Life on the ship was crazy busy during the last couple of days of our voyage, so we had little time to blog and reflect. Good thing we missed our connecting flight to Indy thanks to rain delays in Fort Lauderdale. We finished the Belize post! Good thing our bags didn’t make it on the plane with us to Indianapolis…it gives us a reason to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi at the Indy airport to write this post! As a certain someone’s cell phone ring suggests, always look on the bright side of life. 
From the moment we stepped back on the ship after Belize, the computer lab was hopping with tons of people needing help checking e-mail, confirming airline reservations, and printing out boarding passes. Oh yeah–did we mention that Sam was hired to work in the ship’s computer lab while at sea for the last two weeks of this trip? This was way cool because:
a) Sam received a much-coveted “red shirt” and was entitled to all the privileges and benefits therein
b) We are much more “hire-able” for future voyages now that we both have experience working on the ship
I was also swamped with a surprising number of in-depth reference questions, computer questions (though I only cover 2 computers to Sam’s 20-some) and a never-ending stack of books to re-shelve in the library. Among this chaos, we still had one more port to enjoy: Jamaica, mon!! And did we ever.
After taking many wonderful but highly structured day-long tours in each port, Sam and I just wanted time in Jamaica to max and relax with fellow staff and a few of the ship’s awesome lecturers. Because it’s such a popular spot for tourists, we were all a bit surprised to find a pretty healthy reef with great snorkeling at a small but beautiful beach in Montego Bay called Doctor’s Cave. We spread our towels under a shade tree and inherited some rented chairs and umbrellas from fellow shipmates who left them behind. Warm sun, refreshing aquamarine waves, Red Stripe beers, lunch delivered to our beach camp, delish Piña Coladas, and great music (thanks to Courtney’s pink power radio) made for one of the most restful and relaxing days of the voyage. It was a great way to wind down our month at sea, and it just proved to us even more that, while all good things must come to an end, it’s never easy to say goodbye. So, we didn’t. We just had some fun and saved the goodbyes for June 5.
