“Why didn’t he say anything two days ago, when he got back?!” Well, for your information, I was tired! I had just finished an interview at Drexel. I’m quite confident that I’ll be accepted into their summer mentoring program for Engineering. However, all aside, I’m back from the cruise and feeling great. More than great, in fact. So great, that I think I’ll explain a little bit about the trip, and share some nice photos, too. If you want to see some photos and learn something about my amazing trip, just read on. So, naturally, the trip was amazing. I feel completely refreshed (and about ten pounds heavier), but I’m also richer in a different sense. I had experiences I doubt I’ll have again, and I have to thank Royal Caribbean for setting up such a great service with their Freedom of the Seas cruise. It truly is the biggest (literally) and best cruise around.

Day one was spent simply being excited. Max, my mother, and I all got on the plane early, and arrived in Miami after a lot of DS playing and well-deserved napping. We took a bus to the port, saw several cruises, and instantly knew which one was ours. The largest one, of course! It dwarfed all of Royal Caribbean’s other cruise ships, although the Explorer of the Seas was also gigantic. We parked, got off, and rushed onto the cruise. yes, even my mom ran, and she doesn’t do that often. If it looked big from the outside, it was monstrous from the inside. We were instantly welcomed and told lunch was being served on deck eleven. Yes, eleven decks. I learned later that there are fifteen decks total on the ship. The rest of that day was spent finding our room (on board rooms are called “staterooms”), and afterwards exploring the ship. We did get lost several times. At night, we made it mandatory to go see the Welcome Aboard show in the Arcadia Theater, the cruise’s own private theater, where we witnessed comedic “talent,” and met the cruise director, Rich Spacey. That man was truly a riot - if he was a cruise director, he sure had a lot of fun directing things. Enough for him to do silly dances. After the show, we had dinner in the dining hall, one of several, and sat at a table with another family. This family was from Sweden, and we all became fast friends, even if we weren’t all very hungry because we’d been eating all of the free food on the ship.

Day two was spent sailing, so we had more time to explore and get lost. It was quite a fun day, but was spent mostly doing things around the ship, swimming, eating ice cream, exploring the gym and spa, finding the sauna, etc. What a huge ship it was… absolutely massive.

Day three was our first stop, Cozumel. We took a tender to the mainland and then a bus to Tulum, where my mother and Max overheated in the hot sun and I went around taking beautiful photos and panoramas. The bus ride was an hour long, so we didn’t get back to the ship until late - about 5pm. It was an all day trip, and I feel that Max and mom really missed out, especially since there was a very nice mist coming from the ocean on the cliffs of Tulum. It was all incredibly beautiful, and I love the Mayans for their mysteriousness. It seems like they’re a race of never ending perplexities.

Day four was our second stop, Grand Cayman, where we took a tender out into the middle of the ocean - out to a sandbar inhabited by stingrays. You can feed the stingrays, touch them, and snorkel with them. This might have been the coolest part of the trip . The stingrays eat, in short, whatever wiggles out of the groun, so we fed them squid. It feels like they’re biting your hand, but they’re not, just suctioning the squid. We had photos taken, etc, etc, and all eventually figured out how to use the snorkel and not suck up water. It was a great time! That night at dinner, we learned that the Swedish family’s parents were not married - apparently this is quite common in Sweden, about 30-40% of “couples” live together with children unmarried. Who would have thought?

Day five was out third stop, in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Here we took a trip to Dunn’s River Falls to climb up the river, just as my mother and father had done on their honeymoon so very long ago. However, my mom overestimated her abilities, and ended up scared to death until halfway through the river/falls, when she finally got the hang of it. I, on the other hand, had a great time as usual. The river and falls were just as I imagined them; crystal clear, blue-green, shaded by luscious foliage in magnificent shades of pthalo green. How would I possibly get photos, going up a river? Well, the guides take them - thus I don’t have too many random river photos, but do have at least three group photos of myself, my mom, and Max, all at the falls.

Us at the falls:

Day six was the ship’s last stop - Labadee, Haiti. Surprise, surprise, this is Royal Caribbean’s own private peninsula of Haiti! It’s very small, comprised mostly of beaches and one rock formation. Before going off of the ship, however, we all decided to check out the Flowrider - the Freedom’s on board surfing machine. When we got there in the morning, they were doing the final rounds of boogie boarding (not surfing). We all were able to go once - my mom was surprisingly good, I was modest at it, and Max couldn’t drop in without instantly wiping out. I was the only one that went more than twice in the coming day. At any rate, afterwards we weren’t going to do anything except the beach in Labadee, but ended up going to Dragon’s Breath Point, the rock formation. At the top, which isn’t really a top more than a straight pathway to a location, there is an area of rock that seems to be breathing. This effect is caused by water from the ocean below moving in and out of tubes in the rock, producing an effect that sounds like a dragon breathing, hence “Dragon’s Breath Point.” I caught it on video and film, just for the heck of it. When we got back, I made sure to go to the FLowrider when it was on again, and tried my hand at surfing, which was what they were performing at that time. I fell off quickly the first time, but the second and third times managed to stay up for a little while with the guidance of one of the two instructors who worked on the machine. It was a lot of fun, and afterwards I was able to do more boogie boarding, which became so easy that, by the end of the two-hour boogie boarding session, myself and three other people, being the only ones left, were all so good that we could basically stay on the Flowrider until we decided to wipe out.

I should probably mention our dinner waiter now - his name was Kevin, and he was Jamaican. Was he humorous? You bet. He and our assistant waiter were like a special team of super-waiters; I don’t think I’ll ever have another waiter like him, or get to know another waiter better than I did he. He had a special contempt for Johnny Rockets, located a few decks above on the ship, which I had already been to twice at this point for lunch, and wasn’t planning on going again. As day six was our last night having dinner with him serving us, I decided to perform a little gag, and ask him for a photo holding a small sign. Unbeknownst to him, the sign said “I <3 Johnny Rockets :)”. He did catch a glimpse of the “I <3″ part, and said that he was homophobic, which made us all laugh. After he took the picture, we all gloated, and said that it was a great idea having him do that.

That night, I went to “The Quest” show, which took place in Studio B (formerly the ice skating rink). It was a riot - if you can imagine the party game common at bar mitzvahs where the children are asked to go into the audience and get scavenger hunt objects, but for adults, you’ve got what “The Quest” was. It mostly revolved around humiliating the men, asking them to find a bra and wear it, then dance with the bra on and no shirt, etc. Quite a laugh!

Day seven was the last day of the cruise, and was a sailing day; we were headed back to Miami. The purpose, I decided, of this day, was to do everything we hadn’t done before. I wanted to do more Flowriding, and I did so, but I also wanted to ice skate, and I also did so. I also wanted to do bingo, which was a little more complicated. You have to be eighteen, because it’s gambling. A few minutes before the bingo game started, I went down to buy a bingo card (they were $50 a piece), but was told that I had to be eighteen. I ran to get my mother, who was at the pool, told her to quickly go to the Arcadia Theater (where it was held) while I get Max, and also mentioned that I would meet her down. We all got to the theater before the first game started, bought the card, and began to play.

There are five games of bingo, and each game is played on one card with six bingo squares per card. We lost the first game. We lost the second game. We lost the third and fourth games. Each of those games had a prize of a few hundred dollars - that’s why the cards were so expensive. The fifth game was played on two cards if you payed $50, one card if you pays $35. This was also the jackpot game, so to win you had to fill one entire bingo square. Well, as luck would have it…

…I won.

The prize totaled $4832. In tax-free cash. We all freaked out, not believing that we won five thousand dollars on the last day of the cruise, and after the bingo session I became a small celebrity for the night for winning the big cruise jackpot. One women walked up to me and asked, “Hi, do you date married women?”, while several people asked what my stateroom number was. The lady who had been sitting next to me, crumpling up and throwing her bingo sheets every time she lost, asked if I was buying her dinner.

A man took us down the Royal Promenade (that’s the mall-like area), and to Customer Relations, then to the back room where the offices were. There he showed us a large sum of cash, put it through a money counter three times to verify that it was in fact $4832, put it in an envelope, and gave it to us.

We had dinner at a different restaurant that night; Chops Grille, a fancy steakhouse on board that costs an extra $20 per person to go to. To give an idea of how popular this place was, I will say that as soon as we got on the ship we went to book our reservation, and when we got there it was already sold out. However, since three is an odd number for a family, there was an opening that one night… lucky us! Before going to Chops, however, I had to give the tips out to our waiters. I went to the regular dining room to find Kevin and our assistant waiter, who had already heard the news of my winnings. Kevin looked at me, and the first thing he said was, “You lucky bastard. You told them that I’m you’re older brother, right?”

I said, “No, but didn’t you hear? I’m going to buy you a Johnny Rockets.”

He looked at me sternly and said, “I hate you.” We laughed. He was such a great guy; I wish every waiter I have is like him. I handed him the tip and thanked him for being one-of-a-kind. I also gave tips to the other waiters, etc.

Chops was a good meal, and the entire day was a wonderful way to end the cruise. We disembarked then next morning, and arrived home that day. What a trip! It’s good to be back :)… especially with enough money to buy a new camera (The Nikon D80 with an 18-70mm lens, $1250), a Nintendo DS lite, and a new processor for my computer (AMD Opteron 185, $330). However, this cruise… priceless. Welcome home.