Happy Valentine's Day

well, i celebrated on January 31st (when my Valentine left the ship)... so the actual Valentine's Day was a girl's night out, with a party full of hearts and red attire, and my favorite DJ Marsha! yay! Here's a blurry solo pic... lotta love to go around!

St. John

Rockefeller beach below: $500 a night is what I heard! St. John certainly fulfills it’s promise for the most fabulous beaches. The color of the water is a beautiful and vibrant light blue, with hints of teal in places where the sun hits just right. When walking into the ocean, there’s usually a bit of a drop off, where suddenly, you find yourself swimming in neck-deep water that makes it seem like a pool. The sand is light tan, and holds palm trees all over. You can see mountains and other islands surrounding you. The first time I went to this port, I was whisked away by a pick-up truck/taxi, with benches in the back bed (and some over head rails to hold on to) which took me to Trunk Bay. This was a nature reserve where the most people hear about, so it felt a bit touristy. The beach was absolutely glorious, and there was a nearby snack bar. The next visit, Lindsay and I wanted to venture off to find something a little different/less touristy, so we hiked a trail to Salomon Bay. It was about a 25 minute walk on rocky terrain, and there was little lizards leaping all over the place. We even saw two donkeys ahead of us on the trail, before we turned down a side trail to go to our preferred beach. Salomon Bay ended up being a secluded, quiet, and breathtakingly beautiful beach. We borrowed some snorkeling equipment and even ventured into the water to see a few vibrantly beautiful fish. This is the beach to come to!

St. Kitts

Today there was a crew tour – snorkeling and sailing adventure. About 30 of us went – all of the fun crazy party people, and we had a blast! It was about a 45 minute ride out to the snorkeling spot – none other then “Shittensburg bay,” where we geared up and swam among the fishies. There were many large rocks under water where the fish would mingle. I saw an octopus, who blended in with the rock it was on, and I didn’t notice it until it slowly swam away. I fell in love with snorkeling. On the way back, the crew had an impromptu dance party.. I don’t even think it was noon yet, but everyone was so happy not to be working, and we all had a great time together!

St. Martin

pretty sunset after the quick rain a rainbow *before* the rain. we could actually see the rain coming towards us. bizarre! below: matching ray bans! Stepping off the tender, the first area is a bustling square, full of restaurants and shops. We were on the French side, where prices were quite high…and they are mostly in euros (which is almost doubled in U.S. dollars). Luckily, Marsha had been to this port before on another ship and encouraged us all to go to the Dutch side. What a happy surprise. It had the best of both worlds – a wide beach with mountains on either side, lined with restaurants and surrounding middle to high end shopping. We started the day at a restaurant Marsha had visited before. It was a down – home kind of feel and served a complete meal of a meat / vegetable of choice, rice, mac and cheese, potato salad. Nothing to extravagant but fresh and satisfying. I then roamed the surrounding area with Takis and was treated to my first pair of Ray Bans… also looked at the expensive watches and jewelry, to just dream a little ☺ We then went to the beach to hang out and met up with the rest of the gang for a little R & R. After a while we decided to head back to where the ship was, on the French side. We were in port til late (a rare occurance), 9 pm, so we decided to have a dinner with other crew we met up with, since a lot of people were leaving at the end of the cruise. I split a cheese and mushroom pizza and goat cheese on toasted bread…Good goat cheese is gooooood, and the company was fun and fabulous. It was however, in Euros because this was the French side, and was a bit over priced. I conclude, you get more bang for you $ on the dutch side.

St. Croix

It seems whenever I forget my camera, or the battery runs out, I end up seeing and doing some really cool things! So you will have to use your imagination with this one. At the ship’s port, there is a nice little area with restaurants and shops, along with a small and humble beach. Takis and I wanted to venture out into the island, so we took a cab to Fredriksted, on the other side of the island. It was about a 25 minute drive. By the water, the boardwalk was lined with a few hip bars and restaurants, all of which were open aired as to not miss the view of the beaches and surroundings islands and mountains. From here, we could see a small island which held a small resort. Takis and I found a small ‘ferry’ which took us there. We were able to dine at the resort’s outside restaurant, away from the tourist traps we somehow managed to escape. The people staying there were very relaxed and friendly, and wanted to talk to us. Most of them were Americans who had found this tiny island to house their vacation away from the real world. There was of course a beach, just a few feet away from the resort with chairs and umbrellas. After lunch we hung around the beach for a little while to soak in our newly found secret spot, and then took the ferry back to explore the usual jewelry and souvenir shops.

Horseback in Costa Rica

Wow. So life at the beach has been relaxing and fun, but there’s only so much super powerful sun, sand, and pina colada a girl can take. I’m certainly not complaining – I am thrilled with this hot climate and happy with myself not to be blowing all my money on shoes in Europe (for now ☺). But, a crew tour was organized, and we were able to pick if we wanted to do horseback riding or zip-lining in Costa Rica. All the cool kids went zip-lining, but I was sold on the panorama horse adventure. We took a half hour bus ride to this little resort area with zip lines, 4 wheelers, horse stables and a restaurant. The horses were pretty well trained, but some seemed a little skinny. There was about 10 of us who went, including Michelle, who made it even more fun. A few of the girls had experience, so they went ahead with one of the guides, while a little group of us stayed back and enjoyed the nice mountains, few houses, and scenery. The halfway mark was where we turned around and went back the way we came. Michelle and I were in the back with a guide and were going slow. He asked if we wanted to speed up, so we did, and galloped back! It was scary at first, but then really exhilarating. I am definitely hooked. My back is really sore though ☹

Nicaragua

a beautiful day in San Juan Del Sure, Nicaragua. Just a simple lunch and stroll outside. But a wonderful day none the less. Yes, that is a whole fish once AGAIN!

Acapulco second time around

This time in Acapulco, we decided to take a trip to Paradise Beach. Takis and I met up with Marsha and Lindsay for some serious beach time. He had ‘the best meal’ which was a whole red snapper then he had to de-bone. I tried it and it was really light/refreshing. I over did the appetizer of guacamole ad chips so I left it at that. There parrots at the entrance/exit for the restaurant! After lunch we took a jet ski ride. 30 minutes for $40. Takis drove and I sat on the back, and we rode up the coast line to where the ship was docked, and then over to the really nice condos and apartments where the celebrities live. It was great views, but there were quite a few dead things in the water. When we were finished, we all hung out on the beach, in front of a bungie jumping platform…where we finally got to watch someone jump right before we left.

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

There was a Wal-Mart when I looked outside today! I never thought I’d be so excited for this. I was able to get a few essentials…especially all new eye make up, because I had to throw all mine out from getting pink eye the other day. YUCK…you don’t need to hear about that. Anyways, after Wal-Mart, Marsh, Linds, Takis and Dicky (the new personal trainer) took a 20 minute taxi ride to get to a nice beach area. We went to a nice open restaurant and had chips, salsa, beans, rice, and of course, margaritas. Afterwards we went to the beach and lounged around while local vendors walked up to us, trying to sell us all sorts of things – ranging from silver jewelry to sunglasses to dresses. I ended up getting 3 dresses… oops! You can see the red one in the picture. You can also see I made three new friends! Some musicians started playing music on the beach, and we had our own little dance party. The little girls couldn’t speak English and I don’t know Spanish, so it was like we were using body language to talk to each other. We took turns playing follow the dance leader and copied each other.

holiday cruise recap

They are sad to go, and I am sad to have them go, but I certainly had a most lovely holiday cruise with my mom, dad, theo, and gram. Some highlights include: -Talking in British accents, especially at tea time. -Dad getting super mad at theo for taking the only tuna sandwich at tea time. -After the whole family had a 2 hour dinner with Takis, we had lunch the next day, and grandma asked “who are you?” to Takis! (it was the “lighting”.. they ended up being quite good friends by the end of the cruise, no worries!) -Theo entertaining more people then anyone in entertainment with his card tricks and wii lessons -Theo and mine’s day in Hautulco – playing our new mini violins -our tour in Nicaragua of the mombachu volcano and cloud forest. -Seeing lots of wildlife in the ocean – sea turtles, sea lions, dolphins/spinners -Cruising through the panama canal -Harp Lessons and learning about harp with Mary Amanda Fairchild, the harp player on board -boogying all night on new years eve!

Theo's blog

Hi everyone, this is Theo, Molly’s brother, and I will be doing a guest blog because this is my last day of the cruise and I would like to wrap up my experience with a nice blog (all said in a British accent). I have been to many places on this cruise and have met many people, but my favorite places were huatulco, mexico and cabo san lucas, mexico. Both of these places were fun because I had lots of time to chill and hang out on the beach. My people that I have to give a shout out to are definitely Ron, Eric, Adrian, and all the other fun people from the cruise. I would name all of them but I would be here forever. I learned how to play harp, how to do card tricks and apparently I’m a good dancer. I’d also like to say thank to Mary Amanda, Michelle, the cast, my 18-25 group friend, and Takis for being so awesome and I’m going to miss everyone and everything here. This was the best 2 weeks and 2 days of my life!

Cabo

The last production show of the holiday cruise was on New Year’s Eve, so it gave me just a few hours to go out in Cabo. Takis and I went to a resort he had been to a few years before on another contract. This place was FABULOUS. It had 3 swimming pools on separate levels. We picked the 2nd level pool with a swim up bar, volleyball net, and hot tub. There was a view of the beach and ocean from the resort. We spent our time swimming, laying out, relaxing, and finishing the day with a trip to the hammocks on the beach. I love hammocks! It was also a plus that it was happy hour…well, happy afternoon… and every drink Takis ordered he got one for free. I was given 2 pina coladas… but had to take it easy because I had shows in the evening, of course! My mom said it’s good to be working the last night of the year… to ring in the new year with a job! The cast had such good energy for the 2 shows and I had so much fun performing and kicking off people’s new years celebrations. There was a huge deck party with the rockin’ Mirage Trio band, fruit and dessert layouts, and festive decorations galore. Everyone was there – dancing and partying! I was so happy to have my family there to ring in the new year. It had been quite a few years since I brought in a new year with them! We danced, took tons of pictures, and hung out on the windy deck all night. I finished off the night at the crew party, where michelle was dj-ing. I definitely partied enough to last me for the entire year, which is just fine for me, because I have big plans for 2009.