Valet Parking Only

The small boat shown in the upper left contains the most important person in the whole Caribbean. In fact, he and his brothers all share a name, inscribed on their vessel. He is the harbor pilot, and that is the Pilot Boat.

Whether he is Mister Pilot, Monsieur Pilot or Senor Pilot, his duty is to guide the cruise ships into his port, and arguably without him an entire island nation's economy might collapse. He comes out to meet the cruise ships, and when their visit is complete, he returns to guide them away toward their next destination. All of these large ships have Captains who probably could accomplish docking without help, but all Captains have learned to defer to the expertise of the harbor pilot. He studies daily the tides and the shifting sands that move a shoal from place to place. He IS the local expert, and we always enjoy watching him jump aboard a moving ship with the grace of a ballerina.

The main picture depicts five ships at the pier in Nassau. Two are Royal Caribbean ships (Majesty, the smaller, Oasis the larger), two belonging to Norwegian Cruise Lines (the smaller ships Sun on the left and Sky on the right) and Carnival's Dream in the middle. The behemoth which dwarfs the Norwegian Sky is the Royal Carribean's second newest ship, the Oasis. She and her sister, the Allure, weigh in at over 220,000 tons. Sky is a small ship by comparison, at approximately 75,000 tons. Oasis and Allure are BIG girls to dance with, but the pilot does it well. If I were he, I'd be VERY nervous doing my job, but each Pilot holds a ship masters credential and is clearly the "local expert". In America, he'd probably be listed as a consultant and earn the big bucks. All we do know about these individuals is that without them, we'd never enjoy the opportunity to walk ashore on distant sands, and enjoy our retirement with only fifteen thousand plus friends in town at the same time.

Our ship, the Norwegian Sun, carried just under 2,000 passengers - Royal Caribbean's Oasis carried 5400 guests, and 2,000 crew. Crew numbers generally reflect a two and a half passengers to each crew member ratio. Oasis had a staggering seventy four hundred aboard. No wonder Homeland Security patrols these ports and keeps any and all boats at a distance. And, cruise ships rarely leave port with empty rooms - last minute Internet deals fill those cabins, We are getting emails daily about "deals" and living in Florida we're able to drive to five ports within four hours (Jacksonville, Miami, Port Canaveral, Port Everglades, Tampa). So far, we've not considered Jacksonville, as only the Carnival Fascination is based there. You all remember Carnival - they're the ones who also own Costa - those are the unlucky boats that either crash on the rocks, or leave passengers without power or sanitation for three days as they're towed to the nearest port.......by the French, no less.

One final comment - NCL has positioned a legion of young women with squirt bottles of hand sanitizing fluid all over their ships. You can't turn around without a perky "washee-washee, happy happy". What at first seemed an imposition, became a game, and I'd gladly present palms up whenever I heard that sing-song phrase. But, because of that, no Norovirus to catch, so I came on and left this most recent adventure Happy, Happy. If nothing else, my hands were clean.

Malt Shoppe Memories Cruise

Yes, that's Uncle Jesse (John Stamos) playing guitar with Mike Love of the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys today had only two of the original members (Mike Love and Bruce Johnston), but were supplemented by John Stamos (of Full House fame) and John Cowsill (the youngest of The Cowsill Family who recorded Hair and The Rain, The Park, and Other Things in the late 60's) who both played drums during the two shows I attended on the Carnival ship Inspiration. I've posted a number of other pictures on my Face Book page (John David Wild) under Rock & Roll Concert in the photo albums.

The gentlemen on the left is Ernest Evans, who turned 70 this month. You know him as Chubby Checker, who was given that last name by Dick Clark's wife, when she compared his Chubby first name (given him as a youth by an earlier employer) to Fats Domino. Fats Domino, Chubby Checker - a star was born doing a dance considered obscene in those days - the Twist. We had several opportunities to meet him, and listen to his story - a truly decent man who made his mark in music for my generation.

Another favorite was Lou Christie, who recorded Two Faces Have I, Lightnin' Strikes (probably his best known) and Rhapsody In The Rain. That last one was restricted on American Forces Network as the lyric went "and in my car, our love went much too far" and referenced another lyric "the windshield wipers seemed to say...together, together" - pretty racy stuff for that time. Lou, among several others on the ship, wasn't hitting those high notes quite as I remembered, but then again neither can I.

The cruise went from Tampa to Freeport, Bahamas, and back. Freeport wasn't that hot a town, but the action was all on the ship anyway. Poodle skirts and leather jackets, t-shirts rolled up with cigarette packages stuffed up the sleeve, and saddle oxford shoes were legion on the decks. Even Little Anthony (of Little Anthony and the Imperials fame) was performing renewal of vow marriages onboard. When not singing, he's an ordained minister. Sadly, Jay Black (as in Jay and the Americans) had canceled due to a heart attack several weeks before the cruise. Like our WW II veterans, these guys are Rock & Roll's greatest generation and will not be with us forever, but the music will go on, and on, and on........

The Alpha and the Omega of my September 2011 trip

Two views of nature in the islands, one of immense strength and another of delicate beauty.

That's St. Croix on the left, with the waves breaking over coral rock and tossing Atlantic water onto the shore of this American territory in the U.S. Virgins. The orchids resided on Barbados, our first island stop where 30,000 orchid plants resided 850 feet above sea level in the middle of this island. You can learn more at www.orchidworldbarbados.com. These two pictures represent the bookends of the cruise, starting in Barbados and ending in St. Croix, from rare beauty to awesome power of water meeting land. And it also represented both ends of my travel - by bus to the Orchid World, and by bicycle six miles from Frederiksted to Ham's Bay (and back another six). A little known fact about St. Croix - the only American territory where people legally drive on the left side of the road. Of these two islands, I think I'd have to rank the last visited better than the first.

Why I Cruise

Food, glorious food..........and at all hours of the day and night. Of course, there are other reasons to board a ship and sail away from your daily life on shore. You can visit many new places, and once you've unpacked, you don't have to do it again for five, perhaps ten, maybe someday 14 or more days.

I am currently at nine (9) cruises with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, and when I reach ten (10) I become a Diamond (certainly in the rough) Frequent Cruise Customer. I began this adventure quite by accident, with the encouragement of a friend in St. Louis who had gone before me and spoke of the fun and adventures to be had. Those first cruises were not all fun and adventure however. On my first cruise, my card to the room identified me as a "Gold" member, and I was to be at that level for another four cruises. As a Gold cruiser, I went sometimes with my buddy, other times with my wife. She had bad luck, breaking a tooth on one cruise (somebody left an olive pit inside the Focaccia Bread), and this happened on the first night. OUCH! I think that was the 2003 "adventure", and ultimately the cruise line made good on the full dental bill, after I spent a fair amount of time on the phone escalating my complaint up the line. It took her a while to venture to sea with me again. She still disdains any departure from San Juan, where that particular cruise was sold out (last minute filling of unsold cabins) to local families with dozens of unruly children running amok throughout the ship. But fortunately, that's been an exception for us - she's a few cruises short of my number, but based on my status gets that Platinum robe in the room anyway.

In the beginning, I went infrequently, perhaps every other year starting in 2001. But, after my retirement, the pace quickened, and in 2009 my wife and I went three times, from three different ports (Baltimore, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale). We've discovered that with four points of departure with four to five hours drive, we can put the dog in the kennel, load up the car, and take off on fairly short notice. Baltimore was our jump off point for Bermuda - a great place to visit if you get the chance.

I recently "blogged" on my ten day to Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica and Grand Cayman (with an earlier "rain day" off Haiti). What I didn't mention was the return, where the ship came in at a different location than it departed (Thank You, Royal Caribbean, for notifying me!), and off we went speed walking through the pouring rain to the parking garage to discover somebody stole the Corvette. We were early off the ship, and eventually several other families showed up at that same garage, to discover their cars also missing. My wife then observed (she's the observant one, after all) that while identical, we were in the wrong garage. I begged a ride with the local police (thank you, Miami-Dade Sheriff) who put me in the back of his car and gave me a ride half a mile or more to the garage where I "found" my car once again. Life is a learning experience - next time out of Miami I'll note the garage number and adjacent pier. Having never been locked in the rear of a cop car, I did get that extra bonus at the end of the cruise.

So, great food, wonderful destinations, generally sunny days, and every night a host of shows and activities, you'll see that cruising isn't half bad. Not sure where we go next, but now that I'm at nine (9) cruises and the Platinum level, I'm looking forward to that tenth and Diamond status. Not sure what it will get me, maybe two mints on the pillow.