Day 147: Aruba

We were determined today to get to Palm and Eagle Beaches for the first time this winter. Ever since we'd been told about Nikky Beach, it was so much easier to get there that we'd kind of abandoned the beaches in the Hotel Zone. It was time to make up for that. 

After a quick breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet, we walked off the ship (the Vision of the Seas was behind us at the preferred berth) and caught the #10 Arubus to the furthest hotel. We then walked back, via beach, road and sidewalk, from Palm Beach to Eagle Beach. Today was sunny and HOT, with a stiff breeze, and by shortly after 1pm we were beached, sunned and walked out, and caught a privateer minibus back to Orangestad. 

We returned to the ship for a late lunch (so tired of pizza- I'll not be eating pizza again anytime soon!) and spent the remainder of the afternoon sorting through paperwork in our cabin.

At 4:30pm, we were on the Promenade Deck for our last sailaway of this entire winter, accompanied by our final bottle of Barefoot  Bubbly. (And I did a quick calculation:  counting Fort Lauderdale but subtracting our missed ports of Half Moon Cay and three Princess Cays visits, this was our 99th (!!) sailaway of the winter.)

As much as we hated to, we skipped Dinner with Darko tonight; I accompanied G as he ate a burger and fries in the Horizon Court Buffet (but didn't eat...yet). At 8pm, I had a much anticipated Ladies Night Out.  This had been in the planning for awhile, a last hurrah with some ship officers who have become friends, at the Crab Shack. I have been wanting to go to the Crab Shack since it was started on the Emerald Princess after the holidays, but as G considers this sort of seafood to be bait, not dinner, he was not at all interested. It worked out perfectly to do it with friends. 

Brown paper tablecloths and crayons to draw:

Serious tools for serious crab leg excavation:

We started with shrimp and hush puppies, and then had Manhattan clam chowder. Just these two courses made a meal, but the really good stuff was yet to come. 

The entrees, served family style- GORGEOUS and delicious!  Crab legs and mussels and clams and shrimp, corn on the cob and kielbasa. 

There was a choice of two desserts; we all chose neither. We were stuffed!!  It was so much fun to dine with new friends, and I'm happy I was able to try the Crab Shack. It's well worth the $20 per person charge. 

Meanwhile, G went to see Jon Root and Bill Berry, of juggling Team Rootberry, who came on board today in Aruba, so he was happy doing his own thing tonight. It was a harbinger of days to come; once home, we become unconnected at the hip, which is not a totally unwelcome operation after five months of togetherness.

;-)

Day 123: Aruba

Well, wow.  We now know what a daytime Carnaval parade in Aruba is like, and let me say right up front that it has nothing to do with old sports cars and Harley Davidsons, as did the parade we saw in Aruba a few cruises ago. No, this one was pure Carnaval and total fun. 

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. 

Day 107: Aruba

When was the last time we did something for the first time?  Well, yesterday, in Bonaire, but that didn't stop us from achieving a goal today that we've had for years. And though it felt fairly bad at the time, it feels so good now that we've done it. 

But, first, Happy Valentine's Day!  Princess, the original Love Boat cruise line, makes a point of recognizing the holiday of love, and started the celebration last evening, with a Valentines Day greeting on the bed all with heart-shaped pillow chocolates. 

There was more planned for later in the day, but you'll just have to wait to hear about that. ;-)

What we wanted to do today- if the weather was good, if our bodies allowed us to, if we were in the mood- was to climb Mount Hooiberg in Aruba. Hooiberg means haystack in English (for obvious reasons) and, at 541 feet tall, is the second (or third) highest mountain on Aruba. Now, you know that we've been wanting to do this for years, but the groundwork was so perfectly laid for us by cruise friend Steve and his daughter Valerie on their Crown Princess cruise last December that we had no more excuses. Steve and Valerie had figured out, with the help of a hospitable hotel employee waiting at the Arubus station, exactly which bus to take and how to go to get to the base of the mountain. Steve then provided us exquisitely detailed notes (he did everything but draw us a picture, but he did provide lots of descriptive photos). It could not have been any clearer if he had stood in front of us and said, "Follow me!", and so we had no trepidations about finding our way there. Getting ourselves up the mountain- yes. But getting to the mountain- no. 

Now, if we were smart mountain climbers, we would have bounded out of bed well before the Emerald Princess docked in Aruba at 7am, fueled up with a nutritious breakfast, and been walking off the ship as soon as possible. We are definitely not smart mountain climbers. What we did was lay in bed until 9ish, ate cereal and fruit in the Horizon Court Buffet, and then returned to our cabin to decide what we needed for our adventure. Most of the beach-related things came out of my backpack, but we added lots of water bottles (and could have used more). We counted out exact change- $2.30pp each way- for the bus, and finally left the ship close to 11am. 

The Emerald Princess was docked ahead of the Noordam today in Oranjestad, which gave us a slightly longer distance to walk to get to the bus terminal, but, in light of what we were about to do, this hardly bears mentioning. Steve's instructions told us to take the L3 bus towards Santa Cruz, and the bus lanes are nicely labeled with bus numbers and schedules, so we had no issue finding where we needed to wait. 

Luckily, we had only about a 10 minute wait for the 11:10am bus, and, once on board, we asked the driver to let us know when we got to (per Steve's directions) the Well Well Bar and the stop for the Water Park. G also asked the lady sitting next to us to do the same thing, for good measure.  

Aubus buses (along with Barbados buses) are the closest thing we find to buses at home:

After only 10 or 12 minutes, the lady next to us told us that we needed to get off at the next stop (bushalte #20), right in front of the Well Well Bar.

And here I must offer an amusing sidebar:

On my first stops on both Aruba and Curaçao, I was cruising alone. I rented a 4x4 for the day on both islands, and headed out. On Aruba, my morning goal was to get to Arikok National Park, and so I drove southeast down the coast, passing through several small towns. I kept seeing signs for Bushaltes. Repeatedly, I would see the sign, but never anything so obvious as a bench or anything. I kept playing it over and over in my mind. Bush alte. Bush alte. (Mom, it was Ausfart in Germany all over again, though this time I was pretty sure it wasn't a city). I could not figure it out (though in my defense I was being bombarded by Dutch signs and never-before-seen traffic signs). I took until the afternoon of the second day, when I finally saw someone waiting next to the sign, for me to figure out it was a Bus Stop. It was Bus halte, not Bush alte. Well, duh...

Anyway, back to today...

Just as we stepped off the bus, the longest funeral profession I've ever seen started to go by.  And, following that, the traffic was horribly backed up. It took us nearly 15 minutes just to cross the street to begin our walk. 

Finally, a break in the traffic, with our destination in the background:

We turned left off the road the bus had been on, and headed north. The landscape was desert-dry, and full of cactuses.

The street ended at a T in the road, and we turned right per Steve's directions. All along this way, the fact that we had detailed directions and photos on my iPhone brought us huge comfort that we were going the right direction. 'Cause this wasn't exactly a touristy area!

After about a mile's walk, we encountered the water park sign that Steve had mentioned would be our "trailhead", and the green sidewalk and steps to its right. 

Almost immediately, we stopped at a shelter and talked with a Dutch couple who were staying on the island for six weeks and doing this climb everyday for exercise. That they appeared older than both of us gave me hope that this might be doable...

...until I caught my first glimpse of these:

We didn't dawdle...it was almost noon and 86 degrees out, and it wasn't going to get any cooler anytime soon. And so we started out, counting the steps to take our minds off the climb. 

Part way up was another, smaller shelter, and we allowed ourselves a quick stop there for a water break:

Somewhere around stair 250 or so was a short section with a handrail, and that was a welcome change.

Looking down:

And the top 100 or so stairs were slightly shaded, and that helped too:

It was a hot, humid and hazy day, and that was reflected in my photos from the top. It's not a pretty summit, by any means. It contains several buildings with radio and communication transmitters. But by working our way through the cactuses to several overlooks, we had views of the entire island. 

The Emerald Princess and the Noordam:

The view towards Arikok National Park:

The northern coast of the island with the Atlantic Ocean in the distance:

Our final step count was 563 steps, plus 30 more at the bottom (the green steps), for a total of 593. But since there was still some climbing to do at the very top, we've decided to call it 599 steps, which, I must say, was a helluva lot harder to climb than the 99 steps to Black Beard's castle on St. Thomas. 

Coming back down, though obviously easier and faster, was also a bit unnerving. As G helpfully pointed out, if we fell, we'd tumble down forever, and then land on a cactus. He's such a motivator!

We backtracked to bus stop #21, across the street from #20. A lady waiting there told us the next bus wouldn't be for nearly 30 minutes, but that there were frequent private buses coming by. We caught one of these almost immediately, for less than $3 total (with a bit of Aruban change returned), and rode back to Oranjestad, where we disembarked behind the Renaissance Hotel. We managed to get a bit of slow wifi at the Starbucks in the Renaissance Mall, and returned to the ship shortly after 3pm. 

G immediately left the cabin to get pizza, but I was more interested in getting showered and dressed for the evening. Sailaway found us on the Promenade Deck drinking Gin and Tonics, and remarking over and over again when we saw Mount Hooiberg in the distance, "We climbed THAT!"  It's something we'll remember forever. Once a year is plenty for me, but G is already making noises about our next time. 

We had a glass of wine at Vines while we were waiting for a group renewal of vows in the Piazza at 6pm, led by JJ, the cruise director, because an emergency had the captain up in the bridge. Only 30 or so minutes out of Aruba, we had to turn around to meet up with the pilot boat. Two passengers and their luggage were transferred while the ship was still at sea, a highly unusual occurrence. All we can figure is that someone must have had an emergency at home and couldn't wait for two days to get a flight home from Fort Lauderdale. 

We had dinner, but postponed dessert and a bottle of champagne until after the 7:15pm performance of vocalist Kimberly Locke (from the second season of American Idol) in the Princess Theater. Following dessert, we returned to our cabin. I'm going to publish this post, but might go out again this evening to watch Sleepless in Seattle, a Valentine's special on MUTS. Maybe. If I can get a burst of energy. Probably not. 

Two sea days are up next, and I cannot wait for at least one of them. This has been a fun and active cruise! Keep your fingers crossed for calm seas and following winds. 

Day 87: Aruba

This is another evening where it's getting late and, until 30 seconds ago, I had yet to start this post. So you already know we had fun today. ;-)

The Emerald Princess arrived in Oranjestad, Aruba today at 7am, after a short sail from Bonaire overnight. We slept right through it all...the thrusters, the docking, the arrival announcement... everything.  It was nearly 8am before we made our way to the International Cafe for coffee and then breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room. In a departure from my usual scrambled egg beaters, I had a toasted bagel, smoked salmon and cream cheese today. I knew it would be a long time before we ate again. 

It was no surprise (Captain Nick had filled us in that we were the only cruise ship in port today) that we had the first (aka good) dock today. We debated joining friends who had already left to take a bus to Eagle Beach, or climbing Mount Hooiberg, the third tallest "mountain" on Aruba, or walking down to Nikky Beach for the day. We figured our chances of finding our friends n the long stretch of Eagle and Palm Beaches was slim, and we were in a walking mood but not a climbing mood, and so opted for a day at Nikky Beach

Once again we were unable to get on wifi at Starbucks (but there were a lot of people already there using it), and so continued walking down to Nikky Beach. We weren't expecting it to be crowded now that the holidays are over, but we were wrong. There were lots of families there from the Netherlands and Venezuela- it's a perfect, gentle beach for kids- and we enjoyed the "cruisers special"- 2 chairs, an umbrella and two drinks for $20. 

The weather was as good as it gets today. Finally!  I think bad weather from now on will be the exception and not the rule. We managed to spend five hours on the beach and not get sunburned, no small feat at Aruba's low latitude. 

About 3pm we packed up to walk back to the ship. We were surprised by all the local families setting up chairs along the road, not facing the beach but with their backs to the beach. G was finally curious enough to stop to ask; it was Aruba's Labor Day today, and there was going to be a sports car- classic car- race car- motorcycle parade.

We walked right into it, and spent a few minutes admiring the cars and bikes. I need to clean my camera lens after snorkeling yesterday, so the photos are hazy, but here are a few. 

G used to own this car in black. 

This is just like my bike. 

We needed to get back on the ship and get cleaned up early for the evening; Marcia and Jim invited us to their minisuite for drinks at sailaway, and they are on the port side, perfect for watching Aruba fade into the distance. 

Nikky Beach Club in the forground and Mt. Hooiberg in the distance

Vocal impressionist Michael Wilson is the only show tonight, and we have seen him many times- this winter alone. On another ship note:  we're hearing lots of complaints about the lack of entertainment options again. It seemed a bit better at this time last year, with second show options on at least four or five evenings each cruise. this cruise it's been pretty light, with music and dancing often the only other option. Band New Deal is gone, and band Accent is here, and we don't seem to enjoy their music as much. Oh how I miss band Sol Provider from last year!  Also different this cruise:  no pub night. Deputy Cruise Director Lynn just left, and new Deputy Adam is still learning how to MC pub night. Hopefully, by next cruise, that will be another option one evening of the cruise. 

I have a library audiobook expiring in three days, so I'm happy just listening to that. G is talking about going back out to watch the movie Pacific Rim on MUTS.  After a day on the water, that's as much as we can handle. 

We can almost feel ourselves getting old. ;-)

Day 63: Happy New Year in Aruba

Happy New Year wishes for a safe and healthy and wonderful 2014!! Are you like G, who hated writing 2013 and was happy for that reason alone to see the arrival of 2014?  Or like me, for whom January 1st means another birthday right around the corner, and who could happily live in early December (pre-Christmas carols) for another few months to delay becoming another year older?

Speaking of Christmas carols, "Up on the Housetop" greeted me as I walked in to the International Cafe this morning, and, call me Scrooge, but I'm kind of over them by now. We'll see how much longer they stick around. I'm also wondering about when the Christmas decorations will disappear. Will it be one day while we're in port (likely) or not until we return to Fort Lauderdale (unlikely)?  I'll let you know. 

It was quite amusing to see all the bedraggled crew members this morning after too much partying last night. The wise ones got to bed by 3am in order to log three hours of sleep; dear Darko was partying straight through to breakfast service, and looked a bit worse for it. He was counting on his free time between breakfast and dinner to catch up on his sleep. Right...

It was a beautifully sunny day in Aruba, and we wasted no time after breakfast to get packed for a day on the beach. We were in port with the Crown Princess (at our bow), the mysterious Scientology Free Winds off our port side behind us, and, at the freight pier, the Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas. 

Check out those old life boats on the Free Winds!  I think they're powered by oars. ;-)

With all those cruise passengers plus holiday visitors staying on Aruba, we knew we didn't have time to dawdle to get waterfront loungers and an umbrella at Nikky Beach. As we walked through the gauntlet of jewelry hawkers and taxi drivers on our way out of the secured port area, it suddenly occurred to me that I had learned two valuable life lessons right here on Aruba: 1.) just because you're talking to me doesn't mean I have to listen; and 2.) just because you're handing me something doesn't mean I have to take it. Now, most people might learn these things by early adulthood, but, after 12 years of Catholic education, it took me a bit longer. Like in my 40s and only after several visits to Aruba. 

There must have been huge fireworks shows on Aruba on New Year's Eve. Firework detritus filled the streets, and the smell of gunpowder hung in the air.

We stopped at Starbucks in the Renaissance Mall on our way to Nikky Beach, hoping to get some of that free, (reasonably) fast, cool, quiet, and shaded wifi, but no luck today. Aruba was packed with visitors, and free wifi was only for a lucky few. But, as I was sitting there, trying to get online, I sensed someone standing right in front of me and looked up. It was a favorite junior waiter from the past two winters on the Emerald Princess, Athapol from Thailand. He is a real sweetie, and I had been looking for him early on this winter on the Emerald Princess, but hadn't seen him. Well, big hugs, and I was thrilled he remembered us (and me disguised in my Tilley hat and sunglasses) and he was pleased we remembered his name. He's on the Crown Princess for this contract, and what a lucky thing it was to be in the same place in the same port at the same time and meet up.  I'm choosing to read it as a good omen for 2014. 

With no luck on wifi, and after talking to Athapol, we continued on our way. The new sidewalk and finding out about Nikky Beach Club has really transformed Aruba for us. We might take the public bus just once this winter to Eagle Beach, but are very happy with the combination of a safe place to walk along the picturesque waterfront and the great deal of two loungers, an umbrella and two drinks for $20 at Nikky (ask for the cruise special).

View along the way. 

Nikky Beach Club from the water. 

The beach was packed today with some cruise ship passengers but mostly families from South America. Venezuela is only 20 or so miles from Aruba, and it's a 40 minute flight from Caracas. Spending another day with these people taught me a third life lesson:  people from South America really are way more beautiful than the rest of us. They are just gorgeous, and certainly keep themselves up as they age. However (life lesson #4):  senior men whose ears are growing larger ought not adorn them with diamond stud earrings. That's just...wrong. 

Who knew Aruba was kind of the university of life?

Aruba today was a bit of a continuation of last night's parties. We saw crew members up and down the beach imbibing and generally having a wonderful time, which they too seldomly get to have, and even a simple beach day was just more fun for us today.

The Crown Princess (with the Emerald Princess behind) as seen from Nikky Beach. 

 

After several (too many) hours in the gorgeous but unrelenting low latitude sun, we made our way back to the ship. This is as good a time as any to point out that we're currently doing this Southern Caribbean itinerary in reverse (not my favorite) order, but, after already doing it twice in the other direction this winter, I really don't mind. For one thing, sailaway from Aruba wasn't until 7pm, and that allowed us to not clock-watch today. We knew we'd either be exhausted or burned long before our 6:30pm all on board time. And though we stopped once again at Starbucks trying unsuccessfully to use wifi, we were back on the ship at 5pm, tired (both of us) and just a smidge red (one of us).   We were starving, and wasted no time getting showered and down to the Michelangelo Dining Room for dinner with Darko. 

Poor Darko. Apparently he was among those crew members who decided to extend the New Year's Eve celebrations into today and had managed to get just two hours of sleep. Oh, the stamina of youth!

We left dinner in just enough time to get to the Princess Theater for the production show Disco:  Blame it on the Boogie. I find I'm enjoying the shows even more this winter despite having seen them over and over and over and over again. I can't explain it, but thank God for it, as the production shows are the mainstay of our entertainment. Well, the production shows and football...

We got up to MUTS right at the start of the second half of the Rose Bowl (there were two other Bowl games shown on MUTS today). Don't tell anyone, but I'm actually cheering for Michigan State, mostly as a Big Ten fan, but also because I'm just so damned happy that Ohio State is NOT playing in the 100th Rose Bowl. 

Football rivalries bring out the nasty in me. 

;-)