Grand Turk

We have arrived on the island of grand turk. Josh and I decided that we were not going to book any excursions this cruise, so that we could be free to just relax and enjoy ourselves and do whatever we want. Something nice about the port at Grand turk is that when you get off the boat the beach is literally RIGTH THERE. you just claim a chair and hop in the water. There is no charging extra for beach chairs, pool chairs, etc. We decided to go to a little less busy area of the beach, and josh really enjoyed taking pictures of the waves crashing on the shore, and i enjoyed floating in the water.

God's amazing creation. Can't help but be in awe.

Serenity: I was out there floating like a bobber somewhere.

That was taken from our balcony back on the boat while still in port. We are saying GOODBYE GRAND TURK!

Spend a while relaxing (napping) before dinner. Had a wonderful dinner with our table mates.

Next up: SAN JUAN!

come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me

I woke up to the knowledge that I had no obligations. Just relaxation. Josh was still sleepy so I went up to the lido deck and got an egg white omelette, sweet muesli and coffee...while I sat out in the beautiful sunshine and read my kindle. What a way to start vacation. After breakfast josh and I went to a little meet and greet where we met up with some of the people who had chatted on the cruise board prior to the cruise. I met a sweet sweet couple named Martha and Jerry, who I'm sure you'll hear more about during this vacation blog.

Sometime after that I went to a cooking class called "Flavors of the Eurodam" where different chefs from the specialty restaurants on the ship gave cooking demonstrations. We had lunch after that and then went out and relaxed on the deck in the very nice deck chairs by the pool. Spent a little time in the hot tub where I met a very nice woman named Gayle who I got to know very well over the course of the cruise as well. After the hot tub we fell asleep on our fabulous deck chairs for a while. We relaxed a while before dinner then went back to dinner for night #2.

That evening after dinner I went to go watch karaoke for a while. I sat down in the only open seat, which was by the DJ, not realizing that they were wrapping up for the night, when the DJ thrust a book of songs into my lap asking me to please pick a song, and I had less than a minute, as they hadn't had any women singers that night. So on impulse I opened to the first page, say Shania Twain's "Any man of mine" and said "that one". So next thing I new I was having a good time closing out karaoke for the night and after the song the DJ said "so, who thinks she should be in our Eurodam Superstar competition?" as a form was handed to me. So...followup on that in a few days following on the report of San Juan!

Next up...Grand Turk!!

Vacation...finally!

So, I am finally getting around to posting about our most wonderful vacation that we (Josh and I) took a few weeks ago to the Eastern Caribbean.

We left mid-morning on November 11, 2011 and flew from Albany to Ft.Lauderdale. A direct flight! It was wonderful as I haven't had one of those in years and years! We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale where a van picked us up to take us to the hotel. We got lunch and rested a while. That evening we went to a delicious wood-fired pizza place for dinner with my cousin Jamie and his wife Justine, who are in FLL while Jamie is in PA school there. They picked us up from the hotel and took us back after dinner. It was so nice to get to spend some time with them and getting to know Justine better.

The next day, Saturday, we got up and had breakfast. Around 11 a shuttle took us to the cruise port, where we boarded our Holland America ship, the Eurodam.

Can you see me waving from our balcony? :) We were actually near the back of the ship, but we did have a balcony, which was very nice. It actually only took us about 30 minutes to go through check in and get on our ship, which was very nice because in the past it has taken a few hours at times. We were able to put some of our things in our room immediately, and then scope out the lunch buffet! Every day on the lido buffet for lunch they had a salad bar, sandwich station, and different cuisine (e.g. mexican, italian, chinese, american, etc) at different stations, and then of course a huge desert station with lots of mini desserts to choose from and ice cream.

After we ate we spend some time walking around the ship learning the layout and walking the outside decks prior to setting sail.

We were able to relax in the room for a while and then we had dinner at 8pm. We met our table mates, Jen and Kevin, who were also a young couple, from Ohio. Our table was right by the window at the back of the ship in the dining room, so we were able to watch the waves while we dined.

After that we relaxed as we began our journey! Great start to vacation!

Will post more on Day 1 at sea and ports of call soon!