Welcome Joseph James Badaglia!!

Joey arrived at 9:36 PM on August 6, 2010. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 11 oz. Everyone is doing well.

Congratulations James and Megan!!

Cruise Wrap Up...

We're onboard AirTran 374, headed back home to Columbus. Travel this morning has been pretty easy. We had an early flight and decided to skip the RCCL bus and the taxi's...opting for a town-car transfer back to the Orlando airport. It's a little more than a taxi, but COMPLETELY WORTH IT! The trip to the airport was smooth, easy and comfortable. We used a company called Access Line Transportation. Definitely recommend it, and would use them again.

This was our 7th voyage with Royal Caribbean. We still like RCCL, but learned a few things on this trip.

1. We tried the late dinner seating, but prefer the early one.
2. Always, always check your table location. Crown and Anchor membership and 6 previous trips doesn't mean crap to Royal Caribbean. They'll still stick you in the back corner of the dining room and forget about you.
3. Make sure you check your sea pass account for 'mini bar' charges. They'll charge you for stuff that you didn't use. I mean seriously, who buys snacks from a mini bar when they're on a cruise where food is available 24 hours a day?!
4. Try the Mango Mai Tai - several times a day.
5. Spends lots of time at Vintages Wine Bar (Thanks Scott!)
6. Count on your Captain to find sun in questionable weather...ours really came through on this one!

Overall, a really good vacation though. We're rested and relaxed.

P.S. DD - We learned some new dance steps on the cruise that we may have to show you...

Day 4 - Sint Maarten (Saint Marten for you frenchies,no?)

So, we had a really tight schedule in Sint Maarten.

We started the day with a water taxi ride from the pier to downtown so we could do a little shopping. We only had 90 minutes though, because we had to be back to the ship in time for our afternoon beach break adventure. The shopping was interesting - the locals trying to guide people into specific stores were more assertive than I remember from our previous trip. We were mostly unsuccessful in our search, and didn't buy much. That may have been because it was early in the day. I couldn't even find Scott's Carib lady.

Our 90 minutes were almost up and we needed to get back to the ship - we also need to hit the head. We determined the best plan for finding a clean bathroom was to visit one of the bars. So we stopped for a Heineken and a mojito. Only we didn't get a mojito, we got something similar. I was planning to post the recipe here, but have decided to file it away in case we need it as our entry into the KenMar Drink Contest this summer. Just know that it is AWESOME and the other drink contest teams better look out! All in all, a really good bathroom stop!

Next up - Afternoon Beach Break. We made like a bread truck and hustled our buns back to the ship. We had about 20 minutes to change, slather on some sun screen and get down to the dock so we wouldn't be late. Then, we got to stand on the hot concrete dock for another 20 minutes waiting for our ship mates who were not as prompt.

At the end of our 20 minute bus ride, we were on the French side of the island enjouing a beautiful beach, crystal clear water and all the rum punch we could drink. Most importantly - no iguanas! On this point, Susan was a little disappointed. She was really quite take with the little buggers.

Back at the pier, we made one final stop at a shop called Little Switzerland. I wanted one last chance to visit with all of the orphan watches and say goodbuy. While we were there, one of them just kept looking at me as if to say 'please, take me home with you'. And that's just what we did. Susan adopted another time piece and charged me with it's care. Our newest addition is a Tissot with a chronograph and tachymeter. Now, before you get all "how could he possibly need another watch", this fills a great void in my watch collection. Black leather straps, stainless case. And, it's a quartz movement (but I love it anyway). My wife rocks, no? Oui!!

After a complete butt kicking at the 8 PM trivia session, where Susan met her new friend - Appletini, we headed up to the Windjammer for a nice quiet dinner.

After all this, we still managed to get our party on 'til the wee hours of the morning. Not!

Day 3 - St. Thomas

We had trouble deciding on a tour for St. Thomas. We had two objectives: 1) Beach Time and 2) a quick shopping trip. In the end, we decided to 'wing it' and get a cab to take us to a beach. We had decided on Megan's Beach and jumped in a taxi. That's when our adventure started.

So, our cab ride was a cross between Mr. Toad's wild ride and a trip to Jeopardy. The wild ride part had as much to do with the traffic and hilly roads as it did with our driver. Our driver was an interesting man who has spent a good portion of his life amassing trivia. During our time together, I learned that I know nothing about Ohio trivia. Well, I probably knew it once, but have since forgotten all of it. I really wish we would have had Scott with us, I think Scott could've taken him!

The cost to get to Megan's beach was $8 per person. Along the way he talked us into the 'scenic' drive to Sapphire Beach. Of course, this would be $10 person. As it turns out, the views of the island were interesting, and it was a good beach.

The water was clear, the sand was nice, and we had a view of St. John. We even managed to score a couple of beach chairs from one of the hotels. After a little while enjoying the sun we learned an interesting fact about our beach - it was an iguana infested beach! They're fascinating to watch, unless they're sitting on your beach towel or crawling under your chair. Then, they're a little creepy. And man, are they fast! Eventually Susan got tired of me standing on my beach chair shrieking like a little girl and suggested we head back to town.

The drive back to town was uneventful and we began the shopping portion of our day. I'm reading a pirate book and found it interesting that not much has changed. We still have 'sailors' hitting port to drink and trade, and locals looking to sell whatever the 'sailors' are looking for. Same as in my book, except it calls them Pirates and Privateers.

It was fun though, and we found a bar that had REALLY good Mojito's! So, we sipped our drinks and watch the amazing water.

All in all, it was a really fun adventure day with Susan.

St. Thomas

Day 2 - Day At Sea

Today began pretty early for us. We wanted to get up early and stake out some good deck chairs for our sun worshipping time. Yesterday, we scouted out the perfect location. We we made it to deck 12 though and stepped into the 50 MPH winds coursing over the deck, we decided to chase down my hat and then scamper for safety. We managed to find a nice spot on deck 11 that was protected from the wind, yet gave us the opportunity for sun should the Captain find any.

Once our encampment was set to my satisfaction [ :-) ], Susan stood watch while I went to get first breakfast. Afterwards, I relieved Susan so sheet could get started on her run. (yes, I am reading a pirate adventure which is influencing my descriptions.) So, while Susan was running, I craftily 'pretended' to be asleep. After Susan's return, I completed second breakfast (yes Mark, they have pints!), and we settled in. The Captain is a genius sailor who found us some warm sun, which we enjoyed until our pop up timers went off.

During the sun worshipping, I took a quick break and channeled my inner Scottie and headed to the St. Thomas shopping presentation. Hey, they were giving away bracelets, gem stones, 'insider' tips and maps. Yes, you can't get a port map now unless you got to one of their presentations. It was effective too, by the time I left I was ready to paint my face, drop a lifeboat in the water, and go attack the St. Thomas shopping district pirate style. OK, not really. I got my maps, gave my raffle tickets to a nice lady sitting next to me, and quietly exited the arena to continue my time in the sun.

We also picked up tickets to the ice show. The show was outstanding, but the skaters probably didn't benefit much from performing so close to the Olympics. After watching 200 hours of figure skating, we may have judged a little harshly. We noted when pairs were not matched well, when the timing of their spins were off and of course when they failed to rotate correctly on a triple axel.

We ran into my buddy Stu this afternoon, and I'll be joining him later for a cigar.

Day 1 - Coco Cay (Part 2)

So, we had the Pinot flight. Not too surprising given my taste for Pinot Noir. After we awarded each a medal (yes, Gold, Silver and Bronze - we're still in Olympics mode) I ordered the Gold medal winner. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, I suggest getting the price of the glass of wine BEFORE you order it. All I can say is it's a good thing the food is free.

The next stop on our agenda was the Captain's reception. We were early and enjoyed a fair amount of free bubbly. I also tried caviar, which is of course Russian for ICK!!

We also had our picture taken. Let me stop here and say to Royal Caribbean... For the last time, yes we're beautiful people and no, you may not use our picture in your promotional advertisements!

Dinner tonight consisted of Grande Marnier Soufflé, followed by Filet of Beef, finished with Grande Marnier Soufflé.

FInally, we partied until the wee hours of the morning. ;-)

Cruise Day 1 - Coco Cay

Today was a good day. Susan got an early run in, I got some extra sleep. After breakfast we grabbed a spot on a tender and headed over to Coco Cay. This is our first visit to Coco Cay and we really enjoyed it. Of course, all we did was sit on beach chairs and soak up the sun. Well, we also had lunch and then I had to seek a little medical attention. Actually, it was with a local healer named Dr. Rum who was serving up fresh frozen Coco Loco's. Dr. Rum recognized I was a man who could still feel his feet, so he added enough rum to fix that problem.

We headed back to the ship, grabbed fresh towels ( and a snack ) and headed up to the top deck to get more Vitamin D.

Now, we're headed out for a visit to Vintages's to try one of Scott's wine flights!