Duck Commander Cruise

This is the first year we have had a Duck Commander Cruise. I don’t know where the idea came from or how this came about.

What is was:

The whole Robertson family, Bearded and Beardless, hosted a 4 day cruise on a Carnival Cruise ship.

We were the entertainment.

     Cruises are close to paradise for an 18 year old Young and Beardless Christian.

i would wake up early to do a show or talk to people then sleep until supper. The limit on food at supper was nonexistent. i had 3 appetizers, 3 lobster tails, and 2 medium-rare filet mignons every meal. About 11 at night I would go to the pizza place and get as much pizza as I could eat. Play ping-pong then head to the Black Jack table all night. Then with my winnings from gambling i would buy the candy store out of nerd ropes. 

     Reed and i decided we wanted to go scuba diving in Cozumel, Mexico. We found out that to go to the best place we had to get our diving license before the cruise. We took a 2 day diving crash course in West Monroe from Diver Dan. We took the written tests and passed easily then did the training in a 10 foot pool. So we had the basics. The only problem was we were not going to have time to go to Arkansas to do the actual dive part to get the license. We didn’t get our license. 
Was that going to stop us from trying? By no means.

     We had the basics. We joined a friend of ours who had his license and went to a man named Diver Tony. The man working for Diver Tony who checked the licenses did not speak much English. Keep in mind we are in Mexico so the laws are over-looked a little bit more than they are in the U.S. i used an old trick I learned in school when i didn’t have my homework and the teacher was making sure you did. When the Mexican man came around to check my license instead of having my license i had my test papers from scuba school and i flipped the pages really fast and talked really fast. The poor guy got so confused because he couldn’t understand me so he just said the only English term he knew “ok, yes.” 

We got on the boat!

It turned out to be an incredible dive. i saw a grouper bigger than i am. That is not saying much but still it was big.

     One of the nights around 1 am, Cole, Bryson, and i were walking to get pizza and a girl walked up to me and said 

"You need a haircut!"

i said, "You got any scissors?"

"Yes"she said.

It was a sketchy situation. i was kind of nervous, but she was only 5'2 so i figured we could handle her if we had to. By scissors she meant practically fingernail clippers. i didn't know they made scissors that small. By the time i saw the scissors she had already started cutting so there was no going back. 

3 hours later i had nice haircut. 
Sometimes you just have to say yes to things.
     The best part of the cruise was Sunday. 
Jep and Jessica did church for the young and beardless portion of the ship. They told their story, then i got up and preached the Gospel. After the Gospel, i said we are going to take a 10 minute break for me to get a triple shot of expresso (i pulled and all-nighteer getting my haircut) then we will have a open discussion time where anyone can ask questions or say something.

There were close to 50 people in the room before the break, about 35 when we came back and 20 left after moved rooms. Those 20 people and myself talked from 10am to 12pm, then after a lunch and nap break, 3pm to 7pm. We all crammed into a small room, and i told them i would be there as long as they had things to talk about. We went through all it: love, peace, happiness, joy, life, sadness, depression, suicide, drugs, porn, alcohol, relationship, dating, family, marriage, middle school, high school, college, denominations, baptism, music, instruments, worship, communion, the Bible, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and ended with homosexuality. We talked about it all. Maybe i will expand on some of those subjects in the future if y'all want to hear my thoughts about them.
     That was my favorite day because it felt like the original church. Just gathering where we could, giving our thoughts on what little we know, and being there for each other even though hardly anyone knew anyone else's name.

The cruise being a success, we landed in Miami on Monday then flew out that day for Dominican Republic. i am getting a little out of order on my stories. Sorry, its been hectic lately.

Things i learned:

1. You got to know when to hold'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.

2. Actually reading what the Bible says is really surprising sometimes.

3. Just being available to people is all some really need.

Pictures:

Rebecca and i

Random fan took this

Snorkling day

After scuba diving