Day 144: Dominica

It was fun to wake with a plan for today in Dominica, which, as you we'll know, is probably the toughest island for us. The last time we were here, and were doing this Iinerady in reverse order, we cruised up the western coast of Dominica after sailing from Roseau at 4pm. It was still light much later, and we were able to see the entire northwestern part of the island from the ship. We decided that the next time we were here, we would simply hire a taxi and drive up the coastal road until it ended where the mountains reached the sea. It looked like a beautiful drive, and, most importantly, it would be flat and relatively straight, and not encourage carsickness.  Unfortunately, as we discovered today, it would have cost at least $90 in taxi fare, and we were assured that there was nothing up that way to see. The taxi drivers want to offer island tours for minivans-full of people at $20 per person, visiting a waterfall and a gorge and...

Well, we've done all that in the past. And Dominica remains at the top of our "tough islands for repeat visitors" list. 

We ventured over to Fort Young Hotel where we enjoyed a drink and free wifi, and spent the remainder of the day on the ship, walking on Deck 7 (Deck 19 was waaaayyy too warm today), and using the steam rooms and sitting in a hot tub, but, once again, not the one on Deck 17 aft, which has been closed for most of this cruise. 

And filling out disembarkation paperwork. :-( Yep, it's finally our turn for that. Cabin steward Raymond told us he initially bypassed our cabin when distributing the forms, out of force of four months of habit, and had to backtrack when he'd discovered his error. 

We also signed up for EZ Check, a service that, for $20 per person, will allow us to place tags on our four big suitcases, set them outside our cabin door on the night of March 28th, and not see them again until our home airport luggage carousel. We've used this service in the past and LOVED it; it will be especially invaluable next Saturday when the Fort Lauderdale airport is packed to capacity and we must sit in the terminal for several hours before being allowed to go through security. 

But I don't want to think about that yet. 

On a related note- we actually started packing up a bit last cruise when we believed I might be flying back to Michigan. We were quickly forced into discussions about what I would take when or if I left, and what G would need to finish out the cruise. Thus, our beloved over the door shoe rack was taken down, which was not a huge sacrifice, as quantities of...everything are pretty depleted by now. In fact, we've run out of several things, but of the most important things (shampoo, conditioner, contact lens care, deodorant, toothpaste and dental floss) we have just enough of to see us through. I had simultaneously tried using the shower gel and moisturizer that are included in the Elite amenity packet; no surprise, but I'm allergic to one or the other or both. Luckily, G found a sample tube of Aquaphor in his stuff that will last about five more days. We're out of vitamins, out of ibuprofen, out of facial serum and night cream and concealer  and tinted moisturizer and...well, I become a scarier sight day by day. We definitely could not stay for another 10-night cruise! 

We had pizza about 2pm, which made us not very hungry at Dinner with Darko at 6pm. Once again, I had just salmon and broccoli...and vodka lime sorbet for dessert. We sat in the Wheelhouse Bar for awhile listening to four members of the Emerald Princess orchestra playing dance music, and then went to the 8:30pm Princess Theater performance of production show Boogie Shoes. The new cast is not quite polished yet, but it's always fun to see darling Rodney from Brazil, and now Igor and Steven who we met at the Backstage Tour, perform. 

Rodney's in the middle...

...and the bottom right of the pyramid:

There was another show option tonight: mentalist Brent Webb did three performances in the Explorers Lounge and Nob was in MUTS. With an early arrival in Grenada tomorrow, we are tucked into bed with fuzzy water and popcorn at 10pm.