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!