UMTravels

FOD update: moved the time to 5pm – and to a bar with no music – but a trivia contest that started 15 minutes after we arrived. WHAT are these people thinking – tomorrow it’s in the same place, but at 7:45pm and FAMILY KAROKE starts at 8-m. Really, they just need to hold the FOD gathering at the same place that is offering two-for-one martini specials from 5 to 7 – like the bar at Moderna (the Argentine Steak House) were Marcel, Dan and I moved after bailing on the trivia contest racket. The plan is the same for tonight.

So – the birthday dinner last night was at Cirque Dream in the Speigel Tent (I thought Speigel was a mail-order catalog!) We were early enough to get seats around the upper ring, which kept of close enough to the action, but out of getting pulled into the action. We are all a little suspicious about the $20 upcharge, but I have to admit, I’d go back – it was that good. Food was better, and those buff boy acrobats had the Puerto Rican woman next to me (travelling with her mother and hottie son) gasping at the stunning physical beauty – OK, we were both gasping.

Dan and Lisa went back to the room after dinner, I started in that direction, but realized that the Second City show was about to start in 15 minutes and took a detour to watch a completely different (but still adult) show from the previous night.

Another long night – but I decided to not do an early morning of getting off the boat – just can’t handle it.

My morning consisted of sleeping until 9ish when the tray with my continental breakfast arrived. Eat, shower, explore the dock area of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.

The view from the ship – there will be more views once I can get a scoller bar up and running, which requires a high-speed connection, and at the moment I’m tethered to my cell phone with an EDGE connection. First stop off the boat – after navigating through all the taxi/tour/junk dealers was to the post office to mail the cards from St. Maarten – gee, just like home, the familiar blue USPS box.

The joys of vacationing in a protectorate. I adopted my usual philosophy of the further you go from the dock, the cheaper the prices are. Under $15 for a shirt for the Astoria boy (pirate themed Hawaiian shirt), a hat pin for me, two postcards. I’m not helping the economy that much. Oh well.

Cruise review so far – both Dan and I were thinking of doing the $250 deposit on a future cruise – but the food and the service has been so mediocre on this cruise that probably ain’t going to happen. That said, the entertainment has been better than I’ve ever seen on a cruise ship. What we need to find is the matrix that rates various cruise lines by food/entertainment/cabin comfort/price.

And against all odds… the scrolling bar of pictures. 24MB of pictures on an EDGE connection… think dial-up speeds.

[? ? ?]