Tuesday, April 6, 2010

getting around to it

I came back to more work than I anticipated yesterday so I am just getting around to the promised trip blog…This is all over the place because I have a cold & can’t concentrate on one train of thought.  Sorry.

 

Royal Caribbean changed our itinerary 3 days before we left.  We were supposed to sail for two days to St Thomas (day 4), then to St Maarten (day 5), then a day to Nassau (day 7), then home.  They switched it to Nassau (day 2), a day at sea, St Thomas (day 4), St Maarten (day 5), two days at sea & home.  They also shortened each day in port considerably.  We were supposed to be at St Thomas & St Maarten from 7:00 to 6:00 & Nassau from 9:00 to 5:00.  Nassau was shortened to 7:30 to 1:30.  We had an excursion scheduled from 9:30 to 1:00.  The excursion was more than 45 minutes late getting started.  We got back to the port at 1:15. 

 

On Monday afternoon we had been out on the deck & were going to meet Donna (my brother’s girlfriend’s sister) for a drink.  We went back to our room to change…Both of our keys would not work.  We went to guest services & were issued new keys.  We went back to our room to find that the new keys did not work.  We went BACK to guest services & were issued yet another set of keys but were told that someone from maintenance would meet us at the room.  Guess what?  They didn’t work either.  We waited about 20 minutes & no one from maintenance had come up.  I went back to guest services alone; John waited in the hallway.  The woman at guest services was very apologetic & called maintenance again.  She was told we would be met by someone. 

 

Someone finally came up from HOUSEKEEPING with the same freaking magnetic key that we had.  Guess what?  Didn’t work.  By this time we had been waiting well over 30 minutes.  The housekeeper called maintenance & told them that his key didn’t work either.  They said they would send someone up.  Twenty minutes later someone finally showed up with yet another magnetic key that DIDN’T FUCKING WORK!  After another 15 minutes they finally sent someone up with a charger of some sort that unlocked the door.  The guy changed the AA batteries out of the door & the keys worked!  Go figure.  You would think that a preventative maintenance program would be in place to prevent something like this from happening. 

 

Our excursion to do the zip line/rope bridge stuff was cancelled due to lack of participation.  It was suggested that we schedule a similar excursion for the same island but that was not scheduled to come back to the ship until 30 minutes before the all aboard call.  We passed because we didn’t want to take a chance on the excursion running late & not getting back on time. 

 

The excursion on Nassau was to do snorkeling.  John has never been because his eye sight was so bad he couldn’t see & we never bothered with a prescription mask because of the expense for something that would almost never be used.  He had PRK a couple of years ago so this was his first opportunity.  The water was too cold for me to be bothered so I stayed on the boat in the sun—with a sweatshirt on by the way.  John got in & gave it a shot.  He found that he couldn’t do it.  He felt claustrophobic!  He wanted so badly to do it & just couldn’t breathe.  He said his heart raced & he felt like he was going to hyperventilate.  I felt so bad for him. 

 

The ship itself is gorgeous.  There were supposed to be 5500 guests on board & 2100 staff members.  We never felt inconvenienced (except with the door thing) or over-crowded.  The staff was there to entertain & entertain they did.

 

The one thing that I found interesting was that the majority of the staff we encountered was of another nationality.  They were always friendly & accommodating.  The very first American staff member we encountered was grouchy & pissy.  WTF?  No wonder everyone hates Americans.  I hated Americans that day.

 

We liked St Maarten better than St Thomas.  We found St Thomas to be dirtier and more run down.  However we really didn’t leave the shopping districts of either island so we based our feelings on a small part of the islands.

 

We enjoyed sitting in the solarium.  I ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.  Guess what that means?  I gained a few lbs—but don’t really know how much.  I weighed myself on Sunday & was up 9 lbs.  I got back on the scale yesterday & was down 3.  I got on the scale today & am down another 2 lbs.  So my guess is that I did gain but until I’ve had a couple of days to settle back in won’t really know what the damage is.  And I’m okay with whatever that is because I enjoyed myself.

 

I did do the zip line on the boat.  It was 9 stories up & 82 feet long.  Interestingly the harness that one wears is what holds you up.  The handles are just for holding on.  The first step to get going was daunting but it was over so quickly I didn’t have time to think about it. 

 

On Friday I was laying out & looked down at my feet.  I had kankles!  My guess is that my weight gain is a lot of water because I do have a bit of my ankle back today & am in comfortably my size 8 slacks—yesterday my 10 jeans were tight. 

 

I posted a picture of The Cupcake Cupboard on facebook to which Wendy commented, “Uh oh!”  Donna said the coconut cupcake was to die for.  I held off on having one until day 5.  They didn’t have coconut or anything fancy.  I ended up with a plain vanilla with chocolate icing.  It wasn’t great.  I ate the whole thing anyway!  lol

 

The food was really good.  I was surprised at how good considering the amounts that were being prepared.  I told my boss that it amazed me that they can put out restaurant quality food at 3 meals a day for 5500 people yet the military dining facilities can’t put out decent food for 1000.  There’s something wrong with that. 

 

There really isn’t much to tell about the cruise because we did very little.  We didn’t stay up late for the shows & spent most of the time laying in the solarium. 

 

I woke up at 3:00 AM this morning with a sore throat & low grade headache.  I’m calling it the Caribbean Crud.  I didn’t work out today because I just couldn’t get up the energy to do it.  Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow.

 

I’m going to plan on doing the July competition with Wendy but will reserve the right to postpone until August depending on my fat loss progress (I’ll decide in mid-June).  I posted on Wendy’s blog that I am glad she decided to try bodybuilding because I was intimidated by the thought of competing against her…Intimidated is an understatement!  I was scared to death!  I think we would have a good time but I know she’d make me look like the novice I am.  lol 

 

My eating is back on track.  I have a new frame of mind with the competition in mind.  I feel really good about it.  I have changed up some of what I’m eating & that helps—I’ve added different flavors with seasonings & such.  For example I found these low carb, multigrain tortillas that I’m filling with scrambled egg whites for eating in the car on the way to the gym in the morning (remember it’s a 40 minute ride so the food in my stomach isn’t a big issue by the time I get there).  I tried it out for the first time yesterday & found that I wasn’t STARVING when I finished my workout.  I was hungry but not starving.  The timing of finishing my workout & getting into the office puts it right about 3 hours between meals.  That’s better than what I was doing with having a shake before working out & being starved by the time I got to the office. 

 

When I get my mojo back I’ll be hitting the weights hard & heavy & cardio fast & furious.

4 comments:

Laura said...

Welcome home, honey! I've missed you. I'm so glad you had a nice relaxing time on your trip. I've never taken a cruise, but my parents have done a couple and they love it. I'd really like to do the Inland Passage of Alaska and also Antarctica someday.

I hope you're over the Caribbean Crud soon. Travel can be so hard on the immune system, even when it's for fun.

Wennndy said...

Welcome back, Deb! What Laura said.

When I was on the QM2 I loved the staff, who were from all over the world. They were probably my favorite people onboard, LOL. :) Fewer were Americans, except the performers, as I recall.

Lessee, that means you are now about 16 weeks out? I haven't done the exact math. Hmmmm.

Deb said...

It's 15 1/2 weeks to the July comp...I have done the math. lol

Doin the Math said...

Great story! I was amazed at the pictures of your ship...the inside. (The outside [size] goes without saying.) I've been only been on 2 cruises, but the ships were older, pre-2000's glory. Nothing like yours. Except for all of the staff being foreigners, that was the same.

Congrats on deciding to do a show! I keep thinking, "but you and Wendy will be in different height classes anyway", but that only applies in the open. And that's my only piece of advice. You will have done all of the hard work, so enter as many classes as they will allow you to enter! Don't just do the masters, unless the show is so big they restrict you to one class.

Can't wait to follow along! :)

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