December 24
Today we docked at Falmouth, Jamaica. We all walked into the tourist area and Susan and I decided to take a trolley ride of the town. Falmouth, Jamaica is a very poor country and I found it dirty, litter everywhere, dilapidated and crumbling buildings and everywhere you looked people were begging or trying to sell you something. I found it depressing. At a gas station I noticed that gas was $6.00 a gallon.

December 21
We arrived back in Fort Lauderdale and had to exit the ship and then check back in. Now we begin the second part of our cruise.
December 22

Again, our first stop in Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. This time we took the ferry and visited the island. We walked around a couple of hours and then returned to the ship.

December 21st
We got up this morning and our toilet didn’t flush right so I went to the bathroom on the 3rd floor. I was supposed to go to the Vista Lounge afterwards to meet everyone for breakfast. I went to the entrance on the 3rd floor and the doors were closed and no one was there. It wasn’t open. I waited and waited and waited and no one came so I decided they must have gone to the Lido buffet on the 9th floor. I went to the buffet and walked around and around and around and saw no one in our group. I asked two employees if this was the only restaurant open for breakfast and they said “Yes”. I was hungry so I decided to eat. I got an omelette and ate breakfast by myself. I then went back to the Vista Lounge and entered on the 2nd floor. It was open after all. I was confused. I walked around and found my friends sitting at a table waiting for their breakfast. Needless to say, I got a dirty look from one of the group and everyone made fun of me for being lost. Oh well.

Each night as we returned from dinner or a performance we would find little towel critters awaiting our return. Here are a few examples of the art of folding towels.

December 19th – We have decided to wash some clothes in our room. As Susan was washing her laundry she started to feel ill but she continued to do her laundry. We finished and hung everything up to dry in the bathroom. She continued to feel ill and I went to lunch. She stayed in the room and ordered room service. After lunch I checked on her and she was feeling worse. She had the ice bucket next to her and sure enough, pretty soon she filled it up.
The sad news is she missed the play-offs in the Slot Tournament. The good news is she felt well enough to go to dinner which was steak and lobster. None of our group won the 2nd round of the slot tournament.

We also celebrated Patt’s birthday during this cruise and here are a couple of photos of the staff singing “Happy Birthday” to her.

Today we arrived in Costa Rica and four of us, Casey, Shirley, Susan and I will go zip-lining. We left at 9:30 a.m. on an air conditioned bus to go to our zip line destination. A funny story: a lady sitting across the isle said to us she was 83 years old and was glad she wasn’t the oldest on the tour. She said this looking at Susan who is 71 years old. I said, “This is what surfing in the sun for 30 years will do to your skin.” Susan didn’t think any of this was funny. We arrived and put on straps and harnesses and helmets and carried a very heavy device up a hill and waited for quite a while before take off. We could watch as Casey and Shirley took the dive. The heavy device was used to hook us up to the cable. It was my turn and I just did it. What a thrill. I landed on the first of twelve platforms and was caught by a very young girl. I was expected a muscular man to catch me. I was amazed at the young people catching us. I asked one boy how old he was and he said 15. Wow! As you arrived on the platform a young girl would say, “Stand up.” I said, “That’s easy for you to say.” Most of your weight was behind you and you had to grab on to something and pull yourself up to a standing position. As I struggled to my feet fearful I would fall off the platform I celebrated that I had survived. This continued for eleven more platforms. Susan didn’t quite make it to the second platform and she had to turn around and pull herself, hand over hand, about 10 feet to the platform. Her arms hurt for the next few days. But, it was a wonderful experience and I was thrilled to jump off into a rain forest and zip along over the tree tops: a wonderful experience.
The ride back to the ship was interesting too. The tour guide gave us a little of the history but all I could see was crumbling old buildings, trash and liter everywhere and bars on all windows and doors.

December 17
Today we will go half-way through the Panama Canal and anchor in Gatun Lake. Then the ship will turn around and go back. We went up to the Crow’s Nest to watch the locks open and close and our ship rise and go through the locks. We watched a film aboard ship about the building of the canal and it was very interesting.

Tuesday, December 15
We docked in Bonaire and went ashore. As we were docking we noticed golf carts lined up and we walked over and rented two golf carts. We drove around the island and saw salt mines and a few flamingos. The funnest part was just driving the golf cart. There wasn’t a lot to see in Bonaire but it was cleaner. After we returned to the ship Susan’s ankles became very swollen and she retired to the room for the rest of the day.