Christmas to New Year’s Eve to Today

Hi,

So, long time no blog.

I had a bad cold for the last nine day. It started right before Christmas and just ended two days ago.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Brewer’s Bay on Tortola. We went in to snorkel and there were thousands (millions?) of little guppies everywhere. They were so thick that sometimes you couldn’t see anything - the ocean was also very wavy so there was lots of sand in the way.

Rance & Larrance saw a Stingray. I never saw it but I’m sure it passed me in the murky water. There were lots of fish called Palometas around too...they sort of looked like Angelfish.

We stayed in for a bit and then we decided to body surf on the big waves. I’ve never body surfed. I’ll bob around in the rough waters but I’m not big into getting into the waves.

But I thought I should try.

So I got ready for the first wave with Larrance next to me. It came and Larrance rode it all the way to the beach. Me? I got body slammed into the floor and then tumbled to the beach and when I stood up my top had been pulled down. Undaunted I tried again...only to get a free neti courtesy of the ocean, dragged to the beach and my top was pulled up again.

I kept trying, learned to hold onto my bikini top everytime the ocean grabbed me like a ragdoll and let the ocean water and the sand clean out my stuffed up nose. I know it sounds awful but it was really quite fun.

One neat thing: everytime a big wave came up, you could see all the little tiny guppies inside the wave - we were surrounded!!!

On Christmas Eve night Deanna, Rance, Larrance and I attended the Christmas sing-a-long on the ship. It was fun if a little odd. The pianst was Russian who now lives in Canada and he didn’t know or have music for the carols. He did his best but sometimes he ended up playing the wrong music...like he was supposed to play “Hark, the Herald Angel Sing...” but he played “Gloria Deo” instead. We all made do and had fun. After that we had dinner in the Garden Cafe and then went to Andy’s room to exchange our Secret Santa presents.

Andy was my secret santa - he got me some very nice things. My favorite was a set of stickers - one set is the “Jen approves” and it shows me smiling - the other is the “Jen disapproves” and it shows me scowling. Great gift. Everyone got each other very thoughtful and fun gifts and it was a fun way to spend Christmas Eve.

Christmas day was spent in Antigua. Everything was closed....and I’m glad, they should all be home celebrating and hanging with their fams! We walked around a bit and then went back on the ship since I was having trouble with the cold. Frankly I didn’t do much for the rest of the nine day cruise except rest. It paid off in energy and full voice for the shows.

By the last sea day of the nine day, I was back to my old self. On Miami day we spent the afternoon with the lovely Edward Strambio! He’s on the NCL Dawn which is in port with us on Sundays. We met at the Holiday Inn and then went to the Walgreens to stock up, then to Starbucks to caffeniate up and then to the beach to bask in the sunlight. It was a great way to spend the afternoon in Miami.

The first full sea day of this five day was New Year’s Eve. We all got dressed up and went to dinner at Azura. The menu was fantastic - so delicious and special. Then we saw Band on the Run....the JARS do such a good job and we wanted to support them on New Year’s Eve.

After that, it was up to the pool deck for the countdown to midnight. We stood on the deck, tried on goofy hats, had free champagne and took photos. Around 20 minutes to midnight, the cooks came out with an ice sculpture that said “2007.” ??? Well it turns out that they had a plan.

At midnight they pushed the 7 into the pool and replaced it with an .....8!!!! Right after that the cruise director, Paul, jumped into the pool in his suit and swam a lap. It was pretty great. We all hugged and kissed and felt grateful. A pretty great New Year’s Eve.

On New Year’s Day, we were on Grand Cayman. Larrance, Rance, Deanna, Svetlana, Roman and I all went to Smith’s Cove. We went there last time we were on Cayman and had a great time. This time was just as great but better!

Roman & Svetlana brought bread with them and the fish just flocked...er, swam to us. For Christmas, Rance’s mom sent him a waterproof set of fish flipcards. Rance takes photos so he gave the flipcards to me and I had a ball identifying all the fishies.

Later, Larrance and I swam over to another part of the cove and we saw a juvenile French Angelfish - it was beautiful. We also saw Squirrel fish, Doctorfish, Blue Tang, Cocoa Damsels, Tomates, French Grunts, Goatfish and some others that I didn’t have time to identify. Rance has some other cards so I’ll have to do some retro identifying.

We had our Stardust shows that night. They both went great. We’ve been struggling a bit with the improvised musical that ends our show. Just trying to find the right format and make sure it’s fun for all. I think we nailed it last night. They both rocked and we brought the house down.

Some of the JARS were at our show, I could see Jon Paul, Christopher, Phillipa & Ryan. There may have been others there but that’s who I could see. They were, as always, really supportive. After the show we went to Bar City, Deck 6 midship, and we had a drink with Christopher and Jon Paul. Then we went to the Blue Lagoon, Deck 8 midship, for some comfort food. We went to bed around 2am.

We both fell soundly asleep. Later that night I had a weird dream where I was trying to see a bulletin board but I couldn’t keep myself on the same level. I kept rising way up into the air and then dipping way down. Then the shuddering of the ship awoke me and I realized we were in the middle of a huge storm. 17 foot waves were rocking the ship and everything on the ship was rocking, creaking and shuddering. Larrance and I both were awake so we watched the storm from our porthole. But watching the storm made us both feel a little sick so we stopped. I tried to go back to sleep but the dipping and rocking of the ship kept waking me up. It was like my brain thought it needed to alert me to danger - I told my brain that it was wrong and finally fell back asleep.

This morning the ocean was still quite rough - 12 ft waves - and I guess we were lucky to make it into the port. Two other NCL ships (the Sun & Majesty) didn’t even come in - too rough. It took an hour to pull into the dock - they had to be so careful not to crash into the dock. So it was an hour of gunning the manuvering engines, move 2 inches, gun them again and move 2 more inches. They did a great job because the ship is fine. Freakin’ Disney Cruise Line waited until we were docked and then they slid into port using our ship as shelter. What a bunch of Micky Mouse jerks.

So instead of snoreking at the Coral Princess hotel, we’re sitting at the internet coffee place. We had a delicious pablano corn quesadilla and some coffee. And internet time...

Tonight we have our improv shows. We’re looking forward to them. Tomorrow is a sea day. We’re planning on exchanging photos and playing some games. Hope all is well with you!

xoxo,
J & L