One of the things I like best about cruising is that you get to see a lot of great places and only have to pack and unpack once. I just returned from a wonderful trip to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica with approximately 300 other poker players on a Card Player Cruises vacation.
In Cozumel, I spent a relaxing day on the beach complete with margaritas, lunch, and a massage. Of course, I shopped until I dropped before returning to the ship.
In Grand Cayman, I walked around town, snorkeled at Eden Rock, went to the internet cafe, and then got back on the ship. It’s the first time in nine trips there that I didn’t go to Stingray City to swim with and feed the stingrays, but I felt like I wanted to relax and enjoy some alone time on the island.
Jamaica was the highlight for me and was where the title of this blog was derived. I’ve climbed the Dunns River Falls five times prior to this trip and each time it gave me a sense of personal achievement upon reaching the top. The Dunns River waterfall is about 600 feet tall. Climbing it is exhilarating, thrilling, and scary! If you get careless, you can fall and get seriously hurt. When you are at the base of the falls looking up, you think to yourself, “There’s no way I can make it to the top!” However, being the veteran climber, I assured our group that all it would take to ensure a successful, injury-free climb was a good guide and a lot of teamwork.
As is the norm in many countries, money talks in Jamaica. The first thing I did was go to the guide shed and talk to the person in charge. I slipped her a “token of appreciation” and requested the best guide she had with the promise that it would be a very good day for them. With that, we got to bypass the large crowds and were assigned a personal guide just for our group of 17 rather than having the normal ratio of one guide per group of 30 or more.
I was thrilled to discover that our guide was Walker (a great name for a guide), who had led my group on a prior visit to the falls. Walker sized us up and since we had nine men and eight women, he put us into a line with a woman in between each man. He instructed us that we would all work together as a team, stepping exactly where the person in front of us had stepped, holding hands at all times so that if anyone had trouble, the person in front of and behind them would be able to help. Along the way, we stopped for some Kodak moments, participated in water fights, and did a few daredevil stunts in the water. There were a few places that were a bit hard to navigate, but with help from everyone pushing and pulling each other through the tough spots, we all made it to the top without incident in about an hour. We couldn’t have been prouder if we had won a gold medal!
We hadn’t had enough excitement for the day, so we decided to take a tubing trip down the White River, a short drive from Ocho Rios. Although we were each in an individual tube, occasionally someone would get stuck on the side of the river or on a rock and another person from our group would come to the rescue. We each made it through the rapids without harm and thoroughly enjoyed the trip. To celebrate, we stopped at a local jerk pit for some jerk chicken and pork before returning to the ship. It truly was a “top ten” day in Jamaica.
The poker room is another place where teamwork is the key to success. When I first took over Card Player Cruises, I was in the card room from morning to night. I was always there when it first opened in the morning and was the last one to leave at night. A few years ago, I got delayed from dinner on the first night of the cruise and when I walked into the card room 30 minutes after it had opened, I was absolutely shocked to see everything functioning without me. I learned a valuable lesson that day…how to delegate! I now realize that by hiring an excellent staff of shift bosses, cashiers, tournament directors, brush people, and dealers, I can have time to enjoy the cruise. I even get to sleep in and go to the shows at night. Teamwork… what a concept!
