Saturday, November 19 - Miami to home

Since we weren't being escorted off the ship one last time by Manoj until 9:30, we had a leisurely morning of breakfast and hanging out in the lounge with Dale and Gunda one last time.  We took Uber to the airport, and it was a little chaotic finding our driver in all the confusion of 5 ships discharging their passengers.  Then she lost her connection to Uber and she ended up using Google Maps to get us to the airport.  We gave her $20 since the Uber connection never worked.  One interesting note:  Dale and Gunda were using Uber for the first time so I helped her call their ride.  She has an Apple phone and the price estimate for her exact same trip to the airport was $2 more than our Uber estimate on our Android phones.  Mmmmh.  Interesting.

Our flight from Miami to Phoenix was nice since they had about 30 movies from which to choose on our personal screen and I was able to pass the flight by watching 2.  Then a very uncomfortable 2 hour flight to Redmond in small seats and no entertainment except the woman in the row behind who was very talkative and loud.

It was a wonderful trip which we thoroughly enjoyed.  But sleeping in your own bed again is a good thing also.

Friday, November 18 - Nassau, Bahamas

Since this was a repeat stop, we just got off the ship and walked around for a bit around the pier area.  Lots of T shirt shops.  We had lunch at Senor Frog's which was surprisingly good.  It's a bit like Margaritaville in that it is a chain that makes its name off of tequila drinks and sales of logo items.  But the fish tacos were good as was the margarita.

One final game of trivia with our Canadian friends and a nice dinner before packing our belongings for departure in the morning.

Thursday, November 17 - at sea

We played trivia again with the Canadian couple.  We never properly introduced ourselves and at some point it seemed ridiculous to do so.  Today he mentioned returning to work, I asked him what he did.  Last week we ate with Harley who worked in Texas as an embryo transplant specialist with cattle.  Turns out that the Canadian fellow is an artificial insemination specialist with dairy cows.  Good grief!   At the morning game the staff member running the game made the lone player exchange his answer sheet despite his objections.  Turns out he did OK, but didn't win.  He didn't play the afternoon game.

We lingered over dinner with Dale and Gunda so long that we missed the evening show.  That was OK since the show the night before (a tribute to Queen) didn't thrill us.

Wednesday, November 16 - Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos, BWI

Grand Turk is a very flat island with not too much going for it except good scuba diving.  We were the only ship there and that was plenty.  There's a nice beach right where the pier is and the island sets up lots of beach chairs and umbrellas.   They are in rows and apparently some locals set up a couple of rows closer to the water and then charge for those, whereas the others are free.  There is a large Margaritaville restaurant / gift shop / pool area right there also.

As we were pulling in to the pier we saw what we believe to be a shark swimming around the beach.  From our deck 15 balcony it looked quite large.  We hung around the beach for a few hours but when we went into the water Michael joked that we needed to always have other swimmers farther out so the shark would get them first.

It was overcast so not too hot and the water was a little cooler than in St. Maarten but still lovely.  We amused ourselves people watching.  It seemed 90% of the people had cell phones and we're endlessly taking selfies.  There was also a couple with metal detectors patrolling the beach - he in the water and she along the shoreline.

We had a nice lunch at the Margaritaville and then wandered the shops which were not just your average cheap t-shirt shops, but we weren't tempted by anything.

Afternoon trivia with the usual couple.  This time it was pointed out to the crew member that the single fellow who seems to win 2 out of 3 times always plays alone and doesn't exchange his paper to "grade" the answers.  Can he really want the cheap prize so badly that he would  cheat?

Tuesday, November 15 - San Juan, Puerto Rico

Today was San Juan again.  As before, it was very hot.  We got off around 10:30 and walked up to the fort because Michael wanted to see the cemetary.  After a bit more walking around old San Juan, we returned to the ship.

Monday, November 14 - at sea

Another lazy day at sea.  Played trivia with the Vancouver couple and we are dreadful.  The pools in the "regular" area are jam packed.  People save their chairs as soon as it is light.  Consequently the areas inside are very quiet.  There are just as many Europeans as before, but not as many tattoos.  Don't know why we notice these things.

The staff on this ship is extraordinary.  Of course those in the Yacht Club area would be expected to be, but even the others are wonderful - so genuinely friendly and happy.  Made it to the show tonight.  Since the dinner theme was Italian, the show was Italian Classics.  The male and female singers were beautiful, I think the best I've ever heard on a ship, or maybe anywhere else for that matter.

Sunday, November 13 - at sea

Another lazy day at sea.  Played trivia a couple of times with a nice Canadian couple from Vancouver and an English woman.  First time we got one right, second time was 8 so we are improving.  It was too windy to sit on deck.  We finally made it to a show.  Unlike Princess there were still empty seats at show time.  Due to the international audience the shows are lots of music and dancing and we enjoyed last night's.  There was a darling little girl, maybe about 4, who started dancing in the aisle copying the dancers and she was pretty good.