One of the best parts of the cruise for both Nardine and I were the couples with who we sat during dinner, who as you would have already figured out we had the pleasure of meeting twice! We were very fortunate to be seated with four couples that were easy to get along with and had the same attitude towards the cruise as we did (party often, sleep in late). We ended up spending not just the evenings together but also a lot of the time in the ports as well. As they were such a large part of our cruise, I think it important to introduce them to you:
Perry and Des
Hailing from Manchester, UK, Perry and Des blew the British stereotype out of the water. Perry’s background as an ex-body building, Camero driving Man U hooligan and Des’s job as hair stylist to the Queen made for a couple who you wanted around all the time (especially if you were about to get in a fight with a fashion challenged mob). Unfortunately Perry had terrible judgment when it came to buying quality jewelery and ended up spending a lot of money on a fake Brietling watch, requiring him to work as a room steward for the last part of the cruise (man could make a mean towel animal though!)
Dan and Vicky
Also calling Manchester their home, Dan and Vicky claimed to be famous international figure skaters. However we were later to learn that they were private eyes hired by Perry and Des’s children to ensure that to much of the inheritance was not squandered during the voyage. Dan and Vicky were so committed to maintaining their cover that they even went as far to fake their own wedding during our port visit in St. Thomas. The gig was up though when they confessed their actual identities following one to many bottles of champagne.
Travis and Beth
Also claiming to be recently married and on their honeymoon, the bulk of the table actually suspected that Travis and Beth were really vampires. Proof you ask? They were never spotted between 7am and 8pm, neither were even slightly tanned after 12 days in the Caribbean and they were from the state of Pennsylvania which sounds an awful lot like Transylvania. This theory was almost proved false when Travis and Beth made a rare midday appearance at the wedding but closer study of the photos revealed that they were actors hired to play the “newlyweds”.
Scott and Paula
The other two Canadians at the table, Scott and Paula are from Kingston, Ont but spend most of their time in Las Vegas where they work as a lounge singer and showgirl. With jobs like that it was tough to get Scott up on stage during karaoke night, since who wants to bring your work on vacation, but after considerable pressure from the rest of the table we were able to coax him into a song on the last night. Scott and Paula also obviously owned stock in Anheuser Busch as they did their best to promote the products whenever they could by always having a Bud Lite in hand, pretty smart if you ask me.
As you can see, with a group as interesting as this it would have been impossible to have a bad time. Every night at 8:30pm we would all sit down together for a two hour, four course meal served by our waiters Sayed and Jose and wouldn’t stop talking and laughing the whole time. When we take our next cruise we can only hope to have table mates as good as these guys.
Ok, back to the cruise. The next two days were entirely at sea as we headed south towards the Caribbean. By 3pm on day two I was sun tanning on our deck and by day three we were eating breakfast on the patio and lounging by the pool getting sunburned. I even managed to take advantage of the fitness center, something I estrange myself from during the latter days of the cruise. Finally halfway through day four the island of St. Maarten pulled into sight and our Caribbean cruise was officially in full swing.
The exciting part of St. Maarten for us was the fact that Linda and Barry Williams were there on vacation and we had made plans to hook up for the day. Unfortunately Linda and Barry decided to stand us up. Well, let me explain further. Our plan was to meet by the security gate to the cruise port and after an hour of waiting, Nardine and I were starting to feel like the ugly girl on prom night. It was then that Nardine started to talk to another cruising couple who informed us that there was a second security gate about 500m up the road. Sure enough, there was Linda and Barry who were starting to seriously believe that we had stood them up. Second security gate – who knew!?! Thankfully Barry had adequately stocked his car and a couple of local beers while driving to Maho beach made us forget the whole debacle.
Maho beach – the place where planes, and I mean big planes, literally pass just feet above your head as they come in for landing or blow you over as they take off. This was the one place that I definitely wanted to check out and I wasn’t disappointed. It was also my and Nardine’s first chance to swim in the Caribbean which compared to the Atlantic back home was spectacular. Following the beach, Barry and Linda took us on a tour of the French side of the island and then we headed to the town of Grand Case for a little shopping and dinner on the beach at this great restaurant called La California. Getting to spend the day with Linda and Barry definitely made our cruise all that more special, however knowing that they would still be enjoying the sunny south long after we had returned to freezing Halifax did make us somewhat jealous!