Another day on the ship
Second day at sea, on the way back from Turks & Caicos. (I think, although I don't want to spend the minutes to look it up right now, that this is the island chain that used to be known as the British West Indies.) Our day on Grand Turk was fun. luvmoose and I went on the Power Snorkeling excursion. Basically, it was snorkeling, but we had a little hand-held scooter thing that propelled us through the water faster than swimming would. I had never snorkeled before, always wanted to try it, but was a little apprehensive because I am nervous in deep water and hate getting water up my nose. It took me a few minutes to decide that I could trust the breathing apparatus, but once I got comfortable with it I was fine. I would totally snorkel again. We saw lots of cool fish and coral formations and luvmoose saw a sea turtle. Awesome. In both senses of the word.
Music has been excellent. The first full-production BNL show was Tuesday night. A good show, they played some lesser-heard stuff along with the hits, and they were in good form. Then they played another acoustic set yesterday evening, all songs that are less in the rotation along with some true rarities. Excellent, excellent batch. Even when it started raining on us halfway through. They're playing one more time tonight, another regular stage show. I hope we get some more Ed songs; my only issue so far is that all three BNL sets were pretty Steve-heavy.
In other musical notes (har har), last night I went to see The Brothers Creegan (Jim and Andy, current and former BNL members respectively) and Guster. Both were excellent, particularly Guster, whom I had only seen once before, a long time ago, when they opened for BNL and I had no idea who they were. Their fans love them, so the energy was great. I only knew about a quarter of the songs but I danced a lot anyway. You wouldn't think it on first impression, but their lead singer is quite the showman. And I loved watching the drummer -- he plays most of the songs without sticks, uses only his hands, and he really gets into it. It's like he's dancing.
Except for yesterday's little rain shower, the weather has been excellent. Hot but not too too hot, and not as humid as I was thinking it might be. Mostly sunny, but enough clouds to cut the worst of it. I have a little bit of sunburn on my arms and legs but for me this is nothing. So that's good. The food is mediocre but not as afraid as I thought it might be (Carnival has a bad reputation in this area, so I went in with fairly low expectations). Good service, though. As one expects on a cruise ship. I've gotten a fair number of pictures which I will share when I get back.
One last thing: I mentioned offhand that I didn't have my luggage. I still don't have it, but Carnival called American and discovered that at least now they know where it is -- it's in Miami, and I can pick it up tomorrow. So I know that at least it's not lost and gone forever. I'll tell the full story on that one later, too; it's a doozy.
Today is shaping up to be a lazy day with book and notebook by the pool. And I've already spent far too much of it inside the Internet Cafe so I'll sign off now. See you all in a few days.
Music has been excellent. The first full-production BNL show was Tuesday night. A good show, they played some lesser-heard stuff along with the hits, and they were in good form. Then they played another acoustic set yesterday evening, all songs that are less in the rotation along with some true rarities. Excellent, excellent batch. Even when it started raining on us halfway through. They're playing one more time tonight, another regular stage show. I hope we get some more Ed songs; my only issue so far is that all three BNL sets were pretty Steve-heavy.
In other musical notes (har har), last night I went to see The Brothers Creegan (Jim and Andy, current and former BNL members respectively) and Guster. Both were excellent, particularly Guster, whom I had only seen once before, a long time ago, when they opened for BNL and I had no idea who they were. Their fans love them, so the energy was great. I only knew about a quarter of the songs but I danced a lot anyway. You wouldn't think it on first impression, but their lead singer is quite the showman. And I loved watching the drummer -- he plays most of the songs without sticks, uses only his hands, and he really gets into it. It's like he's dancing.
Except for yesterday's little rain shower, the weather has been excellent. Hot but not too too hot, and not as humid as I was thinking it might be. Mostly sunny, but enough clouds to cut the worst of it. I have a little bit of sunburn on my arms and legs but for me this is nothing. So that's good. The food is mediocre but not as afraid as I thought it might be (Carnival has a bad reputation in this area, so I went in with fairly low expectations). Good service, though. As one expects on a cruise ship. I've gotten a fair number of pictures which I will share when I get back.
One last thing: I mentioned offhand that I didn't have my luggage. I still don't have it, but Carnival called American and discovered that at least now they know where it is -- it's in Miami, and I can pick it up tomorrow. So I know that at least it's not lost and gone forever. I'll tell the full story on that one later, too; it's a doozy.
Today is shaping up to be a lazy day with book and notebook by the pool. And I've already spent far too much of it inside the Internet Cafe so I'll sign off now. See you all in a few days.