We had a perfect day today in Bonaire. Have I mentioned that I love doing this itinerary in this order? ;-)
Since we skipped the tropical deck party last night in favor of an early bedtime, we were awake early today and sat on the Terrace Deck watching the ship's wake as we had our coffee. Eventually we went down to the DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast. By 9:15am, I was in Club Fusion for line dancing with Leesh, and followed that up with walking on Deck 19. Walking on the ship's highest deck while we make our late arrival into Bonaire is one of my favorite things to do. Approaching Klein Bonaire on the port side is absolutely gorgeous; the water around it is a translucent blue-green color.
We decided to disembark the ship as soon as it arrived, and we were actually docked and cleared by the local authorities early, at 11:45am. Our original intention was to beach dive at the Divi Flamingo Resort, and so we gathered up G's wet suit and my dive skin and our snorkel gear and made the 10 minute walk to the resort. As we walked, we could tell this wasn't going to be our best day for diving...it was very windy and fairly overcast with only occasional bright sun. We opted instead to sit in loungers at the Divi and hold off on our dive.
Eventually, we decided to just snorkel today, and walked down the wooden steps right from the pier we were sitting on to enter the water. The coral in that part of the resort is very minimal compared to that at Klein Bonaire, but the fish life is pretty good. I took lots of photos and videos, hoping just a few would turn out okay. There wasn't much sun while we were snorkeling, and when I was sitting in a lounge chair between snorkel runs, I was willing the sun to come out. When it did, it was bright and burning hot and felt so good, but then it would cloud over again, and though I'm sure it was in the 80s, the wind actually felt a bit chilly. (I can feel your sympathy all the way down here).
Around 3:30pm, we gathered up our gear and walked back to the ship. On the way we encountered our favorite Thai waiters (Suttipong, Surasit and Nicky), who had also been snorkeling at the Divi, but further down from us. They said that when they had arrived there, the guard told them it would cost $5 to enter to snorkel. There had been no guard there when we entered, so I don't know if the guard was simply pocketing the money or if there truly is an entrance fee for cruise passengers.
Once again, we had to wash out everything and hang it up or lay it against the wall to dry. Once again, this cabin is trashed.
After showers, we grabbed a quick bite in the buffet and then left the ship again to walk around Kralendjik and to sit along the waterfront to watch the sunset before the all on board time of 6:30pm. We had told Sutti earlier in the day that we wouldn't be at our table for dinner tonight; given the choice between watching sunset and a late sailaway or another dinner in the dining room, sunset will always win out.
When we reboarded the ship at exactly 6:30pm, there was still one Princess shore excursion out, and so we waited until 6:45pm for those last six passengers to return to the ship. We watched sailaway from the Promenade Deck and then went up to the Cafe Caribe for a buffet dinner. Apparently, everyone else was on the same schedule, and there was a long line to get in. No matter...we can't change the wind, but we can adjust our sails, so we instead opted for pizza, for which there was no line.
We wanted to go to the 8:00pm show in Explorers Lounge. Vocalist Mark Preston performed. Comedian Carlos Oscar performed again tonight in the Princess Theater (as Mark Preston had done last night), but they both did different shows on the second night. (So this was the 5th night of the cruise with two show options!).
I wish we had seen Mark Preston's show last night too. He was amazing!! Not young and not bare chested, but still very nice to look at with an incredible voice. I've already checked out his schedule on his website; he'll be back on two more cruises while we're on. I think people who do these cruises for 20 nights or more must have complained about the repetitiveness of the entertainment last year because this year they really are trying to mix it up quite a bit, which we greatly appreciate.
At 10:00pm, it's bedtime. We have an early arrival tomorrow in Aruba (7:00am), and we have plans to go to Eagle Beach before the crowds hit.
Photo 1: the western side of Klein Bonaire
Photo 3: a blue tang
Photo 4: a butterfly fish
Photo 5: lunch time! Fish spend all day eating coral and pooping sand. You did know that those gorgeous beaches are simply fish poop, didn't you?
