Our Caribbean
Cruise – 2003
Seven nights Western
Caribbean Cruise
Rhapsody of the Seas
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SHIP FACTS: |
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Occupancy: |
2,435 |
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Tonnage: |
78,500 |
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Length: |
915 feet |
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Western Caribbean Cruise Route
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Gallery of Pictures (Please click on the thumbnail images for larger
views)
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Photograph of our family with some of the excursion sites. |
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Rhapsody of
the Seas ready to sail from Galveston,
Texas |
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Rhapsody of the Seas |
Galveston, Texas – Day 1 - Sunday - April 6, 2003
Rhapsody of the Seas’
maiden voyage from Galveston began on September 12, 1997. This event gives Texans and other residents
in the central states of America the opportunity to embark on a Caribbean
cruise without travelling to the East Coast.
In their Health Travel Advisory it is stated that the Royal Caribbean International is closely monitoring the new illness, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). After the immigration officer looked at my passport with the Chinese visa and my Hong Kong date of departure is January 6, 2003 he said, “You’re okay!” Any person who has traveled to these places within ten days or less could possibly encounter travel complications.
Our first experience of life on board the ship is the mandatory Guest Muster Drill where all guests put on their life jackets in preparation for any possible disaster. The ship sailed on time with all (2,000 approximate) passengers on board and it started off very smoothly.
At
Sea -
Day 2 - Monday
- April 7, 2003
The first ship personnel that I got acquainted with was my stateroom (7525) attendant Gene Pilar who came from Manila, Philippines. We talked about my previous missionary trips to the Philippines and also some of the places that both of us are familiar with. At dinnertime we met the very affable Passmore family (Morris, Tammy, Jason and Victoria) from Atlanta, Georgia. We were assigned to table #204 at the Edelweiss Dining Room. Our waiter Edmund comes from Dominica and our waitress Nora comes from Latin America. There are people from more than fifty nations working on this ship. The Dining Room staff marched in and entertained us with songs of Texas. Everyone on our table truly enjoyed the service and the exquisite food.
The Welcome Aboard Show at the Broadway Melodies Theater starring Jimmy Carol and also featuring The Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers were entertaining. James Andrews, the Cruise Director and Master of Ceremony announced prizes for married couples. Some were on their honeymoons while others were celebrating their wedding anniversaries. The couple that had the longest lasting marriage of 57 years won the grand prize. They deserved it.
Key
West, Florida - Day 3 -
Tuesday - April 8, 2003
The sun shone
brightly as we arrived at the first port-o-call. We took the shore excursion Conch
Train/Old Town Trolley Tour. The tour
guide/driver told colorful stories with historical information as we passed
many Key West’s points of interest including the Hemingway House, Audubon
House, Naval Base and the Southermost Point which is 90 miles from Cuba. One trailer house that is parked on the side
of a street caught my eye. It appeared
to be a mobile chapel that has the time of worship service on the Sabbath day
written prominently on one of its sides.
Another interesting place in the Town Center is a small food and
beverage stand that also does business as an Internet café. I went back to the ship for dinner and then
attended the evening show starring Jason Garfield, an 11 time gold medallist
and two-time world champion juggler.
At
Sea -
Day 4 - Wednesday
- April 9, 2003
Rhapsody
of the Seas departed from Key West, Florida while I was still asleep. I had a light breakfast at the Windjammer (9th
floor) then joined the rest of the family for brunch at the Edelweiss Dining
Room. I watched CNN that showed a scene
in Baghdad in which an American soldier in a tank helped the Iraqis topple the
statue of Saddam Hussein. Last Sunday
while we were driving from Houston to Galveston I remarked, “I hope that when
we come back from the cruise the war in Iraq will be over.” Today is only the middle of the week and the
Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations said, “The game (war) is over”. In the afternoon I spent time with Joshua
walking around the ship looking for his cookies. We ended up eating pizza.
After
a very sumptuous dinner I went to the Headliner Show starring The
Happenings. They sang nostalgic songs
with melodies of the sixties that reminded me of the time that our family lived
in Ipoh, Malaysia. Those were sweet
songs and so are the memories.
Belize
City, Belize - Day 5
- Thursday -
April 10, 2003
Our
ship anchored about two miles offshore and we had to take the speed boat to the
Belize Harbor. Since it rained the previous
night the sea was a little choppy. By
the time we reached the Belize Tourism Village the sun came out and shone
brightly. I took the “Tale of Two
Cities” Excursion tour that included a drive around the city and a visit to the
Mayan ruins.
From
its buildings one can see that Belize is an underdeveloped country. I saw a few Chinese restaurants and some
large properties with Chinese character signs, and I was curious to find out
more about the Chinese presence in Belize.
Pedro, our tour guide, told me there are between fifteen and twenty
thousand Chinese living in the country which is about 8% of the total
population of 250,000. He said the
Chinese have a fairly large share of the business and commerce in the
city. He said the large memorial sculpture
in the center of a city street circular island was the donation of the Chinese
community. Pedro also told me
something very interesting. Belize does
not have diplomatic relation with the Peoples Republic of China (Mainland
Communists). Most of the immigrants
that came to the country are from Taiwan and Hong Kong before the 1997 Chinese
takeover.
At
the end of the city tour I asked Pedro to recommend a good Chinese restaurant
and he pointed to the New Chon Sing. I
asked another person at the Tourism Village and he also pointed to the same
Chinese restaurant. I went inside the
restaurant with high expectations.
There were no windows and lighting was very poor. The interior reminded me of an old Chinese
restaurant in Limehouse, East London, where drunken sailors used to brawl and
leave without paying the bill. I
ordered Beef Chowmein that costs $9.00 and Chinese tea that costs $1.50. Even with the exchange rate of two Belizean
dollar to one U.S. dollar it was still a rip off. I cannot imagine I had to look for the noodles in a plate that is
80% cabbage. While I was eating the
Chinese family that owns the restaurant ate their late lunch at the next
table. They stared at me without a
smile or greeting. I have never been to
any Chinese restaurant in other parts of the world that is so unfriendly. Maybe this kind of service is acceptable to the people in Belize City. Our ship dining room waiter Edmund had warned us that the Belize City tour is not exciting and could be a disappointment for some of us. He said Royal Caribbean International had considered returning to the Cayman Islands for their future cruises.
The
visit to the Altun Ha archaeological site about thirty miles north of Belize
City more than made up for the disappointments at the Chinese restaurant and the uninteresting Belize City tour. My interest in archaeology stems from my two
vocations as a Christian minister and also as an architect. Many years ago the archaeologist Ron Wyatt
got me interested in Biblical archaeology.
I was very excited about this trip to Belize because many archaeologists
believe this area to have been the heart of the Maya civilization from about
250 to 900 A.D.. Supporting this theory
is the fact that Belize possesses the greatest concentration of Mayan sites in the
entire region. Belize Archaeological Web Site: 
The
drive to Altun Ha is approximately an hour with the last five miles on a bumpy
and narrow road. Our trip took much
longer because Pedro would stop the tour bus for us to look at an iguana, storks,
banana trees, cashew nuts and anything that he thought would interest us. Belize boasts of a fabulous ecosystem that
includes 540 species of exquisite birds, 400 species of fish, a broad range of
mammals and reptiles and 70 different types of coral. Forty percent of the country has been protected as national parks
and reserves including the world’s only Jaguar Preserve. It has some 100,000 acres of tropical rain
forest that rises from 300 feet above sea level to approximately 3,675 feet at
the summit of Victoria Peak. Belize reminded me of the tropical hills and jungles in Malaysia, the country where I grew up during the earlier part of my life. It has been a nostalgic excursion tour and I am glad that I had the opportunity to visit Belize.
Witnessing - I
returned to the ship in the late afternoon and had my personal Bible study at
the Windjammer because it has the best natural lighting from the projected
windows. It also has a fabulous
panoramic view of the Belize harbor. As
I was doing some reading and writing one of the waiters came over and asked me
what I was doing. His name is Mauricio
Leon Varas and he came from Chile, South America. Mauricio had been talking and teasing Joshua many times when we
went up to the Windjammer for our meals.
He liked our family. I took the
opportunity to talk to him about the One True God, His love, mercy, grace and
forgiveness of sins through the Lord Jesus Christ – the basic gospel of
salvation. He gave me his address in
Chile and I promised to send him a Spanish Bible. Please pray for Mauricio.
At Sea -
The ship sailed at 6:00 p.m. from Belize. In tonight’s dinner I had roast lamb with
mint jelly that is one of the best I have ever tasted. The evening show was also very good. The Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers
performed “The Swingin’ Singin’ Years” (A Tribute to the Big Band Era). Their renditions of Glenn Miller’s
“Moonlight Serenade”, “In the Mood” and other tunes were fantastic. They also played songs made famous by Harry
James, Tommy Dorsey and the other big bands.
The senior citizen (probably 85 years old) gentleman sitting next to me
was singing and swinging to almost every tune that was played. Everyone really enjoyed the show.
Cozumel - Day 6 - Friday - April 11, 2003
Our ship arrived in
Cozumel on time. There was an
announcement that “Voyager of the Seas”, the largest cruise ship in the world,
was going to dock side by side with the “Rhapsody of the Seas”. When it arrived on the other side of the
dock it was much bigger than ours.
Their passengers were waving at us and we waved back.
My
original plan was to go on the Cozumel Island Tour but by the time I went to
the Shore Excursion desk I was told that the tour group had already left at
7:30 a.m. I decided to join the rest
of our family for swimming in the Playa del Sol. We were all disappointed that all the ship’s excursions to the
beaches for swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving were cancelled because there
was an alert for jelly fish. While we
were at the pier we saw a lot of jelly fish floating on the water. I got stung once by jelly fish and it is not
a good experience.
A fairly large
shopping mall and market is located near the pier where our ship docked. For those who want to call home or use a
computer for Internet access there is a shop on the pier that has these
facilities. Their charges are
reasonable. You can also rent a motor
scooter to look around the island.
Cozumel is a very popular vacation resort.
On that day alone I saw at least three other cruise ships beside
ours that were on docks. There are
easily eight thousand tourists on that island that day. I returned to the ship in the afternoon in preparation for the Sabbath Service.
Jewish
Shabbat Service
- Rhapsody
of the Seas provided facilities to hold a Sabbath service on Friday before
sundown. They have a sign up sheet for
those who wanted to attend them. Eleven
people came and besides our family of four all the other people practice Judaism. Since there was no rabbi one of the elderly
Jewish gentlemen conducted the service that began with the lighting of the
candles and the recitation of a prayer.
We read through the liturgy that is composed mainly from the Torah. I was very impressed by their emphasis on
worshipping the One True God by the recitation of the Shema Israel (Deut.
6:4-9) and also the encouragement of observance of the Holy Sabbath Day
(Isa. 56:1-8; 58:10-14). It was a very
simple service that glorified the One True God on His Holy Sabbath Day.
After
the Sabbath service we broke bread and shared the symbolic fellowship meal together. Our Jewish friends wanted to know more about
our faith and I gave them a short introduction of our church that originated
from Beijing, China. I told them we
strongly believe in the One True God and also observe the Seventh Day
Sabbath. The knowledge of keeping the
Seventh Day Sabbath in ancient China originated from our early ancestor Shem. Our new Jewish friends fully understood we
are Christians that believe Yahshua (Jesus) is the Messiah, and they accepted us
in the Sabbath fellowship. I discussed with them
how God revealed Himself to the ancient Chinese people through the written
language. One of them said the Jews have always got
along with the Chinese people and he mentioned the Jews in Kaifeng, China. Please go to the links below:
Jews in China à http://faculty.rmwc.edu/fwebb/buck/vtmiles/jews.html
Are there really Jews in China?: An Update
à http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles2/china.htm
“Lost” Jews of
Kaifeng à
http://members.tripod.com/~journeyeast/lost_jews.html
Another
elderly Jewish gentleman who lives in Houston mentioned that Jews and Chinese
have something in common – they all love Chinese food. We talked about a Chinese vegetarian
restaurant in Houston that is approved and certified kosher by the rabbi of
a Jewish synagogue in Houston. I told
our new friends about a Jewish nutritionist in Houston who taught us
about Biblical Nutrition It
was a very pleasant Sabbath fellowship.
Friendship
Celebration Parade and Sing-a-long - After
dinner the ship’s captain led his staff and marched to the Centrum to the
tune of “The Saints go marching in.” The
band played and many ship passengers who were standing on the balconies on at least three
floors sang patriotic and Texas songs – America the Beautiful, Deep in the
Heart of Texas and God bless America. After the sing-a-long I returned to my stateroom and retired for the night.
At Sea - Day 7 - Saturday - April 12, 2003
Our
Family Sabbath Service - Our
family held a Sabbath Service in my stateroom (7525) at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday
April 12, 2003. We sang “This is my
Father’s World” (Hymn #5) and prayed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thanked our heavenly Father for making us
remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and also giving us the opportunity to
worship Him on the day that He rested, blessed and sanctified. We have received His protection and abundant
blessings on this cruise.
The sermon title was
“What is good and what does the LORD require of you?” (Micah 6:8)
In
our closing prayer we thanked our Lord Jesus Christ for such a smooth journey
and excellent weather this past few days.
We prayed that God would continue to guide and protect us so that we
could all reach home safely. We
praised the LORD HalleluYah! Amen.
God’s Appointment - After
our Family Sabbath Service I went to the Edelweiss Dining Room for lunch. On the Centrum staircase I met one of the
elderly Jewish gentleman again. The
ship is very large and there are about 2,000 passengers and the chance of our
meeting in the same place and at the same time is rare. Unlike dinnertime when we sit at the
assigned tables, at lunchtime the receptionist placed both of us at the same
table and we sat next to each other. We
were able to get to know each other better and we conversed a little bit
more. His name is Robert Beer and he
had just celebrated his 85th birthday a few days ago on board the
ship. He remarked about my grandson (5
years old) Joshua’s good behavior during the Friday Shabbat Service. Robert told me about the whirlpool and steam
bath that is an excellent way to relax.
Our conversation touched on several other subjects that included Israel,
the Knesset, Aliyah (Law of Return), Orthodox, Reform and Messianic Judaism,
New Testament and Christianity. All
these are serious subjects but we were able to discuss them intelligently with
mutual respect for one another. We
exchanged e-mail addresses.
After
the lunch we went off in different directions.
Here is something very strange.
After a while I wanted to go back to my stateroom and I pressed the elevator
button, and as the door opened I saw Robert Beer again. As I stepped inside the elevator cab we both smiled to one another and he said, “This must be
God’s appointment for us to meet again.”
I totally agree with him.
Let’s
Roll - After a short rest I thought it would be
nice to try the whirlpool and steam bath for relaxation. On the way I passed by the library where I
entered to browse the book shelves. The
book “Let’s Roll” caught my attention.
That was the rallying cry of Todd Beamer, one of the
heroes of United Flight 93, who, on September 11, 2001, rose up against the
terrorist hijackers and made the ultimate sacrifice. Todd Beamer’s wife tells how she finds the inspiration and
strength to cope, and how faith and hope are important in her everyday
life.
I started
reading the first few pages of the book and could not put it down until
dinnertime. If you like to read a good inspirational
book on Christian faith or want to know what probably happened on board that
fateful flight before the crash, I highly recommend this book.
For review of the book “Let’s
roll” http://www.livingthesolution.com/letsroll.htm
Last
Dinner - The meals on board
Rhapsody of the Seas have been excellent but the last dinner in the Edelweiss
Dining Room topped it all. The food was
magnificent and so was the service. The waiters and waitresses brought a
special cake for Morris and Tammy Passmore and sang for their sixteenth wedding
anniversary. We congratulated them. All of us followed the Cruise Vacation Guide
and gave the tip vouchers to our friendly waiter and waitress. I have already given the tip voucher to Gene
Pilar my stateroom attendant.
Farewell
Showtime Michael Roloff entertained us with his balancing act and the
Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers made this show very special.
After the show
we returned to our respective staterooms to pack our baggage and placed them near
the door to be picked up after the checking by the U.S. Immigration Department.
Galveston, Texas – Day 8 -
Sunday - April 13, 2003
Rhapsody of the Seas arrived safely in Galveston, Texas. After praying with Gene Pilar for his work
on the ship and his family in the Philippines, we hugged each other and said
goodbye.
I am glad to report that the one week on board Rhapsody of the Seas was more than a vacation. It was also a blessed spiritual voyage with
our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise the LORD, HalleluYah! May God bless you.
Updated on 01/14/04 Paul Wong is a Christian minister and the
President of ARK International.
His ministry also serves as an architectural service company in Houston.
The ARK Forum on the Internet is international and non-denominational.
ARK International
P.O. Box
19707, Houston,
Texas, 77224-9707, U.S.A.
Tel. No. (713) 467-1462