What are we getting ourselves into?
Seattle is cold and dark at this time of the year. The sun sets around 4pm, but that is a theoretical time only, as sunbreaks are few and far between with the winter cloud cover. Lydia has reached the limits of snugness that her jackets, scarves, hats and gloves can supply, so there was only one option left to us - to spend our holidays in the Caribbean to soak up the sun in traditional Australian style on the beach.
The only trick to it was how to see the Caribbean. It would be nice of course to see a few different islands, and we didn't have time to organise transport and accomodation at multiple locations. If only there was some type of pre-organised trip which allows you to travel to islands where you can do your own thing, but then gave you transport and a place to stay.
Lydia performed the background checks on the strange American cruise ship culture. We had to know what we were going to get ourselves into. Lydia lurked on CruiseCritics.com to see what the passangers on board our ship, the Crown Princess were worried about. Mostly it was the food. How many lobsters tails would they let you eat? Were they really unlimited? Could you order seven lobster tails? Oh it comes on a seafood platter - no problem you just eat the lobster tail then tell them to take away the platter and bring a new one. One lady was concerned to know if they sold Bud Lite on the trip - her husband would only come on the cruise if they sold Bud Lite, and to her great relief they did. Another lady was concerned that some of the beaches had Europeans on them - did any one know which beaches were European free? Afterall, she had to think of her children.
We flew from Seattle to Chicago to South Carolina to Puerto Rico, where we finally reached the hulking monstrosity of the Crown Princess. Over 110 000 tons, 290 metres long, 36 metres wide and 18 stories tall, the ship held 3150 passengers and 1200 crew, 2654 metric tons of fuel, 2731 metric tons of fresh water and vast numbers of lobster tails. Next stop - the US virgin islands.
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