Jeff's Travels | Jeffrey Kirk

Royal Caribbean Cruise 2009

Dec 122009

As we left Port of Canaveral I had the opportunity to quickly interview the co-stars of this adventure. Bryn, Victoria, and Alexander all chime in regarding their expectations of the coming week…

The next morning we were already at Coco Cay in the Bahamas…

Snorkel at Coco Cay

While we intended to just spend the day lounging on the beach and swimming in the colorful multi-shade blue water, Victoria and Alexander decided that it would be fun to learn how to snorkel. We got them all equipped and they spent hours in the water looking at the fish swimming around a variety of underwater “attractions.”

Little did we realize that snorkeling would become the theme event of the entire cruise. How awesome it was that they learned how to snorkel at the very friendly and leisurely Coco Cay.

A few days later at St. Thomas, we decided to do the kayak, hike, and snorkel adventure. This would have been our first snorkel opportunity if we had not let the kids try it at Coco Cay. When we attempted to make reservations for this outing we learned that this excursion was already sold out! We did not have a plan B. It was suggested that we try later to see if anyone cancelled.

kayak We went to sit in the cafe and develop a few other options. Every choice we considered had to include snorkeling! When we returned to the registration desk, one of the employees recognized us and had 4 tickets matching our original plans. They had been returned by someone who had double-booked. Awesome!

When we met up with the bus to take us we realized how small of a group was going on this particular eco-tour. We were lucky to get in.

The adventure started with kayaking along the mangroves to a small island beach. We had hermit crab races and hiked to a natural blow hole. Then back to the beach for snorkeling along a reef. We saw a sea cucumber and many colorful fish. I saw a nurse shark and a blow fish too.

For our last island experience we went on a catamaran adventure on St. Maarten. After removing our shoes we hopped aboard the catamaran for a trip out to another great snorkeling area. The water was a bit choppy, but that didn’t slow anything down.

When the boat stopped, Victoria and Alexander were immediately in the water seeing what they could see. Each of the three snorkeling adventures were completely different from one another. What a great experience!

Then we were back on the catamaran for some sightseeing on the water.

Evolution of a Family Vacation

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Dec 112009

During the week of Thanksgiving we decided to try something different. We went on cruise!

The story of why this happened actually goes back a few years…

When Alexander entered 7th grade I made a promise to him. I said if he got all A‘s on his report card for his world geography class for the entire year, he would get to choose the destination of our family vacation.

When the school year finished and he had achieved a nice set of A‘s, it was time to make good on a promise. Unfortunately we could not drop what we were doing to simply trample off on some exotic journey. That would have been great, but reality had to play a part.

When Alexander realized that we would not immediately go on his desired vacation, he was a little sad and then set out to take a year to really decide where we should go! Actually he decided pretty quickly on the Bahamas and Jamaica, but we weren’t going to do both. It took a while to figure out that a cruise might be the answer.

But, then we could not find a cruise that would go to both destinations within the same one-week cruise. Bahamas typically shows up in Eastern Caribbean routes, where as Jamaica usually appears on Western Caribbean routes.

Finally, earlier this year, I got a Royal Caribbean cruise catalog, gave it to Alexander and said, “pick one!” Perhaps he could not use it to pick something specific, but at least it would allow him to narrow down the field.

He and his sister poured through the catalog looking reading descriptions until they found some things that sounded good to them. Adventure was in, shopping was out. I’m happy with that choice too.

Then we refined the date to Thanksgiving so that the kids would only have to miss two days of school. Once again we had to adjust the cruise choice to one that was available during that week. Fortunately, once all criteria were applied there was still one option left…

Royal Caribbean - Freedom of the Seas

By July we had settled on the details of our journey aboard Freedom of the Seas. We picked our cabin, made our reservations, and let Royal Caribbean handle the details.

It was an incredible week with a balcony stateroom, snorkeling at three islands, and tons of good food!

Stay tuned for more details and photos coming soon…

Where in the World Have I Been?

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Oct 072009

I have a number of travel goals including visiting more than 100 different countries. While I have a good start, there is obviously a long way to go (and a long way to travel).

Below is a map of the world. The countries shown in red are those that I have visited. There are a few observations that one can take from looking at this map.

There’s no red showing in the southern hemisphere. Clearly I need to rectify this problem. The equator currently serves as a barrier.
The countries I have visited cover most of the landmass of the northern hemisphere. Of course, North America and Russia will do that!

There are several things you cannot tell simply by looking the map.

My visit to Poland and Japan did not involve ever getting out of the airport. So, these two countries need future attention!
I have not visited Alaska. It is colored ref simply because it is part of the United States.
The software that created the map marked England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland simply by checking United Kingdom. Indeed, I have visited England and Scotland, but not Wales or Northern Ireland.
The map detail is too small to represent several islands in the Caribbean that I have visited.

map of the world with visited countries in red
visited 26 countries (11.5%)
Create your own visited map of The World