Cruise Activities

Day Four

Another day at sea meant another Tai Chi class followed by sunning, but Sandra and I quickly grew bored of our routine and decided we needed to shake things up a bit. What better way than to crash a wedding? Though we’d seen a handful of brides going up to the Skylight Chapel, we hadn’t worked up the nerve to check things out… until we discovered a wedding was taking place in front of the Flowrider, Liberty’s on-board surf simulator. We took our seats in front of the surf simulator before the bride and groom made their entrée, then watched as they took their vows in front of a surfer rocking the waves behind them. Of course, everyone clapped raucously when they were pronounced man and wife. Rather than crash the reception, Sandra and I opted to skip the main dining room and went to Chops for some incredible steak dinners instead. We then retired to our state room, where we amused ourselves with a well-timed airing of The Parent Trap (which Sandra knew every word to. The only thing that stopped her from reciting it word for word was falling asleep.)

Day Five

Despite feeling groggy, Sandra and I pulled ourselves out of bed early to have breakfast and meet up with the yoga instructor that would be taking us to do yoga on the beach in Labadee, Haiti, where we’d docked for the day. We followed our instructor down the stairs to our tendering station, where we all loaded onto a boat that took us from the ship to the island, then walked to a remote clearing underneath the ziplines. Though we heard the periodic cry of “Whoo!” from overhead, the calming sound of the ocean waves lulled us into a yoga state of mind while we stretched and eased ourselves in the morning sun.

After a quick lunch, it was time to do the zipline -- reportedly the longest over water. Sandra and I got fitted for our body harness (which felt like wearing a large diaper), and took our turns on the baby zipline before hopping into a jeep that took us all the way to the top of the mountain to do the big kahuna. This isn’t for the faint of heart or fear of heights crowd -- there's no question that the line is both impressive and high. For me, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be… and going down the line felt like soaring through the sky like a bird, until you hit the breaks at the bottom. After disengaging from our bondage wear, Sandra and I took a walk up to the Dragon's Breath point to listen to the rocks "breathe," then joined others at Barefoot Beach to float in the water as the sun beamed down on us. We made it back on the boat by the designated time of 4pm, had another formal dinner in the dining room, and called it a night by 11pm.

Day Six

Ahh, the last day at sea… so naturally that meant the Tai Chi and sunning combination, during which Sandra and I realized we hadn't done a lot of what we’d intended to -- such as climb the rock wall, ice skate and sing karaoke, so we decided that going to the night club after dinner was an absolute necessity. And that's exactly what we did. Joined by friends we’d met on the boat, we all converged on The Catacombs, Liberty's on-board night club complete with resident spinster DJ Anthony, also known as Mr. Trinidad 2007. We shook, we shimmied, and we danced the night away… until we realized it was nearly 2am, and we had a 6am debarkation timeslot the next morning. Yikes!

Day Seven

Though our sleep was short and fitful, Sandra and I -- having smartly packed the night before -- wheeled our bags and our tired selves through the ship and down the ramp, through customs, and out on to the street, where we met our car to take us to the airport.

All in all, I was proudly successful in my quest. The problem this time was I didn't get to experience everything that I wanted to. Is it too early to book another cruise?

Carly now needs to find a new method of transportation to put her to sleep. She can be reached via e-mail at me@carlymilne.net.