Guam, U.S. Territory

Our day in Guam was both good and bad. Let's start with the bad, shall we? Those darn Americans are so uptight about security they make it so annoying to visit even for a few hours! We started at 7:00 in the morning, lining up as far as the eye could see (not quite literally!) to meet with customs officials before we could disembark. They held the ship up during docking procedures, and as a result, the officials were late getting on board. Thankfully we were near the front of the line, so once they were onboard it didn't take too long to receive clearance – a good thing, since we were on the first tour leaving the port. After our tour, we were held up again right across from the dock while the officials flexed their muscles and pretended that it was a safety issue. Never mind that they only glanced briefly at our cruise cards – I bet I could have held up one of my credit cards and nobody would have noticed! It didn't stop them from making us sit there for 30 minutes though, so close and yet so far. Oh, and they had all the tour buses drive in and out of the secure area with their luggage compartments open to prevent any stowaways. Now none of this seems like a big deal, I grant you, but the U.S. ports have been the only ones to make such a big deal about procedure. I'm not saying that a little security isn't a good thing, but it seems to be more about putting on a big show about security than about actually making sure everything is secure. Now that that is off my chest, on to Guam! It is another beautiful little island. We had the most elaborate welcome from the people of Guam – as we disembarked we were met by Miss Guam, a band, singers and dancers, and every passenger had a lovely shell necklace draped around their necks. Our tour was mostly about seeing the views at various points on the island. We stopped briefly at a cultural village where not much was happening, but it was right on the water and the view was lovely – there was also a wonderful wind blowing which kept it from being too hot. Next they took us to a tourist trap called Jeff's Pirates Cove. I'll admit right now that I love cheesy pirate stuff and I did make some purchases! We then headed to the Japanese WWII war memorial which gave us a wonderful view down over Hagatna and the ocean. Our last stop was at Two Lovers Point which has a very romantic Romeo & Juliet style story about it and a truly amazing view! The water was so many colours from that spot – it was gorgeous! Finally we drove down into Hagatna and dropped off the shoppers at one of the hotels before the rest of us drove back to the ship. Later that afternoon we had the Chamorro Cultural Dance Group come on board and perform traditional songs and dances. The dancing was all done by children of various ages, the youngest of whom couldn't have been more than 4 years old – too cute! They put on a wonderful show, and as the ship was pulling away, they continued to sing and dance on the pier.