Dominica, when it's sunny, is one of the prettiest islands we visit. Unfortunately, as the entire island is rainforest, it too often, well, rains. But today we were oh, so lucky on two counts: the day, although hot, featured a cloudless sky. And we were docked at the GOOD pier. (Anyone who has cruised to Dominica and been berthed at the freight dock knows exactly what I mean). The good pier is located midtown in Roseau, just a short walk from stores (such as they are here) and the Dominica museum (such as it is).
Interestingly, the Noordam is berthed at the freight dock today. It's our first look (albeit from a bit of a distance) at the ship since we've booked our upcoming cruise on her. It's strange to look at her knowing that we'll be boarding her in exactly four days for our "vacation". ;-) She'll also be in St. Thomas with us tomorrow and perhaps we'll get a closer look.
Dominica terms itself "The Nature Island" and I would have to agree. I've heard it said that if Christopher Columbus returned to the Caribbean today (perish the thought!), Dominica is the only island he would recognize. There are many things to do and see on this island; unfortunately, none of them are really close to where the ship docks. For all its beauty and excursion opportunities, the downside of Dominica is that, once you've done the island tours, Trafalgar Falls, the hot springs, and- my favorite- snorkeled or dived Champagne Reef, unless you want to dive a different site, there isn't much to do here. Some islands we can do over and over again and there are so many easy, low cost options close to the ship that we never run out of things to do. On Dominica, we typically, if the weather allows, walk to the Botanical Park and do "Jack's Walk" up to the Morne Bruce overlook. It's not a new experience, but it is exercise. But beyond a walk, there is little near the port of Roseau to do on our own.
Alas, today, I am not up to Jack's Walk. I am improving daily (from back and cold ailments), I am still just a bit under the weather. By tomorrow I should be fine. Instead, we turned today into a ship day and greatly enjoyed using the steam rooms, saunas and hot tubs and sitting out on the Terrace Deck until the sun forced us inside.
The ship actually sailed at 4pm (all on board by 3:30pm) to get to St. Thomas tomorrow by 8am. I know I said it yesterday, but I'll force you to hear it again: I am really not a fan of this itinerary done in this order. I've just checked the "master calendar" Excel spreadsheet I made up for our winter...we're doing it in this order one (possibly two, depending on how long we stay on) more time this winter and two times in the reverse, more preferable (to me, at least) order. It's funny...we've been doing these itineraries for 9 years, and I don't ever recall even noticing port order before. On this Southern Caribbean route, the only variable is to put Aruba first or Princess Cays first...the other islands fall into place out of geographic necessity. On the Eastern Caribbean route, those islands are so much closer together that they really can appear in almost any order in the itinerary (unfailingly forcing one of us to ask, at least once on those cruises, "Which island are we at tomorrow?" and the other to answer, "I don't have a clue and I really don't care 'cause they're all good.")
So much for the lesson in Princess Caribbean cruise itineraries...
What we also enjoyed today was the fastest wifi we've had since we left home, right from the ship. The signal from the Fort Young Hotel first thing this morning was so strong that, sitting on the forward end of the Promenade Deck, I was able to get a Vonage call out to my mom that was really quite good. We interneted ourselves silly until we exhausted all that we needed to do...and our iPhone batteries. It's a good thing, too, because tomorrow in St. Thomas, there will be six ships in port and the 3G is bound to be crap. We're also bound to be at Havensight again, instead of Crown Bay, because the Oasis of the Seas will be in port and must be at Crown Bay (I'd love to know what RC is paying CCL for that!).
With little else to tell you today (and all Mom cares about is that I'm getting better), I'll take some time to talk about the "ships in port with us" spreadsheet that I made up before we left. Using cruisetimetables.com (I think) and one other site for comparison, I went through our entire winter schedule to see what other ships might be in port with us each day (along with that 10-day cruise calendar I posted before we left home, you're now beginning to see why it takes us months to prepare for this). Knowing which ships will be in port with us is extremely important. If we want to do a particular beach or activity, it's usually easiest and nicest when we're the only ship in port (or, in the case of St. Thomas and Barbados, one of only two ships in port). For example, tomorrow on St. Thomas, I wouldn't dare go to Magen's Bay, the most popular beach on the island; it will simply be packed. That's another benefit of doing these itineraries over and over again: we're saving Magen's Bay for a visit in January when we'll be the only ship in St. Thomas.
Another thing important to me on this cruise is an app called Offline Pages. Before we left home, I saved several articles about these islands and their history, ferry schedules, news articles, even some nutrition information in Offline Pages. Now I can access them without going on the Internet, and we refer to them all the time. This app was cheap- $3 I think- and very useful.
Photo 1: you can just make out the aft end of the Noordam at the freight dock on the upper far right side of this photo.
Photo 2: page 1 (it's 3 pages long!) of our ships in port spreadsheet
Photo 3: some of the things I have saved in Offline Pages.
