CocoCay

It's a beautiful day in CocoCay. That's O.K. with me...
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Hello everyone, a lot has happened since my last entry. We embarked on the very spacious and beautiful cruise ship "Mariner off the seas on January 4, 2009 and visited many exiting ports of calls. First stop was on a small island in the Caribean called  Cococay. It is 0wned by Royal Caribbean cruise line and it was very nice because only ones there were cruisers and employees of the cruise line. We spent most of the day exploring the park and snorkling and just laying on the beach. There are a few shops on the island but everything is very expansive and nothing that we really needed.  We headed for the ship early because we did not want to miss the mini putt tournament.  Yeah! we rapidly gainned a reputation of being very competitive when it came to games and winning tokens exchangeable for gifts. And this ship offered many opportunities. Each morning the ship's newsletter the "Compass" informed us of what activities were available. Not all activities were awarded tokens and not all were free. Some you only received medals and we would still participate because they were fun. Climbing the wall was free but you did not get anything for your hard work just bragging rights I guess because a lot tried and failed. I had never tried it before so one day I asked Ian if he would climb it with me. I was unsure if I could make it to the top as I expected it required a lot of upper body strenght which I did not think I had enough off since I tried doing chin ups and only succeeded in doing two but I had been eyeballing that wall like it was a portal to a forbidened world only accessable by a chosen few since day one. So we got all harnessed in and proceeded to escalate this man made vertical tormentor. We started at the same time on a different colour. Colours represent a different level of difficulty. It was not meant to be a race but being naturally competitive we both knew it was on...Ian bolted up from the ground to almost half a body lenght ahead of me and without difficulty as he is much taller than I but this only served to increase my desire to awakened that bell and half the people on the ship. With renewed vigor I reached with my right hand as far as I could and grabbed a peg pulling with all my might as I hoisted my left leg my knee almost to my chin, my mind flashes to a scene in Spiderman where he is scurrying up the side of a building crab like and in the time it takes for a neuron to fire I had the technique down spidy style.  Two feet from the bell I could not believe what I was hearing so I literally stopped and directed all my attention in Ian's direction.  He was dangling about 3 feet from the bell requesting to be let down. Assistants always encourage you to keep going and not to give up so next I heard Lester yell "keep going Ian, you're almost there" and Ian replying "no,no, let me down now". I was hot and sore but way too close to my goal to give up. It would have taken a natural dissaster like a hurricane or tornado to keep me from that bell especially now that my opponent had bailled...One last kick and I grabbed the bell rope and rang it like I was calling people from the next port in to join us for dinner then I was slowly lowered to the ground where Ian was removing his gear. I asked if he had equipment problem and he said he just panicked and would try again tomorrow and high fived and hugged me for succeeding.  The following day he tried my colour and made it up to the top easily and I tried his colour and made it up as well. He also climbed two other levels since then without any problems. He says he cannot explain it but he just panicked for some reason...Anyway, that is our climbing wall experience.

CocoCay Bahamas
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While I'm on the subject of the ship I may as well point out that there are plenty of activities to keep you occupied should you get tired of eating and lounging around. Our friends from Texas we met on the ship call it slothing. Outside (on deck) activities include: Mini golf;Inline skating track;walking track;Golf similator driving range;Rock Climbing wall;Basketball court;(where we also play volley ball, soccer,dodgeball and ball hockey)and Shuffleboard areas as well. There are 2 family pools and one for adults only. 4 outside hottubs and one big one in the fitness center.  There are also 2 tanning decks. Inside you have an ice rink where you can skate and where ice shows are viewed, a movie theatre, a huge entertainment theatre, an arcade, a casino, a card and boardroom, a conference center where siminars are held which we really love because they are really informative. There is also a huge gym with all the latest equipment, a steam room, and a sauna. There are also always plenty of non physical activities to stimulate your mind such as the daily trivia bowl and nightly finish that lyric, and 18 different bars to go to if you want to forget you have a mind. Our favorite is the Diamond members bar because booze is free free free...And, no we are not diamond members but we have really really nice diamond member friends...So lets leave it at that. And , p.s. We don't drink more, just because it is free contrary to popular beliefs...We actually only gone about 5 times in all.

Stops were fun but being on the ship was far from boring...