...just another day at the beach. :-)
My solo breakfasts continued today. I was once again up and out of the cabin while G was still sleeping. I forgot to mention yesterday that there is stollen for breakfast every morning in the dining room on the Emerald Princess. Stollen!!! I figured I had missed out on it altogether when we went home for the holidays, but what luck that it's still being offered. If there was no other reason (and there are, several of them) I would eat breakfasts in the dining room just for that. Add to it all the smiling waiters greeting me and providing me wonderful service, and why would I go anywhere else?
So I was in the DaVinci Dining Room this morning at my table for four for one as the Emerald Princess entered Castries Bay and spun 180 degrees to dock at the Pointe Seraphine pier. We were the only ship in port today, which was nice. We met Suzan and Greg in the International Cafe at 9am and walked off the ship (not nearly as frustrating as yesterday in Barbados).
What was frustrating was trying to get a taxi up to Reduit Beach in Rodney Bay. I didn't follow my own advice from yesterday and went to the taxi dispatch area right in the port terminal. Big mistake. We had to pay $14pp to purchase a round trip taxi fare, something we really don't like to do. Then they wanted us to wait 10 minutes to fill a bus with people going to the beach. Uh uh, no way. Suzan and I went back to the dispatch desk to demand our money back, and magically a taxi suddenly appeared. I am pointing this out just to tell you that you don't have to put up with their cr$&, and shouldn't allow them to use your valuable time in port to maximize their revenue.
What I should have done is walk out of the secured port area and we probably could have gotten a taxi to Rodney Bay for $5pp with no return fare required. Live and learn.
We were in a van with one other couple for the 20 minute ride up to Reduit Beach. It was mostly sunny but we could see clouds starting to build over the mountains. St. Lucia is a very mountainous island, and by heading north we avoided the twisty-turny roads that exist south of Castries. The coastal road to the northern part of the island is a bit flatter, which is good for my tummy.
We were dropped off at the Rex Halcyon Rodney Bay Resort and our driver immediately started pressuring us for a return time. We resisted...we hate getting locked into a specific time. If it had started to rain, we'd have wanted to return in an hour. If it stayed sunny, we might have wanted to stay until late in the afternoon. We were given a ticket with our cab driver's name and number on it, and it seemed inevitable that we were locked in to going back to the ship with him, but at least it would be on our own schedule.
It's a strange, cumbersome system, and we don't like it. It certainly is a hassle.
Once in Reduit Beach in front of the Rex Resort, all frustrations melted away. Sure, there was the inevitable hassle over lounge chair and umbrella pricing. We started at $50 for both couples but ended up at $35. We settled in side by side shaded loungers and wasted no time getting in that beautiful water. Reduit Beach pales in comparison to Carlisle Bay Beach on Barbados, but it is the best St. Lucia offers within a reasonable distance of the cruise ship pier in Castries. And on the north side of Rodney Bay is Pigeon Island National Park with its fort overlooking the bay. We've kayaked Rodney Bay and hiked to the fort on earlier visits to St. Lucia.
We got hooked up with passable wifi for $1pp for the day. It wasn't fast enough to upload photos, but I was able to respond to a few emails right from my lounger, and that's always a plus.
We spent the rest of the day alternating between the loungers and the water, with our four Swimways floats, bobbing on the occasionally strong waves and drinking Piton beers and generally having a great time.
The floating produce stand. This guy has been selling all sorts of fresh produce from this rickety boat in Rodney Bay for years. We think it's held together with chewing gum and baling wire, and he spends half his time bailing. Greg bought a huge papaya and enjoyed it on the beach.
Meanwhile, G was a lot less healthy with a beer and a cinnamon roll, the breakfast of champions.
Of course, we had to spend a bit of time listening to all sorts of sales pitches, for massages, for aloe, for jewelry, for wooden carvings from people walking up and down the beach. That's simply the culture of the islands, but a polite 'no thank you' or three generally sends them on their way.
We stayed on the beach until about 2:30pm when the clouds seemed to move in permanently. We walked back to the entrance of the Rex Resort and were lucky that the taxi driver who took us was there waiting. However, he insisted on waiting for the other couple that had been in the cab this morning. We had no idea where they were, and wouldn't have recognized them if they stood in front of us. This whole taxi system is ridiculous. We made it clear that we weren't waiting, and, just like in the morning, four seats magically appeared in a larger tour bus that was leaving right then. Again I wished I had bypassed all this and just hired a taxi outside the port. There must be a reason they operate as they do in St. Lucia, but I don't know what it is.
Still, for around $40 per couple, we had had a great day on the beach, so it was all good in the end.
Once back at Pointe Seraphine, we went our separate ways. G and I went to look for a couple of friends who work in the shops there. We were so touched when Alycia at the Piranha Joe shop remembered our names and said she had been looking for the Emerald Princess and us for two winters. (Yes, we are predictable). Dev from India gave us hugs and said it meant a lot that we stopped by to see him. He then told us the most remarkable news that there is now free wifi throughout the entire Pointe Seraphine port area.
G headed back to the ship to start getting cleaned up but I spent a few minutes uploading these pics. They are smaller in size because they were uploaded from my iPhone instead of my iPad, but I couldn't miss the opportunity to upload them for free.
G was finishing up his shower when I returned to the cabin. My birthday cake was not delivered last night because we had put the Privacy card in the door so we could get some sleep without being disturbed. However, it was waiting for us this afternoon, and we both enjoyed a bite of it. While I was showering, G walked back off the ship to buy something at the shops in Pointe Seraphine. I won't say what it is, but will upload a pic of him wearing it at some point in time. It's harious,
I went up to the PES Lounge for a quick bite of Stilton and port wine reduction, but met up with G in the Michelangelo Dining Room at 5:30pm. We ate fairly quickly (but still had vodka lime sorbet for dessert) because we wanted to get up to MUTS for football. Still, we were there when headwaiter Luis stopped by from the Botticelli Dining Room where he was working to say hi to G, who hadn't yet seen him. Honestly, people like Luis are part of the reason we return to Princess again and again.
We joined Suzan and Greg for the second half of the Chiefs v. Texans game and are currently watching the Steelers v. Bengals game, which is a lot more exciting. I retrieved my iPad from our cabin and started this blog post with one eye on this game. This won't be over until after midnight, and I'll be glad I didn't wait any later to get this post published.
One final note, on something that has completely changed our plans for tomorrow. We had wanted to take a taxi to Carambola Beach Bar and spend the day there, but Captain Forteeze, in his welcome back on board announcement today, asked for our complete attention (which is unusual, so we knew something was up). He said that the port authority on St. Kitts had notified the Emerald Princess today that we would be tendering into port tomorrow. He said they tried to appeal it, and got Princess Corporate involved, all to no avail. Obviously they have too many ships in port tomorrow, and, since we aren't arriving until 10am, we lose out on getting a berth. Well...shoot. This is not good news. Even with our priority tendering due to our Elite status, it will be 11am before we get ashore, and noon before we could be settled on the beach. Instead, we've all decided to take a day off, and simply enjoy doing something around the port area. For what we would have spent for a taxi and beach loungers, we can do a little shopping or have a drink in one of the bars in the Port Zante area in the town Basseterre on St. Kitts.
There is fun to be had wherever we are. :-)