20060312 - MS Veendam (We cruise the Caribbean)

This last week we went on a seven day cruise to the Caribbean on the MS Veendam from Holland America so it was a very busy week. First we went to Georgetown, Grand Cayman where we went shopping in the morning and snorkeling at Eden Rock in the afternoon. Eden Rock was within walking distance from the dock where the tenders dropped us off. The reef was between the shore and the ship. It was an interesting reef with lots of fish and the snorkeling was very nice except I got a major sunburn on my back.
The next stop was Montego Bay, Jamaica. Jamaica is not our favorite island so we did not do much on land. We did a little shopping (I must find pins) and then returned to the ship. The last port for this cruise was Costa Maya, Mexico. In the morning we walked off the ship and walked around the resort area. Of course we did some shopping. It was a very windy day. We were lucky that the Veendam was the first ship to arrive as the second one to arrive was unable to dock and just turned around and left the area. In the afternoon we walked around and I took photos of the waves - very cool.
On the At Sea days: we read (I finished 3 books), we walked (9 miles total - 3 miles a day), I quilted (I nearly finished the hand quilting project [ball] I brought, and finished it yesterday at home), we ate (I gained 4 pounds - hopefully it will go as fast as it came), and I went to a couple of cooking demonstrations (the Veendam just added a state of the art cooking theater)(The chef made Grand Marnier Chocolate Volcano Cake and Yukon Sourdough Bread Pudding). In addition one evening Rich and I saw Flightplan at the theater. We both enjoyed it.
We met some very nice people at our table. They invited me to join them at the shows, so for the first time in a long time I saw some shows on this trip. I saw the Veendam cast of Singers and Dancers in ‘Party Gras’. I also saw Paul Tanner - an impressionist. He did a nice Neil Diamond - of course I really like Neil so I am prejudiced. I also saw Bruce Block - he has a cool start to his show. The light comes on to a stack of boxes and a microphone. Then a live rabbit steps out of a cage, walks around and climbs the boxes to the microphone and stands on his back legs and begins to speak to the audience. After a while the rabbit introduces his owner, steps away from the microphone, climbs down the steps, and goes into his cage. Shortly thereafter a man comes out and begins a comedy routine. Very cool start. I also went to the Dessert Extravaganza with our table mates. As usual everything looks better then it tastes, but it sure looked good. I liked the Cinnamon Ice Cream the best. The chocolate was too rich.