2021 Caribbean

We had competed at the Mainstream, Advanced and (a new competition) Random Squares, where they put you together with others drawn at random. 

Square dancing is a very social activity, as well as a cardio exercise, a brain-teaser quiz and a religious event (they call squares to gospel music!)  The only normal competition is an occasional ‘Hot Hash’ tip, where the caller calls really quick and intricate patterns that all the squares attempt to perform (that is, Caller vs All the Squares).  Competition between squares is not part of the culture.

But to get Square Dancing into the Huntsman World Senior Games, they had to come up with a way to compete.  So at the games, most days are normal square dancing.  But one morning is set aside as the competition section.  In each category (Mainstream, Plus, Advance, and Random), all participating squares attempt to dance.  Three tips of 5 minutes each are called, each tip of increasing complexity.  If a square breaks down, the judges start the timer, and it runs until the square has formed normal lines ready to continue dancing, at which time the timer is stopped.  This year, an additional rule was added that if a square has broken down and formed lines AND they do not restart dancing to a call that can be done from lines, they are penalized 5 additional seconds.  At the end of the three tips, the square with the least amount of ‘down time’ is the Gold Medal winner.

We went to Mad Pitas to celebrate.  Then home for a nap and to start packing.  Lynn did a session at the Chiropractor's office and visited the Dixie convention center to see if we needed any souvenirs (we didn’t).

Friday 10/8

On our way out of town, we stopped by Albertsons for a Pie.  Mom has been complaining that she hasn’t had any pie for a long time.  So we got her an Apple pie, and delivered it.  Then on to Las Vegas International Airport.

We got there in plenty of time for a leisurely loading.  Once onboard, we taxied out to takeoff, and were 6th in line, when the captain announced that we needed to return to the gate.  It turned out that one of the passengers was refusing to wear their mask, so they had to have the Sky Marshal come remove the passenger from the plane.

That put us about 45 minutes late taking off.  Fortunately we had a good tailwind, and were only 30 minutes on arrival.  We got our baggage, jumped on the Hotel Shuttle and checked into Marriott Airport Courtyard.

Saturday 10/9

We slept in. Yesterday was the stress-day; if anything went wrong, our vacation could be a disaster.  But we got to Miami Courtyard Marriott at the Airport hotel just fine, so we celebrated by being lazy.

After a while, we finally got up.  It helped that we are now +2 hours ahead of St George time.  We went for a walk. We remembered why we love Southern Utah.  It may be hot, but it’s dry.  The humidity in Miami is thick.

There are not many commercial eateries around.  There was a Marriott hotel, a Courtyard Marriott, a Fairfield Marriott, and some other Marriott.  Fortunately, a few blocks down the street was a Latin Café with a bustling crowd of people, always a good sign.  We went in and saw couples and families, so you could tell this was a safe place.  We ordered breakfast, which was about the same price as last nights dinner, but way better.

We got some ‘Cuban toast’, which seemed to be a big thing on the menu, but it was just fair, to our palette.

Back to the hotel, where we met the group, who were gathering in the lobby.  We met Bonnie, the travel agent, and Mike Sikorsky, the caller.  We were soon on the bus.  A fairly short trip thru Miami took us to the harbor where we saw a BUNCH of really big cruise ships.  The Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas ship is one of the biggest. 

Sunday 10/10

We went to the Main dining area for breakfast.  We both had pancakes and bacon.  I mean, how can you mess that up?

They messed it up.  The bacon tasted strange to us. The pancake batter must be very different than what we are used to.  We both disliked it.  The Cranberry Juice was also just fair.  It was so fair, we made comments to the maitre d on the way out.

Lynn had a pedicure appointment back at the spa. Mark stopped by the service desk and arranged for fancy-restaurant reservations for Italian and Steaks.  It was a good thing he stopped for assistance, because the Steak restaurant only had availability at 8:30pm on the day requested.  So the service desk switched the dates so we could eat at our normal time: 5:30

Mark also arranged for shuttle service to the airport at the end of our cruise.  It’s better to arrange all this stuff early on, rather than waiting until the last minute to run around with your head cut off.

While Mark was waiting on Lynn, he stopped by the Schooner Bar for a Sudoku game challenge..

Then we went back to the Serenade room for more Square Dancing.

Since we had such terrible luck with breakfast at the main dining area, we went up to the 16th deck to the Wind Jammer, which is the buffet dining area.  Lynn had a Caribbean Jerk chicken and Mark had Indian curry. They were both delicious.  Ice cream for desert along with Cinnamon bread pudding.

In the afternoon, we did more Square Dancing. Which was at the Plus level, except for the last 30 minutes, Mike called a couple Advanced A2 tips. There were 5 couples doing advanced, so we swapped in.  Apparently, some parts of the country don’t do swap in, because two of the  couples weren’t as happy about that.

We went to the Main dining area for dinner, which was much better.  We both had Beef Tenderloin, which was great.  Mark had carrot cake and Lynn enjoyed an apple tart a la mode.

Back for more Square Dancing, then a 10:30pm show: 1977 A Thrilling Adventure on Ice

Monday 10/11

We slept in until 9 since this is a Sea day.  We went up to the Wind Jammer for breakfast and were joined by Roberta from West Jordan Utah.

We square danced until noon.

We were still full from breakfast so we relaxed in our cabin. Then up to the top levels where we could look out at the endless sea.  And we aren’t even in the middle of the ocean; we’re ‘close’ to the Caribbean islands.  It’s quite windy on the top deck.  It was fun watching the daring get in the tunnel-slides that descend some 3-stories.

The Round dance cuer offered a West Coast Swing introduction class, so we attended.  It’s a fun rhythm, but a little non-standard, so we all had a bit of trouble getting it.  But it’s really fun to watch those proficient in it.

Afterwards, we walked through Central Park, which is a tree/bush lined open-air section of the boat.  There was a bit of mist, and some breeze, so it was very comfortable.

Tonight we ate dinner at Jamies Italian restaurant.  The food was good, although too plentiful,  It seriously lacked atmosphere.  The music was 60’s American, not Italian, so much for ambiance.  Lynn gave feedback to two managers regarding the music.  They commiserated, but informed her that there was nothing they could do about it.  Mark had the Ribs, and Lynn ordered the Ravioli.  But when it came, Lynn took one bite of the ribs and swooned “This is to die for!”.  So we traded.  The Tiramisu dessert was just fine, but Lynn’s chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup was the best!

Then, down to dance.  One of our new friends reported on how they enjoyed a performance by Jeff Tracta: Impressionist, so we made reservations for the 9:30 show.  We danced for an hour and then went upstairs to the Royal Theater.

Jeff was a great impersonator.  He did tons of great impressions and sang fun songs. He impersonated Archie and Edythe Bunker, and several old time tv personalities, a few cartoon characters, a deceased actress who was talking about heaven and how she was interested in learning who God was; then he went into a lengthy, excellent George Burns impression which had a lot of jokes about getting old. 

Tuesday 10/12

This is our first ‘Port’ day, and we arrive at St Maartens in the morning.  Apparently we weren’t ‘Cleared’ for landing, so the barge pushed the ship into dock, but not all the way; we were about 1 foot away until we cleared.

We tried breakfast up in the Wind Jammer.  It was not as good as lunch yesterday.  Mark took small portions and still left food behind.  The best part was the orange juice.

We walked off the ship onto the dock and then into the Port area.  There we found an information booth, some typical T-shirt shops, and tax-free jewelry and alcohol stores.  We thought about walking into town, which is a mile.  But it was past 10, and our St Maartin island tour was at 12:15, so we went back to our cabin instead.

We skipped lunch and ended up on the dock in line with some of our new Square Dance tour friends.  We talked and laughed as we made our way closer to the bus loading zone.  Then, everyone started pulling out their tour tickets!

We didn’t have tickets.  All we had was the Trip Reserved note in our Royal Caribbean application, which clearly says: Your Ticket.

I quickly re-read what we were instructed to bring, and it clearly did not say "Bring your ticket."  So of course, I had to discuss and explain and they finally filled out a form.  So we were able to take the tour on the same bus as our friends.

The island is quite small.  Half is governed by the Dutch and half by the French.  The Dutch side has the Cruise ships, and English is all you need to speak to get a job.  So most of the jobs are on the Dutch side.  On the French side, you have to be able to speak French to get a job, and there are fewer jobs to be had.  Hurricane Irma did real damage to the island a few years ago, and some homes and buildings still have not fixed their roofs.  They had no snakes thanks to the Mongoose that were brought to the island to take care of the snake problem.  Now, they have a Mongoose problem; they eat the chickens and eggs.

We returned to the ship and stopped by the ship service desk.  I met with a supervisor and explained our newbee cruiser status and how we had followed the instructions on our tour reservation list of things to bring, but were very surprised to learn at the bus we needed tickets, which were not mentioned in the writeup.  I suggested that this be added to the tour writeup section that talks about what you need to bring.  She said they had just last month done a review of this and my issue had not come up.  But she was very clear that she would bring it up right away, and she agreed completely that my suggestion should be implemented.

We then went to the pizza stand for a couple slices of pizza to tide us over until our Chop Grill fancy restaurant reservation at 5:30.

Our fellow square dance tourists are recognizing us more and more, and it’s fun and nice to stop and talk with them.

Our second Fancy Restaurant reservation was at the Chop Grill restaurant.  It was a much better experience than the Italian one.  The Maître D of all Fancy Restaurants stopped by our table to introduce himself and let us know we could call him directly if we had any questions or concerns.  We mentioned how we did enjoy the Italian food, but the music was completely wrong.  He explained that the ‘chef’ for Jamies Italian was a British citizen, and thus Jamies wasn’t true Italian but a style of Italian that the chef developed.  He said the Chop Grill was a much more fancy style.

We went up to the top deck to watch the St Maartin shoreline fade into the dusk as we sailed away.  Then downstairs for more Square Dancing.

Afterwards, we went up to the Jazz on 4 club and heard a jazz group play some Earth Wind And Fire, Tower of Power, and Stevie Wonder; Jazz style.  It was fun, good and LOUD.

Wednesday 10/13

Lynn went to breakfast with another square dance couple while Mark slept in.  Mark stopped by the pool area and obtained 2 beach towels.

We left the boat for our bus tour of St Thomas.  Another of our square dance friends, Roberta, was also scheduled for the tour, so we sat together.  We were 18 people in a  20-person open taxi.  

So, the next stop was the ship.  We did a little shopping at the booths in the port area but found nothing we wanted to purchase.  We returned to the ship for a shower (to get the salt off) and some lunch.  Then, back to the cabin for a much needed nap.

We ate dinner in the Main Dining Room.  It was very noisy, so it was difficult for Lynn.  Mark returned to the cabin to get her noise-cancelling headphones, so then it was bearable.  Mark asked the Head Waiter if they would be serving Indian food; he wanted Chicken Tiki Masala.  After they checked, they let us know that Mark could indeed have it as an off-menu item.

We attended a performance of Mark Preston, who was a member of the Letterman group.  He sang some old familiar songs and was a real showman.

Then down to the Square Dance conference room.  We danced until 10:30, when we left for a performance of HiRO, an interesting Aquatic Theater show only available on massive ships like Symphony of the Seas. But alas, the high seas rolling the ship meant they had to cancel the show for the evening.  On the way back to dance, we stopped off for a couple slices of pizza.  By the time we returned to the dance, they were closing up.  So we stopped by the Jazz theater, and guitar restaurant and Studio B for the Red: Nightclub experience.

We finally went up to the top decks to finish getting 10,000 steps for the day.

Thursday 10/14

We slept in then went to the Windjammer for breakfast. We saw folks riding the Zip-line, and decided to participate. Mark had slip on shoes and needed to change them, so Lynn went first. She was a little apprehensive and waited for someone else to go before her so she could see how it worked. After that, she went twice! Mark fetched his lace shoes and went next. It was so fun he went twice also.

After our morning square dance, we gathered in the Aquatheater area for a group photo.  We all jumped on the Merry-go-round, and then had a spicy cheese-filled hot dog on an everything bun, followed up by a scoop of Mango-Fiesta and Triple-Chocolate ice cream scoop (for Mark and Lynn, respectively).

We stopped by the Service desk to find out about obtaining luggage tags, then went to the ‘Next-Cruise’ booth to place a reservation for Mike Sikorsky’s 2023 Alaska Cruise.  We then went back down for the afternoon dance.

After dinner, we had a bit of a wait until dancing.  First, we went to the ‘Bionic Bar’, an area where robots make your requested alcohol drinks.  We used chairs from there to sit and listen to the Symphony of the Seas Band play Big Band era tunes.  Square Dance couples wandered by and we talked with them.  We then joined Craig and Marion for a Royal Caribbean photo shot.  Next it was up to Central Park to hear some Classical Guitar.  

Finally, off to Studio B ice rink for the iSkate 2.0 performance.  It was skaters performing to their favorite music.  The skating was great; the music wasn’t really our style.

At 10:10pm, we made it to the conference center for the last night of dancing.  We made some nice square dance friends on this trip.

It was after midnight before we turned in.

In the evening, we attended a special performance done on the Symphony of the Seas called Flight: Dare to Dream.  Done in their Broadway theater, it presents the history of flight.  At the finale, they fly a Bi-plane from the stage over the audience.

We returned home with new friends and great memories.   We highly recommend traveling with Mike Sikorsky and plan to travel with him again in July 2023.  Destination:  ALASKA.