Caribbean Memories - the Bahamas

Before going to Antigua I'd only been to two islands in the Caribbean - the Bahamas and Anguilla. I thought I'd reminisce a little about those trips before I tell you about Antigua. Maybe doing this will help get my Antigua thoughts in order.

I've been to the Bahamas twice. Once for a three-night stay back in spring of 2003 and then again as a port of call on an NCL cruise last year.

Visiting the Bahamas on a cruise doesn't really give you a taste of the island because for the most part all anyone does is touristy stuff. On our stop in Nassau, my husband and I went to Atlantis. Of course it just happened to be a cold, rainy day and so we didn't get to partake in any of the watery fun, but we walked through their small aquariums and ate lunch and had a generally nice afternoon. But I wouldn't say that we were actually in the Bahamas or experienced the Bahamas that day.

I did get a little feel for what the island was actually like in 2003 when I went there by myself.
I had gone for two reasons -- 1.) I needed to get away from a bad time in my life and 2.) I wanted to prove to myself that I could travel alone.

I stayed at an all-inclusive on what I think must have been Paradise Island. It was a budget all-inclusive. I don't remember it as being very nice, thought it wasn't a dive either. I remember that I didn't like eating in the dining room because I was alone and at that point in my life I was not comfortable eating alone in front of other people. So the only place I could really get food was the poolside cafe, which had light food and I think I must have had chicken fingers for lunch and dinner at least half my stay there.

I had some good experiences there and proved to myself that I could do things I never knew I could. For instance, I walked from the resort to Nassau. That's a pretty long walk, requiring going over this very large bridge that bridges the distance between Nassau and Paradise Island. I remember that the walk there didn't feel too bad. I don't remember too much about what I did in Nassau though I'm pretty sure I went to a pirate museum.

When it was time for me to come back I was tired and was not thrilled about the long walk home. I remember going to look for a taxi, but the forwardness of some of the younger taxi drivers did intimidate me a little and when I asked how much it would cost, I did not have enough money. One of the drivers told me about the Jitney buses, which cost much less and are how the locals get around.

I won't lie. I was scared to try the local system, but I really didn't want to walk and for once in my life I didn't want fear to stop me from doing something. I can't remember whether I found a Jitney in town or flagged one down, though I think I remember starting to walk and getting into a Jitney outside of the town.

I do remember that the Jitney was only able to take me as far as the bridge and then I had to walk over the bridge. Thankfully, the resort I was staying at was pretty close to the bridge on the Paradise side.

I also remember that I was the only white person in the bus, that the driver had me sit up front with him and that we talked about me and where I was from and him and his life. But the thing that stands out most for me on that ride was that he was eating some local fruit, a berry/orange type of thing, and that he offered me one. Now I don't usually like fruite and I've read that eating local fruit is sort of like drinking local water. It could make you sick. But in that moment I wanted to be worldly. I wanted to be like all those people I've read about who are able to insert themselves into a "strange"world and adapt to it. So I took one of his fruits and ate it. It wasn't my cup of tea, but it wasn't terrible and I was able to finish it, smile and say thank you. I think he really appreciated that. Appreciated that I didn't just reject his offer, a taste of his local culture. And I was proud of myself for doing it.

Another stand out moment on that trip, was going to swim with dolphins. Funnily enough the actually swimming with dolphins wasn't the most amazing part -- although it is pretty awesome getting a kiss from a dolphin! I was the only person who wasn't with someone on the excursion, and people did look at me a bit oddly, or at least I thought they did. I remember sitting on the dock waiting for the boat to arrive that would take us to the dolphin center. I remember the sun beating down on my shoulders and sitting there apart from everyone and thinking "Wow, I'm by myself. I'm doing all of this by myself and it's really not so bad."

I think that was one of the most important moments in my life. Although the trip was a lonely one in some ways, realizing I could be by myself in a new place, that I could get around on my own, and feel relatively comfortable was monumental. This was the first time I had ever truly traveled by myself in a totally new and different environment.

It was on this trip that I made a decision that changed the rest of my life. It was while sitting by the pool on my last day, writing in my journal that I decided to leave everything I knew, everything that was familiar to me behind.

I was going to go on walkabout (see my next blog entry for more on this concept). I was going to find myself. And while I had been considering doing this for some time until that moment I had been thinking I would be gone for only three months. But after proving to myself that I could travel alone, and realizing on a practical level that being gone for three months was really the same as being gone six or nine or 12 months, in terms of job hunting and all that, I decided right then and there that I was going to go away for longer. I'm not sure if I settled on a year right then and there, but I did decide my walkabout would be longer than three months.

Though I don't think there's really that much to see and do in the Bahamas, other than real touristy stuff, the Bahamas will always hold a special place for me because in one very major way, my first trip there changed my life.

Fitting It All In - Part II

It's been almost two weeks since I wrote about trying to fit it all in and I thought I'd give a little update on what my progress has been.

Obvious to anyone who follows my blog, I haven't yet managed to fit writing three to four blog entries a week into my schedule. Last week I managed only one blog entry, and I was thrilled I'd managed even that. This week my goal is two entries! This is one and I intend to write a second on my bus ride into the city on Tuesday. I said it here -- so now I have to do it!

As for my novel, I haven't written a single word. I'd say its probably been over a month now since the last time I worked on my novel. I do intend to change that this week. My goal is very modest -- I'd like to finish the week having written at least 500 words. Even if I only write 100 a day, I should reach my goal.

I have, however, been pushing up my wake-up time. But what I've been doing with the extra time has not been the writing I had originally planned for. Instead, I've been exercising. Each day I've gotten up a little bit earlier and each day I've exercised on my elliptical a little bit more. I've finally reached my daily goal (40 minutes every morning) so now as I continue to get up a little bit earlier each morning, the extra time can finally go to writing. It won't be as much as I had wanted but it will be something, and I'll be feeling healthier, which I believe will contribute to better writing in both my personal and professional pursuits.

Although I'm not there yet, I refuse to feel discouraged. Each day I am making progress in the direction I want to be going. Eventually that progress will once again include working on my novel, but no matter what I'm moving in the right direction. How can I feel discouraged about that?

Two weeks from now, I will again post about my progress. Between now and then I pledge to have written at least three more blog entries and begun working on my novel again. You can hold me to it.

A Recent Delta Air Lines Experience

As I posted last week, I recently was away on vacation in Antigua. We made the plans back in June and bought our tickets, using frequent flier miles, on Delta at that time. We had booked non-stop fights between New York's JFK airport and Antigua, and were scheduled to leave on Wednesday, Nov. 25 (the day before Thanksgiving).

The Sunday before hand, on a whim, I decided to check our itinerary to make sure our seats were assigned and see if the times had changed at all. I log in and at the top in red letters it says that one or more pieces of our itinerary have been changed. As I look down to see what the new times are I notice something pretty amazing -- the only flight listed is my flight coming back from Antigua to New York. There is NO flight to Antigua.

Well, suffice it to say, I flew into a tizzy. How could they not alert me to the fact that they'd canceled our flight down to Antigua!! I immediately get on the phone to call Delta. Three hours later I'm still listening to elevator music and the message telling me they're experiencing higher than normal call volume. Let me say that again -- THREE HOURS LATER.

During that time, I do some online searches to see what my options might be. Delta has NO flights to Antigua on the day we're supposed to leave or the day before or the day after. Nor, do they have flights to other Caribbean islands (just in case we could maybe switch our resort). American Airlines has a couple of flights with seats left. United has one flight. There are no other available flights within that three-day period.

Then, I screw up. I have my phone on speaker phone so that I don't have to keep it to my ear for three hours. When I suddenly think I hear a real voice get on the line, I mistakenly hit the button to turn the phone off instead of just turning speaker phone off. I'm ready to start crying at this point. I'm ready to spend a couple thousand dollars to get us tickets to Antigua. But everyone is telling me Delta will put us on another flight so I should wait. Of course, I still have to get through to Delta!

The second time I call Delta I skip the 800 number and call the actual area code number. Within five minutes I'm talking to an actual person. She tells me that the earliest she can get me on a Delta flight is the 27th. I tell her, okay, put me on another carrier. At first she wants to put me on an American flight that leaves from JFK, flies to Puerto Rico where we'd have to wait 6 or 7 hours(!!!) before flying to Antigua and arriving late at night. Screw that! I tell her I want to be put on the American flight that leaves from Newark, flies to Miami, where it leaves less than 2 hours later and gets us to Antigua only 2 hours later than we were originally scheduled to arrive.

She looks it up, says she can do it and books it for us.

Ok, that's taken care of. I await my e-mail confirmation from Delta. When I get it I look at it to make sure everything is in order. Wait - the date of departure says Nov. 24, the day before we were supposed to depart.

I call Delta back (again using the area code number and not the 800 number). I get a different sales rep. I tell her what happened. She looks up the American flights and says, American doesn't have any seats on the flights departing on the 25th. Well, why didn't the other sales rep tell me this? The lady I'm talking to tells me she can put me on the Puerto Rico flight if I want. No, I don't want. I'd rather fly down a day early. Thankfully, I'm able to get the resort (St. James's Club & Villas) to let us come down a day early for a minimal fee.

In the end I suppose we should say thank you to Delta since we got to go down to Antigua a day early, and even avoided the day before Thanksgiving airline rush. But we were lucky we had the flexibility to do that. A lot of people wouldn't have. And it doesn't change the fact that Delta never even bothered to tell us the flight had been canceled.

When I got back from my vacation I sent them an e-mail with my complaint and was told their records showed they had tried to call and e-mail me way back on Oct. 8.

Unless their idea of trying to call is ringing once then hanging up, or getting voice mail and not leaving a message, there is no way they tried to call. I'd have noticed a message saying my flight had been canceled. And as for e-mail, I got the original itinerary via e-mail, I got the new itinerary via e-mail, I get all their advertisement e-mails and frequent flier monthly reports but I never got an e-mail telling me my flight had been canceled.

They can tell me their records tell them they contacted me until dooms day, they are lying. They made no effort to contact me -- and I'm an Elite flyer with Delta.

And to top it all off, when we got back one of our suitcases was soaked in fish juice! Don't even ask me how that happened. Luckily enough everything inside was okay, but the suitcase had to be thrown out. I included this incident in my e-mailed complaint. They didn't even mention it in their response.

I told them loud and clearly that they had lost me as a loyal customer. Given any choice at all, I will avoid Delta. I used to like them, now they definitely top my Worst Airlines list.

Delta doesn't care about its customers. They continue to make this very clear. Because of their size they know people usually won't have a choice and will have to fly them, so they put no effort into customer service, no effort into customer care.

Let me say here quickly, I do not mean the flight attendents who, as with any airline, can be either really good or not so good. I mean Delta Air Lines, the company, considers its customers to be worthless, as worthless as the bags they casually toss into the cargo hold of its planes.

If you have a choice, send Delta a message -- I am the reason you exist and if you won't treat me with the respect and service that I deserve, then I will take my business elsewhere.

Fitting it all in

As I said in my last post its been awhile since I've written for my blog. There are two reasons for my absence. The good one, which I mentioned a couple of days ago, was my long, long-awaited vacation to Antigua. The second reason – I got a job.

Now here's the tricky part – I should be jumping up and down for joy and I guess a part of me – the part that likes a regular, decently-sized paycheck – is very happy. But part of me is completely resentful. Though I am currently an independent contractor for the company I am working full time, that means 7 to 8 hour days – that means no more extra time to work on my novel, or my blog.

And that's where the disappointment and resentment comes in. I was enjoying writing my novel, I was enjoying making progress every day, seeing the story take shape and even starting to get a feel for my main character. My first reaction to realizing I had a fulltime job was fear. Fear that I was going to have to give up my dream of being an author. I've made more progress on my novel since I lost my job than before. I don't want to go back to making no progress.

So now I'm back to where I was before, at my old job. I can't write in the evenings because I can't write when my husband is in the house. He's just too distracting. And, I'll admit I also like evening TV. On the couple of evenings I have nothing to watch I try to get in some reading --- I have a book review due at the start of January and I haven't started reading the book yet.

In the first two weeks of this new job I've written not one single word for my novel, and until two days ago, I hadn't written a single blog entry since mid-November. I felt like I was starting to see my dreams dissolve.

And then I read a thread on the Sisters in Crime Guppies listserv about trying to fit it all in – work, family, writing. And reading how other people are managing was both inspiring and helpful. It helped me look at my life and my schedule and figure out how I can get it all in.

So I've decided a few things. First of all Saturday mornings before my husband wakes up will be writing time. I should be able to get in 2 to 4 hours before he gets out of bed. Second, every other Tuesday I go into New York City to visit my newborn niece. On the ride to the city I'll write blog entries (guess where I'm writing this??). I'll also try to write at least one blog entry every weekend. That should keep me at 3 to 4 posts a week, which is fine with me.

But most importantly I will start getting up earlier on the weekdays (I work from home so have no commute time) and write for an hour before starting work. Even if I only get 1000, 500 or 200 words written a day, that will be forward progress and that's all I can ask for.

I will not give up my dream just because I have to work a full-time job. Most authors work full-time jobs and are still successful writers. If they can do it, so can I. It's not going to be easy, it's going to take hard work – but as I've said before, writing IS hard work.

And I feel ready to tackle the challenge.

How do you fit it all in?

Cool Antiguan Waves

As some of you may have noticed, I haven't been blogging lately. There are several reasons for this. The best reason, which only accounts for 9 days of absence, was a long-awaited vacation to Antigua. I'll have much more to say on our trip later, but for today I thought I'd share a little video of what the waves were like our last few days there. Impressive, especially for the Caribbean (there was even a small group of surfers who took their boards out), but because of the rough sea we couldn't go in the water or enjoy the kayaking or pedal boats. But they were fun to walk around in, though afterward we had sand all over everything!

More on the Carnival Dream

Any time I’ve been on a Carnival cruise ship I’ve always felt like I’ve stepped into someone’s schizophrenic dream of multiple personalities. I’m truly curious to know if some psychologist has ever tried to analyze Joe Farcus, the man who has designed the interiors of virtually all, if not all, of Carnival’s ships, based solely on his interior designs. And though the new Carnival Dream is actually the most subdued I’ve ever seen – FOR A CARNIVAL SHIP – I still had that strange feeling as I moved from room to room that this ship just doesn’t know who it is.

I’ll give you a perfect example of what I mean. In the middle of any large cruise ship, you’ll find the elevator banks. On either side of the elevators are two stairwells. On the Dream, if you use the stairs on one side (I don’t remember which was aft and which was forward), you’ll find artwork at each landing that is surreal, storybook-like or fantastical. There was no rhyme or reason to the art, each was distinctly different from the others. OK, fine, there’s a theme there. BUT, if you then switch to the other staircase, the artwork is 20s- or 30s-era slightly cartoonish Hollywood-esque paintings. Similar images, though not the same, line every cabin corridor. Separately, I liked the two themes, but together they just don’t make any sense. There is no way for me to relate them to each other, and so I’m left feeling like two different people, with widely different tastes, chose the ship’s décor. I can’t help it I find it confusing.

And that feeling pretty much sticks with me any time I move through a Carnival ship, there’s just no way to make sense of the interior designs.

With that said, the Dream is the most staid of the three Carnival ships I’ve sailed on. There is glitz, glimmer and burnished metal, it really wouldn’t be Carnival without it, but there’s less of it. And I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. I spoke to several travel agents for an article who said pretty much the same thing. They were surprised by the ship, that it wasn’t as over the top as Carnival ships usually are. Pleasantly surprised.

Of course, as with any Carnival ship, there are lots of places to get a drink (they’re not known as booze cruises for nothing) and lots of activities to partake in. It is a Fun Ship, after all. One of the coolest things on the ship is the new water park, the largest on any cruise ship. Of course I barely got to see it as it was rainy and cold during my few hours on board the ship. But the water park has lots of water slides, splash zones, spray toys and the longest corkscrew water slide at sea. I wonder who will use it the most? Kids or adults?

One of the things I liked the most on the Dream was a new breakdance troupe that the cruise line has brought aboard, both for onstage entertainment, and as a roving troupe in the evenings teaching people basic breakdance moves. I gotta say, watching a drunk 40-something white guy trying to break dance is pretty funny!