~ [May 26 2002- June 2 2002 - Cruise to the Eastern Caribbean on the M.S. Paradise] ~
7 blissful days on the Carnival M.S. Paradise for the largest group of asians on the entire ship. So here's how the vacation went (according to me - Michelle). At 4:30am Sarah, Tina, Tom, Trish, John, Mom, Dad, and I left for SJC airport and there we met Auntie Huong and Uncle Can. We flew to Miami wherewe met with Uncle Tuc and Auntie Josianne, Uncle Pho and Auntie Xuyen, Christine and Scott, Lindsay, Hailey, and Andrew. The next morning, we left on a shuttle headed for the ship. We got settled in our rooms and started our vacation. Below are some pictures I (Michelle) took with my digital camera, just to prove it all happened ^_- And here's a summary of the islands we visited:
[ Nassau, Bahamas ]
I haven't been to Nassau since I was maybe 8 years old. And this time I don't personally know that much, since the sisters, brothers, and i never left the ship. But mom has pictures of the kind of rain they get in the Bahamas. I'll try and post those sometime. Tom, Scott, and I almost got off the ship... until we saw the people getting back on. Mom said she was up to her ankles in water. One lady was pushing her stroller into the ship and the cupholders in the stroller were filled to brim with water. It was a little more than some light rainfall. I kind of wish I had gone outside, though. :/ oh well.
[ San Juan, Puerto Rico ]
Hooray for SUNSHINE! In fact, it was super hot. The pictures of the mask, the pigeon park, the butterflies, and the ship in port are all from PR. We went into stores like Coach, Polo, Guess, Claire's (a store full of inexpensive hair accesories and jewelry for girly teeny-boppers. It looked exactly like the Claire's in the states.) and Radioshack. The night that we left PR, they were holding the Miss Universe pageant which I watched a little of on the tv in the parents' cabin. Miss Russia won, I think. Overall, a nice place.
[ St Thomas / St John ]
Bootifow! the weather was nice and mild probably b/c it was slightly overcast for the first part of the day. We all (edcept for Christine and Andrew who just went shopping) took a ferry over to St John and went to Trunk Bay. Crystal blue waters and fish are friendly (maybe too friendly. I was afraid they were going to eat my legs >_<) Everyone swam a little and even Sarah was getting some sun. We didn't get to stay very long, but it was still nice. Lindsay and Hailey had picked up some snails from the rocks and wanted to take them home. Eew.
The rest of the trip was at sea. We all relaxed and Trish and Uncle Can got sunburned >_< ouch. The food was very tasty and the service was great. Our waiters, Sugita and Iaon were very nice and took care of everyone well. I have to say that the food at the Gala Buffet wasn't that great, but unlike what Josh ("the guy that never shows up" according to Lindsay and Hailey) the cruise director said, the food in the Elation dining room (the show room) was the same as the buffet in the Destiny dining room. NOT TRUE! But I think one of the things I really enjoyed was the sushi bar. One night, lindsay had 22 pieces of sushi. Larry the sushi chef was really nice and would always give the kids extra pieces on their plates and Andrew always got just plain rice sushi (rice and seaweed and nothing else). Monika was very nice as well. Always smiling and very friendly. She made the towel elephant I took a picture of. Anyway, I'm sure everyone had a good time on the trip.
for larger photos, here's a zipfile of the photos as they were originally posted. filesize: ~6Mb. 600x480
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