Friday, January 16, 2009

Aboard the Queen Mary 2 -- Our holiday, or vacation from retirement life, Part One

This is a part of a work in progress, more will follow (I hope). Click here to read what else I have posted about our Holiday at Sea.
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Days one-five of an eleven day Caribbean cruise, January 3, 2009: Travel to Miami and registering on our ship, the Queen Mary 2. You can see there was a long line. After all that I had to rest my feet.

Notice my life preserver, not that I don't know how to swim, rather, we had just finished with our drill to find and wear those preservers after assembling at our point of egress from the ship in case of emergency.



[click on any picture to enlarge]

Day 2, January 4: A day at sea. We ended with a dance in the ballroom. Full dress (formal) was required.



Day 3, January 5: Still at sea. Every day we started our day with a good meal. Most every day I had raisin bran with skim milk, a stewed fruit compost, a glass half prune juice and half cranberry, an egg over hard, two blueberry pancakes, and coffee. Besides that I had some whole wheat toast and a roll, each of which I ate some or none.

This one pictured is not my typical breakfast noted above. On day three (3) we ate at the Kings Court, a buffet. These were plain pancakes, without the blueberries.

Oh yes, I didn't gain any weight.



This is the view from our bathroom door, looking toward the window. It was a sliding glass door onto our 'bulkhead balcony.'





Later we lounged around. There aren't any pictures of me swimming in my new swim suit. We didn't get into the pool this nice day. Instead we just laid around like those others.

Mrs. Jim and I attended a bridge lesson in the morning and she played bridge with some ladies in the afternoon.




Day 4, January 6: We made it to Curacao. Mrs. Jim and I had been there at this lovely Dutch island before so we didn't take any excursions. It was nice to get our feet on the solid ground and we just walked around town where we had gone before.

First, take a look at our view of the town as we docked. The homes are all painted bright colors. This has been a tradition since early on.




We walked around until lunch time. Of course we couldn't miss any of those good ship's meals.

Mrs. Jim never gets lost. I think women have an acquired sense of getting back from where their guy took them. Warning to all women, be sure you have enough mad money to get to where you need to be.

The fishing fleet is in. In our walk to the end of the street for this photo we passed a nice fish market where a person could buy a fish just off the boats.

We didn't get any fish as we weren't sure that our cook would cook them up for us. Did you see the BBQ grill on our deck? There wasn't any.



Day 5, January 7: This day found us in Grenada. Since we hadn't been there before we took the 'Island Tour.'

To get ashore we had to tender.

Can you spot Mrs. Jim in the second picture? She says these guys are reggae singers. You couldn't prove it by me as that word wasn't in my vocabulary before.




As I said, this was a ten day cruise and we headed early for home on the eleventh day (January 13) I hope to put up something about the other five or six days soon. Then I may post more about some of our activities as (my) time permits.

I have started working on Mrs. Jim's annual performance evaluation (link). It seems to be fairly good, I thought it might.

This year I will include an examination of her body as I have noticed a few irregularities here and there.

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Comments:
And we're back home here freezing our bananas off.
 
Sorry, I meant to add that it looks like you two had a wonderful time making great memories.
 
Dear Jim,
Seems like you and Mrs. Jim have had a perfect prolonged Christmas vacation.
Queen Mary looks inviting and comfortably luxurious. One always travels pleasantly troublefree in royal company.
The jubilee lady looks to be on the top of any situation. Be it at the captain's dinner or on a reggae concert.
Honestly, Mrs. Jim is a cooool lady, that's for true.
You both have been lucky with each other's choice.
Hope things turns out well at the doctor's too.
Thanks for a shiny report on a rather black Saturday morning.
From Felisol
 
Jim, I think Mrs. Jim's body looks really nice and slim....You better hope she doesn't start evaluating your body.....

Now, about the trip: It looks like you had a wonderful time...I have never been on a cruise because TF gets sea sick...Oh Well! Did you do any "ship to shore" radio?

I'm ready for more news and pictures. BTW: I thought you weren't going to blog till early next week? What happened? You must have finished your Sunday School lesson really quick.
 
A caribean cruise... I'm kinda jealous! ;-)
We had around 5°F and in some areas it went down to -18, but it was a clear, beautiful cold with sunshine and I didn't feel bad with it physically. Now its "warmer" again, around 37°F and it's clammy and uncomfortable. Will stay in the house most of the weekend.

Yes, I missed you!! Glad you're back. :-) But you got a wonderful time on the boat, I can see that, I love the pictures you took.
 
Wow! Please send my warmest regards to Mrs Jim =)
 
Hi Jim the trip pics are good but wholly inadequate at this time. We need to see more, but the last two sentences of your post had me gasping for air. I will return to see if you live thru this or at least avoid having to visit someone specializing in divorce negotiations.
 
Welcome back Jim and Mrs. Jim! It certainly looked like you two had a very good time! Cruising is a wonderful thing to do. Was the Queen Mary 2 a nice ship? Glad you're back! And what the h--- is Mrs. Jim's performance evaluation??? :)
 
Dear Jim ~~ Just a quick note to let you know that I have left an award for you on my blog. I will be back to read this post more thoroughly. Take care, Regards, Merle.
 
Jim ~ Wow! This looks like a GREAT trip! In fact I wish that Mrs. LZ and I could have been there too! There are a couple of places on your cruise that we've never been to as well. The QM II looks like a huge ship. I am glad that the two of you had a good time and thanks for checking in! By the way... 30 degress sounds pretty WARM to me! ~ jb///
 
And here I thought you were mining salt. Welcome home and happy new year to the Jim Bunch.
 
well jim, no boating accidents, no birds flew into the boats engines causing you travel woes....i still say texas wasn't that bad weather wise so i wonder why you even left, what's a hurricane or two when we in utar have nine inches of snow on 5 inches of snow on three inches of snow a and a couple of nights of minus 15 degree temperatures...we were never on royality ss mary but on the uss patch...tell us about the food some day, and the captains's dinner at the end of the cruise ok??????
 
wow!! A caribean cruise? I have never been in a cruise, you are so lucky!!....You have wonderful photos, I am sure you will show us beautiful Skies for the Sky Watch? Good!! you both look so happy and nice, I am happy for both, it seams to me that you had a wonderful vacation! I am creating a list of "Sky Watch friends" on my blog, so I want to ask your permission if I can include your blog he he :D
Have a happy weekend! sure you have many stories to tell to your friends and family!!
 
It sure looks like you had a good time. Glad that you are back and doing some blogging once again. So are you happy to be back home?
 
Nice trip to get away from your very cold weather, eh? ;) You may have to bring out your long johns now that you've returned home from the sea voyage. I think a before and after pic is necessary to see if you really didn't gain any weight (lol). Glad you made it back to Texas.

Just got done playing that violent COPS board game ... everyone went to jail and we all age doughnuts ... a good time, really!
 
that's ate (not age) doughnuts ... silly me.
 
Hi Jim, glad to see that you and Mrs Jim got back okay and you had a nice time. After reading about that breakfast I wonder if you put on any weight? I also wonder what the meals for the rest of the day were like if that was breakfast. Bob.
 
Hi Jim ~~ Great post about your trip and the photos show that you and Mrs.Jim look happy and are enjoying yourselves. Look forward to reading more soon. There may have been one or two blonde jokes in your absence and yes, you were missed. I am glad you are pleased with the award, and thanks for your comments. My Ultra sound was on my Kidneys and all was well. I'm glad your tests are all good so far. It is a nuisance having them, but worth it to stay well.
Very Best Wishes, Merle.
 
Nice pics. It looked fun. Ya'll make good island people.
 
Anthony took your flower test. He's a daffodil.
 
How fun and how warm. I could go for some warm.

Thanks for sharing your cruise with all of us. Very nice indeed.

Have a terrific Sunday. Big hug. :)
 
:-)

What a marvelous trip!
Love the photos, especially the one of Mrs. Jim and the singers in those terrific outfits!
You look as if you were having a grand time, Jim.
 

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