I love adventure! I’m an adventurer! I love to travel!  Car, boat, or plane! The method doesn’t matter (well, maybe it does! I’m not so sure I would have liked to travel like they traveled back in biblical time… on donkey or foot!)  God blessed me with an adventurous sister!  My sister and I have been on five cruises!

There is a company called “Special Needs at Sea” and it is really awesome!  You tell them the dates of your cruise, tell them what you need (for example, I’ve gotten scooters and a shower chair) tell them the name of the ship and they will have it there, waiting in your room when you come aboard!  Once, my very good friend went with us and she also needed a scooter.  We had so much fun going around the ship together on our scooters! 

Our cruises have all been on Royal Caribbean. We’ve always been impressed with the cruise staff!  Cruising is very nice.  While you’re out having fun, the cruise staff is hard at work, cleaning your room and making your beds.  Don’t be surprised to come back to your room and find a little animal!  The cruise staff make animals out of the towels in your room!  They are very cute and done so well!  It leaves you wondering how they learn to make them!  Do you have to go to towel animal making 101? Could I get my associate, bachelor, masters or P.H.D. in animal towel making? 

There are two things I love to do on vacation, eat good food and be around a lot of people! You could eat 24/7on a cruise!  The food is TOTALLY  AWESOME! On a cruise, (I’m talking strictly about the Royal Caribbean cruise line; it’s the only cruise line I’ve ever been on!) for supper, if you go to the main dining room, you usually sit in the same area and have the same waiter.  On this one particular cruise, we had a wonderful waiter! I think I remember his name being Sergei.  He was very attentive to me.  I think I remember him laying my napkin on my lap, cleaning up my area between courses and every night he would cut my meat for me!  It was like having my own personal waiter! We did a lot of joking around together. 

My sister and I fell in love with a dessert called Chocolate Lava Cake! It’s chocolate cake with chocolate sauce in the middle.  It’s the kind of dessert that you gain ten pounds just by looking at it! 

There’s a more casual dining room called the Wind Jammer.  It’s set up buffet style.  It has everything you could ever want!  I have to say it again, the food is TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!  I’m just warning you, be prepared to come home 5-10 pounds heavier than when you left but, believe me, it’s TOTALLY WORTH IT!  (I hope there are no doctors, especially cardiologists who are reading this blog post!) ha,ha,ha

Another aspect of cruising I like is the people!  I like vacationing in heavily populated areas!  First, I would like to commend the whole cruise staff on the great job they do.  I’ve never seen any of them on their cell phones or lazing around.  Whenever you see a crew member, they are always working really hard.  They go to bed late and wake up very early!  You just know they have to be totally exhausted, but they still remain very nice, helpful and pleasant! So, I would like to say KUDOS, KUDOS AND MORE KUDOS, to any and all Royal Caribbean staff members who may be reading this!  Great job and keep it up! 

We have met some really nice fellow cruisers! Last fall, we went on a cruise and met a group of four lovely women!  They were all totally awesome and nice! We never really knew their names. But the first time we met them I said, “hey, hey, hey”.  You wouldn’t  think so but, even on a big ship you keep running into the same people over and over again! Every time we would run into our lady friends, we would say altogether, “hey, hey, hey” and joke around! The last night aboard the ship we all watched a movie together! 

Before you even get aboard, you can sign up for excursions for when the ship is “in dock.”  There are a lot of adventurous, fun and wild excursions you can pick from!  My sister and I went swimming with dolphins; it was really exciting and fun! We’ve been on a submarine type boat and went along the bottom of whatever body of water it was (I’m not sure!).  It was really interesting  and neat to see!  We’ve gone to some beautiful beaches for fun in the sun!  Once, when we were at a beach, we discovered snorkeling.  We discovered it a little too late, we only had five or ten minutes to do it before we had to leave to go back to the ship!  It was really awesome and cool to be swimming with fish you normally only get to see in an aquarium!  I really like to snorkel even if I don’t do it right! (my mask keeps filling up with water!) When we are  “in dock” without an excursion to go on, we can always do a couple of my favorite things (Julia Andrew’s favorite things are raindrops on roses) mine are eating and shopping! 

Last fall my sister  and I went on our fifth cruise!  I told my sister that there were two things I wanted to do aboard the ship, get in the pool and get in the hot tub! I really have difficulty walking now! I can’t lift up my feet to walk or I’m afraid I’ll just crumble to the ground! My sister called and asked about lifts to assist people getting into the pool. She was told there was a lift for the pool and a lift that would allow me entrance into one of the hot tubs! PERFECT, right?  We were all set! WELL… you would think so but…  The first day we were aboard we went exploring our new home for the next five days, the big, gorgeous ship!  Please don’t feel bad for us, we all have to suffer a little bit sometimes! ha ha ha ha.  Guess what we had to check out first? You’re exactly right if you guessed the pool and hot tub area! Well, this may come as a big shock to you but we didn’t see one lift at either the pool or one of the four hot tubs! Imagine that! We went to ask the woman at the guest relations desk about our expected lifts and she told us that they were both broken! (I can just hear Gomer Pyle saying well, surprise, surprise, surprise!  Remember, him saying that?)

I still was bound and determined to get into both every day! Broken lifts weren’t gonna stop me! My sister would get the lifeguard to help us get into the pool or hot tub!  People would see us struggling and come to our rescue and help!  Please allow me to try to do the best I can via typing and a blog to do another one of my favorite things… dramatic acting!  I will do the best I can to type this so that you can literally see me acting out this drama!  Imagine me standing, my hand on my forehead (palm facing out) and in a real pathetic high-pitched voice I would say “Oh, help me, help me.  I’m just a poor damsel, I can hardly walk, and I desperately NEED (not want) but NEED to get into the hot tub!  ha ha ha ha  Now, I’m back to reality (thank you for putting up with my dipping into some dramatic acting!) 

I would now like to tell you a funny story!  After this story, you’ll see why I got to think that having both lifts broken down wasn’t so bad after all!  One day, there was a “Sexiest Man on Ship” contest.  A couple of days later guess who was helping me out of the pool? If you guessed Fred Flintstone, you’re totally wrong! I’ll give you two clues! 

1.  He was on the ship! 
2.  He was in the “Sexiest Man on Ship” contest and WON! 

If you’re still clueless (I HOPE NOT) let me help you out a little! A Couple days later, yep, the man who won the “Sexiest Man on Ship “ contest was walking behind me, holding onto my gait belt and helping me out of the pool! He had on a cowboy hat, so I secretly (don’t worry I never called him this to his face!) nicknamed him Cowboy! 

My friend introduced me to Pina Coladas.  It was love at first sip!  My sister would try mine, but we quickly discovered they’re too good to share ( I want to tell all of you and the pastoral staff at my church, they’re the NON-ALCHOLIC Pina Coladas!)  My sister and I wised up; now we each have our own Pina Colada!  THEY ARE SOOOOO GOOD! 

In conclusion, I would like to say that if you like people, people, people and action, action, action…  cruising just might be for you! I also encourage you not to be afraid to ask for or look like you need help!  You will be depriving yourself of some great times and great memories for story telling!