Cienfuegos, Cuba

Again we are the only ship scheduled for today's port. Being Canadian, even though we have always been able to freely travel to Cuba, we never have. Wendy and I always felt it would be worse than Mexico food-wise and we don't like traveling to places where the people look upon you as rich, fat pigs as I'm sure we appear to them. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the one day stop to find out if I was right. Unfortunately HAL won't let anybody off the ship unless they have a ship-bought excursion so we'll see. I read on line that many Canadians are grumbling about being grouped as American, when we have no such restrictions. Oh well, only 1 port for one day.

Castillo de Jagua, an 18th-century fortress.

Galeria Santiago Hermes
Ave 62 # entre calle 45 y 47, Cienfuegos 55100, Cuba

Cienfuegos is a city on Bahía de Cienfuegos, a bay on Cuba’s south coast. It's known for its colonial-era buildings.  The Provincial Museum explores the city’s colonial history. The Arco de Triunfo commemorates Cuban independence

On the central square, called Parque José Martí, Tomás Terry Theater has gold-leaf mosaics and ceiling frescoes.

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Grand Cayman Island

Better than perfect!

Today we tender in to Grand Cayman Island. We are scheduled to anchor off shore with two other ships:

5500 Total Passengers    Rotterdam, Veendam, Celebrity Edge
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At Sea

Sea days are made for relaxing and doing nothing except pig out and enjoy the view.
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Half Moon Cay, (Little San Salvador Island) Bahamas

It would appear from CruiseTT, we are the only ship scheduled to be here today, so the total passenger loading is our 1266 on our little ship, the Veendam.
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Nassau in the Bahamas

Too cool for the beach. Cloudy, 70F so we just wandered around the tourist traps.

Two other ships are scheduled to tie up in Nassau today:
Total Passengers 7766    Disney Wonder, Veendam, Disney Dream

Click on the map to enlarge it, or visit Google CLICK HERE

Senior Frog didn't have wifi so we pressed on to a bar called "Exagon".
We never did make it to the beach as shown but ended up at a bar half way there.

Cool dude flirting with Louise.

I don't usually drink beer but when I do... I drink it with Mark!

Good friends, great stories...  Abi and Cliff from Cape Cod.

Good times.

MORE PICS TO FOLLOW. Please come back soon.
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Veendam, Embarkation Day.

Jet Blue out of Buffalo at 7:33 am and we are in Fort Lauderdale before 11:00.

Air fares seldom drop as time goes by so we booked at the same time as the cruise. We gambled that snow wouldn't hit Buffalo on Dec. 10  We are flying in the day of the cruise departure, and fly home 3 days before Christmas Eve so I figured any price is better than no flight. I think we did OK with Jet Blue (I use SkyScanner.com to search) given the proximity to the holiday. $85 ea down and $217 ea. back USD.

It's always exciting to get on a ship.

Off to Buffalo and the Millennium Hotel.

It's always a treat to stay at our favourite Buffalo hotel, the Millennium. We lucked out with a deluxe king room and up to 15 days of parking for $99USD.

And since the Chicken Wing as we know it was invented in Buffalo, I traditionally order them when I'm here.

Everything went fine on the drive down. The weather was clear and sunny and we arrived as planned. The wings were excellent but the draft beer jumped from $2 to $5 a glass USD. That's $6.50 CAD. SAME AS CANADA.  Pity!

Shopping was always good with the Galleria mall on-site and now I see from my 7th floor window there's a Cabela's across the street.  Too late now to go and check it out.
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I Have The Proof... Turkeys Can Fly!

This big turkey hen has been lurking around our back yard for the past few months and she has been getting bolder and bolder. Right near the back window. We've yet to see a male.



Best viewed full-screen. It's in HD.

 Today I actually shot a movie (through the window) of the big bird posing then flying away.
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We Smell A Rat. Something Died In There!

Murphy's Law says that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. This rings especially true just when you are getting ready to go away. WHAT IS THAT HORRIBLE SMELL? How can you leave on a cruise with the smell of a dead animal wafting through the house?

Our old GE washer and gas dryer pair is over 20 years old but they both just keep on going. (with a little help) It's almost comical. Seems like every time we plan an escape, we have some home catastrophe or appliance issue to deal with. Our son Tim says "Why don't you just buy new appliances?" But this event had nothing to do with the age or condition of the machines.

No sign of anything but the vent pipe needed vacuuming anyway and it is a nice day for working outside.

Wendy couldn't leave anything in the dryer or it would take on the horrendous odour.

The critter obviously came in through the flapper on the dryer outlet and fell to the basement and ended up in the fan of the dryer. It couldn't escape, so it died in there. Glad we found it!

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Bucket List? Rumple Trump...

My animated "Artoon" for today. The best hair money can buy. I'm just jealous I guess.
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Erin Is Off To Japan.

Our daughter Erin and her friends Dawn and Trina are on a 13 hour flight to Tokyo for a week-and-a half vacation, returning December 11.

Position at 6pm our time. Flight AC0001 left Toronto at 1:30 pm.

Ja ne mata ne (See you later) young ladies!

 Aircraft Type
Boeing 777-300ER (twin-jet) (B77W)
Air Canada

Speed
895 km/h (Planned: 915 km/h)

Altitude
9,150 m (Planned: 9,150 m)

Distance
Planned: 10,595 km (Direct: 10,358 km)

Remember when we used to have to wait until the person returned home to see the pictures?

I was surprised the flew over Alaska to get to Japan but it's always nicer to be over land in an airplane I guess.

I'll try to post more as I receive them.
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