2015 Western Caribbean Cruise - Day 5 (Grand Cayman)

After a great nights sleep, we were up in time to go to the forward part of the ship to see us coming into Georgetown, Grand Cayman.  Our arrival time was 10 AM, scheduled and actual.  This is a port where you get tendered  back and forth from the piers.  But before all this, I got up and went to the place where you get tender tickets to get off the boat.  They do this for the first few boats of the day.  We were #4.  After getting the tickets, I came back and blogged a little, adding photos to the blog until it was time for breakfast.  We then headed up to the buffet for some more of the same...although I made a wild omelet.  It tasted pretty darn good...I thought.  I also had fresh fruit, turkey sausage and english muffins.  Boy people stuff their plates though.  I was pretty reserved!

After being tendered to shore, we found the site where our tour operator was to be.  Nobody was there yet.  It was about 10:45 and we were not supposed to meet them until 12:15 PM.  So I had some backup plans.....to walk to a point where you can put into the water and swim out to a reef.  So off we went walking.  The reef is calleed Cheeseburger Reef.  The reason for this name is because it is right across from a Burger King.  Anyway, it took probabl 7 or 8 minutes to get there.  So Kim, Ilene and I got into our snorkeling gear and headed out.  Denise tended the gear, even dipping herself into the water a bit.  The sun gets pretty hot when it is bearing down on you...and it was.  The air temperature is really nice...high 70's.  But the sun makes you get hot quick.  Anyway, the reef was quite aways from the beach.  I just kept swimming until I got to some boats and asked a guy on the boat where it was.  He said I needed to go a bit further out.  So I kept swimming and swimming.  I finally found the reef and I swear I was halfway back to the cruise ship!  But the reef was nice with quite a bit of sealife moving around.  I tried to get some GoPro videos.  I wish I could post them here...but I cannot.  Pictures only.  After a few minutes of messing around over the reef we headed back into shore.  It was quite the swim.  Ilene took off like a fish swimming pretty fast.  It was her exercise she said later.  We pulled out of the water around 11;30.  We got out of our gear and headed to Burger King because they had free WIFI!  The first place I've seen have it.  So we quickly downloaded emails and I published the first 4 days of posts to the blog.  Once it uploaded...which took quite awhile...we were off to the pier where we came in to hook up with our StingRay Bar and Snorkeling excursion.  When we arrived, our guy was there.  Turns out that there was only 8 people on his boat!  Really small group which made it nice.  We got into a van and headed north to a Yacht Club where their boat was.  From there we headed east into the bay to the Stingray Sand Bar.  We pulled up as the morning folks were pulling out.  So when we got in the stingrays immediately came over to us.  These puppies are pretty darn big in some cases.  They would come right up to you wanting food which we had been given by the tour operator.  It was fun to touch and mess with things you would never see in most areas in the world.  The water was shallow so all of us could just stand there while they swam all around us.  After the food ran out, we jumped on the boat and headed north to the barrier reef for this inlet.  There we snorkeled for 45 minutes or so.  Lots of great sealife there.  Great picture opportunities which I enjoyed much.  I did get hung up on some coral and cut my leg a bit.  I thought for sure sharks would smell my rich, vibrant blood and want it.  But no sharks appeared!!!  :-)  After snorkeling, we got onto the boat and headed east to a point called 'Starfish Point'.  There you could walk on a white sandy beach and look for starfish in the water.  I think we found a few 'planted starfish'.  They looked dead to me but the skipper said they were alive.  I don't know if I believed him.  They were pretty hard.

After our tour was over and we drove back to the pier, we found a liquor store with free WIFI.  Both Denise and I went in and loitered around downloading emails and trying to upload email with photos and videos.  I guess my email was too large and I was too impartient with the slow WIFI so I finally gave up on sending my note.  I did get a text out to the family who have apple devices letting them know that we were alive.  After doing this, we boarded a tender and off we went back to the ship.

We had the usual very nice dinner (Tiramusu for dessert).  We are dining with a couple from Florida and a couple from Toronto.  They are very nice people and we have enjoyed our visits with them.  Our entertainment tonight was the ships dancers and singers performing what they called 'Momentum' which was a series of pop songs with some very nice dancing.  These people are so flexible....it hurts to watch them!

It was really a nice day.  Grand Cayman has 50k people living here.  So not many.  The water is beautiful and the life seems pretty slow.  Everyone was really friendly.

Our ship....

Petty Stingrays .....

Snorkel buddies.....

GoPro Picture down under....

Large stingray approaching!!!

Starfish Point Beach......

Hiking on the beach....

2015 Western Caribbean Cruise - Day 4 (Cozumel)

Well, they rolled the clocks back one hour this morning causing everyone to wonder what time we were really on.  Bottom line is that we were up at 7;00 AM to find our boat docked at Cozumel.  The water is pretty and blue here.  I was excited because this was the first time I was really going to use my GoPro for what I bought it for.  And I've also been buying up snorkel gear.  So excited to give it all a shot.  

After hitting the breakfast buffet, we were let off the boat around 8 AM.  We wandered off around 8:30 AM.  It took about 45 minutes to get the jeep.  It was a nice jeep.  We only wish its top was off.  You can wish for that for cars but not for the sunbathers...right?  :-)  Anyway, we got the car and headed into San Miguel.  I really thought it would be easy to find the turn on the road that takes one across the island.  But we missed it.  We even stopped to ask a guy where to find it and he naturally told us to go the wrong way....which we did.  When we hit the airport on the other end of the island, we knew we had gone the wrong way.  So we then started south gong through the San Miguel Barrios.  We got a real taste of living in Cozumel.  Not too pretty.  Reminded me of parts of Colombia...the way the homes are built.  Eventually we came to the main highway and headed east to go to the San Gervasio Ruins.  

Finding the ruins was actually easy...well marked.  We turned off the highway and headed north for about 6km.  We pulled into the parking lot only to have a guy be our 'security' guard.  He was really nice and watched our car...for a tip of course.  The entrance fee was 9.50.  We spent about 1.5 hours there walking around and seeing the Mayan ruins here.  Nothing like Chitza Itza on the mainland.  But nice...very nice.  

Upon leaving San Gervasio, we headed back to the highway and headed east to the eastern beaches. They are nice.  We stopped at one and got out into the ocean.  We were told the snorkeling was not as good on the east side...too sandy.  They were right.  So we packed up and went to a beach on the western side called Mr. Sanchos.  This was a big place that had water toys and lots of stuff.  More people than I liked.  But even here, the snorkeling was not that good.  But, I did get to get out there and use my GoPro equipment.  It was fun to film fish and stuff.

We headed back to the ship around 2:00 PM.  On the way I stopped to get gas.  Naturally they give you a car that is half full and expect you to figure out how to get it back to half full!  I put 300 pesos in...which finding out later was about 20 dollars.  The guy charged me 29 dollars.  I did not have pesos so I had to pay it.  The guy got a 9 dollar tip for filling half of my takn.  Geez....rip offs!!  And they are proud of it.

Back on the boat we rushed to get some food.  We were starting to get hungry.  I know..hard to believe.  So we got some Ice Cream, fries and split some burgers.  All healthy stuff though!!!  :-)  We then retired to our rooms to get showered and cleaned up while the boat prepared to leave port at 4 PM.

We retired to our rooms for about an hour or two to shower and get ready for the evening.  We then met at a table where we played another round of 5 Crowns...a card game that Denise has yet to win!  Kim has been kicking all our tails at this game.  Such a lucky card bum.  He should be in the Casino making millions!

Dinner ws great again.  We always have multple appetizers, soup, salad, multiple entrees and every dang dessert on the menu!  The food quality and service is really, really good.  I had a small steak and then we split some veal.  Others ordered a seafood plate which I was bummed out that I did not order. It had all the good things from the sean in it.  I'd include pictures of the food here but those pictures are on Denise's phone and with no internet I have no way of sending pictures to other devices unless you have a media card.

The evening entertainment was a group call "Tenors of Rock".  They were 4 guys from the UK who had sung on one of the english talent search shows and did quite well there.  This show was really, really good.  These guys could sing and they covered a wide range of rock-n-roll songs from groups all over the world.  We all really, really enjoyed the show!  So far, the entertainment on this boat has gone beyond expectations.  

In summary, the snorkeling in Cozumel was less than I had hoped for.  Next time I would find a boat to take me out to the reef.  Snorkeling from shore was a c+ at best.  Live and learn though.  We did enjoy the trip in the Jeep around the island.  It would have been nice to have one with the top off.  Fun nonetheless!

Tomorrow....Grand Caymans!

Look out Cozumel...her she comes!

Main road at International Pier in Cozumel....

Our Jeep....(wish the top was off)....

San Gervasio Ruins.....

Temple at San Gervasio.....

Ilene at one of the 'eastern side' beaches that we stopped at....

First adventure out into open water on one of the east side beaches....

Ready to go back out into the water and shoot fishes with my GoPro!

Ahhh....the beach life (Denise getting a beautifully bronzed body!)

Mr. Sanchos beach area for food and drinks.....

Kim and Ilene upon returning to our boat...the Celebrity Reflection.

Great day in Cozumel!  Tim and Denise 2015 Cruise, Cozumel Mexico.

2015 Western Caribbean Cruise - Day 3 (Day at Sea)

Food, food, food...food everywhere.  It is pretty crazy.  In all cases, we have had our option to do buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner or you can sit down in their nice dining hall and be served.  During non-meal times, you can always find lots of food.  Ice cream is also available constantly...soft serve or hard ice cream.  On various decks, you can find pastry bars where you can grab a pastry.  So yummy!

We got up slowly today and met for  breakfast around 9:00 AM in the dining hall.  We were there for about 1.5 hours slowly eating and just visiting.  At 10:45 AM, they held a galley tour which was pretty amazing.  I think this boat has ovet 1200 people involved in food production alone.   I think they prepare 15,000 meals a day on the boat.  Neza would love to see such production.

After the tour, it was time to eat again!  :-)  We did lunch in the buffet.  When we were done, we went to the game room and played games for an hour or so.  We played 5 Crowns which was really fun.  At 3:00 PM, the Packers vs. Seahawks game was on.  We watched a bit of the first half. More Packer fans than Seahawk fans...which was great.  We left at about half time to go play some more games and then get ready for dinner.  But before we did that, I went back to check the score.  It was 19-7 with 3 minutes left to go and the Packers were winning.  Game in the bag, right?!  I left to go get ready for dinner.  After dinner I came back to see what the Patriots and Colts score was and to find out the score of the Packer game....they lost!!!  I about fell on the floor.  I could not believe it.

Dinner was yummy.  We get two of everything.  The portions are fairly small...so no big deal.  Denise has ordered well each night.  She had some beef tenderloins last night which was so good.  I had blackened salmon with a BBq sauce on it.  It was ok.  We have not been disappointed with the food at all on the Celebrity.

After dinner, we went to the 'show' of the evening.  They had people start it off that could fold themselves every which way...so flexible.  Kind of like me.  :-)  After these folks, the captain of the ship came out and introduced his crew.  It is a huge staff that he oversees.  He is from Greece.  After his presentation, the show began.  It was a cast of dancers and singers doing Broadway and Popular musicals songs.  They were really quite good.  I really liked it.  Following the show, we departed to our rooms ready to get some sleaap and hit Cozumel running.

It was a great day at sea...restful, filling and fun.

Waiting for the  Galley Tour in the Dining Hall.....

Introduction of the staff of chefs.....

Some food carvings that they had on display.....

2015 Western Caribbean Cruise - Day 2

We picked up Kim and Ilene at the airport around 10:45 PM.  We took them to the apartment and basically went to bed.  We were all pretty tired.

Kim and I woke up around 7:00 AM and got ready for the day in Miami.  We needed to return the car to the airport by 10 AM.  So we went to a grocery store and bought some bagles, juice, cream cheese and doughnuts.  Once everyone was ready, we piled suitcases into the car and headed to the airport.  Prior to going, I had called Alamo to see if they had a shuttle to the Port of Miami...and by George...they did.  For free!  So we jumped on that shuttle and arrived at the Cruise terminal around 11 AM.  After waiting in line to officially check in, we boarded our ship.  The ship has 15 decks.  We are on deck 9 and the very back of the boat.  The rooms are really clean and very nice.

Upon boarding the boat, we headed immediately to the buffet for lunch.  What a nice buffet it was.  Everything you ever wanted.  Salads, Italian, Indian, Asian, French, etc. foods.  So good.  After eating we went up  by the pool and laid around listening to the bands and watching people....pretty crazy.  At 4:00 PM we set sail.  The boat is so smooth....you don't even know that you are moving.

At 6:00 PM....it was time to eat again!  Prime Rib, great appetizers, soups and salads and crazy good desserts.  They are going to have to roll my off this ship.  After eating, we went to their nightly show, a stand up commedian named Steven Scott.  He was really good at imitating people and things.  After the show, we walked around a bit and then headed to bed.  We're all still pretty tired from travelling.

At this point, I dion't know when we will be able to upload this blog.  For internet on the boat (unlimited)...comes at teh bargain price of $299.  That's a deal!  I might  be able to upload when we get to islands.  We'll see.  I also hope to get some pictures on my IPAD that I can post too.  We'll see.

Day 2 is in the books and it has made us excited for our day at sea and eventually all our island excursions.  More to come....

Leaving Miami....

Our stateroom.....

Deck 14...the pool deck.

2015 Western Caribbean Cruise - Day 01

Denise and I took a red eye flight from SLC to Ft. Lauderdale via Charlotte, NC.  We arrived at 9:30 AM in Florida and headed to the rental car agency to get our car.  Everything went well except for sleeping.  The planes were crowded, hot and noisy.  One passenger in our first flight thought that everyone wanted to listen to their childs 'movie' and did not use ear buds for listening.  Finally, the Airline Steward spoke with the family and asked them to use head phones.  In our final leg, Denise was privileged to sit by a man that was very large and overflowed into her seat.  I was against the window and slept pretty good for about 45 minutes.  That felt good.

After getting the car, we headed to our AIRBNB apartment that I rented.  It was about 35 miles away from Ft. Lauderdale and very close to Miami International Airport.  Sometimes it sounds like we are on th end of the runway when the planes are taking off.  The unit is in a regular apartment complex.  It is 2 bedroom, 2.5 baths, Kitchen, Front Room with large flat screen TV.  It is really clean.  We found it pretty easily after hitting a Burger King for some breakfast\lunch.  Upon arriving, we immediately headed to bed to capture a few 'zzzz's'.  That felt really good to get some sleep.  Anyway, for $109 for the night, this place is a really great deal compared to hotel prices we would have had to pay.

Kim and Ilene arrive at 10:40 this evening.  Denise and I will go get them.  We will get up tomorrow and  head to the aiport to return the rental car and catch a shuttle to the Port of Miami.  Alamo offers a free shuttle to the port...which I found out today.  This and AIRBND will save a few greenbacks for my kids to enjoy in my inheritance!  

Our boat departs at 4:00 PM.  We will probably be there by noon, ready to get on.  We're all kind of excited to sail and play in the ocean!

2014 Munich Day 7

Good bye Austria...hello Munich, Germany.  It rained all night in Salzburg last night.  How did I know?  Lousy night of sleep.  Since we had to walk to the train station from our apartment, I was a bit worried that 2 wet rats would show up to the terminal and they would not let us on the train.  Fortunately, the rain stopped.  I know I slept a bit because at one point I had a nightmarish dream where someone was chasing me down a hall and I started to yell in my sleep...”Help!”, “Help!’, “Help!”.  The last “Help!” woke Denise and she lovingly said to me....”Quit yelling!”.  She then rolled back over and continued howling at the moon.  I could have been killed...and she would just go back to sleep!  Geez....

 

The train ride from Salzburg to Munich took just under 2 hours.  The ride through the green valleys of Austria and Bavaria, Germany was nice.  Lots of little towns with churches at their center amidst large mountains and extremely green valleys.  So beautiful.  We arrived around12:00 PM.  We immediately sought out the tour booths to secure a walking tour of the Rise of the Third Reich.  The train station just happens to be in central Munich and lots of the historical sites are here.  I also booked a hotel about 100 yards from the train station.  It was easily found after we booked our tour.  Even though we arrived at the hotel a bit early, the let us into our room.  Our tour was scheduled to leave around 3:00 PM so we had some time to kill.  I looked at our flights tomorrow to check plane loads.  As a result on what I see on Sunday, I decided that we will not go to Moline, which is the closest airport to  Nauvoo.  Instead, we will probably fly to Houston, Texas and back to St. Louis which will put us in around 8:15 PM.  Our flight to Houston will be almost 12 hours, followed by a 4 hour layover and then a 2 hour flight.  When you factor in 3 hours of getting ready and to the airport in Munich and onto the flight...well you do the math.  It is a very long day.  If all goes well, we will get up Saturday and drive 3 hours to Nauvoo, participate in the ceremony stuff there, then drive 3 hours back to St. Louis.  We’ll then be back up on Sunday and in the St. Louis airport by 6:00 AM to catch flights back to SLC.  If all goes well, we should be in SLC around 1:00 PM.  It makes me tired just typing it.  While I’m on this subject...is flying standby free?  Not when you travel overseas.  To get out of Munich, there is a $100 tax per person to fly out of this airport.  Then if you want to fly Business Class, it is another $130 (at least to Houston from Munich) per person.  All relatively cheap when you think of the full price fare.  But expensive when you think about the fact you may never get to where and when you intend to arrive.

 

Back to our travels. At 2:30 PM we headed back over to the train terminal to join the walking tour.  The tour guide was a funny sort of guy from England.  He had been leading these tours for about 10 years.  We immediately illegally boarded the subway to go to our starting point (I don’t think everyone had a legitimate ticket for this train).  But that did not stop our guide.  We arrived at Merianplatz...a plaza significant to the start of the rise of the Third Reich.  It was fascinating to hear how Hitler rose to power from nothing....an Austrian Artist trying to make a living in Munich.  After almost 3 hours, and I swear 10 miles, we completed our walking tour.  It was a nice tour that brought me up to speed on a lot of interesting historical facts about Germany and World War II.

 

After the tour, we went to a little seafood restaurant just below our hotel window.  It was quite good.  After that, we grabbed a waffle with Gelato placed on it for some desert.  That was great too.  We then came up to our room to prepare ourselves for tomorrows adventure.

 

Our European trip is concluding.  But we have seen so much on this trip.  Great parts of the world here...great people living their ordinary lives like we live ours.   Yea, there are some differences in materials, cultures, etc..  But in the end, it is just people trying to live their lives in a happy way.  I am grateful to have the means and opportunity to have made this wonderful trip.  It will be a great memory for both Denise and I.....

Our apartment in Salzburg....

Train platform in Salzburg where our train to Munchen is to arrive.....

Two hungry travelers find paradise at the Munich train terminal......

Our room in Munich....right across from the train terminal in the downtown area.

Merianplatz....where our walking tour began!

An old beer hall....Nazi meetings first began here.

A real beer garden....

A new beer hall.....

A weary walker....

This is bike mania here.  I have never almost been hit by so many bikes!

Great day and trip!!!

2014 Austria (Salzburg) Day 6

Salzburg, Day 2.  I finally got a decent nights rest.  Denise stayed up late talking to people and stuff.  But I fell asleep and did not get out of bed until 8:30 AM.  And even then, I let Denise get up first and get ready.  That is pretty rare in our relationship!  After we both got ready, we figured out that our under clothing were going to run a bit short.  So we became clothes washers by washing clothes in the bath room sink.  You should see our bathroom...clothes hanging everywhere!  We hope they will dry before we leave town tomorrow morning.  I feel like a local resident now.

 

After doing some research on city bus lines and such, we decided that we would just walk to the old part of Salzburg town.  We also decided to look for some breakfast along the way.  By the time we left, it was almost 11:30 AM.  As we walked, we came across a SPAR market which are little markets strewn on corners everywhere here.  There we chose a big role and had the lady cut off a nice big piece of pig back (it looked good) and put it on the role with pickles.  We bought some chocolate milk with our sandwich and off we went.  Now my part of the roll was really good.  Denise got the crunchy part...not sure what part of the pig she got!!!  She was not pleased.  I told her she got the chewy part...best deal for her money.  She did not think that was funny.

 

It was a 20 minute walk to Old Salzburg.  It is a touristy place, of course, with lots of people walking around looking into shops and things.  St. Peters church sits in the middle of it all with a number of squares here and there.  Mozart is a hit here.  So you see a few statues and tourist trap places named after him.  We walked through the plazas and on up to a tram car that took you up the steep mountain to the Fortress that overlooks the city.  I thought we could just pay 8 euros to go up and down on the tram and not do the tour stuff.  But during the daytime, you have to pay the 11 euros to do it all.  The tour stuff was pretty good showing us lots of stuff that happened to this fortress.  But the best, of course, is the view over Salzburg and the region round about.  It is so beautiful here even though it has been cloudy and forecasted to rain. 

 

After coming down from the Fortress, we walked along the river and meandered our way back to our apartment.  I decide that I’d go ahead and book our return flights home.  We are trying to get to Moline, Illinois or St. Louis as early as possible.  So even though there is a 9:30 AM flight to Houston with over 70 seats available, I’m putting our names in the Newark flight (which also leaves at 9:30 AM) even though it is appears to be oversold.  If they free up the ‘held’ seats, we will get on.  If that does not work out, at 11:20 AM there is a flight to Washington DC that has 16 seats.  We should get on that which would force us to go to St. Louis.  We prefer Moline since it is an hour’s drive closer than St. Louis.  But beggars cannot be choosers!  We’ll see how it goes.

 

After hanging out in the apartment for an hour or two, we headed out to a Thai place for dinner.  I know...we’re in Austria and we’re eating Thai food.  It just seemed to sound good.  We have had our fair share of Schnitzel and Brat sausages.  We rarely eat Thai.  The food was really good.  But I blew it on my drink order.  You normally HAVE to buy the bottled water in restaurants here.  So when the waiter came over I chose water (with gas...I need the lift me up) and Denise water without gas (she’s a bit gassy already).  Total cost for that...about 5 euros (or $8).  But looking in the menu later, we could have asked for tap water for .50 euro!  I was ticked.  After eating this good food, we wandered over to the train station to check to see if Deutsch Bahn had a ticket machine there.  I read that I could buy this Bayern pass for about 30 euro for two of us to get to Munich from Salzburg.  We used the same ticket to get to the Czech Republic border.  If I could get that ticket, it would save me about 16 euros or more.  This ticket can only be used after 9:00 AM on all regional DB trains.  We found the machine and went ahead and bought the ticket for tomorrow.  When we arrived back to the apartment, I wanted to see the schedule for DB trains.  I became nervous when the schedule of trains going out of Salzburg showed no DB trains.  I started to feel like I messed up by buying this ticket.  Further research on the internet I came to learn that as of December 15, 2013, a train line called Meridian replaced all the regional trains coming to Salzburg.  The Bayern ticket which I bought is still valid on those trains.  So I am golden.  A Meridian train leaves every hour from Salzburg to Munchen (Munich).

 

Well, Salzburg has been what I needed.  We have loved our journey thus far very much.  But this day, today, allowed us\me to slow down a bit and just enjoy the beauty and the fresh air here.  And even though our feet hurt, the rest of our body is refreshed.  Tomorrow is a quick travel day to Munich (2 hour journey).  There we plan to catch a Third Reich Munich Tour from the train station at 3:00 PM.  Our hotel is close to the train station again.  Should be interesting.....Ciao!!!

Photos of our apartment....

Floating Mozart.....he does more than music!

Mozart and his protege....

A man on top of the world?  This is found in one of the main plazas in Old Salzburg.  I have no idea why.....

Fortress....going up

Looking down into Salzburg....

Happy travelers......

They gave me this darn audio device.  But every time I would ask a question, I got no response!  :-). The guy just kept talking....

A gunners mate....and protector of the land!

Ok, even the gunners mate leaves her post for a Water Closet break (lower right corner)....

To my children....your mother wants her grave to look like this year around!!!!

Fortress...coming down

Finally....she shares!

The first diet thing I have found....yes!

Too cold to jump in...nice river flowing through Salzburg.

The Fortress with one of the tall Alps in the background.....