December 21: We pack the car up. We had given Matt a note to leave school early with Jessica. He then went to the middle school to pick up Scott. We get into the car head to Lorton Virginia to pick up the autotrain. It is a train run by Amtrack.. You load your car on it and then we go sit in the coach section.. Now.. I would NEVER suggest doing this. It was a long 16 hours on the train. Poor Matt said his idea of Thomas the Tank Engine was destroyed!
Dec 22: We arrive in Sanford Florida at 8:30am. We would have been better off driving. Shoot me now for suggesting the train..LOL. We are planning a day at Epcot. So, we go and check into the hotel. We stayed at Disney's pop culture hotel. We have been there before..it's pretty decent! We schlep all the bags to the room and off to Epcot.
We had a lot of fun... UNTIL....about 8ish.. when it happened.. The DOWNPOUR. There is Janis drenched!! The saying is..if mom ain't happy no one is! Mom was NOT happy. Though it was pretty funny when the gecko jumped on John..and he jumped So much for entertainment!
Dec. 23: Mom forgot to pack the snorkels and goggles.. off to Wal Mart before we get to the ship. 1ish.. we get to the ship.. I have to tell you.. having left on cruises from Tampa, Miami, Norfolk VA..this one left from Port Canaveral. It is one of the nicest and cleanest ports I have ever seen! We board the ship get to our cabin and we go to the Lido deck for lunch! This was my 7th cruise.. my 5th ship. It is one of the nicest ships I've been on too!
Dec. 24: We arrive in Nassau, Bahamas. We have been to this island 2 times in the past. This time we decide to take a water taxi and we go visit the Atlantis Hotel. Matt wanted to see the aquarium there. Wow! What an impressive aquarium. I saw the biggest stingray I've ever seen in the tank. I've swam with stingray's before ..never saw one this big! We went to the straw market. Didn't see much straw but saw plenty of immitation coach, louis vitton and prada bags. Scott bought a key chain for a friend. I bought this turtle made out of a coconut shell for a kindergarten teacher. Her room is themed in early turtle!
Dec. 25: Fun Day at Sea!! I sat on the deck and read a book by Janet Evonivich called "Thanksgiving." I was so into the book..I failed to realize I was in a deep state of fried! The book was great! My skin wasn't so lucky.. Thank goodness for aloe vera! I matched the lobster we had for dinner! Jessica had made a bunch of friends already. We did not see her the entire day..until 7pm..which was mandatory check in time with mom and dad! We also went to the art auction. I usually don't buy art on the ship..but there was one that caught my eye..so I got it
Dec. 26th: A day in St. Thomas. After the immigration check in. Being that we stopped at Nassau for 6 hours we were out of the US..so before we could get off the ship in St. Thomas, USVI we had to go thru customs. What a mess. This was the first time in 7 cruises that it was unorganized. Once we got off the ship we had a great time. We had met someone in Virginia that was a taxi driver. She picked us up and we got a personal tour of the island. We went to visit the Jewish temple on the island. It is the oldest continuous operating temple under the US flag. There are older temples in the US however at some point they shut down for years at a time... due to the civil war and things like that. It was amazing! We went to a local restaurant and had some local dishes.. The bravest I got was the fried conch appetizer.. and Fungi which is made with cornmeal sort of like a corn muffinish. Matt had something called Kallel (I know I'm not spelling it right) it is a fish base..and GREEN! We had a mango ice cream for dessert.. YUMMY!!
We then continued our tour. Jackie bought us to the highest point on St. Thomas. We got to look down on Megan's Bay. What a pretty island. We then headed back to the ship after a 6 hour tour!
Dec. 27: St. Marten/St. Martin: This is by far my favorite island now. I've been to many different of the Carribean islands. It is owned by both the French and the Dutch. The french own 16 square miles the Dutch own 21 square miles. However, you do not need to go thru customs to get to the other side. We took a wonderful tour. We spent about 2 hours on Orient Beach. Pretty pretty beach. Matt and Jessica both thought it was cool that there is no drinking age and at 14 and 16 they were allowed to go up to the bar an order a drink. There was very little alcohol in the drinks. The beaches on St. Marten are clothing optional. The only one we saw without clothing..should have kept it on. We did some shopping. I bought a liquour made from guavaberry. Which is a local fruit on the island.
Dec. 28 and 29: Fun days at sea.. on the 29th I was down to my last 45 cents for the slot machines.. I had bought $300 to lose.. and I had lost 299.55 at that point.. and voila.. I hit the bonus round on the slot machine.. I walked away from that machine with about 250 in my pocket.. I then took my chances at another machine.. and walked away with about 100 from that one .. I left the cruise with more then I went with Didn't see much of Jessica these days.. she made a group of friends and stuck with them. Scott was usually in the arcade.. Matt ..being a typical 16 year old..slept a lot!
Dec. 30.. disembarked and headed for the dreaded auto train!
Dec. 31 Home.. my own bed... my own shower.... dreams of my cruise for next year!!
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