BETTER BE CAREFUL!

Results of too many desserts!

THAT OLD DEMON RUM

Today will be a first on this trip. I'm going to go ashore! We docked at Montego Bay in Jamaica early this morning. The bay was a beautiful sight in the early morning sunlight. We continue to be blessed with perfect weather.

When I looked down from the balcony, the people looked like little ants all scurrying off to their destinations.

After breakfast, Frank loaded me up in my wheelchair and away we went. It's so nice to have such a competent and skilled driver. After all, I am at his mercy!

He pushed me through what I called Tent City. It was where all the local vendors had stationed themselves to try to lure the tourist into their cubicles before they headed off on tours. This is a shot of all the tour buses waiting for their passengers. There were more than you could possibly count.

They primarily had the same "junque" to sell that you can see everywhere else you might travel in the world, only this had a Jamaican flair to it. Not to sound unappreciative, but you can find most of these items at the Flea Market in Santa Fe.

There were some paintings by local artists that were quite primitive but very nice. My problem is that I don't really have a spot for one other thing in my house.

I didn't take many photographs because every vendor was trying to get you into their cubicle to give you a deal. Several even said that their prices were better than wholesale. I did see these tams with the dreadlocks sown into them and though about getting one to show our cousins in Kansas. They would have loved it!

One thing that Frank DID find for me though, was a Jamaican boyfriend to bring home with me. He kept calling me his Sista. At least his dreads were real and not attached to his hat!

If I had my druthers, he was not the type I would have had in mind. My thoughts seem to run more along these lines ;-)

There was a man playing the guitar and singing when we arrived and when we sailed away, he was still singing and playing. Don't you know that his voice and fingers must have been very, very tired!

I really got the feel of how big the ship was when I was on the ground looking up. It was the first time I had seen this for myself and this is only the back third of the ship.

These chefs were on their way somewhere so I wanted to get a shot of them off duty. I wonder what they were up to.

Our main plan of attack once we got inside the terminal was to purchase some good Jamaican rum, the real reason for our shore excursion.

Papa left me outside while he went inside a duty free shop and made the purchase. The help was really interested in his "money clip". When we travel he puts his cash on the outside of his credit cards and then puts double rubber bands around the entire thing. This serves two purposes. First, it can't slip out of your pocket and second, a pickpocket would have a very difficult time taking it out without your feeling his or her hand in your pocket. He's done this for years and so far so good.

While he was in the store, I took a closer look around. Their Customs desk left a lot to be desired. The customs agents seemed more interest in looking at the tourists than they did seeing what they might be carrying.

The terminal was fairly big, attractive and very clean and well kept. The shops inside had a little more variety if you were interested in hats or T-shirts. At least they had them in large sizes. I guess they were used to catering to cruise ship passengers who didn't know how to stay away from the buffet lines!

Once Papa had made his purchase we decided to go back on board for lunch. I'd had all the excitement I could handle in a morning.

Once on board, we had to check our purchases with the customs officer on board. She will have it delivered to our room before we get off the ship since you're not allowed to bring "spirits" on board.

When we were back on board we decided to grab a quick bite in the Windjammer.
This is the kind of trouble you can get into if you eat at the buffets!

Since it's a buffet which is open almost 24 hours it's an easy place to get a fast meal.
They have everything you can imagine there, but we prefer to eat in the dining room and be served.

As an aside, when I weighed in at Weight Watchers, I had lost 2 3/4 pounds when we returned from this trip. I'm thoroughly convinced that a lot of this is because we did not eat at the buffets. Everyone, including me, tends to take more than they really can eat at a buffet and I don't know about you, but I'm a charter member of the "Clean Your Plate Club", so I can't afford to do that.
When we finished lunch, Papa decided he needed a little "lie down" after pushing me around all morning and while he napped, I journaled and read my book.

We went outside on the balcony after we dressed for the evening and took one last look at Tent City.

The sun was setting and it was a beautiful sunset indeed. The perfect end to a perfect shore day.

The show this evening was in the La Scala showroom. It was a movie theme and was called "Music in Motion".

The production featured selections from films such as All That Jazz, and Moulin Rouge. Bob Fosse certainly changed the style of dance for movies as well as Broadway and I love it. Lots of "jazz hands" and hats.

They even had one very exciting Bollywood number which paid tribute to Slumdog Millionaire.

The costumes were beautiful and they weren't even designed by Bob Mackie ! The young singers and dancers were exceptionally talented and we thoroughly enjoyed the show.
Tonight is Italian Night in the dining room and our waiters have promised us a surprise. We started with cream of garlic soup, a spinach salad with tomatoes and mozzarella followed by garlic shrimp. I guess they called the menu Italian because of all the garlic. We finished the meal with puff pasty filled with zabaglione. The photographs are in the reverse order of how the meal was served but everything was still delicious.

After they finished serving dinner, all the waiters disappeared. Then suddenly we heard singing and they paraded around the dining room singing Italian songs and waving white napkins. They all had big smiles on their faces as they lined up on the staircaise for a standing ovation and thundering applause. It was delightful.

The dining room can seat 2000 guests and there are over 250 waiters that serve us. It's quite an impressive sight to see them all together. If you look very closely, you can see them gathered together on the balcony and on the staircases at one end of the dining room.
After dinner we went back to our suite and found this handsome fellow waiting for us.

I took his sunglasses off and tucked him in bed between Frank and myself.
This is our last port of call but I have one more blog to post of this trip. Lots of loose ends to tie up. Hopefully it will be entertaining. Until then ....
XOXO, Pcasso

WASTIN' AWAY IN MARGARITAVILLE

This is our second port of call. We had to tender in since the pier can not handle large cruise ships.

We were scheduled to be on the Georgetown side of this Grand Cayman Island, but due to high winds, our Captain took us to Spot Bay which was on the opposite side of the island and dropped anchor there. As you can see, the sea was very calm there.

We didn't think I could manage the tenders, so I stayed on board while Frank went into town.

He said that the tender ride was uneventful and then he had to take a taxi into Georgetown. The taxi was really a mini-van so they could transport more people around the island than they could with regular taxis. His driver drove very fast, and on the wrong side of the road (the Brits would probably say that it was the right side ;-)

When they arrived in Georgetown you could see why they couldn't tender in on that side of the island. The waves were very high as well as rough.

This is where the tenders were originally scheduled to dock and you can certainly see why they didn't!

When they dropped him off in Georgetown it seemed that all the action there was at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. The high waves didn't bother the party people at all.

Frank found a new friend but felt dwarfed by his size.

After enjoying a little libation, he took a taxi back to the other side of the island and boarded another tender. He said that the young man who was driving the tender was very personable.

Our ship looked dwarfed in the distance but you could really see how big she when you viewed her from the tenders. She was over a mile away.

After a light lunch we decided to go to a movie in the Screening Room.

It was a tiny theater and only seated about 26 people. I was surprised about that since there were so many passengers on the ship, but most of them were more interested in the ports of call than they were going to the movie.
We saw "State of Play" which was a very good film.

State of Play is a 2009 American political thriller. It is a film adaptation of the critically acclaimed six-part British television serial of the same name, which first aired on BBC One in 2003. The plot of the six-hour serial was condensed to fit a two-hour movie format, with the location changed to Washington, D.C. The film tells of a journalist's probe into the suspicious death of a Congressman's mistress. Russell Crowe plays the journalist and Ben Affleck plays the Congressman.

The supporting cast included Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, and Jeff Daniels. If you didn't catch it the first time around, I would highly recommend that you see it. It's and excellent thriller and itnow available on DVD.
After the movie, we went up to the outside deck to play cards and met a lovely young couple, Mark and Beverly from Granbury, TX. As we visited, we discovered that he had heard of our Eldest son, Jim. Both he and Jim are musicians and went to North Texas and played in the One O'Clock Jazz Band. They were there at different times, however. The professional music world is not that large (Mark is a musician and also a music professor) and both he and Jim also worked with Jerry Hitt in Dallas at different times. Small world!

There was no show tonight, so we had dinner with our table mates and headed for bed. Even when there is no special show in the La Scala Showroom, there is always plenty of entertainment around the ship in the bars and lounges. there's music by the pool, Classical strings in the Aquarium Bar, dance music in Cleopatra's Needle, cocktail piano for listening at the Schooner Bar and the Disco every night, so you can always be entertained if you're not too tired. At our age, the best entertainment of all is a nice, cool bed with crisp, fresh sheets. Ahhh ... dreamland!
See you tomorrow in Montego Bay.
XOXO, Pcasso