I�m actually not quite sure where to start, so I guess I�ll begin with the mundane details and go from there. Last week I took a 5-day cruise on Royal Caribbean starting from Ft. Lauderdale Florida, going southwest around Cuba to Ocho Rios in the northern part of Jamaica then due east to Georgetown in the Grand Cayman Islands then back east around Cuba then northwest to return to Ft. Lauderdale. Although it is not quite as good as the 7 day cruise I took about a decade back which launched from Miami and had additional stops in Labadee, Haiti and Cozumel Mexico, it was still a great trip nonetheless.

If you have never taken a cruise before it�s one of those things that I totally recommend doing at least once, if not more so doing this lifetime. You are basically in a floating hotel, with room, board and close to 90% if not more of the activities covered for you and those of almost every age that are coming along in the trip. It sure beats the holy hell out of that 5 day family road trip to see that infamous huge ball of yarn that can be seen from miles away (including all sights in between). I�ve never actually been to the aforementioned ball of yarn, but if you have been on any kind of family road trip that�s longer than a day or two on the road, you know that the boredom can take its toll.

Given my track record in terms of picking up women in general, I didn�t really have any huge expectations on scoring any �flings� this trip out. It was really more about partying, unwinding, defiling my diet in more ways that can possibly be imagined and of course getting some beach, water and sun, things I don�t get to see very much of from the daily grind from my cubicle.

One thing you don�t have to worry about during a cruise is what to eat. You can dine up to 3 times a day in the main dining area where you can order from a menu restaurant style. There�s also buffet-type dining that�s open for the better part of the day and for the late night diners there�s room service or the fast food stand that�s open late that serves burgers, hot dogs and pizza. Not the most elegant of dining options but when you are drunk and staggering back to your stateroom you aren�t all that picky.

Booze, unfortunately is not covered in the price of admission so if drink like I do you can wind up running a monumental tab. Although the do sell booze in the duty-free shop, the boat cleverly holds that and all booze you buy from the duty-free and from the ports for you until after the voyage. Those bastards! Of course some clever people could probably get away with sneaking some vodka in an Aquafina or Dasani bottle, but I didn�t have any of that. It was after all my vacation, the first real vacation in many years.

So I spent most of the daylight time on the pool deck either swimming or soaking up those �healthy� ultraviolet rays. Although I do have some base color being ethnic and all and I did slap on healthy amounts of Bullfrog Waterproof SPF 36, I still somehow managed to get myself mildly burned on the chest and shoulders. This could probably have been avoided by reapplying the sunblock every hour or so in the sun, which was exactly what I did the last 3 days of the trip and spending more time in the water than baking in the sun. I didn�t get quite as dark as I could get, but I did wind up getting some nice color anyhow. Yay for me!

My nights were spent almost exclusively at the Viking Crown, the dance club located at the upper deck, which overlooks the pool area. It�s 18 and up to get in and 21 and up to drink. Once upon a time you only needed to be 18 to drink, but I guess those days are over. There were also other places to enjoy drinks like the Bolero Lounge where they had a live band that played Latin music and had a bartender that made really good Mojitos.

At the aft of the Viking Crown was the Cigar Lounge, which opened up at 10:00pm a little before the main club opened. I brought a couple of Dominican Cohiba Cigars with me, but it turns out the lounge is the only place I could smoke them indoors on the ship. It�s probably a good thing though because I met quite a few interesting people in that lounge that I would not have otherwise met including a very interesting couple whom I sat with while they shared a cigar.

It was obvious the husband was the primary cigar aficionado, but that didn�t stop the wife having a taste of the cigar. Although I�m no marriage expert, the fact that they indulged in the same interest gave me the warm fuzzy feeling that their marriage would go far. Well that and the fact that they have 13 year old twin daughters and despite that they both still looked very attractive and very affectionate towards each other. We discussed the vacation and how enjoyable cruises are. After they finished thier cigar they bade me farewell and took thier leave.

I myself was enjoying my cigar with a snifter of warmed Remy XO Cognac. Although I wasn�t sharing that moment with anyone in particular, I couldn�t help but feel that I was indeed enjoying the good life as the flavor of the oakey cigar smoke flowed over the tip of my tongue followed shortly thereafter by the smooth yet flavorfully aromatic cognac.

Anyway, there�s more to this little adventure, but it�s the end of the work day so instead of dumping it all in one huge entry I guess I�ll have to spread it out into at least one if not two more entries. So I�ll just have to leave it at �To Be Continued��