Thursday, September 17, 2009

More Cruising

What I'm reading: Stalking Susan, by Julie Kramer.

First, welcome to my new followers. Next, I got a notice that "Terry's Place" was selected as one of both the top 100 mystery and romance blogs by The Daily Reviewer. I'm not sure how the selection procedure went, but I'm delighted with the recognition. I notice some familiar names on their site. And I get to display a couple more badges in my sidebar.

Back to cruise notes.

Day Two: The Royal Caribbean's private island, Coco Cay.



We arrived at Coco Cay, although not actually at the island. Rather, we were anchored a short distance away. We decided that we'd go over relatively early, stay through lunch, and then head back for the ship before it was either unbearably hot, or raining.

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Passengers were tendered out, so there was yet another line. You had to show your sea pass to get off the ship and onto the tender. Once on the island, we staked out a couple of lounges and then proceeded onto the Nature Trail,

where hubby even found a couple of species of mushrooms. Lots and lots of hermit crabs, some generously sized iguanas, and birds (which, of course he could identify—little green herons, flycatchers, ground doves, laughing gulls, frigate birds, etc., etc.).





The trail was shaded, which was very nice. It was also uneven, with lots of limestone so we were constantly going up and down, and even though it wasn't really climbing—it was still an up-and-down walk, and we definitely felt it the next day.



We got to the end of the trail, which was supposed to be a mile in length, and then took the road back to the beach. I don't know why I'd thought it was going to be a loop. All in all, we walked for a good 90 minutes, maybe more, although there were many stops to photograph the flora and fauna.










Lunch was some very good 'que, and then we headed back to the ship—or at least to the tenders. There, we once again showed our Sea Passes and our backpack was X-rayed, just in case we'd hooked up with one of the people who works on the island who might have been smuggling anything illegal.

Back at the ship, we again had our Sea Passes scanned (please remove caps and sunglasses so we can tell if you're really the same person we photographed when we issued your pass).

The security procedures might come in handy if I decide to set a book or scene on a cruise ship.

Tomorrow, it's Homicide Hussey again, with Part 2 of last Friday's chapter, "Dying Declaration." I'll be getting ready for our New Year holiday dinner, and then next week it'll be more cruising notes (and pictures) and writing posts.

12 comments:

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Congratulations! And I love your pics...I'm taking a virtual cruise with you!

Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder

Terry Odell said...

Glad you're enjoying them, Elizabeth. The quality on the web isn't all that great, but the general impressions are there.

Mona Risk said...

God, do I love cruises! Terri, you make my mouth water with these pictures. Glad you had a great time.

Anonymous said...

Love cruising - especially now that we're living in the desert. Ack! And now I must look for "Stalking Susan."

Sheila Deeth said...

Oh wow. Your cruise pictures are wonderful! And congratulations on the awards!

Terry Odell said...

Thanks, Mona, Kathy & Sheila. My first ventures into writing were 'travelogues' of our trips for family, although they were letters (no Internet blogs or the like back then). I had an old website with more travel recaps, but it's defunct. I'll have to see if I can find the original files and share some of my other travels.

I do have pictures of my trip to South Africa on my website.

Unknown said...

One day I might get on a cruise myself...glad you had a good time!

Terry Odell said...

Jess, don't you take the ferry to England?

Nancy J. Cohen said...

Nice photos. I love the RCCL private islands, Coco Cay and Labadee. Like you, we usually go early, stay through lunch, browse through the native crafts, and then leave before the tenders get crowded or the rain clouds gather. Makes we want to book another cruise. Right now Princess line is our favorite.

Terry Odell said...

Nancy - Our first cruise was a Princess cruise - Alaska, on the original "Love Boat."

We've also done Holland America.

Great experiences on both of them.

Elena said...

Lovely island - especially enjoyed the idea of being in a place where iguanas wander around. Not sure about the cruise, being out of sight of land lacks in appeal to this person.

Happy New Year, and may the coming year be fill of sweetness.

Terry Odell said...

Thanks, Elena

I'm trying a different plum cake recipe this year -- we'll see how it turns out.