The next day, we woke up to the rain. We took our time getting off the ship because of the terrible weather.







Now, the entire cruise, my family had been making fun of me for bringing a rain jacket... that rain jacket was about to come in handy!!!



We had been to Dominica before and went river tubing with Wacky Rollers - a great tour! I forgot to mention earlier that my Dad went to the excursion desk that morning to try and book an excursion, but all of the river tubing tours and many of the other excursions were cancelled because the river was flooded with all of the rain. Our tablemates had booked the river tubing tour, but weren't able to go since it was cancelled. I don't think it would have been very pleasant in the rain, anyway.

Soooo... we got off the ship in the pouring rain and walked in the first bar we found in search of the local brew - Kabuli!



While we were sitting in the bar (we spent a long time there), a young couple sitting at the table next to us started talking. They were from Texas and had been married 2.5 years - because of our obnoxious Clemson door, they knew that we were staying in their honeymoon suite!

Pssst... Derrick and Jennifer (Texas couple) may have lent us a few to complete the pyramid...





Somehow Johnny Rockets came up, and Derrick and Jennifer insisted that we join them. So after boarding the ship, we all squished in a booth and enjoyed hot dogs and hamburgers while cashing in on our 2 for 1 milkshakes.



Then we spotted a rainbow as the ship left Dominica - now the rain goes away!






Then we went to see the ice show, again. (I forgot to mention that we saw this the night before.) This time, I took pictures.

This girl was insane with hula hoops!



The show had really good ice skating. However, I found myself naturally critiquing the theme, "Cool Art, Hot Ice." It just didn't make sense. I understood that it was abstract - that was obvious in the name. However, there wasn't really a formula to it. One scene was very abstract with instruments, then midgets, then next we have go-go girls and the Beatles - all over the place! For the go-go scene, they showed video of ice skating - that wasn't the current ice skaters or even the correct setting, just the same routine. Then it ended with this odd dedication to fashion that involved dragging manicans around on the ice. This was also the only scene with any form of narration. The transitions between pieces were very choppy and broken.

I thought the narration was nice and that they could have incorporated it throughout the show so that people could follow along (however, the problem with narration is that it limits understanding for International audiences that do not speak English). I also felt like it might have been better if they defined their forms of art. My peers in architecture school made an analytical video of the city of Philadelphia called "Art is," which described art using adjectives, action words, ending with "Art is... architecture." A similar concept could easily be applied to this show to unify the different aspects of art covered under the theme "Art is... on ice" or something of that nature.



After the ice show, we fixed up for dinner...


My family loves Key Lime Pie. Rachel joked with our waiter that she wanted an entire pie to herself...


Then we were entertained by a little waiter magic.


This was the night of El Gaucho. He was much more popular among the Hispanic crowd. I had seen El Gaucho before, as well as Los Gauchos - but not this El Gaucho. It wasn't what I expect at all. I was expecting lot of the boot stomping and lasso-ing(?). This guy played drums, then piano, then guitar... then he did a little bit of lasso. He was alright, but not my favorite Gaucho. He also made fun of my dad's hair and called it "a runway for flies."

After El Gaucho, the fun continued with Latin night in the Promenade. Rachel and I went to check it out, then ran into Derrick and Jennifer who were with Derrick's younger brother, Cody, and younger sister, Kelsi. So we ended up staying for the entire thing.

It was actually very entertaining because they would allow random guests to come up onto the bridge over the Promenade to dance. We recognized several characters from the club. And even a guy we met who was from SC and a Clemson fan - he got up there (completely out of his mind) with the Puerto Ricans and did the jerk!



NEXT: Day 6 - Barbados