Cruise in Review

Well, I cannot say that I like going from 80 degree weather back to the 20's, but it is always nice being home... especially after sleeping in your own bed. Chad and I had an AMAZING cruise. We loved it and would not mind being back in the Caribbean right now. Next cruise leaves January 29, 2011. That is our 14-night honeymoon cruise to Hawaii on the Sapphire Princess. Less than a year away, but who is counting?

For this blog, I have decided to do a daily re-cap instead of by sections (i.e. food, entertainment, ports, etc.). Okay... now on to the cruise in review. Hope you enjoy!

Saturday, February 13 - Embarkation/Sail Away
As soon as we got on, we toured the ship. Now I have already been on this ship (went to Alaska on it in 2007), but Chad clearly wanted to explore and I wanted a refresher. We took a lot of pictures which you will eventually get to see on Facebook. Luggage was amazingly quick and we unpacked by the time we had to go to the safety drill. One new thing to note, you no longer bring your life jacket to the safety drill. This was a welcomed change. During our tour we went to the spa and booked a scalp massage for the first sea day and a full-body couples massage for the last sea day. That night for dinner I had prime rib and Chad had the pork chops. I also enjoyed the chilled rhubarb soup. The entertainment for the night was a variety show which Chad and I wound up being in. We were in a game where I had a tray velcroed to a helmet on my head. He had to stack food on my tray, and I had to dump it into this huge barrel without using my hands. Needless to say, we won the game, and were recognized for the rest of the cruise around the ship. That night, it was EXTREMELY choppy out and the ship was a-rockin'. But all was well and we were ready to turn in.

Sunday, February 14 - Half Moon Cay
Today was not only Valentine's Day, but also a stop at Holland America's private island. This was my 3rd stop at a private island, and I can easily say this was the nicest... absolutely gorgeous! In fact, you would not realize this was a private island, you would think it was one of the other ports we went to. Side note... before we got off the ship, we had breakfast in the main dining room. I had french toast that they made out of banana bread. Can you say DELISH?!?! Now, back to the island. Chad and I rented a private cabana for the day. It was AWESOME. We basically had our own little hut complete with fancy lounge chairs, a kitchen table and chairs, a shower, air conditioning, a ceiling fan, and tons of snacks and drinks. We also had hammocks on the outside that we enjoyed for quite a bit. It was a wonderful and relaxing day, minus the part where the loose chickens on the island tried to kill me. I hate things that fly.... they most definitely are an animal meant to be eaten!!!

When we got back to the ship, I had surprised Chad with chocolate covered strawberries and a dozen red roses that were delivered to our stateroom for Valentine's Day. He got teary and I loved every minute of it. That night I had filet mignon for dinner and Chad had a New York Strip. I also started with the mixed berry chilled soup. Again... delish.

After dinner, we saw the show "If Walls Could Rock" done by the cast. It was a great show. Now, a brief bit about entertainment/activities on the ship. In a word... they SUCKED!!!! The shows done by the cast were great, but there were only 3 of those. The rest was awful. Our Cruise Director, Eric, was atrocious. Hands down my worst cruise director ever. He never planned ANY activities to participate in. He was never around schmoozing with guests. And other than the cast, the nightly shows were terrible. You will see all of this played out as the blog continues because we skipped several shows and did a lot of movie watching and board game playing. Ultimately, we did not care because we liked the time spent together, and we made our trip wonderful and memorable on our own, without the dumb cruise director and his lack of activities.

Monday, February 15 - Turks and Caicos
We were not docking until 12:30, so we woke up and had breakfast in our room. Then we went to hear a talk about our next two ports, Turks and Caicos, and Samana (in the Dominican Republic). As we were having lunch, the ship's alarm went off and alerted everyone to a fire. To make a long story short, it was just a copy machine that was smoking, and there was nothing to be worried about. They did a GREAT job keeping everyone informed though and making sure no one was panicking. When we got back to our cabin to get ready to get off the ship, we got a message saying our power snorkeling excursion was cancelled because the weather was too choppy. That was a huge bummer as we were really excited about it, but you could see it was bad out. Finally, time to get off the ship.

This was a port I was extremely excited for. You see all of the celebrities going here and it looks gorgeous. Well, T&C is made up of several islands, and all I know is that where we went, Grand Turk, is NOT where the celebs go. There was a BEAUTIFUL brand new cruise terminal. Lots of shops and fun places to poke our heads in. But beyond the terminal.... nothing. So, we walked over to Margaritaville and thought it looked fun. Then we saw the swim up bar and said we have to do it. So, we got in the pool and swam over to the bar. Chad had a margarita and I had a daiquiri. They were great. Not long after, it started to rain, and did not stop the rest of the day. So, we called it a day and went back to the ship.

Back on the ship we played Scrabble, watched Scary Movie 4, and went to Canaletto (which we called Camel Toe) for dinner. It is their specialty Italian restaurant and it was great. I had chicken marsala and Chad had their lasagna. We met a Jewish couple at dinner and chatted with them for awhile. The show that night was a comedian. He was AWFUL. We left after about 20 minutes. Then, we called it a night.

Tuesday, February 16 - Samana, Dominican Republic
This was a port we were warned about. Basically they said there is NOTHING to do. Three small shops and that is about it. So, we did a Whale Watching excursion. It was awesome. We saw a lot of whales and it was really cool to be so close. The down side, for the first time in my life, I got sick from the motion (again, very choppy water) and to make another long story short, I threw-up twice over the side of the boat. Well, misery loves company and there were a few more people who did the same. It was not pleasant, but we still enjoyed the whales.

Back on the ship I had a New York Strip for dinner and Chad had a prosciutto wrapped chicken breast with Gouda. He loved it... mine was great too. That night I bought Chad's chain for a Jewish star, once he completes his conversion. (Funny I talked about his eating prosciutto and converting in the same paragraph). We also gave each other massages in our room, did some star gazing from our balcony, and skipped that evening's show... some tenor who was going to sing for the old people. Instead, we watched the Exorcist. I was all excited to be scared, but, as always, the movie bored me and I laughed at what should have been the "scary" parts.

Wednesday, February 17 - Sea Day
This was our first sea day. Of course, there were virtually no programs planned, so we had to do it ourselves. First up... banana's foster french toast. Yummy! We went to an art auction and it was terrible. The guy was not showing anything people had tagged. He talked FOREVER on each piece and was only showing things that were thousands of dollars and he knew, as we could all tell, no one was buying anything more than $200. So why keep showing that crap instead of the things we tagged?!?! Chad and I probably tagged 10 items between us... one was shown. So annoying!!! That day we also went to a talk to hear about the remaining three ports. We also enjoyed our scalp, neck, and shoulder massages that afternoon. For dinner, we went to the Pinnacle Grill which is their fancy restaurant that you have to pay for... $20 per person. It was SO worth it. We loved it.... they had the most amazing French Onion soup either of us had ever had. Unbelievably good. We also both had filet mignon as our main course, among some other delicious treats while we were there. After dinner we went to the "Ballroom Blitz" show done by the cast, did some star gazing on the top deck of the ship, and played a few games of Yahtzee before turning in.

Thursday, February 18 - Bonaire
We had heard that snorkeling was the thing to do in Bonaire. They were right. We did a beach snorkel excursion and it was amazing. Tons of coral right off the shore. So fun to see all of the fish, turtles, eels, etc. We truly enjoyed this excursion. After all of that, we did a lot of shopping. They had some cute stores, plus a market with all the vendors. There was not one port where they heckled us and pushed us to buy things. It was a nice change from other ports we have been to.

Back on the ship people thought we were twins (this happened quite often), we watched Beauty and the Beast, gave each other foot massages (we did a LOT of walking), and got ready for dinner. That night I had an NY Strip again and Chad had a blackened sirloin. He had his allergic reaction again, so we know it is really time to go to an allergist. That night was an impressionist for the entertainment. He was so bad, we lasted less than 20 minutes this time. Afterwards we had a drink in one of the bars, went to the Marriage Game (their version of the Newlywed Game), and went back to our room for some room service before heading off to bed.

Friday, February 19 - Aruba
We finally made it. My favorite port, and now Chad's favorite as well. They flip-flopped Aruba and Curacao on our itinerary, so we wound up being in Aruba from 7:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night. While there, we did a ton of shopping again. This time, we were hot to find a Jewish star for Chad. After dozens of stores, we finally went back to one of the first places we looked. We got one that we both love. I cannot wait until he gets to wear it every day. We also had a drink at Starbucks, saw a ton of wildlife (Iguanas, Geckos/Lizards, and Crabs), and went up to Palm Beach. To me, Palm Beach is the most gorgeous of any beach anywhere, so I really wanted Chad to see it. He loved it as much as I did. Absolutely gorgeous. That night there was a BBQ on the deck along with a pool party. We did the Macarena and the Electric slide before heading to our cabin for the night.

Saturday, February 20 - Curacao
Because our Jewish heritage tour was cancelled when they flip-flopped the ports (we were now here on Shabbos), Chad and I set out to find the synagogue on our own. We really wanted to go in because it is the oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, but we knew chances were not good. Indeed, once we finally found it, (it took forever because the map given to us by the ship was wrong) we were not allowed in. And it was not much to see from the outside, so it was kind of a bust... but we certainly gave it our best shot. We did a little shopping in the town. Chad bought me this painting that I liked and after he paid for it the vendor gave him a note. He opened it up and it said "Jesus Loves You!" We got a big kick out of that. Back on the ship we bought Chad a silver bracelet for every day wear, skipped the Celtic Music show that night, and watched Zodiac instead. Dinner for me was a chicken breast and Chad had a pasta. That night was the dessert extravaganza which we enjoyed seeing and taking pics of, but neither of us had any interest in eating it. They always look good, but taste like crap, so we did not even bother.

Sunday, February 21 - Sea Day
The ports were all done, and now we were headed back to Florida. Two sea days ahead of us as we wind down the trip. On this day we went to a travel trivia game, dipped our toes in the pool, went to a talk by the environmental office to learn all about the ship's water, waste, and more. That was actually pretty interesting. We also played Clue and Rummikub that day and Chad tried to teach me to play Chess, but it did not work out so well. That night we went to dinner and both had filet, enjoyed the final show performed by the cast called "That's Vegas," and went to a late night game called the Liar's Club, which I always enjoy. One thing we learned... the word "farding" means putting on make-up. As in... I always knew my mom was farding in the bathroom.

Monday, February 22 - Sea Day
This was our final day on the ship. Always sad to leave after a cruise, but all good things must come to an end. This day we went and sat by the pool for a bit before lunch. In the afternoon we looked at some art, printed our boarding passes (it was a BIG fiasco that I do not want to get into), and finally had our massage. We both said it was one of the best massages we had ever had. Super relaxing and really good!!! For dinner, we went to Pinnacle again because we needed to have that French Onion soup and filet mignon one more time. After dinner we skipped the final show which was the awful comedian and the tenor again. Instead we packed and then watched "The Guardian."

Overall, it was a nice and relaxing cruise. The activities and the entertainment were embarrassingly bad. Part of that was a change in focus for Holland America. Where they used to cater to older adults, now they cater to people who should be dropping dead any minute. The food was good although the choices were a little too fancy for me. The service was good, although not at all what I expect from Holland America, given I had been on this ship before. What I know is that I would not cruise on Holland America again, but I had a wonderful vacation with Chad, and cannot wait for many more ahead.

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I'm Sailing Away

That's right... I am outta here. I will be on a cruise until February 23rd, so will not be updating my blog until the end of the month. Be sure to check back then for a re-cap of the cruise. Until then... happy winter!!

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Fast Food

This is a random blog entry, I realize, but after all, my blog is called Random Ramblings. So, here goes...

What is your favorite fast food restaurant? That is a really tricky one to answer. Let's break it down a bit...

McDonalds french fries are the best. They win hands down compared to any others, so I don't really think we need to spend more time on this.

How about burgers? Burger King sucks. In fact, if it closed today, I would not think twice about it. McDonalds are good, but not really high quality. White Castle are delicious and disgusting at the same time, and you certainly have to be in the mood for it. But the best fast food burger definitely goes to Wendy's. I love the burger, the choice of toppings, and the overall taste. They win the burger category for sure.

Chicken is tricky as well. The McChicken at McDonalds is great, as are their nuggets. The chicken at Wendy's is only okay. Burger King's chicken fillet is always overcooked and dry. However, this is Burger King's ONLY redeeming quality, they have the Tender Crisp chicken sammy and that is yummy. Arby's also has a great chicken fillet sandwich, but it can also be overcooked at times. I cannot choose a clear winner in this category, but if we are going for nuggets, that goes to McD's!

What about a sub? Quiznos and Pot Belly are vile and I will never step foot in either one again. I have never been to a Blimpee, though I hear they are good. I am a BIG fan of both Subway and Jimmy John's. I pretty much get the same thing at both places, but they truly taste different. So, depending on my mood, that is who would get my vote. I love 'em both!

And so... that ends my random assessment of Fast Foods. I understand I did not touch on many restaurants, nor did I get to every category. But this is my blog, and I get to decide what to write. Overall, if I had to choose one fast food restaurant to eat for the rest of my life, that award would go to McDonalds. So... what are your favorites? Let me know by entering a comment below.

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New Phone

This weekend I got a new phone. Holy crap... I love it!!!! I got the Motorola CLIQ and it is amazing. You can check it out at this website:

http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/Motorola-CLIQ-US-EN?localeId=33

It is one of the new fancy Smart Phones with a touch screen and a pull out keyboard. I always said I would not want a phone with a touch screen keyboard, so this phone was perfect for me.

Chad and I have been talking a lot about getting new phones. He had decided on the Nexus 1 made by Google. Because we were near a T-Mobile store, he told me to go in and find out when my contract was up and when I could get an upgrade. As luck would have it, they are currently letting anyone who wants to upgrade to a Smart Phone do it for the full discount. I still did not think I would be walking out of that store with a phone. Boy was I wrong. The CLIQ is amazing.

The phone will sync my contacts and my calendar with my G-mail. So, if I am at my computer, I can see my calendar, or if I am out and about I can look at it there too. It also gives me the internet, GPS (which I have yet to learn), and billions of apps and fun things. I knew I would like a Smart Phone, but I had no idea I would love it as much as I do.

Technology has come a long way, and will continue to do so. For now, I cannot believe the things my phone can do. But soon, in about two months or so, when my phone is already old news, the technology will already improve again, and soon our phones will be doing out laundry.

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