Hello from another internet cafe near the ship! We have had trouble getting good signals and I will try to catch up again:
Happy Thanksgiving!
It is very early morning on Thanksgiving day! Strange not to be at home and celebrate with family. However, since I moved to Scotland, Thanksgiving has become a moving feast, usually happening on the weekend following the Thursday. I tried the traditional timing, but with no day off, it was too much like hard work and not enough enjoyment.
The anytime dining is working fantastically! We sit at a different table every night and have met such a wide variety of people! The conversation flows and this has been a really good move for us. Now we cannot seem to get anywhere on the ship quickly as we have met so many nice and interesting people!
The service in either dining rooms is absolutely superb too. I have an intolerance to the spice Cumin. This was noted on my passenger information and the head waiter discusses tomorrow’s meals with me at dinner so that I can order anything I want. It is not as easy to avoid Cumin as you would expect. For example, last night I ordered the rib eye steak – simple enough. When it was served, I got a separate gravy dish, everyone else had the gravy on their steak. Why? Carlos, the head waiter, explained that there was Cumin in the gravy. Who would have guessed that?
At first, it felt very strange to have such personalized service, but I am getting used to it and am grateful that I don’t have to think about what I am eating, at dinner anyway. Tonight’s menu was such a problem though: I wanted every main course; Alaskan Halibut, Maine lobster tail, a turkey dinner with all the works and Sirloin Steak. Best menu of the trip! I told Carlos my dilemma and he said I could have a little bit of both. I didn’t go that route, but will have lobster tail for appetizer and turkey for dinner.
Alan and Pat - Tortola
On Tuesday morning, after 3 days at sea, you could really feel the excitement at breakfast! The whole ship was buzzing with the chance to escape. I think we were all a bit stir crazy. Alan and I got off the ship and found a taxi with the couple we met at Bonaire and about 20 others on it. They were going to Cane Garden Bay beach, so we jumped in! The taxi driver’s name was Byron and he asked us if any of us knew the Queen. Strange question, but his point was, if we did, could we tell her about the state of the roads on Tortola? They were really bad, as we got to see firsthand whilst going up a very steep mountain and then down the other side to the beach. (Tortola is part of the British Virgin Islands)Tthe damage on both Tortola and Antigua roads is due to the most recent hurricane.
Having lived in the Miracle Strip (the Fort Walton Beach, Florida area), where what I consider are the world’s most beautiful beaches, I must admit I am a bit of a beach snob. So when I say this beach was one of the best I have been to, I really mean it! The waves were the best I have ever encountered for body surfing. (I have the scraped legs to prove it!) they were just perfect and seemed to demand that I spend most of my time in the water making the best of them!
Cane Garden Bay Beach, Ron and Barbara behind me
We did have time for a frozen marguerita, then noticed it was only 11am. Eleven o’clock in the morning is becoming my cocktail hour and I am a bit concerned about that! (Not really!) Later, I discovered a stall selling Fritos corn chips! Have not seen them in years and truly enjoyed that!
Tortola didn’t have much shopping or anything else for us to do. A tour of the island would have taken too long after a morning at the beach. But we loved being there. Another thrill was walking on actual grass! (3 days at sea makes you a bit crazy!)
This view of our ship docked at Tortola looks really impressive. But our next stop – Saint Maarten – had 6 cruise ships all docked together and one of them was the current biggest liner, which can carry over 5,000 passengers. The Sea Princess we are on, was the smallest one there!
Saint Maarten
When we found the internet cafe yesterday morning and I called the blog that day Sint Maarten, I had not yet experienced this island. But now that I have I am so impressed by it and wish we could have spent at least 2 days there! They recently gained their independence and officially are called Sint Maarten now. The half of the island that is French is called Saint Martin. A bit confusing!
The reason we chose this particular cruise was because it docked at Saint Maarten, Alan has always wanted to see the famous beach where the planes go right over your head and folks get blown into the sea by the plane exhaust. I did not think this would be my idea of a good time, but I went along for the beach aspect of the trip! Another couple joined us for the journey. With at least 20,000 people coming off the ships, we were very concerned about traffic and when early. Not only was it really exciting to see these planes come so close but the beach was also really nice. Tiny compared to the pictures I have seen, but the water was perfect. We were told there was NO sand at all on this beach 2 weeks ago as a result of the recent hurricane. But I am grateful that it came back.
Not one of the biggest we saw, but the best showing Alan in the beige shorts right under it!
Alan and I had gone in early to scout out how to find a taxi to take us to Maho Beach to see the planes, and also to find the internet cafe. I feel so lucky that we did this because we experienced a completely different island than most people. Peace, perfect peace!
No one on the beach!
After swimming and seeing the planes, we did the obligatory shopping since this island is famous for shopping! We had a great time too, very successful – from jewellery to Liz Claiborne handbags to beach dresses and a bottle of rum!
We are just about to dock in Antigua, so I will say goodbye for now. We have been told there is an internet cafe at the casino, so we will go there first and then explore.
Antigua
We decided not to go straight to the casino and spent a lovely day being driven around Antigua by Dennis Friday! He is a 70 year old man who loves to talk and take visitors all over to see the island. We had agreed to go somewhere with another couple, Helen and Peter, and had gone out early to see what sort of trip we could arrange. Dennis seemed the most fun and he was great. We were taken all around Antigua and shown a variety of things about the island, like the football stadium. Not the new one apparently, but the most historic one, where lots of famous football (soccer) players originated. Funny how only the men got off at this stop!
Dennis gave alot of history and took us to Shirley Heights, showed us Eric Clapton’s house way over in the distance and drove us through the rain forest. This was one thing I was excited about, and it was really a non-event. I think this was not the best example of a rain forest....
Eric Clapton’s house (we think it is the house with the red roof- upper left corner, got confused by Dennis!)
Then he asked if anyone wanted to go to the beach, there were only about 6 of us and he dropped us off and a nice, quiet beach called Dark Wood Beach. We spent two hours there and almost immediately – both Helen and I injured ourselves! I was not watching where I was going and hit a rock with my right foot. For a few hours, I was not sure if one of my toes was broken. Now that it is morning of the next day and the toe is only a bit sore, I think I am ok.....Not happy with the idea of dancing yet though! Helen was more spectacular – she got slam dunked into the coarse beach sand by a wave, landed on her knees and bled for a long time. Strange thing though; we could not stop laughing. It happened so fast and really was funny, I just wish someone had videoed it. For most of the two hours, Helen and I hobbled around together having a great laugh about it all. I had to help Helen get past the strong waves going in, she had to help me get over the steep drop of sand getting out (I could not put weight on my right foot and this would have been very painful without her help.) This would be the lame equivalent of the blind leading the blind!
Sadly, I must admit that this was not one of our favourite destinations. But at least we can say we have been here.
We found a different place offering free wifi – Cheers Bar, just up the street from where our ship was docked. So our plan was to spend the last hour or so there, which we did. While Alan was setting up the laptop, I went to get two of the local beers - Carib. Coming back to the table only to learn that the system was down L There was a man at another table, who told us about two other signals and we found Behive2. This was amazingly slow and almost impossible to use, meanwhile the clock is ticking....... I managed to just get out a Happy Thanksgiving message on Facebook and virtually no more. I had wanted to be a bit more personal, but glad I got out something general. Better than nothing. Maybe today we will have more luck and more time.
We will be on St Lucia in about 2 hours. I think Alan and I will spend time just relaxing and getting a feel for the island rather than doing too much. But time will tell...
One thing I have not mentioned so far on this blog is the evening entertainment. Which has not been exceptionally memorable, apart from three acts. There was a ventriloquist that was so funny and fun to watch. One part of it was to get two people from the audience and give the dummy mouths. Then he spoke for them, very clever and really funny. His name is Jimmy Tamley and really worth looking up on Utube or something.
With the bad weather on Grand Turk, the changeover of acts got a bit confused and we missed a few getting on the ship. Somehow the entertainment staff got ahold of an American group called “The Unexpected Boys”. They are a tribute band based on the show “The Jersey Boys”. They were absolutely fantastic. I don’t usually like tribute bands, but these guys were so good I bought the CD!
I will have to write about Saint Lucia and St vincent another day, poor Alan has fallen asleep beside me waiting to use HIS computer!
The Unexpected Boys
Last night a Scottish man called Kyle Esplin played the piano for us. We almost did not go to this because we were too tired. Boy am I glad we changed our minds. You would have thought Jerry Lee Lewis was onstage. Having seen Jerry Lee Lewis at the Ramada Inn, Dothan Alabama when I was about 16, I am able to say this. OK! He was only eating breakfast at the same time as me, but it is the best I can do!
Kyle was amazing and told us he has actually been invited to play at Jerry Lee Lewis’ birthday parties a few times. We had been advised by someone who had seen the first show to sit where you could see his hands move. Great advice. They flew across that keyboard!
The ship was all decorated for Thanksgiving and my decadent Thanksgiving dinner of Maine Lobster tails and turkey with the works was fabulous. Topped off by delicious Pumpkin Pie.
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. It was odd being so far from home and not being able to communicate. I don’t recommend being away from family and friends on such a special day, but if it had to be – why not spend it on a Caribbean cruise!
“Life is a journey, enjoy the ride”
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