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Back from vacation: Top 10 Cruise Questions

I'm currently suffering through the worst part of any vacation: The return leg with all the lines and waiting for taxis, buses and airplanes.

I'm taking this opportunity to get caught up on all my accounts, re-reading Waldo's blog posts on my behalf over the last week and responding to tweets, texts, voicemails and emails.

And while I still have a relatively fresh glow from my "cruise aura," I wanted to share some of these no-kidding-I-sh#$-you-not questions from cruise passengers. These were shared with us by our cruise director:

Top 10 Favorite Cruise Questions

10. "Will I get wet if I go on the scuba tour?"
(I s'pose it would really depend on how fast you swim.)

9. "Does the ship generate its own electricity?"
(Ha ha. Actually, you could almost imagine a very long extension cord from the port of origin. Also makes the captain's job easy. Forget all the complex navigation. He could just follow the cord back at the end of the cruise.)

8. "What time is the midnight buffet?"
(LOL. I guess that, too, would depend...on your timezone.)

7. "Will this elevator take me to the front of the ship?"
(Hmm. Yes. But only with a special key.)

6. "What floor is deck 7 on?"
(Ha ha. It's called "freestyle cruising." So deck 7 is whatever floor you want it to be.) ;)

5. "How will I know which pictures are mine?"
(Cricket... cricket...)

4. "Do these stairs go up or down?"
(Yes... and yet no. Or maybe not.)

3. "How far above sea level are we?"
(I guess that would depend on which way the prevailing winds are blowing from.)

2. "What do you do with the ice sculptures after they melt?"
(I actually know the answer to this one! They put them up for sale in the gift shop at a discounted price.)

1. "Do the crew members sleep on board?"
(LOL. Only the ones who don't have their own means for commuting.)

Oh. And here's my favorite quote overheard while on cruise. (I'm obviously risking wandering into "TMI" territory on this one. But what the heck, I often never know where the line is anyway until I've crossed it.):

"Gawd, what a vacation. All we do is play, eat and poop...!"

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Cruise Day 6 - Cozumel

Mel is on vacation through January 6, 2009. While Mel's away, Waldo will be guest-blogging on his behalf.
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I can't believe those two (Mel and Tobi) were ready to just walk around the main drag near the pier terminal in Cozumel and leave it at that. Had I not taken the bull by the horns and rented a motor scooter, I'm afraid I would've been doomed to simply tag along with Laurel and Hardy walking the same piece of concrete everyone else does when they get off the cruise boat.

It's an education process with Mel but he catches on. With scooter in hand (about $30 US for the entire day), we were off for our own self-guided excursion of scenic beach bars and local hangouts that were thankfully far from the hustle and bustle of the pier area. When you make your trip to Cozumel, I'd recommend doing exactly the same thing. Get yourself a motor scooter and get outta town! Go south to the southern tip of the island and then continue on to tour the other side of the island. You'll find a lot of beaches like this one. Relatively quiet, but also sprinkled with enough "watering holes" to break up the roughly 3-hour island loop with scenic "Dos Equis water breaks."

Folks are friendly. Both locals and tourists alike. Over at Paradise beach, I met up with a couple of drinking buddies before hooking back up with Mel and Tobi to round out the loop.

Cozumel was the last port stop. At posting time, we'll be back at sea headed back to New Orleans. Per prior agreement with Mel this will be my last blog post before handing BusinessCasualBlog back over to Mel.

I enjoyed documenting the trip here. Truth be told, this was a pretty enjoyable gig. The guest-blogger thing was a "fair day's work" for being able to tag along on an all expenses paid trip with Mel and Tobi. Hopefully, you saw something/someplace in the series this past week that maybe motivates you to plan a trip in the future. Lord knows, we all need to get away from the office and blogging every now and then.

All told, I'd say if booking a cruise isn't your thing and had only one place to pick out of all the ones I wrote about this week, then I'd say make it Cozumel. But, get a motor scooter!

Mel, too, has been a great sport. Despite the jabs and winks I gave him this week, Mel catches on quick. I dare say that maybe I taught him a few things about getting out and about. Maybe next time when he goes on a little leave of absence he'll remember my pointers and be less of an "Eeyore" and more of a "Tigger."

Until next time.
~W

Cozumel is 33 miles long and 11 miles wide. It's the largest island in the Republic of Mexico. Twelve miles to the west is the mainland of Mexico, separated by a channel that is 3,000 feet deep. The Mayans have lived on Cozumel since 300 A.D.

Cozumel gets its name from the Mayan word "Cuzamil-Pectin." It means "Land of the Swallows." Ixchel, Mayan goddess of fertility and love, was said to have sent swallows, her favorite birds, to the island in thanks for dedicting temples to her.

In the 1500s, the Mayan world fell to ruin when the Spanish imposed their authority and economy. The Spanish brought disease, including smallpox, which eventually wiped out the inhabitants of the island until the 17th century when pirates used Cozumel as a base of operations. The island was re-inhabited in 1848 by refugees from the "War of the Casts" on the mainland. The settlers numbered around 700 by 1890. It continued to grow but was a sleepy village until the early 1960s when it was discovered by the explorer and documentary filmmaker Jacques Cousteau. He put the island on the map as one f the greatest diving destinations in the world.

Cruise Day 5 - Belize, Central America

Mel is on vacation through January 6, 2009. While Mel's away, Waldo will be guest-blogging on his behalf.
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Backing up a bit to our day in Santo Tomas, Guatemala the other day (Dec. 31st, Cruise Day 4), it's fair to say we had a fairly uneventful port call. It was raining when we pulled in. About the most active we got was when Tobi and I tried getting a reaction from a local burro. Mule? What's the difference again? Not surprisingly, he wasn't a talky fellow. We took our cue from him and accepted the downtime as an opportunity to hang out on the deck and read books all day. Technically, that's what Mel did. Tobi and I, on the other hand went into one of the local shopping areas. She and I have been getting along much better since the beginning of the trip and just pal'd around for a couple of hours while Mel lounged on deck imitating a beached whale.

Then of course, was the whole New Year's eve celebration, which I posted updates about yesterday. (Much to my embarrassment.)

Now that I'm caught up on the stream of events, I can say yesterday was a different day in every sense. We pulled into Belize at 8 a.m. I was a little worried at the start with stories I've heard about big cats in the jungles. And where did the two jokers I was tagging along with want to go? But on a jungle excursion, no less.

As it turned out, even I have to say I had a great time in Belize. As you'll see from the video slideshow below we did see a lot of local wildlife. (The video's okay for general audiences. It only has a gag-factor of 3.5.) And since the predators (from my view anyway) were either on the other side of a fence from me or at least a boat's length away, my concerns about blogging from the inside of some cat eased up after a while. You'll see at the beginning of the video and from this image to the right, we left our mark on the Belize zoo. (It's okay, it was encouraged.) So, if you ever find your way to Belize and see our signature, make sure and post a comment here and tell us about your story.

From NCL's descriptive:

Belize is indeed an adventure paradise. It's an english-speaking country on the Western side of the Caribbean. It's roughly rectangular in shape, measuring about 180 miles from north to south and 68 miles from east to west. It's bordered on the north by Mexico, and Guatemala to the West and South. The total land area, including the over 1,000 offshore islands, is a little over 8,800 square miles for a total territory, including the territorial sea, of about 18,000 square miles.

In terms of government and stability, Belize is a democracy which operates under the British parliamentary system. Known as British Honduras until 1973, it gained independence in 1981. As a member of the British Commonwealth, it has an excellent human rights record and freedom of the press is practiced without any censorship. The population is about 280,000 with over 50% reportedly being less than 18 years old.

Some of my friends who scuba dive would love it here. It sports the longest Barrier Reef in the Western hemisphere and three coral atolls all spanning 185 miles. Many parts of it have been declared World Heritage Sites. The ecosystem is apparantly home to more than 400 species of fish, 540 species of birds and a broad range of mammals, reptiles and some 70 different types of coral.

Forty percent of the country has been protected as national parks and reserves, including the world's only Jaguar Preserve. One sanctuary in particular, the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary encompasses some 100,000 acres of tropical moist forest that rises from 300 feet above sea level to about 3,675 feet at the summit of Victoria Peak.

At the time of posting this article (now Day 6), we're just pulling into Cozumel, Mexico. We hadn't really planned an excursion here. I think we're planning for one of those "multiple choice" days, as Mel likes to call them. The kind where you stroll off the boat about mid-morning, saunter up and down the boardwalk and eventually plopping down on a solitary patch of white sand.

Until next time.
~W

Happy New Year - 2009.

Mel is on vacation through January 6, 2009. In his absence, Waldo will be blogging on his behalf.
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From somewhere off the coast of Belize Mel, Tobi and I wish you a very happy new year. I'll post more of an update later today since. For now, I'll have to be quick since Tobi and Mel booked us all for a jungle tour in Belize to kick off 2009. Those two are definitely a little bent. They think it's all fun and adventure, but I think they're being overly dismissive about some very real concerns from those of us of the bunny persuasion. There's a very real danger (I think) of anacondas, jaguars and howler monkeys that would just love to get their jaws wrapped around someone like me hopping around 4 inches above the ground.

Anyway, I definitely do want to post another update later. As you can see, I partied just a little much last night but kept it all within about a six-pack, two mai tais, a couple of glasses of champagne and something called a "Berry Good Resolution." (And it was, indeed, berry good, but also oh soo bad...) I'm not sure how many Mel and Tobi tied on.

After that Berry...resolution drink thingy (whoooh, that thing was loaded with all kinds of berry and, for all I know, rubbing alcohol), I got split up from Mel and Tobi. But, no worries. As you can see, there were some very nice people on this cruise who were willing to take poor, lost little me in under their, ah, wing.

We'd love to hear about your wear abouts when the ball dropped for New Years. For our part, we were toolin' around somewhere off the coast of Belize on or about Lattitude: North 16 degrees 9.2 minutes and Longitude: West 087 degrees, 50.1 minutes.

Mel wants me to pass along to all of you his and Tobi's well wishes for a great New Year. And his thanks for your continued readership of the BusinessCasualBlog. Mel's looking forward to getting back to posting about regular topics on the business of learning and social media. But for now, I know he's having a great time--if not a little worried that he's turned over his whole blog to me in the meantime.

Oooh. We gotta run. More updates later. For now, Happy New Year!

~W

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Cruise Day 3 - Costa Maya. A blossoming "Mayan Riviera".

I was bored the other day. It was cruise day 2. Day 2 was an "at sea" day. Not a piece of land or burrow in site. Mel and Tobi seemed to do much better than I did. They were content hanging out, reading books in the ship's common areas, pool and promenade doing whatever it is couples do. I, on the other hand, had to hang out near poolside, suffering the coo-ing of young girls fussing with my ears and suffering the indignities of purring sounds over "oh, what a cute bunny." I wanted to shout, "I'm not a bunny! I'm a professional guest-blogger!" Ahh well, I've long reconciled myself to the eternal curse of my dashing good looks and tall, handsome charm.

Cruise Day 3 - Costa Maya. So it was that I was pleased to finally get off the boat on Day 3 (yesterday as of posting day). As far as clients go, Mel and Tobi are about as good as they come; they're pretty dialed-in. But as world travelers they're pretty clueless. I made a subtle inquiry last night to see if they had planned anything for our port landing in Costa Maya. Turns out, they were just going to "go with the flow." Who the heck does that?! Booorriinnggg... So, once again, I had to take charge and planned an excursion for all of us to go on. (I'll just submit it as a reimbursable expense later on, anyway.)

So, I took them to go see some Mayan ruins in Chac Choben. That's about an hour from the port town of Costa Maya. What they didn't know, until my intervention (and until I read the cruise literature), is that the Costa Mayan region, while relatively young as a tourism destination (only since 2001!), is home to five of the area's ancient Mayan cities. Some of these are still being rediscovered. Chac Choben itself was one of the principal distribution centers for the region's precious woods and and jade. The name derives from the English name "Cohoon Ridge," a type of palm tree that's all over this place in the region. The site we visited yesterday dates back to 360 A.D. and was, until just last year largely unexplored.

More from local literature. (Hey, why waste my brain cells.): Today, Costa Maya is quickly developing because of its inexpensive real estate (we were quoted $40,000 for some coastal suburbs--eat your heart out, Orange County!), beautiful beaches and welcoming people. With the construction of the cruise ship terminal near the town of Mahahual (see a map in the video slide show below), the area is booming. Costa Maya is developing into a prime site for eco-tourism. And, as a matter of interest, the Yucatan coast south of Cancun is becoming known in its own right as the "Mayan Riviera." Extending southward almost 200 miles from Puerto Morelos to the town of Xcalak.

Tomorrow we land in the port town of Santo Tomas, Guatemala. If those two clueless wonders (but wonderful clients!) have nothing planned for tomorrow, then I guess I'll just tag a long with their aimless walkabouts while finding every opportunity to drink and be merry.

By the way, for the benefit of Mel and Tobi's family, personal friends and acquaintances, I should let you know that they posted a video slideshow on Mel's Facebook account (see the video embed below or Mel's Facebook profile page here). Friends and family will find it cute-ish. (The rest of us risk gagging at the sweetness of it all.)

'Till next time.

~W

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Cruise Update Day 1 - Boarding Day.

Sunday, 12/28: We were all up early this morning. It was boarding day. Although we weren't planning on getting on the boat 'till about 2 p.m., Tobi and Mel had an ambitious morning planned. We had to find Mother's restaurant, of course. It came highly recommended by our dinner mates last evening, Morgan and Stewart. Apparently a local icon established in 1933, Mother's restaurant was affectionately described to us as a wonderful little hole-in-the-wall of a restaurant.

Known for a "Po-folks" type menu and Southern hospitality, we were met with greetings from our kindly waitress, "hi babies, you sit here, watchyoo 'woan eat? 'Doan matter wat you order, you goin' to be growin' in a minute... what can I getchoo babies?" I can see the appeal of the place. Though my one grip is they didn't have much by the way of carrot pancakes, I ate what they gave me, which weren't no small portions 'neither.

While Tobi attended church at the St. Louis King of France cathedral near Decatur street, Mel tagged along with me to tour the sites in/around the cathedral square.

Mel was kind enough to snap this shot of me in the plaza area in front of the St. Louis King of France cathedral.

Here, I snapped this angle of a monument to Major General Andrew Jackson. It shows the cathedral in the background.

Then, of course, Mel insisted that I be in the picture, too. So I turned the camera over to him for a change. I'm actually quite photogenic, if I do say so myself.

A little further down the road a bit and just a few blocks from the Riverwalk and cathedral area is a cluster of restaurants, shops and an outdoor marketplace. If you visit, you'll recognize it with the mark of this monument to Joan of Arc.

After about an hour of toolin' around downtown, I grabbed Mel just in time to catch Tobi leaving the cathedral. After which we rushed back to the hotel for a late checkout, a quick cab ride and (finally!) boarding!

Next up, champagne and all the carrots and salads I can eat! Oh yeah, there's also the whole Costa Maya, Mexico thing. Sure, if you're into that kind of thing...

Till next time.

~W

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I'm finally warming up a bit to this gig.

Mel is on vacation through January 6, 2009. In his absence, Waldo will be blogging on his behalf.
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I took a little time yesterday to reflect on my mood from last Saturday. I think it was just a matter of getting my furry little self past that first travel day. After I got a little food in me the other evening, I could tell immediately the bounce had come back to my hop.

I'm glad, too. It really wasn't fair to Mel and Tobi that they put up with all my travel surliness. Despite my strong/silent/stoic outward appearances, I really can be quite a bear when I'm in one of my moods. I really have to make a more friendly show of it. After all, Mel and Tobi are funding this trip. And, though I'm on the clock blogging my furry little paws off while they're out vacationing, as far as traveling gigs go, I guess I could've done much worse.

So, to atone for my surly disposition from the start of the trip, I decided to spring for dinner at one of my favorite seafood haunts in the French Quarter. (Besides, I can always bury it with a few other reimbursable expenses later.)

You really can't go wrong with Dickie Brennan's Bourbon House for seafood. Don't let the Dickie Brennan's name throw you. The seafood joint is about a half-block from the steak house of the same chain: Dickie Brennan's Steak House.

Unfortunately, being a Saturday night, there was a 45-minute wait. I even dropped a couple of names but it really didn't help much. The sad reality is that Bugs and Elmer just don't carry the same weight they used to. Luckily, Rickey, at the Oyster bar, remembered me from my last trip (I'm a big tipper). He quickly got me, Mel and Tobi a few chairs right across from his station. Never one to disappoint, Rickey got me quickly set up with a full-dozen Louisiana oysters.

After a great seafood dinner with great company and the wonderful perspective from a couple of great chaps--Morgan and Stewart--who sat next to us providing fascinating historical insights to the whole New Orleans area--we continued with a post dinner walkabout.

The bottom line, though, is that it had been a long travel day. Though my mood was much better, I was pretty beat. I could tell Mel and Tobi were, too.

We had a long day yet ahead of us the next day (which, by the time I post this, will have been yesterday, Sunday). With an early wake up the next day, checking out from the hotel and navigating our way through yet another series of check-in procedures at the cruise ship terminal, I was anticipating another trying day. But, with the clarity of hindsight I'm happy to say the next day turned out pretty well. I'll write more about that in my next post.

We'll chat again soon.

~W

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I'm rethinking this guest blogger thing.

Mel is on vacation through January 6, 2009. In his absence, Waldo will be blogging on his behalf.
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When I started the day, I just wanted to roar in frustration. (But for some reason that never seems to impress humans around me. I don't get that.)

The indignities of air travel came flooding back to me on this first day. I had forgotten about that part of the whole road warrior/guest-blogger thing. It it weren't for the fact that I'm a professional, I would have bagged (no pun intended) this whole guest blogger gig right then and there.

As grumpy as I was during the traveling leg of this gig, I have to admit, it got better as the day wore on.

After the wonderful rectal examination I had to endure through airport security, Mel and I finally squirmed into our assigned seats on an American Airlines flight from Phoenix to New Orleans, connecting through Dallas. (Mel's wife, Tobi, had a seat someplace else on the crowded plane. I didn't see where she went. For all I know, while Mel and I suffered with the coach inmates, she was probably lounging in first class somewhere. I didn't see her again until we touched down in New Orleans. Good riddance. It was bad enough I had to share a seat with gassy 'ol Mel the whole flight.)

As we squirmed into our row, a center seat no less with leg room barely enough to fit me and my laptop, I could immediately see that, on top of everything else, we were gonna have to babysit some snotty little 8-year old Dennis the Menace-looking red head kid who was traveling alone to go see his mommhy.

"Great," I thought. The kid's going to cry the whole time for his mommy while Mel disappears into his iPod leaving me stuck with the brat.

Turns out Mel stepped up. For a human he's pretty cool that way. He and the kid hit it off straightaway. I guess it helped that the kid was pretty soft-spoken, smart, articulate and amazingly well-mannered.

"Hi, my name's David. I'm eight years old. What's your name?"

It went like that.

From what I could see, Mel was hooked. That didn't initially square with me. After all, from my first impressions about Mel coming into this guest-blogger gig, I didn't really think he was much of a "people person." Hell, neither am I for that matter, preferring instead those with more of a, uh, furry persuasion.

But who woulda thunk that he and the kid, David, would be chatting away within minutes of meeting each other. It almost looked like they had some kind of shared male bonding thing going on. I couldn't really understand the draw: They chatted away about splitting life on the road between two parents. One in Phoenix, the other in Louisiana. Talking about airplanes, frequent flying and how Christmas this year was with Dad while New Years would be with Mom in Louisiana.

Like I said, I didn't really understand it all. But, hey, different strokes, as they say. And, just as long as he did all the baby-sitting, I was content to sip on my carrot juice and tap away on my laptop from 8 inches above the ground.

It turns out, David is also thinking about becoming a doctor when he grows up. He likes online educational games and had a lot to tell Mel about edheads.org, a free site offering educational games online. With game titles like "virtual knee surgery" and "virtual hip replacement," I think that impressive little eight year old kid with the Dad in Phoenix and the Mom in Louisiana is gonna do alright when he gets older.

I think I've since changed my tune about 8-year old kids. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in the future. Besides, I understand they're s'posed to be pretty good with technology. Ya never know when I'll need to tap into David to help program my Tivo.

Mel's turning out okay, too. I guess he gets the benefit of the doubt anyway seeing as he was nice enough to think of me for this guest blogger gig. I understand he picked me over someone like Chris Brogan or that guy over at ProBlogger, Darren something... Rowse, or something like that.

Yeah, those other two might be huge in the blogging world, but not wanting to toot my own horn and all, I think Mel made the right choice with me. Humans just don't appreciate the unique perspective I can give from 8-inches above the ground. (Hmmm... I can feel a whole new blog concept bubbling to the surface.)

You'll see. I'm along for the ride for the next 10 days. Let's see what a bunny-blogger has to say about a Caribbean cruise.

Now, if we can just ditch that short little "brown-eyed girl" in first class...

~W

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Featured post: Where's Mel?

Mel is on vacation.  He'll be back posting about the business of learning and social media on January 6th, 2009.  While he's away, guest blogger "Waldo" will be posting on his behalf. 

Please welcome and be patient with Waldo as he'll likely be posting off-topic articles for the next 10 days. (See Waldo's articles below.)

To learn more, read Mel's post from December 27th, 2008 introducing Waldo.  Mel wants you to know he greatly appreciates you as a loyal subscriber.  And wishes you a very happy new year celebration.  He'll see you again on the 6th of January. 

Happy new year.

It's me! Waldo! Just testing!

Mel is on vacation through January 6, 2009. In his absence, Waldo will be blogging on his behalf.

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I'm usually a Wordpress user. It's easier on the paws. So before I agree to take on this project, I gotta make sure this Typepad thing is gonna work out. So Don't worry about this post for now. But! If there's somethin' ya wanna know just ask! I'm here for ya, man.

~W