Lions, Tigers...and Monkeys?

Last week we were cruising the Atlantic and we made a few stops along the way. We stopped in places, like the Azores, Lisbon, Gibraltar, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca. This is my story about Gibraltar, UK...

Gibraltar is all about "The Rock." No! It's not Alcatraz...it's literally the only thing there is to do in this small community called Gibraltar. You start at sea level, where our ship came into port and within a matter of minutes, you're up at the top of the rock. At the top, the locals warn you about the monkeys...as you'll see in the pictures! These monkeys will steal anything from food from your hands to your purse off of your back, but they're so cute! They'll come right up to you and sit on your shoulder for a picture, but you have to be careful, because you have to remember that these are wild animals...carrying diseases. Luckily, I came away without any of them.



We took a taxi tour around the rock and it took us all of 1.5 hours to see all of Gibraltar. I snapped a lot of pictures from the top, we visited a cave, a castle and then I walked into the city and found a British pub called The Angry Friar. I tried my first British fish and chips...and fell in love. I also had a cider beer with my meal and it was delicious!



I saw some passengers walking around the city and told them about my day with the monkeys...that evening I ran into one of them and they gave me a stuffed monkey that makes sounds. It's so cute and it even has red hair...maybe it's a sign. Just kidding. Enjoy the photos!

Red

Happy St. Patty's Day

I have to tell you guys that I was a little homesick this Saint Patrick's Day. I missed our holiday of taking off work and going out to the downtown bars at 8 a.m. to drink green beers and make memories to last a lifetime. I will never forget those days we had...I sent a few e-mails out and received several "out of office" replies. Oh how I was jealous!



I'm in Spain and the Spanish have no concept of what St. Patty's Day is to us Americans. Acutally last night was a bonding experience...all of the American employees aboard the Norwegian Jade went out to one of the only Irish pubs in Cadiz and drank our sorrows away. We went to O'Connell's Pub. It is in the middle of the Old Town and was packed with Jade employees. We drank authentic Guiness, Murphy's Irish Red and Jameson until our little American hearts were content! We also got goofy shamrock hats and bow ties with our Guiness purchases. Oh what a night to remember!

I hope everyone had a safe St. Patty's Day. Enjoy some of my pictures from last night!

Red

What is going on with the US Economy?

I'm currently in Cadiz, Spain while the Pride of Hawaii, the ship I worked on in Hawaii, is being transformed into the Norwegian Jade. We're out here for nearly 2 weeks and then we start cruising the Meditteranean Sea. As you know...or some of you don't know, the American dollar is quickly dwindling to nothing. Right now the American dollar is valued at 58 CENTS to every Euro. This is ridiculous. This means that every time I buy something in Euro, I have to nearly pay double for it. What the heck?

You know we're all stuck in our perfect little world in the USA and aren't really aware of what's going on around us. I have been thrown into another world...and it's not pretty. What is going on with our economy? The American dollar used to be so strong. Now it's worth nearly nothing! And the pound is worth even more than the Euro...thank goodness we're not visiting countries that use pounds!

For those of you back home in the States, enjoy your usage of the American dollar because who knows what we'll use in years to come. Maybe we'll all go towards using the Euro...since our dollar isn't quite holding its value.

Panama Canal Transit

Today, Feb. 24th, was the day the Norwegian Jade made its crossing through the infamous Panama Canal. We are currently on a repositioning cruise taking the ship formerly known as the Pride of Hawaii (now named the Norwegian Jade) over to Europe. We first started in Los Angeles, moved down through the Mexican Riviera (making stops at Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco) and through the Panama Canal. Without the Canal, we would’ve added days onto our cruise itinerary. The Canal was built in 1914 and after almost a century, it is still up and running today just like in the ‘ole days. The French first tried to build a passage through Panama, but were unsuccessful. Then, the Americans bought the right to begin construction on the Panama Canal and were successful…fighting heavy rains, mud slides, steep and treacherous quarries, dynamite explosions, train accidents...etc. It was a very hard and daunting task for the United States, but after tens of millions of dollars (this was in the early 1900s…a lot of money) the Panama Canal stood completed and ready for operation.

When we passed through, our ship which is 935’ long barely fit into the locks. There was about a foot on both sides of the ship and barely any room at the bow and aft. We passed through a series of 3 locks and it took us 12 hours to get completely through the Canal. We began at 5 a.m. when a pilot first came on board, we then went through the Miraflores locks, Pedro Miguel locks, across Gamboa (a stunning lake set in the middle of the rainforest) and lastly through the Gatun locks. This was so impressive how the locks first raised our ship up to become level to the Gamboa and then lowered us to the level of the Atlantic Ocean. Oh, we were attached to 6 locomotives (3 on each side) that were nickname mules pulled us through the locks. The ship used little to no power through our transit and was piloted by a Panama Canal expert…not our captain…interesting.

Wild in Acapulco

It was a wild Thursday night in February. The Norwegian Jade, my new ship, was on an overnight in Acapulco, Mexico. The Cruise Staff and I decided to go out to a club on the beach, Paradise. Yeah…it was Paradise that night, but the next day was HELL. This club was awesome. It was all open, right on the ocean and had tables to dance on…just my style. They were bumpin’ dance music all night long…’til the wee hours of the morning (6 a.m. to be exact). I, myself, started drinking tequila shots, but paired them with Coronas…and thought that was a good choice, because beer is not as bad as mixed drinks. Well, what I forgot was that 3 tequila shots into it…was enough. Enough…is an understatement. I had so much “liquid courage” that I proceeded to recruit a friend of mine to bungee jump with me. The bungee tower was literally right next to the bar…which was perfect for those crazy drunk tourists…like us. I’m deathly afraid of heights, but that night I was ready for some adventure. I actually bungeed off of a 50 meter (I don’t know the height in feet) platform into a pool…wow…what a night to remember. I have pictures and a video to prove to all of you when I get home. I can’t wait to show you my first bungee jump…I have a feeling this won’t be my last.