Oranjestad, Aruba was a sleepy little town this Sunday morning when the ship docked at 8am. The streets were empty and the Emerald Princess was the only ship here today. We had been warned by cruise director JJ about a parade and street closures, and so were uncertain of our plans for the day, but set out to walk to the beach, carrying our lightest "beach day" load. En route we stopped into Starbucks in the Renaissance Mall, got on their decently fast, free, cool, quiet and shaded wifi (the BIG FIVE of Caribbean wifi)...and that was as far as we got. We sat there uploading and downloading and updating and catching up on news and weather and...well, two hours passed and we were still there. Finally, around 1pm, the Starbucks wifi was abruptly turned off. We thought that perhaps we had overstayed our welcome until we looked up and saw the mall nearly deserted. Most of it had already been closed off with gates that rolled down (it's an open air mall; there are no doors to close and lock), and as we stragglers were leaving the mall, we saw that barricades had been set up closing off the main road to traffic, and even pedestrians were being routed around. Though we saw lots of locals setting up chairs and settling in for parade viewing, we were told it was still several hours before it began, and we returned to the ship to recharge our batteries- iPhone and personal.
We each had two slices of pizza for lunch, and I'll spare you any more comments about lunch in the Horizon Court Buffet. It's just...not good, and even the salad bar I used to rely on has been cut in half. I did get a few slices of yellow pepper and some celery bits to accompany the pizza, and thanked my lucky stars that the DaVinci Dining Room will be open for lunch for the next two days.
Noro cautions seem to be holding at Code Yellow, but the buffet is the only place I notice them. No salt and pepper shakers nor sugar packets on the tables, and silverware is wrapped in napkins and distributed with the plates. I don't mind the latter; in fact, I think having cups and silverware already on the tables is a major germ spreader. But the salt and pepper and sugar is missed.
We went back to the cabin while our phones were charging and ended up napping/resting a bit. Finally, it was 3:30pm and we knew the parade was imminent, and so walked back off the ship, not sure what to expect.
It was not Rio de Janeiro, but it was wonderful in its own right, and we certainly felt like we were part of the party. I'll post a few photos here for comparison purposes...
A float in the Sambadrome parades during Carnaval 2002:
A float during the 60th Aruban Carnaval parade in 2014:
Our view from our seats in the Sambadrome in 2002:
Our view today on Aruba:
We were definitely up close and personal today. In fact, one of us got very up close:
It seemed like every band was playing the same song, over and over and over and over. I could actually feel my breastbone vibrate from the sound, amplified a thousand times by sets of huge speakers mounted on trailers and driven in the parade.
It appeared that all the float sponsors were commercial: banks and casinos and liquor brands, etc. Most of the floats were not motorized, and were pushed along the parade route.
And every sponsored "group" had a beverage wagon to keep the parade participants going in the hot sun. There was an impressive amount of drinking going on, and by the time they got to where we were, towards the end of the parade route, there were a few highly inebriated participants.
The costumes were pretty spectacular, lots of feathers mounted on backpacks and headdresses and even costumes that could be rolled along instead of worn.
The parade participants loved stopping to have their photos taken, and were very willing to pose for close ups to show off their intricate makeup.
And body shape apparently didn't matter one bit. Everyone was letting it all hang out!
It was fun and festive and a bit raunchy and everyone was getting jiggy by the time there was a short break in action about 5:45pm. We took that opportunity to return to the ship, a quick three minute walk, and showered and dressed for dinner. The heat and sun had caught up with us, and we were worn out.
Our table was on the side towards the port, and we watched as the Emerald Princess pushed slowly away from the pier and sailed past the parade still going on. We went up to Deck 19 for a final view of Aruba and caught the tail end of the sunset.
With oil tankers anchored off the coast of Venezuela and a slice of crescent moon in the distance:
The Emerald Princess after dark is a beautiful thing.
With the lights of Aruba in the distance...
...and the "over the side" lights lighting up the water.
There were two featured entertainers tonight: vocalist Bobby Brooks Wilson in the Princess Theater and mentalist Brent Webb in the Explorers Lounge, but we've seen them both already this winter and instead opted for the hot tub on Deck 17. We left Aruba at 7pm and have a short distance to cruise overnight to arrive in Bonaire at 7am.
