Dec 126 min read

Pinching Myself Everyday.

Written Thursday, Dec 5th, 2024

It’s been 5 ports since my last post while we were leaving NYC onboard the Carnival Venezia. 3 sea days down to the Caribbean before St Maarten, St Lucia, Dominica (country 42), Antigua and our final stop of this voyage, St Thomas.

5 port days in a row is a bit much, especially in the Caribbean heat and humidity, but it was a glorious 5 days. Now on sea day number two of three on our way back to NYC, I have a chance to decompress and reflect on the first segment of my winter in the Caribbean.

It’s a fun way to live. I pinch myself everyday. This is a life beyond what I ever dreamed of or deserve… and as I’ve said before, I don’t take any of it for granted.

St Maarten was a lowkey day spent surrounded by friends, surf and sand at Orient Beach on the French side of the island. I napped under the umbrella, listening to the waves lapping against the shore between good conversation and getting to know my new friends and cooling off in the ocean.

St Lucia, only my second visit to that island was a morning of wandering around the downtown area, checking out the Cathedral, a local grocery store before heading to the market and wandering the stalls looking at souvenirs and more tshirts than one could imagine. Walking away without a single souvenir other than the photos on my camera, as typical now.

As of this writing, I haven’t even yet looked at the photos from the past several days. I typically don’t look at them the day of. I prefer to shoot and then review, download and edit the following day as I hate feeling like I “missed the shot” or would have preferred to frame it differently. Street photography and unplanned portraits are just that, unplanned and not something that one can recreate, so waiting until the following day simply reinforces what I cannot change.

The afternoon in St Lucia was spend beachside, after a solid 30-40 minute walk from downtown Castries to Vigie beach. Two chairs under the shade tree for $10 USD and a bar about 8 steps up from the narrow beach and new friend Devon and I had a lovely afternoon. A few phone calls and a check-in with my parents, cooling off in the surf of much larger and stronger waves than St Maarten, watching sand crabs do their thing. Far too tired and relaxed to walk back, we hailed a taxi for the short journey back to the ship.

Dominica, my first visit and country 42 of my travels was a beautiful stop, filled with rainbows and a great hike from the botanical gardens to a nearby mountain top with a vista overlooking downtown and out ship. This Colorado boy was out of breath, lugging the camera gear amongst the dense tropical foliage that provided shade for the 14,000 step day climbing the equivalent of 54 stories of stairs between the hike, town and normal cruise ship life.

Next up was Antigua, my second stop to this island as well where I hung out with new friend Brad, piano bar entertainer onboard where we walked around town and then Devon and I ventured off to Eden Beach where we unexpectedly saw wild pigs running on the beach, curious about people but also scared enough to not get more than eight to ten feet from me. I believe we spent about 3 hours on the beach, me underneath the dilapidated palapa seeking as much shade as possible the last several days, trying my hardest to avoid direct sun and a sunburn. There’s nothing worse than a sunburn with an additional 80+ days in the sun. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to regaining my “gay glow.”

I chatted with Jim, fellow solo traveler from another ship (Explora II), who recently hit his retirement goal of retiring by the age of sixty. Caretaker for an elderly gentleman with a cruise addiction for the past twenty years, his friend recently passed and Jim has continued cruising. We spoke about life and cruise ship living, entertainment options and how the Explora II compared to more mainstream cruise lines like Celebrity. (Very different experiences, both nice in his opinion)

A 3p pickup from the same taxi driver that dropped us off, we headed back to the pickup point around 2:40 to be safe. Never really knowing if the drivers will really come back and pick you up, we figured we had plenty of time being that the beach was adjacent to the Hawksbill Bay Resort where we could summon a taxi if needed. Our original driver showed up to pick us up precisely at 3p, as they always seem to do. I can’t recall a time that a foreigner didn’t do what they were going to do in that way…

Evening on the ship were largely the same people over the entire voyage. After changing from Anytime Dining to a 7:30 set dining time, which I prefer over checking-in on the Carnival app and waiting to be called for a table, set dining seems to have much better service with the same table and same server each night. They get to know you, what beverages you like and the food seems to be much fresher and service quicker as I was in and out of the dining room in 30-40 minutes each night. After dinner, some casino time or maybe a comedy show or playlist production show in the main theater and then rounding out the evening in the Piano Bar with Brad. The Piano Bar became a point of connection, both with Brad, other LGBTQs onboard but also other guests where we would talk about the day’s activities, favorite cocktails/bars/bartenders onboard, and the next days plans.

My ongoing line, and if you’ve ever cruised with me before I can guarantee you’ve heard it, is that I turn into a pumpkin at midnight. Rarely up much later than that, it’s a good way to rinse, rest and repeat the next day. This many days on a cruise ship is a marathon, not a sprint. What I “miss out” on one sailing I can likely make up on another. The shipboard “players” in my life change with most sailings, so even with ever ending repeating activities each day and night is a new experience with new friends, and I love it.

I hear it a lot. “I don’t know if I could spend that much time on a cruise.” When you start to think about 3 months consecutively, it terrifies most. Yet most of you do the same thing with the same people in your lives every day. While living onboard ships, I also find repetition and things/hobbies that I like, just the people involved change. I love finding the connections. The cruise ship and destinations are just the backdrop that my “play” or in the case of this week, “musical” is set against.

Our last stop was St Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I have lost count of how many times I have been there. Undoubtedly more than ten, but each is unique and special and December 2nd, 2024 was no exception. I met up with Josh, new ship friend who lives in Virgina, a Starbucks closer who hates early mornings and who’s mom is just 2 years older than me and grandma is the same age as my own parents. It was a reminder of how old I really am. Not “old”, actually still quite young at heart, but essentially old enough to have a mid-20s year old offspring. I don’t know when or how that happened but somehow here I am.

We chatted about our love of concerts and live music while bobbing in the extremely calm waters of Secret Harbor Beach. Sipped on some cocktails, again under the shade of an umbrella, and headed back to the port area early as I had to follow up on some mortgage work.

I have completely figured out some new work techniques and a better phone call system thanks to VOIP that’s not blocked by the ships internet system. Normal WiFi calling doesn’t work on ships and that has caused some difficulties in the past, moving forward I will be more connected then ever, while allowing me to continue spinning around the world. Zero complaints. Zero regrets.

Now on the second of three sea days back to NYC, I sit in the spa getting a pedicure and typing here. I have to sign onto work here in a bit and work on a few new loans. December is looking pretty strong for mortgage, and I am thankful. Thankful for you. Thankful for me. Thankful for life.

Cole from Colorado

Thankful.