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From January 7th-14th 2001, I went on a cruise to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. The boat was originally reserved for a local company Microstrategy, but they were forced to sell off some of the tickets as they cancelled the annual cruise. Luckily lots of young single partying types from the DC area bought up the remaining spots. I know I keep saying this to everyone, but I don't think there will ever be another cruise where the young outnumber the old 10 to 1. This was truly a rare event.
We boarded our ship, the Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas, on a Sunday in Miami. The weather was beautiful and the boat was already fairly full when I arrived around 1 pm. My roommate, coworker, buddy, and fellow international terrorist Johnny missed his flight to Miami so he was going to meet us later in San Juan. The day really took off around 5 pm when we set sail and the happy hour began. I ran into two friends Kennet and Geoff and we grabbed the first dinner at the early seating. I also ate the second seating with the rest of my company, which should make many of you proud as it is contrary to my usual anorexic eating habits. That evening was spent exploring the ship's many attractions including The Pig and Whistle, an Irish bar and The Vault, the dance club and focus of late night activity.
As many of our colleagues missed their flights to Miami, and had not yet joined us on the cruise, Monday's meetings were cancelled. That freed up the afternoon for sleeping and general recovery from the night before.
Arriving in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, we spent the early afternoon touring Old San Juan and the fort that overlooks the ocean. We returned to the boat for dinner, and then caught a bus ride with Puerto Rican Luis to some of the local hot spots. Although the first bar was not so hot, the second bar quickly filled up with beautiful 20 year-old Puerto Rican women. After several Bacardi and Cokes, we boarded the bus for the ride back to the ship. After hanging out in the Aquarium bar for a while, festivities continued in the Vault.
Our Wednesday stop was in St. Thomas where our executive team decided it would be a good idea to have beach olympics. We stayed the afternoon and had a chance to swim.
I spent Thursday in St. Maarten cruising the beach. We didn't do anything except lie around and walk on the beach. Just for the record, Geoff and I are NOT holding hands in this picture.
Friday progressed as follows: woke up at 9 am, ate 3 omelets, sat in an interior room of the ship listening to meeting topics as the boat rocked, puked, slept on the deck. I finally felt good around 5 pm, just in time for a quick rehearsal for the ship talent show. My friend Clator writes songs, plays guitar and sings. I play bass and Brett plays the drums, so we all decided to perform one of Clator's songs. Although I missed the formal rehearsal, Clator was able to work with Brett and then Clator and I played together for about an hour. Although the three of us didn't rehearse together, we felt confident that we could pull it off. After dinner the theater filled up and we waited backstage for our turn. Several acts performed, including some Arlington guys who did an N'Sync performance. They claim it was a joke, but... It was a lot of fun playing in front of such a big crowd, although I was pestered by a lot of groupies after the show and was forced to duck into my limo.
Although it was the last day in the sun, Saturday was spent sitting through several hours of meetings, an unfitting end to such a great week. I had an unbelievable time on this cruise, mainly due to the crowd of people on the boat. Everyone was friendly, I met hundreds of new people, and got to know some of my friends a lot better. Thanks to everyone for making it such a memorable week!
