Chillin, Kicking Back A Few . . .

And by "chillin" I of course mean that literally!

It seems a few of you were more interested in the part of the cruise where my wife and I hung out at the onboard ice bar, so I figured I'd talk about that unique experience some more.

Aboard the Norwegian "Epic," among the many different distractions like the casino and two (count 'em) 3-lane bowling alleys--not to mention all the other bars and themed cocktail lounges--is a Svedka-sponsored joint called the Ice Bar.

It's basically a huge walk-in freezer setup to resemble the inside of a glacier . . . or maybe Superman's Fortress of Solitude, you take your pick. After paying the cover charge, you're handed a pair of woolen gloves, shown a rack containing parkas lined with fake fur, and then led through the bunker-like door before having it slammed shut behind you and bolted.

Yes, bolted. I shit you not.

You then pass through a second metallic door and some plastic flaps and come upon this scene:

As you can see, it's quite an experience. Amid the ice-block seats and sculptures of Vikings and polar bears, you have a bar tended by one guy wearing a fur cap and surrounded by bottles of Svedka vodka.

The specialty drinks are presented on a menu atop the counter as you first enter the place. Since blue is my favorite color, I naturally went with the Cobalt Blue as my first drink. The image is a bit blurry above, I know, but the ingredients for this drink are: Inniskillin Icewine, Vodka, and Blue Curacao -- in case any of you playing at home would like to make your own.

All drinks were served in specially formed ice chalices, which serves double duty as a holder for your drink as well as chilling the contents. Ahhhh! I have to admit, it was quite delish! Even if I couldn't feel my lips or tongue beyond the third sip.

The poor bartender had to keep ducking in and out of the establishment as I could imagine standing in a 0-degree freezer for minutes on end is not a particular fun job to do. I myself lasted a whole fifteen minutes in the place before I, too, had to bow out. But I was wearing long pants and a button shirt at the time, while others there were in shorts and sandals. And even after we left for the night, I have to admit my fingers were still numb a half hour later from gripping those blasted icicle cups! Brrrrrr!

It was a fun experience, though. I would very much love to go to one again, particularly in the summer time here in New York. I have to research that, because I'm sure there must be one here in this big ole city. Something to keep in mind when those dog days of August arrive, eh?

Hope you all are having a great Sunday. I know I am -- my Giants are going to the SUPER BOWL!!! Fun for me, but most likely dull for the rest of the country not part of the Northeast right now. I mean, talk about a broken record! :)

But yes, life is good. Night, everybody!

A Study In Extremes

So, I'm back. Miss me?

We just got in a few hours ago, and I'm pretty beat. But just wanted to say that this last week spent traipsing across the western portions of the Caribbean was a blast! Lisa and I had tons of fun, tons of sun . . . and tons of FOOD! Oink, oink!

As per usual upon returning from a cruise (and we've been on THREE now!), it's kinda hard getting used to not being waited on hand and foot, and to not having copious amounts of food and drink being shoved in your direction at all hours of the day and night. You'd be surprised how fast you can get accustomed to such kingly treatment.

But alas, all good things must come to an end. We're back in the mean ol' boogie-down Bronx tonight, and boy the differences could not be any more extreme! See, we left behind daily temps in the upper 70s and low 80s, with vistas such as these:

(That's the island of St. Martin, btw) . . . Only to have the airplane descend through the clouds over New York City today and reveal the following landscape spread out below us:

Wow! Talk about a slap in the face back to reality, eh? We went from perfect beach weather every day of the week, to 25 degrees and 5 inches of freshly fallen snow on the ground. Brrrr!

I took the pic above right through the airplane's window as we flew over Far Rockaway on approach to JFK airport. And once landed and through the terminal, was met with the most intense, meat-freezer like temperatures I've ever felt. And this from the guy who has an unnaturally high tolerance for the cold. Wow! Guess all that beach and Mai Tai drinks went to my head.

Although, it wasn't all warmth and sunshine while we were away. Our cruise ship had an onboard ice lounge, whereby patrons donned wool gloves and [faux] fur-lined parkas before stepping through a freezer door into a bar and lounge comprised almost entirely of ice! The thermometer hovered on or just above 0 degree Fahrenheit. How's that for COLD??? Lisa couldn't stand three minutes of it before having to bail. I myself loved it! I had three arctic-inspired beverages in specially designed ice-cube chalices. Yes, these were glasses made from frozen water! You could feel the bone-numbing coldness seep through the wool gloves, people! It was so cold that my lips became numb after just a few sips, and as a result some of my drink dribbled down my chin and onto the parka. What a clutz!

Still, I'll leave you with this blurry iPhone pic of me toasting the Icelandic gods of ice and . . . er, more ice. Skål, everybody!

Some of you on Facebook have already seen these pics, but I should be posting up a host of others shortly. In the meantime, I hope you all behaved in my absence, and that your week was a great one too! I'll try to update more deets about our trip in the days to come.

Rejection . . . And An Unexpected Surprise

Ugh!

I've been so flustered lately (for reasons I won't go into here) that I've forgotten all about blogging. And then, I woke up this morning to find a rejection letter waiting in my inbox for one of my more recent short stories I submitted over a month ago. But that's the breaks, I guess. I'm in the middle of putting the finishing touches on yet another short story, so I'll find another place to submit the rejected one before finishing up that one.

And then I get back to work on the ongoing novel. Phew! The life of a part-time writer who still has to work a 9-5 every day, eh? Now you know why finding the right amount of time to blog can be so crucial. At least to me.

Anyway . . . I have some unexpected news. Remember back when I said I was contemplating my very first sci-fi  convention in Boston next month? Sure you do, I mentioned it right here! Well, turns out that I won't be making it to that after all. Boooo! I know, right?

But the reason why, is . . .

We're going on a cruise! And I mean, as in right now!!! Well, okay, not RIGHT NOW, right now. But in less than two days! Holy crap, why such short notice? Well, I only just found out yesterday and needless to say I've been in a whirlwind trying to get things ready--including  having to let my boss know I would need to take an immediate leave for all of next week. Whoa! Thank god I have an awesome boss, and that I am an awesome employee who usually never ever does things like this. So everything worked out fine and my leave request was quickly and painlessly granted.

But yes, we're going on a cruise. I won't go into the details of how this fortune came upon me, but suffice to say that my wife did all the planning and neglected to tell me until the last minute. Surprise, surprise! But as far as they go, this is a good one. If you recall, I was just mentioning how I thought I might plan a beach vacation sometime for later this month. Well, looks like I was beaten to the punch!

And where will we be going? Well, let me not get ahead of myself. First, this is the cruise ship we will be sailing on:

It's Norwegian Cruise Line's "Epic," one of their largest--if not THE largest--vessels in their fleet. In fact, it's so large that it belongs to a new class of cruise ship called "megaliners," and can carry as many as 4,100 passengers. *gulp* That's a helluva whole lot of people!

We'll be leaving from Miami this Saturday afternoon for a 7-day tour of the Eastern Caribbean:

As you can see by the map, our first stop will be in Philipsburg, Sint Maarten -- which is the Dutch sister country to the French colonized St. Martin, situated on the same island and to the north.

After spending a day there, we'll sail west nor'west to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

And then our last port of call after that will be the Bahamas. I hear Norwegian has their own private island there, but if time allows I will endeavor to hit up Atlantis Resort and give it a quick look-see. Or maybe not. When in the Bahamas, I prefer more out of the way and laid back locales. Atlantis is a huge tourist trap, but as such it might be worth seeing what all the fuss is about.

In-between it all, we'll be spending approximately 3 days completely at sea. If you've ever been on a cruise before, you know that sea days can be brutally boring if your ship is lacking on the entertainment side and is too crowded. Luckily, I get the feeling we won't have to deal with too many large families and kids. I'm not aware of January being a terribly popular vacation period for families, especially given the fact that kids are still in school. I've never been on vacation during the winter months, though, only the summer. So needless to say I'm going to be thrilled if I don't have to deal with the usual HORDES of annoying, screaming kids and bratty, sulky teenagers. Oh, I so hope that is the case!

But, anyway, it's not like we won't have our distractions. Epic seems to be fully prepared for long sea days, as evidenced by their many on-board venues and amenities. I've only done a casual perusal of what's on offer, but here's what I found thus far:

Can you believe that? A huge outdoor theater, a water park, and--GASP!--is that a freaking bowling alley? Double-you Tee Eff? How big is this ship, anyway? Of course, we've been on huge cruise liners before, so none of this should really be all that surprising to me. Still, I seriously doubt we'll be left wanting for things to do. On top of this, I'll be bringing along my laptop to get some writing done.

As you can see our cabin has a balcony, so I plan on sitting out there in the morning hours and getting a few hundred words in before the sun is directly overhead and I head up to the weather deck for some lounging and reading!

Ah, what a life! I anticipate my most difficult decision will be whether or not to wear shorts or trousers to dinner . . . and, do I really need that second dessert?

Because, oh, it is SO ON! :)

Fear not, though. I'll be sure to take plenty of pics while we're gone, and perhaps even a vid or two. We'll be back a week from this Saturday, but I can't rule out a possible quick blog update or two in the interim. Personally, I wouldn't hold my breath on that if I were you. But stranger things have happened on our excursions . . .

In the meantime, you can peruse the Facebook photo albums from our previous two cruises here and here if it suits you. No pressure, though.

I hope you all have a pleasant weekend and following week. I'll try not to come back with too deep of a tan! :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

Still busy planning stuff for our 11-night, 7-port Mediterranean cruise only 4 weeks away. I now have everything squared away with tours for: Istanbul, Ephesus (also in Turkey), Athens, and Naples. Now all I need to do is figure out things for Rome, Santorini, and Mykonos.

Rome should be fairly easy. I need to purchase tickets beforehand for the Colosseum and Vatican City, which I hope may also include the Sistine Chapel. Everything else in Rome will be a simple walk to and from for us.

Santorini and Mykonos, the two Greek isles on our itinerary, are proving to be a little more difficult. I was hoping to visit this awesome ancient archaeological site on Santorini, only to find out that it has been closed to visitors for several years now due to an accident involving a tourist there. They've been promising to open it up again for the past two years, and each time the date keeps getting pushed back. So I had to scratch that off the list. The only option left now is to go to the beach or walk through the main town and go shopping. Ugh and double Ugh!!!

Mykonos seems to be nothing but beaches and nightlife. Two things I can do without on this trip. But, I figure I should at least put in a showing at one of these beaches. You know, take a dip in the Mediterranean just so that I can say that I have. I'll also be able to add it to the list of major bodies of water I've swam in during my lifetime. So far that list includes: the Atlantic, Pacific, Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico.

So for the two islands, it might just be that I won't plan anything. We'll simply get off the ship and walk around looking at whatever there is to see. Santorini has volcanic black sand beaches, so the novelty of it will be interesting. Mykonos has decent shopping and a huge gay scene, the latter of which naturally doesn't apply to or holds much interest for us.

So, yeah, we'll probably just wing those two. Unless anyone reading this has been to both islands and can make any recommendations.

Anyone?

In the meantime, I need to get started on learning my basic Italian phrases. We'll only be in Rome for two days, and in Naples for one, but I always wanted to learn Italian. And now I have an excuse to start!

Our Bon Voyage Is Official!

Well, as of this morning I've paid the final amount on what will be our next big trip celebrating our 5-year anniversary. Yup, this time we'll be going on our 2nd cruise together . . . touring the Eastern Mediterranean. The 11-night voyage will be aboard the brand new (since July 2009) luxury liner, the "Equinox," part of Celebrity Cruises' fleet.

For those who may recall, our first cruise was a 7-night, 4 port Caribbean affair back in 2007. This time, we're going to be visiting more exotic locales at 7 ports-of-call across 3 countries -- and I for one CAN'T WAIT!!!

The ship departs from Rome, which means we'll have to endure yet another 9-hour trans Atlantic flight before we even begin the cruise. But I mean, come on -- it's to ROME! Somehow I don't foresee this being a problem.

Once aboard our ship, the itinerary will include stops along the Mediterranean at the following ports:

Athens, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Mykonos, Greece
Istanbul, Turkey
Ephesus, Turkey
Naples/Capri, Italy

And, finally, a return to Rome. We set sail on a Monday evening in July, but will actually arrive in Rome a couple of days earlier so as to take in the city and relax before we board. Two days in Rome before a whirlwind 11-night cruise is not so bad, eh? In fact, it sounds pretty damn awesome to me right about now.

I'm most looking forward to spending almost a day and a half in Istanbul, according to our itinerary. I've always wanted to go, and would in fact prefer to spend an entire week there to explore all the wonderful richness of the city's history and culture. But alas this trip will have to just whet my appetite until I can return for a longer, more detailed, stay.

Of course, the history buff in me is also thrilled at getting to visit Rome and Athens, too. However, because of the very short stay in Athens (only 7 hours), I predict we will only have time to visit the most touristy of areas like the Parthenon. Oh well, guess I'll have to make a return trip there someday, too.

I haven't yet figured out our land excursions. I'm a bit worried about booking them through the cruise ship since those trips will likely be crowded and overly expensive. I'm looking into arranging private tours with only a handful of other fellow cruisers, independent of Celebrity, but I fear I won't have the time to stay on top of the details before we leave. Might be that we'll end up booking everything through the ship's concierge by default. Bummer.

Still, even that won't be a deal breaker against all the fun I plan on having visiting all these wonderful locations. Just like last year, looks like 2010 is shaping up to be quite the year in travel for us. Niiice!