Porno Lick at the Muster Station

Saturday morning we had to wake up at about 3:15 AM to get ready and meet up with Edwin and Geni and head to the airport.  Fortunately Alisha woke up on time and got us going or I am sure I would have been late after turning off the alarm clock or hitting snooze 30 times.  LOL

We left Geni and Edwin’s house at about 5:15 or so and headed to the airport.  Once we got there we flew through the check-in line and then security.  We grabbed breakfast at Chick-fil-a and some coffee from Starbucks before walking the 13 miles to our gate.  Have you ever noticed how your gate is ALWAYS at the end of the damn terminal???!?!?!

Our flight was about 2 hours and because of my heritage (JEW) I did not buy the in-flight internet service.  Not sure why honestly… I guess I just thought that the two hours would go by faster than it did.

Justin and Alisha at the buffet

When we landed in Florida we took a taxi over to the port and began our embarkation process which is never fun.  After waiting in the nice line, we hopped on board and headed straight to the food – just like everyone else did   We stayed there and waited for the rest of our group of 24 to board the ship so that we could all meet up and establish our meeting areas.  After the mandatory pre-sailing cruise drill, we all just kinda hung out around the ship until dinner time.

As I mentioned in my last post, we had planned to announce that Alisha is pregnant to the family at dinner on the first night.  We figured that we would just show up late to make sure that everyone was already at the table and wear our shirts (see the post below) to make the announcement for us.  My dad purchased some wine to do a toast and we took some pictures with the family afterwards.  Everyone was very excited to hear the news.

Carol on stage in the theater

After dinner we went to a show in the main theater in which they called some of the audience members on stage.  They recruited a few people and asked for someone else to volenteer.  This is when the loudest scream came from Carol screaming “I’LL DO IT!”  It was hilarious. 

The first day / night was excellent.  Everyone was so excited to be there and our vacation was just about to kick off. 

Party on the Pool Deck

Our second day of our vacation was a day at sea in route to San Juan Puerto Rico!  Sea days are always fun as you are not really in a rush to get off the ship and enjoy the island or schedule your return to the ship to make it in time for dinner.  It is just a nice relaxing day.  We met everyone on the 9th floor for breakfast and quickly noticed that Justin and Zach had not made it out of bed yet.  At about 11:30 or so, Alisha decided to go give them a wakeup call in their cabin.  Since Dan was staying in the room with them, he had a key which got us into the room.  Check out the video below, to watch Alisha wake Justin up

After waking them up, a few of us went to the arcade on board to play a few games.  Shortly after we had lunch and then headed out to the pool decks to listen to the Caribbean music and watch the hairy chest competition.  It was pretty funny to see these guys compete for such an award lol.  While this was going on I played a little bit with our camera and got some pretty nice pictures out of it.  Check the photo gallery for the other three pictures that I took in manual mode.  I was very happy with the colors that I got out of it and the third picture looks totally photoshopped but I promise you it isn’t.  Hell, I cant figure photoshop out yet LOL.  Okay, fine.  I have not taken the time to try to figure photoshop out yet. 

Picture I shot manually that looks photoshopped

After hanging out on the pool decks for a while, we had to go get ready for dinner.  Since this was the first formal night (captain’s) we had to dress up in our best clothes for dinner and the shows.  I like and hate these days at the same time.  It is nice to dress up and take pictures and stuff, but I also hate having to be in a jacket and tie all night.  I just get too hot and stuffy for that.  During dinner we were sure to tell our waiter about Geni and Edwin’s recent anniversary.  He brought them an extra dessert to share in honor of this special occasion. 

One of our three tables at dinner

After dinner we headed to the shows and hung out for a little while before calling it a night. 

Puerto Rico!!!

On the third day on the cruise, we were docking in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico!  This was different from what we were used to as instead of pulling into port at like 7 in the morning, we were docking at 5 in the afternoon and leaving at like 11:00 or so.  This made the stay in PR much better as we got to hang out for the evening instead of rushing back to the boat for dinner.  Before the boat docked we killed time eating and playing an intense game of volleyball on the top deck of the ship.

Geni had shirts made for everyone going on the cruise to celebrate Dan’s graduation.  The guys had white polos and the girls had white tee shirts.  They had a bulldog on the front that said “the Natic clan celebrates Dan” and on the back had a big UGA with all of our names around it.  It was a great way to celebrate Dan’s graduation from college with our family and friends although the GA Tech fans of our group (many of them unfortunately ) did not like this quite as much as we did lol

When we got off of the boat we walked around to try to find the restaurant that we went to with my dad the last time we were in Puerto Rico.  We knew it was by a fort, but unfortunately we confused it with the other fort that was in the area which led us on a scenic tour .  When we got to the fort we thought we were supposed to head to, we got a phone call from my grandfather who lives on the complete other side of the island (2.5 hour drive) saying that he was also at the fort and had some goodies for us!!!  We met up with him about 1 minute from where we were.  It was so great to see him but sucked that it was on such short time.  He had my grandmother cook our favorite dessert (tembleque – a coconut pudding type dessert), bring several loaves of fresh bread from a local bakery, and this insane coconut ice cream from a local ice cream shop on my grandfathers side of town.  It was the best meal ever!!  We had such a great time!

Scarfing down my coconut ice cream

Because time was short, we had to leave my grandfather and continue with the rest of our planned day in Puerto Rico.  We stopped by a bar so that the boys could try a drink called “la nota” (which translates to high) that Geni was telling them about.  Dan is old enough to drink in the states but the rest are not, so this was a treat for them.  In Puerto Rico and many of the other islands the drinking age is 18, but it is normal to be served alcohol as long as you can see over the bar… literally. 

Old Harbor Brewery in Old San Juan Puerto Rico

After a few drinks we went on to find the restaurant that I had been to last time called Cafe Puerto Rico.  Once we found it, they had about an hour wait and they had us go to another restaurant to have some drinks while we waited.  There we met this guy who was actually born in PR, went to school in Cobb county (Georgia), moved to Pittsburgh PA to go to culinary school (and knows one of the chefs at Church Brew Works), and now back in PR and owns a restaurant out there.  His was closed for renovations but he told me about a brewery that was right where the ship was docked that I had to try out.  You know me, I don’t ever turn down a great beer so we added that to our list of things to do while in PR.  After grabbing our drink there, we headed back to Cafe Puerto Rico for an authentic dinner.  It was delicious!!  After dinner we headed to Old Harbor Brewery to try out the beers they had there.  I got the sampler and loved their stout so of course I had to grab another pint of it before we headed on.

On the way from the brewery we heard a coqui making noise.  These are little brown frogs that make the cutest sound.  Listen to the video to hear it.  There is no picture to it… just sound.

After the brewery we headed over to Senor Frogs to let the boys get some drinks.  Unfortunately they were doing a cover charge and it was too late to get our money’s worth out of the cover charge and beer / liquor specials so we went to the Sheraton Hotel across the street.  After the boys ordered their drinks we were chilling outside when this drunk dude stumbles out of the casino of the hotel and onto the patio we were sitting on.  He comes up and asks us for a lighter and when we said we didn’t have one he murmured “fucking Americans” jokingly LOL.  Since I am curious about life outside of the states I continued to talk to him and we found out that he was with the Dutch Navy who was also docked in Old San Juan and that the Coast Guard was on his ship taking over possession of the $20 million Euro street value of cocaine they seized on international waters!!  He was really funny to talk to and really had us cracking up.  I wish we had more time to bullshit around with him because he was really cool. 

Unfortunately that was all the time we had in PR, but we had a freaking blast!!

Maegans Bay

On the fourth day of our cruise we docked into St. Thomas.  We had been there before but we certainly were going to take advantage of the island to enjoy ourselves.  Geni likes to go to Maegan’s Bay which was rated a top 10 beach in the world.  I personally have been to a few that I liked more (especially Blue Beach in PR and one in Tortola that we went to) but dont get me wrong.  It is a gorgeous beach!  It is about a 20 minute ride from where the boat docks but it was well worth it.  We spent a bunch of time out there and had a blast.  Stupid me decided to go without sunblock and for the rest of the cruise THOROUGHLY regretted it.  I was freaking BURNT!! 

During our stay at Maegan’s Bay Alisha decided to do a lot of people watching.  She found everything from thongs, to camel toes, to speedos which she happend to catch many pictures of.  So check out the photo gallery to see what Alisha was able to find LOL. 

The taxis on the island are a little different than we are used to.  They are pickup trucks with seats in the bed and a cover to transport as many people as possible.  This made for a fun ride back to the ship.  The boys in the back found out that it would be hilarious to yell at the oncoming taxis full of passengers.  This went on for the entire 20 minute trip back to the port.  It was hysterical – check it out:

After having a hell of a good time on the island we headed back to the ship to leave towards Antigua.  Alisha and I went up to one of the higher floors of the ship to watch the boat leave and saw this sea plane landing on the other side of the mountain.  It was really neat to watch this thing come in to land on the water.

After taking showers, we headed down to the dining room for dinner.  After we stuffed out faces Jessica told me that she was going to kiss my little brother Christopher and that I should record it.  I am SOOOO glad that I did.  I caught the funniest thing EVER on video.  What the hell he was doing in the beginning of this video is absolutely beyond me, but I crack up laughing every single time I watch it.  Be SURE to watch this video!!!!

A beach in Antiqua!!

Our fifth day was spent in Antigua.  We docked early and decided to just get a taxi and have him take us around and teach us about the island.  Damn am I glad we did.  The port was not the nicest place I have been by far.  As a matter of fact we were really pissed that all the taxi drivers were just hounding us as we walked around the shopping area.  You could not walk more than 10 feet without being pestered and I am not exaggerating at all.

We finally decided to take a taxi and go around the island.  The driver taught us a lot about the island and took us to some gorgeous areas.  You could tell, like all of the islands I have ever been to that it was completely reliant on tourism and they did not live a lavish life at all.  There was a lot of run down homes and such along our drive and it was kinda sad.  That was until we came up on the zip line adventure.  They had like 10 zip lines setup crossing this huge section of forest on the island.  It was incredible.  I can only imagine what it would look like as you are going across this area.  I wanted to do it so badly but unfortunately it was pretty pricey and we did not have enough time to do so. 

Paradise!

After leaving the zip line area, we passed the second nicest beaches I have ever seen.  Holy CRAP these were gorgeous beaches!  Take a moment to look at the photo galleryto see some more pictures of this beautiful area of Antigua!  We stopped at one of them for about 30 minutes and it was incredible.  F Maegans Bay being a top 10 beach with this one around.  This thing kicked Maegan’s Bay’s ass!  After hanging out in beauty, we headed back towards the boat on the scenic path and stopped at a fruit stand to pick up some fresh pineapple and mango.  MMMMM!

 Like many of the other islands, there is a some poverty but my goodness were these beaches gorgeous!!!

Another gorgeous beach

On the sixth day of our cruise we were woken up several times through the night due to a passenger being reported as missing beginning at about 4:30 AM.  They paged the passenger and asked them to call a specific extension using the intercoms.  They apparently did not do so as they paged every 30 minutes all the way until 7:00 AM.  At this time, the cruise director got on the intercom and stated that they were doing a full investigation on the ship and that they would be coming to each and every cabin to see if they could find this missing passenger.  It was quite disturbing as we had no clue whether or not this person had fallen overboard or was just simply passed out from a bad night of drinking.  Fortunately the passenger turned up about 30 minutes later in what we assume was someone’s cabin. 

Around this time Dan came to our room to tell us about his night and mentioned that there were two passengers that they were looking for beginning around 2:00 AM last night.  At about 2:30 he saw this chick totally out of it under some deck chairs on a top deck.  He asked her what her name was and immediately realized that this was the first girl that they were looking for.  Dan said that she appeared to be completely out of it and was hoping that she was not rufeed.  We will never know but it was certainly a possibility.  The other lady Carol happened to see leaving the casino last night and she was TRASHED… there was a guy trying to see what she was doing later that night as they were getting in the elevator.  This lady had a husband (and they were on their honeymoon!!) but the guy she was talking to and getting on the elevator with was NOT him.  Who knows if she was drugged, raped, or just taken advantage of L. 

After that disturbing start to our day, we spent another day in the sun.  When we got to the island we took a taxi around to show us the area and had him take us to the beach that we were told was the best one around.  Our driver was awesome and took us on a scenic route through the island.  This island is the most beautiful one that I have every been to!!  And it figures – it is a British island instead of the US Virgin Islands we normally go to. 

This island is sooooo clean.  The taxis dont bother you, the streets are spotless, the houses are beautiful and well kept, and the people are friendly.  Everything about this island was to admire.  I would go here every time if I could.  I have never seen an island so well kept.  I was absolutely stunned!

Part of the Natic crew

We carved out the day to be a beach day and pretty much spent all of our time there.  It was a very nice beach, but if it would have been as nice as the one on Antigua, it would have been my favorite place to go period.  It still was a great beach and we had a great time.

Mini Golf on the Sports Deck

Our seventh day was spent at sea.  After being at so many ports, it was nice to not have to wake up early and explore another island.  We took the day as it came and did things like miniature golf, volleyball, and watched some of the shows that went on during the day.

One of these shows was the Newlywed game which Carol and Joe volunteered for.  It was hysterical!  I filmed a good part of it, but had to cut it down to just them as I was running out of space on my 4 GB memory card just from the videos alone.  There were no pictures on there before the show LOL.

For those that come over to the house, I will show you the clips of the show… hilarious! 

ATLANTIS!!

The eight day was sad for us as it was our last night on the ship, but at the same time was very special to us as well.  The ship has an excursion that you can take that will take you to Atlantis for the day for $125 per person.  Since our group was so large we had a really hard time talking people into dropping that much money for the day.  It started out with Geni, her mom, her sister in law, her brother, Alisha and myself going to Atlantis.  This quickly spread to Carol making the executive decision to purchase tickets for herself, Joe, Thomas, Jess, and Joey…. which led to Dan picking up a ticket as well.  We were ready for a HELL of a day on Paradise Island.

As you know this is where Alisha and I went for our honeymoon and it meant a lot for us to go back and spend the day there.  When we got there we were in for the most pleasant shock.  The resort has expanded tremendously in the last 3 years.  Holy cow!!!  There is a HUUUGE new section to this unbelieveable resort that we did not see before and it was probably our favorite part.

Rapids

They had this lazy river that was anything but lazy.  It had a downhill rapids, huuuge waves that push you along putting you like 3 feet in the air as they went past you, and even an escalator that picks you and your tube up a decent sized hill.  In addition to the lazy river they have this new tower with all suites in it, new pools, and more slides.  Plus they added a swimming with the dolphins on site. 

AMAZING!  If you have never been, GO! 

This made out last day on the ship a real memory.  We had so much fun and did so in a place that means a lot to the both of us.

This cruise has been an unbelievably good time.  We really enjoyed being with so much of the family and our family friends.  Thanks to everyone that was able to make it - we loved it!

We headed to Express first and then to American Eagle.  While we were at AE we met up with Dan’s friend from college who was also home for the weekend Kirsten.  She was very nice and it was great to meet her.  As we browsed American Eagle, I called my rents as I know that they needed some clothes for my brothers and was seeing some stuff that would work well for them.  We ended up picking up about 6 polo shirts and about 4 pairs of shorts for them.  I picked up 2 pairs of shorts and a little dress for Alisha and then headed back to Express to pick up two polo shirts from there.  They were a little more money but I thought that they were a little better looking than the ones at AE.  Dan bought a  bunch of stuff as well.  After hitting Express we headed over to the department stores to find some new black shoes.  I was looking for some Kenneth Cole Reaction shoes as I have had two pairs that did me very well.  I wore the crap out of them and they were so comfortable and stood up to my abuse. 

I went to Macy’s and came across a pair there that I decided to pick up.  I am stoked about having another pair of Kenneths!  One thing that did piss me off though when talking to this clown of a salesman at Macy’s was that I asked for a discount to purchase two pairs of shoes just to see what he would say.. hey – you never know right?  The guy joked and then stated that I could always open a credit card account with Macys and that would save me 35%.  I told him that I was not interested as it is terrible for your credit.  He continued to be a smart ass and say that was not true that it was only a “soft hit” on your credit which is about 3 points.  This is total and utter bullshit.  This new card will not only hit my credit for 3 points but it will also bring my score down for having a card that is too recent.  In addition you lose more points depending on how much of your balance you use.  So if they give me a 10 dollar limit and I spend 5 dollars on it, the credit bureaus don’t care that it is only $5.  They care that it is 50% of my limit.  He was a total smart ass about it but the fact of the matter is that he is wrong.  Okay enough of my bitching.