--- Woke up at 10 til 7am. Daniel Cole, Nancy Sullivan, and Becky Martin (Daniel's Aunt)
picked me up in the white Explorer. We met at the McDonald's in Byram. On the road
by 9:15. We missed an exit half way there and had to go backwards up the ramp to meet
back up with everyone.

--- In New Orleans the traffic was bumper to bumper for the NSYNC concert. Flamers!
We got to the terminal a little after 1pm and had to stand in the hot packed lines for
over an hour. We finally got on the boat around 2:30. We're in room #656. Me, Ross,
Scott, & Daniel.

--- We went to eat buffet (awesome beef tips) then had a drill to learn how to wear the
life jackets & find our life boat. Strolled around the ship and saw the casino,
cinema, lounge, etc. Darrow & Luke played the slots & the most I saw them win was
$1.25. Played some cards with Wes & Scott and watched the banks of the MS River
go by. My sandals hurt!

--- Our dinner is at 8:15 every night. My table includes Daniel, Scott, Ross, Luke,
James, Jason, Sarah, Holly, and Wes. Our waiter is Erik & Asst. Waiter is Howard.
I had clam soup, salad, and steak. Lemon pound cake/ice cream for dessert.

--- Went to Disco lounge & watched people dance. One guy & girl GOT IT ON! We got
a picture! Stayed there for a few and then ended up at Oriental Buffet. Eggrolls,
pork, rice, and fried bananas. Went to upper deck & the wind was SO gusty. Got
some "King of the World" pics. Ended up back at the Disco Club and only about 8
people were still there. We requested Ice Ice Baby and rapped to the people that
wandered in. SWEET!

--- Went to the main lounge with Scott, James, Jason, Adrienne, Kelly, Amanda,
& Ross. We played James' game "Excursions". HA Then we told jokes and sang at
the podium over the PA system. Daniel came in, got on the microphone, and made fun
of the guy that was vacuuming, who obviously had no clue that Daniel was talking
about him. Finally made it back to the room at 2:45. I can see the white caps
going by the boat from our little window. We're haulin' butt! Great first day.

Sunday, 5-28-00

--- Woke up around 9:00 am. Got showers & went to breakfast buffet. Eggs, grits,
bacon, 3 apple danishes, and OJ. Layed out for awhile & played Darrow in Ping Pong.
Had lunch by the pool. Roast beef, Seafood Newbourg?, and rice. Watched some skeet
shooting, but it cost $1 per shot so we didn't do it. Lost Daniel's sunglasses. Way to Go!

--- Went to the horse races. I bet $2 on the #3 horse & lost the first race. I was
the jockey for the #6 horse in the second race & won. Sweet! We stayed for a
scavenger hunt. Me, Jason, & Holly. The only things we had were the man's shirt &
Holly's tattoo. Me, Luke, and Jason watched the awesome blue water for about 30
minutes, and now we have to start getting ready for our first formal night with the
captain. I was wrong yesterday! We don't eat at 8:15 every night. 7:30 tonight
with some band and dancing maybe.

Monday, 5-29-00

--- At 7:30 last night we had pics made in our suits. Then we had our pic with the
captain. We had coctails and dancing (Me & Holly rocked!) until dinner at 8:15.
I had pasta, lobster bisque (soup), and steak, and then bananas foster a la flambe
a la mode for dessert. We changed clothes and headed back to the disco. For some
reason I just can't get in the mood to get funky on the dance floor. It started
raining HARD. Lightning bad and thunder. We passed 24 shrimp boats that I counted.
I forgot about the flying fish that we saw in the morning. Cool. They came out of
the water in groups of about 10 and looked like small birds skimming across the water
flapping their wings. Then about 30 yards later, they dove back into the water.
After watching the rain, we went to the chocoholic buffet. Chocolate for days!
(cakes, pies, chocolate covered strawberries, fudge, etc.) Went back to disco
& then to the room. Hung around with a bunch of people til I fell asleep & everyone
left. Who knows what time it was.

--- Woke up at 8:00 docked in Playa del Carmen. Nothing really to see. At
breakfast with Scott (Eggs, bacon, grits, apple danish, apple juice). Packed for Cozumel.

--- The most unbelievable day! We took a taxi to Chakanaub State Park. Snorkeled!
There were so many fish. The water was so clear. We saw iguanas running around
loose, dolphins in a fenced in section of ocean, and very colorful fish. Me, James,
& Ross saw a humongous Barracuda! I got a good pic. James saw a woman get totally
butt naked at the outside lockers changing into her bathing suit. We fed the fish
with bread from the ship. They were swarming all around, and I touched so many of
them. We went underwater and took pics by the Virgin Mary statue (Me & Scott).

--- About 9 of us piled into a van/taxi. Francisco drove like a maniac. He cranked
the Mexican tunes and sang for us. He almost hit the motorcycle people. We then
went to Carlos & Charlies for lunch. Incredible. I had Enchiladas that cost 60
pesos. 9 to 1 exchange rate to US dollars. We did the chicken dance on our chairs.
Me, James, Ross, Scott, and Daniel strolled through the shops & got some tattoos.
AWESOME! We were so pushin it to get back to the boat on time. Our taxi driver was
haulin'. We were the last ones on the boat. Right before I got on the boat, I
bought an Indiana Jones lamb skin hat for $15.00. Had to bargain with 3 different
shops before I got the price I wanted. It was the last one, and it is so cool.
Scott is mad, because he wanted it first! We had some ice cream goodness when we
got back on the boat. Came back to the room and like 20 people congregated here for
awhile.

--- James has a new woman. Blair Rohner (Everyone calls her "Boner"). We talked for
a few hours and got ready for dinner. I had 2 plates of pasta, a beef brochette, and
baked chicken. Then we strolled the boat and ended up at a show. This old guy was
singing and cracking jokes. He was hilarious! Me, Ross, and Scott were on the
second row up front. There was karaoke tonight, but nobody from our group really did
anything. Went up to the main deck and played some cards with Kelly, Christine,
Luke, and Wes. We played Gin Rummy and did some card tricks. Went back to the room
and did some more card tricks and chilled. I fell asleep before everyone, and they
claimed that they were all in here talking for like an hour after that.

Tuesday, 5-30-00

--- I woke up around 8:45 and saw Scott fully dressed. I asked him if he was just
going to leave me here while he went to breakfast, and he said he was just getting in
from sleeping in room #640!!! Daniel was in another room too. We went to brunch and
had eggs, bacon, and mac N cheese. Also had some awesome strawberry cheesecake. We
had to rush to get on the "Tender" that took us over to Grand Caymen Island! There
are no docks there, so we had to anchor out in the deep water and get on small boats
that took us to shore. Some of us missed the first few busses and had to wait like
20 or 30 extra minutes before another came. Me, Wes, Scott, Adrienne, Luke, and
Darrow had to be the last ones. Luckily, they held the boat for us. We went 6 miles
out to a sand bar and SWAM WITH STINGRAYS!! The water was only like 3 feet deep.
I finished off the water camera on the stingrays. They gave us snorkel stuff and a
bucket of cut fish to feed them. They would swim right up to you and try to get the
bait right out of your hand. They were slimy and very soft. They felt so cool. I
got to hold one. There were so many! Darrow was so scared. he he We got back and
everybody went to Hard Rock Cafe and ate. Me, Scott, Ross, Daniel, and Wes walked
around in town. Ross, Scott, and I came back to the boat early and chilled for 30
minutes. We ordered some room service about 45 minutes ago and still don't have it
yet. Holly, Sarah, Ashley, Amanda, and Shanna came by for some more chillin'.

--- We had steak dinner at the pool side deck. It was one of the best meals yet.
Afterwards we went to the casino to look around. A woman won $1200.00 on the $1
slot machine. Scott & I sat at the nickel($0.05) slot and put in a dollar. He won
$10, and I won $13. Then we quit while we were ahead. We walked out of the casino
and went to a show in the main lounge. They had some guy/girl games. Scott won the
musical men game, and the guy called him Jeff. We now call Scott, Jeff! They had 3
games, and nobody else would volunteer, so we all played every time. We had to put
a balloon between our legs, hop over to a woman in a chair, sit on her lap, and pop
the balloon. The last game we passed a spoon on a string through our clothes. We
all won 2 plastic visors, and Jeff won a mug. Hung out in the girls room for awhile
and went back to the casino. Jason stuck a dollar in the $1 slot machine that the
lady won big on and won $10. We then went to the Mardis Gras Buffet and ate
crawfish etouffe and dessert. I sold my hat to Jeff because it was too small, and
Jeff was still mad at me for getting the last one. Just Kidding Jeff! HA!

--- A couple of guys that claimed to be DJ's had a party on the top deck outside.
They had a laptop and a jambox and were playing music. There was a big wind
advisory warning so the security guy came and made us get off the very top. Me,
Jason, Daniel, Wes, and Ross went through an emergency hatch in the casino behind
a curtain to the front of the boat. It was really dark, and the wind was big time
gusty. We could barely get the hatch open again when we went back in. Who is James
Adair? We don't know him anymore. Boner has him in a trance. Back in the rooms
and James just sits on the bed with a silly grin on his face. Ross and I always end
up on a bed together. We call it the bachelor pad. Girls are always with other
guys, but we love our honies. We have to get up at 7 tomorrow morning. We are
waking up in Jamaica Mon!

Wednesday, 5-31-00

--- For some reason my alarm didn't go off. People started calling the room around
7, and of course, we got up late. After rushing through our showers and grabbing a
few items from the breakfast line, we deboarded the ship to get on a bus. We went
to Dunn's River Falls that was around 50 miles away. Jamaica is like something I've
never seen. There were goats, cows, and pigs roaming freely in the town and through
the streets. We've also never seen so many people just standing around doing
nothing. Sandy, our tour guide, taught us some of the native lingo. We learned to
say Yeh Mon, No Problem Mon, and Ari Mon. She told us to say "Me don wan teet" when
people try to sell us the Ganja (Marijuana). There were so many goats and cows
everywhere. We went over a hill at @ 50mph and came upon a cow standing in our lane
with oncoming traffic. Sandy just chimed in with a "No problem mon." We passed 4 golf courses
and some mules. We just can't picture Jamaicans playing golf. They have a few polo fields though.
The waterfall was very awesome. We made a huge chain and went up 940 ft. We got tons of pics.
I was at the end of the line and had to help a Jamaican family scale the falls by
myself. It started raining hard, and that made everything so much better. It was
like being in a rain forrest. After the falls we headed to a restaurant on a cliff
that overlooked the water. Very good Jamaica cuisine. (Rice, beef, noodles, chicken,
Jamaican hushpuppies, and great desserts. After lunch Sandy told us that we
had "Niggeritis" if we were full and sleepy. The place was kind of dumpy and the
people were a little nappy. Lots of guys had dread locks. The bus driver was going
too fast to take their pictures though. They were havin' the Bend Down Market in
the city. It's like a flea market, but everything is on the ground. People drive
crazy here too. These foreign countries where you drive on the wrong side of the
road are dangerous. The traffic got kinda backed up, and a crazy bus driver passed
some cars. Before he could get back over, another car came from the other
direction. The guy just swerved back over beside a car and nearly drove him off
the road. Sandy just kept telling us to close our eyes and say "No Problem Mon".
I got a picture of a cow tied up in the middle of a roundabout. There were road
signs and a light pole and about 20 square feet of grass for it. What does it drink?
We saw a goat standing on a rock like a statue and a cow tied to a billboard. We
just couldn't stop laughing all the way back to the ship. Wes kept trying to
rap/rhyme with every sentence we said. He is horrible! We were supposed to be back
on the ship by 3:30, but at 3:40 we were still in traffic in downtown Montego Bay.
We finally made it back to the boat about 3:50, and as you can see, they didn't
leave us. Thank goodness, or NOT! Maybe we should have stayed to raise some cows
and goats, and tie them to our yard. He He On the boat we had some ice cream and
cookies. I got some great mountainous pics from the upper deck of the boat. It's
time for a nap now to catch up on our sleep. We now have 2 1/2 days at sea until
we get back to New Orleans.

--- We slept like 3 hours and somehow Jeff woke up around 7:40. We all got dressed
and went to dinner. We had chicken strips (really only like 1 whole one each),
pasta, and shrimp. Some had steak. I had a fruit crepe for dessert that wasn't
very good. The ice cream made that dish! After dinner we went back to the casino
to drop a dollar in the slot machine. Jason put like $3 in the dollar Haywire
machine and OH, did it go haywire! He won $160.00!! That's just crazy. We went
to a lip sync show that was good for a few laughs. We then went to the pool deck
and requested a few songs from the DJ. After that we went out the secret door
through the casino to the front of the boat. It was so dark out there once again.
We could see the stars so bright. There are so many shooting stars at night when
you can see the night sky from a totally dark spot. I saw about 7 myself. The wind
was nice. I want to go out there during the day sometime. We were coming on a
storm and could see lightning and clouds. We stayed out there til like 3:30. That
was the latest I've been to bed yet. And, I wasn't even tired. Went to bed around
4:00. Oh yeah, we peed off the side.

Thursday, 6-1-00

--- We got up at 9:05. I went to the breakfast buffet and brought some food back
to the room for everyone. Then we went to The Art of Napkin Folding. I learned to
make a banana, candle, boat, and fan. We layed out for a couple of hours and played
some ping pong. I got smoked by some dude. It was really windy though, and he
didn't let me warmup much! he he I skipped out on lunch and a few of us went to
play some roullette. Daniel, Jeff, and Ross all won around $15.00, and I broke
even. After that we watched a guy carve a swann out of a block of ice. Almost
time to go to the putting and chipping contest.

--- Hey, Hey, Hey, I won the putting contest. Daniel won his division too, and we
got some Commodore squeeze bottles. The chipping contest was all about chipping a
ping pong ball into a bucket. Impossible! Or so we thought until Wes stepped up
and hit it in on the fly, first try. He only got a visor though. Ha. We went back
to the casino, but they wouldn't open the roullette table. We played some blackjack,
and I broke even again. Went to snack time, but I didn't like any of it. Pepperoni
sandwiches and pepper/turkey sandwiches. Gross! Me, Ross, James, Rohner, and
Jennifer chilled on the back of the boat and played the name game. We came back to
the room to get pimp for formal night. Jeff and I went to watch the sunset and got
some very cool pictures. We finally had lobster for dinner, along with some potato
& bacon soup and some pasta. After dinner we took some group pictures and changed
clothes. We went back to see the old guy sing and tell jokes, but he just wasn't
happening this time. So we went to check out the Karaoke! The dorks from Alabama
kept singing country songs and doing the Roll Tide cheer before and after every
song. They sucked! There was a midnight buffet with food carvings. We got to take
pictures beforehand. There were watermelons made into faces, chocolate Eifel towers,
and chefs made of butter, to name a few items. One more time in the casino, and I
put $0.50 in the video poker machine and won $5.00. Time to quit. The disco sucked
again so me, Ross, and Kelly went to the front of the boat. We layed down and tried
to sleep out there, but it was super windy and cold. We ended up coming back in, and
I went (My awesome blue glitter pen just ran out of ink!) to bed. I set the alarm,
but couldn't wake up to see the sunrise at 5:35. I regret it!

*** A man died today. He had a heart attack, and we're in the middle of the ocean.
They had to put his body on ice because we still have 2 days to get to land. I feel
so bad for his family that has to stay on the boat knowing he is gone. We prayed
for them at supper. There was also a rumor that a girl didn't make the boat in
Cozumel. No word on what happened with her.

Friday, 6-2-00

--- I woke up at 10:45 and went to the ping pong tournament. An old guy that was
an MRA dad beat me. I was up 8-2 and lost 11 points in a row. I just play different
against people I don't know. The wind and crooked net didn't help either. Kelly
won her first match!

--- We headed out to lunch, and a few of us had hamburgers for the first time in over
a week. They were outstanding. Stepped over to the casino for some more roullette.
I know, we are starting to get addicted. I put in $15 and was down to my last $3. I put
a dollar on my number 34 straight up, and oh yeah, it hit! I got $35 and cashed in
with $25 more than what I started with. We had to dress up our horse for the Kentucky
Derby. Ten of us put in $10 each to buy our horse. The winners got $600 to split
between the owners. We dressed our horse in leopard print clothes. It was wearing
a thong, bra, hat, and shirt all of leopard print. Our jockey was Adrienne, and she
had on a leopard bra, shirt, skirt, and Jeff's Indiana Jones hat. All of the owners
(Me, Ross, Daniel, Jeff, Wes, James, Darrow, Adrienne, Brittany, and Luke) wore our
suit jacket and a tie and bathing suit. No shirts. We wrote a 30 second essay,
and I got up front and read it. It goes as follows:

"Deep in the pastures of Jacktown, MS, lived a mare named Betty who dared to break
the fashions known to the Equine society. Upon came a stallion that bred far and wide
known only as The Schlong Ranger. Many moons passed, and Betty bore a daughter.
She raced through the fields, her stride stretched strong, this new young philly
clad in her leopard thong. And so was started the legend of The Thong Ranger! No man
could tame her spunky resistance. Until along came Jane with thighs of persistance. Mabuhi!"

Well, we lost! Adrienne even cheated and moved up 2 extra spaces. We didn't even
win the best dressed horse. Time to lay out for the last time!

--- After the horse racing we went and had a snack and layed out for awhile. Came
back to the room and "The banana thing" Jeff. (and Ross) We packed a little and got
ready for dinner. Before dinner we stepped back in the casino. I won $20 more on
Roullette. Went out to the front of the boat and watched as we entered the MS River.
There are so many oil rigs out here. We went to dinner and had scallops, conch chowder,
and veal. Some had blackened Mahi Mahi. Wes Hamlin is CRAZY! He kept rubbing some
waiter's butt with his hand and a fork. The guy never acted like he felt anything.
Then Luke jabbed a head waiter in the butt with a fork. He turned around and said,
"Hey, you touched my culo!" We were laughing hysterically, but there was more to come.
Wes stuck an extra long tea spoon between the first waiter's legs and tapped his
testicles. The guy turns around and says, "That's 3 times now!" We all just lost
it. We had sing along next. Thanks Sarah! Back to the casino! They really are
addicted. I decided that I had enough earlier. We are now finishing up the packing,
and we can't believe the week is almost over.

--- After packing we went back to the top deck to watch the banks of the mighty Mississippi.
Wes, Ross, and I watched for awhile, but the sulfur smell from the factories got to
be too much. We couldn't even breathe YO. We decided to get some Daiquiris and throw
my shoes off the back of the boat. Ross got some copies made of the journal up to
this entry. The Hotel Manager saw the line "tapped his testicles" at the top of the
page and laughed. We went back and proceeded to chunk my NIKE's. They were my river
shoes, they were still wet, and they smelled like the funk! Ross won the hand of five
card draw to get the privalege of throwing one. His 3 queens beat Wes' 3 jacks. Went
back to the front of the boat, but it's just not the same as when we're on the open waters.
Too much light around. We passed a ship that looked pretty close. The guys gave me
an orange to throw at it. I took a crowhop and launched it. It was airborne for what
seemed like forever. Then BAM! it nailed the water about 1/10 of the way there.
Needless to say, I got ragged a little. We finished packing and set our bags outside
in the hall. Some jerkwad threw some people's bags overboard. The security guard
was double timing all over the ship saying, "No congregata in the hall!" Wes, Ross,
and I went back to the front and watched the last hour of our cruise into the dock.
We were speeding along at like 5 knots (which is about 4mph). We docked about
3:15am. Only 2 guys were on the dock to secure the entire ship. I went to bed.

Saturday, 6-3-00

--- I set the alarm for 6:35 and forgot to turn it on. Mrs. Nancy came and woke us
up at 7:30, and we got speed showers and ran up for breakfast. We are now crowded
into the Main Lounge with every other passenger on the ship. They have now cleared
us to disembark at 8:45am. Back to Reality. Peace out and good night!

By "Tru" a.k.a. DAD

Post Cruise Commentary:

Well, what can you say? Overall this had to be one of the best weeks ever. These
guys are definitely my best friends, and I love them all. I met some great and interesting
people, and I will never forget this trip. Here are a few quotes that made the week:

Cruise Quotes

--Mrs. Shelby in Cozumel, "James! Look there's a naked woman."

--Jeff about the whole cruise, "Where's James?"

--Ross about the whole cruise, "Tru, you heard the word on the street?"

--Wes on the tour bus, "Rrrawlll!" - Rhyming with 'We just went over a canal.'

--Jason in the casino, "Ross, that just pisses me off."

--Daniel to the Viagra guy, "Maybe you just suck!"

--Drew phrase, "I'm all about..."

--Drew question to Rohner & Jennifer, "Have yall ever watched Making the Band? Me either!"

--Drew to Daniel on the tour bus, "Yeah, we can read."

--Head Waiter(1), "Bon Appetite!" - "Mabuhi!"

--Head Waiter(2) to Luke, "Hey, you touched my culo!"

--Dealer to Wes, "No more bets...no more bets please...NO MORE BETS SIR!"

--Wes to Jacomo, "Hey, listen to me!"

--The jerk cruise director to Scott, "Hey Jeff, where are you from?"

--The complex members, "Where's Rohner?"

--Sandy the tour guide upon rounding a curve at 50mph with an oncoming 18 wheeler,
"Just close your eyes and say No Problem Mon."

--Sandy telling a joke, "Airplanes go from city to city, and babies go from titty to titty."

--Sandy to our girls, "Why do you girls shave your legs?"

--Drew while snorkeling, "WHOA! There's a 3 foot Barracuda!"

--Daniel to the horse thief guy, "Is that a pink shirt?"

--Ross to Kelly, "Kelly, you're freaking black!"

--Rohner all the time, "Let's play the name game."

--Security guy, "No congregata in the hall!"

--Jeff everyday, "I got first shower."

--Our whole dinner table except James and Jason, "Howard is a magician!"

--Our dinner table after James told us the truth, "Howard ain't no magician!"

--Drew, Scott, James, Ross, "Let's get tattoos. We got plenty of time to get
back to the boat."

--Daniel, "We're gonna have to take a cab, we're SO late."