The Bucket Cruise

June 2012:   This year is a milestone year for our friends Srini and Rajiv and we had been talking for a long time in combining our vacations to have a mega vacation.   Ideas bandied about were skiing or a cruise.  Of course the "majority" vote and common sense prevailed, and the cruise won.

The Srikanth couple are in the organizing mood again.  Srikanth sent out a notification that we need to make plans fast as ticket opportunities were drying up.  We immediately had to have dinner (at The Pethes) and decided on the cruise.  A memorable discussion and decision.  Not many discussions between us happen without a lot of laughter.  This was no exception.

Srikanth's bucket list included a cruise from San Juan (eastern caribbean).  Sanjay's bucket list included taking his kids to Louisiana.  Srikanth got his wish as that cruise seemed to be the best deal.  The Singhs had unfortunately set their sites on skiing and so bowed out of the cruise.  We will miss them, but will make sure to involve them as much as possible.

A chai at the Avantsas resulted in flight plans, and an elaborate (albeit necessary) schedule involving us driving to ft lauderde .... In FLORIDA ..... AGAIN to take the flight to San Juan.  Anu will have to fly as we are concerned she won't be able to handle the drive.  However, Sanjay gets to knock off 'drive through Louisiana' off his bucket list.

We'll have to meet to decide on the shore excursions and our packing list etc.  The excitement is on!

August, 2012:  we have come to realize that hotels in San Juan are being lapped up like tickets to the Olympics (well at least the pre-olympics media impression).  So Srikanth's stepped in and made those reservations or us and the Pethe's.  Avantsa's made theirs too...  More excitement to come!

Sep 2012:  school has started.  We are not thinking about cruises now but rather surviving this thing called high school!  This is a long tunnel.  Kudos to all our high schoolers and our middle schooler.  What a ride!  With a senior, a junior, and three freshmen,  high school has become the next challenge to overcome.

Oct 2012:  every weekend seems to have something associated with it.  This being festival season just exacerbates the situation!  We cannot get twelve people in one room together to talk about the cruise!  Finally  we decide to use a spreadsheet (yes THAT word again! Lol).  Sujatha's spreadsheets are needed ....again.

Nov 1st:  that spreadsheet actually became a google form (quite a useful tool).  This is a form that will let all 12 sailors record their trip excursion choices at each port.  This will allow us then to tabulate the most popular choice (and the most economical) and then book the excursions from there.  Srini has opted to tabulate (and lead the get-out-the-vote campaign).  This list of choices took extensive research and whittling down of choices to just 6 things for each port.  This cruise starts in San Juan and then goes to St. Thomas, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Kitts and St. Maarten - quite a packed trip indeed.  The voting begins!  We need to make quite a bit of headway between now and 11/14 when Anu leaves for India.  We then see Srikanth in India as well - until dec 14th! Yikes!   So we are not likely to have all 12 of us get together before the cruise.

Dec 8th - we get together today (sans Srikanth) to bring in my birthday.  Priti and Anu are graciously coming together to make this special for me.  I feel so blessed!  We will hopefully iron out all details and be ready ready ready!  In the meantime Rajiv was very worried that we wouldn't make it to his annual New Year's Eve party.  I promised him that we would do our level best.  This is our incentive to drive back.

There is of course a little trepidation on how this will all go and hopes that the Pethe's Srikanth's and Avantsa's remain friends after the long drives and 7 days in close proximity.  However since this is a cruise we think we can handle it.

Week of dec 17th:  Tickets bought (Sanjay and Srini chipped in and made all that happen!),  excursions decided, packing lists made,  things bought (lots of buying),  snack plans made,  cars readied.... All done with finals week at school too!  What a week!

December 21st:  driving day! Several phone calls later, packing has been done, cars loaded, and we are off!!!  We are driving  through Louisiana with Srikanth driving all girls in a car and the rest of the boys ganged up in the Pethe mobile.  The kids are just exhausted from a brutal finals week and deserve this much needed break.  We can't wait to see Anu tomorrow and be on our way to Puerto Rico (San Juan).  2 days to sailing!

The phrase for this trip is "are you weaving?"  This is a phrase for the anecdotal archives - Prithi (driving the Srikanth mobile) was trying to follow Sanjay (in the Pethe mobile).  We had stopped for dinner as we were stuck in traffic in baton rouge.  Sanjay suggested it would be better to eat while waiting out the traffic than sit in traffic.  Sanjay and Prithi then had us head out of Baton Rouge - and Sanjay was reprimanded for 'weaving'!  He was then reprimanded for not changing lanes while we were on a 2 lane road!  So his response was "I didn't change lanes because you told me not to weave!"

 Here was one of the rest/dinner/gas stops enroute to Florida.  We tended to overwhelm the restaurants pretty much everywhere we went, but enjoyed ourselves too much to let anything bother us!

December 22nd:  6:30 am (local time).  We are in Florida and have been in this state since about 12:30 am (central).  We are about 250 miles away from ft lauderdale - all drivers have had a chance to push us forward.  Srikanth and Srini drive in tandem.  Sanjay took over for the 'boy' car while priti and I (Sujatha) serve as filler drivers in the 'girl' car.  The cars somehow got termed that way and the names stuck.  We are not sure if Sanjay will have the patience to drive tandem with us girls - but we are not going to ask for fear of an honest answer.  

December 22nd pm:  we reached Miami after what seemed like an interminable drive down the Florida turnpike. Sanjay drove faster than his normal so we could get to Miami once we knew Anu had landed. We picked up Anu amongst a lot of excitement and were able to get here to the airport.  Our flight is delayed by an hour.  Everyone is tired and can't wait to get to San Juan and to our hotel room.  The flight to San Juan was eventless - the seating took care of itself.  The girls, as usual sat next to each other and started on our raucous laughter.  Luckily we fell asleep and didn't embarrass our families too much.  Landing in San Juan was pretty as we landed from the ocean. 

  This was our group as we commandeered the airport bus enroute to the Ft. Lauderdale Airport from the car park.... we were such a big group that we filled up the bus!

Once we got to the hotel, we gawked as tourists are so often characterized.  There were women dressed in finery out and about in town.  Heels were a minimum of 6 inches long and dresses barely reached below the derrière - some women pulled off their looks with aplomb.  We were too tired to do anything and so retired for the night much the the disappointment of Sanjay who wanted to go out about town.  

Dec 23rd:  San Juan - boarding day.  We were to meet downstairs at 9 am for bfast.  The Pethe's and Srikanth's made it, and then the Avantsas made it after a little nudge.  As usual our party made a lot of noise at the breakfast table.  We took a taxi to el morro - a fort in San Juan with breathtaking scenery.  The vistas offered plenty of photo taking opportunities that were not to be missed.  The kids were like pirates that found vast bounty and were running around watched by an indulgent Sanjay "the Labrador non-retriever".  We walked to the San cristobal fort and decided to that one as well.  Again the view of the Atlantic going on forever over the horizon highlighted the immense power of nature.  We learned a lot about the history of the area and the different powers that fought for that little piece of 'rich' land.  The kids then decided they HAD to have ice cream.  We then walked the entire length of old San Juan to get to the Ben and Jerry's store.  The ice cream hit the spot.  We had to discuss the driving methods on the island - the cars were built to drive on the right side of the road, but drive on the left!  As we wended our way to the ship to board, we finished up the souvenir shopping as needed - the boys loaded up on the much desired alcohol and then we set to board.  The boarding process was not unlike boarding a flight - we checked in and put our bags through an X-ray machine.  This X-ray machine of course was also used to tag bags that had alcohol in them. 2 of our 4 bags containing alcohol were tagged as luck would have it.  Our entrepreneurial engineers however had other ideas.  They were resourceful and knowledgable enough to cut the tags prior to the alcohol confiscation area and nothing got confiscated!  Once in board, there was still some housekeeping to do.  We had to make sure that the rooms were tied to the right occupants.  This had been mixed up during the booking so that we could take advantage of the Avantsa cruise points earned from their previous cruise to the Caribbean.  We got to the room, and decided that we'd snack, unpack, and then have dinner.  The 'snack' of course turned into dinner.  Kids discovered 'shaan' burgers and pizza and the fun started.  All 6 kids get along with each other in different combinations that we adults did not need to know what they were doing or where they were.  The party on the carnival victory was on!  

 Ready to board the ship... grins spanned from ear to ear :)

Dec 24th - St Thomas (US Virgin Islands). It turns out that this island was just a hop away from Puerto Rico.  That's what we found as we ascended paradise point to see the beautiful scenery from a high vantage point.  As is usual with most Caribbean islands, the place offered many tourist traps, and the sky ride cable car/tram to paradise point was one such trap.  It didn't stop our group from having fun.  The kids even managed to spot an iguana amongst the trees!  we have such nature lovers in our group.  We marveled at the views and were on our way down when as usual the boys (4 younger boys and 2 of the older boys) decided to walk down this steep mountain with its treacherous incline.  They made it in 20 minutes.  I HAD to buy earrings for myself (how could I not!).  I bought an earring with a larimar stone (greenish blue set in silver) - well Srikanth was nice enough to indulge in my earrings whim.  The kids bought themselves some memorabilia as well and we were back on the ship.  We explored the rest of the ship and got ourselves familiar with the layout (making sure most of us knew 'up' from 'down').  We soon discovered the gym and the spa and the steam room and made good use of it all.

There were 5 boats between the 2 docks at St. Thomas.  The carnival victory (our ship) was the first out of our pier.  The incredible piloting skills of the ships captain was made evident at this and several other ports from where we sailed.  These ships moved like they were cars parallel parked on a side street!  In fact I'm not sure that cars could or would be moved with such accuracy.  One wrong move was an accident was waiting to happen.  In the meantime we worked on consuming the 4 bottles taken on the ship!  Not an easy task but completed with aplomb on the last night!

Dec 25th - Christmas Day at sea.  This promised to be a lazy day,  and didn't disappoint - we woke up late, had breakfast, wandered around, used the facilities to the best of our abilities.  We caught a christmas show in the afternoon much to Priti's delight.  She felt the ship was bereft of christmas spirit as there was no service or mass offered for christmas.  The show did the trick.  This was also the first formal captains dinner day and we had to have photo sessions with different combinations of people and families.  With the number of cameras in our group and the number of photos in each camera, we probably would have at least 5000 pictures - a conservative estimate.  The cruise also had a 'song and dance' show every night and we caught the first of many.  The victory dancers are incredibly athletic to be able to dance gracefully in a moving ship.

Wednesday dec 26th - Bridgetown - Barbados:  we docked early in the morning and decided to relax on getting out of the ship.  The 6 kids, Srikanth and Pethe had a snorkeling excursion arranged.  We debarked in time for the excursion.  Snorkeling was not the preferred activity for the 4 remaining adults and so the rest of us were just going to check out the town.  This also worked out really well as Anu sprained her neck.  She had gotten out of bed in haste to check up on Mihir and missed a step.  Ouch!  So she needed to be back for a spa appointment for a massage with a physical therapist at 3pm.  

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), Boxing Day is a holiday in the commonwealth and so the Barbadian shops were closed - all but one.  Our cab driver dropped us off at the store in downtown Bridgetown.  This was the first of a series of pictures with Anu, Priti, and moi.  Anu, not used to being the subject of so many pictures was quite amazed at the speed at which srini's camera was whipped out.  We saw some dates on trees that were then photographed and the photo called "guchcha" (or bunch in Hindi) was born.

"Guchcha!"

The snorkeling party had a lot of fun too.  They did spot some turtles and lots of fish (some claimed spotting quite a few species including a needle nosed fish).  We had planned it such that we had a heavy breakfast  and were not going to buy food outside the ship.  Lunch 'snack' was going to be only when we returned.  We of course made full use of the dessert station and tried out each and every sweet dish offered with a full running commentary on the quality of each dish.

Thursday December 27th - St. Lucia:  the approach to this island is mesmerizing in its beauty and will remain in my mind for a long time indeed.  We docked at Castries - their capital.  We hadn't booked an excursion and so went outside the terminal ready to bargain with cab drivers.  As luck would have it, the men were able to book a sightseeing tour where we had an entire 15-seater bus to ourselves!  Our driver Mervin Arthur was extremely knowledgeable and patiently answered our umpteen questions with a smile.  We decided that islanders (carib-indians) had the best attitude about life and were so friendly that we couldn't help but be friendly back.  We also loved his carib accent and started to imitate his speaking style!

 Some of us at the sulfur springs.

St. Lucia is a gorgeous island with quaint villages and mountains.  We could not book the zipping excursion here and it worked out really well.  We got to see the Pitons and the soufrierre caldera (a volcano erupted and caved in creating the natural sulfur springs).  The smell of rotting eggs made us sure that the hydrogen sulfide was not toxic.  We also got to a natural waterfall and the kids (and big kid - Sanjay) had a blast swimming in the pool with the waterfall.  Coming back to the ship, Sanjay instigated a huge debate among some of the kids that were awake about global warming -  it was very interesting to listen to these issues from the kids' point of view.  They are so earnest in their presentation of their points they forget that they are being teased sometimes.  

This was another captains dinner night and we were back to dressing up in our finery.  We also managed to get some pictures of the sunset as we left port, on top of getting pictures dressed up.  The cruise dinners were marvelous and the serving staff assigned to our table obliged by offering to bring indian food everyday - something different. Priti and Anu drooled over the possibilities - from goanese fish to chicken tikka to biriyani the food was abundant.  We found ourselves ordering more than one starter, sometimes more than one entree.  The dinner desserts were heavenly.  The Avantsa's and Srikanth's managed to collect 6 liqueur glasses in all this excitement.

Friday dec 28th - St Kitts:  this seems to be the island that made its mark on most of the group - the kids and 2 dads went zip lining and had a blast.  There were plenty of photos of the zip liners as they flew over the tree tops of the rain forest.  This was a wonderful trip for the rest if the adults as well - we got to meet 'Dijon' at Bassatierre (the capital of this caribbean island).  His favorite word being 'ni-ice' with a head nod became the group mantra whenever something 'nice' was said.  We took a bus drive to a train station and took an old fashioned train ride full with an ACapella choir and an open top for an idyllic rides around the island where we got to try some of the local fare (coconut cake - which is not very unlike the coconut barfi).  The 2 hour ride in this quaint narrow-guage train (built in 1919) offered oodles of picture taking opportunities and didn't feel like two hours at all.  Too soon we were enroute to the ship and were dropped off at the pier where we could shop to our hearts content.  The other party also connected with us.  The Avantsa's fell prey to the shopping bug and bought a few 'nick-nacks' - Priti got a jewelry set made with garnets and citrine surrounded by white sapphires and strung in italian rubber.  Srini claimed this is Priti's bday as well as anniversary present.  He was shot down on the anniversary but could get away with not having to make a birthday purchase.  Srikanth bought himself a much needed watch as his old one bought 20 years back finally gave up. St. Kitts will not be forgotten easily!  Although this seemed to be one of the  poorer islands it was rich with people who had pride in their culture.  Their cricketing and football mania was evident in the space and importance given to these sports over all of the West Indian islands.  The island had 40000 inhabitants (and 80000 monkeys) and we seem to have seen a of them in the excursion!

The three "musketeers" on the train ride.

This night we adults stayed up late over coffee and chatted into the night.  One of the discussions was future trips and we are still friends with each other enough to want to go on future trips with each other - perhaps even more cruises.

Saturday Dec 29th - St. Maarten:  At first this seemed to be just another island in the Caribbean until we started looking around.  This was an island with beautiful homes and vistas.  We went on a coastline hike along goat paths over the mountains that overlooked the ocean.  We got to enjoy the scenery while marveling at the piece of paradise. This would be a great place to retire - although expensive compared to the other islands we visited.  The houses were MUCH more expensive.  However we have now tasked the kids with earning enough to afford houses here.  What a thought!  Tourism is the mainstay of the island and they put a lot of effort into the service industry.  The kids went to the beach and had a great time before we broke up and went back to the ship for the last night on the ship.

Our table team... such a happy bunch!

Dinner was fun as our staff put up a show like each day's show for us.  The kids had made thank you cards for each one of them and gave them the cards much to the delight of Wayan (our room steward), Aryana, Widiastra, and Chukiat (our serving staff) and Imade (our drink steward).  I think they were touched.  They really got to know not just our names but our likes and dislikes in short while and catered to our demands.  

We tried to pack as much as we could so that we egress smoothly from the ship.  Our baggage had to be outside the room by 11pm so that we did not need to lug it the next morning.  We had to be out of our room by 8:30 but could not leave the ship until our luggage tag number was called.  The mood got a bit somber as everything was coming to an end.  We had had a wonderful 7 days on the Victory and were very pleased with our vacation and especially with the fact that we had very little to dislike about the whole trip.  We got to learn each others strengths and quirks and learnt to look past our idiosyncrasies.  What a close group we have become.  Rajiv and Susan would have really enjoyed this too.

Sunset over the beautiful Caribbean - Goodbye cruise!

Sunday December 30th - the start of the return journey.  We retraced our steps and reminisced on the wonderful times we had getting into the airport and then the cruise ship.  Our tag numbers were called at around 10:15 and by the time we got out and got to the airport it was about 11.30 or so.  We got delayed slightly at the security check point because of Suvedh's bag.  His bag had his laser etched glass cube collections from the islands, and must have shown up as something sinister in the X-ray machine.  They put his bag twice through the machine and still couldn't figure these out and so wanted to open and check his bag.  They then proceeded to remove the 4 cubes he bought and then pass them through the X-ray separately! We finally got to the gate and were as to start connecting back to civilization and checking emails etc.  We were getting mentally prepared for the 22 hour car ride back to civilization.

The men being the champion drivers they are have driven in record time - 1208 miles in just under 20 hours (we made up an hour due to the time difference - but who's counting!).  Are we all still close friends???  You bet!!!  Closer than before ;) :)

Thank you for reading.