Cruise Report!

Finally got back home, 2am this morning. My Honeymoon Cruise (albeit 8 months later) was awesome, and if you feel like reading here are the highlights of what happened... I'll probably edit throught the week and add pictures later, don't really feel like typing out a novel.

Day 1 - San Juan Puerto Rico
Flight at 645am via US Airways with a connection in Philadelphia. Got to Philadelphia and hopped aboard my next flight. Delayed 3 hours sitting on the plane!!! First it was a computer problem, then after we pulled on the runaway they said the pilot's cabin door would not lock. Stupid terrorists, stupid us airways. Arrived in San Juan, boarded the ship: Royal Caribbean - Adventure of the Seas. Didn't do too much, was tired. Played at the Casino, they had 1 poker table. 5/10 limit. No foldem, played an hr, made like $5.

Day 2 - St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands
Shopping during the day, and Koki beach in the afternoon. Probably the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. Water was crystal clear, drop a pin and you can find it no problem. Beautiful and friendly island. Poker play that night netted me $65 or so.

Day 3 - St. Maarten
Same thing shopping through the day, beach early afternoon, casino late afternoon. Right off the dock, place looked like disneyworld, all colourful. Picked up some Guavaberry rum. Only made in St. Maarten. Guavaberry Colada was simply delicious. Maho beach is the coolest beach experience you might ever find. Beach is located right in front of the airport. As planes land, the land right directly above you! And I"m not talking about just dinky little planes either, were talking 747s. The worst though was the take off. For some reason we decided to camp out right below the flight line. When the big plane took off, so did all our stuff on the beach! A buddy that we made on that trip also got attacked by a barracuda. Cool shit, though I didn't see it. Casino Royale was small but nice. Poker room did not open until 9pm. So played BJ with some high roller betting $500/hand. I was betting $10. Looked funny. No poker play that night.

Day 4 - Antigua
Little small island, not much to do. Went to the beach and rented a jet ski. Didn't wipe out, though I sorted wanted to. Did some crazy stuff, but not pushing it as hard as I could of. On the beach found a lizard and got it to crawl up my arm and chill on my back for a while. +25 from poker that night.

Day 5 - St. Lucia
Woke up early in the morning to go Deep Sea Fishing. Was so hyped. 4 hours later came back with absolutely nothing. Not a single fish for the boat. What a bummer, ended up costing $135 for 1 beer, 1 coke, 1 sprite, and a boat ride. Saw some seagulls though! Decided to tryout some Bingo. We won our 1st card after 6 numbers were called! $100. Expensive $35 package though. Did a rock climb on the ship, man was that hard. Still made it too the top, but was exhausted afterwards.

Day 6 - Barbados
Great, we arrive and find out its a national holiday. Pretty much everything is closed. Greedy taxi drivers there, try to rip you off. Boatyard beach was sweet. Did a glass botton boat ride / snorkel thing. Same some sunken ships, some fish, and some sea turtles. Wanted to swim with sea turtles, but the excursion was fully booked. Poker play that night +$80. Bingo for a cruise that night, not even close to winning.

Day 7 - Sea Day
Finally checked out the pool on the last day! Small ones, I expected some large connecting pools. Salt water too. Pretty much suntanned throughout the day. Bingo that night was the final guaranteed jackpot, $3800. We got to 1 number to go, but the guy next to us won instead. Baaad poker night, -$200.

Day 8 - Travel Day back home
Biggest waste of a day that I've ever had. Woke up at 8am. Lined up to get out of the boat, lined up at the airport. San Juan airport only has 1 gate that everybody passes though! Our flight to Philadelphia though stupid US Airways was supposed to be at 2:30, boarding at 1:50. 1:50 passes by, nothing. I line up at the desk. 2:30 comes, nothing. I get to the front of the line. WTF happened to my plane. "Sir your flight was cancelled". WTF!!! No annoucements, board still says On Time! Ended up taking a flight through Charlotte, and got hope a bit before 2am. 3 hrs later than I was supposed to. And I still don't know where my friggen luggage is!!!!

Food & Drinks
Food was pretty good. If you ate on the ship, standard buffet breakfasts and lunches. Dinner was where it was at. Ate plentiful starters, steaks galore, and pigged out on the lobster tails. Didn't get wasted on the trip. Drinks were crazy strong. Drank a lot of girlie drinks. Tried a national beer on each island. Carib was good, so was the Barbados one, Pitan brand was ok. Brought home a lot of hot sauce and a bunch of jerk sauce. Plus a 1L bottle of Mount Gay (hehe) rum for $8. Alcohol was dirt cheap, but didn't want to carry too much back. We can't bring back too much anyways. Also a carton of Marlies for $12, sweet. Only polished off 1 pack though (social smoker).

Poker
As you can imagine poker play was no foldem holdem. 1 7man table, waiting list everyday. Longest I waited was 1 hr. I was one of the only ones raising preflop. Only a couple of other decent players, and tells galore. Though it was a bit tougher playing against several Deaf players that made up a large group on the ship. My best hand was quad Qs, which got called down. Worst hand I saw was..
Raise, reraise, call, blinds fold.
Flop AA6
Bet, raise, call, call.
Turn 3.
Bet, raise, call, call.
River 4.
Check, bet, call, call.

Original preflop raiser had QQ, reraiser had AK, Caller had 75o. Ugly ugly stuff.

Biggest pot I saw was when quad 10s beat a fullhouse and a doofus thinking 2 pair was good. Capped at turn and river.

On my last day, kept loosing to the same garbage, 2 pairs, and aggressively playing strong draws that never hit. Won 2.5 hands in 2 hrs.

Conclusion
Awesome trip. Everybody should tryout a cruise if they haven't already. Didn't get seasick at all, felt it a little the first day, but fine every day after. Took that Bonimine stuff, worked like a charm. Sea days stink, beaches rule. Could like there all day. Especially at Koki beach, where even they take your food order for you while lying on your chair. Spent around $7k for the whole trip, so was pretty pricy, but definately worth it. Gratuities kill ya, automatic 15% plus also a line on each receipt that says "Additional Tip". Will more than likely do another cruise in a few years, thats if I don't win a poker cruise trip first!