I DID sneak in a short nap on the beach yesterday. I think Jeremy might have dozed off as well. Hey, we gotta get our rest in when we can since we’re just going, going, going.
Speaking of which, I think it’s time for Jeremy to put some more sunscreen on me and then maybe take a quick dip to cool off.
12:18 p.m.
Jeremy just surprised me by telling me that he’s scheduled a spa pedicure and massage for me. Massages aren’t really his thing so he’s going to try his hand at the casino. He’s been itching to play blackjack again ever since we were there the other night.
I can’t believe it! He’s such a wonderful husband! I’m so excited about my treatments. But I want to shower to get all this sunscreen and sweat off me before I go, so I guess I’d better get a move on.
What a lovely day this is turning out to be (due in large part to my new hubby!).
4:24 p.m.
We’re back in our cabin for a bit. Jeremy is sitting on the bed watching a movie on one of the handful of television channels we get while he counts his winnings from playing blackjack. He’s so lucky at those games!
I’m sitting here on our balcony feeling like I’m about to melt into the deck chair. My spa treatment was AWE-SOME! I’m just soooo relaxed after that massage. It was heavenly.
My pedicure was lovely too. I picked out a fun tropically pink color for my toes. It fits my mood – happy, lively, and bright.
It’s neat to watch the ship cut through the water at such a brisk pace. It’s kind of weird at the same time. It’s so lonely on the sea, so empty. Once I saw another ship far off in the distance, but other than that, we are completely alone.
Mmm, it’s starting to rain. I think it’s time to retreat inside.
4:44 p.m.
We’ve come up to a glass-enclosed veranda portion of the Vista Deck to watch the squall that has now turned into a real storm with some very heavy driving rain and some decent-sized waves.
Jeremy says the ship must have its stabilizers on to counteract some of the wave motion. Even then, there is still some noticeable rocking to the ship. It’s a little scary, but more exciting than anything. And it’s kind of cozy sitting up here watching the sheets of pouring rain thrash against the glass as the ship drives ahead through the storm. I’m surprised to admit that I kind of like it…as long as the storm stays this way and doesn’t get any stronger.
8:14 p.m.
The storm calmed down after about an hour, but the waves have remained sizeable. We’re sitting out on our cabin balcony, lights on for me to write by as we cruise along. If I look down over the balcony rail, I can see the waves breaking against the side of the ship, the frothy white foam sloshing away from the ship’s hull out into the darkness of night.
At dinner, conversation was subdued, but the food was good. The mother and daughter were missing from the family of four (I learned that the boy’s name is Nicholas, and the father’s name is Brent). Nicholas was all excited, having really liked the storm. Brent explained that their little girl (Amy is her name) wasn’t feeling well and had stayed behind with her mother in their cabin.
Jack (Vivian’s husband) wasn’t there either due to feeling under the weather. Guess this storm has taken its toll. Sure glad I took my motion sickness medication.
I asked Benedicto – or “Benny” as he said we can call him, our Filipino server – whether storms at sea were common. From what I could understand in his broken English, this storm was not very bad compared to some. Our head waiter, Philippe, from Costa Rica, overheard my question and clarified. He said that Benny had worked on a cargo ship making trips back and forth across the Pacific before he joined the cruise ship, so anything less than a typhoon was “not very bad” to him. But he also explained that in most instances, the captain of our ship did all he could to avoid rough seas. But Philippe said it is inevitable at times that we encounter rougher seas en route to our destination. According to him, this particular storm was minor in its overall severity. He explained that several cruises ago, they had hit a storm with 30-foot waves. A particularly bad wave had broken one of the windshields in the ship’s bridge (the place where the captain or first mate commands the vessel). Almost a dozen crew and several passengers were injured during the storm (mostly bumps, bruises, and a few sprained ankles, he clarified).
The bridge is really high up on this ship, so I can’t imagine just how rough the seas actually were. I hope I never have to experience such a storm.
I know that on the two days we are at sea later in our cruise, they offer a guided tour of the ship, a sort of behind the scenes offering that I’d really like to take. I think it could be quite interesting and very educational. Maybe I could get a better view of and from the bridge then.
As soon as I’m done writing this entry, we’re heading back to the casino. After this afternoon’s winnings of almost $200, Jeremy is hooked. Then I think we’ll take in a show at the lounge. According to Jeremy, we might have to hit the casino again after the show depending on how his luck holds out. Guess we’re going for broke here. Oh well, what’s life but for living? Plus, it’s our honeymoon, we get to splurge a little, and since he was so sweet to treat me this afternoon, I owe him a little latitude in his game playing. I just hope he’s not too tired for a little game playing of our own later this evening.
September 3rd
(Cruise – Day 4)
6:53 a.m.
Jeremy keeps grumbling about how early I’m getting up each morning, but I just can’t help it. This experience is so new to me and so interesting that I don’t want to waste a minute. Plus, the time is going so fast. I can’t believe we’re on day four of our honeymoon trip. It feels like each time I blink, it’s another day gone, and that means another day closer to heading home and back to work. But let’s not think about that.
So today we’re at St. Thomas. In fact, I think I see it off in the distance already. We had such a great time at the private island the other day that Jeremy and I decided to sign up for a snorkeling day-trip while we are here.
Ooh, there’s the door. That must be Loretto with the coffee I ordered. Guess I need to answer it since I don’t see Jeremy rushing to rouse himself.
7:05 a.m.
Ahhhh…everything’s better with coffee!
It looks like the storm from yesterday has passed. The seas are calm, the sun is starting to come up, and life is good.
Jeremy is out here with me on the balcony, bed-headed and bleary eyed. But I don’t care how he looks. I’m just glad he’s awake and with me. Everything is better when he’s around.
Poor thing, he’s still licking his wounds from the beating he took at the casino last night. He lost back all his winnings, plus some. But that’s okay. The lounge act was good and helped take some of the sting out of his losses. There was a really good singer who performed with a band. She was very smooth, very mellow, very melodic. There was also a comedian. He was very good as well – relevant, funny, but not political. I hate political stuff. Everything is so political these days. Yet the politicians act like kindergarteners and squabble among themselves nonstop. Who could like them on EITHER side?
Okay, it looks like we’re nearing St. Thomas. I want to watch our approach and then we need to get ready for breakfast. I think it will be the buffet today. We’ll need the energy for our snorkeling extravaganza!
9:15 a.m.
The buffet was not very crowded this morning. At first, we thought it was just because a lot of people were getting ready for their shore excursions or maybe because they were still feeling a tad under the weather from yesterday’s storm. But now we’re wondering. Word around the buffet was that there’s some sort of flu going around on the island and many of the planned day excursions have been canceled. Seems a little early for flu season, but maybe it’s some sort of Caribbean flu or something. All I know is that our excursion is still good to go because we go straight from the cruise ship onto a small tender boat that takes us to our snorkeling site just offshore o
f the island. Thank god, because I’m totally looking forward to it after our last snorkeling adventure.
Well we’d better get a move on. I’ve got to get into my bathing suit.
2:17 p.m.
THAT…WAS…A-MAZING!!!
It was even better than our snorkeling back at the private island. Right at ten this morning, about a dozen of us boarded a small boat that has drawn up alongside our ship. We departed about 15 minutes later and cruised for what I would estimate was maybe half an hour.
We dropped anchor about three or four hundred yards off shore in a very secluded area. I have to admit that at first it was a little intimidating being faced with snorkeling so far from land. I kept having flashbacks to those “Open Water” movies. I steeled myself with that fact that if our boat somehow left us out in the water, we could at least swim back to shore if we had to.
Then of course, there was the issue of sharks. I kept mentioning it to Jeremy, so he asked one of our tour guides. The guide (who wore dreadlocks and sounded as if he might be from Jamaica) told us that, yes, there were plenty of sharks in the waters. But he also said that the tour company had yet to have any of their tour boats harassed by sharks during the time they’d been running, which he then added with a wide grin had only been two months. Then he came over closer to me, and said in his heavy accent, “Just joking, lady. You be okay.”
God, how do the Jamaican’s do it? They make everything sound like it will be just fine no matter what. They could tell you that a comet is hurtling toward the planet, its impact imminent within hours, but if they then sang out in chorus, “Every little ting’s, gonna be alright,” you’d probably believe that it would.
So anyway, back to our tour. Once we dropped anchor, the crew gave us a few instructions about how to don our gear (life jackets were already on, but we had to get flippers, snorkels, and masks on correctly). Then they provided some safety instructions about how to get on and off the boat, as well as general guidelines about where to swim and what we should not touch since some of the waters around the boat were shallow enough for us to dive to the bottom. As a final note, they told us that they’d blow a whistle at the end of our swim session since it was easy to lose track of time while snorkeling.
Then we were set to go. Jeremy and I picked out flippers befitting our foot sizes, and then we helped each other get our masks and snorkels adjusted properly and so that they fit snugly against our faces.
With all this done, we entered the water. And were the tour instructors ever right about losing track of time! It was like we were on another planet. We saw not just incredibly beautiful fish, but HUGE fish in the deeper parts of the water as well. At first, I thought they were sharks. I feel silly about it now, but I actually tried to hide behind Jeremy in the water I was so frightened when I first saw them. But once you get used to them, they’re kind of like big cows just lolling about in the water. Jeremy tried to dive down to where they hovered, but they always seemed just out of reach.
Then we swam over to where an old wreck was positioned. It was an old fishing boat that had sunk years ago and was too deep to reach without scuba gear, but it was amazing to swim over nonetheless. And there were a ton of fish – massive schools of them in an array of colors. Orange, blue, yellow, silver, red…you name it, the color was there on some sort of fish. It was amazing, simply amazing!
Just about the time I was really beginning to get the feel for using my flippers, and even getting adventurous enough to do a little underwater diving, we heard the whistle blowing. I had just figured out that if I took a deep breath, dove beneath the waves to do some investigating, and heaved a mighty blow when I resurfaced, I could clear the water from my snorkel without ever raising my head completely from the water.
I’m going to remember that for next time. It’s not a huge time saver, but having to pull your head out of the water and tilt it back to clear the snorkel kind of breaks your concentration. It momentarily puts you back in the real world, where as if you can keep your head submerged, it’s almost as if you become one with the sea and the creatures living in it.
So if I haven’t made it obvious by now, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED TODAY’S EXCURSION!!! And I would do it again in a heartbeat. Maybe they have a similar trip at St. Maarten. I know we should probably branch out and do something different tomorrow, but my god, I think I’m hooked on snorkeling. What will I do when we get home? We can’t quite snorkel in Lake Michigan, nor would we want to. God only knows what’s breeding in that cesspool.
They gave us boxed lunches once we were back aboard our charter tour boat for the leisurely return ride to the cruise ship. Jeremy and I were famished after so much swimming, so I’m not embarrassed to say that we plowed through our food.
Right now, I’m at my usual perch on our balcony, looking out across St. Thomas while I write. Jeremy is showering, and then I’m up once he’s done. After I get dressed in my evening attire, we’re going to go upstairs, find a bar, have a tropically concocted libation, and wait for the ship to disembark. I find it interesting to watch a massive vessel like ours navigate the tighter spaces involved in docking at a port. Now, according to Jeremy, they do it all with side thrusters, which I find impressive on its own. I can only imagine back in the day when they had little other than a rudder and some tug boats at their disposal. Now THAT would be something to see!
Tonight is what I call “fancy” dinner night. It’s the one night when men are to wear suit jackets and slacks to dinner and the ladies are to wear dresses, evening gowns, or similar acceptable attire. I’m kind of looking forward to it. I haven’t had a chance to play dress-up since the wedding, and I bought a cute little black dress for just this occasion before we left Chicago.
It sounds like Jeremy is out of the shower. Guess I’m up.
9:15 p.m.
Dinner was excellent. I like being served multiple courses, it makes me feel so elite, like I’m dining on the Titanic or something. I guess that’s kind of a bad example…maybe a dinner with the Vanderbilt family is a more apt description. And as a grand finale to the night’s dinner service, the waiters balanced dishes of cherry jubilee on their heads as they danced their way out to the tables. It was impressive to say the least, and the dessert was delectable. The atmosphere kind of detracted from the performance, though, considering there were so few people in the dining room. Let me explain.
Things have suddenly taken a slightly strange turn on our honeymoon voyage. On our way to dinner, we noticed all these little barf bags (like the kind you see on airplanes) balanced along the ship’s railings lining the walls. I thought they might be leftovers from the weather we encountered the other day. Jeremy surmised that maybe we were heading into rough seas again, thus, the crew had taken preemptory action in an effort to reduce the number of “accidents” in the ship’s public spaces.
This made sense at the time, and I thought it an astute evaluation of the situation from my dear love – that is, until we got to dinner.
When we arrived at the dining room, we were greeted by a tuxedo-clad waiter at the entry doors. He took our names and then asked us to wait to be announced. Other than at our wedding, I’ve never been “announced” for anything. I suddenly felt very prestigious – as if we were suddenly among society’s elite. But my elation at feeling so special was tempered as, once we were announced to the dining room audience, we realized there was hardly an audience there to observe our grand entrance. There were maybe 30 other diners gathered in the dining room, so the entire event was somewhat anticlimactic.
Five minutes after being seated, we began to realize that we might be the only ones at our table. Ten minutes later, as our waiter took our orders, we were sure of it. It made sense that the family of four wasn’t there. Kids don’t want to get all dressed up. Who knows if their parents even brought them dress clothes. I probably wouldn’t if I were in their shoes. But I was surprised that Jack and Vivian weren’t there. I would think that older people, with no kids in tow, would enjoy a more formal at
mosphere. But to each their own.
I asked one of the waiters where everyone was, but he said he didn’t know, that it was just a slow night. He said that this is often the case with the formal dinners these days. People just don’t want to pack formal wear.
I found his answer rather disheartening and a somewhat sad commentary on our society. Don’t people like to ditch the beach attire and be fancy for at least ONE evening? Guess not.
But something tells me there is more to this story than our waiter was letting on. All the barf bags, the cancelled day-excursions at St. Thomas, the lack of diners at dinner tonight, our missing tablemates the other night – it all just seems kind of weird to me. Can you say, “norovirus”? That’s why we’re calling it an early evening tonight. I think this trip is finally catching up with us. We’re both pooped.
On the way to dinner we signed up for another snorkeling trip for when we reach St. Maarten tomorrow. We had such a blast today, I can’t imagine anything better. While swimming with dolphins or going zip-lining might be fun, I think we’re both hooked on snorkeling. It really is magical. Yet another reason why we need our sleep. All the swimming really takes it out of us. Wish I could get this sort of exercise on a regular basis back home!
The Dystopian Diaries Page 31