Day 86: Bonaire

So much to tell you; so little energy. That's what always happens when we've had a fun and busy day, and even moreso when that day's been spent in the water. 

Our morning was at sea; our scheduled arrival in Kralendjik, Bonaire was noon. We did the usual...International Cafe for coffee and DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast with Joel and Erika. I had a goal this morning to do my nails...and it turned into a frustrating and time consuming activity. I was using Sally  Hansen nail strips in glitter for the first time; bad, bad, bad. 30 minutes after I applied them the corners were peeling off.  It was quite a disappointment after the non-glitter ones lasted two weeks without chipping, and I'll be placing a call to Sally Hansen on turnaround day to tell them all about it.  

I finished them up the best I could just before noon (three hours. I spent THREE HOURS!!), and pulled my snorkel gear out of the beach suitcase under the bed, applied at least 1/4 of a tube of sunscreen and then put a rash guard and swim skirt on over that. We were meeting Bob and Janet and Ross and Claudette to take a water taxi over to Klein Bonaire to snorkel ($20 round trip, leaves Bonaire on the hour and Klein Bonaire on the half hour). We enjoyed the best weather we've had all winter today in Bonaire, and this was the perfect day for snorkeling. The sun was bright and the wind was relatively mild (for Bonaire). 

We drift snorkeled over and over again, and on our last run saw an illusive sea turtle. 

Hungry and tired, we caught the 3:30pm water taxi back to Bonaire, and returned to the cabin to rinse the snorkel gear and shower. As much as I LOVE snorkeling on Bonaire, it leaves our cabin a wreck until everything drip dries. We were at the Michelangelo Dining Room for Dinner with Darko when it opened at 5:15pm and- joy of joys- it was Italian night!  Penne arrabiata with chicken and brocolli was the perfect meal after being in the water on a lunch-less day. We ate quickly and left the dining room by 6pm to go back on shore and take some photos of the Emerald Princess just before sunset.

Earlier in the day, we had seen some kids writing their names on the sidewalk in coral pieces. Fun!

Back on the ship at 6:30pm, we watched the beautiful sunset from the Promenade Deck as the Emerald Princess sailed... 

...and then returned to the Michelangelo Dining Room for dessert and coffee.  No entertainment for us tonight (production show Disco: Blame it on the Boogie was in the Princess Theater; it's 70s night in Club Fusion)...all I want is fuzzy water and bed. 

First, though, and of interest only to future cruisers on the Emerald Princess, I must report in the demise of wine packages on this ship. They will not exist after this cruise, for how long I'm not certain. They could not keep all the wines on the wine list in stock, and passengers would get upset when, after purchasing the packages, their favorite wines were not available. I'll let you know if the packages are sold again, but if you'll be on the Emerald Princess in the near future, I wouldn't count on purchasing a wine package. 

Snorkeling off Klein Bonaire

I have free high-speed wifi in Grenada (2nd floor of the Esplanade Mall) and Google in ENGLISH!, so you know what that means:  it's video uploading to YouTube time!

Bonaire (continued)

Photo 1: looking back at No Name Beach on Klein Bonaire

Photo 2: the Woodwind returns from its snorkeling trip

Photo 3: the Emerald Princess in Kralendjik, Bonaire

Photos 4 and 5: Kralendjik at sailaway

Day 45: Bonaire

Bonaire. Beach snorkeling. Beatle Maniacs. This was one B-eautiful day (again, me at my cleverest). ;-)

We arrived early in Bonaire, at 7am, and, no, I wasn't up to watch us sail in. Unlike last cruise on the Noordam, when I was trapped out on an open deck in a squall on our approach to Bonaire, today I was tucked in my bed in my very quiet cabin. However, my cabin mate is not one to sleep in, and so he was off the ship checking out the water taxi deal to Klein Bonaire. You might recall that last cruise, he was firm against me taking the water taxi over and snorkeling by myself, but I've had another week to work on him, and he finally relented. I was in the dining room for breakfast (served by Sutti) at 8am and G joined me shortly afterwards, with the information that the water taxi, Good Return, leaves on the hour from Kralendjik and on the half hour from Klein Bonaire. Sutti was up for the challenge and by 9am I had eaten breakfast, changed into snorkel wear, grabbed a towel and my gear, left the ship and was boarding the water taxi. G waved goodbye and I was on my way.

I felt all grown up. :-|

Snorkeling at Klein Bonaire is drift snorkeling, and three times over the course of two hours I walked down the beach until it played out, entered the water, swam through the coral at an opening to the deep side, and drift snorkeled back to where I started. I was planning to take the 12:30pm water taxi back, but when I finished a pass just as the 11:30am water taxi was arriving, I quickly gathered up my towel and boarded it. The wind was picking up and the water was getting rougher. Once back on Bonaire, I quickly re-boarded the Emerald Princess and showered and washed out everything: snorkel gear, swimsuit, swim skirt and rash guard. Our cabin looked trashed, with everything hanging up or sitting out to dry.

Anxious to leave it, I left G a note, grabbed a two-way radio, and headed to the dining room for lunch (although it was a port day, the dining room was open today because we were sailing early, at 2pm). Again I was seated in Sutti's section (which meant that we were 3 for 3 today), and G ended up joining me before I had finished.

We finished in time to go out on the Promenade Deck 7 for what is one of the prettiest sailaways we do. By the time Kralendjik was fading into the distance, we went back into the ship to catch the end of the Emerald Princess orchestra playing Dixieland jazz in the Piazza. I caught up with Cruise Critic friend Lynda to watch the 3pm showing of Mamma Mia on MUTS. Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard...yes, it was a nice way to spend nearly two hours.

Meanwhile, G was at this cruises's veterans get together and we met up again for the 5:15pm Captains Circle party. Then it was a hurry-up to the dining room for one course plus dessert, so we could make it to tonight's entertainment: our favorite, the Beatle Maniacs for the 7:15pm show. We have not see them since mid-November, so we particularly enjoyed the show tonight. In fact, I would have liked to stay for the 8:30pm show too, but my busy day caught up with me, and so I ended it with my usual popcorn, fuzzy water, cabin and typing this blog post.

Tomorrow: a late (noon) arrival in Grenada. It's currently raining outside, but if it clears by tomorrow, we may head to a beach on Grenada for the first time in two years.

Photo 1: stollen at breakfast (after I had already broken off a piece) ;-)

Photos 2 to 6: snorkeling at Klein Bonaire

Snorkeling at Klein Bonaire

Day 36: Bonaire

Prepared Wednesday, December 12th

This morning came way too early for me. After a very restless night, when I awoke just after 3am, those two ventilation fans in our cabin's ceiling prevented me from falling back asleep. Even with ear plugs, the noise was drilling into my head. It simply never stops. Unfortunately for Holland America, when today's Explorer was delivered to our cabin yesterday evening, there was a comment form included in it:  In the event anything wasn't living up to our expectations, would we please let them know?

Well, as long as they asked...

After laying awake for two hours in the noisy dark, I grabbed a pen, found the form and took it into the bathroom where there was some light. I wrote down exactly what wasn't living up to my expectations, dressed and left the cabin to drop the form off at the Front Office. I was awake at 5am; it was time to let someone know about it. I then went to the buffet to get some of that delicious coffee, available 24 hours a day. Even at that early hour, there were crew members cleaning and getting the breakfast food stations set up. 

My next stop was the Crows Nest. I thought those comfortable leather chairs and ottomans would be a good place to settle until the sun rose. I knew that today's port, Kralendjik, was on the western side of Bonaire, and that sunrise would appear right off the front of the ship. It was a good plan...for awhile. I sat sipping my coffee and waiting for the first sign of dawn, until two crew members came into the lounge and began vacuuming. I was on the move again...

By that time it was 6am and the fitness center was open. Not that I wanted to watch sunrise from a treadmill; more that I wanted to walk through the fitness center to get to an open deck that G had said was over the bridge at the front of the ship. I found the wooden door to get out there, and slipped out onto that deck.  Finally i saw the first light of dawn. Success!

At the same time, just as I've mentioned seeing before, I could see areas of squalls, then clearing, then squalls. It was extremely windy out there, but I thought that the squalls were moving parallel to the ship and behind us, missing us. 

I was wrong. Before I could make a decision to move inside, the ship was hit from the side by a storm. The wind was gusting so much that the rain was blowing sideways. I had retreated to an area under a small overhang when it started to rain, but it was an exercise in futility. The rain was hitting the bulkhead behind me with such force that it was running down the steel in sheets. My hair was stinging against my face. I tried to open the heavy wooden door I had come out of, but couldn't budge it against the force of the wind. I was stuck out there for the duration of the storm. No one knew I was out there, nor was there anyone around to help me. 

Luckily, the storm was as fast moving as its wind would indicate. But by the time I was again able to open that door, I was drenched. Cold, wet and tired.  And it wasn't even 6:30am yet. 

I returned to our cabin, peeled off my wet clothes and crawled back into bed. No, it wasn't any quieter but at least I was warm and dry. 

When we arrived in Kralendjik at 8am, I had been up for almost 5 hours. If Southwest had flown from Bonaire to home, I would have been on that flight by 8:30. That's all it would have taken for me to flee. Fortunately, that wasn't an option, because I proceeded to have one of the best days of the cruise so far.

For the past two days, G and I have been...let's say "discussing" our plans for Bonaire. With a full day on the island (our Emerald cruises feature a shorter day), I desperately wanted to go snorkeling at Klein Bonaire. G's ears are still stuffy; he has no interest in snorkeling right now. But he also didn't want me to go alone (I would have been fine, but he had visions of that awful propeller accident on Dominica less than two weeks ago). In the end, he figured out an acceptable solution;  I joined a 3-hour snorkel trip on the Woodwind catamaran.  G spent time on the ship eating lunch and walking around Kralendjik, knowing I was being looked after.  And despite the winds and a brief rainshower, I had a wonderful sail and snorkel. 

I did learn a nugget of knowledge about Klein Bonaire:  it was once owned by Harry Belafonte, and in the old days it was where people infected with cholera were quarantined.  Who knew?  But all I really care about is that it has some of the best snorkeling in the Caribbean. 

Of course I took underwater videos and photos with my iPhone. It held up to two hours underwater, and allowed me to get what is, without a doubt, the closet video I'll ever get of a turtle. I was busy videoing a hawksbill turtle diving into the depths off the wall by Klein Bonaire, and when I turned around, there was another one behind me so closely I could hardly get all of him in my shot. It was amazing, right up there with when I saw a family of dolphins just feet away from me while diving in Cozumel. You don't forget those sorts of experiences. The sun wasn't shining brightly, so the colors weren't the best, but, if you'll watch the videos, I think you'll understand my fascination with underwater sea life. 

G was waiting for me when the Woodwind Trimaran returned to the dock at the Divi Flamingo Resort, and by the time we walked back to the Noordam, it was after 4pm.  We were showered for the evening and up on deck for a gorgeous sailaway from Bonaire (sadly, no photos of that, though, as my phone's battery was depleted after all the underwater videos and was charging in the cabin). 

After dinner, we went to the Vista Theater for the second production show of the cruise, called "If These Walls Could Rock". The first production show earlier in the cruise had NO props, but made excessive use of the stage floor's ability to raise and lower in sections and rotate.  It almost required a Dramamine to watch.

Tonight's show made up for that lack of props by featuring hundreds of them. The stagehands worked harder than the dancers. Beds, benches, trees, a dance club, sofas, chairs, a phone booth...you name it, this show had it. The pit portion of the stage went up and down at least 8 times, and every time it did, the props on it had been changed out. And the darn thing would make this grinding noise, announcing its imminent arrival. OK, so production shows aren't Holland America's forte. It certainly offers a lot of other, varied entertainment. It's just the opposite on Princess; there, the production shows are a highlight for us and the other entertainment pales a bit in comparison. 

There wasn't any question about enjoying any of the other entertainment tonight, though. Up since 3am, two hours on the water with a fair amount of chop due to the wind...I'm nearly typing this in my sleep.  I don't think that the ventilation fans will even bother me tonight. 

Not that it would make a difference.  I'm just five sleeps away from the quiet of our cabin on the Emerald. Unless they've re-worked the ventilation during dry dock, I have nothing to worry about there. 

Photo 1:  I really thought that storm was going to miss the ship. I was so wrong!

Photos 2 to 5:  snorkeling off Klein Bonaire. You can see the drop off of the wall in photo 4, and the shallower part of the reef in photo 5. 

Photo 6:  two ships in Bonaire today; the Noordam on the left and Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Sea out of Panama on the right. We'll also be in Curaçao and Aruba with the Grandeur on Thursday and Friday. 

Day 77: Bonaire

We didn't arrive in Bonaire until noon yesterday, due to the distance we had to sail from Grenada, and that was a good thing. We were both moving SLOWLY, after two late nights. We had a late, light breakfast in the buffet (we missed the dining room breakfast entirely) and went up to Deck 19 to watch the ship sail into Kralendjik, Bonaire. It was beautiful and sunny, and we were hopeful that we would be able to dive as we had hoped.

As the ship approached Bonaire, it passes, just off its port side, Klein (Little) Bonaire. It is so amazing to see the beautiful reefs surrounded Klein Bonaire. We could see dive boats moored around the island and couldn't wait to be out there ourselves.

But it was windy, and there were dark clouds blowing in across Bonaire. We decided that, once our ship was docked and cleared through immigration, we would first walk off and try to find G a hat with a dive flag and Bonaire on it. Just as we walked off the ship's middle gangway, the skies opened and it began to rain. We walked right back up the ship's forward gangway...certainly one of the shortest visits in history!

Not knowing exactly what to do, we (of course) decided to eat. The dining room had just opened for lunch and, while we ate, we kept an eye on the rain to see if it would clear. It did, a bit, but then the rain started again.

Not the best day for diving. It shouldn't matter- we'd be under the water anyway, right? But the sun is everything in diving. Without the sun, the color of the corals wash out completely. And Bonaire is known for its healthy and beautiful corals.

A storm approaches

While I had my head underwater, G took this photo of an approaching storm. I was oblivious to it, until, suddenly, rain began pelting us. Bonaire has the sharpest, needle-like rain I've ever felt. We've been caught out in it before, a few years ago. This time, G was onshore (as were several others) with no shelter at all. He covered up with his Princess beach towel.

I continued to snorkel, totally unconcerned, and, frankly, enjoying the protection the water offered from that sharp rain, until I finally lifted my face from the water. The surface, which had just before been calm, was swelling and pushing me around. I looked back toward Bonaire and couldn't see a thing. In fact, I couldn't even see the beach. So I finally gave up and swam in

By the time the water taxi returned, the rain had stopped and the sun came back out. Everything we had with us was drenched, which, for the most part was not an issue, as we had just been in the water. But our beach towels were saturated, and we had nothing to dry off with, a particular hardship with glasses and sunglasses. Our towels must have weighed 10 pounds each. We returned right away to the ship and took long, hot showers and dressed for dinner.

Our cabin tonight looks like a laundry, with snorkel gear and wet clothes everywear. We had to lay all our money out on washcloths on the vanity to dry. It looked like we were counterfeiters.

But what a great day it was. This is the best snorkeling of the cruise, and it is among the best in this part of the world. I was thrilled.

Klein Bonaire

We arrived in Bonaire at noon (due to the distance from Grenada) and took the 1pm water taxi from Kralendjik to Klein Bonaire. The ride takes about 30 minutes. What they don't tell you (perhaps they can tell by looking at all of us carrying bags with snorkel gear that we're pretty hardy) is that you have to descend a ladder into about knee deep water to walk to the beach. Luckily, no one had any issues with that. The beach is not particularly pretty or wide, and is heavily dotted with broken coral. But the attraction here is what lies beneath the water.

Over and over again I would walk about 7 minutes down the beach, enter the water and put my mask, fins and snorkel on, pass through an opening in a wall of coral just below the surface of the water, and drift, snorkeling, back to where I started. The whole thing took about 30 minutes.

I did it four times. I love this place. The beauty underwater matches or surpasses anything above. I just can't get enough of it.

We would love to dive, but two-tank dives are costing over $100 per person. Today's snorkeling cost nothing; the round trip water taxi was $15 per person. It was a pretty good trade off.

Approaching Bonaire, with Klein Bonaire in the foreground

As we sailed into Bonaire, we skirted right along the southern edge of Klein (Little) Bonaire, an uninhabited island only a mile across a channel from Bonaire. The island is unremarkable on its surface...there are no facilities and no shade, and it's flat as a pancake. But, do you see that bright blue sea just to the right of the island? That is home to one of the healthiest, most beautiful reefs in the Caribbean, and that's where we planned to spend our afternoon.