So About This Cruise Business

I am home from my seven-day cruise, and after a couple of days at home, I can tell you all about it.

We left from Ft. Lauderdale on Day 1, a sunny day with clear skies and a coconut rum punch in hand. I do believe the bartenders on the Grand Princess weakened those welcoming drinks just a bit—plenty of coconut and not much rum. But it was still nice. We spent the next day at sea, getting to the know the layout of the ship, watching crew members make animals out of fruit and veggies, painting ceramics, and eating. Honestly, while you can seriously eat all day long on a cruise ship, I don't know why anyone would want to.

Our first port was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We chose a carefree excursion and toured an 18th century coconut plantation that looked out on the bay. We were served tea on the veranda (see the picture above). It was lovely. That night held a ship-wide New Year's Eve celebration, but Daughter No. 2 and I were the only ones to stay up to watch the balloons drop at midnight. This is the scene from the atrium.

The next port was in the Grand Caymans. Husband and daughters spent the morning at the beach, and my mother and I toured a butterfly farm. This is a butterfly that landed on my mother's hand. They were fascinating.

We also went on a semi-submarine ride to see some pretty fish on a reef. The island had practically been destroyed by Hurricane Ivan, including the coral, but it is all slowly coming back to life. Here are some fish.

After a lovely dinner and a show of some sort, we went back to our cabins and tucked ourselves in for the night. That's when the storm hit. I'm not sure when we met up with the gale force winds and 18-foot waves, but I woke up around 3:00 am to find us being sloshed back and forth in our beds as if we were sleeping in hammocks. The ship rolled and creaked and swayed, and all we could do was hold on. My mother and I shared a cabin, and we lay there in silence just trying not to roll off onto the floor. At one point, I managed to make my way to the bathroom to shut the door so it would stop banging, but there was nothing I could do to keep the dresser drawers from sliding in and out.

In the morning, I looked out the balcony doors but knew better than to open them. The howling wind had created white caps as far as I could see, and clearly, we had not reached the port at Cozumel. We were scheduled to be there that morning, where we were going to ride horses on the beach and tour some Mayan ruins, but by the time we got to Mexico, the port closed because it was just all too crazy. The captain announced we would have to spend the next two days at sea, and we would aim to reach Princess Cays, Bahamas on Friday morning. Buckle up, folks, because it isn't going to get any better. I believe the shops on board sold more Dramamine that day than on the rest of the cruise all together. My mother became ill and spent most of that day in the room doped up on Dramamine and trying not to fall down, and I learned that it's best not to look at the waves outside for too long, especially while eating lunch. Most of the outside walkways and the pools were closed for the day, so everyone wandered around inside watching movies in the theater and playing checkers and drinking. I'm pretty sure the casino did a pretty good business.

This picture doesn't do the waves justice because it was taken from deck 12. The next night wasn't too much better, but things did calm down on the second day a bit. You still had to hold on to walk down the hall, and riding the creaking and swaying elevators was fun. Just before dinner on that second rough day, the captain announced the weather had deteriorated once again, so the ship would have to slow down to keep us all from breaking limbs, and we would not make our port in the Bahamas the next day. We would, however, be able to dock at a closer port, Freeport, by morning so we could at least be on solid ground for the day.

We had lunch on shore, which seemed fine at the time, but I believe the quaint local restaurant was the source of Daughter No 1's stomach cramps and violent illness that followed. On cruise ships, when someone is ill, the place freaks out because viruses can spread so easily. We paid a visit to the medical center for some nausea relief, which they were happy to provide, but that was followed by instructions on being disembarked separately from the rest of the passengers so as not to spread germs. It was also followed by having No. 1's cabin disinfected. Fortunately, she did not have the dreaded cruise ship virus and was better the next day, and we were not escorted off by the health department.

Overall, the cruise was an adventurous and pleasant experience. We saw some interesting shows, had some lovely meals, spent time together as a family, and relaxed quite a bit. We certainly won't forget the stormy seas. Oh, and did I mention my mother broke a tooth? And I got a bad cold. But still, we had a lovely time.