Western Caribbean (November, 2011) — 6 day Western Caribbean cruise (Ft. Lauderdale roundtrip), aboard RCI’s Navigator of the Seas.

Of course, I’m still sadly eight trips behind… some from as long ago as 2008 (including our first voyage on Navigator). The good news is that I have most of the rest of 2010’s and 2011’s photos ready for posting soon. So, I’m hoping to get more caught-up this holiday season (yeah, right).

It’s a diver’s paradise, has attractive beaches with jewel colored blue waters, and serves as an offshore banking center (with an economy that was obviously better and less singularly on tourism than many islands in this part if the world). Downtown was populated with a mix of modest size office buildings and the usual contingent of duty free shops. In all, we spent a couple of hours exploring the city and then returned to the ship in time for lunch with Pop.

After lunch, Libby, Emerson, and I engaged in a rousing game of mini golf. This was followed by Emerson’s afternoon nap. We spent the balance of the afternoon visiting with Libby’s parents.

Dinner was once again in the MDR. Service–which had been slow other nights–was positively glacial (pre-global warming) in its pace. After 30 minutes without so much as an order taken (while watching other tables eat), I finally had enough and told our waiter that this was completely unacceptable. That’s very rare for me, but I was resoundingly “pissed off” (much like with the boarding debacle on Day #1). I can live with slow service without a toddler along, but it’s like watching a bomb tick down without any defusing activity with Emerson on hand.

I must say visually, as a ship, I like Navigator. Yet, I think she’s far from the best run ship in RCI’s fleet. I don’t know if that’s a function of her size/class or if it’s unique to this ship?

Today’s box score: +1 country

Emerson in Grand Cayman:

As usual, I plan to blog along the way.