Williamsport Web Developer Weblog

The last full day of the cruise was another "Fun Day" at sea because we needed to sail back to Jacksonville Florida. I saw VioletKitty after breakfast walking through the Lido deck pool area. Then I attended a Debarkation Talk in the Astoria Lounge where the customs rules and regulations were explained to us and luggage handling was described. Our cruise director Paul Santley kept it amusing.  The other YouTubers were sitting on a balcony but I did not join them because I had a better seat. After that we had a group photo taken. We really did not take much video or photos of each other. Everyone kind of did their own thing. This did not make it much of a gathering but a cruise vacation offers a lot of other activities so I did not miss my friends much. On the other hand, it would have been slightly sad to have gone all alone. I was just as thrilled to meet my favorite vloggers as I was with the cruise sights. I ate lunch alone and then wandered around until I found the group in the Wheelhouse Bar & Grill. Then I went to my cabin and watched a bit of the movie The Matrix on TV.

I’ve been without TV for over a year so I did watch a little TV on the cruise. They had channels that featured the filmed activities onboard the ship but none of us appeared in those videos so I was not interested in buying the DVD. I started to think about going home and realized that I needed to print out my boarding passes. This was a problem because the only Internet access was expensive and excruciatingly slow. Internet access at sea is slower than dial up modem. This was a big complaint among us YouTubers because we need our Internet. Of course, when they do have good Internet access during a gathering they tend to get on Stickam in their individual hotel rooms rather than meet face to face. This has become a popular joke but it helps the people who aren’t there to participate. Anyway, I was able to check in on the US Airways web site but could not print my boarding passes at that time.

At dinner I had escargot and the seafood platter but later I regretted it because the greasy breading gave me terrible acid indigestion later that night. After dinner I went back to the Internet cafe where I finally got my boarding passes printed out.

The stage show that night was X-Treme Country. I hate country music and cannot imagine it ever getting extreme unless you mean extremely bad. Fortunately VioletKitty wanted to do some karaoke that night so I waited in the Endless Summer Lounge for her. She can sing pretty well and I thought she was the best performer onboard. Carnival should consider hiring her as a cruise director. The lounge was virtually empty except for us so I thought it was a little awkward. VK sang the theme to the Love Boat and I found that very funny.

That was pretty much the end of the cruise. The only hitch on my trip home was a one hour delay for my final flight to Williamsport from the Philadelphia airport. I had to move to a different boarding gate. Fortunately I took the opportunity to buy a book at a newstand. I bought Michael Crichton’s book "Next" which is very cynical about genetic testing. I found it disturbing that some mean medical professionals would order genetic testing and then tell their patients about the terrible genetic diseases they will suffer from later in life. It is very cruel to inform a patient of that and ruin the rest of their life long before the disease manifests itself.

My vacation was perfect in every way and I am very grateful to the YouTube community for enticing me to do something a little unusual. I have to admit that participation with the YouTube community can really change your life. You can meet and get to know people from England, Australia, and Canada. You can do more traveling to meet interesting characters. And you can make many friends.  

On Tuesday we proceeded to our next port of call, Nassau Bahamas were many James Bond film scenes were shot. I had breakfast alone again in the Wheelhouse Bar. Everyone else must have slept late. Then I sat in a deck chair on the Lido deck to watch Nassau come into view. We did not arrive there until 11:00 AM in the morning. I got my camcorder and filmed the ship docking at Nassau. There were two other cruise ships already in port; the other Carnival ship Sensation and the Royal Caribbean International Majesty Of The Seas. I saw Max Smith on the aft Lido deck taking photos of Nassau. I also ran into Onemon22 and his wife and had a picture taken with them. The Majesty Of The Seas cruise ship had a rock climbing thing high up on its deck for the truly adventurous. It was absolutely frightful to imagine climbing up there and then falling down into the sea from such a height. You would not get me to try that, not even on a dare!

I went to the Wheelhouse Bar for lunch where I ran into our Maitre D’ Joseph, who was a colorful character. He should do YouTube. He kept saying "It’s showtime!" in a funny accent during dinner shows. But I think he was Canadian so his accent must have been fake. He also reminded me of the main vampire in the 30 Days Of Night movie. I think I was the only person at our table to hand him a gratuity in the envelope provided. It was kind of rude of the others to neglect to do that. I thought I was being cheap to only slip him $5.00!

After that I disembarked to go on my excursion, the Discover Atlantis on Paradise Island tour which included the aquarium. I shot some video of the cruise ships from the dock where they really towered above us. I ran into VioletKitty with LittlePandaExpress but they were going on a different excursion. I took a glass bottomed boat to Paradise Island after a long walk around the pier. The boat was more like a ferry and the glass bottom was just deep wells that were not visible from my seat. Once on Paradise Island I followed the tour guide though a lovely alley of attractive shopping cottages. I did not stop at any of them on the way back because they all looked expensive. We passed some large yachts that looked like something out of a James Bond movie. One was gold and black like some kind of high tech toy.

At the hotel we walked through the casino and saw massive sculptures that the guide claimed were valued at a million dollars each. I should have some video of that. Then we walked though an underground aquarium where I saw sharks, Monterrey eels, giant sting rays and huge fish that looked really prehistoric.  It was pretty amazing! The Atlantis Hotel is where the rich and famous stay so it was like getting a tour through the world of the super wealthy. I’m glad I was with a group or I would have felt out of place. This tour required a lot of walking. Atlantis is a mythical island in the ancient world so the exhibits of Atlantis technology were all fantasy. After the tour was over I had to find my way back to the ferry, Captain Hardings. I was over dressed in a long sleeve shirt and dress slacks but at least this kept me from getting sunburned. My face did get very sunburned on this excursion.

When I got back to Nassau I found a Starbucks and bought a Frappuccino.  I needed something to cool me off. Then I went shopping. I bought a pirate teddy bear at the Hard Rock Cafe. I also bought a large t-shirt but did not notice that it was a woman’s t-shirt so it did not fit me. I ran into Onemon22 and his wife there. Then I bought a leather belt because my airport security belt had no holes and was difficult to cinch up tight. I paid a lot of money for that belt and it made me very uncomfortable. Then I found a bookstore and bought "A History Of The Bahamas" by Michael Craton and a hardcover book "The Paradise Island Story" by Paul Albury. This book was very expensive at $35.95 for 136 pages. It does have some nice photos of the Atlantis Resort including all the sculptures I saw. Prior to this trip I don’t recall ever hearing about this resort’s existence. It simply never made it on my radar. When I returned to the ship I had dinner with just the Canadians because everyone else remained ashore. I was tempted to go back to Nassau but Onemon22 told me everything was shut down anyway so I did not bother. That night I saw the guest talent show in the Astoria Lounge. I recognized one guest by the name of Blanche because she is a spry elderly lady who plays the harmonica and dances a jig. She was very entertaining at karaoke.

Nassau is a foreign country so this represents my first trip outside the United States! It reminded me of James Bond movies because some of those films have scenes shot there. Too bad I did not have enough time to do some espionage!

On Monday we made our first port of call at Key West around 7:00 AM. I had breakfast at the Wheelhouse Bar on the Lido deck as usual. By the time I got there we were already docked at Key West so I could look out over the buildings. I saw Pipistrello and his friends at another table but I figured they wanted to be alone. You definitely don’t want to invade Pipistrello’s space! Anyway, I wanted to shoot some video of Key West and the tropical islands. I filmed some close ups of the cruise ship docked behind our ship which had a helicopter pad. I also got some close ups of an island resort off the port side and the numerous ships in the aqua blue Caribbean sea.

About an hour or so before my Old Town Trolley Tour, I disembarked from the ship. I had to swipe my sail and sign card and stop to have a photo taken at the gangplank. The crew were always taking photos of the passengers with someone dressed as a pirate or island girl in order to sell you those photos in the onboard photo gallery. I’m not that attractive so I was uninterested in these photo opportunities. I shot some video of the cruise ship once I was on the Mallory Square. I’m surprised the other YouTube vloggers did not shoot more video. You would think they would want to vlog at exotic locations to gain subscribers. You would think they would want to get a lot of video so they’d have something to edit. It was a valuable opportunity to get stock footage and really fantastic video but everyone seemed to be entirely in vacation mode. I just appreciated the immense beauty of the tropical islands and I wanted to capture it on video. I have a calendar with gorgeous photos of tropical islands that you can dream about so I was not about to waste this opportunity to capture the experience of actually being there.

The trolley tour was a great way to absorb the essence of Old Town Key West. I got to see a lot of the buildings and sites this way. I recorded the entire tour! Key West is slightly surreal because it is like a quaint, tropical suburbia. It has many little cottages and it seems very intimate and unassuming except for the lush vegetation and occasional signs of great wealth. You would almost think you were in a small town with a flare for the tropical. I wish I could live there but even the most ramshackle shack would cost a small fortune. The town is rich in literary history. I saw Ernest’s Hemingway’s house and a hotel where Tennessee Williams wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire".  Apparently even Robert Frost lived in Key West.

This was very special for me because I am a bookworm and I’ve read a lot of literature. I’m not that into Ernest Hemingway who has become an icon of how a writer should live and write. However, I do admire Tennessee Williams. I’ve read a lot of drama (not YouTube drama, real drama) and plays are my favorite form of literature. I’ve even seen "A Streetcar Named Desire" performed live at our local community theater. After the cruise, I learned that there is a Tennessee Williams Theater and Performing Arts Center in Key West. Unfortunately I did not know that such a place existed and I don’t think I have any video of it. My favorite Tennessee Williams play is "Glass Menagerie" and I have the film version that we were shown in high school on DVD. I can relate to the painfully shy girl who lived in her own fantasy world. That is a great play, really very moving. The cruise ship should have performed that play on their stage to give the passengers an appreciation of Key West’s cultural significance.

After the trolley tour I had to be back aboard by 2:30 PM or be left behind so I only stopped to buy a large counch shell and a Key West t-shirt. I had to go through security to get back aboard. My shopping bags had to be x-rayed and I used my passport as photo id.

It was at this point that a very amusing incident occurred. I met this very drunk female passenger outside the elevators and she aggressively hit on me! She kept asking me if I could see her Key West t-shirt and then she asked me if I was alone, if I was single, and she asked for my room number. She was really wasted! I was smiling broadly out of nervousness and because drunks are funny to me. Women never come onto me like that! I thought I had entered the twilight zone. Anyway, she asked me to take her dancing at 11:00 but she did not know where the only dance club was located and I guess she sobered up before then. It would have a major score if I was the only person to get lucky on the cruise.

I shot some video of the ship leaving Key West although I was a little distracted by the prior incident. At dinner that night there was a conga line which VioletKitty enthusiastically joined. She can really get into the spirit of things. However she got very sunburnt on Key West. I had a lot of seafood. After dinner we went to Pipistrello’s stateroom and talked a while. It was very messy but there were three of them jammed into a little cabin. Pipistrello treated us to some of his rum cake which was very good. Not enough to get anyone drunk. Later we met Onemon22 and Max Smith at the comedy show which featured Dean Gains and Tia Thompson at the Astoria Lounge. After that I went to bed. I did not have any trouble sleeping because the gentle rocking of the ship tended to make me drowsy.

On the second day of the YouCruise, the ship spent the day at sea heading towards Key West. I had breakfast at the Wheelhouse Bar on the Lido deck, aft. I met Max Smith there and we talked awhile until Onemon22 and his wife showed up. She remarked how you could tell the ship was rolling by the horizon of the sea which was moving above and below the guardrail. Since we did not set sail on time in order to wait for late passengers, I think we were going fast to make up for lost time. Later VioletKitty and LittlePandaExpress joined us for breakfast and Pipistrello and his friends stopped by.

After breakfast I attended a Ship & Port Information Talk in the Astoria Lounge about the excursions we could book at each port. When that was over I made my way to the Information desk and purchased tickets for excursions on Key West and Nassau. I had to provide my credit card information for my sail and sign card which I thought I did online.

There wasn’t much to do on this day at sea. I filmed the ship’s wake because nothing else was visible. I ate lunch alone in the Wheelhouse Bar on the Lido deck, aft. Then I listened to a few tunes and watched a few videos on my Pocket PC while sitting outside the Galax Z Dance Club on Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street was a deck that was supposed to look like Mardi Gras on the sea. It had a trolley car with fake rails, a photo gallery, the Rainbow Club Casino, The Bistro, the Endless Summer Lounge for the karaoke kraziness, the Galax Z Dance Club with some arcade games in the back, and the Islands In The Sky bar.

Dinner was supposed to be formal so I wore a jacket, tie, and dress shoes which I brought. Onemon22 had to rent a tuxedo and the others just tried to look well dressed. The dining room staff sang a song. I think it was an Italian song which did not impress Pipistrello. I sat next to VioletKitty and had two servings of lobster tail. After dinner we saw the Standing Room Only show which was a Broadway review of show tunes. This did not impress me because that is standard theater fare that I could find at home. After that I went on deck and filmed some footage at night. I think I filmed the wake of the ship and maybe the smoke stack. There wasn’t anything else to film or do. This was the most boring day. I saw a country and western band perform in the Islands In The Sky bar and then I attended the Late Night Comedy show of Tony Esposito at 12:00 AM in the Astoria  Lounge. After the show I bought one of his CDs and he autographed it for me.  There were three comedians and they all sold their comedy CDs after their show. I don’t know if this is something struggling comedians do. It seemed kind of cheesy to me. Like they don’t get paid enough for a gig and have to hawk their wares on cruise ships. They should promote themselves on YouTube.

I have returned from my fabulous vacation aboard the Carnival cruise ship, Celebration. This trip was suggested by a YouTube vlogger, Pipistrello, as a fun way to have a gathering. The voyage was absolutely perfect. I did not have any problems or disappointments.

Since a blog can serve as a journal, I want to extensively document my vacation with detailed blog posts. If I don’t write everything down the trip will become a blur later on and I don’t want to forget anything.

I feel this was the most awe inspiring experience of my life. Some people may be less impressed by a cruise to the Caribbean, but I tend to be very sensitive to my surroundings and virtually absorb the essence of a place. I think I have a profound soul so things effect me more deeply than the average person. Also, awe inspiring sights tend to resonate in my mind in a curious way which can heighten the aesthetic depth of the experience with associated imagery. During the cruise I daydreamed that someone ought to peer into my soul to value this experience as I do. It is a shame that cannot be done. Mere words will never capture the depth of my vision. If I’m getting too literary it is because we visited Key West where Hemingway had a house and Tennessee Williams wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire".  LOL

I arrived at the IPT Williamsport Regional Airport at 5:00 AM to catch a commuter flight to Philadelphia. I think all flights from Williamsport have to be US Airways Express flights to Philadelphia. I was surprised to see someone I know on the flight. It was a manager for McDonalds were I used to work during a dark period of my life. This guy was a major asshole so I did not talk to him and he did not seem to notice me. Security was very courteous because this is a very small city with a small airport. There was some turbulence during the flight. After a short 30 minute flight I arrived at the Philadelphia airport where I took a shuttle from terminal F to terminal C (a minor detail I want to remember for future travel). I got aboard a US Airways Boeing jet and had a 2 hour flight to Jacksonville airport. Another travel detail I need to note is that there was no baggage check for this connecting flight. I was a bit worried that I should have claimed my checked bag but this was loaded aboard the plane for me. I did not need to claim my checked bag until I reached Jacksonville. I have not flown anywhere in years or since 9-11 so I’m really new to air travel.

I bought a pair of sunglasses at the Jacksonville airport because it was very bright outside and I didn’t think to bring sunglasses. I had bought a transfer ticket for transportation from the Jacksonville airport to the JAXPORT Cruise Terminal where the cruise ship was docked. This shuttle left immediately and I got to see lots of Florida palm trees on the way to JAXPORT. At the JAXPORT Cruise Terminal I gave my checked bag to a baggage handler and took my carry on bag through security. I was given my sail and sign card which is like a credit card that you use onboard instead of cash.

After boarding the ship I spotted LittlePandaExpress, one of the vloggers I chat with in NutCheese’s Stickam room, in the lobby waiting for other YouTubers. I did not introduce myself immediately and instead waited until Onemon22 arrived with his wife. We went up to the Wheelhouse Bar & Grill where Onemon22 bought us drinks and we had lunch. Later on Pipistrello arrived and stopped at our table. I was thrilled to meet Pipi because he is a great rant comic on YouTube and I often watch his Wings Span Radio show on Stickam. After that VioletKitty411 arrived and sat at our table. VK is definitely my favorite vlogger of all because she is very vivacious and has a lot of personality. She is extremely popular on YouTube and one of the few people who tries to be a nice person. Believe me, some people aren’t trying at all! VK mentioned having breakfast with Gothreaper which surprised us because Gothreaper was causing a lot of drama. But as I said, VK goes out of her way to be nice to people.

After talking for awhile we split up to tour the ship and I took some video. Being on the YouCruise made me feel obligated to film as much video as possible but I did not see the others shoot much video. Maybe they just wanted to be on vacation. I went to my cabin, R68, where I found my checked bag outside my door. Now for some more travel minutiae that needs to be noted. The cabin only had one electrical outlet and I had several rechargeable devices (electric razor, Pocket PC, hairdryer, and Panasonic PV-GS120 camcorder) so I had to continually plug something else in. My cabin had a perforated plastic keycard that I had to keep on me at all times. I always made sure I had my keycard and sail and sign card. I had a cabin all to myself which cost me extra but gave me plenty of room.

At 3:30 PM there was a lifeboat drill. I reported to muster station C with my life jacket where we were shown how to put them on after a long wait. However we were not shown the life boats. After that I think I wandered around until dinner was served at the Vista Dining Room at 6:15 pm. There were 9 people on the YouCruise and we all sat at table 110. There was Pipistrello with two friends, Onemon22 and his wife, VioletKitty and LittlePandaExpress, Max Smith (the mystery vlogger nobody knew until dinner), and me. Due to my inability to make myself clear to the waiters I was not served a main course and only got an appetizer. The ship finally left port during dinner after waiting for several hours for late passengers. I watched a few passengers make their way along the winding gangway during dinner.

After dinner we went to the Endless Summer Lounge for Karaoke. VioletKitty, Onemon22, and Max Smith sang some songs which I have on video. The Endless Summer Lounge was decorated with the hulls of kayaks or canoes. Then we went to the Astoria Lounge which was a large theater with a small stage and saw the Welcome Aboard Show.  The show was hosted by Cruise Director Paul Santley,  a comedian with an Irish accent. We also saw the comedy act of  Tony Esposito. I think everyone went to bed after the show.

I’m going on a real vacation! This Saturday, March 8th 2008 I will be flying to Florida to embark on the Carnival Cruise ship Celebration (pictured above). This is the YouCruise that was organized by Pipistrello for YouTube vloggers. I will get to meet some of the vloggers that I’ve been chatting with on Stickam; Violetkitty411,  Pipistrello, and LittlePandaExpress. I’m not sure who else will be there. It is a small gathering because the cruise was not promoted and many people can’t afford it. The ship will stop in Key West and Nassau Bahamas. I bought an used Panasonic PV-GS120 camcorder with 3CCD for the cruise in order to take better video. It can also take photos and store them on its Secure Digital card but I’m not too happy with the quality.

I’ve never been on a proper vacation. Usually I just stay at home and do housework or read. The only decent vacation I’ve ever arranged for myself was a three day stay in Philadelphia for the Philly Fringe Festival several years ago. I don’t really like traveling much because it is too stressful trying to make it someplace on time. I almost always get lost.

This will be a five day cruise so I will be gone for about a week. I was going to board my cat at a vet but I was told this would be traumatizing for the cat so I plan to leave out plenty of food and water. There will be no Internet access aboard the cruise ship so I will be unable to check my email or deal with any IT emergencies. Also be aware that when I return there will be a lot of mail, email, and tasks that piled up so I will be super busy over the weekend.