We just returned from a cruise with a bunch of old folks. I call those "geriatric cruises." There were a few young folks in their 60's and 70's, but most were in their 80's and 90's.

There are some advantages to such a cruise. Really old people tend to take lots of naps, go to bed early and sleep late, so there is no problem with crowding. Pools and hot tubs are accessable, and it's easy to out run the crowd when hurrying to lunch. Lunch is a big thing on cruises.

The entertainment features plenty of 40's 50's and 60's music, my favorite time period. Some of the passenges might have been happier with 20's and 30's music. Elvis and Beatles music is considered "modern" on geriatic cruises.

Most of the passengers were too old for shuffleboard, and some had trouble pulling the handle on the slot machine, but they excelled at bingo.

OK. You don't have to believe all of that. There were actually a few folks with young children.

We had a minor inconvenience that caused us to miss Grand Caymon. Someone had a heart attack seven hours from the nearest port. This was a smaller ship with no heliport so the captain cranked it up to flank speed and we made a dash for Cozumel, which was our intended second stop. The patient survived, we spend two days in Cozumel, skipped Grand Cayman completely and then went to Key West. Everybody agreed that a minor schedule change was a small price to pay. Most of us had been to Grand Cayman a number of times already.

Key West was, as expected, the highlight of the trip. I'll post more about that somewhere in a few days, and I'll provide a link here. I'll also provide some views from the top of the ship in the Charleston, SC harbor.

It was nice to get away from winter for a week.
Howard