Best Laid Plans

 

"The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

Jen and I took a short cruise in the Caribbean this last weekend and it was a great quick escape. Both of us were feeling a little worn down from the winter and we had not taken a vacation type trip since Italy last April, so we were kind of due. Half the fun for Jen was planning the trip, but I think God had a lesson or two to teach her about the unpredictability of life. You see, hardly anything went according to plan, but everything worked out just fine anyway.

Right off the bat, our plane was delayed due to ice. That caused us to miss our connecting flight and thus ruined our plans of walking around Old San Juan in the afternoon before departure. Still, after our long day of travel issues, we were content to check out the ship and have a relaxing evening.

On that same theme, Jen had arranged a snorkeling trip for the next day in St. Kitts. Of course the tour group that we were supposed to meet up with never showed up. So we rolled with the punches again and took a taxi to a nearby beach.

We were going to do a beach the next day in St. Martin, but since we missed out on the snorkeling the prior day, we signed up for a snorkeling excursion. But what was more fun about that trip was that we got to ride these wave-runner type boats out to the private beach and back.

Finally, we were supposed to take an excursion tour of the rainforest, but it turns out that we were the only two on the whole boat to sign up for it and it was cancelled due to lack of interest. So coming full circle, we got our chance to walk around Old San Juan like we wanted to on the first day.

The trip wasn’t all about bad luck though. One day, we were wandering around the ship store and we heard about a raffle. We showed up at the time the raffle was to be held and the guy approached us and said “well, it looks like you are the only ones to show up, so I’ll get your prize.” It was a gold bracelet. We showed up the next day and he said, “you’re the only ones again, so it looks like you win again.” Yup, another gold bracelet.

We love our food and we definitely get our money’s worth whenever it is all you can eat. I think our waiter was getting a little annoyed with us as we ordered at least two appetizers and two entrées each night. We also took full advantage of the buffet lunch, midnight snacks, and big breakfasts. We even ordered room service one afternoon and then went to dinner about an hour later. I looked like I swallowed a beach ball. Good times.

Some other random notes about our trip:

• 80% of the vacationers were Puerto Rican, so we heard a lot of Spanish.


• We got to meet “The Yoda Guy” who designed Yoda from Star Wars.


• Jewelry stores in St. Martin will give you free gemstones or necklaces just for walking in the door.


• We found the “secret deck” just in time to watch a beautiful sunset and look at the stars (including a shooting star).

We enjoyed the trip greatly and I think we will look into cruises again in the future. A wonderful getaway and a much needed break from life.