Schedules

Okay - how hard is it to keep a schedule.

Apparently for some - really hard. If it isn't arriving late or not coming at all, now it is arriving almost an hour early and then not sticking around.

AARRGGHH.

Oh my lord

What next???

Our luggage still has not arrived home. I spent THREE HOURS on the phone between THREE DIFFERENT airlines and not one of them could tell me where exactly my luggage even in.

We have been given 3 different stories as to where it is - where it possibly could be - to them not having a clue.

Was finally told to wait until MONDAY and call American Airlines back again to see if they a have figured it out.

I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW HARD THIS HAS BEEN!!!

Update

Doyle and I have been working on our list for the airlines to get reimbursed for our lost luggage. I think we have everything listed but I had a few questions for the airlines...so we called them on Monday.

After the lady took our information and answered our question, she asked a few questions of her own about our luggage...like if it had anything on it that would make it stand out. Doyle told her that all 3 bag had neon pink plastic ribbon tied to the handles. She got excited and said "hold on...that sounds familiar".

She put him on hold and when she came back she said "I think we found them...we think they are in Dominica. We received notification of 3 bags there and that is one of the things they are stating about the bags. I will call you back once we have confirmed that".

So today, Doyle got a phone call at work from American Airlines in Dominica and the 3 bags there are ours. They are now on route home and hopefully will arrive in the next 48 hrs.

We were then told to write AA a letter describing what happened, how it affected us and our vacation and to include any and all receipts for anything purchased on the trip specifically for ourselves for re-imbursement.

YIPPEE. Isn't this great???

Our homecoming

Home life hit with a vengeance when we got up on Monday morning.

Chores were first on the agenda. So water troughs got filled - heaters pulled out (broken/melted). Hay was replaced - then the tractor ran out of gas.

So we headed into the city to pick up Shayne and Bailey from their brother's house and go shopping for groceries.

We also picked up a few essential items that were now missing. Like a hair dryer, straightener, heating pad. LOL Gee - sounds like it was all for me.

We got home, fixed some supper, watched a bit of tv, and headed to bed as work started in the morning.

The week went really well. Doyle got the tractor going and finished feeding...and he also spent a night fixing the pipes in the laundry room so I could catch up on over a week's worth of laundry.

Wow...exhausted now. Feeling like I need a vacation to get over the vacation.

Melissa coped with stuff too

Melissa had a few problems while we were gone.

First was the furnace. Our fresh air intake pipe fell off in the cold weather...so she was without heat for a couple days until she got ahold of us on the ship to find out what to do.

With that came the frozen pipes in the laundry room. When they thawed, it was with a gush of water. So we got a friend to go over and fix that temporarily.

Then it was a power outage - but just in the tv room. LOL

She also had her first flat tire on her car while we were gone.

Poor girl, she isn't going to want to do this again.

Back to San Juan on Saturday

Well, as all good things do, the cruise came to an end on Saturday morning.

We were to meet up in the Martini Bar at 9:30 so Doyle and I got up and went and had a quick bite to eat. We then went up to the pool deck and I took some pics of arriving in port.





We then picked up our carry-on luggage from our room and headed to meet Paige and Barry. Once we had disembarked from the boat and cleared customs, we caught a Taxi and headed to our hotel.

We stayed in the Hotel Normandie. Beautiful place.



Our rooms weren't quite ready so they took our bags into storage and we headed into Old San Juan for a day of tourist activities.

We saw many cool buildings and did more shopping. The "brownstones" were very cute. The streets were extremely narrow - allowing for one row of parked cars, one row of travelling cars and sidewalks to fit only one person at a time.






When we were walked and shopped out, we headed back to the hotel, dropped our stuff in our rooms and headed for the pool. I didn't last long and went for a nap before dinner. While I had my snooze, Doyle went for a walk and got some beach scene pics.




The bellboy made a fantastic suggestion for dinner - Maios. We had a delicious dinner. Paige and I had the absolute best tasting strawberry margaritas ever - with so much alcohol in them that we thought we would not be able to walk. And the boys tried apple martinis. After dinner, we followed our same pattern from the cruise ship and headed right to bed when we got back to the hotel.

On Sunday morning, we lazed in the hotel room for a couple hours and I had yet another nap. And must have missed Paige and Barry in the process. They went off on their own to do some exploring. Doyle and I went for a walk and for lunch before heading to the airport. It was sad to not see them before we left!!

Our trip home was pretty uneventful...except for the ticket problem in Toronto that took our entire layover to fix.

We arrived home around 3:30 am on Monday. Crawled into our own beds and just collapsed.

All in all...this was one vacation that we will never forget and will, for sure, want to do again - except for the lost luggage, of course

At Sea - Friday

It was windy and cloudy when we got up on Friday morning. This was our last day on the ship...a day to relax, drink and soak up the sun...in the comfort of the pool deck.

It was a nice quiet change from the hustle and bustle of visiting all the different ports. We managed to get 4 chairs together around noon and sat and vegitated.

The ocean swells were quite obvious and when walking we sometimes felt like we had had way too much to drink. The water level in the pool also went down a good 2 feet as everytime the ship would go up and down lots the water would crest over the side of the pools. The kids on board had a blast.

As a last day activity, the two "carvers" on the ship did a mini-competition. They were each given a 500 lb block of ice and 20 minutes to carve it.



One of them did a beautiful swan



The other a horse/stallion.



It was amazing.

I did a bit of wandering around the ship and took the majority of the ship pics.





I took these two pics of the view from our stateroom window to show how close to the water we really were.




We also had to pack. I had purchased a small tote from the ships store but it just didn't seem "secure" enough to make it through a plane ride or two.

I also took my gorgeous roses to the Concierge to say thank you. Doyle met me there and we talked to her for a little bit about what to do about our luggage. She asked if we had anything to take our new belongings home in and I told her about the tote. She said she would see what she could do for us...and within an hour we had a "new to us" suitcase.

We again had a great dinner. And again, were too tired to stay up afterwards to enjoy any of the late night festivities. When we got back to our room, we finished packing and placed our luggage outside the stateroom.

Aruba

We arrived in Aruba early on the 14th. It was an absolutely stunning morning. Nice bright blue sky...a little breeze to keep you from feeling too hot.

We had a quick breakfast as we all had excursions today. Paige and I were going horseback riding and the guys were going on an "ATV Mania" ride. So a little something for everyone.

Paige and I arrived at Rancho Notorious in great spirits and highly anticipating a fun morning. They split us up into levels of riding experience...so I was thinking they would split the group and do a ride to your experience level. NOT. They did that to pair you up with your horse. LOL That's okay too. I rode a youngster named El Capitan. He was a black Paso Fino cross. Came to find out that he was just 4 years old and that this was his first year on the trail riding job. He was not very patient when it came to being mounted - or even standing still for that matter.

He was very keen to go off down the trail...and was very soft in his aides...which was really nice. We matched each other well.

Part way through the ride, I realized that my cinch was loose, so one of the guides tightened it up WHILE WE WERE MOVING. Never had that done before. LOL

Paige's mount, Star, was a lighter twin to my Angel here at home. A very nice girl but with some attitude quirks that we both found very funny.

We rode for about an hour and got to the rest point which was at the beach. The guides then asked who would like to lope slowly down the beach. Well, I was all for it. Paige hesitated a bit but then decided she would join in the fun. So off we went. We were told to keep the horses in single file...but that didn't happen.

When we got back to the ranch, they had pictures of us all individually on the horses - taken during the ride. They are a great keepsake.

I was not allowed to take my camera on the ride as I didn't have a shoulder strap...and we weren't allowed to use our bags to carry things...so you will have to wait for pictures from Paige.

We got back to the boat around noon. We decided to take a quick shower and head to the pool for lunch. Then try to find the boys as we figured they would be back by then. When I opened the door to my stateroom, the first thing I saw was a HUGE BOUQUET OF RED ROSES. I was stunned. They were from Doyle. I cried.


Doyle got back and told me all about his quad ride. He said it wasn't really what he expected as they did alot of the driving on the roads. But he said the scenery was spectacular. He got some great shots.




After everyone was cleaned up, we headed into town to go to the beach. We were all starving so we first looked for someplace to eat and found GILLIGANS. It was a cute little beachside bar and grill.




We also came across this sign - ala MASH - pointing it's way to other cities and the distance from Aruba to that point.


We all wanted to find another snorkeling or dive excursion but they were all out on the water by the time we got there. We then settled down on the beach to soak up some more rays.

Doyle and I headed back to town before Barry and Paige as we still had some souvenier shopping to do. We ended up at the outdoor mall - painted this pretty pink color. All the shops opened onto the decks. It was really neat. We managed to find everything we were looking for.


The funniest part of this day was while I was paying for some t-shirts, the sale's lady asked me if I was latino. I said nope...Canadian. She said "you must have some latino in you because of your coloring". Again I said I wasn't. She just laughed.

Doyle and I stopped in at a little restaurant and bar called Iguana Joe's before heading back to the ship. It had a balcony overlooking the street and the water beyond. Paradise!!



When we got back to the ship, Doyle stopped in at the Concierge's desk in hopes that our luggage had arrived. But no such luck. We were told that both airlines were now considering it a complete loss. I was devastated. And of course, it was our 2nd formal dinner that night...and I had so looked forward to wearing my long red silk dress and having really nice pictures taken on the boat.

I ended up wearing a dress that the concierge found for me. It was a really nice dinner - steak and lobster. We were so tired from our long day that we didn't do much after dinner. Doyle and I stayed in the Martini Bar for half hour or so and then headed to bed.

Party time on the boat

Dinner on Wednesday was informal...but we all still dressed up just a little bit. I wore my new sunflower dress for the first time.


After dinner, there was a "party by the pool". They had a live band and people were dancing away.

We enjoyed the music for a while and took some pictures of the great fruit buffet that they had assembled. Aren't they creative?

Bonaire

Bonaire was an absolutely stunning island - what little we saw of it. The water was the clearest here as well.



The wind was quite strong so they had to have a tugboat help the ship get into the pier and stay put. The tug was there against the ship all day with it's motors going.



Doyle and i had our first excursion in Bonaire. We did the "Samur Sail, Beach and Snorkel". The Samur is an authentic 56' Siamese junk, built in Bangkok, Thailand.



We went out to Klein Bonaire (translated it means "small Bonaire"). Klein Bonaire is a deserted island...no facilities.



It was privately owned but is now owned by the government. They are trying to have it named as a wildlife preserve so that no one can develop it.



We sailed over to the island on the Samur and then took a zodiak boat into shore. We donned our masks and snorkels and off we went...leaving our fins on shore for the first bit. Although it was windy, it was a lot of fun. I got tired pretty fast going against the current, so made my way back to shore and put on my fins.

I got more comfortable so decided that we should head way up the beach and float back down to where the boat was. It was an absolute blast.

We saw a lot of "white" fish. Nothing really flashy - which was a disappointment.

I would love to go back and do it all again...but this time with better weather and a longer time to spend on the small island.

We got back to the boat in time to meet up with Paige and Barry and take a couple pics on land...but no time to really explore.

When we got back to our room, we had a message from the Concierge about our luggage. Apparently it is still in limbo somewhere. Neither airline is totally sure where it is but they are both still looking for it. She, in turn, contacted her boss and he informed the airlines "to find the luggage and to get it to us in Aruba at any expense". So here's hoping that we will have our luggage soon.