Happy New Year wishes for a safe and healthy and wonderful 2014!! Are you like G, who hated writing 2013 and was happy for that reason alone to see the arrival of 2014? Or like me, for whom January 1st means another birthday right around the corner, and who could happily live in early December (pre-Christmas carols) for another few months to delay becoming another year older?
It was quite amusing to see all the bedraggled crew members this morning after too much partying last night. The wise ones got to bed by 3am in order to log three hours of sleep; dear Darko was partying straight through to breakfast service, and looked a bit worse for it. He was counting on his free time between breakfast and dinner to catch up on his sleep. Right...
It was a beautifully sunny day in Aruba, and we wasted no time after breakfast to get packed for a day on the beach. We were in port with the Crown Princess (at our bow), the mysterious Scientology Free Winds off our port side behind us, and, at the freight pier, the Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas.
Check out those old life boats on the Free Winds! I think they're powered by oars. ;-)
With all those cruise passengers plus holiday visitors staying on Aruba, we knew we didn't have time to dawdle to get waterfront loungers and an umbrella at Nikky Beach. As we walked through the gauntlet of jewelry hawkers and taxi drivers on our way out of the secured port area, it suddenly occurred to me that I had learned two valuable life lessons right here on Aruba: 1.) just because you're talking to me doesn't mean I have to listen; and 2.) just because you're handing me something doesn't mean I have to take it. Now, most people might learn these things by early adulthood, but, after 12 years of Catholic education, it took me a bit longer. Like in my 40s and only after several visits to Aruba.
There must have been huge fireworks shows on Aruba on New Year's Eve. Firework detritus filled the streets, and the smell of gunpowder hung in the air.
We stopped at Starbucks in the Renaissance Mall on our way to Nikky Beach, hoping to get some of that free, (reasonably) fast, cool, quiet, and shaded wifi, but no luck today. Aruba was packed with visitors, and free wifi was only for a lucky few. But, as I was sitting there, trying to get online, I sensed someone standing right in front of me and looked up. It was a favorite junior waiter from the past two winters on the Emerald Princess, Athapol from Thailand. He is a real sweetie, and I had been looking for him early on this winter on the Emerald Princess, but hadn't seen him. Well, big hugs, and I was thrilled he remembered us (and me disguised in my Tilley hat and sunglasses) and he was pleased we remembered his name. He's on the Crown Princess for this contract, and what a lucky thing it was to be in the same place in the same port at the same time and meet up. I'm choosing to read it as a good omen for 2014.
With no luck on wifi, and after talking to Athapol, we continued on our way. The new sidewalk and finding out about Nikky Beach Club has really transformed Aruba for us. We might take the public bus just once this winter to Eagle Beach, but are very happy with the combination of a safe place to walk along the picturesque waterfront and the great deal of two loungers, an umbrella and two drinks for $20 at Nikky (ask for the cruise special).
View along the way.
Nikky Beach Club from the water.
The beach was packed today with some cruise ship passengers but mostly families from South America. Venezuela is only 20 or so miles from Aruba, and it's a 40 minute flight from Caracas. Spending another day with these people taught me a third life lesson: people from South America really are way more beautiful than the rest of us. They are just gorgeous, and certainly keep themselves up as they age. However (life lesson #4): senior men whose ears are growing larger ought not adorn them with diamond stud earrings. That's just...wrong.
Who knew Aruba was kind of the university of life?
Aruba today was a bit of a continuation of last night's parties. We saw crew members up and down the beach imbibing and generally having a wonderful time, which they too seldomly get to have, and even a simple beach day was just more fun for us today.
The Crown Princess (with the Emerald Princess behind) as seen from Nikky Beach.
After several (too many) hours in the gorgeous but unrelenting low latitude sun, we made our way back to the ship. This is as good a time as any to point out that we're currently doing this Southern Caribbean itinerary in reverse (not my favorite) order, but, after already doing it twice in the other direction this winter, I really don't mind. For one thing, sailaway from Aruba wasn't until 7pm, and that allowed us to not clock-watch today. We knew we'd either be exhausted or burned long before our 6:30pm all on board time. And though we stopped once again at Starbucks trying unsuccessfully to use wifi, we were back on the ship at 5pm, tired (both of us) and just a smidge red (one of us). We were starving, and wasted no time getting showered and down to the Michelangelo Dining Room for dinner with Darko.
Poor Darko. Apparently he was among those crew members who decided to extend the New Year's Eve celebrations into today and had managed to get just two hours of sleep. Oh, the stamina of youth!
We left dinner in just enough time to get to the Princess Theater for the production show Disco: Blame it on the Boogie. I find I'm enjoying the shows even more this winter despite having seen them over and over and over and over again. I can't explain it, but thank God for it, as the production shows are the mainstay of our entertainment. Well, the production shows and football...
We got up to MUTS right at the start of the second half of the Rose Bowl (there were two other Bowl games shown on MUTS today). Don't tell anyone, but I'm actually cheering for Michigan State, mostly as a Big Ten fan, but also because I'm just so damned happy that Ohio State is NOT playing in the 100th Rose Bowl.
Football rivalries bring out the nasty in me.
;-)