Chad and Tina cruise the Southern Caribbean (Part 3 of 3)

Previously on Chad and Tina cruise the Southern Caribbean:
Part 1
Part 2
And now for the exciting conclusion...


Day 7 - 3/5 - Dominica

Either champagne has a funky morning-after taste, or a cat came into our stateroom in the middle of the night and took a huge dump in my mouth.  Either way, toothpaste has never tasted so delicious.
But enough about that, we have a new island to explore!  We began our day with a ride to the top of one of the many mountains of Dominica (pronounced dahm-in-EE-kuh).  Here we snapped a photo of downtown Roseau with our ship in the background.

Here's a shot of the professional cricket stadium.

I guess the grasshopper's still maintain their amateur status...hmmm, that joke sounds funnier when you're still champagne drunk on 5 hours sleep.  Hopefully they'll get better.

I can't quite decide which caption works best here:  "School Bus For Sale: Needs Body Work." -OR - "The dangers of trunk driving." - OR - "Woody fell down on the bus before his first day of tree-school."

During our island tour, we stopped at the Morne Trois Pitons National Park and hiked about 15 minutes through the rain forest to Emerald Pool.

The water wasn't "extremely" cold, but there was definitely some shrinkage.  Here's a picture of me enjoying the cool water while my weiner impersonates a scared turtle.

It was too cold for Tina, but she did manage to get in all the way to her knees.  Coward.

Our next stop was the nearly deserted Mero Beach, one of the many black sand beaches of this volcanic island.

After an hour or so, we headed back to the ship.  Each little town that we passed through had the same roadside planters.

I'm not sure if they got "tired" of using clay pots or just wanted to start a new "tread" in landscaping.

We get back on the ship, bid adieu to Dominica...

...took naps, cleaned ourselves up, and headed to dinner where Tina once again tries to master the cork trick we learned on our last cruise (link HERE for those that missed it).  

After that, we played some late night trivia.  The category was movie quotes - The host reads a quote from a film and you have to guess what movie it's from, what character said it, and which actor played the role.  I'm fairly confident going in that we're gonna be leaving with another free bottle of the bubbly.  Some other passenger spotted me walking in and "somewhat" jokingly said that I've won enough bottles of champagne and I should let someone else win.  My response?

We destroyed those fools!!  ALL HAIL THE KING AND QUEEN OF FREE CHAMPAGNEVILLE!!

We were pretty tired at this point so rather than crack it open, we decided to save it for the next night.  We went back to our room and caught a bit of Transformers 2 on TV.  What an awful, awful movie.  Nothing quite puts me to sleep like the storyline of a Michael Bay film.

Day 8 - 3/6 - St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

We awoke bright and early to a rainy, overcast day...

...but luckily it did clear up right before we left the ship at 8am.  
These big suckers were everywhere, like cockroaches in NYC, gays in San Fran, and morons in Texas.

Since St. Thomas is the patron saint of snorkeling and booze cruising, that's what we booked.  We hopped aboard a catamaran and set sail for a deserted island.

Our first stop was at a shallow reef where Tina saw a manatee:

At our second stop, the aptly named Turtle Cove, we enjoyed swimming around with the sea turtles.  Because they were eating about 20-30 feet below the surface, you had to hold your breath and dive down for a closer look.

After about 1 1/2 hours of snorkeling, we got back on the catamaran, the captain killed the motor, hoisted the sails, and the crew passed out cup after cup of delicious pineapple-orange rum punch.  Tina liked this cocktail...ALOT.  About an hour and 10+ drinks after we left Turtle Cove, we arrived back at the ship.

Tina was feeling bulletproof and decided to do something really outrageous.  She's a regular Evel Knievel.

We took a short cab ride downtown to do some shopping and I saw these great Blackety Ann dolls.  I assume that the the Blackety Andy dolls are in prison.

After relieving ourselves of rum punch in this 5-star bathroom...

...we sampled some of the local brew.

How does a piss warm shot of rum sound?

With some ice cold banana daquiris in our bellies, we headed back to the ship for some hot tub action and a long nap to sleep off the alcohol.  We awoke at 6 pm, pulled our bottle of champagne out of the ice...and put it in our luggage.  Neither of us wanted any more booze or to even leave the room for that matter.  Instead we packed our bags, grabbed some pizza and burgers, and spent the last night aboard the cruise snuggling in our bed.

Day 9 - 3/7 - Coming Home

Up at 6am, quick shower, breakfast, off the ship at 8:15, and at San Juan International Airport by 9am with 2 hours to spare before our 11am flight.

I didn't pay any attention to the airport the first time around, but now that we got to spend some time there, I have to say that it's pretty disgusting.  They must have exported all the good maids, tile installers, drywallers, and painters.  I didn't want to set my carry on down for fear that it would become part of the floor.  It's as if maintenance said "instead of remodeling, why don't we just cover the floor with millions of pieces of chewed up gum and rub dried boogers on the walls?"  But I digress...

We boarded the plane, me at the window, Tina in the middle, and Puerto Rican "Precious" next to her.  This girl was so big that in the event of a water landing we could have used her as a floatation device.  Luckily, she moved to the back before takeoff, which is good because it's unlikely that the nose of the plane would have gotten off the ground had she stayed up front with us.  But enough about that "cerda".  It's spanish, look it up.

Right now we're cruising at 33,000 ft, and watching "The Blind Side".  And while it should never have been nominated for Best Picture over "500 days of Summer", it's not terrible, and Sandra Bullock will win Best Actress.

I'm hoping we get home in time for the 2:30 game between the Magic and the LA Lakers.  I predict that Kobe Bryant will miss a last second shot and the Magic will win 96-94.

So I guess that's about it.  I'm certain that's there's things I've forgotten, but overall it was a great trip.  If you would like to read more Chad and Tina travel misadventures, please send us money and we will book more vacations.  Or at least click on a couple of those Google ads on the left side of the screen.  Seriously though, send us money...and aloe.