When we got back on board the ship in St. Thomas there was lots of time to relax. My wife caught me napping in the sun with Sheri walking by. This was just before the young 20 to 30 year old group of party loving souls came back from the rum beach party they had been on.
For the whole cruise all the men had admired this one girl in her twenties as she sunned herself. She had a beautiful body and she knew it and obviously wanted everyone else to see as much of it as possible. She was, however, quite respectable and a very pleasant person wandering around in her tiny bikinis.
We were just about to get in the elevator to go to our cabin when a young man staggered up with this beautiful girl draped over his shoulder. She was covered in sand, in her hair, in her eyes, everywhere and she didn't smell too good. He advised us to take another elevator and disappeared with her as the doors closed.
Later we got the whole story.
On the rum beach party the rum had obviously been flowing quite freely and everyone was having a great time. When it came time to come back to the ship the young man we met had noticed that the young lady was not with them. He went back to the beach and found her completely covered in sand and passed out. She had obviously thrown up but if he left her she would miss the boat from the island they were on and then miss boarding the ship for the trip back. He picked her up and carried her all the way back and she still never came round.
I did see her around the ship after that but she didn't look nearly as self confident as she had on the days before.
On the last day at sea the purser's office announced that anyone needing a rental car when we docked could order it through them.
 We had already booked our rental car through our travel agent so we didn't need that service, or so we thought.
Sheri and her friend entered a talent contest we knew nothing about. They had sung a duet and won first prize but the first we heard about it was when they showed us the trophies.
My wife and I went to Bingo mainly to get a good seat in the show lounge for the final show of the cruise. My wife won $60 but missed out on the grand prize of a free cruise by one.
We had spent more money than we expected and were now out of travelers cheques but we were expecting to use nothing but our credit card for the following week in Florida. Our cash had been intended mainly for off ship use outside the US.
I suggested we take our loose change and see how long it would take to feed it into the nickel slots. We sat down at adjacent machines and started to play. It seemed we couldn't lose. Our piles of nickels just continued to grow and grow.
Suddenly I looked at my watch and realised that it was well after midnight and we were supposed to have been in the cabin at midnight to let the kids in. Because it was the last night we had relaxed bedtime quite a bit.
When we got there we found them sitting in the hallway. -What terrible parents we were – I asked how long they had waited and Sheri said they only waited a few minutes and then went to the midnight buffet. After grazing on all the delectable food they had come back and two minutes later we arrived. Mike came in at that time too and we could tell that he had taken advantage of the new drinking age but he looked ok so we all retired.
Next morning we were up bright and early and found the ship already docking in Miami.
 We gathered in the lobby and were assigned times to leave the ship. I forget how it was done but I think it was deck by deck. The result was that our group would be close to last so we all took seats in comfortable chairs and waited. I noticed that the family mood was not at a high point. Scott and Sheri were tired and cranky, Mike was hung over and I guess the adults' moods were a bit testy through lack of sleep too. Scott got up from his seat to look out of the window and when he came back he found Mike in it. I must point out that there were about fifty seats in this room, all identical and, almost all unoccupied.
Scott walked up to Mike with a furious look on his face and told him to get out of his seat. I guess it was the look in Scott's eye and the tone of his voice but Mike leaped out of the way. We vowed not to let him stay up late again.
When we finally disembarked we found the luggage all layed out neatly with the tags showing so that we could find our cases easily. What made it even easier was a very nice porter who got a cart and went around with us finding our cases and insisting on packing them on the cart himself. As we walked past the customs desk the porter just nodded to the agent and we walked right past.
The porter pushed our cart right up to the correct car rental booth and unloaded the luggage onto the side walk. I know these people work for tips but I am so often annoyed at having to tip people for doing nothing that I gave this man a very good tip.
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