April 2007 Travels #1

The first week in April we took a cruise to the Caribbean with 2 of my brothers (Steve & Mark) and their wives (Sally and Darcy) on the Zuiderdam (One of the Holland American 'Dam' ships). We all had a great time. The cruise went to Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos Islands; Puerto Rico; St Thomas, V.I.; and Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. While I wish that more of my siblings could have joined us, 6 turned out to be a pretty good number. We were able to have some alone time, some couple time, as well as group time and were all able to share the same dining table.



Our table, courtesy of Mark & Darcy. (Rich, Mark, Sally, Steve, Darcy, and me)



It was a very nice table, (especially the folks) right in front of a large window looking out the back of the ship. (Steve, me, Rich, Darcy, Mark, and Sally)



On Grand Turk we took a swimming/snorkeling tour where we were able to swim with sting rays. I decided not to take my camera so I don’t have any pictures of the tour, just this picture of the ship with her much larger neighbor.

On Puerto Rico we took a tour of the Bacardi Rum factory (with, of course, the appropriate samples). I did not realize that rum was aged in oak like wine. On St Thomas some of us went shopping; me, of course, being one of them.



Looking back at the ship from Half Moon Cay.



All of us, (Mark, Rich, me, Steve, Sally, and Darcy) as we were waiting to leave Half Moon Cay.

Half Moon Cay, our last stop, is a private island owned by the cruise line. We had to tender off the ship to get to the beach, etc. We a mini adventure here. They warned us as we were leaving the ship that there was some weather coming and if the ship blew her horn we would need to leave the island early and return to the ship. Of course, they blew the signal about 2 hours early, so we all left the beach and got in line for the tenders. The ships crew also got ready to leave, packed up all the food and water. One tender got loaded up and left and we waited and waited. Eventually that tender returned with all the passengers still aboard. The seas were so rough that they were unable to load the passengers on the Zuiderdam. You can imagine the stories that were going through the line at that point, especially as there was no food or water available. Finally we were told to go back to the beach instead of waiting in line in the hot sun. We did, and of course the tenders started running immediately after that. Then it started raining. The passengers ended up returning to the ship wrapped in towels. After all that, the ship left right at the original scheduled time.

Mark on the way back to the ship in the rain.




One of the fun things on the ship were the towel critters the room stewards made for us