Aruba

Windsurfing is so much fun! And Aruba is the perfect place to do it. There are nice steady trade winds all year round in Aruba and I found a place that rented windsurfing equipment and did lessons for beginners. So this time, Emilie, our Assistant Cruise Director joined Alex and I for a fantastic windsurfing adventure.

We had an hour of lessons and going around on the equipment with an instructor and then another hour just to play. We all had a blast. It’s not very hard to windsurf. I think it’s mostly about having good balance. We all got up easily and by the end we were all making turns and having a grand time. Emilie had to go back to the ship afterward, but Alex and I stayed to watch the sunset and just relax on the beach. It was a very fun day.

Katie

Georgetown, Grand Cayman

I had been to Georgetown, Grand Cayman every other week when I was working on the Century, but we always had to tender. There’s no dock and the tender always took a long time and crew had to wait till all the guests had gone. It was always such a hassle, I only ever got off once and I didn’t have time to do much. Well this time I was determined to make the most of it and I did.

Swimming with the stingrays is the thing to do in Grand Cayman. You have to be taken by boat to the middle of this sandbar they call Stingray City. I went with a group of the crew and got a picture of some of the tattooed crew sitting at the front of the boat. It seems like all the crew on ships have tattoos. Don’t worry, mom, I’m not going to get one...yet...tee hee.

Fishermen started feeding the stingrays at Stingray city back in the 80s and now they all congregate there and get fed and petted by tourists. They are still wild, but they’ve become used to human contact and they are very tolerant of people touching and holding and yes even kissing them. They say it’s good luck to kiss a stingray, but I think the locals just say that to have a good laugh at all the tourists who do it. Well, laugh away because I did it.

Our guide brought a bucket of little squid and let us feed the stingrays. You just held a piece in your hand and put it under their mouth and they sucked it out like a vacuum. Well after a while they all smelled the juicy squid and they would swarm around us and brush against our legs. Steve got freaked out and curled into a fetal position in Elisabeth’s arms and I was there to get that picture. I also got a good shot of the underside of a stingray one of the guides was holding. And Steve got a great picture of me petting one underwater. This was a truly amazing and sometimes creepy experience.

Katie

Costa Rica

My first time in Costa Rica I went zip lining, which is the thing to do there. Costa Rica has some awesome rain forests and they have schools for training people on how to zip line and repel and do all that cool stuff when you need to learn how to get really really high in giant trees to do things like study the ecosystem of the canopy of a rainforest. Well these places also do tours for fun so regular people who aren’t scientists can just play and go sliding down the lines from tree to tree.

It was a little daunting at first when I saw how high up we were. It’s defiantly not something you want to do if you’re afraid of heights. I went with a bunch of the crew and they hiked us over to the edge of a mountain and up to this tree stand. The first line, looked really long, but later I realized it was short. We were rigged up with harnesses and they hooked these little pulley looking wheels to the wire cable said lean back and then let you go. It was like flying. You’re just whizzing by with nothing under your feet, but a long drop. Then there was one of the staff on the other end to apply a break with another rope so you wouldn’t slam into the next tree. Then you’d climb across a metal grading to another tree and do the whole thing over again.

It was great fun and definitely a unique experience. At the place I went to, they had the second longest zip line in the world (700 meters long) and I got to go down it. There’s a picture of the line attached. You can see the cable off to the side and then it just disappears into the distance. Yea, I went down that.

That didn’t scare me as much as repelling though. I’ve always thought of repelling as bouncing off the side of a mountain as you go down quickly on a rope, but it can also be sliding strait down a rope, which is what I did. They looped the rope around this figure eight metal thingy for the repelling. One end was attached to the top of a very tall tree and the other went down to the ground and the only thing holding you in the middle was this little metal figure eight thingy and your own hand. Grip tight and you go slow. Grip loosely and you go fast. The woman at the bottom kept saying ‘loosen your grip, you’ll go faster.’ I was just like ‘that’s okay, I like going slow.’ That one made my heart pound, it was awesome.

Katie

Acapulco, Mexico

In the not too distant past Acapulco, Mexico was a place for the rich and famous to get away. Now it’s a huge port town bustling with people and traffic. I didn’t really care for it, but I figured it would be a waste not to get off. I went with Steve to see the cliff divers. There are these divers that get up high on some cliffs next to the ocean and they have to wait for a wave to swell so they can dive into it, otherwise the water is too shallow and they could break their necks. It’s very dangerous and an exciting show to see. It was too hot and my camera was cold from being on the ship so my lens was fogged, but I did get one shot where you can see the little diver at the top of the cliff waiting for just the right moment to jump.

Next Steve and I went to a fancy hotel where Elvis stayed when he visited Acapulco. It was really cool, they had a bar in the pool. So you sat on seats that were in the water and ordered your drinks and food and ate with your body still in the pool. We spent all afternoon there just relaxing. I decided I needed a diva shot next to the pool and just as I was posing, Jason from AV (audio visual department) jumped in behind me and copied me. I had no idea he was doing it until I saw the pictures the next day.

Katie

Hilo

Our last stop in Hawaii was a rainy one. We were on the big island again which is where the lava is flowing, but the crew had boat drill that morning and by the time we got off the ship, there wasn’t enough time to get to the lava. So we rented a really nice SUV, that I got to drive, and went to see the two big waterfalls that were in the area. Alex didn’t make it out this time either. It was myself and Steve, along with Canadian Steve (remember he was one who had the idea to see wine country in San Francisco but decided not to go.) There was Michael again and Trin and her boyfriend Karl pictured below.

We hiked to Akaka falls and got poured on, but hey, we were in a rainforest after all. It was a beautiful site. Akaka falls is 700 meters tall. You can’t tell by the picture, but it’s humongous. Then we all changed clothes and stopped off at a little Hawaiian café in a small town and got Kona coffee and pastries. Next we went to Rainbow falls, and this time we didn’t even have to get out of the car. The falls were right next to the road and it was really coming down by the time we got there, so everyone took pictures from the car. And then it was time to get back on the ship.

And that was Hawaii. I had such a blast and I loved all the islands that we saw. I would love to go back some time and stay for like a week just on Maui or Kauai. There is so much to do and see there. This whole time I had planned to surf, but I was so busy doing everything else, I never got around to it. I guess I will have to save that for next time.

Katie

More Maui

My next day in Maui, Steve and I went on a jeep trip. Alex had had too much fun the night before and decided to sit this one out. So Steve and I got what was probably the last vehicle in town and headed out. The best driving thing to do on the island is take the road to Hana, but it takes all day if you hurry and we only had the afternoon. So we drove around the Northern part of the island along the coast and on to Iao (pronounced Eee-Ohh) Valley State Park.

It was an amazing drive. There were beautiful beaches around every corner and the road was small and winding and ran right along the edge of the cliff. In some places it was so small, if you met an on coming car you had to reverse till there was a pull off and let them pass before you could continue. Steve had a lot of fun driving this one. In the Iao Valley there were beautiful green mountains and a foggy sky, it was like walking into a different world. And that was a great end to our time in Maui. Next up will be our last stop in Hawaii on the big island again, this time on the other side in a town called Hilo.

Katie

Maui

Our next island was Maui. We had an overnight in the port of Lahaina. So I had two days on Maui. The first day, the San Francisco gang went whale watching with our on board naturalist, Dirk. Whale watching is different in Hawaii than it is in Alaska. Dirk said that in Hawaii humpback whales don’t feed, they just have their babies and nurse them until they are big enough to make the trip to Alaska. Then in Alaska, they eat. So in Hawaii, since they aren’t hunting, they play a lot and they breach a lot which is when they jump out of the water. I got some pictures of a baby humpback breaching, but you’ll have to wait for those.

We were so lucky on this trip. There were whales everywhere and one of them even swam right under our boat. It was so cool. There were only five of us crew in the boat. It was the San Francisco gang and Damian (our cruise director with his feet on the cooler) and his girlfriend. So we had the whole boat to ourselves. I can’t wait to see my pictures when they come back.

Katie

Wamea Canyon

Next in our trip through the Hawaiian Islands was the port of Nawiliwili on the Island of Kauai. This island ties for my favorite with Maui (which I will share in the next two instillations.) Kauai has beautiful countryside all over the island. The San Francisco gang had yet another companion this time. In the group photo you will see Steve, Alex, and myself accompanied by Darren and Michael. We rented a car again and this time Steve drove. Because he’s Australian, we all teased him about driving on the right side of the road and when I started taking pictures of him driving he posed real quick like he was crashing. But luckily he’s a very good driver and now he’s taken over most the driving on our trips.

Our first destination was the Wamea Canyon, which is dubbed the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. It was spectacular, I’m afraid no picture can do the place justice. Then we went hunting waterfalls. We ended up hiking to the bottom of a large waterfall down a steep muddy trail that a local told us about. It was a tough climb, but it was worth it. There was no one at the bottom we had it all to ourselves. We all had a great time on this trip.

Katie

Kailua Kona, on the big island in Hawaii

My first stop in Hawaii was in Honolulu. We weren’t in port for very long. I just walked around town and did a little shopping. The city is nice. It’s like what South Florida would have been, if they had taken better care of the place and left some trees around and kept it cleaner. Our next port was Kailua Kona, on the big island. The lava from the volcanoes was too far away, so we went to a place called turtle beach, where they have sea turtles everywhere. You aren’t allowed to touch them, but you can get very close and even swim with them. I took pictures of course and we had fish and chips for lunch on the beach. The weather was kinda blah, but we still had a nice day. This time Michael from activities staff (eating lunch in the picture below) tagged along with the San Francisco Gang.

Katie

Napa Valley

The next stop for the San Francisco Gang was wine country in Napa Valley. But before we got there, we stopped and took pictures at the golden gate bridge and then visited Muir Woods where they have giant redwood trees. Now this trip to see the wine country was a guy named Steve Merchant’s idea. Steve Merchant is a Canadian activities staff guy and when he suggested a trip to the wine country, I knew I had to do it. So it was supposed to be me, and Canadian Steve, and Aussie Steve, and Alex (who is Austrian in case you were wondering) but Canadian Steve decided he didn’t want to go anymore. So we made a joke of it the whole trip and below you'll see we are at a nice restaurant toasting to Steve for having such a great idea.

After that trip we toured around San Francisco the next few days. I stocked up on some professional film to get me through Hawaii. I also went and got contact lens. I have daily wear disposable so I just wear them whenever I feel like it and I wear my glasses the rest of the time. I love it. Now I can still see when I go swimming at the beach or snorkeling. And I don't have to wear my glasses when I get all dressed up and go out.

All these pictures and the ones from the previous Chronicle and the next few chronicles to come are courtesy of Aussie Steve (he's the one drinking a giant latte below.) I was shooting mostly black and white inferred and medium format. That won’t be processed for a while. So I’ll have to share my own pictures later. Doing Black and White inferred was interesting. The film is very sensitive and you’re supposed to put it in your camera and take it out in complete darkness, and since I don’t have a changing bag to do that, I had Alex and Steve lock me up in the trunk of the car to change my film. That was funny.

Katie

Commercial Contest Award

I have some exciting news today. I just won a commercial contest that Celebrity was having with all the broadcast teams in the fleet. Two other ships were chosen as winners in addition to ours. I made 2 commercials one was with Steve where he’s staring out at the ocean all bored. Then when he leans forward to look down at something, his nose touches the glass window and he starts making faces. A cute girl passes by and sees him. He pulls away embarrassed and then a title card comes up saying "Looking for some excitement?" and then there is a short montage of all the sports we have on board.

The next commercial I had the two flyers (aerial artists that fly around the stage during shows) as my actors. They are having a formal tea in our specialty restaurant and the guy is really bored. So he makes a paper football and flicks it across the room into another couple’s teacup and yells in excitement. Everyone in the restaurant stares at him indignantly until he quietly puts his hands down then the title card comes up "Need a change of scene?"

As a prize I get to take 4 people to lunch at any place in any port I want and we can spend up to $150. I’m taking Resty, Brett, and Steve. And my commercials are going to be played fleet wide.

Katie

The San Francisco Gang

In San Francisco we were in dry dock for five glorious days. Dry dock is when they put the ship in a special dock and drain the water out, so you can see from one of the pictures below what the bottom of the ship looks like. There are no guests and nothing for the crew to do but play.

In San Francisco Steve, Alex, and me formed what has been dubbed "The San Francisco Gang." Since San Fran there have been others who have come and gone in the gang, but it still remains: myself, Steve, and Alex. We started making our own tours to the places we wanted to see usually renting a car and driving to see all the sights of a particular place. In San Francisco we had our first big trip to Napa Valley and stayed overnight there. From there we’ve been on lots of great trips together and it didn’t take long for the rest of the crew to catch wind of our great adventures and start asking to join in. One time I went to the mess and a bunch of people came and sat at my table and started asking what was our next trip and could they join in. You will see versions of the San Francisco Gang in later Chronicles, but here is where it all started.

Alex, Steve, and I rented a car and toured the city then went out to wine country to visit some wineries. Attached are some pictures of us riding a cable car and standing at Pier 39 at sunset. Next we went to Napa Valley... more on that next time.

Katie

The Americas

Well, now that I've caught you up with South America I need to catch you up on Central America, San Francisco, and Hawaii. I'm just now leaving Hawaii and I have had such a good time. We have five sea days till we get to Mexico so I'm going to be very busy, but I'll be getting those pictures out soon. This picture was from an early morning at sea when the water was calm and you couldn't see where the sea ended and the sky began.

Katie

Arica, Chile

Good news, the engines are broken! I know I know, you’re thinking what’s so good about broken engines? The ship is still in working order, but we have to go into dry dock for repairs. We will be in dry dock for 5 days in San Francisco! And what work will I have to do while we are there? None, ha! Well, I’m sure I’ll do a little cleaning and organizing in the broadcast room, but for me it’s a paid vacation. To top it off, we aren’t taking on any guests before we sail to Hawaii. We will pick them up when we reach the islands. So the crew will have 4 days at sea with no guests. We will have the ship all to ourselves. There are going to be parties every night. The only down side is that we’ve cut one of our Hawaii cruises. So we’ll only have one week in Hawaii instead of two. But hey, it’s like a 9-day vacation for me. Yay!

So, now back to my tour of South America. I’m almost done. I’ve got Peru to go and that’s pretty much it for South America. Our last stop in Chile was in a town called Arica. It’s the armpit of South America, and I don’t mean that the town was bad. It was nice and quaint. I mean if you look at a map of South America and look on the Western side to where the land dips inward and then goes strait down, right at that joint is Arica. I went on an ancient ruins tour where we saw old Incan ruins and stopped in a small farming town where I took the pictures of the little girl and her lama and the two characters in a local bar. Then we went to the top of some mountains where a medicine woman did a blessing for the fertility of the earth and some dancers did a traditional Chilean dance, that’s what the feet in the sand are. Arica has a huge desert with a river that everyone lives and farms by. It was an interesting place. Next stop Peru.

Katie

Pisco Sours

In the Southern part of Chile I went to an estancia where they raise sheep. They did a shearing demonstration and a herding demonstration where a cowboy/shepard was on horseback directed his dogs who moved the sheep around. I’ve never seen sheep herded that way before...come to think of it I don’t think I’ve ever seen sheep herded. There were lots of cute dogs on the ranch and we had another spectacular meal.

When we arrived, we were welcomed into an old farmhouse full of antiques and were served Pisco Sours. Now a Pisco Sour is a very small innocent looking Chilean drink, but man does it pack a punch. It tastes good, like a hard lemonade and I had two, because I thought they were serving different drinks, but they were the same drink just in different glasses. Right after that we had lunch and I had a glass of red wine with my lamb. I was talking and laughing and having a great time. Then I stood up. It wasn’t until that very moment that I realized I was drunk. Sandy the sports coordinator happened to be along with me on this one and now every time I pass him in the hall he always says something like, ‘hey, Katie, you’re looking a little shaky there. Have you been sampling the Pisco Sours again?’ or ‘Katie, going to the crew bar tonight? They’re serving your favorite, Pisco Sours.’ I’ll never live it down.

Katie

New Manager On Board

My old manager, Sean, has already left the ship and has been replaced by a new manager, Resty. And when I say new, I mean brand new. He’s worked longer than I have, but only as an assistant. This is his first time as a manager. And he got no handover. Usually they send crew a few days before the person they are replacing leaves, that way they have some time to go over things together. Resty didn’t get that and we were expecting an experienced manager to come on, but the one we were expecting left Celebrity and went to work for another company.

So I got a brief handover from Sean before he left and now I’m training Resty. It’s very hard on us both. Resty has company training most of the day and I am trying to do the manager’s job and my job at the same time while teaching Resty and slowly letting him take over. Resty is great though, he works very hard and he’s catching on all right. I’m sure once we get through this cruise it will get better, but right now, I’m beat.

There will be more of my South American adventures coming soon. Right now we’re heading to Aruba. I’ve left you a little behind with the pictures. I’ve already become a shellback. That means I’ve crossed the equator. Before you cross the equator, you’re a pollywog. And they have a big ceremony where a person dresses like King Neptune and everyone gets really silly and they cover the pollywogs in batter and flower and through pies in their face before tossing them in the pool. I was shooting the event so I didn’t have to go through it, but someone still managed to get pie in my face.

Katie

Ushuaia, Argentina

Most of these ports I have been in twice. Once on the way up to Brazil and again on the way back around Cape Horn, through the Straits of Magellan and back toward the Panama Canal to end up in Ft. Lauderdale at the end of this cruise. So I’ve been to Ushuaia, Argentina twice. I’m going to tell you about the first time now and the next Chronicle will be about my second time to Ushuaia.

On this trip, I went hiking to the bottom of a Glacier with Sandy, the Sports Coordinator, Phil a Tasmanian sax player, and Nate an AV (audio visual) guy. We took a lift up to the bottom of this mountain and hiked the rest of the way to the bottom of a glacier that was there. It was about a two-hour hike and man was it steep. That hike has inspired me to work out on a regular basis. Before we left, we stopped off at a little restaurant/cabin and had soup and coffee and red wine. It all tasted wonderful. And the woman who brought us our food was great. She let the boys try three different beers and warned them that Argentinean beers weren’t so good, but the wine was excellent. We finally ended up splitting a bottle of wine.

Katie

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires (remember Eye-res, not Air-res) is probably going to be my favorite port in South America. Rio is second favorite, it might have been first if not for the Carnival and my fear of being mugged, even though nothing bad happened and I never really felt in danger, I had so many warning going in and there were so many slums that all the poor people had to live in, it just made it a little less romantic for me.

I was more comfortable in Buenos Aires and I loved England when I went and Buenos Aires has a strong English influence. When I was there I saw a Tango Show. The Tango was born in Argentina and let me tell you, you have never seen it danced until you’ve seen Argentineans dance the Tango. Wow. I couldn’t even really capture most of the amazing stuff they were doing, but you can get an idea from the pictures. Next will be the Falkland/Malvinas Islands.

Katie

Montevideo, Uruguay

Montevideo, Uruguay is a nice town. I already sent pictures taken by my friend Adrianna from the Estancia that we went to in Uruguay near Montevideo, but we were there twice. I’ve attached some of my pictures from the Estancia and also pictures that I took when I did a tour of the town. I got to see the beaches, which was actually the shore of a river, so I guess it wasn’t technically a beach, but the river was so wide you couldn’t see the other side and it just looked like a beach with brown muddy water. I saw a statue of Artigas in the old part of town and the large government building where the Senate and the House of Representatives reside. Outside there were two guards posted in traditional uniforms you can see in the picture below. Next I will take you to Buenos Aires and show you what a real tango looks like.

Katie

Buzios, Brazil

Before leaving Brazil the ship made a stop in a small port town called Buzios...or something like that. It was a cute little port town. There aren’t too many places where cruise ships dock that aren’t developed and touristy, but this town was nothing of the sort. Everyone was very friendly. I had sangrias at a nice local restaurant and walked along the beach and through the town. I took a picture of a church and the ship from one of the beaches. We weren’t docked, the water was too shallow, so we had to tender. Tendering is when they take some of the lifeboats back and forth from the ship to the dock to transport passengers and crew. It’s such a pain and sometimes it’s a really long bumpy ride. In the Falklins the tender ride was twenty minutes, but I’m getting a head of myself.

We made another stop in another Brazilian port where I went to the beach and took a self-portrait on the beach by some large round boulders that looked really cool. And that’s all for Brazil. Next will be Uruguay.

Katie