Goodbye Miami

January 16, 2011

12:47 pm                                 Just above Miami                                                        3700 feet

     So we are only leaving two  hours late… :S and this plane is lame because it doesn’t have the little screen that I can look at and see where we are, how fast we are going and the altitude. Also American Airlines charges for luggage… so all in all it’s an unimpressive flight. I did see the curse ships outside the window and our hotel from the pre-vacation so that’s neat. We also have the exit row which has more leg room.

   I haven’t finished what I started writing yesterday morning but I think I will go add it to the post before this. Keep all the cruse stuff together.  We stayed at the Runway Inn last night. It was a cheap little place but it wasn’t horrid, the old man working there wasn’t too into life but meh. It was close to the airport, had a free airport shuttle… so it was exactly what we needed. We went to Tony’s NFL restaurant; I had fun watching the American tradition of enjoying football. There was one group of about 9 older people who came to watch football… I thought it was cute watching an old man at a bar taking his dinner meds… There was another group of varied ages; I think it was an extended family get together. One older lady was really into cheering, she was so excited. It was an event full game. Also there is no real mystery why American’s are fat. When you can get a huge half rack of ribs for 12.00 and a baked potato covered in sour cream… :D. Top the night with a mick flurry that didn’t get flurried from McDonald’s… and there you go. Friday was my real birthday party anyways…  I am 25. That’s a little odd since I only remember I was 24 a few months ago but ya… there you go.

    The Miami airport is big… we went on a sky train which is just a little monorail that takes you to different gates but I think it’s neat. It gives you a good view of the runway so I had fun.  From there the morning has been waiting. Now to get to Toronto… we were supposed to be visiting an apartment at 3 but now we doing land till 3:10 so we’ll see what we have time for.

     Anyways I’ll write in a bit if anything interesting happens.

2:08

     There’s less interesting things going on when I don’t have the screen to tell me things like where we are. For a bit I could see the coast under the clouds but now I just have clouds… and a nume bum… :D. Stefan is sleepy… and I should do homework…  I am defiantly ready to be home now.

2:52 there Toronto closing computer we are home :D

Cruse Day 7 - Miami

Saturday 15 January 2011

7:50 am (Miami time)

     If you ever go to Cozumel do not. I repeat DO NOT, get off the island.

     After I wrote the last entry we returned to the spa (the best 100 spent by the way) I just get in the water in time to hear that the subdual had been changed. Because of a low pressure system (ie: BIG ass storm) we were going to Cozumel on Wednesday and then going to float around at sea Thursday and Friday instead. Now NCL had this covered, they moved all our Wednesday activities to Thursday and the Thursday activates to Wednesday… I learnt this after running all around the ship confirming everything… but hey they had it covered so good for them. 

     After the run around the ship I got ready for the Ice Bar. This we liked a lot. It was cute, I put on mom’s dress that I call mortrishias dress (since it looks like dress Mortishia from the Adams family where’s). I didn’t bring any long pants and it was the longest thing I had, with stockings and socks it works out all right. It only has thin bands for straps though… but I figured you’re wearing a coat, so it’ll be fine. There was an older lady who made me worried, she came wearing three sweaters and two pants… then even drank her first drink fast before taking her second with her. There weren’t very many people who went in when we did, about six over people. We chatted for a bit but they all got cold fairly fast. It was -10 C, with no wind it was beautiful… if only every day could be that (I hate the wind by the way). Now two Vodka Drinks really did it for me… I’d guess we were there for 25-30 min, the drinks were really nice but I defiantly drank them to fast. The night ended up being a calm one since we were now leaving the ship early the next day.

     We got to Cozumel and its defiantly the most interesting looking port. Sadly we didn’t get to see any of it. As I said when I started this you shouldn’t get off the Island, more so in bad weather. We did not know this. The ferry used to get from Cozumel to the main land is just an everyday ferry for them, some kind of catamaran thing… the boat sways close to toppling over with ever hit of the wave. After waking up early to meet the tour group, then waiting on the boat at least an hour before it was allowed to leave… from there Stefan locked himself in the bathroom on the way there… which was good because he didn’t have to see the way the boat moved. Once we got to land it was nice enough. It rained but rain happens. We went to a little shop there were some nice things but I didn’t bring much money, we expected to be back to the ship by 2:30 – 3… and to go shopping by the boat (this didn’t happen)…  The ruins weren’t what I expected but they were neat. I have been to old castles and forts before and I expected something like that… this was more like an old town… reminds me of Rome except the stuff that’s been destroyed in Rome looks deliberate this just looks fallen apart. You couldn’t really go in or around any of the buildings. They are a few newly found ones around that you still can but there have been too many people over time there and they don’t want it to fall apart.

     We had Taco’s for lunch (well we were given lunch by the ship but it wasn’t that interesting… there’s a bunch of rules of what can be taken off board… probably because Mexico wants you to spend money on lunch). Then we took an adventure home. They had decided the boat we took to get here was too dangerous. So instead we went to a different port. Here we waited another hour and half to cram into another unsafe boat where we all prayed to get back to the Epic. We land on a different port than the epic, with no tour guide or Epic represented waiting for us, past last call for boarding. We RUN to the port (I almost forgot to mention Stefan lost his room key… so that was a bit of a freak out but the ship was fine about it). We got on fine; they knew they were missing something like 9 busses of people. Stefan was angry… I was annoyed but didn’t want to fight with Guest service… yesterday when I went to talk about it I was told they already took it off. That impressed me a lot. 

     There are two more very nice days to write about, but they will be asking us to leave soon so I will have to stop now. Goodbye Epic, we will see you again I do believe (in a least six months when the shows change… :D)

Sunday, January 16, 2011

1:09

    Thursdays and Friday we spent on the boat. The weather wasn’t the best and it got very busy inside at times. Trivia had a lot more people; even just hanging out in Bliss was a lot nosier than when everyone could hang out on the deck in the sun. There was some spa time… a lot of spa time because that place was sweet. We ate at taste for lunch which is just there general restaurant but it is nice. Stefan did a beer and food tasting which was fun. We also had fun running around the ship playing a digital scavenger hunt.  

     For dinner we went to see Curic dinner and dreams. I was under the opinion that it was presented by Curic du Solie but Stefan brought up that if they were presenting it would be plastered everywhere just like Blue Man and Second City is so I think I am wrong about that. It was really fun though. It was a lot simpler than Curic du Solie, their shows are very dark and complicated. There are the simple individual acts that are enjoyable for their own sake but there’s a lot more to them then just that. But this just was what it presented that it was. A show about nothing… they said at the start they have no show… but that’s ok. The food was nice, they played with the audience, and it felt very intimate. It’s nice how they incorporate the wait staff, dressing them up as lions at one point, giving them aprons with dollar signs on it when they were talking about paying da bill… it was just good fun!

     It occurs to me now that I missed dinner on Thursday. We went to Teppenic, which was completely unique and special. It’s a special food art with knife juggling and food creations. Literally dinner theater.  I don’t really know how to explain it… We were given origami instructions to fold up our menus and play before starting dinner. I have a tone of Photos so that’s probably a better explanation than words anyways. But really it was just fun… and nothing you would find in Toronto even… especially for the price.

     At first I was a little put off by the additional restaurants but they are given a special opportunity with them. You have really already paid a portion of the price that you would be paying if you just went to the restaurant. This means that when you pay that extra $10 for the Italian restaurant you are given a dinner value well above that. Each restaurant gives you a three course dinner, and they all are amazing. We only went to two in the end, Teppnic and (insert name here) the Italian restaurant for my birthday and they both were amazing food and huge portions.  Though if you find yourself on the Epic I would suggest going to La(name) for lunch or when its light out. It was really nice but we were sad we couldn’t look outside properly (night at sea is very dark).

     Thursday night after the Circe dinner we went to a Comedic Magician’s show. It was quite good he played up being Gay to the extreme and just adored making men uncomfortable.  That was the night we dressed up all fancy, we made the housekeeper laugh because we got dressed up for dinner, then undressed up after dinner when we went to the spa for an hour and a half then dressed up again. Before watching a game show in Bliss and then the Comedian.

     Friday seems packed with everything from more Spa time, trivia, I even went on the Water Slides just to make sure I did it. I didn’t get around to climbing the rock wall…  it was kind of cold and we got busy. By participating in the activities during the week you were able to get NCL promo swag. We should have had 10 more points but I lost our first cards… but still we left with a mug and that’s neat.

     Stefan spent the afternoon at another beer tasting. Those things were really fun. Though the 5 Margaritas on Sunday really did it too me… and I don’t really like a good range of beers to do the Beer tasting. We also never got to the Martini tasting since they all started directly after the beer ones and that’s a lot of Alcohol really fast.

     So with Stefan’s 4 drinks we moved onto a return trip to the Ice Bar. Our friends from Trivia invited us to come with them and I am very glade we did. The drinks are nice, it’s a fun little place and it’s very different when it’s busy as it was Friday night. I guess people all decided it was something they shouldn’t miss. I got to be all showoff and take my coat off with people around this time. The friends are from New York and invited us to contact them if we head up that way. They also seem to have been around Cruses a fair bit.

     Our Birthday Partying last night of the Cruse continued with Second City, they ended up just doing sketches from suggestions and it was good but not amazing. No real true 5’s if you think of it compared to Catch (probably something we will go check out again when back in TO by the way… though I really don’t like the new location it’s been a year since we were there last so it might be better). Followed by dinner at La (Ittialn restaurant name). Dinner was really good. All the food you pay extra for was. Big portions, lots of choice and very nicely decorated. I would have liked to see it in the afternoon as I mentioned above but I liked it a lot. We were given a card to bring to the restaurant for my birthday cake. They brought me the cake and sang Happy Birthday (the real song not a pretend paying attention to copyrights version), but since we paid for dinner and it came with desert they let us pack up the cake to bring to our room. I ended up eating it yesterday morning before we left… since we couldn’t take it off the boat with us. All in all it was a good birthday. We fell asleep at 10:10 because we have been old people all vacation but there was something nice about being good and awake at 6:30- 7:00 am, it gave us all day to enjoy ourselves. I liked the morning when there wasn’t all that many people awake and around.

    Saturday was just a lazy wake up; I ate food watching the sun rise over Miami beach. We weren’t in any rush we packed and were waiting for the last possible minute to leave… got kicked out of our stateroom at about 9:30 then waited and waited and waited some more to go through customs to get off the boat. Don’t and I mean DON’T be in ANY kind of a HURRY to get off that boat. If you need to fly out the same day don’t have a flight until like 5… you know for a fact you’ll be off by then since the boat leaves again on its next adventure at 4… but I feel bad for anyone trying to catch a morning flight… you’d be very stressed and worried. I think anything like that has to be taken with great calm… just like today and our delayed flight… great calm is the only way to travel. Probably why Stefan likes his Soch when flying…. :D, though today he’s just sleeping.

     That’s it really… the vacation is over, and it really didn’t disappear as fast as I was worried it would. I enjoyed every minute of it. Now there’s 15 days till University application has to be in so maybe I should pretend to do some Chemistry… :D.

Cruse Day 4 - Rotan

January 11, 2011

1:52 (*there was a time change back one hour)

     So it’s the fourth day of the trip. When you say it like that it feels like the time is going by fast… but in axial fact it doesn’t feel that way. We keep thinking its Wednesday today…

     Saturday night I didn’t sleep well… I think I was just too excited… Got up early and did some physics homework. We found trivia which is fun. I also tried to do Salsa but I gave up about ½ way threw it… I just felt too awkward and didn’t really follow the teacher that well… do I stopped when they were partnering up. For lunch we went to murder mystery dinner theater. It was different than the one last year. Last year I was asked to help but it wasn’t improved… This was presented by second City so has a fair bit of improve brought into it. Stefan and me were pulled into help with a seen. I like that kind of thing but Stefan doesn’t… We did a Margarita tasting in the afternoon. It was fun, and we talked to a nice man from the US about the president’s… but 5 margaritas in an hour is too much for Maxine… by about 4 margaritas. So the afternoon was sleepy.

     Yesterday we were in Costa Maya. It is 100% a poverty world run on Cruise Ship money. There is nothing else there. You can really see that there was a hurricane that visited it. They have done a lot in three years since it hit but it still sucks for them you can tell. Stefan liked the public pool with swim up bar (I wouldn’t call it completely public because you had to be on a cruise ship to get in the touristy aria to use it… but ya it was neat). We spent the morning on a Catamaran, the waves were really choppy (later in the Spa you could really see the effects it was having even on our big boat… the water was moving all over the place). We went snorkeling. I like doing that a lot. It’s really fun… though it bugs me SOOO much when I see people do stupid shit like diving to touch (or break) the coral… : S). There was a big school of big fish I saw… I don’t think I have seen big fish swim that way before, normally its just little fish I see like that.  We went to a Second City show, had a late dinner and just kina chilled. We are getting up early so the nights are often a little early too. Oh I also spent a good chunk of the late afternoon out in the sun reading.

     Today is Lazy. We are at Rotan but I am completely meh with visiting it. Stefan went out to the port aria for a bit but I am just hanging out. This morning we had room service breakfast, a long sit in our private spa aria… more reading. I finished the book mom lent me… Now I guess I should at least pretend to do Physics… We’re going to the Ice Bar at 5:30… and probably a show or two tonight… It seems that the port days are very quiet on the ship… but that’s ok.

     So…Well…Ya…

Cruse - Day 1: Miami

Saturday January 8, 2011
9:48 pm

I don’t know if it is lame to go to bed at a quarter to nine on your vacation… but I was up at 7 and didn’t really sleep last night…(see the early morning post from before we left… :D). We are on a ship (using the pop cultural reference to what we are floating on is a call to be punched ((according to Stefan that is…))…). It is an amazing humungous and beautiful ship.

We managed to find the Key to cursing (at least as far as the Epic is concerned). That is you get the cheapest room, its small but to be honest it really is beautiful… it’s been designed quite well. Then as SOON as you get on… like RIGHT away go to the spa. There is a special room that only those that are in get to use. It has a therapeutic pool and lounge chairs and a little deck outside… and they only sell 60 couple’s the ticket in. This means out of 4000 people you have your own aria with only 120 other people. There are other privet arias but they cost WAY more. It’s such a nice aria.

There is SOOO much food. I think Stefan is in Buffet heaven. Oh another thing to remember (though really it should be a no brainer… pre-book shows online… the lineup for booking shows was crazy long today.) I like this place… though I feel there are a few too many extra things you have to pay to use. I am disappointed that I have to pay for Yoga…   but that’s just the way they do it…

Online there are complaints about the pools being small… they are but I think when designing the ship they took a different view of things and made the top deck a water park instead… which I like. Haven’t played in it yet but today was a lot of exploring.

What we did do today was see The Blue Man Group. They are amazing. Lots of different little things playing with sound, light, colure and the audience. It was really good. There are more shows to come… things can only get better from here and today was perfect. I love cruses!! :D

Pre-Vacation

Friday Jan 7, 12:00                 Newport Hotel Miami

     So we got to the Hotel no problems. Ended up hanging out here in the end on Wednesday. Explored the immediate aria a little, watched a LOT of Mythbusters… only we would travel to Miami to watch Mythbusters in our Hotel Room.

     Yesterday we found a mall, it was Huge! After a lot of frustration go a Netbook (yay) that was less than the original one mom found in Canada. So that’s cool. It’s red and Pretty (pretty being the entire problem with finding one…) .

      Today there was breakfast, some swimming in the pool (though not a tone because it was cold this morning) then some hanging out in the hotel room, and some beach time. I got a crochet rug craft to play with so I’m having fun with that. Did a bit of Chem homework… (side note: 84% on last unit). Now we’re trying to find some Tourist shops to wonder about. That’s about it for Miami, the pre-vacation is very lazy.

So…Well…Ya…

P.S Stefan invented a new Alcoholic drink, Water like American Beer + Malibu Rum = Noon Somewhere the question now is will that be the drink of the cruse? :D

And we are off…

Jan 5 2011                   Speed 499 mph           Altitude 37795 ft

12:18 am

     Just left Toronto, we are airport to fly to the US is a lot less interesting than the one when traveling to BC. We are on west jet traveling to Miami, and American airlines on the way home… It’s kina lame, you have to buy the movies but you can watch Discovery so that’s entertaining… :D. We’re watching Cash Cab so I’ll write more lately.

P.S The Earth is Bumpy : D

 

 12: 49                         Speed 445 mph           Altitude 39664 ft

     Virginia is below us. We have so many snacks… and Stefan is traveling with the theory that it’s noon somewhere (not just for us)… There isn’t anything interesting under us but clouds though under that is the US.

1:55                             Speed 539 mph           Altitude 41025 ft

    Currently above Orlando. Getting close, you can see the coast line down under the clouds. I think that’s good because I need to Pee… So now we land, get luggage find a way to the hotel and then go back to town to go shopping. We still need to find a replacement netbook since Boxing day wiped Best Buy Dry… and a few other things. 

Cruse excitement

Newport Hotel, Miami
7:34
     So this is going to be a little out of order because I have two entry's that are written on paper that need to be typed but that is uninteresting at this moment. I am excited and fidgety and have been 1/2 awake since 4:30...  I find there are different parts to being Maxine. When I feel good about myself I exist more as myself then when I am all gloomy and depressed. When I am being productive, working on school, sewing, painting, writing... creating SOMETHING... the more of these kinds of things I do the more lime myself I am.
     Traveling also brings me out. There is so much more to the world that my house, my job, and the grocery store... When I first got to Nanaimo I tried to go out every day... as time went on and life there normalized that got harder to do (especially once finding a job started to feel more and more hopeless...).
     Out there on the Webernet there is the blog of a 16 year old high school student and her excitement about going to France (If you are interested its http://angel9magic.diaryland.com/ and I apologizes greatly for the atrocious color choices... I could change it... but I kinda feel that it is preserved history in this state... ). Before  my exchange started I counted down the number of days starting at over 150... That there is EXTREME excitement.
     So here I am the end of the Pre-vacation, ready to pack up this room and go to the pier catch a boat and explore the world... I just wish that the Cruse last's half as long as 4:30 to 7:30 did this morning and all will be GREAT... (Maxine's Theory of Time: The more you are enjoying yourself the less time you get to spend doing it.)
     There will be more entry's on this trip (there is already two they were just written before I have a computer... I got a Net book by the way!! :D It is Red and beautiful!!) they wont be posted till after the 15th though since internet is expensive on a boat in the middle of the ocean.

Have a good week Interweb... I will miss you... :D