So Ramón and I were on a eagerly awaited Caribbean cruise to Grand Cayman and Cozumel last week on the Disney Wonder, courtesy of Disney Cruise Lines. If you’ve ever wanted to take a cruise, I strongly suggest that you go with DCL. Trust me, they’re not just for families and kids — all the ships have adult-only places including a coffee shop, pool, restaurant, and bars — and their food and service is phenomenal. This was our second cruise, and it was just as fabulous as the first.

During our five days at sea I wound up swimming with stingrays and dancing with dolphins at Grand Cayman (have I mentioned how much I love being able to write all of this off on my taxes as research? Also, I may have come up with a stingray shifter story — woohoo!), did some lovely souvenir shopping at Cozumel and accidentally wound up drinking at Hooters, hung out on our stateroom verandah and marveled at the color of the ocean (it really is lapiz lazuli blue), had an amazing dinner at the Wonder’s adults-only restaurant Palo, and generally had a whale of a good time relaxing and hanging out with my honey. And, er, we may have already booked a cruise for next year. Well, you get a 10% discount if you book on board!

Also, the Outlook Cafe on the Wonder is a great place to write because there are outlets everywhere, plus someone checks on you regularly and brings refreshing adult beverages. You don’t even have to get up and make them yourself. And yes, I wrote on my cruise — writers don’t get vacations during NaNoWriMo. In addition to working on Deep Water, my edits for Breaker Zone arrived on Monday while we were at Grand Cayman (I decided to pop for a Connect@Sea internet package which would allow me to check my email).

Oh, and I got my cover.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this one, especially with the almost sculptural look of the guys in back. Once again, the Evernight graphic design team delivers in spades. Now I just have to finish round one of edits and get them back in…