So, we got on the cruise ship, and the
ship itself was a year
or two old. very nice. and the ports we went to were great. the new wife got a bit of a taste of wandering aimlessly with me in old town san juan, when i took her on a death march to the old fort at the end of town... after we went to the fort, we walked around a little bit, and then went and had a snack and a drink at the el convento hotel in their courtyard bar. courtyards are nice, and it was slightly cooler there. then, we ambled our way through the dimly lit cobbled
streets of old san juan back to the cruise ship.
after another day or two at sea, we pulled into st thomas. we went on a sailing/snorkeling excursion to st john, and it was really nice. the only problem was i had a horrendous migraine. so bad in fact that it hurt to see, and i actually became nauseous. which everyone thought was sea sickness... nathalie was excited because we did get to see sever
al sea turtles and lots of fish as we snorkeled around a small reef. after the snorkeling odyessy we went back to the ship and ate, and then i went to sleep. my head was horrible. nathalie was a trooper though and took care of me being grumpy and not wanting to have the tv or music on. it hurt alot! and then, the next day i was feeling better. good enough that we went to the glass making show that night. yes, thats right, our ship had a glass blowing show. there were three artists from the corning glass museum in upstate new york that were embarked on board as part of
the ships force for giving glass blowing. it was really neat to watch, especially the show that took place at night. here is one of the girls making a glass sea horse statue. pretty cool.
the last island we went to was
sint maarten, ive been there several times, and wanted do something i hadnt done yet. there are lots of nice beaches on st maarten. the beach at great bay, ive written about several times before. the water there at great bay still looks incredibly silty. we had a late start in sint maarten, not sure why. but, we decided to go to baie
oriental. which is on the french side of the island and famous for its nude beach. we stayed on the non-nude side of the beach. but, the beach itself was beautiful. we got beach chairs and an umbrella and sat under them, but i spent alot of time in the water, because, hey, laying on the beach is boring. so, that was beautiful water. i swam laps back and forth a little bit, just cause it was nice. lots of butterfly.
on one of the last days of the cruise, as we headed back to reality and jobs, we got to ta
ke a tour of the ship's central control station at the heart of the engineering plant. that was cool. azipods using power from electric generators controlled the ship instead of having a reduction gear and a shaft with line bearings. saves space and lots of money, since reduction gear are some of the most expensive pieces of equipment on a ship. not sure how many watch standers were down in the hole, but there two engineers on watch in central.. one greek, one croatian.
ship itself was a year
or two old. very nice. and the ports we went to were great. the new wife got a bit of a taste of wandering aimlessly with me in old town san juan, when i took her on a death march to the old fort at the end of town... after we went to the fort, we walked around a little bit, and then went and had a snack and a drink at the el convento hotel in their courtyard bar. courtyards are nice, and it was slightly cooler there. then, we ambled our way through the dimly lit cobbled 
streets of old san juan back to the cruise ship.
after another day or two at sea, we pulled into st thomas. we went on a sailing/snorkeling excursion to st john, and it was really nice. the only problem was i had a horrendous migraine. so bad in fact that it hurt to see, and i actually became nauseous. which everyone thought was sea sickness... nathalie was excited because we did get to see sever
al sea turtles and lots of fish as we snorkeled around a small reef. after the snorkeling odyessy we went back to the ship and ate, and then i went to sleep. my head was horrible. nathalie was a trooper though and took care of me being grumpy and not wanting to have the tv or music on. it hurt alot! and then, the next day i was feeling better. good enough that we went to the glass making show that night. yes, thats right, our ship had a glass blowing show. there were three artists from the corning glass museum in upstate new york that were embarked on board as part of 
the ships force for giving glass blowing. it was really neat to watch, especially the show that took place at night. here is one of the girls making a glass sea horse statue. pretty cool.
the last island we went to was 
sint maarten, ive been there several times, and wanted do something i hadnt done yet. there are lots of nice beaches on st maarten. the beach at great bay, ive written about several times before. the water there at great bay still looks incredibly silty. we had a late start in sint maarten, not sure why. but, we decided to go to baie 
oriental. which is on the french side of the island and famous for its nude beach. we stayed on the non-nude side of the beach. but, the beach itself was beautiful. we got beach chairs and an umbrella and sat under them, but i spent alot of time in the water, because, hey, laying on the beach is boring. so, that was beautiful water. i swam laps back and forth a little bit, just cause it was nice. lots of butterfly.
on one of the last days of the cruise, as we headed back to reality and jobs, we got to ta
ke a tour of the ship's central control station at the heart of the engineering plant. that was cool. azipods using power from electric generators controlled the ship instead of having a reduction gear and a shaft with line bearings. saves space and lots of money, since reduction gear are some of the most expensive pieces of equipment on a ship. not sure how many watch standers were down in the hole, but there two engineers on watch in central.. one greek, one croatian.
