Cruise: Part IV

Cruise: Part IV. I know many of you are on the edge of your seat to find out what happens next! Wait no longer. The adventure continues. (For those who are planning on staying up to see the Powerball drawing, hopefully, this helps pass the time)

Entry Date, Wednesday 11/21. Day IV. 9:30am

I woke up super early today (6:00am) to see the sun rise. Now, I don't know much about sunrises -- I'm never up before the sun and on the rare chance that I am "up" at that hour, I am definitely not awake enough to be aware of what the sun is doing.

(There was another ship nearby. I wonder if they are taking pictures of my ship?)

(Pre-"rise")

(This thing was behind me. For some reason, it looked really epic in the blue and cloudy sky... it's not quite as epic looking digitized)

(You're late, sun!)

(I was not the only one missing sleep)

At one point, someone said, "hey, turn around!" There was a rainbow that crested right over the boat.

I heard lots of people making "oooh's" and "ahhh's" over the rainbow. Then, almost as one, the entire group of us remembered that we got up this early to see the damn sunrise and turned back at the same time. Just in time for this:

After catching the sunrise, I decided to head back to the state room and go back to sleep. I slept for about two hours. I'm in the state room now... still in bed, in fact. Writing.

I just heard an announcement from the Captain (Captain Lars), stating that we just anchored in Great Stirrup Cay (the cruise line's private island). However, it's pretty windy and wavy and they are only going to be able to use the two largest "tenders" (ferry-ish boats that take you from the ship to the shore and back) instead of using all five. I'm pretty excited to get on the island. I have a ticket for snorkeling. I'm planning on doing that for a bit and then relaxing on the beach. Hello, blue water. Here I come!

Entry Date, Wednesday 11/21. Day IV. 2:00pm

No sooner had I gotten ready to head for the tenders, when another announcement from Captain Lars came on. He said that sea is too rough for tendering. He said it's too dangerous to go from the ship to a tender, as they were having trouble loading food on to a tender, and the forecast called for rougher seas as the day goes on. So, instead of going to the island and, possibly, getting stuck there, we are playing it safe and having another day at sea.

Truthfully, I'm cool with that.

I gathered up my camera, towel, and iPod and headed for the sun deck. I took the long way and snapped some shots of the island and the tender that failed to, um... tender.

(Why you no love me tender?)

I started looking for a sunny spot to soak up the sun. Everywhere I looked, hordes of people were gathering up every single beach chair on each deck. Pool deck: no chairs. Main deck: there's a cha -- nope, no chairs. Sun Deck: I watched a stack of chairs turn into no chairs in a matter of seconds as unhappy no-longer-beach-goers grabbed and claimed every one. It was like a zombie apocalypse and everyone was grabbing supplies at a store.

I stood there somewhat dejected. It was much too beautiful of a day to sit inside. Then, I remembered that there was another, smaller deck above the sun deck. I didn't think there would be any lounge chairs though, because it was so small. I checked it out anyway. To my surprise, there was one stack of about 8 chairs... and only about five people.

I nabbed a chair and set it up in a sunny spot. I popped in the iPod head phones and drifted off with a smile on my face.

A couple of times, the ship changed directions and the sun was blocked out by part of the ship. It was funny, because all of the people there sun bathing sighed, got up, and moved their chairs out of the shade and back into the sun at the same time.

(I'm not sure what kind of dance they were all doing, but it almost appeared to be Stump Grinding)

Entry Date, Wednesday 11/21. Day IV. 10:30pm

Whoa... I am quite drunk. And it's only 10:30! Right now, I am sitting on the port in Nassau, outside of the ship.

(Current view)

**Note: it's kind of difficult to read my scribblings... doing my best to translate into some sort of coherent form...

Since my last update, a lot has transpired (I wrote transpeirded). The captain came on to announce that the ship would be docking in the Port of Nassau tonight at 7pm to make up for missing Great Stirrup Cay. And we will be staying there overnight! (*edit to remove ten exclamation points).

I spent the rest of the day laying out in the sun, listening to my iPod. Then, as the sun was getting close to going down, I grabbed some pictures:

Then, I ran back to my room, showered and changed and then ran back up to the front of the ship on the main deck to watch as we pulled into port.

(Seemed like we got awfully close to this other ship)

(Seemed like we got awfully close to this lighthouse and island.)

(Senior Frogs -- more on Senior Frogs to come!)

I got off the boat by following groups of others. I followed them into Nassau. There was a very sketchy looking boat docked nearby my ship with what I'm quite sure were crates of guns and/or cocaine... the people on the boat looked like modern, militant pirates... I didn't take a picture...

I quickly found the Hard Rock Cafe after passing by loads of sketchy looking Nassauians... Nassuanians? Nassaunians... eh, fuck it. Some of them asked me sketchy questions, like "want a smoke, mon?" Not from you, sir...

I bought a couple pins from Hard Rock to add to my collection. Then I followed some of my fellow cruisers through parts of downtown Nassua, which was as sketchy as many of the Nassonians I had met earlier.

(Frederick Street! Sweet.)

(I stared at this sign for a moment, trying to figure out what language it is in "Ent Rance? Y tu?" "Si, si")

I spotted Senior Frogs down one street and headed that way. On my way, I passed by a fat, dirty black man who asked me if I was looking for pretty girls. I said, "yeah -- who isn't?" Then, he said he would get me a pretty girl. I said "no thanks" and kept walking.

I thought I would just check out the gift shop of Senior Frogs and then go back to the boat for dinner. Turned out, things did not happen that way.

Upon walking in, I discovered some sort of dancing challenge. There was club music and an emcee hollering at people to "give it up" and stuff.

He made people dance and said that whichever side of the room was the loudest got free shots. I was on the stage-right side of the room and cheered really loud. He said it was a tie and then told everyone to get down on the dance floor for a tie breaker. Everyone danced to the cupid shuffle (one of my favorites -- I love a song that tells you exactly how to dance to it) and then the emcee told us we had to get in a conga line to get the shots. I did.

We conga'd around the room and at two "stations," dudes poured a fruity tasting, tequila shot down my throat.

This place was wild. The shot thing happened multiple times while I was there. I was having a blast, but I was starving, so I ordered some nachos. They were best nachos I have ever had. The cheese was delicious!

As I ate, I scanned the crowd. Teenagers (definitely not old enough to drink legally, even in Nassau where the drinking age is 18). And this guy... out on the dance floor tearing it up with the youngins.

("Set your plate here")

("Set your face here")

Senior Frogs was quite a blur... I'm pretty sure I did the conga four times, which was between 8 and 10 shots (they were watered down). I just checked to make sure I have my wallet and my credit card, because now that I think about it... I'm not so sure I paid for my nachos...