ok...I'm back.

I was going to wait a bit to upload the pics before I talked about my cruise, but had some time to kill so here it is.

The cruise was beautiful. The islands were gorgeous and the weather was perfect. All in all quite fun. So lets start of at the beginning.

My flight was scheduled for 8:45am, which of course means that I should be at the airport by 7am or so. I kept everything to 2 carry-ons and set everything up the night before. Of course...I end up waking up around 7:15am and find myself racing out of the house. Arrived at airport...enough time...whew...everything cool.

The ship was to disembark at 5pm. My flight arrives at 3:40pm, was told it was only a 20 minute drive to Dock so figured I would be ok. It wasn't till I read the paperwork that said I should actually be at the ship around 3pm. Oh well...I still felt I would be ok.

I landed around 3:40pm, and finally found the cab around 4pm (Delta Airlines SUCKS. Worst Airline Ever). The driver was a bit worried about getting there in time, as there was a county fair. Then we get stuck in traffic. (4:15pm). She proceeds to tell me how she has had about 5 close calls already, getting people to the ship "just in time". I let her know I didn't want to be the 6th one and just to get me there as soon as possible. I really wasn't looking forward to spending a week in Tampa, Florida cuz I missed my ship. We take a couple side streets and are on our way. As we're driving up toward the dock, she proceeds to give me one more shock, as she notices that the ship has already started sailing. (and it was...). Fortunately, it was a different cruise ship. (whew.)

Since it was the end, ran thru the line to get my boarding pass. Got thru the metal detector as they remarked that they would be removing the gangplank soon.(double whew). And finally settled into my cabin and watched as we started to move out. Fortunately, I was able to have the cabin all to myself, as they were only a handful of people enrolled in this particular cruise.

Cruises are fun…but pretty boring alone. If you're ever looking for quality time with a person, "stuck" on a cruise ship is definitely one way to score some brownie points with a loved one. Unfortunately, I didn't have anyone to bring...and not very many “potentials” on the ship where the average age was around 70. Fortunately, I met another solo passenger on the ship named Rick. He was a friend of one of the conference planners and decided to just come along and enjoy the cruise. Really great guy, he became my dinner and cruise buddy for the duration of the trip. Not too sure if he liked being called my "dad" at each of the trips on land (sorry Rick =p), but many times along the way he acted like one to me. =). - in a good sense that is, like a confidant and listener...no...he did not send me to my room when I asked for 2 desserts with ice cream on the side...which yes i did do =p. Most of my vacation was hanging out with Rick, his friend Bernie, and two guys I met from New York (Al and Matt)

I think one of the greatest things about the cruise was the unlimited food. Menus for lunch and dinner, Breakfast sent to my room...midnite buffet and an ice cream bar.....geez...I swear they would have had to roll me off the ship.

The ports of call were interesting: Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Cozumel (Mexico). Wasn't too sure what I wanted to do at each site. Relaxed and walked thru the city in Grand Cayman, took a raft down the Martha Brae in Jamaica, and visited the Mayan ruins in Cozumel. Most of the attractions of the sites were to go scuba or snorkeling, which didn't particularly interest me, as I felt there was only a limited time at each port. Each port also seemed like a watch or jewelry store, cuz thatz all they sold. Nothing really interesting to take home, although I did get some nice ESQ watches at a good price. =)

The days at sea were occupied with classes. Actually kinda glad I had them, cuz if not I'd be hella bored. Remembered the first time I went on a cruise, my brother and I would just run rampant on the boat...hanging out in the arcade and waiting for the midnite buffet. Miss those days of just hanging out with Will. Learned about programming in ASP, even thought haven't started programming in anything really. Our guest speaker Simon Phipps was a phenomenal person from SUN. Pretty cool guy that gave open commentary on technology and its applications. Nevertheless, his presence (and subsequent popularity) boded for much controversy on a Microsoft-vendor cruise (.Net Nirvana). Really interesting to meet such prominent people in the field Simon Phipps (XML, Java), Jeff Procise (ASP), Randal Schwartz (Perl), etc.

Although I was cutting it close to get the ship, I seemed to have scheduled too much time in Florida when I got back. Arrived at 9am, but my flight didn't leave till 7pm. Rather than chance it exploring Tampa Bay, decided to just stay that the airport. Started using my primitive laptop (a spiral notepad) and tried to take care of things. Saw Hulk Hogan, the Big show, Dean Malenko and a couple others from WWF/WWE. Always found the airport interesting. Guess it because I'm a people person, but I love just watching the human interactions and people coming and going at the airport. Always dynamic...always changing. So eventually it was time to leave and come back home. All and all a relaxing trip...but it was good to come back as well.