Pirate of the Caribbeaners

March 21, 2013
Nassau, Bahamas

Atlantis, Atlantis, Atlantis!  OMG omg omg omg omg omg omg!

Apparently Nassau is a chain of little Islands, so you get off your own ship, and you can see Atlantis just across the water teasing you.

No problem though, I hired a taxi, and off I was to ATLANTIS!

Only when I got there, I found out that the water park cost about $100.  I thought about it, but when I figured that I only had about four hours left before I had to be back on the ship, I decided to just walk about the casino.  But only because I knew that I was coming back in a week, and that next time, we would all go together.

Clever name

It's good to be king.

There really isn't anything you can do in Atlantis without buying admission or paying for a hotel room.  So, I headed back to the Pegasus fountain and took a cab back to the ship.

Next time Gadget!  Next time...


March 23, 2013
Samana, Dominican Republic

This marks my first time on the Island that is both home to Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.  Haiti still has a lot of voodoo whoo doo going on, so I'm grateful to be on the other side in Samana, Dominican Republic.

On the way there, via the ship's tender, we spotted the "Bridge to nowhere."  The story is that the Dominican Republic built this fancy bridge to that island over there, but then they ended up not developing that island, so it really is a bridge to no where.  No one lives there, and nothing is on it.  Maybe some animals and bugs.

Within the first three minutes of arriving on Semana, we run into a troupe of street performers, and they are going all out.  Here's the video:

I'm a fan of this picture.

 So, I'm walking along the street with Jennifer and Reid, when a little boy with some flowers comes up to Jennifer and offers them to her.  She says thank you to the little boy, and accepts his flowers, and continues down the road.  Suddenly, the little boy fills with anxiety and follows Jennifer down the street with an up turned open palm.  Jennifer doesn't notice, and this little boy starts to cry.  So, I pull out a dollar, hand it to the boy, and say thank you.  He runs away happy.  At the first restaurant we come to I say to Jennifer, "Smile, and show me the first flowers that I bought you."

All in all, Samana was a cute little place.  Not much to do, but not much to complain about either.  The trip remains positive.

And Jennifer got flowers.


March 24, 2013
Road Town, Tortola

Ha!  I remember how when I last spoke about Tortola, I left you with a video of it being a boring and empty place.  Well, this time I came up with a solution: the shore concierge was looking for someone to take a group of people to the Island next door.  So, I stepped up to the plate!

Norman Island!

Let me tell you a little about the shore excursion program.  As a crew member, I'm encouraged to escort tours.  For about every thirty guests, an escort can follow along for free.  I basically get to take the excursion with the guest, and experience everything that they do provided that I wear my uniform and fill out a report on the trip after I'm done.  So, I'm in this limbo place somewhere in between work and play (like every moment of my life in this job actually).

The shore concierge asks us to take many pictures of the excursions so that they can have a good idea of what everything is like so that they can better serve future guests.

For this particular excursion, I stepped it up and made a video.  Please take a look at this video that I made for the shore concierge on my ship.  I'm especially proud of it because of all the under water footage I took with my underwater camera.  Enjoy:

March 26, 2013
Bequia, St. Vincent

I remember the last time I was here I was not able to get off the ship because of in-port-manning (IPM), so this time I was determined to see what this place was all about.  And it turned out that I was in luck.

COCONUTS!

I'm coocoo coconuts!

Also, found a pizza hut?

And that was about it.  Perhaps if I would have landed a shore excursion, I could tell you more about it.  After the coconut and a brief walk around though, I found an internet cafe, and THAT is where our Bequia story comes to a quick, but happy, end.

March 28, 2013
Castries, St. Lucia

If you've read all of my blog, you know that St. Lucia is one of my favorite islands in the Caribbean.  It's the island that has a little bit of everything, plus a few places where they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean.  While I was pondering what I was going to do on my one day on my favorite island, the shore concierge came up to me and said, "Hey, Duke, do you want to go to the Landings resort?"

There are times when you don't say no to the shore concierge.  This was definitely one of them.

Take a tour of my hotel room at the Landings resort on St. Lucia in this video:

 You know it's luxury when they take the time to do THIS to your toilet paper.

I'm not even this OCD.

Because a video is worth 1,000 pictures:

 
If anyone reading this is living vicariously through me, please feel free to soak up everything in this picture, and take a few years off your life.  Relax.  Nothing is as important as you think it is.

Next time: Videos of our trip to Atlantis!

Motown, Mafia, and More...

March 8, 2013
At Sea

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, our Motown show, gets a new look.  The guys get golden jackets and golden bow ties, and the girls get...pant suits.

The producer sent some of their own people along to "help" us install the shows.  Here they are with us.  Someone suggested we do a silly picture.  This is what happened.

Truthfully, this silly picture is a more accurate representation of life.

After a show, we get room service in the conference room.  Here we are having our first post show snack with our stage manager, Angel.

When I said we get room service, I didn't mean that we get to pick from a menu.  We're served random sandwiches.  I'm not complaining.  I might complain later (in fact, I do complain later.  It was the night that the bread was stale and you could break your teeth on it.  That was just ridiculous).  Anyway, this spread is better than anything I was ever served on the Silver Whisper, so things are starting off well.

What we're served after every show.

Things are probably so good here for the crew because the Filipino Mafia has a strong presence on our ship, and they take care of their friends.  We, may or may not have a strong connection to this group.

It's top secret.

Saturday, March 9, 2013
Acapulco, Mexico

The day before, we were scheduled to get into Acapulco at 1pm, but a bizarre occurrence delayed us.  And for you to best understand this situation, a little explanation is necessary.  Cruise ships only come in and out of ports by being guided by local pilots.  These people speedboat out to the ship and drive along side our ship while we open up a side door, and then the pilot jumps on.  Similarly, when we leave, the pilot guides the ship out, and then jumps from our ship to his.  So, now that I've explained it...the pilot missed his jump, and the captain had to quickly turn the ship so that he didn't get chopped up in the propellers.  I'm sure that maneuver cost the kitchens many plates and glasses, but the pilot lived!  Anyway, we ended up docking much later, but the captain let us stay until 10pm instead of having us leave at 6pm which was the original plan.  You know something, I don't have any pictures this time.  I probably didn't get off the boat.  Oh yeah, I had IPM!

Sunday, March 10, 2013
Huatulco, Mexico

I'm back at my favorite place to eat out of all of these Mexican ports!

Best Restaurant in Mexico.  I'm not kidding.

They even recognized me from when I was here two months ago.  Well, I don't blame them.  Not many gringo looking people make it past all the tourist traps.

And they still had my favorite Coconut Horchata in a bag!

Found Marcy, and we found some wifi.  Oh, and she got caramel coffee with ice cream.

Monday, March 11, 2013
Puerto Chiapas, Mexico

Sometimes, it's nice to go back to a place and see that nothing has changed.  Puerto Chiapas is still a nothing port for the guests, and a never ending pool party for the crew.

Marcy shows us all her moves:

While the Filipino Mafia takes over the pool.

Puerto Chiapas, a good day of nothing.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Puntarenas, Costa Rica

I thought it would be fun for us all to do something together, so we all hopped in a cab and took it to a local beach where we did what we are best at: Food and Wifi.

At one point in the middle of our lunch, the waiter came over to us and called us out onto the beach and told us to look up into the tree where a Macaw had just landed to eat.

I'll let you play Find the Macaw:

Friday, March 15, 2013
Panama Canal

Yep, crossed through there again.

Rebecca and I were looking off the side of the ship when we saw some local guys on a truck nearly spill its cargo.  There was this red stuff all over the ground!  It's funny how your attention is drawn towards other things when you're on your second time through.

Here's what I was talking about:

The Locks

Oooh!  A Jacaranda.  Just like home.

Saturday, March 16, 2013
Cartagena, Colombia

This time, I told myself no taxis!  In fact, I didn't even leave the cruise ship terminal?  There really isn't any reason to leave the cruise area in Cartagena.  Why take a risk in a dangerous city when they bring the best of it to you?

Like, Flamingos!

and parrots

 and more parrots

 And a really awesome Toucan

 ...that likes to go shopping.

Supposedly, this is one of the best places to get coffee in the world.

So, we got some.

 And then we did what we do best, again.

I'm in good company.

Next post: Illegal Downloading from Ft. Lauderdale to Barbados makes me a Pirate of the Caribbean.

Leaving Los Angeles and Starting Over!

March 4th, 2013
Los Angeles, California

It's the beginning of another beautiful contract, and I am so lucky because the Silver Spirit is picking me up in my home port, the port of Los Angeles (which is really Long Beach, or San Pedro, or something...bottom line: it's closer to my home in Irvine than most places in LA.)

Why is this super cool?  Because look who gets to see me off!

From Left to Right: Dad, Mom, Ninja.

 It was really something special for my parents to be there to see the ship I will be living on for eight months.  Of course, the goodbye was more difficult, but that's life.  Another perk about taking off from your home port is that you can bring as much stuff with you as you can carry!  Here I am with 8 months of toiletries and video games packed into boxes.

My two new best friends are excited about the journey.

Jennifer and Rebecca...get used to seeing these faces.

The Silver Spirit is the largest ship in the SilverSea fleet.  But it's still smaller than most other cruise lines.  Our guest limit caps out around 500, and we have less than 300 crew.

Yes, I'm that guy who showed up in uniform.

Marcy's ready for round two.

This time she's legally blonde.

So far, things are off to a great start because who do I run into on my way onto the ship, but none other that the great Hyperion Knight!  This man is the highest rated guest artist to perform on the Silversea ships.  He's an incredible pianist, and a great showman.  AND, he's my friend.

I know this is kind of like cheating, but let's call it efficiency.  This 16 day cruise that I'm kicking things off with on the Silver Spirit on March 4th, is the exact itinerary as the last one I ended with on the whisper.  So, here's that same video from last time, only now I'm playing it backwards for you.

Since, I just did this cruise two months earlier, and you just read about all these ports, let's just go ahead and start to knock them out quickly:

March 7, 2013
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Hey!  This time I can get off the ship!  I don't have IPM (In port manning...which, by the way IS a punishment, no matter how much they try to dress it up by saying it's maritime law...more on that later).

So...

Hmm...

 I got off the ship in Cabo, and um...

A golden Jack Sparrow?

Is it worth it man?

Anyway, stick with me because my adventures get better.  Every once in a while though, there comes a day like today where the most exciting thing in port in the decor inside the Señor Frogs.  So, here's an unedited, un-cropped picture of just that.

My favorite part: the people floating in tubes above your head.

I eventually found another restaurant down the street, and made my first attempt at wifi.  From what I remember, I was somewhat successful and managed to upload a blog or two about my time in the Baltic (Funny how I'm still playing catch up.  I'm actually writing this blog from Cannes, France.  One day, I'll be current).

I will say this: When you're in Baja, get fish tacos! These were tuna, and they were amazing.

Yum.

Why is it in Mexico, people think they can dress up and bang on sticks with no rhyme, reason, or even rhythm, and expect to have money thrown at them?  Well, I take it back a little: rhythm seems to be the only thing they have going for them.  Maybe they're playing the, "Feed my little kids!" card?  I don't know.  The more I watch this, the cuter and funnier it becomes, but I will never forget my initial WTF reaction.  See for yourself!

Next post: Our first Motown show, the Filipino Mafia, and perhaps a few ports!