Live from the Freedom of the Seas

[Oneluckywoman]

Enjoying your review. We live 30 minutes from Port Canaveral and have cruised on the FOS 2 times, with another one booked in October. Love the ship. DH loves the flowrider...wanted to tell you that if you arrive right when it opens at 8:00 in the morning, you will most likely get a LOT more riding time in, since most normal people are sleeping then! My husband is 50 years old and was on the flowrider EVERY day of our cruise for at least 2 or 3 hours a day and he LOVED it. Of course, for the next 3 months his shoulder was killing him, but he really doesn't care, because he is vowing to do it again in October! :) Have fun! And keep those posts coming....I can't wait until October!

[04mach1]

Great review!!!

[bigque]

I am really enjoying your review as we are booked on The Freedom (Flowrider) next year! Someone has told me about the Flowrider and how much I am going to have to try it! Looking foward to more this exciting review!

[deltatango]

I am finding your review interesting as we are on the same class ship in November IOTS, don't thing there will be many chair huggers as the temp will not be to high

[pmfan]

Love this review. :) Your style of writing is awesome! Keep the posts coming, please. :D

[lrn2cruise]

Kokomo, You rock! Thanks for taking the time to share your FOS experience. You can see by my sig, that we are getting really close to our turn on her! We are in the "Make a to do list and scratch off when it is done stage". We have to make sure all of our Ts are crossed and Is are dotted!!!!

 

I am really enjoying your review!!!!!

[cruisebabe50]

More please! I know you are busy having fun but I am going in only 18 days and am sooooooo excited!:D

[sailingawaysoon]

Loving your review. Can't wait to continue reading. We will be headed back on the Freedom at the end of August. Can't wait to see the new changes. Have fun and look forward to hearing about your great vacation!

[mo&fran]

BTW, OP is also posting on the Carnival boards under the title

"rockwall of the seas"

[PH8]

Thanks for the review.......looking forward to my first Freedom cruise in Oct!:)

[Kokomo_Man]

Hi all...

 

I'm getting behind but I'll try to catch up a bit when I get a little bit of down time... for now I'm having too much fun. I’m going to take a few minutes to answer some of the questions and comments that have been posted. But first…

 

Those who know me or have read about some of my previous escapades know that from the minute I leave home heading for a cruise I have a big grin on my face. There is very little that can happen on a cruise that can change that to a frown.

 

It’s no different with this cruise. As you read through my posts, I might sometimes report on something that is… ummm let’s say… less than perfect. But keep in mind that all the while there is still a big grin on my face. Like the saying goes…

 

A bad day on a pleasure cruise is better than the best day in the dungeon where I work… better than working with the ogre and one- eyed-Cyclops… and certainly better than all but one other thing in this world. (I can’t tell you what that one other thing is for two reasons… the first is because my daughters are reading this and they will go “ewwwwwww”. The second reason is that I’ve forgotten what that thing is.)

 

So on to your posts.

 

 

Several of you have commented or had questions about the meals and such. As you can tell by now, I’m not a very good person to make recommendations about the best thing to do for dining. So I welcome the posts that we have gotten from the folks who are better experts than me. I will let you know what we do and for the rest of the cruise I’ll make mention of the evening meals.

 

By the way I appreciate folks adding stuff if they know the answer. Since online time is expensive on the ship, I only log in a couple of times a day. And don’t worry about “pirating” this thread a little bit if you’ve got something to add. I’m sure the cruisecritic police won’t make you walk the plank on your next cruise. And I welcome input on the stuff I don’t know about… like food. I only ask that you don’t flame me for my opinion. And please don’t “pirate” the thread off track… or you’ll be plagued by the curse of Blackbeard.

 

Thank you all for the kind comments.

 

“Imola” who is also searching for Kokomo mentioned Kokomo, Indiana. While I appreciate the suggestion…. Ummm… I’m sure that the REAL Kokomo can’t be any place cold… besides, the “Boys” said… “Off the Florida Keys… there’s a place you want to go….” So, depending on where exactly where you think “off the Florida keys” could be, then that’s where we’ll find it. But I’m sure going any farther north than Northwest Florida is “out of bounds”

 

“Lyndamr” (Lynda) asked about the ice show. The show is on the afternoon of the first sea day and in the evening of the fourth day (Maybe others but if so I haven’t figured that out yet.) Tickets are available from 8:00 am – 9:00 a.m. on the first sea day. I didn’t go to the show since I was at the flowrider.

 

Oneluckywoman – Mentioned that a good time to get to the flowrider at 8:00 a.m. Well… I’m sure that the reason is that it is against “cruise law” to be up that early… that is unless I’m going SCUBA diving and maybe not even then.

 

………

And speaking of the flowrider… it’s opening up for “stand-up surfing” in about 20 minutes, so I’m off to see how many more bruises I can get before the day is out.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[Kokomo_Man]

Labadee – Catching a glimpse of Port au Prince

Those of you who live for beach days… doesn’t everyone… will love Labadee. There are three of four different beach areas, a zip-line that “flys” over the ocean, jet skis, para-sailing, and a whole bunch of other water toys. It’s also quit pretty. RCL has planted lots of trees, palms, and bushes to make the place quite nice. The trees and palms provide plenty of shade for those who want shade. Another thing RCL has done well is they have put

Food for lunch is provided by RCL… barbeque, hamburgers, hot-dogs, etc. They have several areas that you can go to to eat and that’s all free. But, be aware that they charge for almost everything else. Even a little floating mat costs $5.00 per day. All of the other stuff (zip-line, water-toys, etc) cost extra. Still, if a beach day with added activities is what you are looking forward to, then this is your spot.

There’s also a shopping “village” type of area within the RCL compound. This is the only place where I got a bit of a glimpse… a tiny glimpse. You can tell that these are poor people and are desperate for your business. They are quite aggressive in their attempts to get you to look at their wares. Even when you are across the “street” trying to avoid them, they will cross the street and try to lure you in. That said, a simple “no thank you” a couple of times will have them retreating back to their store.

If you do want to buy something, bargain!!! We try to buy some kind of painting or print with a scene depicting every place we go. Now I’m not really good at bargaining, and if there’s something I think is worth the price I’ll usually buy it. This time I saw a canvas and the guy wanted $65. Well… I didn’t want it that bad so I told the guy “no thank you” and started to move on. To make the story short, when he offered $30… I took it. I stood back and watched other folks a bit and it seemed that as long as they were still following you, then you could still do better. I wonder what I could have gotten the painting for.

The “Woman to Blame” sunburns easily, so we headed back to the ship shortly after lunch. By the way… while I’m thinking about it… did I tell you it’s HOT-HOT-HOT. Of course you already know that and since it is July this should come as no surprise. Just the same… man it’s hot.

On catching a glimpse…

I think the best “glimpse” was standing on my balcony and watching the fisherman row out to sea early in the morning. Yes… I did say “row” and “out to sea” in the same sentence. These were not big boats with a crew or anything like that. Instead these were two guys in an oversized row-boat heading out. (The boats were maybe 20 feet long.) Each guy had one giant oar. One guy in front was standing and pulled his oar in ordinary row boat fashion. The guy in the back was also standing and pushed his oar. The two of them rowed together in synchronization. It was already hot in the morning so none of the guys on the two man teams were wearing shirts… they were working hard rowing the boats. Even from a distance you could tell that they all had an athlete’s upper body physique.

As they rowed out the two-man team maintained their synchronization for a long ways. As hard as they were working, I expected them to take a little break once in a while… but they didn’t. They just kept rowing on-and-on until they became tiny specks way out in the ocean. As I watched all of this I thought to myself about how hard they had worked just to catch a few fish… and how wimpy I am.

The other “glimpse” was what we saw in the shopping area. I sensed some desperation in how they were trying to get our business. There were probably a hundred people trying to sell their wares and I had the feeling that some of them might go hungry tonight.

As the “Woman to Blame” and I walked back to the boat, I wondered out loud what these folks must think of us. I’ll leave that for you to ponder.

Back on the Boat

I have not talked about dinner much. Mostly that’s because as I told you, I’m a grazer. But I do need to tell you that our service has been very good. Not the best we’ve ever had on board ship, but by far not the worst we’ve had. I would be very happy if all the service we ever has is as good as this. By the way… our missing table mates showed up. They are a really nice family… mom, dad, and two teen-aged (18 & 14) daughters. This is their first family cruise. I asked the daughters what they thought of it all, but I think their answer was what they thought the “adults” would want to hear.

There was a question early on about which night to eat at Chops. I’ll give you my final opinion on what I think is best in the end, but so far, this would be my candidate for a good night.

Night Life

Tonight you would have though I was on a different ship than the first two nights. This place was rockin-n-rolling. It got started with a “70’s street dance” in the main promenade area. Whoever said “disco” is dead has never seen this place when the get it going. The entire main promenade (deck 5) from end to end was filled with people dancin’ in the streets. The only problem was that the ship only kept it going for about 45 minutes. The ship’s staff was out for the first 30 or so minutes and really got everyone going. After that there was about 15 minutes of music and a lot of people kept dancin’ and having a great time… the ship was rockin’. Then that was it… no more music in the main promenade. You could tell people wanted to keep going, but that was it. Another 15 minutes later most people had left.

I did visit the other venues. The Crypt, a two story disco on decks 3 & 4 still had a lot of folks going on with the party. This place was really hoppin, but it wasn’t my style of music, so I moved on. I went by the Scooner piano bar and there were a lot of people with the same piano bar guy playing and singing nice music. The people there looked as though they enjoyed the music.

There was a guy in the Bull & Bear Pub on the main Prominade… a one man band with recorded music over which he played the guitar and sang. He was pretty good and seemed to play a wide variety. There wasn’t any dancing or singing or anything like that, but the place was packed. I would probably have sat down in there for a drink or two, but I couldn’t find a seat.

The disco on the 14th floor is the Olive Or Twist. There was a three piece band playing there and again the place was mostly full. There’s a dance floor, but no one was dancing. They seemed to be mostly chatting and enjoying the music. The music was good but not good enough to hold me. So, I made one pass through the casino and that place was packed too. This was by far the most people I’ve seen in there.

Overall my estimate of the night-life tonight is that the place rocked for a little while and after that was over, folks didn’t want to go to bed just yet and found a place to hang out for a drink or two. All in all a nice evening/night, but it didn’t last long enough.

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[Cruisegirl6]

Thank you!!! Enjoy your cruise!!

[mickiemac]

Even though there is no Warm Chocolate Melting Cake, it still sounds like a great time. Wishing we were there!!!

[BelAirMom]

just to give you fair warning, at lunch in the MDR on Saturday (I think!), they offered chocolate creme brulee - best dessert of the week - enjoy:p

[imola]

Bob, having a great time reading your reviews. DH says Kokomo is actaully quite easy to find. Simply pick any latitude south of Key Largo, take boat drink in hand, close your eyes, and listen to the song in your head. No heel clicking required.

 

Continue to totally enjoy your cruise and be safe on that flowrider.

[Lovincruisin1321]

On the beaches of Labadee, do they provide lounge chairs and umbrellas?

 

Labadee – Catching a glimpse of Port au Prince

 

 

Those of you who live for beach days… doesn’t everyone… will love Labadee. There are three of four different beach areas, a zip-line that “flys” over the ocean, jet skis, para-sailing, and a whole bunch of other water toys. It’s also quit pretty. RCL has planted lots of trees, palms, and bushes to make the place quite nice. The trees and palms provide plenty of shade for those who want shade. Another thing RCL has done well is they have put

 

Food for lunch is provided by RCL… barbeque, hamburgers, hot-dogs, etc. They have several areas that you can go to to eat and that’s all free. But, be aware that they charge for almost everything else. Even a little floating mat costs $5.00 per day. All of the other stuff (zip-line, water-toys, etc) cost extra. Still, if a beach day with added activities is what you are looking forward to, then this is your spot.

 

There’s also a shopping “village” type of area within the RCL compound. This is the only place where I got a bit of a glimpse… a tiny glimpse. You can tell that these are poor people and are desperate for your business. They are quite aggressive in their attempts to get you to look at their wares. Even when you are across the “street” trying to avoid them, they will cross the street and try to lure you in. That said, a simple “no thank you” a couple of times will have them retreating back to their store.

 

If you do want to buy something, bargain!!! We try to buy some kind of painting or print with a scene depicting every place we go. Now I’m not really good at bargaining, and if there’s something I think is worth the price I’ll usually buy it. This time I saw a canvas and the guy wanted $65. Well… I didn’t want it that bad so I told the guy “no thank you” and started to move on. To make the story short, when he offered $30… I took it. I stood back and watched other folks a bit and it seemed that as long as they were still following you, then you could still do better. I wonder what I could have gotten the painting for.

 

The “Woman to Blame” sunburns easily, so we headed back to the ship shortly after lunch. By the way… while I’m thinking about it… did I tell you it’s HOT-HOT-HOT. Of course you already know that and since it is July this should come as no surprise. Just the same… man it’s hot.

 

On catching a glimpse…

 

I think the best “glimpse” was standing on my balcony and watching the fisherman row out to sea early in the morning. Yes… I did say “row” and “out to sea” in the same sentence. These were not big boats with a crew or anything like that. Instead these were two guys in an oversized row-boat heading out. (The boats were maybe 20 feet long.) Each guy had one giant oar. One guy in front was standing and pulled his oar in ordinary row boat fashion. The guy in the back was also standing and pushed his oar. The two of them rowed together in synchronization. It was already hot in the morning so none of the guys on the two man teams were wearing shirts… they were working hard rowing the boats. Even from a distance you could tell that they all had an athlete’s upper body physique.

 

As they rowed out the two-man team maintained their synchronization for a long ways. As hard as they were working, I expected them to take a little break once in a while… but they didn’t. They just kept rowing on-and-on until they became tiny specks way out in the ocean. As I watched all of this I thought to myself about how hard they had worked just to catch a few fish… and how wimpy I am.

 

The other “glimpse” was what we saw in the shopping area. I sensed some desperation in how they were trying to get our business. There were probably a hundred people trying to sell their wares and I had the feeling that some of them might go hungry tonight.

 

As the “Woman to Blame” and I walked back to the boat, I wondered out loud what these folks must think of us. I’ll leave that for you to ponder.

 

Back on the Boat

 

I have not talked about dinner much. Mostly that’s because as I told you, I’m a grazer. But I do need to tell you that our service has been very good. Not the best we’ve ever had on board ship, but by far not the worst we’ve had. I would be very happy if all the service we ever has is as good as this. By the way… our missing table mates showed up. They are a really nice family… mom, dad, and two teen-aged (18 & 14) daughters. This is their first family cruise. I asked the daughters what they thought of it all, but I think their answer was what they thought the “adults” would want to hear.

 

There was a question early on about which night to eat at Chops. I’ll give you my final opinion on what I think is best in the end, but so far, this would be my candidate for a good night.

 

Night Life

 

Tonight you would have though I was on a different ship than the first two nights. This place was rockin-n-rolling. It got started with a “70’s street dance” in the main promenade area. Whoever said “disco” is dead has never seen this place when the get it going. The entire main promenade (deck 5) from end to end was filled with people dancin’ in the streets. The only problem was that the ship only kept it going for about 45 minutes. The ship’s staff was out for the first 30 or so minutes and really got everyone going. After that there was about 15 minutes of music and a lot of people kept dancin’ and having a great time… the ship was rockin’. Then that was it… no more music in the main promenade. You could tell people wanted to keep going, but that was it. Another 15 minutes later most people had left.

 

I did visit the other venues. The Crypt, a two story disco on decks 3 & 4 still had a lot of folks going on with the party. This place was really hoppin, but it wasn’t my style of music, so I moved on. I went by the Scooner piano bar and there were a lot of people with the same piano bar guy playing and singing nice music. The people there looked as though they enjoyed the music.

 

There was a guy in the Bull & Bear Pub on the main Prominade… a one man band with recorded music over which he played the guitar and sang. He was pretty good and seemed to play a wide variety. There wasn’t any dancing or singing or anything like that, but the place was packed. I would probably have sat down in there for a drink or two, but I couldn’t find a seat.

 

The disco on the 14th floor is the Olive Or Twist. There was a three piece band playing there and again the place was mostly full. There’s a dance floor, but no one was dancing. They seemed to be mostly chatting and enjoying the music. The music was good but not good enough to hold me. So, I made one pass through the casino and that place was packed too. This was by far the most people I’ve seen in there.

 

Overall my estimate of the night-life tonight is that the place rocked for a little while and after that was over, folks didn’t want to go to bed just yet and found a place to hang out for a drink or two. All in all a nice evening/night, but it didn’t last long enough.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[sailingawaysoon]

Great review! Enjoy your day on the ship and keep the review coming!

[andrewabby]

Were there any hobiecat sailboats at labadee?

[Kokomo_Man]

The “Woman to Blame” has put it correctly when she says that Jamaica is one of those places you either love or hate… no in-between. I love it.

 

I can’t tell you what it is about the place that I love. It’s in the Caribbean (duh) and I love almost everything in the Caribbean, but that’s not it. There’s lots of places to explore and see because it’s a big Island and is quite diverse… but I don’t think that’s it. This is only my second trip to Jamaica but the minute I set foot in the port my big grin got even bigger. As we walked along the port area and the “laid back” merchants allowed us to look… said welcome… but did not accost us for a sale, I immediately fell into the “no problem mon”… everything is iwrie attitude for the day.

 

After thinking about it for a bit, it’s the people that make me like the place so much. The “no problem mon”… everything is iwrie way of the people is part of it,, but it’s more than that. The people there are genuinely friendly. Within minutes they make you feel like you are their life long friend. They are a poor people, but they are warm and inviting. And… maybe it’s the “vitamin G”.

 

RUM

 

We took the ship operated tour to the Appleton Rum Factory… which is strange since neither the “Woman to Blame” nor I drink rum. Well… I’ll have the occational “frozen concoction to help me hang on” that has rum in it… or the occational two… or three. But we thought it would be interesting, and since the rum is renowned world wide, we thought that we should buy a bottle… or two… from the factory.

 

The real interest was that the trip to the factory would take us out through the countryside. It was advertised as a two hour bus trip. It seemed that the trip would give us an opportunity to see something of the “real” Jamaica.

 

We boarded the bus at the very civilized time of 10:30 a.m. This is a vacation and having to get up early is contrary to “cruise law”. Out through the country side we went… through the cane fields. Sugar is still a large part of Jamaica’s economy. No super-highways or anything like that. The roads were really only 1 ½ lanes wide. Our guide said that if we see a vehicle coming in the opposite direction we were to close our eyes and if after a second or two we didn’t hear of feel the crash to say “no problem mon”. I said “no problem mon” a lot.

 

The roads through the country side are in very poor repair. They are rough and have lots of pot holes. Except the description “pot hole” does not do some of them justice. Many were more like “kettle” holes…and there were a couple that would make the Grand Canyon look like a little ditch. So often to avoid the really big ones, the driver would drive on the wrong side of the road… as another vehicle was coming at us. … no problem mon.

 

Jamaica is a very mountainous country. So about ten minutes out into the countryside, we started up into the mountains. The roads deteriorated some more. They got narrower and starting winding their way up the mountains. Now these were not gentle winding roads. Instead, they went back and forth… left then right… up then down… and back and forth. And it seemed that as the roads got narrower and more winding the driver didn’t slow down at all… maybe he even sped up to make better time. After a short eternity of this… after I was starting to turn a tad green… we stopped. And then the tour guide announced “this is a half way stop”.

 

It was another hour and 20 minutes to get to the Rum factory. Our tour guide was really informative and told us lots about stuff as we drove through the country. Except that all the while we were still traveling through the mountains. By the time we arrived I was greener than Kermit the frog.

 

The tour of the factory was interesting but I felt like it was a little bit short. They showed us a bit about how the rum is made, but I felt as they left out some stuff in the interest of time. A lunch was included with the tour so they needed to get us back to the main area to feed us, and allow us some time for some rum tasting. By the time we got to the lunch, my color had returned to normal and enjoyed what they served. And of course there remained ample time for us to buy more booze than we will ever drink.

 

Then it was back on the bus. This time there was no stop at the halfway point. When we finally stopped I scrambled my way off the bus… fell to my knees and proclaimed at the top of my lungs…. “LAND!!!”. Ok… I really didn’t do that, but I sure thought about it because I was sure glad to get off that bus.

 

It was a good trip, and I’m not very prone to motion sickness… but I should have taken some “Trip-Tone” before going.

 

Falmouth Port

 

Falmouth is a new port for cruise ships. The shops in the port area are going to be one of those nice; make for cruise ships modern shopping areas. Of course, there’s a Diamonds International and they are already into one of the new buildings. What would a cruise ship port be without a Diamonds International. The “Woman to Blame” stopped in but phewwww… she didn’t see anything that struck her fancy.

 

Falmouth is about half way between Ocho Rios and Montego Bay. The ship offers tours to both places with Ocho Rios about 1 ½ hours away and MoBay about 2 hours away. I wonder how green folks got on those rides.

 

For the most part all of the vendors are set up in make-shift “stores”. I’m not sure that mattered much. There were the standard t-shirts, refrigerator magnets and shot glasses. However, they mostly said “Ocho Rios”, or “Montego Bay” on them. The vendors have not yet had time to get their trinkets with “Falmouth” on them into production. We told one of the vendors that we wanted a refrigerator magnet with “Falmouth” on it… so he took out his “Sharpie” and wrote “F A L M O U T H” on it... the obvious solution. (More “vitamin G” please.) And of course because of his resourcefulness we bought two.

 

Night Life

 

This is a tail of two ships… Dr. Jeckel Flowrider and Mr. Hyde Flowrider. Tonight after dinner there was virtually no night life. I went to the crypt… the DJ was playing the music… Salsa music and but only three or four people were there. The piano bar was almost empty as was the Bull and Bear pub. The same thing for the “Olive Or Twist”… the band was playing, but almost no one home.

 

The casino was a bit busier but not nearly as much as the night before. There were a lot of people milling around and strolling the promenade. (Nothing like the night before.) You could tell they were looking for something to do, but just not much was going on.

 

I gave up early too… you can tell by how long this is that I had a bit of time on my hands.

 

Tomorrow’s Grand Cayman… my favorite island in the world!

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

 

P.S. As you have probably figured out, I'm a bit behind in my posting. I'll try to answer your some of your questions and posts a little later on this evening depending on if Dr Jeckel or Mr Hyde comes out tonight.

[mickiemac]

"Tomorrow’s Grand Cayman… my favorite island in the world!"

Sounds like you are having your normal good time. Think of us tomorrrow while having a burger and margarita in Grand Cayman...

[suebee53]

I hope I'm not too late, KokomoBob, but do try to catch the "Freedom Live" show one of these last nights of the cruise. It's like a talent show featuring some of the FOS's musicians, and there is some major talent on board! Also, the "Once Upon a Time" production is really quite clever, not cheesy.

 

I was most interested by your account of the trip to the Appleton place and glad we didn't do that! The road from Falmouth to Ocho Rios is right along the ocean, so it's flat, without hairpin turns. Our tour guide started out our drive by saying, "My name is Javia, not 'OH MY GOD!' or 'JESUS CHRIST!' I don't need any driving help from the back seat. It's going to be 'no problem, mon.' We don't have problems in Jamaica; we have 'situations.'" Loved it!

[Smokey Mountain Tim]

Hey Bob, Would you please find out how long Graham Seymour will be on board?

[soccermomkat]

Hey Bob, Would you please find out how long Graham Seymour will be on board?

 

I read someplace that next week is his last week of FOS and he will be leaving on the 24th, so fortunately I'll get to see what all the hoopla is all about!:)

[Kokomo_Man]

One of those Days…

 

Today we were in Grand Cayman… my favorite. I only finalized my plan last night… go SCUBA diving in the morning and then maybe go to Margaritaville to get a frozen concoction to help me hang on. My plan didn’t work that way… it didn’t take long for the day to change and become one of those days that helps justify why I’m alive.

 

Before I tell you about the beginning I’ll start with…

 

A Frozen Concoction.

 

Grand Cayman has my favorite shopping area. Now usually guys don’t go shopping… at least in the same way that women go “shopping”. I know… that sounds sexist, but that’s the way it is. Guys go to Sears to by tools… they go to the car parts store to buy parts. And they may go to the department store to buy jeans… to work on the car they bought the parts for using the tools they bought at sears. To a guy, that’s shopping.

 

When women go shopping they stroll along looking in store windows whishing they had this or that. They wander into the jewelers (Diamonds International) looking at all the shiny pretty stuff. Then they start schemin’ and dreamin’ putting together a wish list. This is the time that strikes terror into guys everywhere.

 

Grand Cayman is one of those places that has guys clutching at their wallets as soon as they board the tender for shore. (Yea… this is a tender port… no dock here.) As the tender pulls away fomr the ship the “Royal Dock” comes into sight. The shopping area is in full display in front of you as you approach the dock. The shopping is mostly all on Harbour Drive that winds its way along the shore line… all within moderate walking distance.

 

All of the shops and stores are just that… shops and stores. On a lot of other Caribbean Islands the shops are really poorly constructed wooden stands with some kind of roof over it… or they are the brick & mortar stores constructed & maintained by the cruise lines and leased to the merchants. The cruise lines keep the second type all well painted and sanitary looking. But Grand Cayman is different.

 

The shops and stores here along Harbour Drive are brick & mortar stores but not built by the cruise lines. These are the stores like any older town area might have. Some multi- story stores… some one story specialty shops. Of course there is the Diamonds International (no self respecting Caribbean Island would be without one.)… there are few places to get cold liquid refreshments… and there’s the t-shirt shops.

 

But Grand Cayman has a few other shops that give it some uniqueness. As you walk down Harbour Drive you’ll pass by the Margaritaville complex. (Hummm have to come back here for that frozen concoction…) There are a number if interesting shops in this complex including Churchill’s Cigar Store. (hummm… I’ll have to come back here too.)

A few stores down the street there’s a store called “Artifacts”. This is an antique shop right in the middle of the shopping district. It seems a little out of place, but they have an amazing collection of “shipwreck” coins… pieces of eight, and gold doubloons… from all over the world. (HUMMMMM…. I’ll have to come back here.)

 

A little farther down there as a little store called the “Pirates Groto”. It doesn’t have a store front… just a door at street level that leads down into a basement store with trinkets and rum by Richard Le Noir. There’s a statue or Richard Le Noir right outside the door inviting you in. (I’m going to let the curious among you use Google to look up Richard Le Noir to find his real nickname… I’ll just use “Big Richard”) “Big Richard” it is said learned his trade of making “fine” rum after being a Pirate of the Caribbean. (Hummmm. I’ll have to come back here)

 

Walking on down Harbour Drive you continue to find other interesting places… a few more “watering holes” … a place where you can buy Tortuga Rum, and Tortuga Rum cakes (the Tortuga rum factory is here on Grand Cayman)… (Hummm, I’ll have to come back here.) Then there’s a Hardrock Café… a Harley-Davidson store… and down near the end of the main area, there’s a SCUBA dive shop and a snorkel area.

 

The “Woman to Blame” was not with me today. She stayed on board to have a nice day doing whatever she pleased. So I was on my own.

 

By the time I had walked all the way down Harbour Drive I had my dreamin’-n-schemin’ complete. I had a good plan for all of my stops on the way back. First it was a stop at the largest t-shirt shop on the island… I just had to have that unique Grand Cayman t-shirt. Then it was a stop at the Tortuga Rum shop… can’t come to Grand Cayman without buying some kind of Tortuga Rum product. Next it was a stop at the Pirates Grotto. A couple of “Big Richards” products… and a pirate flag were in order.

 

I had my next to last stop planned out as the Coup d’ gras. In fact, I had been dreamin’ and schemin’ about this stop for 10 months. I stepped into Artifacts. The last time I was here I drooled all over the glass counter top looking at the “pieces of eight” and gold doubloons from some of the worlds most famous ship wrecks. There are true pieces of history in that glass case. I had been dreaming of a “piece of eight”. In particular I wanted a “piece of eight” from the wreck of the Cazador. I won’t go into the details of the Cazador here (Google it) except to tell you that it was the shipwreck changed the course of the history of the world.

 

When I stepped in and looked in the glass case, there were a number of rare shipwreck coins, but no “pieces of eight” from the Cazador. I saw all my dreamin’-n-schemin’ vanishing. But…when I asked… and to my delight, the proprietor said there were some in the safe. After a couple of minutes, out came this brilliant silver coin about the size of the U.S. silver dollars of the late 1800s. It was encapsulated in a plastic case to protect it and was one of the most pretty and shiny things I had ever seen. I knew right away that as long as I didn’t have to indenture my first born son, the “piece of eight” was never going to see the inside of that safe again. It turned out that the cost was really quite reasonable for such a piece of history… and a few minutes later, it was mine.

 

I walked to my last stop… Churchill’s Cigar Store. I went in there to buy a Cuban Cigar. I won’t smoke it. Instead, I’ll go to the ship’s Cigar Bar and give it to someone who might enjoy it. I only bought the Cuban cigar as something of a silent protest against the United States’ stupid, outdated, 50 year old cold war policy toward Cuba. (I guess that since I’ve posted about it here, it’s not such a silent protest any more. So let’s all lobby for “cruse ships to Cuba”. Perhaps someone would like to start another thread.)

 

I did make one more stop…Margaritaville. It was time for a frozen concoction to celebrate all the wonderful shopping I had done. As I sat there with my favorite… a frozen margarita of course… I contemplated all the treasures I had just found… especially the shiny trinket I had just bought. (Take that Diamonds International) And then, THE SONG came on. I sat there sort of singing along. (Not very loud because I didn’t want to get thrown out of the place)… and as the last verse came along I knew that Jimmy was right… It’s my own damned fault.

 

Of course as I said at the beginning of this, this was not the way I had planned out the day.

 

Why am I here.

 

As I sat there finishing off the margarita I felt really good about myself. It had been one of those days that add some kind of meaning to my existence… may a little bit of meaning as to why I am here… a little bit of worth to the world. This has nothing with the trinkets I had just bought. That was just something of a celebration. It was all about what had happened earlier in the day.

 

The morning… too early in the morning… started out to be a SCUBA diving day. Grand Cayman is one of the premier dive locations in the world. I was looking forward to exploring some more of the wonderful underwater world here.

 

Everything started out normally. The “Woman to Blame” doesn’t dive, so I always go off on my own. (She’s glad to get me “out of the house”). All of the divers met at the designated spot for the ship’s tour and we headed off to the dive boat. When we got to the dive boat, everyone who didn’t already have a dive partner was paired up with someone else. Partners are usually only loosely grouped… on most dives they swim off more or less by themselves as they explore the underwater world. I always worry about this because I never know how far away someone else will be in an emergency… nor how they will react… nor how will I react.

 

Today the person I was paired with had not dived in a while and did not seem completely comfortable under water. She wasn’t doing bad, but did seem a bit “rusty” in her skills. So, I decided that I should keep a bit closer eye on her. She seemed to be doing OK and we started to follow the dive guide on our exploration.

 

We had been down for about 16 minutes when I looked over at my “partner” and saw that she was in trouble. As she began to panic it looked like see was having trouble with her air source. When I got to her, she was in full panic. I can only imagine… we were under 70 feet of water and she was facing the possibility of… breathing water!

 

All divers carry some kind of spare way of breathing so that another diver can use it in emergency. Of course that other diver needs to be near enough so that no one ends up “breathing water”.

 

When I realized what was happening I grabbed my “Octo” (the name of the spare air sorurce) and got it to here just as she was about to start gasping. She was still in full panic mode, but somehow got my “Octo”… and got a full breath of air.

 

Still panicked, she was starting to head for the surface too fast. Doing that can be almost as bad as “breathing water.” So I managed to get her to realize that we had to ascend more slowly. Although we were doing a “no decompression” dive, we should have made a “safety stop” for three minutes at 15 feet. I couldn’t get her to stop for that and we ascended right through the “safety stop” until we got to the surface.

 

After we got her back on the dive boat, the crew administered oxygen and when the other divers got back to on the dive boat (about 30 minutes later) we returned to the dock and took her back to the “Flowrider”. One of the “Flowrider’s” dive staff (Mark) was diving with us. As we got back to the dock he arranged for us to be expedited back to the ship and was able to notify the ships medical staff by radio that she was coming in.

 

She was walking under her own power and seemed to be OK. But they took her to see the ships doctor and she was kept for a little while for observation. Later in the evening I found out that she was fine and the medical staff had only kept her for an hour or so as a precaution.

 

Of course my diving day was over. It might have been OK to go on another dive, but since we did not do the “safety stop” and since we did ascended a bit too fast, I figured I would play it extra safe and not do another dive today.

 

I’m not telling you all this to brag… In fact, I did nothing more than any dive buddy is supposed to do. All drivers are trained to do this as part of the certification course. (Ok, maybe it’s a little to brag.) But mainly to try to tell you how good the inner feeling is when you may have saved another persons life. Now I don’t know if she would have died… but she could have. And despite having gone through the horrible situation, it has given me a warm inner glow of knowing that I’ve done something to help another human being. That has truly made it one of the best days of my life.

 

One other thing to tell you is “Royal Caribbean” contacted me and told me that they were refunding the full amount of the tour. I didn’t have to contact them or say a word to anyone. They contacted me on their own and told me of the refund. They didn’t have to do this… it was my decision to be very conservative and not dive any more today. I think that says something about “Royal Caribbean”.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny