The Wandering Disciple

Like a floating pool party in the middle of the sea, the pool deck of the Majesty of the Seas is a happening place.  From belly flop competitions to movies under stars, to a hot body competition to just plain relaxing in the sun, there is plenty of fun to be had in this wet wonderland to help pass the time until the next port of call.  (Photo: April 19, 2010)

The Majesty of the Seas sits off-shore of CocoCay during a Bahama cruise.  The Majesty of the Seas is one of many cruise ships operated by Royal Caribbean International, connection cruisers with ports of call around the globe.  (Photo: April 22, 2010)

Goofy hangs off the stern of the ship as the Disney Magic departs Port Canaveral on a cruise vacation.  On Disney Cruise Line, the magic of Walt Disney World meets the seas in a fun cruise for the whole family.  No details are spared in making the magic, from a life like Goofy hanging of the ship to colorful characters roaming the decks.  The cruise line currently operates a fleet of four ships with two more reported to be in production.  (Photo: January 23, 2010)

The popular sports court of the Navigator of the Seas is packed with passengers enjoying a game of dodge ball while at sea. The full size basketball court is a popular amenity on the cruise ship, hosting events throughout the cruise. (Photo: October 22, 2006)

Practically a floating city, the Navigator of the Seas by Royal Caribbean provides fun and excitement for all members of the family. The ship features an ice skating ring, swimming pools, mini golf, rock climbing wall, in-line skate track and much more. Combine that with the great food and entertainment alongside popular ports of call and you have a great family vacation. The Navigator of the Seas is seen here docked at St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. (Photo: October 24, 2006)

Dick Gothner of Skyscraper Tours has sent along his latest cruise deal. Princess Cruise Line is offering a great rate on a 7-night Western Caribbean cruise on the Crown Princess. The ship leaves Fort Lauderdale and stops at Grand Cayman, Roatan, Cozumel and the cruise lines private island of Princess Cay. There are three dates to choose from; January 8, 15 and 29, 2011. Rates start at $432 for an inside room or $629 for a balcony. The Crown Princess has been sailing the seas since 2006. It is a member of the Grand Class of the Princess fleet and can accommodate 3,080 passengers. It features 5 pools, a nine home mini-golf course, theaters, casino, night clubs and lounges. The ship features many onboard restaurants to satisfy every member of the family. The rates above include cruise fare and taxes and are subject to change. If you are interested in this deal or any other cruise, contact Dick Gothner with Skyscraper Tours .

This weeks cruise deals from Skyscraper Tours. Ever dream of sailing on the newest cruise ship to hit the waters? Royal Caribbean is offering a deal for the brand new Allure of the Seas for its second cruise that departs from Fort Lauderdale on 12/12/10. The ship visits Nassau, St Thomas and St Maarten on this 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise. Enjoy the new features this ship has to offer including Central Park, Boardwalk, Aqua Theater and all the other favorites Royal Caribbean is known for. Rates for this cruise start at just $729. If you need a break and only have a few days to spare, try the four night cruise on the Majesty of the Seas from Royal Caribbean. This four night cruise leaves Miami on 12/13/10 and visits Key West, Nassau and Cococay. Rates start at $159 per person. Royal Caribbean is also offering deals on Radiance of the Seas out of the Port of Tampa. This four night cruise leaves Tampa on 12/16/10 and travels to Cozumel and back. A balcony room on this sailing starts a...

Dick Gothner with Skyscraper Tours is no stranger to the cruising industry. A cruise specialist for over 12 years, his knowledge of cruising comes firsthand since he has been on over 100 cruises. He has sailed on many on all the major cruise lines, many of the ships in operation today and has been to most of the itineraries and ports of call that the industry offers. Dick puts this passion for cruising into each and every customer that he books for. Whether it be a first time cruise or a cruise veteran, they get the same great service each and every time. What makes Dick different than other specialists? It is the constant care that Dick puts into each and every booking. From the moment you begin shopping for the cruise, he goes to work looking for what you want combining the itineraries and amenities with the price you'd like to pay. Once the cruise is booked, he continues to monitor the cruise, looking for better rates or perks that will benefit you on your sailing. He a...

Miami, Florida: We awoke to find Majesty pulling aside the terminal in Miami. We headed to breakfast and then to our disembarkation staging area, the Schooner Bar. Disembarkation was a pain, not just because of the reality that the vacation was over, but the fact that it seemed very unorganized. We were tagged for disembarkation at 8:15-8:30 and we headed into the line at that time, but the overflow of the “Express Check-Out” spilled over and backed up all of the color tag disembarkation. Once we hit the gangway, we proceeded to the baggage pick up area. Seemed like an eternity for the bags to arrive. When they did, my wife’s new suitcase looked like it took a long fall off the side of the ship, folded like an accordion with multiple tears in the fabric and the frame cracked. Note to self, next time use priority and carry the suitcases off yourself, faster disembarkation and you are responsible for your luggage. Finally we cleared customs without a problem and headed to the ca...

Cococay, Bahamas: Our final full day on the cruise had us visiting Cococay, Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas. The ship will spend a full day at the island leaving for the return to Miami around 4:30. We headed to breakfast first thing in the morning so we could avoid the rush to the tenders. Afterwards we headed to Deck One and were on one of the first tenders to the island. Once the tender docked at the island, we headed straight to the beach. My wife and son played in the water while I toured the island and took some pictures before returning back to help my son build a sand castle. After swimming and shell collecting, we took him to Adventure Ocean to play with the kids and work on the project for a little. While he was there, we kicked back on a chair and relaxed. We then picked him up and traveled across the island to the race track where he got to race a four wheeler around the track. Then we browsed the Straw Market before returning to the ship. After we ...

Nassau, Bahamas: The day at Nassau got off to a later start since the ship wasn’t due in port until noon. So we decided to sleep in a bit. Once we woke up, we headed to Windjammer for breakfast. Then I went to the Explorations Desk to book excursions for Nassau. Our intentions were to do another walking tour, but after the toll the walking tour took on us in Key West, we thought it would be best to do a driving tour here in Nassau. We booked the Nassau and Paradise Island tour and also tickets to the Pirates of Nassau museum. Once Majesty arrived in Nassau, disembarkation was chaos. I don’t know if it was the popularity of the port or the fact that it was noon and more people were awake, but the line for disembarkation started on Deck Two and extended to at least Deck Four where I could no longer see it from my location. Disembarkation was delayed and mass of people waiting were getting agitated making for an uncomfortable waiting time. Then once off the ship, the tours were r...

Key West, Florida: Today was our first port of the trip, Key West. We were scheduled to be in port from 7-3:30. We woke up early and headed to the Windjammer for breakfast. While in the restaurant enjoying breakfast, we watched the ship pull into the port. What a great location for the restaurant, right in the front of the ship with floor to ceiling windows so you can enjoy the view. Following breakfast, we were one of the fist people off the ship. As always, I researched the stop before we left and I downloaded a walking tour of Old Key West. The Pelican Path Walking Tour is a tour of the historic structures located in old town. It has fifty structures on the path that encompasses the oldest part of the city. In addition to these sites, I added a few of the major ones as well including the Southernmost Point, Hemmingway House and Lighthouse. Wow, what a walk, felt like we walked 15 miles by the time we were done. Aching feet and all, we decided to hop aboard the Conch Train ...

Miami, Florida: At one time, the Majesty of the Seas was one of the premiere cruise ships in the fleet. With the advancements in cruising, the Majesty does not have all the features of its sisters in the other classes, but it is still a prominent member of the Royal Caribbean fleet. Built at Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in France, the Majesty was the third and final ship of the Sovereign class. The class featured large atriums, glass elevators and an entire deck of balcony rooms. They were the first mega-ships and led the industry through the early nineties. The Majesty set sail on its maiden voyage on April 26, 1992. The Majesty measures in at 880 feet in length and weighs over 73,941 tons. The ship has 14 decks containing 1,829 staterooms capable of providing accommodations for 2,744 passengers. The ships cruises at a speed of 18 knots and employs 4 stabilizers to aid in smoothing the ride. The Majesty features a few of the popular amenities that are known to the Royal ...

Miami, Florida: We hit the road heading to Miami to take a four night cruise to the Bahamas aboard Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas. The four night itinerary will take us to Key West, Nassau and Cococay. This is our second cruise and we are looking forward to exploring the ship and the ports of call, The drive to Miami was long and uneventful as the vast stretch of Alligator is one of the dullest drives in all of Florida. Mile upon mile of Everglades and not much to see. Once we hit the east coast, it was white knuckle driving the remainder of the way to the port as the driving in Miami is crazy, many lanes and a multitude of kamikaze drivers. As we pulled up to the port, Majesty was the first ship as we crossed over the bridge. Though its not as large as the Voyager class ship we sailed on before, the Majesty was much larger then I anticipated. Boarding the ship was a breeze. We checked-in online a few days before the cruise and it saved time in the terminal. We walked u...

Miami, Florida: We arrived into Miami early in the morning and it could not be early enough as we could not wait to get off the SS Prison Boat. Well its not like we had a choice, since my wife was still “infected” she was given priority disembarkment and we were off the ship quickly. Not sure if it was because they didn’t want to get anyone else sick or just because they were tired of hearing us complain but it didn’t really matter since we were free. We gathered our luggage in the claim area and began the drive back home. The events of the last few days of the cruise really tarnished what started out as a remarkable vacation. Its hard to believe the amount of power they give to one person with no secondary opinion available. Seems like there should be a checks and balance system in place which there was not at the time. Once we returned home, I contacted Royal Caribbean’s corporate office and advised them of the experience. The actions of the crew were justified in their min...

Nassau, Bahamas: Today was the second day of the quarantine period and the ship had pulled into port in Nassau. We were originally scheduled to do the Nassau and Paradise Island excursion but thanks to the restrictions put in place by the medical staff, we were unable to attend. Today we were extremely grateful to have had a balcony room so at least we could get some fresh air. But the four walls of the room were closing in quickly and the stateroom began to feel more like a prison. As the quarantined continued, the rudeness and hostility of the staff increased. Our meals arrived to the stateroom cold and when asking for drinks, all we were told is they couldn’t do that. Well if we weren’t restricted to our rooms, we would have gotten it ourselves, but it wasn’t an option. By the end of the day, I was so furious with the situation I could not wait to return home in the morning. As the sunset over Nassau, we began the short trip back to Miami and off the prison boat. For photo...

Atlantic Ocean: Today marked our second day at sea and when our wonderful vacation turned bad. We encountered some rough seas after departing St Maarten and the ship was rocking pretty good. Between the rough seas and the drinks from the night before, my wife got seasick pretty bad. She went down to the clinic to see the doctor and get some medication to cure the seasickness. He misdiagnosed her with a viral disease rather then give her seasickness medication and quarantined my entire family to the stateroom. We were not allowed to leave the stateroom for any reason and all food would be delivered to us. During this time, the cabin attendant was not allowed to enter the cabin for clean linens or to clean the room and was ordered to keep an eye on us that we did not leave the cabin. Despite pleas to the medical staff explaining the circumstances of the night, the rhinovirus diagnosis remained an the quarantined restrictions we kept in place. We tried to speak to guest relatio...

Philipsburg, St. Maarten: Another day, another island. This time marking the first time we set foot on land not under control of the United States government. We will be visiting to separate countries on one island; Dutch St Maarten and French St Martin. We took the St Maarten Island Tour excursion. We boarded the air-conditioned bus and began our tour of the Dutch side of the island, traveling through the great salt pond and past Orient Beach. A stop was then made for shopping in Marigot. Forty-five minutes later we boarded the bus to continue the tour back to the ship. Once back onboard we headed to the Windjammer for dinner and then to Ixtapa Lounge for karaoke and drinks before heading back for bed. For more photos of St Maarten, visit my St Maarten photo page.

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas: Day four of the cruise began as the ship arrived at St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Living it Florida it was nice to see some elevation as the ship pulled closer to the island. Disembarkation here was much easier. We walked around the Havensight Mall by the port prior to beginning our excursion. For the excursion we book the Ultimate Island Experience. We boarded an open air bus and began a tour through the island. We drove along Skyline Drive and enjoyed the scenery that St. Thomas has to offer. First stop on the tour was Mountain Top overlook. We continued our climb through the mountains and made another stop at Drake’s Seat overlooking Magen’s Bay. After a brief stop, we began our descent from the mountains to Magen’s Bay where we took a two hour beach break. It was easy to see why Magen’s Bay has been rated one of the top beaches in the world, the water was crystal clear and refreshing. We then boarded the bus resumed our tour. The n...

San Juan, Puerto Rico: Today marked the first stop of the cruise, San Juan. We started the day off with breakfast at the Windjammer and then got ready for the day. As we approached the coast of Puerto Rico, we went up to the deck to watch the ship sail into the harbor. We past the Fort El Morro on the point as the ship made its way to the dock. We were greeted by Puerto Rican dancers on the pier as we arrived in port. Disembarkation at the pier was hectic, a mad rush and the lines were slow moving. Once we were off the ship we began our shore excursion. We chose the Old and New San Juan City Tour. The tour consisted of a bus ride through the city of San Juan passing by many of the landmarks of the city. The tour guide was great, provided a great historical perspective of the city while mixing in the right amount of humor to keep it interesting. The tour bus stopped at Fort San Cristobal and we spent some time touring the fort on foot. Once back onboard the bus, we heading i...