Adding Labels

I have just finished tagging each post with labels, which you can see on the right side of the screen (as long as you're not viewing this on a mobile device).  This should expedite looking up a particular island or beach. It also makes it easier to find the posts from Alaska and our Island Princess cruise.

We're home!

After an early flight this morning, we arrived home around noon. I turned on my phone right after we landed to receive an email from Jenny sharing her new ring tone with me: "Riviera. Deck 14", the announcement that Emerald Princess elevators make upon arriving at "our" deck.

Best. Ringtone. Ever.

We walked into the house with a bit of trepidation, but we needn't have; we had no issues turning on the water and turning up the heat, although it took several hours for the water to heat up again. I've already unpacked most of my clothes, but still have to do a couple of loads of laundry. It can wait...I had to pick up the twins and their sister from school first (sheer joy!). Their first comment to me? "NeeNee your hair is so yellow!" It was definitely not a compliment; in fact, I've already purchased the hair color to address that issue. So much for abstaining from that for awhile!

Hair color commentary aside, it was so good to see them all!! They immediately tore into the 240+ pillow chocolates we'd saved for them...and pronounced Holland America's the best. They admired the underwater hawksbill turtle video I took with my iPhone, asked what my favorite food on the ship was...and then we went outside where I played spectator and cheerleader while they demonstrated their new basketball skills. Things are definitely back to normal!!

We haven't yet made it to a grocery store. There were more canned goods in the pantry than I remember, and I also returned home from the twins' house with a care package: enough fresh food to get us through the next couple of days, while I compile a grocery list for a big shopping expedition.

How are we adjusting to the real world? Honestly, it's pretty easy. We love our life at home. We also love our life on a cruise ship. The way I see it, we have the best of both worlds.

Life is good.

:-)

Day 121: Fort Lauderdale- Disembarkation Day :-(

Well, we may be only a few miles from Port Everglades, where we disembarked the Emerald Princess this morning, but somehow I feel we're halfway home. Scratch that...I feel like we're in another world.

We were in the very last disembarkation group today, scheduled for 10:55am, so we had no need to rush. We had a leisurely breakfast in the Botticelli Dining Room, and apologies to traditional dining fans on the Emerald, but I do not like that dining room!  It feels quite claustrophobic to me. However, we still enjoyed breakfast...with our last remaining mini-bottle of Korbel champagne.  Walking out of Botticelli, saying a final goodbye to all the familiar faces, it finally hit me. We won't be there tomorrow.  Sigh!

Afterwards, we vacated our cabin and said a final goodbye to our Steward Nazi.  We endured.  Maybe he feels the same way. And that's all I have to say about that. :-/

With no place else to go (we despise sitting in the Elite Disembarkation Lounge), we camped out with our carry ons in the back of the buffet. It was chilly this morning in Fort Lauderdale (60F degrees, which is essentially North Pole weather to us), and, dressed as we were, in shorts, t-shirts and sandals, it was too cold to sit out by the pool, our usual disembarkation day M.O.  Why do we dislike the Elite disembarkation lounge so much?  Well, I'll tell you:  Princess has gone to a much quieter, more peaceful Silent Disembarkation, eliminating the need for announcements of all the luggage tags colors...except in the Elite lounge, where it's just as it used to be, with colors being announced every few minutes. We don't consider that to be much of a perk. With the latest disembarkation color group tags, we knew we'd just wait for the "last and final" announcement, when everyone except for in-transits needed to disembark.

While we were in the buffet, the Thai trio (Surasit, Suttipong and Nicky) came by to say one last goodbye. And that's when I finally got weepy. It's hard to say goodbye to people knowing full well we may never see them again. Knowing Sutti's email habits (uh...he doesn't have any, checking his just once every few months), I will rely on Surasit to stay in touch. Even when they're home in Thailand, they still talk with each other frequently. I told Surasit that he has the responsibility of being our communication connection to Sutti and Nicky. He said he's up for the challenge (and also claimed part of the accolades for Sutti's artwork; after all, HE drank a lot of the Orange Fantas that provided the cans for the metalwork). ;-)

We were actually walking off the ship by about 10:45am, and by 11:15am had endured the usual gauntlet of claiming our four monster bags, dragging them through immigration and out of Terminal 2 to the shuttle pick up/drop off area. (An aside:  we had had a discussion last evening about whether or not we had to claim all the little bottles of alcohol that remained from our minibar setups, 22 of them in all, as we hadn't actually paid for them. Closer scrutiny of the customs form showed that the wording is Purchased or Acquired, so we decided that the answer was yes, and claimed 22 bottles of liquor... teeny, tiny bottles). 

We didn't wait long at all, and, luckily, in the sun, the temperature felt juuuussssstttttt riiiiiiigggghhhhtttttt, before we saw a Comfort Inn bus hauling a luggage trailer pull up...across the parking lot. G jogged over there and came back motioning that we had to haul all our luggage over there to board the bus.  Great. Still, by noon, we were walking into the Comfort Inn, where we were told that, no, our room wouldn't be ready until 3:00pm, but we were free to stow our bags and hang out by the pool. 

And that's when it became like being on the Emerald Princess West, as, sitting in the sun around the pool were so many of the same people we'd just been cruising with. They, too, were waiting until 3:00pm to check into their rooms for the night. 

G immediately pulled two cans of beer out of his carry on, and a half-consumed bag of Cheese Chex Mix from last November, and we leaned back, toasting our rapid return to...normalcy. Warm beer and stale Chex Mix...now we're back on familiar ground!

This is our first time spending a post-cruise night in Fort Lauderdale before returning home. We didn't really have a choice; we had "old" frequent flier flights on Southwest that were expiring on March 18th, and we hated to see them go to waste. We couldn't use them today, but could catch an early flight tomorrow that will have us home shortly after noon. Somehow, the thought of returning home in daylight, to a cold house with no hot water cheered us more than returning home after dark tonight. We've even unplugged all the lamps, TV sets and DVR boxes at home, and disconnected car batteries. It will be much easier to accomplish the things that need to be done immediately without holding a flashlight between our teeth. Like last year. Just as we did with taking the late flight to Fort Lauderdale in November, arriving at our hotel about midnight, we may decide that we really prefer to spend the extra night. We'll see...

We've never stayed at this Comfort Inn before, but we've frequently stayed in the immediate area. The Home Depot and KMart are right around the corner, the Hyatt Place South is across the street, and my favorite fast food in the world is too- Chipotle (there's also a Taco Bell right next door, but I don't do Taco Bell).  In a matter of hours we've gone from fast food meaning a meal in the buffet to fast food meaning the kind of dining we can afford. Sigh. 

We got lucky; G saw people taking their luggage out of the storage area and going to rooms shortly after 1:00pm. He checked at the front desk and was also able to check in early. The Comfort Inn has a weird layout; one has to cross the pool area to get to any of the rooms, the elevator is on the far end of the building and the rooms all have exterior doors. But, to its credit, it has perhaps the friendliest cleaning crew I've ever seen.  We were welcomed with a smile by every one of them.  In fact, considering what we're coming from (our SN), these people are gold. They also left a complimentary bottle of water and snacks. Fresh snacks, not four month old snacks. Pay dirt!

It was just a bit too chilly to want to spend anymore time by the pool. G used the afternoon to redistribute weight among our four suitcases (and we've decided that if we both put our carry ons in the overhead bins on the same side of the plane tomorrow, it will simply fly in circles). It's not pretty- none of it is. We're right around 45 pounds in every suitcase. I'd like to think I'm blameless, but I do have 240 pillow chocolates for the kids, several pieces of sea glass, a few ziploc bags of sand and some shells. But I'm not the biggest offender. Trust me on this. 

We didn't want to get on our hands and knees to put our passports and wallets in the tiny safe that sits on the floor, so G stayed behind and I walked across the street to pick up Chipotle for dinner before it got dark. G had our two remaining beers cooling in a sink-full of ice when I returned. It wasn't Sutti and Somphong, and we ate off a towel on the bed with a view of the parking lot instead of off a tablecloth with a view of ocean, but we survived. Watching Seinfeld re-runs on the 32" TV in our room helped. So did a text that I received during dinner:  the twins want me to pick them up from school tomorrow. They're sooooooo excited.  Me too!!!!!

We've set our alarm for 5:30am (ouch).  We'll wheel all this luggage back through the pool area and grab some breakfast before catching the 7:00am shuttle to the Fort Lauderdale airport.  

In less than 24 hours we'll be home. 

:-)

Photo 1:  hang on just one more day!

Photo 2:  our legacy on the Emerald Princess:  we left this souvenir coconut from Princess Cays on a table on the Terrace Deck for newly embarking passengers

Photo 3:  the Emerald Princess (on the left) and the Coral Princess were docked at Terminals 2 and 4, perpendicular to each other

Photo 4:  our first non-cruise meal:  a chicken burrito bowl from Chipotle

Evening- Princess Cays

Photo 1: sailaway from Princess Cays. Look closely and you'll see the square lighthouse on the southern end of the island of Eleuthera that we walk to.

Photo 2: the beach on the Caribbean side on the southern end of Eleuthera

Photo 3: our last intermezzo of the winter. :-(

Photo 4: headwaiter Lazlo from Hungary and me (for all those people who say that I never post photos of myself!)

Photo 5: Sutti's gift to us. He sketched it and embellished it with metal from soda cans!

We love it!!!!

Day 120: Princess Cays

It was a beautifully sunny, but fairly cool (70s) and oh-so-windy day for our last beach day of the winter. I did a little more packing this morning before going to breakfast in the buffet, and then we hurriedly packed for a simple beach day...no floats, no snorkel gear, no water bottles filled with ice. Those things had all been packed yesterday.

While I had initially felt bad about not snorkeling (no, I haven't yet had enough), I felt better once we were on the island. It was really windy, and the waves were very strong. Even more surprising was the 6" high clean edge of sand against the boardwalk by the feeding pier, as if the sidewalk had been shoveled, like with snow. We found out that Princess Cays had been closed to ships for two days (Sunday and Monday) because the surf had washed right up over the sea wall and a foot of sand had been deposited on the boardwalk. We saw several beach chairs partially buried in the sand too. They had had one heck of a storm, the same front that had so dramatically dropped the temperatures.

The sun accompanied by a cool breeze was so inviting that we skipped sitting in the shade and both sat in loungers in the sun. It was deceptive...we were never hot, but I did get a bit cooked, and for the first time tonight am using some aloe that I had packed this winter.

We ate lunch on the island, and then the wind seemed to pick up even more. It seemed prudent to start to head back toward the tenders, but first G dropped off a bag with all of our soda sticker tumblers and the soaps from Seafarers with the family of a local boy, Sean, who had led us back to Princess Cays once last winter when we were on a wandering walk around the area.

As a result, G and I returned to the ship on different tenders, and I was lucky (?) enough to be on one where we hit the waves so hard that water came in through the opening in the roof above the tender pilot and the engine died. Without power, we were totally at the mercy of those large waves...but only for a couple of minutes before he got the engine started again. Such an adventure!

We spent some time in a hot tub -a last hurrah- before showering and heading up to Skywalkers for sailaway with Jenny and Bill. It was so fun to share our last cruise with them, and Jenny is trying to talk us into taking a Caribbean cruise on the new ship, the Royal Princess, with them next November. We'll see...

Finally it was time for our last dinner with Sutti and Somphong, something I'd been dreading all cruise. We took our final big bottle of champagne and shared it with Steve and Kathy from the next table, and Sutti surprised us all with gifting them and us with handcrafted metal art depicting the Thai dance that we never got to see them perform this year (don't get me started on that!). He used scissors to cut apart soda cans and a pencil to press designs into the metal. He is incredibly talented. We are really touched. Incredibly touched.

Honestly, dinners with Sutti and Somphong were the highlight of every day on the Emerald Princess this winter.

Then it was time to go back to the cabin to finish packing. It's 9:30pm and G is still at it; I'm mostly done, and just have to pack the items I'll need tomorrow morning. We are spending tomorrow night at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale before we fly out Friday morning, so we're able to be a little lax with our liquids until then. We hope to head out again tonight to say some more goodbyes, but while G is packing I'm stuck on the bed and so decided to use the time wisely to compose this post.

It seems like just a month since we first embarked on the Emerald Princess, and just a couple of months since the last night of last winter's cruises, me tucked on one side of a bed typing a post while G packed.

Life is so good. I just wish it wasn't so fast too.

:-)

Photo 1: the shrubbery on Princess Cays has almost recovered from Hurricane Sandy

Photo 2: the sand where it was shoveled from the boardwalk near the feeding pier

Photo 3: look how far from shore the ship had to anchor today!

Photo 4: it was definitely low tide!

Photo 5: a sailor braves the waves

FAQs

I thought I'd take a sea day to answer questions that we're frequently asked by people who are curious about what it's like to spend four straight months cruising. We tend to get asked the same questions over and over again...here's my attempt to answer the most common ones.

Why don't we do a World Cruise?

There are several reasons we don't, although we did talk seriously about it last summer. The biggest reason is the timing; we want to be home in March, long before the World Cruise ends in early May.  Other reasons:  we aren't particularly fond of sea days (but you already knew that, didn't you?); we've already been to many of the places a World Cruise goes; it's much easier to be gone for four months if you can count on being in the country for two days out of every ten, where our AT&T phones work; World Cruises are a lot of planning work for excursions and offer little flexibility (if you're in Bangkok for one day, you're going to do an all-day excursion regardless of how you feel or the weather); and we like the passenger turnover that 10-day cruises provide. No one has time to get too territorial and new passengers bring new energy onboard. 

Do we ever get bored?

No, never, except when it relates to TV selections in our cabin.  We've been to all the places that Princess cruises to from November to March, and the Caribbean is the easiest, cheapest and, frankly, our favorite of all of them.  It helps that we truly love the Caribbean and its people. We simply scratch our heads when we hear someone say that the islands are all the same; they're not, not at all. We love beaches, walking, history and watersports, and we get to do all of them on a different island everyday. It also helps to be endlessly curious about things that most people don't even notice (like man overboard drills, dockside arrival and departure activities, port agent responsibilities and pier-side activities on turnaround days). 

However, saying that, we do need to work on compiling more TV shows to watch on our laptop or iPhones. G went stir crazy each evening after they took away TCM and TNT during the dry dock. Those two channels had previously saved us, because they weren't showing the same programs over and over again all day, and then repeating again on the same day of every cruise. Luckily, G falls asleep in about 30 seconds, so he wasn't stir crazy very long.

To tell you how desperate I became...I now consider a 35 year old Love Boat rerun to be good TV and Sonny Bono to be funny.

That's...really desperate.  

Does the ship feel like home to us?

Yes, absolutely. We've been on the Emerald for 300 days, 280 of them in the same cabin, which is actually longer than I've lived in some places. However, it also feels like there's always company in the house, which, as you know, is slightly less comfortable than being home when there's not.  Or, as G puts it, it feels like our home's been invaded by 4000 strangers.

How do we handle mail?

Our friend Martha gets our mail from our locked mailbox every so often, throws always the junk mail and boxes up the first class mail to send to us once a month or so. By the time we receive most of it, we've already paid the bills or seen the statements online. What catches us more than anything are medical bills that have worked their way through our insurances after several months. By getting those once a month or so, we can get them paid as quickly as possible, phoning to pay with a credit card from St. Thomas or Fort Lauderdale (that's why it's harder for us to be in those places on weekends or holidays).

G is completely organized on his iPhone with the timing of bills, statement cutoff dates and deposits, so while I spend a lot of my free Internet minutes on board blogging and texting and phoning and generally having fun, he's much more dutiful in his usage. 

Why not switch ships for more variety?

We have always loved being settled in the same cabin all winter, which saves us a lot of time every turnaround day, and also being with crew members that we know and who know us.This year, the entertainment on the Emerald Princess has been less repetitive from one cruise to the next than it has been in the past (when it was "if this is Day 3, it's Rollin' Jay Moore night") and the bands have been particularly good.

Do we get a special deal from Princess?

We get asked this a lot too but the answer is no, not at all, not one bit.  We get the same price that anyone who's cruised before with Princess can get. We book individual 10-night cruises and have them all linked together, which eliminates the need to complete our immigration information for every cruise...we do it once, and print out boarding passes just once, for the first cruise. 

If we were willing to move to a different cabin every turnaround day, we could wait until after final payment, hope for a drop in prices and then book a Guarantee cabin. This would probably save us $2000-$3000 over the course of a winter. But we weren't willing to have that disruption this winter (that could change in the future). The winter would have a different feel if we moved cabins every 10 days. We also love our cabin location...it's the only way we can do 120 nights in an inside cabin. 

How early do we book our cruises?

We book the day the itineraries are opened for reservations, about 18 to 22 months before sailing dates. We book more than we think we'll take, using Future Cruise Credits to hold them, and then firm up our plans closer to final payment. 

Will we do this again?

Probably. We're booked for next winter already.  But one of the benefits of this lifestyle is that we're not locked into anything until final payment. Even then, we purchase Princess insurance with its Cancel for Any Reason coverage. We can change our minds at any point during a winter and return home, and any cancellation fees would be available for future travel. 

However, we are having discussions about perhaps doing the last two Mediterranean and Greek Isles cruises on the Ruby Princess next November, followed by the transatlantic back to Fort Lauderdale before switching to the Emerald Princess. It's very tempting. If we don't do that, it will be because of the three sea days, then Madeira, then seven sea days at the end of the transatlantic. We need to seriously consider if we'll be happy doing that.  (Personally, I don't think so). 

Do we gain weight?

G does, every year, about 20 pounds, which he easily loses once he gets home. I actually lost weight this year, but I think that the tooth issue and bronchitis helped in that regard, and I'm sure the carb splurges I've enjoyed this cruise have taken their toll. Luckily, it's much easier to eat healthily on a cruise than it is at home, with much more variety and many seafood options. Of course, it's much easier to eat unhealthily too. We don't snack at all, except for popcorn most evenings, and I don't generally eat any bread, but I'm certainly not deprived. 

With food, as with everything else (spending, drinking, gambling), cruising for four months is completely different than doing one cruise.  It's all about moderation.  It's a marathon, not a sprint, and we cruise (and by that I mean eat, drink and play) with less intensity than most other cruisers.

Do we get special treatment?

We get the same wonderful service as everyone else. Our only special requests are that we have a table for two by a window in one of the Anytime Dining restaurants at dinner, and we do get that. And, G likes brioche rolls in the bread basket at dinner and I usually get a plate of broccoli or spinach at dinner.  That's it. Oh, and a decent mattress. Having one made a huge difference in my back this winter compared to last winter. 

I think the true measure of a cruise line is how it treats its first time passengers, not its most traveled passengers, and Princess does very well in that regard. 

Do our fellow passengers drive us nuts? 

We usually get asked this, followed by a story about how someone drove someone else nuts already after only a few days. Honestly, this really isn't an issue for us. There was that one family over the holidays with the ill-behaved twin girls, but I later felt bad for even mentioning them on this blog. And since then we've subconsciously decided not to get too riled, and we don't even notice things anymore. I don't think we're highly tolerant...I think we just don't go there. It's not worth it to get too irritated about others' behavior when you share your home with 4000 other people. For example, I haven't noticed a single instance of a passenger being rude to a crew member all winter, I couldn't tell you who wore what on formal night, and if I've heard anyone complain about their cruise, their issues seemed pretty legitimate to me.  People are basically good. And kind. And interesting. Passengers and crew members alike. 

Is it hard to go home after 120 days on a cruise ship?

Our joke is that, a few weeks after we get home, our neighbors will realize they haven't seen us. They'll come in our house and find our skeletons, silverware in hand, sitting at the dining room table waiting for our napkins to be placed in our laps and food to be served. 

Of course it's hard to go home, just as it's hard to leave home in November. We will miss the crew, we will miss the food, we will miss the islands, the entertainment, the service and the simple act of living on the water. I haven't driven a car, gone grocery shopping, cooked or done cleaning any more strenuous than wiping a sticky spot off the vanity for four months.  Our weather has been always warm and mostly sunny, and, frankly, the crew is much better at greeting me with a happy smile first thing in the morning than my own husband is.  It's going to be painful. 

On the other hand, I'm so desperate for high speed Internet I could weep. I miss friends. I miss work and the kids at school. And although I'm not a big TV watcher, I miss watching more than five TV shows over and over and over and over again. My clothes are showing the effects of too many trips to the ship's laundry. My Tevas are trashed, as is my hair, from too much salt water and sun.  I can't wait to abstain from alcohol. And carbs. And hair coloring. At least for a few months. 

In the end, leaving this year is much less angst-filled than leaving last year was. Part of it is that we've done this before. Part of it is that I know we'll most likely be back in eight months. But most of it is that, in the end, 120 days was the exact right number of days, not one cruise too long or too short. 

And now we know. 

Life is good. 

:-)

Day 119: At Sea

I'll always remember today as Packing Day (also known as the Day of Reckoning, the Day of Realization and the Day of Reality). No, we're not totally packed yet (after all, we have one more full day left!), but we've made significant progress. Of course, we won't really know how we're doing until we weigh the suitcases. It could turn quite ugly then, very quickly. But we're in much better shape than we were on the same day last year.

We were up early again today (once again, that's always the case when we have no place to go and all day to get there), and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the dining room. We shared a small bottle of champagne (we're trying to get through the alcohol that remains in this cabin, an endeavor that will leave us not sobering up until we're on the plane going home) which was quite nice with my splurge of French toast, deep fried and completely unhealthy.

After breakfast, we spent just a bit of time sitting poolside in the sun. Captain Nick had warned us that we were sailing through a weather front, and the seas have been a bit bouncy, but even more noticeable is the cooler temperature, especially after the heat of yesterday. It was a perfect day to sit in the sun.

Unfortunately, we were people on a mission, and our first task was to get through the paperwork we've accumulated, especially making certain that we had all the statements from our visits to the Medical Center and the corresponding on board spending statements that we'll need for reimbursement from our travel insurance, plus taxi receipts and dental receipts. Filing those claims is going to keep me busy for a long time, I'm afraid. Once that was in place, we next moved to the pile of other receipts that have accumulated in the tiny space between the safe and the side of the cubby into which it's installed. It was then that we became aware of just how many visits to Publix and CVS that we made, and how many cash advances we'd gotten through the casino. G always feels compelled (or is it entitled?) to gamble a bit when he gets cash advances that way. I think it would be ultimately less expensive to use the usurious ATM on the ship.

All other vital scraps of paper got filed in our two 'cordian folders (nod to JT), which will weight our carry ons down to the point where they're unsafe to put in the overhead compartments on the plane. I had to be tough...Christmas cards: trash. Birthday cards: trash. Princess Patters: trash (except for the ones from the Christmas and New Years cruises). Luckily, Johnathon's cart was still in the hallway, because we emptied our cabin's trash can time and time again.

We broke for lunch in the dining room (splurge: baba au Rhum for dessert. Divine; it tastes just like those Tortuga Rum Cakes), and then stopped by the final art auction just to see how much the navigational map of the cruise was auctioned off for. This is a large map that charts our cruise and is signed by all the officers on the bridge. It is posted just outside the buffet during the cruise and then auctioned off at the end of the cruise, with the proceeds going to maritime charities. This cruise went low: $200. A few cruises ago it went for $1500.

We had just enough time to get to a navigational bridge lecture in Club Fusion by none other than our dinner companion of a couple of cruises ago, 3rd officer Aaron Krueger. We had to leave quickly at the end to get to our final wine tasting of the winter. Sommelier Thai will never be bettered, I'm convinced. We've learned so much from him and enjoyed his wine tastings all winter long.

No time to rest then...we zipped back to the cabin with just enough time for G to shower and dress in his tuxedo for tonight's formal night. Before dinner he had a 4:30pm veterans get together in the Wheelhouse Bar. As soon as he left the cabin, it was my turn to get ready, and I had just enough time to stop by the florist's table for a surprise we had ordered for Sutti and Somphong. On our last formal night of the cruise, we were giving them each a red carnation boutonnière, and delivered them when the dining room opened at 5:30pm. The boutonnières were just another way of saying "thank you" to them for their wonderful service all winter long.

We will miss them so much!

Following dinner (lobster for me), the evening was a blur or entertainment options. G did me the favor of sitting through the 7:15pm performance of production show Disco: Blame it on the Boogie (sadly, not his favorite, but it's kind of grown on me a bit).

Immediately afterwards, we made our way to the Explorers Lounge for the 8:00pm show of mentalist Joshua Seth. His mentalist shows are really amazing, and tonight he even got me up on stage. He asked if anyone had ever been to a psychic, and another lady and I raised our hands, so he asked us to come up. He asked me to think of the name of someone who had passed away that I was especially close to, and I thought of my grandma. I wrote her name on a piece of paper which I folded twice and he ripped into pieces. And he then guessed that she was a woman (right) whose name started with an M (check) and then guessed her name.

How does he do that? I'm still pondering it...

Next up: listening to band Sol Provider in Club Fusion. We have never enjoyed a band the way we do them, and, honestly, whereas last year there might have been six people in Club Fusion listening to a band and dancing, with Sol Provider Club Fusion is always comfortably full. They are that good. We'll miss them too.

And, finally, we went up to the Adagio Lounge to listen to the Emerald Princess orchestra playing jazz. One jazz set and a key lime pie martini later, it's bedtime. We didn't get any more packing done tonight, but we did have so much fun!

Photo 1: the day started with champagne at breakfast...

Photo 2: and ended with a key lime pie martini

Photo 3: and in between we laughed about ordering flowers for Valentines Day (in the March 5th Patter)

Photo 4: and ate baba au Rhum for lunch dessert

Photo 5: and surprised Suttipong and Somphong with boutonnières on formal night

It was a wonderful last sea day of the winter!

St. Thomas- Part 3

Photo 1: always pretty: walking back down to the ferry dock on Water Island, with the Emerald Princess in the distance docked at Crown Bay on St. Thomas

Photo 2: the Emerald Princess at Crown Bay

Photos 3 to 5: I was very lazy with these...instead of stepping outside at Skywalkers, I took these through the streaky glass.

Photo 3: you can see another cruise ship leaving from Havensight in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. Also interesting, all the moored sailboats are pointed the opposite direction for the first time all winter as the prevailing wind direction has changed.

Photo 4: the ferry dock on Water Island

Photo 5: our last glimpse of Honeymoon Beach until next winter. Sigh.

St. Thomas- Part 2

Photos: Snorkeling at Honeymoon Beach

Day 118: St. Thomas

I'll confess...I'm actually writing this the day after St. Thomas, on a sea day morning, because I was so worn out from having fun yesterday that I fell asleep last night before typing a single word. I think that's only the second time all winter that I've done that (although sometimes I couldn't get on wifi at night and so didn't post until the next morning). I'm slipping!

We were awake early yesterday, as the thrusters moved the Emerald Princess into position at the Crown Bay pier. After breakfast in the dining room (no special treats, but just wait and see...), we returned to the cabin to get packed for our last Water Island beach day of the winter. Since Honeymoon Beach on Water Island offers very little in the way of amenities, we have to be fairly self-sufficient when we go there. Ice in water bottles, plenty of drinks, beach toys, blue tarp...G even stopped by the International Cafe to pick up some pastries to tide him over until we returned to the ship hours later (and also providing me with my splurges for the morning).

We were meeting Jenny and Bill on Deck 4 outside the Medical Center, but were also hoping to meet up with Dr. Smith (Lynn) and her husband. It was their 5th wedding anniversary and we couldn't think of a nicer place to spend it than Honeymoon Beach. Alas, she had a cardiac patient come in during the morning, and was unable to leave the ship. I suppose that happens frequently in a doctor's life!

So, Jenny, Bill, G and I left the ship about 10:00am to walk over to the Water Island ferry from Crown Bay Marina. Of course, along the way, we have our routine:  G stops to feed brioche to the iguanas, and we have to walk by yachts and discuss which one we'd like to own. Jenny said that, for her, it's all about the cup holders (hilarious, Jenny!); G says that his has to be all white. Me...I'm not fussy. Anything over 75 feet in length will suffice. There weren't nearly as many yachts there as there were over the holidays and in January; even if we weren't going home soon, it seems the season is winding down on the islands. 

On Water Island, we walked up the hill, then down the hill to the beach (although G hitched a ride on a golf cart up the steepest part of the hill). And we were so pleased to see the looks on Jenny and Bill's faces when they had their first glimpse of Honeymoon Beach. It reminds me so much of Gilligans Island lagoon beach...gentle waves (if any), lined with palm trees, set in a deep bay. 

It became very quickly very hot yesterday. Someone back on the ship said it was muggy; I'm not sure I even recognize muggy after four months on the islands. But it was so hot that, for the first time this winter, the soft, white sand of Honeymoon Beach became too hot to walk on barefoot. And that's saying something! (Edited later to add:  we were told that the Real Feel temp had reached 104F.  It was HOT!)

Jenny, Bill and I snorkeled a bit, and I took frequent dips in the water just to cool off. Bill and G purchased a brat and hot dog from Heidi's Beach Grill, but I was happy eating not one, but two pastries that G had brought from the International Cafe. Except for stollen at Christmas, these were my very first pastries of the winter. And they were scrumptious!

Jenny and Bill took the 2:15pm ferry back, but G and I wanted to extend our last visit as long as possible and took the 3:30pm ferry back. There had been four big excursion boats that anchored off the beach for lunch at Heidi's, but none of them were returning to Crown Bay- they had passengers from the three cruise ships at Havensight- and so we couldn't hitch a ride back. While we were sitting in the shade before we left the beach, the resident dog (G named him Bosco but a little girl informed us that she was a girl dog) sprawled out under the bench G was sitting on and I saw him rubbing her belly with his foot when he thought I wasn't looking. The man needs a dog, but my allergies and our travel schedule just don't allow for one!

The walk back to the ferry was HOT. I do believe that this was the hottest day we'd seen all winter. Even the breeze while crossing to Crown Bay on the ferry wasn't enough to cool us off. We wasted no time returning to the ship, plugged in our phones (because we'd almost exhausted the batteries in our excitement to talk/ Internet/ photograph using free AT&T Internet) and took long, cool showers. That G didn't even go to a hot tub first tells you how hot we were. 

We were up in Skywalkers for sailaway (always beautiful from St. Thomas), and I made one last phone call to Mom. Too soon we were losing our signals, and put our phones into Airplane Mode for the last time this winter (except for the plane ride home, of course). I can't tell you what a happy thought THAT was! Oh, I'll miss being on the Emerald Princess immensely, of course, but I will NOT miss slow/ expensive/ non-existent wifi!! At all!!!!!

We went to the 5:30pm performance of comedian Al Katz in the Explorers Lounge before dinner. (Another 30 minutes of my life I'll never get back...haven't I learned by now?). Joshua Seth was doing his hypnotist act in the Princess Theater and I have learned not to go to that, so after dinner we went first to the Wheelhouse Bar to listen to four members of the Emerald Princess orchestra playing jazz, and then to Club Fusion to listen to band Sol Provider. They have made us feel so welcome this winter.  We will miss their incredible talent as a band, but we'll also miss them as very kind and friendly individuals. 

G then wanted to go back to the Wheelhouse Bar to listen to another set by the Emerald Princess orchestra, and so we did, but I was fading. Finally, my contacts were mutinying...it was time to get them out. And that's when I just didn't have enough energy left to blog. 

But what a great reason to be tired:  a wonderful day on a beach and a musical evening on a cruise ship!

Photos 1 and 2:  yachts at Crown Bay Marina

Photo 3:  the first glimpse of Honeymoon Beach from the top of the hill

Photos 4 and 5:  the beach was almost empty when we first arrived

Day 117: St. Kitts

Oh, I was moving slowly this morning after too many rum punches yesterday on Barbados! Still, we made it to breakfast before the dining room closed at 9:00am. (Special treat: mixed berries pancakes). Our scheduled arrival in St. Kitts wasn't until 10:00am, and it was nice to have a later morning.

We walked off the ship with no firm plans for the day. G wanted to use wifi on shore to check out the webcams back home, and I had to pick up a couple more presents. St. Kitts is always a great place to do that, with an abundance of shops right near the cruise ship terminal of Port Zante. I had mentioned last fall that all the previously unlocked wifi was gone now at Port Zante, or locked, but we've found that if we ask, the merchants won't give us their password, but they will enter it themselves on our iPhones, allowing us to access their wifi. This is especially true after making a purchase, so I took advantage of that today and not only updated all my apps, but updated my operating system on my phone too.

Not too much longer, and doing all that will be nearly automatic and very simple. Honestly, I can't wait for that part of being home.

While I was interneting away, two guys on Segways rolled past, and I used my 2-way radio to contact G and tell him about it (he was in another part of the shopping area). The next thing I knew, G rolled up to me on a Segway...he was taking a quick 30-minute tour on one. I preferred to stay there using the Internet, so he went alone with two guides, Segway-ing north along the coastline of St. Kitts.

I eventually returned to the ship, but G wasn't long behind me. We went to the buffet for a late lunch (lunch for me on port days is either salad bar or pizza...I'm still not that impressed with the buffet) and then G used a hot tub and I used the Terrace Pool until it was time to get cleaned up for dinner. We joined Jenny and Bill in Skywalkers for pre-dinner drinks and hors doerves and finalized plans for tomorrow on St Thomas.

After a pretty basic dinner (salad, broccoli and salmon for me), we went to the 8:00pm Team Rootberry show in the Explorers Lounge where Jonathon and Bill did some wild and crazy stuff...and some juggling too.

I forgot to mention that, yesterday on the beach on Barbados, G was trying to juggle three oranges...until a local guy came by and hinted strongly that he'd like one. Then G was juggling two oranges...until a local kid came by and hinted he'd like one. And when he was down to just one orange. G offered it to the guy renting chairs at Lobster Alive. I guess that the concept of food for anything other than eating is foreign on Barbados!

Photo 1: G ready to Segway on St. Kitts

Photo 2: the eastern sky at sunset

Photo 3: St. Kitts at sailaway

Photos 4 and 5: those wild and crazy guys of Team Rootberry performing in the Explorers Lounge

G Segway-ing on St. Kitts

Day 116: Barbados

Wow. What a day we had on beautiful Barbados. There simply isn't a better beach anywhere on this itinerary than Carlisle Bay Beach, within sight of the cruise ship pier. I love it when that happens!

G was the first one off the Emerald Princess when it was cleared at 7:00am. With three large (Emerald Princess, Vision of the Seas, Celebrity Eclipse) and three small cruise ships in Barbados today, he knew his best chance to get on the free wifi in the cruise terminal was to be there early. He was able to check the webcams back home, and reassure himself that all was well. When he returned to the ship, we went to the buffet for a quick breakfast, and then returned to the cabin to pack for the beach.

What can I say about a day at Lobster Alive that I haven't already said this winter? It wasn't the prettiest day- there was sun, but several clouds too- but by getting there early, we were able to get a front row umbrella and loungers. I wasted no time getting in the water, and spent the day alternately swimming and sunning and drinking THREE rum punches. Whew! They certainly pack a punch, but by starting early, at 10:00am (I opened the bar), spacing them out and eating Fruit Loops throughout the day, I was fine to return to the ship. And if I thought I had been hard drinking today, Bridget next to us drank four rum punches and followed them up with a Banks beer chaser. But I didn't see her the rest of the evening. Wonder why??

We all rode back to the ship together just before 3:00pm, and once on board, G and I both had a lie down. What is it about a day on the beach, even a relaxing day on the beach, that leaves one so tired and so hungry?

We went down to Deck 5 really early, and were surprised to see the doors in the Michelangelo Dining Room open at 5:15pm, so that's when we went in. By 6:45pm, we were already done with dinner, and walked around the ship listening to music until the 7:30pm Captains Circle party for Platinum and Elite members. I could not endure another alcoholic beverage, and so just had a fuzzy water. Captain Nick Nash, it turns out, is quite funny and made it a most enjoyable party.

Afterwards, we decided to skip comedian's Al Katz's show in the Princess Theater (we'd already seen it this winter) and instead sat through part of a music trivia in the Explorers Lounge until I decided that all the powder-fine sand I had had in my contacts all day had caught up with me. Fuzzy water, blog and bed. It had been a typically wonderful Barbados day.

Photo 1: paddle boarding class on Carlisle Bay Beach

Photo 2: our home for the day

Photo 3: Royal Clipper, the sailing yacht that give G a headache just to look at

Photo 4: another sailing ship, Windstar's Wind Spirit, was also in port

Photo 5: Captain Nick Nash entertaining the passengers at the Captains Circle party, with Captains Circle host Tracy de Boom

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

Antigua- Part 3

Photo 1: Fort James on the far left of the photo, and you can see the Costa Luminosa still at the cruise ship pier in te distance. That's how close Fort James Beach is to the cruise ship.

Photo 2: Fort James Beach

Photo 3: sunset from our dining room window with the island of Monsterrat in the distance

Photos 4 and 5: yummy hors doerves at the Most Traveled Passengers cocktail party