December 2012

It was a Royal Caribbean picture post card day at sea - little wind and calm seas. The topside athletic and pool decks were full of activity. Some tidbits of information - the ship was built in Finland and the only public drydocks that will fit the ship are in Europe. The ship requires drydocking every 5 years. It displaces about 105,000 tons of sea water, and is propelled by three 20 megawatt Azipods. Its max speed is 24 knots and it gets about 45 feet per gallon. They refuel every two weeks in the Caribbean Islands. They usually burn low sulfur fuel. The ship can make about 4100 tons of water every 24 hours, and it consumes by all sources about 1700 tons of water per day. There are 150 miles of piping and 3300 miles of cable. It was painted with more than 158,000 gallons of paint. To prepare the food, there are 20 chefs, 222 cooks and 102 sanitation workers. These folks work in 28 different galleys. Folks on board consume nearly 8 tons of beef, and 8 tons of chicken per week, and 860, 400 eggs. For booze the average week requires 8500 cans of beer, 11,500 cans of soda, 2225 bottles of wine, 175 bottles of whiskey, 550 bottles of vodka and 175 bottles of champagne. Additionally 18,000 slices of pizza are consumed.

As you can see, no one goes away hungry!

Next trip: Exotic Caribbean on Celebrity's Equinox on January 21st. Stay tuned!

Today was a two tank dive off the coast of Cozumel, fairly near the cruise terminal. First dive was a 65 footer followed by a 35 footer after our required surface interval. Cozumel is one of the great dive spots of the Caribbean, but the reefs were severely damaged by the hurricane that spent almost 3 days directly on top of the island. The good news is that the reefs have regenerated well though. The bad news is that the very predatory lion fish have invaded the reefs. We spotted one lion fish and our dive master attempted to kill it, but was unsuccessful and they are lighting fast. Although a pretty fish, they can destroy a reef ecosystem, and have few natural enemies.

We had a wonderful dinner at Chop's Steakhouse ($30.00 service fee). Just can't beat a perfectly cooked 10oz Filet with great accompaniments.
A quite day resting up from our 'arduous' day in Jamaica. The highlight of this second formal night was the two shows we had booked. The Comedy Club comedians were excellent. As they allow them to do 18 and over humor, the numerous innuendos were wonderful. It was then on to the ice show, always a treat. The show itself wasn't as good as others that I have seen with Royal Caribbean, but the skaters were able to land a bunch of triples.

Cozumel tomorrow where I will be diving.

Last night we did the Aqua Show in the aquatheater pool. It was excellent with some superb athletes and high divers delivering a wonderful show under a nice Caribbean night.

Today we pulled into the newly created cruise facility at Falmouth Jamaica. It hold two ships and has tons of shops - similar to St. Maarten and Cozumel. Our tour today was to the 1700's New Hope sugar plantation great house. It sits regally on top of a hill and is a wonderful place to visit. Other tours there today were zip lining and tubing down the river. We toured the plantation, the great house, and then had some jerk chicken for lunch which was included.

Tonight it's Chops Steakhouse for dinner and a sea day tomorrow.

We arrived at Labadee Haiti today - Royal Caribbean's other beach experience - similar to Coco Cay. It was clean, friendly and had plenty of both beach space and lounge chairs. Additionally the suite and Diamond Plus and higher guests have their own fenced off and gated part of the beach with their own cafe for lunch. Lots to do including zip lining, Jamaican bobsled ride, jet skis and parasailing. Something for everyone!