RonRocksTheBoat

The Longest Excursion Ever!!

2009-02-10T11:57:00.001-05:00

SO the other day I was going through Staci and I’s closet. For the life of me I can’t remember what I was looking for but it must have been important. Normally, I stay away from the deep, dark, depths of the closet in fear of what I might find. Not today however, I was on a mission. Now that I think about it I was looking for my moose slippers. The pair our new puppy hasn’t chewed. As I was digging through the graveyard of shoes how many shoes do you ladies need?? I mean really?? I came across a plastic trash bag. My curiosity got the best of me and I opened it. Inside the bag I found an assortment of shirts and slacks so there isn’t a monster in my closet that eats my clothes that I had taken on my cruise in 2007. Yes, this was it, *sigh* the last thing to unpack from the cruise. It was so long ago but yet I remember it like it was yesterday. As I sat on the floor of the closet surrounded by mounds of shoes, purses, and no doubt Jimmy Hoffa’s body, I began to recall our cruise. The relaxing sound of the ocean as it melted past our balcony would sing me to sleep each night and his snoring would keep Staci awake at night. The food was wonderful simply because I didn’t have to cook it or clean up after it. Even the food poisoning I got wasn’t so bad because I was on a cruise vacation. The excursions were pleasant brakes from the ship…… I can almost smell the saltwater now…oh wait…never mind..it just the smell of feet. As I sat there daydreaming it hit me..or should I say tapped me on the head. It was Staci, time to come back to reality….time to take the trash out.
The rest of the day I was thinking; how can I make the time between cruises a little more bearable? Then it hit like a ton of bricks, like a freight train, like a lightning bolt, ok we get it…you had an idea..now share it stupid. From this point on, the time I spend between cruises I will simply think of as a really long shore excursion!!!!! Yes, from this point on everything I do will be a shore excursion. This will be the longest shore excursion ever!!!
Below you will find a list of possible excursions.
The Trash to Curb
Your tour departs from your beautiful, climate controlled kitchen where you will meet up with your guide dog. From there you will travel by foot in the rain, cold, and/or extreme heat all while carrying a leaky, smelly, plastic bag. Don’t worry your dog will be there to run under your feet, splash in mud puddles, and jump all over you. This is an excursion you can’t afford to miss!! Space is limited, leaves daily from the kitchen.
THE DISHWASHING
The dishwashing experience will expose you to a rainbow of colors smeared and splattered all over plates, silverware, glasses, pots, and pans. This is a hands on interactive excursions so don’t be afraid to get those hands dirty. This is a water-related activity so dress accordingly!
THE DOG WASHING & BODY SOAK
This is an excursion you will not want to miss!! The great thing about this excursion is that it can be coupled with any other excursion for a fun filled day!! After washing the dishes or taking the trash to the curb you will be transported by your feet to your bathroom. Once there you will be joined by not one, not two, but three of your K-9 friends. These friendly K-9 have had a long day of playing in the back yard, rolling in their own pooh, and licking themselves, and now they want to spend some quality time with their owner. These K-9’s are very friendly and love interacting with everyone!!! So done your bathing suit, take off your shirt, and get ready for a wet and wild time that is sure to leave you breathless and smelling like wet dog!!!

So these are just a few of the many, many excursion possabilities. Now I want to hear from you. Give me some of your creative excursion ideas and I will post them on my blog!!!! You can e-mail me at: rdbradleyjr@cruisefreakforums.com

Time For a Recalibration

2009-01-06T13:37:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine opened his son’s closet door and picked up a new soccer ball from the floor:'This, - he said - isn't any ordinary package.'He spun the ball on his index finger as he stared at both the ball and his son’s trophy wall.'He got this the first time we went to Europe, 8 or 9 years ago. He never used it , he was saving it for his varsity year. Well, I guess this is it. He got near the bed and placed the ball next to his son’s soccer uniform he was taking to the funeral house, his son had just died in a car accident less than 100 yards from his house. He had heard the collision but thought nothing of it until the State Patrol knocked on his
door at 2 in the morning. He turned to me and said:'Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion'.I still think those words changed my life.Now I read more and clean less.I spend more time with my family, and worry less about things I have no control over.I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to, not survived through. I no longer keep anything. I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if i feel like it.The words 'Someday...' and ' One Day...' are fading away from my dictionary. If it's worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen or do it now.. I don't know what my friend's son would have done if he knew he wouldn't be there the next morning, this nobody can tell. I think he might have called his family and closest friends.
He might call friends for a pick- up game of soccer. I'd like to think he would go out for Pizza, his favorite food. It's these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had come.<>Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.
Live for today, for tomorrow is promised to no-one.

As much as I hate to say it the above is a true story. It happened this year to a friend of mine. You hate it when things like this happen, but when it does what do you do? For me, this terrible tragedy was a calling out. ‘Hey Ron it’s time to recalibrate your life.’ I suddenly felt guilty for all those days when I complained about my back hurting, not being able to be a firefighter any more, or just down on life in general. Suddenly my life and my problems were put into perspective. So to those of you who read this little blog I say to you this….

Life is for the living,
so live life for the best.
Find peace and love
In everything,
And let God take care
Of the rest.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

2008-12-24T11:14:00.000-05:00

So we made it another year without blowing up the planet but you should see his bathroom. It’s Christmas time again. I time to spend until your bank account is 0, so is his IQ until your credit card comes back “declined”, and you can’t possibly take anymore of your kids’ lunch money without them starving the rest of the year.
Despite my own personal tragedy that happened this time of year he fell of the toilet and it wasn’t pretty Staci and the girls have managed to make this a happy time of year once again. It’s amazing the power of a simple hug, smile, or kiss. Doctors have been trying for years to put me back together again, and stop the pain. However, when I am holding Staci in my arms there is no pain, no anger, or despair, sometimes a little gas though. So I would like everyone who reads this blog both of you to do me a favor. I want you to remember. Simple enough right? Remember love; what it’s like, how it feels, and what you would do for it. Then after you remember I want you to share those thoughts with your significant other. This is the season for giving so give them you. I want you to look into the eyes of that special person and tell them Merry Christmas…and then tell them why. And you may even get some tonight! So weather you are cruising this holiday season, vacation in the Caribbean, or just spending it at home with those you love the most, take a few minutes to just stop and remember and enjoy.
Now to all my friends and family as if he has any I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!!!! Why? Why, because I have all of you and for the first time in a long time I realize just how special family and friends are……….

MARINER REVIEW

2008-05-07T11:14:00.004-04:00

Mariner of The Seas
12/16/07 - 12/23/07
About Us
Our family consist of myself, 35, Staci 41, Caitlen 17, and Lexi 15. We live in Charleston, SC not far from where I was born. Or hatched As a family I would like to think we are pretty unsophisticated . We don’t expect much nor do we like anyone to make much of a fuss over us. Our two teenage girls monsters like most girls are boy crazy. While this was a little bit of a problem on the cruise, I found that once you caught one of the little boys hormones with legs and duct taped him to the railing, the rest want nothing to do with your daughters. While planning the cruise I was worried that the girls would not have a good time. Both can be a bit shy and I was worried that they would not make friends. On day two I was wishing this was still the case when I saw the line of boys following them across the pool deck. they caught the sent

Pre-Cruise
Prior to the cruise we spent two nights at the Radisson Resort at the Port. I can’t say enough good things about this place. We were checked in by a 300 pound man with a German accent. I can’t remember his name now so I will call him Honz. in person i called him sir Despite his Mariner-like size he was a nice young man. We were promptly and pleasantly checked in to our room. We had reserved a Jacuzzi suit with a view of the port. If you chose to stay here please keep in mind that this is Florida. The décor screams tropical. it also screams blind interior decorator Once in the room I quickly found all the important things to be in functioning order, those being the TV, bathroom and sleep number bed. Now this hole sleep number thing kinda confused me. I am from the country where we didn’t have all this fancy stuff. The last time I saw a bed that had buttons I was strapped to it. Needless to say I kept that little box under the bed for safety reasons. The pool here was awesome. It’s heated think peeing in the pool I spent the better part of Saturday lounging by the pool sipping Rum Runners he spent the better part of that night passed out on the bed because alcohol doesn't go with pain killers…..rocket scientist! Before I knew it Sunday morning had arrived! I jumped out of bed, threw the curtains open wide and quickly realized two disturbing things. One, it was raining outside and two I was naked!! oops? As soon as I realized this I did what any normal man would do…..I put on my moose slippers because my feet were cold. Oh and to be polite I waved to the folks in the parking lot. Take a picture it last longer Once my feet were nice and warm I turned on the local news. The weather reports were not good. Severe thunderstorms through most of the morning and early afternoon. Despite that I was not going to let it bother me. Everyone rolled out of bed around 8. We got all our luggage together and tagged for the cruise. Kitchen sink After the girls got everything packed up and in order I called the front desk to have our things brought down. That was the last time I saw our luggage until later that night. The staff at the Radisson has it all together. I am hear to tell you it was as worry free as it can be. I didn’t have to haul anything around which would have been a problem with my back. All I had to do was show up. We left our car at the Radisson while we went on vacation. You can’t beat that!! I would highly recommend the Radisson to anyone looking for a pre or post cruise stay pay me enough and i will recommend you too Should we ever leave out of Port Canaveral again I will stay with them again.

Embarkation
Embarkation was fairly smooth. At least as smooth as herding 3,100 people from all over the world into one place can be. The lines were long but moved fairly quickly. Unlike DMV While being a smooth process it did kind of remind me of corralling our cattle when I was a kid. Wont tell you what we did to them next but i can tell you that going on a cruise was much more pleasant than what happened to the cattle All in all we were probably in line for an hour at most. Once on board I quickly located all the important parts of the ship, the bathrooms, the state rooms, and the food, once again all functioned properly.

Cabins
As I mentioned earlier it doesn’t take too much to impress us. This being my first cruise on RCCL and only my second cruise period Carnival Liberty I wasn’t sure what to expect. We were in 6316 which is a balcony room on the “hump”. The room had all the important things, a bed, a pooper, and a TV. The balcony was just a bonus. The beds were very comfortable and they had no buttons or anything for me to worry about. I am not the largest guy in the world. 6’ tall and about 235 pre cruise the bathrooms were a little cramped to say the least. The shower reminded me of a coffin with a sliding door . If you drop your soap in this shower you don’t have to worry about bending over to pick it up, you can’t. Trust me I tried. Other than that everything worked fine. The water was wet, and the towels dry. I don’t due this often but I am going to offer those of you who have never cruised before a word of advice. Ladies….if you have a man who’s favorite excursion is sitting on the toilet do yourself a favor. TAKE GLADE!!! Or as Staci did take several air fresheners. Trust me….the odor wont stop at the bathroom door. Thank god for the balcony!! The girls were in a Promenade room just down the hall. It was much like ours but different. It didn’t take long before it looked just like their rooms at home. Disaster area

The Ship
The ship was beautiful. Not loud and flashy like the Carnival Liberty. The crew keeps her looking beautiful. It is hard to believe that she is 4 years old. Not that 4 years is a long time but if you think of all the passengers that she has had it is amazing. I wish my house were kept up as well. And came with a room steward, cook, and traveled the Caribbean

The Food
The food was edible for the most part. I wasn’t expecting anything awesome. Staci I think was expecting more because her father had sailed with RCCL once and told her the food was awesome. her fathers favorite food is bread I will say the food in the dinning room was better than expected. I don’t understand how people can complain so much about the food in the dining room and Windjammer. To those people I say what do you expect? They cook meals for over 3,000 people. Do you really expect the eggs not to be powdered? duh? That being said they do offer plenty of fresh fruits to chose from. Not to mention Jade was a pretty good alternative. If you want a pretty decent steak try Chops. I loved it.
The down side to the food is I got food poisoning on the second night. I am not sure what I ate but I know it was from the Windjammer. Tasted like the nachos when it came back up.

Room Service
I would love to tell you something positive about room service but I am still waiting for my meal to arrive. We ordered room service 3 times and I am still waiting. However, I have been assured that it will be here any minute now….

The Islands
Our cruise was of the Western Caribbean which included Libadee, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Libadee was nice and relaxing. Of course I was up all night with food poisoning so I had no choice but to relax. I was plopped down in a beach chair and that is wear I stayed. However, from what I could see through my eyelids was beautiful!! I have heard complaints about the some of the locals being pushy with setting up chairs and selling things. I can tell you that we didn’t have that problem. They did set up our chairs but they were not rude about it. The girls went shopping and said they had no problem with the vendors. The one thing that we did find funny was that some of the merchandise originally had Hawaii on it but the ‘waii” was crossed out and replaced with Haiti. Made in China
Jamaica. I was still sick this day. The only reason I went ashore is because I was concerned about the girls safety. I’ve read plenty on how unsafe Jamaica is. While I am not one to jump to conclusions or be over protective I can see where Jamaica can be very unsafe. However, I can also think of many places in the U.S that are just as unsafe. In Jamaica we booked Bob Marley’s house with Marva Shaw. While Marva was great I will never go up in the mountains of Jamaica again. This was the only safety concern I had with Jamaica. The roads are terrible up in the mountains. It’s amazing to see how the people live. On the other hand my girls also got to see how fortunate they are to live in such a nice place. As far as the Bob Marley House. I wouldn’t waste my time with it. It’s just one big tourist trap. You pay $45.00 to see where Bob sat on a rock and got stoned all the time. Not to mention all the people sitting around getting stoned. Don’t waist your time! The port area is very dirty for the most part. If I find myself back there on another cruise chances are I will stay on the boat. Should we decide to do something there I will use Marva Shaw again.
Grand Cayman Up all night sick. Stayed in bed all day while the girls went to shop. My favorite excursion on this day was the toilet. Long ride…not very pleasant.
Cozumel I felt much better today. The girls and I went into town shopping. As far as ports go Cozumel was my favorite. It was just a relaxing day. We strolled down the street spending my money. What’s not to enjoy? I only wish we had more time. We purchased some alcohol, and some rings for the girls. Staci, did a shot of something that cleared up her cold. So it was a good day.
My only real issues on this cruise other than room service was that of the sales agents. While on board we tried to put down a deposit towards our next cruise. We spoke with the agent who was very rude and simply told us that unless we knew what cruise we wanted it wouldn’t be worth his time to look. He told us that his computer was moving to slow and to look when we got home. When I explained to him we just wanted to put down a deposit for a future cruise in general we were told again to do it from home. I was told that we could still get the on board credit. On the last night of the cruise I checked with another agent who was there. She told me that he told me wrong. When I asked if she could help she said she was too far behind in her bookings to help me. This kind of took me by surprise. I thought they would be happy to help, but this was not the case. Up until that night was almost certain I wanted to try RCCL again despite the minor issue of room service and food poisoning. I went back to my room discouraged and disappointed, not how I wanted to end my cruise.
Conclusion
All in all I am glad I got the chance to share this experience with the people I love the most. I’ve been on Cruise Freeks for a little while now and I’ve read many reviews and researched many things. Sometimes I feel like people lose site of what’s important. For me the most important thing was seeing those people I love the most smile. Sure this cruise wasn’t a perfect experience for me personally, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. The people I was with made that week one of the high lights of my life. Not to mention meeting the people on our roll call. I feel like I’ve made some great friends on this trip. People I hope I will be able to keep in touch with. It’s amazing how many people take the time out of their day to share experiences and advice on a wide variety of topics. They unselfishly give this so others can make the most out of their cruising experience. I for one have enjoyed this blog. For me meeting new people is half of the cruising experience. For the past year I’ve looked forward to posting, reading, and researching various travel sites. So to all of you who takt the time out of your busy day to read this blog Happy Cruising and safe travels....

Introducing......

2008-02-26T09:20:00.002-05:00

So this is my blog. This is a place for me to be me. Better yet this is a place for me to be whoever I want to be. Who's going to know? I can be whomever I want to be on the Internet right? I can be a rock star, movie star, comedian, politician, or just insane! At some point I'll probably pretend to be all of them but for now being me is hard enough.

Why a blog? Easy, therapy. Trust me I need it. I live with 5 women...yes 5. Why RonRocksTheBoat. Well a couple of reasons really; (1) I love to cruise. (2) Chances are at some point I will say something that will ruffle a few feathers, go against what you believe...thus rocking your little boat. You'll catch me talking a lot about cruising. However, no topic is off limits!

A little about me. Well I am 39 years old. I was created when two buzzards bumped butts over Beaufort, South Carolina and I fell out. Unfortunately I landed in the home of a Marine drill instructor and a little fiery Italian lady. I grew up mainly in the south east with a few excursions to the PA area. I currently reside in Charleston, South Carolina with my very beautiful girlfriend and her two very beautiful girls. Every day is a new experience..... a new adventure. So welcome to my world. Let the games begin...............