5:50pm Nov. 23, 05 Wed.

5:50pm Nov. 23, 05 Wed.

Currently on deck 9 of the ship, awaiting dinner (at six). A few brief moments to jot down a thought or two. We spent the day at St. Kitts. Well, sort of. I think I should finish our San Juan portion of the trip before I skip ahead to today. Follow me back in time... We arive in San Juan, Puerto Rico at about 3pm local time. We had been unable to complete our ship boarding info packet online, as there was a time limit we did not meet. Part of the boarding info was whether you needed transportation from the airport to the ship. We'd been slightly worried the whole way there that we'd be stuck without a way to the ship (because the taxi drivers didn't know where it was, etc.). We also feared it would cost an arm and two legs if we even found a way to get there. So, we arrive at San Juan airport to sun and warmth and humidity. Being dressed for 40+ degree Portland at our departure did not help us in 90+ degree San Juan. We quickly found bathrooms to de-layer in and splashed cool water on our faces. But, now to dinner. I'll finish up later tonight, I swear. (later) Ah, dinner! Tonight I had roast duck on greens, onion soup, chicken picatta and a choclate mousse. Oh and we shared a bottle of Erath Pinot Noir. A cup of coffee afterwards and now I'm ready for a nap! We are currently in the showroom, listening to a round of bingo being played. There is going to be a swing dance show this evening that we thought we'd check out. (note after the fact: No swing dancing. Swing music, yes. Dancing, yes. Swing Dancing, NO. Let's get it right folks.) It's in the same room as the bingo and we thought we'd get good seats, so here we are, waiting. The speaker is much too loud so I'm a bit distracted in my writting. Also, I've yet to write in here where I've had the use of a table, so this is mostly illegiable. (note after the fact: Um, this is a copy of my travel journal, if you haven't figured it out by now. I'm typing it up post trip, but back dating it to match when I originally wrote it. All words are the same. Just a different medium. Thanks.) And furthermore...nothing. The noise just levelled off. So, back to the San Juan debacle: We get to the luggage claim area unscathed and find our station which was not marked at all. The only way we could determine which station was ours was by looking for familiar passengers from the palne ride. It did help that it was the only station in opperation when we got to the luggage claim. In any case we found both of my bags in short order. Which was fortunate seeing as both bags I have are black and it was a sea of black luggage on the conveyer belt. The bag Cheryl's using is forest green, an uncommon color in this batch of luggage. And as we waited there were only three bags to come down that were forest green. And of course not one of these was Cheryls'. We spent a good twenty five minutes praying that another piece of luggage would come flying down the line and into our hands. Our hope was buoyed by the occasional appearance of a new, previously unseen piece of luggage rolling down the belt. But never were we to see her luggage. Eventually, right before the belt was shut down, a porter from the airline came over and asked me if we'd found all our luggage. Actually he talked at me in spanish and was suprised when I responded back in a confused english. That's been a theme on this trip. The first night at dinner the waiter brought me a menu in French! No one else at our table recieved a french menu. There was an english menu folded up behind the french one, and when I started speaking english the waiter came over and lifted the french version away with a smile and an apology. He knew. I'm not sure if it's my looks or mannerisms or what, but I've been taken for everything but an American. Great for traveling in europe I suppose. Anyhow, getting back to our luggage, after the first porter approached us no one else offered any help. Any abandonded luggage was being loaded and carted away by airline staff but our bag was not among these. We followed said staff to the airlines' service room, praying that they'd have some form of good news for us. And they did, of a sorts. As we walked in our bag was waiting right by the counter. The counter clerk was helping another couple and motioned us to the side to wait. But there was no other side and this couple was between us and our bag. So this couple is blocking the desk and our bag, looking for their bag, our bag is blocking a second door in the back, and we were blocking the main door which in turn blocked the porters behind us and their luggage carts. I finally just reached up and over, grabbed our bag and moved back and out. This freed the porters to get their cart by us, the same cart which had the luggage the couple in front of us was looking for. Everyones problem solved. The short of it is that our last piece of luggage had been seperated from the lot and actually beat us to San Juan by a couple of hours. Happy endings all around! All our luggage found, we next turned to finding our way to the boat. As I said earlier, we'd despaired of finding cheap or reliable transport to the ship. Well, once again, nothing we needed worry about.

12:23pm Nov. 22, 05 Tues.

12:23pm Nov. 22, 05 Tues.

So, we are sitting on the 5^th level by the coffee shop, looking out the windows at St. Maarten. It's a beautifully clear day, sunny and blue with a relatively calm breeze (if the sail boats outside are any indicator). What we can see of the island from here looks "resort-y" (note after the fact: wrong!) but we have yet to actually go and walk around. That comes next. We left home sunday night for a 9:40pm flight. It was a relatively uneventful flight, no alarms and no suprises. We got into Newark, NJ at about 5:45am (e.s.t.). After finding a bite to eat we walked to our gate, on the very opposite side of the airport, layed out on the floor and slept! A bit about New Jersey: Don't go there! At least not the airport. Every "service person" we met or saw was unbelieveably rude. I've heard my entire life about the lack of civility in NY/NJ, but until now have only half believed it. It's true! Speaking to anyone is an insult, eye contact is reason enough to fight and heaven forbid you actually want some form of service, especially if you're paying for it. You take what you get, when you can get it and you're thankful for it. Or else. If I had any illusions the management cared I'd of said something. But every person at every shop/restaraunt was the same. I don't know, maybe the entire airport is staffed by one large family of rude people. It's a valid theory, seeing as all the staff, one shop to the next, were in the same uniforms. The only break in this was Starbucks, which was an oasis in a desert of apathy. They alone were in standard starbucks outfits. (note after the fact: On the return trip, starbucks was staffed by the same group of trained circus animals we dealt with everywhere else. The barista actually called both drinks wrong and stopped in the middle of our order to grab her birth control pills from her boyfriend. And then got upset at us for making sure we got the drinks we payed for and not the ones she screwed up on because she was too busy talking to her boyfriend. Lovely.) But truely, avoid NJ if at all possible. I did not see one thing to recomend it the entire time we were there. Even the airlin staff were rude. We had a four hour lay over, durring which we napped on the floor by the gate we were departing from. About an hour and a half before departure, I woke up to get us coffee and check our boarding time. When I attempted to ask the woman at the flight desk about our status, she told me she didn't know and to go look for myself. At the display. Which was not near our gate. I did, to my displeasure, and found our flight had been moved. When I went back to confirm this with the flight desk, no one knew and no one would check for me. They just said that if that's what the display said, that's what was. Very helpful eh' ? In any case we dashed to the correct gate which ironically was right next to the gate we had arrived in at. A half hour in line got us safely aboard and headed to San Juan. Once again the flight was uneventful and without incident. Oh, but the adventure was coming. Later...