This was my daughter Diana's first cruise, and it was the second cruise my daughter Mary and I had taken.  My daughters asked for a Caribbean cruise for their main Christmas gift this past Christmas.  When I purchased the trip in December, I learned that since Diana (age 20) is still a minor, she is not allowed on a cruise unless she's escorted by someone over age 25.  Mary is 22.  For this vacation to work, I had to go.  I gallantly made the sacrifice.  Also this was probably the last Spring Break that we will be able to do this together.  Mary graduates from USC in May, and Diana graduates in December.  By January 2003, Mary will hopefully be in graduate school and Diana will be starting seminary --both "grown and gone" separate ways.

We left Columbia at 10AM on Friday March 8, driving 11 hours to reach Ft. Lauderdale by bedtime.  I had a room reserved for us at a Days Inn beside I-95.  The next morning was leisurely, with a plan to arrive at the boat by lunchtime.  We left I-95 and went to U.S. 1 in order to stop at a shopping mall to buy Diana some sunglasses and a cute little sunhat.  We continued on U.S. 1 to Port Everglades, using the opportunity to get a look at Ft. Lauderdale.  It is a pretty, clean, modern city, with many shopping enticements and many beautiful palm trees and other tropical foliage.  Port Everglades proved challenging to locate since the road we were supposed to turn onto was obscured by road construction.  We ended up at the nearby local airport since the travel agency had given me directions from there to the dock.  It took three tries, but we made it --glad we allowed for extra travel time!

Our cruise ship, the Monarch of the Seas, is HUGE!!  Check-in and boarding went smoothly.  We were hungry so went straight to the 11th floor's Windjammer Cafe for a welcoming smorgasbord.  I had delicious baked salmon.  It only got better from there, later meals featuring filet mignon steak, lobster tails, melt-in-your mouth prime rib of beef, to just name a few.  On a cruise, passengers are fed constantly with the finest foods.  A friend told me that her husband ate 12 meals each day on their cruise.  I do believe she told the truth.  After having lunch, my daughters and I went to the fourth floor to sign up for shore excursions on our two stops.  Then we found our cabin, which was on the second floor, the lowest floor used for passengers.  At the advice of the travel agent, I had bought the cheapest cabin.  She assured me that we would only go there to sleep.  Our cabin was completely adequate.  Upon entering the cabin, there is a separate small bathroom on the left and an ample closet on the right.  At the back of the room are two twin beds that could be left as twins on each side or put together.  Above the one on the right is a top bunk with a little metal ladder.  It is folded closed during the day.  That was mine.  The cabin, decorated in neutrals of peachy beige with touches of silvery blue, is pretty.  The travel agent was wrong, though.  McCraries need "down time", and all three of us retreated to our cabin for "time out" when it got too overstimulating.

The boat itself is fun to explore.  Every floor has something unique and interesting.

• On second floor is a full-sized movie theater with stadium seating.  Three different movies are shown each day.  These same movies may be watched later on closed-circuit TV in the cabin and are shown repeatedly throughout the day.  We watched "Lara Croft Tomb Raider" in our cabin twice, enjoying it very much.  I intended to go to the movie theater to see "Tortilla Soup", but it ended up that there was too much else to do.
• On third floor in the center is the photo shop.  On a cruise, you have your photograph taken on many occasions by a very good professional photograper.  Then these photos are displayed, and you can look forward to finding yours to see how it turned out.  These are available to be purchased.  We ended up buying three --the one of us as we came aboard, and the large and four wallet-sized of the three of us at our table on"formal night" when we wore evening gowns, because all three of us looked so relaxed and had such natural smiles.  Also on third floor and on the fourth floor at the back of the boat are the two huge dining rooms.  We were assigned to Table 180 on third floor for evening meals, first seating.  Table 180 is a long rectangular table for eight that's located against the far rear wall and beside a window.  Royal Caribbean purposely hires a very diverse wait staff, to add exotic contacts to the pleasure of the cruise.  Our waiter, Milton, is from Goa in India.  His assistant waiter, also named Milton, is from Jamaica.  The Maitre'd who's over our section of the dining room is a lovely, angularly thin woman from Africa.  They pamper us and are quite charming.  One night all the waiters sang for us.  On another evening all the waiters danced a mambo for us.  On International Night (the last evening)  the waiters paraded, carrying the flags of their countries.  Sitting at the table with us were four very pretty young women from Ohio.  We assumed they were sorority sisters on Spring Break.  It turn outs that they are friends who attend the same church, all in their mid-20's, and three of them are soon to graduate from Miami University School of Nursing.  Initially they seemed to be a "closed group", but conversation at the table warmed as the days passed.
• In the center of fourth floor is "The Centrum", like the lobby of a grand hotel,  with glass elevators.  Usually a pianist or a group of musicians is performing there.  The art auctions are held beside the Centrum, and fine art is displayed there to later be auctioned off during the cruise.  I saw lithographs by Chagall and by Dali, among others.  Also on fourth floor is a duty-free shopping center that offers quality merchandise at bargain rates.  One of the shops specializes in jewelry.  Another shop offers name-brand perfumes.  One sells liquor.  Another has merchandise similar to what you find in a drug store.  Yet another offers Royal Caribbean cruise line products.  A beauty shop is located there also.  The second day of the voyage Mary paid $40 to have her hair trimmed by a Las Vegas stylist.  The casino is on fourth floor, too, but I avoided it.
• On fifth floor is "The Sound of Music Theater".  Every night, before the second seating meal and after the first seating meal, a Las Vegas-style musical performance occurs there.  I love watching the dancers, the costumes, the colorful lighting, hearing the show tunes, and laughing at the comedians.  This part of the cruise is a big treat for me --I look forward to the meals and the shows!  A large, fancy piano bar is also on five.
• Sixth floor is the "'Tween Deck", actually only half a deck, with only staterooms.
• Seventh floor is one of my favorites.  It is the Promenade Deck and has a red rubberized jogger's track all the way around it on the outside rim.  Mary and I both did a lot of walking there.  Three times around is a mile, and such a beautiful mile it is as you feel the sea breeze and watch the Caribbean waters!  There are a lot of lounge chairs there.  You see many people reading.  The library is on seventh floor, but I didn't use it because it smelled bad --cigar afficinados club met in the library every evening to smoke cigars together (what a strange thing to do!!).  There is also a champagne bar on seven, but, being a teetotaler,  I never set foot in it.  Seven is the deck to go to play bingo.  My daughters went for the last game, paying $25 each for a set of cards in hopes of winning the $4000 prize money.  They told stories about the colorful bingo caller named "Mo' Money Malcolm".  Ol' Mo' Money didn't just call the numbers, he also made remarks about the numbers, such as, "B-11, the 'sexy legs' of Bingo!"
• At the rear of eighth floor is a camp to keep the children who are on the cruise entertained.  Also outside on deck eight is where you go to play basketball, shuffleboard and/or ping pong.
• On ninth floor is a night club with lots of flashing neon and a big hardwood dance floor.  Diana and I attended a church service there Sunday morning.  My daughter went nightclubbing one night.
• On tenth floor is a spa and a gym with work-out equipment arranged in a window.
• On eleventh floor at the front of the ship is the Windjammer Cafe.  It has wrap-around glass windows with fabulous ocean views, plus an upper level with more wrap-around views.  Guests can find food there almost all the time.  I am an early-riser so had a number of slow, beautiful, scenic breakfasts there.  Every afternoon, a beautiful and delicious arrangement of fruit, together with cookies and a soft ice cream machine is put out there, so it became a tradition for us to go have an afternoon cone.  One afternoon Diana asked me to bring a large cone of soft-serve ice cream to her, so I did; but it made her laugh and go hide because, in her words, it was such a 'honking' ice cream (translation: disproportionately huge) that she was embarrassed to be seen with it.  My daughters laughed a lot about that.  Also on eleven are two swimming pools, one for adults only and one for families.  The pool area is a center of activity --much sunbathing, swimming, and contests.&  There was a belly-flop diving contest and also a "sexy legs" (male) contest.  There were horse races, too.  People placed bets on the races and won money.  The horses were paper cut-outs and advanced based on the roll of dice.
• There are two partial floors above 11 for sunbathing.  Mary and Diana did quite a bit of sunbathing on 14 (no 13th floor), and I throughly relaxed "shadebathing" there, reading novels, finishing two.  At night we would go up there and stargaze.  Our ship was alone in the middle of a sea, no city lights,  so the stars were extremely bright and really, really beautiful --it was an awesome way to end each day.
• There is a high, round 16th floor Crown and Anchor Lounge featuring a full-circle sea view at the rear of the ship.  As we boarded the ship, the captain was performing a wedding in the Crown and Anchor Lounge.  (Thirty-three sets of honeymooners were on our cruise.  Our cruise had 3000 or so passengers plus 800 crew members.)  Each day a "Friends of Bill" AA/NA meeting was held in the Crown and Anchor Lounge, to support passengers with addiction problems to avoid relapse.  I'm glad that Royal Caribbean does not include drinks in the ticket price.  Even though our cruise was during Spring Break and had many college students as passengers, public drunkness did not appear to be a problem.

Sunday was an "at sea" day.  We sunbathed and enjoyed the many activities available on the ship.

Monday at 8AM our ship arrived in Cozumel, Mexico.  It was so lovely pulling into a colorful foreign harbor.  Soon people begin debarking to enjoy Cozumel.  Diana left with a group to tour the Mayan ruins nearby at Tulum, a ancient city with a large temple complex, the temples positioned as an astronomical observatory.  Mary and I took the guided bus tour of Cozumel.  Our guide Gama, a tiny man  who is a direct descendant of the Mayans, did a fantastic job.  We visited Mayan ruins on the island where, by tradition, Mayan brides would come to be married.  The bride-to-be would arrive six days before the wedding and go to the temple of the Moon Goddess to pray and to supplicate for good marriage and fertility.  On day six, the family and the groom would come to the island and join the bride in a central square outside the Moon Goddess's temple, where the wedding ceremony would take place on a platform.  The family had use of the square for two hours.  Then they would have to vacate it so the next wedding party could have a turn using it.  We learned that the Mayan ideal of male beauty was for the man to have a flat head.  Parents would bind their young son's head to make it become flat.  Some boys were killed in the process.  After our tour saw the ruins, we were taken for a drive around the island, stopping for a 45 minute swim at a gorgeous beach resort --aqua waters and white sand!  We had to be back on board of our ship by 2:30PM, with the ship setting sail at 3PM.

Tuesday our port of call was Georgetown, Grand Cayman Island.  We pulled into the Georgetown harbor at 10AM, arriving earlier than scheduled. To get from our ship to the downtown pier, passengers had to take a little tender boat.  Mary and Diana chose to do a six mile kayaking excursion.  I took a guided bus tour of the island.  It was excellent.  (How relaxing not to have to try to drive in a strange location!)  First we drove through downtown Georgetown.  I really liked getting to see some of the original settler's Victorian cottages.  The roofs of these were made of corrugated tin, with a drainage system that channeled rainfall to storage barrels for drinking water supply.  Then I saw a diver do an underwater feeding of a colony of stingrays.  Typically stingrays are loners and do not congregate in groups.  The sole exception seems to be at this one area in the waters by Grand Cayman Island.  It is speculated that this started because that spot is where the fishing fleet dumped their unused bait, so the rays came to feed.  The stingrays particularly enjoy being fed chopped squid, BUT on their own in the wild, stingrays never hunt squid nor eat squid.  The stingrays that we observed being fed by the diver are so familiar to the tour guide that he recognized them and told us their names (--for example, Stumpy was the one whose tail had been cut short).  Jacque Cousteau studied the Grand Cayman Island squid.  Next stop:  I went to Hell.  (Before the trip I told my friends that I was going straight to Hell on Spring Break.  When I came home after the cruise, and my friends asked me how it was, I honestly replied that I'd been to Hell and back.  About Hell --been there, done that, and bought the tee shirt!)  In addition to being a conversation piece, Hell is a big gully with very unusual rock formations, outcroppings of iron stone.  Legend is that it got its name when a hunter shot a bird that fell down into those rocks, causing the hunter trying to retrieve his bird to say, "This place is Hell!", and the name stuck.  Part of the fun of going there is using the Hell post office to mail postcards postmarked "Hell, Grand Cayman".  Then we toured the world's only commercial turtle farm, which had been badly damaged by Hurricane Mitch.  There were a series of big vats with number huge turtles,as big as bath tubs, swimming around.  It impressed me how the turtles kept raising their heads out of the water and looking directly at us tourists.  They seemed to find us interesting.  A lot of eye contact occurred.  The small turtles are sold at age four to become turtle soup.  (I will never eat a turtle.)  The lovely turtle shells are made into all sorts of jewelry.  Our bus tour's last stop was the Tortuga Rum Cake factory and store, where we were allowed all the samples we wanted of the various flavors of fresh-from-the-oven hot very potent rum cake.  We had a chance to buy souvenirs but had to return to the ship soon, arriving by 4:30PM for 5PM departure.  I almost bought a CD by a local band because I really enjoy Caribbean music, but one of the songs, "My Girlfriend Got A Hickey from a Stingray", happened to be playing in the store at the time.  It sounded very amateurish, was a disappointment, so I left that CD behind.

Wednesday was another blissfully relaxing "at sea" day spent enjoying my daughters' company.  The travel agency had provided us with a map of our trip, which made me expect for our ship to circle Cuba (Grand Cayman Island is direcly south of Cuba) and for our ship to pass near Jamaica, which is the next island east of Grand Cayman.  However, during the cruise each day we watched a big map on fourth floor display a path of lighted dots to reflect where our ship was now and where the ship had already been.  It indicated that we retraced the same route to return to Ft. Lauderdale.  I never saw the outline of Jamaica nor the silhouette of Cuba --I was watching for them, hoping to catch a glimpse of them.  On Wednesday night passengers had to hand out tips in envelopes to our room steward ($3.50 per person per day), and to our wait staff ($3.50 per person per day to the waiter and $2 per person per day to the assistant waiter).

Thursday morning I went to breakfast as soon as it opened, in anticipation of enjoying watching our ship pull into port.  When I arrived in the dining room, we were already in port, and were only maneuvering into the ship's berth/parking place.  Gradual debarkation, in shifts/taking turns, began at 9AM. We had already had to place our luggage out in the hallway by midnight the night before.  By 8AM we were closed out of our cabins.  We had to line up and go through immigration and make customs declarations, then wait our turn to leave the ship.  The girls and I enjoyed this wait in the Windjammer Cafe, entertaining ourselves by having a picture-drawing contest and laughing a lot.  By 10AM it was our turn to debark.  We drove straight home on I-95 and then I-26, stopping only for gas and fast food lunch and supper, arriving safely back in Columbia about 9:30PM.  We found John smiling, glad to see us.  He had done all of the laundry and had throughly spoiled Mary's cat.