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Showing posts from January, 2013

Cozumel-The Aquatic Life-NSA

Cozumel Coffee Chronicles - Island Paradise Meets Caffeine Culture ☕ Cozumel Coffee Chronicles Where Caribbean Paradise Meets Caffeine Culture Make Coffee Not War "I'm in my own world—but it's ok, they know me here." Welcome to the ultimate paradox: finding America's favorite drug dealer serving up what Mexicans call "Dirty Water" in one of the world's most pristine diving destinations. This is Cozumel, where crystal waters meet corporate coffee culture. "The best SBUX in the Caribbean is right here on Rafael E. Melgar LB, Centro, San Miguel de Cozumel" 🏝️ The Perfect Storm of Location Picture this: You've just finished expl...

Grand Cayman- Teenage Dream

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Water Park(ing) 5 outside Georgetown this morning The Ocean Waits, and even if you are just staring at it, you are already cruising a little. If you are thinking about   a voyage I would say go. The things you don’t like about cruise ships (buffets, crowds and noise) are not worth mentioning, it is like complaining about your wife to your mother in law.  On a cruise ship, I learned how little a person needs, not how much. When I go onboard, I always sail from Ft Lauderdale, because it is such a pleasant place to get away from. This is Wave Season—the three high-volume months when everybody books a cruise to get away from the winter. Just do it.

Grand Cayman- Teenage Dream

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Water Park(ing) 5 outside Georgetown this morning The Ocean Waits, and even if you are just staring at it, you are already cruising a little. If you are thinking about   a voyage I would say go. The things you don’t like about cruise ships (buffets, crowds and noise) are not worth mentioning, it is like complaining about your wife to your mother in law.  On a cruise ship, I learned how little a person needs, not how much. When I go onboard, I always sail from Ft Lauderdale, because it is such a pleasant place to get away from. This is Wave Season—the three high-volume months when everybody books a cruise to get away from the winter. Just do it.

Western Caribbean-YOLO

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By the way, Im wearing the smile you gave me 6 Night  Cruise from Galveston T raveling is too important to be taken seriously. YOLO-You only live once, right?  1 universe. 9 planets. 204 countries. 809 islands. 7 seas.  And I had the privilege to meet you. I haven't been everywhere, but it is still on my list. I would have to say that these two ports of call-Grand Cayman and Cozumel are the nicest in the Western Caribbean. These little islands of prosperity, peace and happiness are so exceptionally awesome. Life of PIe- The Road Of Excess Leads To The Palace Of Wisdom... for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough. The best part of cruising is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time. It puts you  in the position in which almost nothing that is so called “normal and familiar” is taken for granted. It usually starts out with the food.  YOLO took on another meaning-Eating 3 times a week at Nobu Japanese  R...

Key West-Marlin Alley

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The copy is better than the original Around here you can live with the assumption that every day is good fishing If it is you are right. If it isn't  you are still fortunate. The  most photographed and stolen sign here Last time I was here-2 years ago Ernest Hemingway - "That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best - make it all up - but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way." Roll Video...

Key West-Marlin Alley

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The copy is better than the original Around here you can live with the assumption that every day is good fishing If it is you are right. If it isn't  you are still fortunate. The  most photographed and stolen sign here Last time I was here-2 years ago Ernest Hemingway - "That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best - make it all up - but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way." Roll Video...

Atlantic Ocean-South Florida

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Passing the sunshine state on the way to Key West, Ernest Hemingway’s port of call. From the beginning I have had  a sense of destiny , as though my life has  been assigned to me by fate and has to be fulfilled and I have  a sense of security-but I can’t prove it to myself it proves  itself to me over and over again -I don’t have it, it has me. The devil may be in the details but God is in the vagueness, and the human soul needs immensity, like an ocean to ponder, only then  can it be happy and feel free to breath. The remains of the day can get you off your game-freedom, however, is what you do with what has been done to you. I always have the last word in shaping my life; even though the earth school kills all of its student. I have never let my schooling  interfere with  my education. It only ends once---everything else is just progress.  Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and you’ve lost a part o...

Atlantic Ocean-South Florida

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Passing the sunshine state on the way to Key West, Ernest Hemingway’s port of call. From the beginning I have had  a sense of destiny , as though my life has  been assigned to me by fate and has to be fulfilled and I have  a sense of security-but I can’t prove it to myself it proves  itself to me over and over again -I don’t have it, it has me. The devil may be in the details but God is in the vagueness, and the human soul needs immensity, like an ocean to ponder, only then  can it be happy and feel free to breath. The remains of the day can get you off your game-freedom, however, is what you do with what has been done to you. I always have the last word in shaping my life; even though the earth school kills all of its student. I have never let my schooling  interfere with  my education. It only ends once---everything else is just progress.  Waste your money and you’re only out of money, but waste your time and...

Cape Canaveral---I Need My Space

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Tranquility Base, The Ego Has Landed Greetings from the user-friendly universe  Cruise ship service is about downplaying the negatives and creating the illusion of perfection. The FOH (front of the house) is all things to all people. Now that I am finally traveling as a guest.  I  DO  like to be served, but invisibly. Working on floating hotels. you are the United Nations Ambassador,and the whole passenger manifest  become non-persons and are granted an ethical equivalent of diplomatic immunity. Anything goes. No judgments. Still, I know I need a vacation from my vacation, when the little things, like elevator behavior, or grab and go at the buffet line start to irk me. It's actually, the tip of the iceberg. Spending an overnight on land in Central Florida is the best way for me to compare these two mundane worlds. Its a kind of  deliverance , a release from the stronghold of the sea, and its own kind of underbelly, wildness and danger, isolated from the gl...

Castaway Cay-Cloud 10

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I no longer live on Cloud 9. I leveled up Airplanes are like diets, I don’t like being on them. Float planes however (you know flying boats) are the exception. This summer in Alaska, I got a business class ticket to cool, with complimentary mojo on takeoff . This landing strip is the only thing   aviational besides the staged authenticity-wrecked prop planes on Disney’s Castaway Cay. I used to live on Cloud Nine in the People’s Republic of Santa Monica, riding my carbon fiber bike 100 miles a day down the Venice Beach strand through  the boat yard of Marina Del Rey, and out towards Manhattan Beach.  It gave me an energy and enthusiasm and natural high that begged the question “What are you on?” I was simply on my bike. Environments create mood, and  Starbucks, Yoga,  drinking fresh vegetable and fruit juices and good sunny weather  created fuel for thought. This   west coast life style suited me well. It gave me mome...

Key West -Like A Rock (Gib)

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An  8 nights Bahamian Cruise, it's a mostly the Sunshine state-Florida Keys and  Disney World via Port Canaveral. I  last  visited Key West  January 2010.  For me, it's a celebration of  the good life and a bygone era   I soon discovered that life in remote Key West was like living in a foreign country while still perched on the southernmost tip of America .  Have fun up North doing battle with The Snows of Kilimanjaro,   "It’s the best place I’ve ever been anytime, anywhere, flowers, tamarind trees, guava trees, coconut palms...Got tight last night on absinthe and did knife tricks."   Ernest Hemingway. Key West  was considered the  "Gibraltar of the West" because it is only 90 miles from Cuba. Which reminds me- the last time I was in Gib, at the rock was 2009, another pretty cool place every sailor should go. The first stop is Castaway Cay, Disney's own private island.  I had a wonderful time there 6 months ago...

Welcome To The Hotel Galvez,TX

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So I called up the Captain, ’please bring me my wine’... My life According To The Eagles Lyrics Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mamma. Another Caribbean cruise  at sea onboard the Disney Magic. It all starts on embarkation day tomorrow. From Hotel @nyware to Hotel California. It's been voted " One of The Greatest Songs of All Time",  synonymous with 1977, my  high school soundtrack and  visual vocabulary, I immediately  can access the album cover to the Eagles tour de force, while here in TX. My blog is literature in a hurry--It  spins  stories of me sailing  the globe, as I get trapped in the golden hand cuffs of living and working on luxury cruise ships (Hotel @nyware). For the most part, it appears inviting and tempting. I hint on the hedonism , self-destruction , and greed in it all. Welcome to the hotel California Such a lovely place Such a lovely face    Plenty of room at the hotel California. Any time of year, you can ...

Welcome To The Hotel Galvez,TX

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So I called up the Captain, ’please bring me my wine’... My life According To The Eagles Lyrics Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mamma. Another Caribbean cruise  at sea onboard the Disney Magic. It all starts on embarkation day tomorrow. From Hotel @nyware to Hotel California. It's been voted " One of The Greatest Songs of All Time",  synonymous with 1977, my  high school soundtrack and  visual vocabulary, I immediately  can access the album cover to the Eagles tour de force, while here in TX. My blog is literature in a hurry--It  spins  stories of me sailing  the globe, as I get trapped in the golden hand cuffs of living and working on luxury cruise ships (Hotel @nyware). For the most part, it appears inviting and tempting. I hint on the hedonism , self-destruction , and greed in it all. Welcome to the hotel California Such a lovely place Such a lovely face    Plenty of room at the hotel California. Any time of ...

New York-Let it Be

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We made the trip to Manhattan for my Mother's funeral at Saint Patrick's Cathedral. She didn't want a big service but we chose the largest decorated gothic-style Catholic Cathedral in the United States, recognized throughout its history as the  center of American  Catholic life, because we loved her so much. A Few Good Reifs'  .The accumulation of birthdays is the leading cause of death in the USA, although she lived only 84 years, she had a great run. The last time the whole family got together at the cathedral was at my  Dad's service . RIP Mom When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, Speaking words of wisdom, Let it be. And in the hour of darkness, She is standing right in front of me, Speaking words of wisdom, Let it be.

The Dopamine Power Diet-The Travel Molecule

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Travel is an art and a science-- proven to alter perception, personality and may even rewire your brain. That’s what I mean by Ship for brains. The novelty and unique one-of-a-kind experiences drives up levels of dopamine, a chemical in the brain that gives you optimism, energy, curiosity and creativity.  My brain makes me travel.. . Cruising = f(dopamine flow); Money= happiness "Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy travel and new experiences, which is kinda the same thing" The Persistence Of Norway The need to break free and sail away is ancient, enduring and incessant. Voyages  trigger a concept called   psychological distance: Something about the experience of leaving your place  creates a shock and awe, a pathway  into a new perspective that floods the brain with ideas. For me, this shift in perspective starts as soon as I'm on  a cruise ship . Ships are weirdly the most lucid part of my life. Every cruise I tak...

Half Moon Cay---Good (K)night

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The Cavalry is coming   I sign off the Noordam tomorrow after 6 consecutive  cruises. This is the last stop before Ft Lauderdale--Half Moon Cay. White powder sandy beaches, vivid  blue water and these wonderful horses. I used to think working on cruise ships was bad, but I stopped thinking- I guess I have ship for brains! The need to break free and sail away is ancient, enduring and incessant. Voyages   trigger a concept called   psychological distance: Something about the experience of leaving your place  creates a shock and awe, a pathway  into a new perspective that floods the brain with ideas. For me, this shift in perspective starts as soon as I'm on   a cruise ship   Ships are weirdly the most lucid part of my life. Every cruise I take somehow changes my life in some way. The actual cruise   might be four days or a week, the anticipation of   Norwegian Fjords cruise, for instance was months  ...

Half Moon Cay---Good (K)night

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The Cavalry is coming   I sign off the Noordam tomorrow after 6 consecutive  cruises. This is the last stop before Ft Lauderdale--Half Moon Cay. White powder sandy beaches, vivid  blue water and these wonderful horses. I used to think working on cruise ships was bad, but I stopped thinking- I guess I have ship for brains! The need to break free and sail away is ancient, enduring and incessant. Voyages   trigger a concept called   psychological distance: Something about the experience of leaving your place  creates a shock and awe, a pathway  into a new perspective that floods the brain with ideas. For me, this shift in perspective starts as soon as I'm on   a cruise ship   Ships are weirdly the most lucid part of my life. Every cruise I take somehow changes my life in some way. The actual cruise   might be four days or a week, the anticipation of   Norwegian Fjords cruise, for instance w...

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