jenny, Mike, Denise and I playing cards (Fingers and Five Crowns). Soon Kami and Julee joined us after a shopping spree that she and Kami took at some bargain store (buy 4 things, get 5th item free). Can't pass that up. Anyway, it made Dale's lanyard purchase small potatoes compared to what Julee spent. I think Dale has about 30+ dollars to spend to get equal with the spending habits of his better half. Anyway, it all just keeps us laughing. We are having some nice fun with Denise's family.
Pictures:
Another plane ride....red-eye no less!
Julee is happy....Dale thinks he's in the north pole!
Now that is how you use a wheelchair!
Welcome to Amber Cove, Dominican Republic. Denise and Nanette...
Denise and Tim....
Denise and Michelle...
Jenny and Zachary....
Nanette and Bruce.....
Tim and Denise....
Some snorkeling shots....
Ending our snorkel day on the beach:
Dinner time....
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