Day 93: St. Lucia...

...just another day at the beach. :-)

My solo breakfasts continued today. I was once again up and out of the cabin while G was still sleeping. I forgot to mention yesterday that there is stollen for breakfast every morning in the dining room on the Emerald Princess. Stollen!!! I figured I had missed out on it altogether when we went home for the holidays, but what luck that it's still being offered. If there was no other reason (and there are, several of them) I would eat breakfasts in the dining room just for that. Add to it all the smiling waiters greeting me and providing me wonderful service, and why would I go anywhere else?

So I was in the DaVinci Dining Room this morning at my table for four for one as the Emerald Princess entered Castries Bay and spun 180 degrees to dock at the Pointe Seraphine pier. We were the only ship in port today, which was nice. We met Suzan and Greg in the International Cafe at 9am and walked off the ship (not nearly as frustrating as yesterday in Barbados). 

What was frustrating was trying to get a taxi up to Reduit Beach in Rodney Bay. I didn't follow my own advice from yesterday and went to the taxi dispatch area right in the port terminal. Big mistake. We had to pay $14pp to purchase a round trip taxi fare, something we really don't like to do. Then they wanted us to wait 10 minutes to fill a bus with people going to the beach. Uh uh, no way. Suzan and I went back to the dispatch desk to demand our money back, and magically a taxi suddenly appeared. I am pointing this out just to tell you that you don't have to put up with their cr$&, and shouldn't allow them to use your valuable time in port to maximize their revenue. 

What I should have done is walk out of the secured port area and we probably could have gotten a taxi to Rodney Bay for $5pp with no return fare required. Live and learn. 

We were in a van with one other couple for the 20 minute ride up to Reduit Beach. It was mostly sunny but we could see clouds starting to build over the mountains. St. Lucia is a very mountainous island, and by heading north we avoided the twisty-turny roads that exist south of Castries. The coastal road to the northern part of the island is a bit flatter, which is good for my tummy. 

We were dropped off at the Rex Halcyon Rodney Bay Resort and our driver immediately started pressuring us for a return time. We resisted...we hate getting locked into a specific time. If it had started to rain, we'd have wanted to return in an hour. If it stayed sunny, we might have wanted to stay until late in the afternoon. We were given a ticket with our cab driver's name and number on it, and it seemed inevitable that we were locked in to going back to the ship with him, but at least it would be on our own schedule. 

It's a strange, cumbersome system, and we don't like it. It certainly is a hassle. 

Once in Reduit Beach in front of the Rex Resort, all frustrations melted away. Sure, there was the inevitable hassle over lounge chair and umbrella pricing. We started at $50 for both couples but ended up at $35. We settled in side by side shaded loungers and wasted no time getting in that beautiful water. Reduit Beach pales in comparison to Carlisle Bay Beach on Barbados, but it is the best St. Lucia offers within a reasonable distance of the cruise ship pier in Castries. And on the  north side of Rodney Bay is  Pigeon Island National Park with its fort overlooking the bay. We've kayaked Rodney Bay and hiked to the fort on earlier visits to St. Lucia. 

Reduit Beach in Rodney Bay

 

We got hooked up with passable wifi for $1pp for the day. It wasn't fast enough to upload photos, but I was able to respond to a few emails right from my lounger, and that's always a plus. 

We spent the rest of the day alternating between the loungers and the water, with our four Swimways floats, bobbing on the occasionally strong waves and drinking Piton beers and generally having a great time. 

It's not just the ladies who float and talk!

The floating produce stand. This guy has been selling all sorts of fresh produce from this rickety boat in Rodney Bay for years. We think it's held together with chewing gum and baling wire, and he spends half his time bailing. Greg bought a huge papaya and enjoyed it on the beach. 

Greg and his papaya

Meanwhile, G was a lot less healthy with a beer and a cinnamon roll, the breakfast of champions. 

You can see Pigeon Island, which is actually no longer an island but has a road connecting it to mainland St. Lucia, in the distance. The fort is on the peak at the end.

Of course, we had to spend a bit of time listening to all sorts of sales pitches, for massages, for aloe, for jewelry, for wooden carvings from people walking up and down the beach. That's simply the culture of the islands, but a polite 'no thank you' or three generally sends them on their way. 

They really do carry baskets on their heads in St. Lucia!

We stayed on the beach until about 2:30pm when the clouds seemed to move in permanently. We walked back to the entrance of the Rex Resort and were lucky that the taxi driver who took us was there waiting. However, he insisted on waiting for the other couple that had been in the cab this morning. We had no idea where they were, and wouldn't have recognized them if they stood in front of us. This whole taxi system is ridiculous. We made it clear that we weren't waiting, and, just like in the morning, four seats magically appeared in a larger tour bus that was leaving right then. Again I wished I had bypassed all this and just hired a taxi outside the port. There must be a reason they operate as they do in St. Lucia, but I don't know what it is. 

Still, for around $40 per couple, we had had a great day on the beach, so it was all good in the end. 

We may have consumed these...and more ;-)

Once back at Pointe Seraphine, we went our separate ways. G and I went to look for a couple of friends who work in the shops there. We were so touched when Alycia at the Piranha Joe shop remembered our names and said she had been looking for the Emerald Princess and us for two winters. (Yes, we are predictable). Dev from India gave us hugs and said it meant a lot that we stopped by to see him. He then told us the most remarkable news that there is now free wifi throughout the entire Pointe Seraphine port area. 

G headed back to the ship to start getting cleaned up but I spent a few minutes uploading these pics. They are smaller in size because they were uploaded from my iPhone instead of my iPad, but I couldn't miss the opportunity to upload them for free. 

G was finishing up his shower when I returned to the cabin. My birthday cake was not delivered last night because we had put the Privacy card in the door so we could get some sleep without being disturbed. However, it was waiting for us this afternoon, and we both enjoyed a bite of it. While I was showering, G walked back off the ship to buy something at the shops in Pointe Seraphine. I won't say what it is, but will upload a pic of him wearing it at some point in time. It's harious,

I went up to the PES Lounge for a quick bite of Stilton and port wine reduction, but met up with G in the Michelangelo Dining Room at 5:30pm. We ate fairly quickly (but still had vodka lime sorbet for dessert) because we wanted to get up to MUTS for football. Still, we were there when headwaiter Luis stopped by from the Botticelli Dining Room where he was working to say hi to G, who hadn't yet seen him. Honestly, people like Luis are part of the reason we return to Princess again and again. 

We joined Suzan and Greg for the second half of the Chiefs v. Texans game and are currently watching the Steelers v. Bengals game, which is a lot more exciting. I retrieved my iPad from our cabin and started this blog post with one eye on this game. This won't be over until after midnight, and I'll be glad I didn't wait any later to get this post published. 

One final note, on something that has completely changed our plans for tomorrow. We had wanted to take a taxi to Carambola Beach Bar and spend the day there, but Captain Forteeze, in his welcome back on board announcement today, asked for our complete attention (which is unusual, so we knew something was up). He said that the port authority on St. Kitts had notified the Emerald Princess today that we would be tendering into port tomorrow. He said they tried to appeal it, and got Princess Corporate involved, all to no avail. Obviously they have too many ships in port tomorrow, and, since we aren't arriving until 10am, we lose out on getting a berth. Well...shoot. This is not good news. Even with our priority tendering due to our Elite status, it will be 11am before we get ashore, and noon before we could be settled on the beach. Instead, we've all decided to take a day off, and simply enjoy doing something around the port area. For what we would have spent for a taxi and beach loungers, we can do a little shopping or have a drink in one of the bars in the Port Zante area in the town Basseterre on St. Kitts.

There is fun to be had wherever we are. :-)

Day 116: St. Lucia

We must have had a following wind last night, because, although the fearsome winds continue, the ship was stable and we slept like babies after our full day on the beach in Barbados. I was up first, and went to the International Cafe (IC) to drink decaf and try to publish last night's post. The wiring work by the wifi contractors from Poland continues, and last evening they were threading cable into the ceiling right outside our cabin.  We used to have a repeater there, but it's now been moved two cabins down, and tonight there was no wifi at all. This morning I was able to get on from the IC; I'll have to see what's going to happen tonight from our cabin. 

Eventually, G met up with me in the IC, and we went together for a light breakfast (cereal and fruit) with Larry from the Philippines and Milos from Serbia in the DaVinci Dining Room.  We then walked off the ship with just a towel and water bottles in my backpack and took a few minutes to use wifi courtesy of a friend who manages a store at Pointe Seraphine. I must take a moment to thank everyone who has emailed me, but one in particular whose message I really needed today (and who I'll mention again before I close tonight). Then we stopped to talk with Cornelius at the water tours desk in the greeting center at Pointe Seraphine. He sells what we consider to be the best tour on St. Lucia, the one that we did last February 9th.

http://www.maximumchilloutslandandseatours.com

We asked Cornelius what the local news was about the recent murder of a British sailor and the attack on his wife during a robbery gone bad on his sailboat off Vieux Fort, on the southern tip of St. Lucia. Let's just say that those involved (who were immediately turned in by family and friends) had better hope Cornelius and anyone else involved in the tourism industry on St. Lucia is not on the jury during their trial. As he said, that sort of thing takes money away from all of them. Finally, an hour after we left the Emerald Princess, we started on our walk. 

Vigie Beach is a long stretch of beach that lies on the other side of the small, commuter airport near Pointe Seraphine (aka the good dock). To get to it, one must walk around the commuter airport runway. It's not far, but it's also not a particularly fun walk, what with walking down the side of the road while cars rush by. People on St. Lucia drive like bats out of hell, though why anyone on a small island needs to rush is a mystery to me. But today, being Sunday, was quite a bit better than a weekday, and we successfully walked around the runway and down to the little airport terminal.  We'd never stopped there before. While all international flights arrive and depart from Vieux Fort on the southern end of St. Lucia, a few commuter airlines operate flights out of the airport close to where the ship docks. 

With four arrivals and four departures today, this is a sleepy little airport!

We then crossed the road and onto gorgeous Vigie beach. G was ready for a beer by then, and bought a Piton beer at the Blue Waters, a tiny bar and restaurant right on the beach. There were such good smells coming from that small shack that we felt compelled to stop for awhile and have some of the chicken being prepared in there for $2 a piece. 

 

Delicious chicken from Blue Waters served with a view of the gorgeous blue waters...priceless!

As we sat there, a man on horseback came galloping down the beach:

The views in all directions were beautiful:

Eventually, we made our way down the beach to the Rendezvous Resort, an all inclusive beach resort that caters to Brits. Though we couldn't walk through the resort, the beaches on St. Lucia are all public, and anyone can use them. 

Guests of this resort can lie on a beach and just plant a flag in the sand when they want a drink. It's a good thing. ;-)

This being a Sunday, the non-resort end of the beach was quickly filling up with locals, and a pick up soccer game was underway.

After a couple of hours, we started walking back to the ship. I can't take a chance and recommend this walk (it's kind of scary when I hear from readers that they keep files on what we do on the islands because they might choose to do the same) because it's not a particularly safe walk, but I know several passengers who have done it quite successfully. 

The narrow shoulder on this side of the street won out over crossing the street to get to a sidewalk on the other side. 

A typical trip hazard with the opportunity for disaster:

By the time we returned to the ship, we were starving. After no lunch yesterday, a rather small dinner last night and a light breakfast his morning, those pieces of chicken on the beach didn't go far. First though, we had to do a serious wash up, first hands, then sandals, then hands, then feet, then face, then hands, then hands and hands. Something about St. Lucia just always leaves me feeling gritty. 

We did a mix of pizza (G) and buffet (me); today's buffet had cioppino as an option, and that's my favorite. Once fed, we returned to the cabin for a rest. G napped; I didn't.  I think I've finally caught up on my sleep; frankly, I'm happy our party obligations are completed for this cruise. Two parties in two nights almost finished me off. Instead, I started this blog post (yay!) before 10pm at night. 

We showered, long showers in hot, hot water. That's been a little hit and miss lately, and while I can handle one lukewarm shower (we're on a ship, after all), two in a row make me cranky. But there was plenty of hot water for everyone tonight, and we certainly enjoyed it after long walks and the beach on St. Lucia. 

We went directly to Dinner with Darko. It was finally Italian night, which is a welcome thing after a day on a beach. Franciscan Merlot, penne arribiata with chicken breast and broccoli, and a cheese plate for dessert made for a very happy me. We had a few minutes afterwards to sit in the Piazza and listen to cello and violin duo Playthoven perform. Anca and Radu are returning to Romania after this cruise, and we will miss them. 

Also leaving soon:  the production show singers and dancers. The new team comes on board on February 27th (I think), and will perform two of the four production shows next cruise while costumes are being altered. That means that two of the four shows this cruise are being performed by the singers and dancers for the final time. I have no way of knowing which ones they're performing for the last time, but they were all certainly *ON* during tonight's performance of Disco:  Blame it on the Boogie. We enjoyed it more than ever. 

If we had even a little more energy, we would go to the 10pm showing of Captain Phillips on the big screen (Movies Under the Stars, or MUTS). It's certainly a perfect night for it up on the open decks. But I'm not certain we'll make it...

Two things that I need to mention before I close:

First, we entered a souvenir shop for G to buy a postcard stamp and mail a postcard (the post office in Barbados had closed yesterday by the time we'd returned from the beach). While he was handling that transaction, I spotted this sign. For us, it says it all:

We've given the Los Angeles to Los Angeles world cruise next January a lot of thought, but we simply aren't world cruisers. We'd like to someday cruise from Singapore to Cape Town, or Singapore through the Suez Canal, the only portion of a world cruise we're missing, and I'm sure we will. But, for now, we simply can't handle the sea days that are inherent on a world cruise. Maybe someday (but I doubt it). So this plaque hit just the right note at the right time. 

And, finally, another right note at the right time...

I received an email today that bolstered my spirits and renewed my determination to continue to blog for every remaining day of our winter at sea. You see, I've been at this for four months (counting the posts at home), and, except for those posts at home, have two-fingered typed every word on my little iPhone 4S. I had been considering saying "Ditto" from here on out, but this email from Patty changed everything. I hope she doesn't mind me sharing this with you:

First, nice stuff, nice stuff, nice stuff that makes me blush and then "... your life with G sounds so happy.  I look forward to your continuing updates; however long that may be."

Patty, thank you for your very kind thoughts. Between you and I, my life with G in 160 sq. ft. sometimes hasn't been all sunshine and romance. In fact, the most frequently heard comments in our cabin have nothing to do with proclamations of love, and everything to do with the fact that we share one tiny bathroom. ("Don't go in there for awhile" and "Do NOT stand between me and a toilet right now", and I'll leave out the assignation of each to the appropriate person). But, yes, I know how fortunate I am to share these experiences with my best friend, and we are very content to be spending our winters this way. Though not everything we do is fun, there is fun in every single day.  And I will keep typing every night, until I'm finally typing in our own bed again. 

Our own bed. 

Our own pillows. 

Our own TV with our own DVR.

And high speed Internet. 

And a big bathtub. 

And a shower big enough to bend over to shave my legs but with a ledge so I don't have to. 

And a toilet for each of us with more to spare. 

Life is good wherever we are. 

Day 94: St. Lucia

We must have been really tired last night; we both slept until 9:30 this morning. I don't recall doing that lately (or ever), but it was really quite nice. Part of it might have been the not-insignificant amount of liquor we consumed at last night's MTP party. Part of it might be that one of us (it makes no difference who, because...well, we're living in 160 sq. ft. and it's just a matter of time...) has the sniffles. But most of it, I suspect, is that we had a very active day yesterday, and we're not kids any longer. And the ship, once docked, was quiet this morning after most passengers got off for their tours.

We got coffee from the International Cafe but skipped breakfast; lunch was served starting at 11:30am, and so we held out for it. The day was perfect:  sunny, hot, and breezy, but not too. But we had no plans for the day. We can get wifi in St. Lucia that meets four of the five criteria for Caribbean wifi: free, cool, quiet and shaded, and, if not fast, not as slow as on the ship, from a friend who manages a store in Pointe Seraphine, and so we walked off the ship with that as our only goal. 

Honestly, to use wifi without a meter running is one of my greatest joys at this point. I was getting quite behind in answering emails from blog readers (please forgive) and so tended to those first, and then happily read article after article on tomorrow's Super Bowl and finally called Mom (for free; get the app!) using Vonage. Her garage door has called it quits (after only 53 years of service!) and she is quite house bound until it gets replaced, so the ability to phone her over the Internet is invaluable. 

What would we do without technology?!?

Still, it wasn't perfect. I didn't realize, until I was without 24/7 Internet, how much society just expects us to have it now. I managed to renew the audiobook I had been listening to when it expired three days ago, but was forced to first delete it off my iPhone (because it had expired) and then download the book again, which would have been a quick and brainless activity at home, but took over an hour using today's wifi, and draining my phone battery to 3%. We may need to consider a trip to the Galleria Mall in Fort Lauderdale on a turnaround day, just to use the really high speed wifi available outside the Apple Store. G is making noises about purchasing more TV shows from iTunes to watch on our cabin TV. The HDMI cable has transformed our evenings after we return to our cabin. Chief Engineer Roddy, when he was telling the audience at his technology lecture Thursday that, while he is responsible for ensuring we get programming on our cabin TVs, he is definitely NOT responsible for the content, and asked facetiously "How many times can you watch Notting Hill?" And G and I looked at each other and whispered "14 so far this winter". Well, I think it's safe to say there will be no more Notting Hills in our future. Nor Love Boats nor The Offices nor 2 Broke Girls (I cannot believe that show actually made it). Sure, we're still watching the same shows over and over, but they're OUR shows, from my laptop, and we're not sick of them. Yet. 

Internet, plus drinking a beer in the beer garden at Pointe Seraphine, is all we did today. We walked back on the ship when our iPhone batteries were drained, about 4:30pm, and skipped the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers tonight. Sailaway was not until 6pm, and we needed to be at dinner and not in Skywalkers by then anyway. Especially now...starting this cruise, only the featured drnk of the day can be purchased for $5; all others are their regular prices. That's a little more profit than perk, especially as I only drink Breeza Marinas. Bummer. 

Instead we went to the Michelangelo Dining Room for Dinner with Darko. The dining room was much less busy tonight; now that days are filled with island activities, some people are more inclined to use the Horizon Court Buffet for dinners. It still surprises us how different sailaways are than when we were in St. Lucia only three weeks ago. Just as with Antigua yesterday, sunset occurred after we sailed...

As seen through our dining room window

...and from our dinner table, we could see St. Lucia's Pitons in the distance. THAT was exciting!

We both ordered steak fajitas for dinner; sometimes we just want to eat the way we do at home (though chicken fajitas, not beef, are the norm there). They were quite delicious, and that was really all we wanted tonight. It wasn't as if we'd been very active today. We also wanted to be done and in the Princess Theater in time for the 7:15pm show, a performance by vocalist Bobbie Eakes.

Now, some people apparently knew who she was; she's acted on soap operas and was in a girl band in the 1980s. I've never seen a soap opera (Dallas and Dynasty don't count. We ALL watched those!), so I had never heard of her, but, wow, could she sing!!  It was a most enjoyable 35 minutes, which was good, as she was the only featured entertainer tonight. Music and dancing was offered in the Explorers Lounge. And Club Fusion. And the Wheelhouse Bar. 

Note to self: Learn to dance. 

Tomorrow night, I don't care what the entertainment offerings are. Only one thing matters. I may not write a blog post tomorrow night; it may be a bye day for me. ;-) We're camping out all day by the Calypso Pool (the big screen), so I'll have nothing to report, and I'll either be celebrating or crushed at the end of the day. It's hard to remember how excited I was just two weeks ago when the Broncos won the AFC Championship, because now I want more. So. much. more. 

My stomach hurts. 

But, two items of note before I end tonight:

The Crab Shack is going to be offered three times each cruise in the Cafe Caribe for $20 per person. I think this is pretty reliable information; it comes right from Darko's roommate Georrrrrgggggyyy (that's George with lots of extra consonants) from Macedonia, who has been moved up there as a waiter. 

And the Emerald Princess will start offering unlimited drink packages next cruise for $49 per person per day. I'm not surprised by this -I knew it was being trialed on other ships- but don't it as gospel until it's reality. We know all too well that these things change fast and frequently at sea. 

Day 54: St. Lucia

Aaahhhhhh, sweet sleep. We finally got some last night. The ship was still a bit bumpy but not the kind of "this is the worst we've ever seen in the Caribbean" kind of bumpy we've been having for the past several weeks.  We've had worse seas, of course, twice in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, and once off the west coast of Africa, but those bouts were short-lived, and within three or so days we'd sail out of them. I think it was the duration of what we've been experiencing, even more than the severity, that started taking a toll on us.

Unsurprisingly (Captain Nick had warned us while remaining hopeful that things might work out differently), the Emerald Princess was docked at the freight pier in St. Lucia today. I knew this for certain before I even got out of bed, because when I turned on our TV to the "front of the ship" channel, I was thrilled to see that the Emerald Princess was docked stern in first, with its bow facing out to Castries harbor, but I could see the P&O Ventura spinning into place to the right of the screen, which meant they got the good dock at Pointe Seraphine. Oh well...my only plan for the day was to practice relaxing in the Sanctuary, and, since Internet had returned to the Emerald Princess last evening, I didn't even need to leave the ship for that. 

The P&O Ventura at the "good" dock at Pointe Seraphine. 

But wasn't St. Lucia looking beautiful this morning?

G was already off the ship (he just HAS to do that, even if he just walks around the pier area) and back on board having breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room by the time I made an appearance. We had a leisurely breakfast,,,(my usual orange segments, mixed berries, scrambled egg beaters, fresh salsa and, of course, waiter Alvin found me to make sure I received my Christmas stollen. I will miss that when it's gone!

After breakfast, I returned to the cabin for that 9am pill taking activity, and then gathered up what I'd need for a morning in the Sanctuary but also my Sally Hansen Complete Manicure nail polish in Gold Rush, a bottle of pure acetone and a handful of scratchy cotton pads. These last things I delivered to an officer who will remain unnamed for purposes of my blog, but who gets to wear civvies, including nail polish, on Christmas Day. My nails have caused no end of excitement among (mostly) the young, female members of the ship's company.  Really, if they knew I wore glitter polish just because it doesn't need to be applied perfectly and I can do it myself, because it wears like iron and lasts at least one cruise, and this particular polish because it was on sale at CVS, they'd be far less impressed.

That duty completed, I made my way up to the Sanctuary, which, for the first time this cruise, was NOT windy. However, as I Komang, a serenity steward, informed me as he was picking up sodden towels off loungers, it had just minutes earlier been raining "cats and dogs" (I love it that the crew knows English euphemisms). Luckily, he had already prepared my lounger with dry towels, so I sat down, ordered a cucumber water, and immediately noticed a third cruise ship, the Horizon from the Croisieres de France cruise line making its way into Castries harbor. St. Lucia was really packing them in today!  I believe the Horizon is the old Celebrity Horizon, especially since, not only did they not rename the ship, the name Horizon appears in the same block white letters on the bow that Celebrity still uses on its ships. 

I can imagine that the bridge officers on the P&O Ventura were hanging out on their bridge wings watching closely as the Horizon squeezed in behind it. It must be a bit like when you return to your car to find that someone is parking too closely in the spot next to yours and you pointedly stand there and watch and silently dare them to even touch your car.

Three cruise ships in St. Lucia and intermittent rain showers moving through...it was a good day to stay on the ship and a better day to sit in the Sanctuary. 

And so I sat in the Sancturary relaxing as noise bled through from the movie A Christmas Carol (Jim Carrey version) on the big screen (MUTS), occasionally drowned out by the sound of forklifts on the freight dock, and I was forced to wonder when, WHEN in the Sanctuary are we going to experience the glorious wind-free, sunny days filled with New Age spa sounds and my fellow beautiful and well-toned passengers moving in smiling slow motion up there; you know, the way it is in the Princess marketing videos.  Because, although it's very nice, and certainly a respite from all the activity on the open pool decks during this busy cruise, it's been either windy and/or rainy and/or cold and/or noisy. In fact, right at this moment I was hearing, simultaneously, the movie, the beep beep beep of a forklift backing up and a police siren. Oh, and then a truck horn honking incessantly. An oasis of tranquility it was not. 

Finally I started to get hungry, and since G wasn't showing up to spring me, I checked myself out and returned to the cabin, where I found him engrossed in the movie Jobs. Now, when it comes to movies, we are generally the only people in the English speaking world who haven't seen any particular one, and Jobs is no different. I entered the cabin during the turbulent John Sculley years and stayed until the end of the movie, and so still need to see the first 75% of it (no problem, that...it's cruise TV, and I'll be able to see it the rest of the evening and all day on Day 5 of next cruise.)

By the time the movie had ended, we were both starved and so opted for (no surprise) pizza. You know, I never, ever had pizza on a cruise ship until Princess discontinued serving lunch in the dining room on port days, and now it's our choice at least half the time. I backed mine up with a small salad from the buffet, but didn't want to eat too much...I needed to save room for tea served in the Sanctuary!

Finally, G escorted me back to the Sanctuary and then went on his way to do whatever. And I continued to enjoy lounging in the shade but with sun on my legs (that "tanned is thinner" theory) and, once I plugged in my ear buds and continued to listen to an audiobook (Paris in Love by Eloisa James) to drown out the noise bleed of the Bon Jovi concert on MUTS, it turned into a really gorgeous afternoon in the Sanctuary. Tea was served promptly at 3:45pm and that has become one of my favorite parts of the Sanctuary experience. 

Served by I Komang from Indonesia

And, speaking of Christmas movies (we were, weren't we, several paragraphs ago?), in the interest of accurate Christmas reporting, in addition to Jim Carrey's A Christmas Carol shown at 10am on MUTS, Christmas with the Kranks was shown at 1pm in the Princess Theater, and Scrooge (from 1970) was shown at 4:15pm and 6:15pm on MUTS. Also shown on MUTS:  Monday Night Football, the 49ers v. the Falcons at 9:30. 

At 4:30pm, I left my sanctuary in the Sanctuary and returned to the cabin to get ready for dinner. We weren't sailing until 6pm and so there was no compelling reason to go up to Skywalkers for the Elite Lounge (and I'm starting to think that we'll be skipping it a lot next winter on the Royal Princess when it's held in view-less Club 6). Instead we just went straight down to dinner. 

At dinner with Darko, we held it to just an entree (orange roughy for me) and dessert (vodka lime sorbet, one of my favorites). We didn't want to fill up too much...the cruise's Most Traveled Party (MTP) was held tonight in Adagio, and we wanted to save room for what turned out (for me) to be three Breeza Marinas and great conversation with the Chief Engineer's wife who came on board yesterday. 

Desserts from the MTP party

Once again, we closed out the party, and then returned to our cabin after procuring fuzzy water and popcorn. There is so much going on tonight:  tropical deck party, football on MUTS, but we've chosen to watch Jobs from the beginning on our cabin TV, and it just started again at 9:40pm. 

Arrival tomorrow in Barbados is early- 7am- and our current plan is for a beach day. Captain Nick warned that tonight could be bouncy again, but, really, this is NOTHING compared to what we've had recently. I predict good sleep and, hopefully, a wonderful Christmas Eve day on Barbados. 

Day 35: St. Lucia

We had what we call a "down day" today on our first visit of the winter to St. Lucia, and, amazingly, we're not feeling too guilty about that at all, which is HUGE progress for one of us (not me). You have to admit that we've had two active days, and we have another planned for tomorrow. This is a good time to mention, I think, that we have never before done this Eastern Caribbean itinerary in this order before, which really didn't occur to me until Antigua came the day after St. Thomas. Generally, 99% of the time, Antigua is first or last in the five days of islands, and St. Thomas is first or last, and Barbados is always in the middle. But these islands are close enough to each other (well, not Barbados...Barbados hangs off the eastern edge of the Caribbean all by itself) that they are rather interchangable from an itinerary perspective, as this cruise proves. So, anyway, poor St. Lucia always gets shortchanged by us, I thought because it lies between big fun on either Antigua or St. Thomas on one side and Barbados on the other, but it got shortchanged again today and so now I must conclude that St. Lucia is so often a day of rest in our Eastern Caribbean cruises simply because it's harder to find things to do around the town of Castries where the Emerald Princess docks. 

G was the slow one this morning, and I was showered and out the door while he was still deciding to get out of bed. IC was my first stop, of course, but when I went to the DaVinci Dining Room at 8:45am, I couldn't tell Ingrid with certainty whether I'd would be one for breakfast, or two. G showed up just as the dining room was closing at 9am, and then simply had orange slices and mixed berries and a scoop of vanilla ice cream (really) so as not to hold up the galley. When I was done eating, we then went to the Horizon Court Buffet so he could get a second, more nutritious breakfast. We had a decision to make about how to spend our day, and the weather didn't help (it was a gorgeous day and we could have done anything-water, beach, inland on St. Lucia- but as I said, we didn't). We sat on the back of the ship for awhile and watched a fire drill on the P&O Adonia, docked just behind us at Pointe Seraphine (a Mein Schiff ship was at the freight dock). 

Eventually we walked off the ship into the nice little shopping area at Pointe Seraphine and went to look for friends Dev and Alencia who work in the shops (and it was great to see them both). 

We spent an hour or so walking in and out of shops and talking with fellow cruisers (it's really quite a pretty area) until we were given the password for free wifi at one of the stores and went to the beer garden right next door and enjoyed two Piton beers for $3(!), and interneted to our hearts content. I had picked up gifts for the girls, and then had a change of heart and exchanged one for a different color, and then texted their mom who said J was favoring a different color these days and so exchanged one shirt back to the original color and I'm certain Alencia thought I was nuts but I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "teenage girls" as an explanation and she understood perfectly. 

This bird provided some competition for the ubiquitous Caribbean rap music played at the beer garden. 

I spent an hour with the free wifi trying to learn Macedonian. Really. You know, Darko is from Macedonia, but crew from Macedonia are rare and when I Googled "Map Eastern Europe" I could see why. It's tiny, tiny. 

We've never encountered another waiter from Macedonia (that I can recall) and so know no Macedonian words. We like to learn five (good evening, thank you, please, good, a little bit) so I pulled up sites with simple phrases and, heaven help me, the alphabet is different, and even with English translations I could not figure out pronunciations. 

So then I Googled "Macedonian phonetic" and finally found something I could use. My goal is to learn one word a day for the next five days and we should be good to go. Actually, their word for "thank you" is the same as in Serbian with a slightly less gutteral pronunciation, so I'd been practicing "good evening" all afternoon and G keeps saying, "What? What?" 'cause I'm kind of mumbling it under my breath as I practice.  What is shocking is that I already know these words in Tagalog, Thai and Indonesian.  Me, who spent years studying French and Spanish and can speak neither. I guess I just needed to use them on a daily basis for them to stick. 

Eventually, wifi slowed to a crawl as more and more of the crew started FaceTime-ing home, so we gave up and returned to the ship. It was 3pm by then, and we were hungry, so we grabbed a piece of pizza and returned to the cabin just for some cool, quiet darkness before getting cleaned up for dinner.  Well, actually, G squeezed in a hot tub visit before getting cleaned up, because although he may have relaxed enough to let an active day on the island pass by, he still can't go a day without a hot tub visit.  We made a quick stop in the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers (because St. Lucia is just so darn beautiful on sunny days), and then walked across the promenade deck on our way to dinner, watching as the P&O Adonia sailed off into the sunset. 

I was so proud that I was going to be saying "good evening" to Darko in Macedonian and then I screwed it up and God only knows what I actually said because he got a look of...well, not horror exactly but certainly not delight on his face until he figured out what I was trying to say, and so now it's back to the drawing board for me.

:-(

We were done with dinner in time for the 7:15pm Disco- Blame it on the Boogie production show, and as I watched it, I realized that I had never seen it performed so well. We walked out of the theater and G turned to me and said, "That was the best performance of that show I've ever seen", so I think it was more than just my imagination and it really was especially good tonight.

We spent a bit of time in the Explorers Lounge listening to the Emerald Princess orchestra and watching all the couples dancing. We're enjoying doing that occasionally, which is good, because there's a lot of dancing on the Emerald Princess and, as non-dancers, we've decided we needed to get some entertainment value out of it anyway, and, of course, we always enjoy live music. 

The 70's night party was tonight in the Explorers Lounge, but we've been forever spoiled by that same-titled extravaganza we enjoyed on the Allure. We chose instead popcorn, fuzzy water, blog and bed (well, popcorn, fuzzy water and bed for G), and we've set an alarm (horrors!) for our early arrival tomorrow into Barbados. 

Day 115: St. Lucia

Our plan for today was to walk to Vigie Beach by the airport. We hadn't been there yet this year. But I awoke feeling slow...too many waves, too many Breeza Marinas yesterday, and, though I'm feeling better, I still have a cough. When G popped back in the cabin and told me that we were docked at- YUCK!- the freight dock for the first time this winter, that kind of sealed the deal for me. I was going to have a ship day today.

I couldn't tell from the from of the ship webcam on Channel 40 on our TV that we were at the freight dock; unlike the three (I think) times we were over here last winter, we were backed in today, and the view from the front of the ship was not all that different than that from the cruise ship pier at Point Seraphine. So the Terrace Deck area, instead of facing out into the harbor, faced in toward Castries and the freight terminal.

G joined me for breakfast in the buffet (BIG splurge: banana bread with walnut cream cheese and sprinkled with more walnut bits), and then walked off the ship with the Team Rootberry guys looking for free wifi. I noticed that Argo was playing on TV all day today. I still hadn't seen it, but wanted to, so I went up to the Adagio Lounge to read just long enough to give Johnathon the opportunity to clean our cabin, and then returned to the cabin around the time I thought the movie would be beginning again. I wasn't off by much, but by the time I finally saw the beginning of the movie, I had seen the ending twice.

Welcome to movie viewing on a cruise ship!

It was a great movie, and a great way to spend the day.

G soon returned to the ship. It was very hot and humid, he said, and he never did leave the ship again today. We enjoyed lunch in the buffet (G finally took the pizza guy up on his offer to make him a custom pizza- ham, pepperoni and pineapple), and then returned to the cabin so G could watch Argo (and I watched it for a second time).

We wanted to go to dinner early, to get to the 7:15pm performance of vocalist Mark Preston, back again for this cruise. He is an incredible talent and puts on one heck of a show. Now, we're waiting for tonight's Rock and Roll party, accompanied by band Sol Provider.

We're in Barbados tomorrow, and are hoping for a final visit to beautiful Carlisle Bay Beach.

Photo 1: tonight's dessert, Black Forest Cake. Yum!

Photo 2: Vocalist Mark Preston

St. Lucia: Part 2

Photo 1: our last look at the Pitons

Photos 2 to 4: Anse Chastenet Beach

Photo 5: Marigot Bay

Photo 6. I Got the Music

Day 95: St. Lucia

I was quite excited today to make our one trip of the season down to the Pitons and Soufriere by boat. St. Lucia is a beautiful, very mountainous island, but I'm so prone to car sickness that seeing it by land is really not an option. There is a tour offered right at Pointe Seraphine, where the cruise ship docks, that departs by boat every day at 10:30am, and we'd planned all winter to do it this cruise.

Despite our late night last night, we were up early, and, after breakfast in the buffet, packed our things for a partial boat day, partial land tour day and partial beach day (if you get the idea that we had a lot of variety today, you're right!).

Before 10:30am, our group of 20 people were boarding the cruiser Trivial Pursuit, right at Pointe Seraphine, and making our way out of Castries harbor on St. Lucia. Although we'd had some brief rainshowers earlier in the morning, we had mostly sunny skies for our one hour cruise down to the town of Soufriere, which means sulphur air in French at the base of St. Lucia's gorgeous Pitons.

After we arrived at the dock in Soufriere, we boarded a small bus for a 1000-foot climb up to Sulphur Springs park, where the Caribbean's only drive-in volcano is located. Yes, that's right...drive-in volcano. No, you don't actually drive into the volcano, but you do drive right up to it, though you smell it even before you see it. With various clouds of steam and a boiling pond, it may not be as impressive as Yellowstone or Rotorua in New Zealand (it isn't, not nearly), but it's still pretty impressive. I know it hasn't erupted since 1766, but I can't imagine living nearby with the knowledge that it's there, and so close. And so smelly.

Leaving the volcano, we made our way by bus to a waterfall (and I can't recall its name, but I'll fill it in when I find out). Martha actually entered the pool at its base, and I was so car sick just from the little bit of road travel we'd done that I jumped in and swam over to stand right under the waterfall. I hadn't done this since Fiji and Tahiti, and it was so fun (and the cold water sure cleared my queasiness).

We returned to Soufriere and re-boarded Trivial Pursuit, making our way out of Soufriere Bay and around the corner to the north to beautiful Anse Chastenet Beach, where we had an hour to lie on the black sand beach and snorkel in the adjacent marine reserve. This is the second best snorkeling on these two itineraries, second only to Bonaire. The reef looked quite healthy with huge sea fans swaying in the current. Martha even snorkeled with me...good for her!

Around 2:30pm, we re-boarded Trivial Pursuit for the ride north up St. Lucia's western coast. We cruised into beautiful Marigot Bay, where the first Dr. Doolittle movie with Rex Harrison was filmed, just for a photo op. From there it was just a short cruise back into Castries harbor where the Emerald Princess was waiting for us at Pointe Seraphine.

We returned to our cabins to quickly get cleaned up, and Martha and I walked back off the Emerald Princess to do a quick shop at Pointe Seraphine, then we rushed to dinner at 5:30pm. We wanted to go to the 7:15pm performance of production show I Got the Music, and Martha likes to sit in an area of the theater that is very popular, so it's necessary to arrive early. Seeing the production shows from a different area of the Princess Theater changes them a bit for G and I, and we like it.

As I type this, G and Martha are still out, and I imagine they're either listening to Sol Provider in Explorers Lounge or Kory Simon, the pianoman in Crooners. Or else they're having dessert (which we missed to get to the show) in the dining room. I know they're enjoying it, but I was behind on blog posts and needed to get caught up with them and with sleep. We have another busy day planned tomorrow on Barbados.

Photo 1: G and I and the beautiful Pitons of St. Lucia

Photo 2: St. Lucia's drive-in volcano

Photos 3 and 4: tropical flowers on the way to the waterfall