"Look Lisa! I'm learnding!"

So, R. and I got back this weekend from our 7-day cruise on the Carnival Triumph with my parents, my two brothers, and my brother's girlfriend.

We had an absolutely fabulous time. Good food, good drinks, good weather (mostly), and good company. We laughed so hard at times that my jaw ached.

We had two days at sea before our first port of call, and enjoyed our first formal night on the second night of the cruise. We explored the ship, spent lots of time outside by the pool, ate, drank, etc.

On Monday, we arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We arrived about 5:00 in the afternoon, so there wasn't time to do any daytime activities, like take a helicopter tour of the islands. The night before, our waiter had suggested the "Plaza Las Americas" as a good shopping area. So, after disembarking, the five of us (Mom & Dad stayed onboard) hopped in a taxi, and after a harrowing ride that involved changing lanes every 3.2 seconds, we arrived at La Plaza.

It was a mall.

A huge, shiny, new, American-style mall. Old Navy, Sears, JCPenny, you name it, it was there.

In fact, the Plaza actually claims to be the largest mall in the Caribbean, and I believe it.

Expecting some sort of quaint, downtown shopping area, we were sorely disappointed. Apparently, our waiter thought that all Americans love malls, and so he sent us there. Anyway, after about five minutes, we took a taxy back in the other direction, shopped and ate downtown, and had a good time. In fact, we even stumbled upon a movie set in downtown San Juan -- they were filming some sort of "Dirty Dancing" clone set in the 1950s, called "Havana Nights."

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The next day, the Triumph pulled into St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. R. & I and my youngest brother had booked a shore excursion to the nearby island of St. John, to do some snorkeling at Trunk Bay, often listed as one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world.

Trunk Bay was absolutely amazing -- the water was swimming-pool clear. St. John's is only accessible by boat, and the ferry ride to and from the island allowed us some magnificient views of the islands and the houses built upon them. We saw a house owned by Madonna, a house owned by the founder of White Castle (it looked like a white castle), and Michael Jordan's $3.5 million estate, with swimming pool and jacuzzi built right into the side of the rock face.

That afternoon, we shopped and ate in downtown St. Thomas, enjoying lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant before heading back to the ship.

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On Wednesday, we arrived at the island of St. Maarten/St. Martin. Divided in half, the island is shared by the Netherlands and France. After docking in the capital of the Dutch side, R. and I took a bus tour of the island, seeing some magnificient views of the island and spending about 45 minutes in the French capital, Marigot.

We also learned some tidbits about the odd situation of this shared island. Although it's less than 40 square miles in area, the two sides really are separate countries -- for example, it's an international call to telephone one side of the island to another!!

The rest of my family had rented a van and spent the morning at the beach. We met up with them for lunch, and then spent the afternoon shopping in downtown Phillipsburg, capital of the Dutch side of the island. They were preparing to celebrate Carnival, and we saw a little of the festivities. Unfortunately, we had to reboard the Triumph before the actual parade made it downtown.

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The final two days of our cruise were spent at sea, travelling back about 1000 nautical miles to Miami. We had another formal night, a show, lots of drinks, some time in the casino (no big winners), lots of food, more time out by the pool, and R. learned some shagadelic dance moves. The last day at sea was cloudy and rainy, OK because R. and I were already a little sunburned anyway.

Service onboard was great, the crew really outdid themselves.

Those of you who have cruised on Carnival before, you know about the "towel animals" that are often waiting to greet you in your room after dinner. On this cruise, we had an elephant, a crab, a monkey, and some sort of shapeless manatee/Shmoo thing.