CAO event/Weekend review (9/26-9/28)

The Maduro Room hosted a CAO event Friday night with David Palm representing CAO and Torano cigars. David had a little trouble getting out of Charlotte, NC so he arrived around 6:30 pm instead of 4pm which he had planned. The usual people started showing up at the shop anyway and we had a good time "just hanging out" until David arrived. Once he did, the shop ran their "buy 3 get one free" deal. The freebies were very good cigars, too. I bought 6 cigars and got 2 free ones. My free ones were CAO Brazilia Impanema's! Below are some pics from the event.

Mitch found a friend:

Twig-ster!
Mike Falls (store manager) with David Palm of CAO

Cool painting
(L-R) Steve, Grady, David, Connie, Mike, me)Of course, Grady Marsh is the owner of the Maduro Room, and Steve works part time there, and Mike is the store manager. This is the first time I've captured all 3 in one pic!

Now, on to the Weekend Reviews!

Saturday, September 27th, 2008

La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial (7x49)

This is a new version of a cigar made by Ashton Cigars that has been around for several years. They managed to convince Don Pepin Garcia to make them a cigar under this brand. The band is slightly different from the original. Below is a comparison. The original band is on the left; new one on the right.

They added another girl, but that's about the only real difference.

This cigar is triple capped, like all of Pepin's cigars he makes. The draw is good. First draws are full of spice and pepper. You can feel it on the back of your tongue! Citrus notes and slight sweetness of caramel are noted. After an inch or so some leather notes appear. The cigar feels a little light in the hand as compared to other DPG cigars. It also seems to burn a little faster, which means it's not as dense as some of his other cigars. But, that being said, the flavor is great! The finish is very long, too. I really enjoyed this cigar!

Score: 94

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

CAO America Potomac (robusto) (5x56)

This is a very nice looking cigar, with the barber pole striping. It has a maduro wrapper that has the stripe of a natural wrapper.

When I cut the cap the entire cap came off! Not good, but...that happens sometimes.

Pretty spicy initially with black pepper notes. Sweet maduro flavor. The finish is nice and fairly long. The ash is very firm. The cigar burned very even. You can see the torn cap in this pic:

This was my first America. I've heard some negatives about them so I didn't expect to like it but I did! It was a very good cigar!

Score: 94

Caribbean cruise 2008, part 4

Sea days are times to sit back, relax, and take it easy. There is no rush to get up and get off the ship. These are days you sleep in. But you can also get up early enough to catch the sunrise. Here's a pic I took that caught the sunrise:

I go to the gym on sea days. There's not enough time to think about the gym when you're in port.

On our last day at sea we awoke to a rocking boat. When I questioned why I was told that we were experiencing the backside of Ike. The hurricane was about to hit Texas and was over 200 miles away, but the high powered winds were still able to hit us and make the morning and early afternoon ride a little rough. It calmed down around mid-afternoon. Then we got ready for our second formal night. First was the past guest party. Earlier in the week we went to the Captain's cocktail party. Below are pics from both nights.

Us with the ship's Captain (Captain's cocktail party)

Past guest party (2nd formal night)

We had some really nice people at our dinner table each night. Here we are all dressed up on the second formal night in the Golden Restaurant:

Our final stop was in the Bahama's at Freeport. I was very concerned to see how the island looked since there have been so many hurricanes passing over and around the Bahama's lately. Much to my surprise it looked fine! Apparently Freeport has been spared from the direct hits of hurricanes this year.

We walked around the shopping area for awhile...

Then headed to the beach!

After staying at the beach for a couple hours we went back to the shops for some last minute shopping. Connie took a minute to relax next to a nice fountain:

We went back to the ship for one last dinner in the Golden Dining Room. Just like the 6 previous nights the food was excellent! After dinner we were off to our usual hang-out; On the Green sports bar. We turned in a little early since we knew tomorrow would be a little hectic during disembarkation.

And just like that; the cruise is over! This is a very depressing time, but you get through it knowing there WILL be a next time!

Caribbean cruise 2008, part 3

Day 5 found us in Belize! This is not your usual port of call because they don't have a port at all! Instead we had to drop anchor about 2 miles from shore and be tendered into town. This process moved quite quickly as there were many tender boats coming out to meet us. They want you in town where you can spend money!

Some of the tender boats:

Downtown boardwalk

Vendors for various excursions were everywhere along the boardwalk. Since we had nothing planned I stopped one of them and asked if there was a beach excursion available. He pointed me to the proper place. I went over, discussed the excursion, and paid the man. Shortly thereafter we left with about 30 other people to head over to a private island. The trip was pretty long; about 30 minutes! We were a long way from Belize and our ship! Here is a pic looking from the island toward the Glory and Legend. The Legend was also anchored in Belize due to itinerary changes from hurricane Ike.

After leaving the island and heading back toward town our twin engine boat lost an engine! We were traveling on one engine for quite awhile when the captain announced that to save time he was taking us directly back to the ship instead of going back to town where we would then get a tender back to the ship. This saved a lot of time but we missed our chance to shop after the excursion. Here we are about to board Glory from the excursion boat:

Caribbean cruise 2008, part 2

Day 4 of the cruise (Tuesday) found us in beautiful Roatan, Honduras. I really didn't know what to expect from Roatan but it wound up being a very nice place. We visited Fins and Flippers resort and I found a brand new La Casa del Habano on the island!

Roatan was a very pretty place from a distance, with small mountains and hills everywhere.

A rather poor island, however.

Glory docked at Roatan pier.

Local policeman with us.

As we walked down the street I noticed a very familiar sign...

Much to my surprise there was a La Casa Del Habano in Roatan!!!! Wow! This is great!!!!

Here we are with the manager, Dave.

In the lounge

We left the cigar shop (but returned later) and went to Fins and Flippers. A very nice resort type beach. I was more than a little surprised at how nice it was! Here is the island as it appeared from the dock in town. It's only a few minutes away.

After checking in, we walked up to the restaurant for a little lunch. The restaurant is next to the pool which was very nice as you will see.

Waterfall

View from rear (no pun)

Now on to the beach, which was beautiful!!!!

After several hours at the beach we went up to the pool before leaving the island and heading back to the LCDH. Here is the view from the pool looking toward the ocean. Beautiful!