Arlene - thank you! ;)

Had a great day in Puerto Vallarta yesterday - finally sunny! The canopy tour was amazing - if anybody is interested in doing it, you should. We've got plenty of photos from there though it's difficult to operate digital cameras through thick leather gloves that you're not supposed to take off.

Went to Liars Club yesterday for the first time - our team might have won if it wasn't for a disagreement between Amanda and I about the definition of a word. Oh well ... such it is. Yesterday was our officer's dinner and our table consisted of Amanda and myself, Ray and Penny, Joy (oceandancer) and Bill (Joy's husband), as well as Marcel, the hotel director. He tolerated our antics very politely and was a pleasure at the table. He did confirm a few things for us - the Mariner is not traveling at full speed at this time secondary to a propeller problem suffered while in Alaska. This is scheduled to be fixed while in drydock in December. Also, while in drydock, some of the suites onboard will have their bathrooms converted such that the tubs will be removed and showers installed in their place, getting rid of the head clearance issue with the shower height. Marcel states that this will be an experiment - if successful, they will consider expanding this to more suites.

After dinner, many of us wandered over to Stars Club again and spend the night partying until the wee hours of the morning. Needless to say, many more blackmail photos were taken - we'll need to post some of them when we're back home to our regular computers. For some reason, everybody on board knows Suzanne - I wonder why? As soon as you mention pole-dancing ... ;)

Lazy beginning to today. Woke up around 8 am, went to La Verandah to get breakfast and sat out on the open deck in the sun with the ocean breezes ruffling my hair while sipping fresh-squeezed orange juice. Ah, this is the life. Ran into Marty, Erika, George, Gretchen, JimB, and Jan while up there. Headed down for a bridge tour afterwards (first time getting one while on a cruise ship).

Busy day though - lunch plans at noon, massage at 3 pm, tea and trivia at 4 pm, galley tour at 5 pm, cocktail party in Todd's at 6:30, dinner with Anthony and Paige at 8 pm, and karaoke late at night. It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it. :)

Masaki