Taking My Talents to South Beach

Here I sit, impatiently waiting for the hour-hand to make two more orbits.  Yep, just 24 hours from now, we'll be on the plane, likely making our initial approach to the airport down there in Florida.

No, we're not actually flying into Miami, but just up the road a bit to Ft. Lauderdale.  And once we arrive and the luggage is gathered up, then it's a quick taxi ride over to the cruise port to do the check-in shuffle, and before long we'll be onboard the ship, trying to avoid the photographers who treat every passenger like Brangelina.  Seriously, that's by far my least favorite part of cruising--the ship's paparazzi.  (Well, that, and the lifeboat drill).

But I'm not gonna worry about that at all.  I'm sooooo looking forward to this trip that this last day of preparation makes me feel like a kid on Christmas Eve.  I won't be able to sleep tonight, and oh yeah, I'll be up very early tomorrow morning.  (We have to be at the airport by like 6:30).  I'm not completely finished packing just yet, but that'll be taken care of later this afternoon.  Once I finish off this post, I've got to head back down to the clinic at Vanderbilt and get stabbed one last time, then it's back to the house to do my last load of laundry.  (I don't have but a small percentage of my wardrobe here at the house, the rest are either in storage or down at Cyndi's place, so I have to pack pretty much everything I have here in order to have eight day's worth of clean clothes).

I started packing last night--mostly the nicer stuff that needs to be hung up. The t-shirts, swim trunks, shorts, and skivvies will go in the suitcase later today.  Once that's done, I'll worry about my carry-on stuff and check to make sure I have my passport and ship's boarding pass at least two dozen times before we leave.

As far as sneaking the booze on board, I think I'm not even gonna bother.  They let you bring one bottle of wine on anyways, but then you've got to pay a $10 corkage fee in the dining room.  (Unless you uncork it yourself in your cabin first, I'm told.  But then I'd have to bring a corkscrew, and that's just jumping through too many damn hoops just to be cheap.  And I'm not like that).  I can't really drink the hard stuff right now, except in very small quantities, so trying to smuggle a couple of bottles of booze on board just isn't worth the effort to me.  I'd rather just pay for my rum (sodomy and the lash, however, is complementary, so I've heard).

I'll have a few fruity drinks each day, and some wine with dinner, but that's about it.  Besides, the prices for wine onboard really ain't that bad, especially if you're buying the good stuff.  Waaaay less markup than at restaurants, unless you're buying that god-awful Beringer white zin.  (I think it's like $6.99 at Kroger, but thirty bucks on the ship).  The more expensive wine, believe it or not, is a much better deal.  So I'll probably buy a bottle of white and a bottle of red for the dining room to have with dinner, so the damage will be minimal.  And the extra expense is fine with me to avoid the effort and hassle of trying to get around their alcohol policy, anyways.

I may have mentioned it before (too lazy to go look), but I think we have the perfect itinerary--two full sea days (my favorite), followed by three island days, and then two more sea days before returning home.  And this cruise is eight days, not just seven, and an extra day at sea is just fine with me! And we're chartering a private sailboat while we're in St. Martin, which I can't wait for--I haven't been sailing in far too long, so I plan on enjoying every minute of it. 

We've got a 40-foot catamaran reserved, and I think we have it for seven hours.  Our plan is to spend the day sailing and snorkeling at a couple of different secluded spots and then hit some small offshore island that has a tiki bar on the beach.  Oh, and as a bonus, our charter includes and open bar and lunch, and word around the campfire is that our charter captain is also a retired chef.  Everyone is looking forward to this excursion...

I don't have anything planned while we're in St. Kitts, maybe just a beach day.  In St. Lucia, Sherry, Steve, and I are getting single-day passes to the Sandals Grande resort.  Oh hell yeah--full run of their facilities, including all the water toys (plus all the food and booze you want).  I'd like to go see the Pitons or do some exploring, but everything worth seeing is an hour-and-a-half bus ride from where the ship is docked. F*ck that.  I'd rather just chill in a hammock all day at this place:

Ain't no way I'm gonna spend three hours of my day riding a bus with a bunch of tourists...

Anyhow, that's all I've got.  I'm just gonna do all my last-minute packing and stuff, then try to get some sleep before we pull the ripcord and make our escape first thing tomorrow morning.  I won't have my phone or computer with me, so there will be no updates, nor will I be able to moderate any comments after tomorrow morning.  This website will officially be in limbo for the next nine or ten days.

But when I get back--oh yeah, lots of pictures and stories.  Until then, y'all enjoy your cubes.  I'm heading to the islands!

Mikey