Lobster and the Beatle Maniacs

Talk about ending the year on a high note!

Seafood starter and intermezzo

New Years Eve dinner menu

We spent the day in St. Thomas mostly catching up on Internet and sleep. The ship has five separate parties from 10pm onwards, plus one British New Years Eve party at 8pm. Plus the Beatle Maniacs are back. It will be a busy night!
We started by watching sailaway from St. Thomas up in Skywalkers, and then headed to the dining room for an early dinner. We figured we would save coffee and dessert for after the show, but before the parties, because, looking at this menu, we knew we would be much too full for dessert right after this meal.
For me, it was seafood all the way. The lobster was wonderfully tender, and perfect with the risotto.

Day 53: At Sea

I have to post food photos today, because we really didn't do anything exciting. I think, in part, we were tired from yesterday's hike/rock climbing. But part of it was that there was really nothing we HAD to do. We were up early, and went to breakfast in the dining room (photo #1: mixed berries on my cereal). I took some time and did some hand washing, including my Tilley hat, which I stuffed with a towel and shaped over another, rolled-up towel to air dry. It has been hard worn this trip, and has protected me daily from sun or rain. In the afternoon, I had one of my new favorite drinks- a virgin mojito, called a NOjito. G thinks it should be called a faux-jito. :-)
In a change from the norm, tonight was not a formal night. Instead, formal night will be tomorrow night, New Years Eve. A bit Poseidon Adventure-like. All we'll need is another tilt right at midnight.
:-o
We are attending a production show tonight (I Got the Music) followed by early to bed. Tomorrow's approach to the port in St. Thomas is always scenic, so we'll be up early again. At some point, we'll need to nap if we're going to make it to the multiple New Years Eve parties planned on board tomorrow night.

Day 52 Sunset- leaving Princess Cays

After we returned to the ship, we immediately headed up to the hot tub for a long soak, then later to Skywalkers for pre-dinner drinks and another beautiful sunset. After a wonderful dinner, we are tucked Into bed early, tired from a busy day.

Fruit loops and bare feet

We eventually sat down on our tarp and spent a few minutes eating fruit loops and enjoying the solitude and the sea.

View from the lighthouse to the west

If you look closely in the first photo, you can see the ship in the distance.

Living between a rock and a hard place

And doing it just beautifully.
Another view from the top. There are amazing views in every direction.

Back to the lighthouse

We climbed up some rock walls to reach the lighthouse from a different direction today, and I took a photo I overlooked last time we were there. You can see the steps to the sleeping loft on the second level. The lighthouse is about 12'x12' square. Even with the sleeping loft, this was rough, remote living. Look closely at the corner of the room in the second photo and you'll see where the lighthouse keeper's stove was.

A little spit of beach

Almost at the very southernmost tip of Eleuthera is this little bit of beach that disappears altogether at high tide. I was quite content to observe and photograph it from above, but G felt impelled to see it up close, and, of course, decided I needed to see it with him. So we scaled sand ledges and sheer rock wall, frequently on all fours, to get down there.

It was tough, but we made it, and nobody got hurt.

How old are we??

Look what we found!

Today, while we were walking, and when we walked 10 days ago, we kept hearing stirring in the trees at the sides of the road. At first it was a bit disconcerting (remember we walked for 4 hours last time and didn't see another person), but eventually I convinced myself it was a bird or some small animal.

Finally, today, I could see crabs moving across the dead, dried leaves that packed the ground. Whew! That was a relief. Crabs are as innocuous an animal as I might have imagined in those jungle areas on either side of the road.

Later, when we we closer to the beach, I nearly stepped on this little guy. It was his misfortune go be walking (sideways) across the road at the same rare time someone was walking by, but we enjoyed the close up view of a crab (especially his eyes, which he could fold back against his head).

Yes, we did it again

Feeling that another 8 mile march was in order (the food has been WONDERFUL!), and blessed (not all the passengers would see it that way) with a cooler, cloudy day, we decided to walk to the end of Eleuthera again. We walked at as fast a pace as possible, and wearing sneakers this time (how did we ever do it in Tevas?), it took us 65 minutes to the Caribbean side of the southern point, and another 10 minutes to the beach on the Atlantic side. 4 miles over this terrain is a good workout.

In the second photo, you can see a large brackish lake that is on both sides of the 'road'. The southern end of Eleuthera is more swamp than anything.

Day 52: Tendering to Princess Cays

The deck at the top of the stairs is Deck 3. We then walk down the stairs to platform that opens out from the side of the ship and serves as a dock for the tender boat.
The boat in the second photo is used to transport the bar and dining crew and all the food for the BBQ that is prepared on the island. 'Cause there ain't NO place on the southern end of Eleuthera from which to get that food.

Sunset: Day 51 (Sailaway from Fort Lauderdale)

Tonight's sunset was the most beautiful of the cruise to date. It had been a sunny but cool (70ish...I guess the forecast from yesterday was correct!) day in Fort Lauderdale, and we walked over to Publix and Walgreens after we had passed through immigration this morning. We returned to the ship in time for lunch in the dining room, but by the time we were done, there wasn't enough time to leave the ship again for a longer walk. Instead we used a hot tub while the rest of the ship was at muster drill (we haven't had to go again since our first cruise in November), then showered and headed up to Skywalkers. Sailaway was chilly enough that Skywalkers seemed the best place from which to watch it. I talked to friends and my mom, enjoying the last few minutes of AT&T cell service until Saturday in St. Thomas.
Walking down to dinner, we stepped out onto the Deck 7 promenade to watch this sunset. And what a treat it was!! The skyline of Miami can be seen in the distance.

Cruise #6 (Can you believe it?)

Back to the Eastern Caribbean!

We did a calculation today. Based on the cruise logs that we receive at the end of each cruise, we've now sailed 17,039 miles since November 8. The earth's circumference is just under 25,000 miles. By January 27th, we will have sailed the equivalent of around the world!

Day 51: Turnaround day

People often ask us what sorts of things happen on the ship during turnaround, and the choreography of passengers, luggage and trash coming off the ship, and fuel, passengers, luggage, supplies and food going on is really mind boggling to watch.

But, as we "in transit" passengers were checking off of the ship in preparation to pass through US immigration back into the country, and then check back on the ship with our new key card, we watched a piano tuning taking place in the Piazza. This was something we had never seen before, but it makes sense. A piano that is used hours each day by different pianists, that is on a moving ship in an environment with varying humidites...no wonder it needs to be tuned!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty9R9QnOF_E

Palonia String Quartet

How can we get bored with the entertainment on board when the entertainment is this? Last night there was another Palonia String Quartet performance, and only one song (Canon in D by Pachabel, I never tire of that) was repeated. I am so lucky that G, whose father was a professional musician, loves most kinds of music as I do, and views live performances as a treat. This performance is always a highlight of the cruise for us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFedWKJMXeY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUsekO3BlnA

Sunrise: Day 50 (At Sea)

Today marks the halfway point of our season at sea, and we have been talking about how that feels. I anticipated that we would be dismayed, as in "I can't believe it's already half over". Instead, the feeling is quite the opposite. We feel that we've had such an amazing time...and now we get to do it all over again!
This Christmas cruise had (we got the official count) just over 400 kids on board, and it wasn't bad at all. Kids are kids, and there have been meltdowns in the dining room and pranks throughout the ship (removing room service breakfast orders from doorknobs, and switching the Privacy signs on cabin doors to instead read 'Please refresh my room'). But it's been fun to see the many little ones in strollers, and all the activities geared to kids and families.
This next cruise has 650 kids. This surprised me; I thought that many kids would have to start back to school before it ends on January 7th. Hopefully, it will be just as uneventful.
We were up early today, and caught this beautiful sunrise directly off the back of the ship. Unlike yesterday, today the sun wasn't blocked by any clouds, and we decided to enjoy some time by the Terrace pool, and so ate breakfast from the buffet while sitting in loungers with exactly that sunrise view. We changed into swimsuits, and G headed to the hot tub while I lay in the sun and listened to a book. It quickly got very hot, and before noon we both came inside to shower and go to lunch in the dining room. We love the sun, but are adamant that we not get burned again, and so have to take particular care in the early afternoon. Unless we were in the water, it really was uncomfortable to be in the sun. The noon report from the bridge stated that the weather tomorrow in Fort Lauderdale is forecasted to be sunny, but only 66 degrees. Is that possible, given how hot today is? We'll see...

More Motor City...and a football game

Yes, we saw Motor City again last night. Yes, this was our fourth time this season alone. Yes, we love it.

Afterwards, we went up to MUTS to watch the Saints game. I love the Saints because young ones I love love the Saints. Makes perfect sense to me! And it was a thrill to see Brees' record breaking performance on the big screen.

Sunset: Day 49 (At Sea)

I have nothing exciting to report for today, except to say that it was a truly relaxing one. We went to the wine tasting at 3pm, and Skywalkers about 5:30pm, but are foregoing formal night and wearing regular dinner clothes are having dinner in Cafe Caribe, the dinner buffet. Luckily for me, they had seafood stew (ciappino), my very favorite, so I'm happy. We watched this beautiful sunset from the Deck 7 promenade before dinner, and are going to see Motor City tonight, followed by the Saints game on the big screen.
Tomorrow: another day at sea, and then turnaround day in Fort Lauderdale. Can we handle 50 more days of this? Oh yeah!

Christmas dinner

I attended 5pm Mass and afterwards we went to dinner. As we walked into the dining room, we immediately noticed that we had CANDLES on the tables. Fire is the greatest danger at sea, and open flames are strictly prohibited except in special cases such as a candle on a birthday cake or candles on the altar at Mass. But a lit candle on every table is a very special treat. We also had English crackers on each table. They contained a paper crown and a small toy (mine had a whistle).
There was a special Christmas dinner menu and dessert menu. We couldn't decide between the desserts, so we ordered all five and had a taste of each.
It was a wonderful Christmas!

Gingerbread house competition

At 3:30pm, there was a gingerbread house decorating contest, to be judged by the pastry chef.

Kids holiday fair

This afternoon, from 2pm to 4pm, the kids club staff put on a festive fair in the Piazza. There were several stations set up, with balloon animals, face painting, pin (button) decorating, wheel of fortune with prizes, antler making and cookie decorating. This was all topped off with a visit from Santa and a present for each child on the ship.

You just never know

We took the #10 bus TO the beach this morning, but we've learned to never buy a round trip ticket. On the return, we waited no more than 3 or 4 minutes before this privateer drove up. He wouldn't have honored a return ticket purchased from Arubus, but accepted our $3US with no issue at all. So with music blasting, we rode back to the ship in the open air school bus in the second photo.

A white (sand) Christmas on Eagle Beach. Aruba

We got an early start today, and after a wonderful breakfast, including eggnog, in the dining room, and lots of Merry Christmas hugs with crew we've gotten to know so well, we walked off the ship and almost immediately on to a #10 bus to the beach. I had emailed Arubus a couple of months ago to see if they would be operating on Christmas, and was glad to hear that they would.
Within a couple of hours, this beach was filled with locals and families staying on Aruba for the holidays. It was a perfect day, because the air was hot (88F), but the occasional clouds made it bearable.

Day 48- Merry Christmas from Aruba!!

We have awakened to a beautifully sunny day in Aruba. Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!
The first photo was taken yesterday on Bonaire. The second- instead of a pillow chocolate last night when our beds were turned down, we received a Christmas stocking filled with candy.
We are taking a bus to Eagle Beach today, where we had so much fun playing in the waves last month. It should be a memorable Christmas Day!

Christmas Eve dance special

Our chosen entertainment for this evening was a comedian in the Princess Theater, but his show was kicked off with a holiday dance by the Emerald Princess dancers. Their costumes were really cute!

After the show, there was singalong caroling in the Piazza. There was an interdenominational service at midnight in the Princess Theater, but we didn't make it. Instead, we'll attend Christmas Day Mass tomorrow at 5pm as we sail from Aruba.

Two ships, pirate and cruise, on Christmas Eve