HEZEKIAH 3:16

August 21, 2015

Our text for today: “He that tooteth not his own horn, the same shall not be tooted.”

I received several nice compliments on my talks, which is always nice.  Nice.  Very nice.  We’re all nice here.  Luke!

After my talk on Labadee, Haiti (Royal Caribbean’s private estate), three folks, native Haitians told me they appreciated the very positive things I said about their country.  They said there is plenty of negative being said – and there is, some with justification, some not – but they said I had represented them well.  And suggested some additions to the talk.  They had a couple of very good ideas that I will incorporate.  One of the ladies said she works for an organization out of New York that promotes Haiti and she said they are all always looking for special speakers – and asked for my business card.

Bonnie and I were only out in San Juan for about an hour – I spent the morning rehearsing for my next talk.  I wore my Roberto Clemente shirt – it was his 81st birthday after all.  A lady stopped me on the side walk and thanked me for the talk and the map we had made and passed out.  She said she was able to visit every place on the map and had a great time.

Another couple came up to us and said I had told them more about Fort El Morro than the guide who took them on a tour.  That was pretty cool, too.

Right now we are sitting on Deck 4 and I just finished some preliminary work for a talk for the next cruise – getting it in shape to finish the week we are home.  Bonnie has been reading and crocheting.  And we’ve been listening to Joe Blowhard tell an audience of four friends how bad this cruise is, how great other places he’s been to are, how lousy this ship is, how great other ships are, and how much he needed Internet for this cruise so he could keep up with his business.  And his girlfriend takes 2 hours to fix her make up and do her hair.  It’s not like we were trying to listen – he was loud!  When he finally walked away, one member of his audience shook his head and said, “He sure has a tough life.”

Addendum: August 24, 2015

"47 years with the wrong woman is a mighty long time."

Addendum:  August 25, 2015

We got home Sunday night, as you know, having driven though some of the heaviest congestion we've ever seen -- and it was even worse in the opposite direction.  But, since we had no Internet on board ($20 a day and you had to buy 9 days) you've only seen two pictures from a Bermuda wi-fi hot spot.  So below are some more pictures.

TTFN!

Clouds over a calm Bermuda Sea

Steering past the rocks

Sunset east of Puerto Rico

Wearing the colors in San Juan on what would have been Roberto's 81st birthday

THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN

August 17, 2015

Somewhere between Bermuda and here, the ship’s schedule went kaflooey.  No one to blame, really.  It was a medical emergency, and the Captain turned the ship back to Bermuda to get the guest the medical attention she needed.  Once the 4 hour round trip was completed, and adding in time to get the guest into shore based conveyance, we were bound to miss St. Martin.  Some estimates suggest that we could have gotten there at 4 p.m. instead of our scheduled 1 p.m. arrival, and then stayed until 9, but that didn’t work out.  So here we are, hours away from San Juan, and a short scheduled visit – off at 7:30, all aboard at 12:30 and then sail to Royal Caribbean’s private estate of Labadee (your humble scribe and his traveling companion plan to get in the ocean – there will be no pictures).

I’ve had 2 talks and led a church service since we left Bermuda.  At the direction of the cruise staff, I announced the service during my first talk, and it’s a good thing I did because it was left off of the Cruise Compass.  Word of mouth got an audience of about 30.  As usually happens several people told me that this was the first time they’d been on a cruise ship that had a Sunday worship service, and thanked me for leading it.

The talks have been well-attended.  Today’s on San Juan had about 150.  And since the first day there has been no technical problems.  I’m using the old Touch Pad Windows XP computer and it is communicating fine with the ship’s projector – their old technology won’t match the screen resolution of my new laptop, but this works fine.  And I have a regular technician helping me, so that makes getting set up and going live a lot easier.

We are participating in “My Time” dining on this cruise.  Many ships are opening up large blocks of time and one entire dining room to this option.  It was chosen for us, just like our second seating, when we do that, but we have great waiters – Frederico and Jefol.  We eat every day at 5:30, which is quite a change from our usual 8 or 8:30 p.m. seating.  We go to the second show and are in our cabin by 10, ready for bed – old people are boring!

Tuesday, August 18, is Mike and Ivy’s 3rd anniversary.  Happy Day Kids!  Everyone call or text and send them happy returns of the day!

If these two blog entries get posted while we are in San Juan, don’t expect to hear from us again until we are back in New Jersey on Saturday.  Internet onboard the Liberty of the Seas is outrageous! $20 a day, and you have to buy 9 days!  And I ain’t paying it!  September may be better since we will be in several U.S. ports and I can use my cellphone as a wifi hotspot (that’s what I’m going to try in San Juan).

Well, TTFN!

THANK YOU MILFORD!

August 14, 2015

Oh what a day yesterday was!  Before we reached the dock, I was ready to throw Elena out the window!  Bodily harm was considered by the other two occupants of the car upon each other!

Elena, for the uninitiated, is my GPS, and she is supposed to know where there are road constructions and detours.  Not this time.  The Bayonne Bridge is under construction, and will be for the remainder of this century, or at least for the next two years.  And Elena did not know that, even though I had followed the manufacturer’s prompts a few days earlier and did an upgrade on all of her systems. 

“Take Exit 13,” she blithely instructed.  And Exit 13 we took.  Two and a half hours later, $28 in tolls for the same bridge twice, and seeing more of the backside of New Jersey than anyone should ever see, we arrived at our parking site, and were transferred to the Liberty of the Seas.

Had we not detoured into the Newark Airport and asked a taxi driver how to get to the cruise dock, we would probably still be on the New Jersey Turnpike, or one of its kin, circling, paying tolls, circling aimlessly down East Brunswick streets, following Detour signs that took us right back from whence we had started, being honked at – loudly and rudely – and telling all drivers within range that they were Number One.

That was not the end of the adventure, dear reader.

We left our baggage with a sidewalk attendant and went inside, headed for the Pier Coordinator to secure our Sea Pass Cards and other permissions to go on board, and arrived at her desk just as she went on break.  We never saw her again, but 15 minutes later another woman came up to the abandoned station and said, “Can I help you?”  And bless her heart she did.  She took our credit card information, photographed us, scanned the photos into our respective Sea Pass Cards and wished us, “Bon Voyage!”

Through security and onto the ship.  Not so fast, Cruise Talk Boy!  My picture was not on my Sea Pass Card but 4 tries later, my still smiling face was electronically stored.

By this time it was 2:30 with the lifeboat drill 45 minutes away.  We took our carry on luggage to our state room, and headed for our drill station.

Drill completed, we returned to 3615, and voila, our cards did not work!  Neither of them.  So it was up to guest relations where we joined 300 of our closest friends in what looked like a 2 hour wait.  I went to the head of the line, asked a kind lady to let me go first because my wife’s medicine was locked in our stateroom.  She waved me on and I got two new cards – the old ones had become mysteriously demagnetized!  And no, we hadn’t placed them near a credit card of an electronic device.

The rest of our luggage was at our door when we returned, got partly unpacked, reserved a spot for supper, enjoyed a great meal, and a good welcome aboard show.  We set our clocks ahead one hour and at 9 p.m. your time, went to bed.  It’s all down hill from here, right?

Oh no mon aimee!  Once again the projector on board will not talk to my Windows 8.1 laptop, so it was back to the room, get the XP spare, and start my first talk ten minutes late!  The technician did say the problem was with their projector – it won’t adjust to the resolution of my computer, but it does match the old one, so the old one is out of storage and 8.1 is hidden away for the remainder of this trip (including this blog).

And now it is time to dress and get ready for our first formal night, after I awake my traveling companion from her afternoon nap.

It is all down hill from here, right?

Oh! I forgot to tell you.  Milford was the taxi driver who did what Elena could not do – get us to the port on time.
TTFN!

I Forgot the Flash Drive

So what I wrote is on the ship, and maybe I'll get to send it Monday.  We are fine.  We are all fine here.

Here are a few pictures from Bermuda.