Cruise begins!

Our shuttle to the Port was uneventful, as was the boarding process. Quick, easy and efficient. The only small delay occurred when they took our wine out of our bag so they could register the corkage fee that we knew we would have to pay so no huge deal.

The trip started out on a somber note as we were informed that one of our ship's crew members had been murdered 5 days earlier in Roatan, Honduras; as a result, our itinerary had changed and we were no longer going to Roatan. I wasn't upset that we were skipping the murder capital of the world, except that we had booked a Dolphin encounter that we were looking forward to. Luckily we were able to book a shorter, but comparable, encounter in our new destination of Costa Maya, Mexico. Under the circumstances, a small inconvenience at best.

We get to our suite and are pleasantly surprised by the amount of room we have. By cruise ship standards it's big; by normal human standards, it's a closet. However they have made excellent use of the space with well placed shelves and drawers and we are not cramped in the least. I had pre-ordered a nice bottle of wine which was here when we arrived; the chocolate covered strawberries followed closely behind.

We unpacked and headed out to have lunch at the buffet and explore the ship. The buffet was of pretty good quality. How to describe it so my regular readers can understand.....in Vegas terms, it most closely resembles the Planet Hollywood buffet. Good, but a notch to two behind the "big boys" at Caesar's, Bellagio and the Wynn. The best thing about a cruise ship buffet, of course, is there is no pressure to get our "money's worth" as we can come here 10 times a day if we like.

We had dinner at Le Bistro, the high-end French restaurant. It was very good, but Tracey described it perfectly: it's a high-end French restaurant for people who haven't experienced a truly high-end French restaurant. Not that either if us would profess to be experts in French cuisine, but we have dined at Monsieur Paul's at Epcot, the Eiffel Tower at Paris LV, and this doesn't quite measure up to those. The wine we brought, though, was sublime. We had picked it up at Publix the other day; a 2007 Meritage-style blend called Col Solare, from Washington State. I had googled some reviews of it as it was pricey for the kind of wine you find in grocery stores ($61), but the excellent reviews were right on the money. It made the entire meal even better.

After dinner we had a cocktail and listened to some live music; a singer who was perfectly good but you knew cruise ships were the highest she was going on the musical scale. I ordered a glass of Beringer White Zinfandel, as a friend had recommend it recently and I had never tried a white Zin before. It wasn't really white, more of a blush, but it was terrific. Very fruity and mildly sweet. I'll be watching out for it.

Back to the room to open up our champagne and enjoy the strawberries. I confess that the champagne didn't wow me like it had at Victoria & Albert's last year. It was good, but nothing I'd go crazy over, and Tracey agreed. Even so, a pretty damn good ending to a great day.


Saturday April 12

And while attempting to sleep in the same bed as my wife, neither of us managed a lick of sleep AND I have passed my cold to her. F***ing fabulous. She doesn't seem to be quite as sick as I was so fingers crossed that she licks it faster as well. I'm feeling pretty good at this point but not close to 100% yet. Phlegm is my new claim to fame. Ick.

Up for breakfast at the buffet and while Tracey is getting her food, I wait at our table and they CLOSE THE MOTHER DOWN while she's in there. They are switching to Lunch and that takes them a half hour so I get a couple pieces of bacon from Tracey's plate for breakfast today. Grr. We head off to an art auction where lots of beautiful paintings are way out of my price range (there are Picassos. I shit you not. Pablo Picasso). Back to the buffet for lunch and then up to the pool for a hour or so. We are going to a comedy wine show, yes, comedy and wine at the same time..... So we don't have much time at the pool today. The pools are pretty small, and crowded. A bit disappointing but nice.

The comedy show is pretty funny, and we get to taste 6 different wines while it is going on. None of them great but a wide array of quality: from 72 to 86 on the Dean scale.

So much to do on the ship that it's almost overwhelming, and we haven't even been to port yet. Tomorrow we are swimming with dolphins in Mexico. I am bringing a large bag as I anticipate trying to smuggle one home. Hope he enjoys a few days in our suite's bathtub.