Day 126: Dominica

Prepared Wednesday evening, March 5th

First, before I forget to mention this, it was astonishing to me how quickly last night's blog post, containing no photos, was published. Twenty or so seconds and it was done. Compare that to Aruba evening, when publishing the post with 18 photos took more than 10 minutes.  The contractors who were stringing wire around the ship are now gone, so what we have is what we have. I can't say that I notice a huge difference between before and after. I was hoping for the pipeline to be expanded considerably, and I don't believe it has been.

So, on to today...

It was nearly 9am before we awoke this morning. Well...we were up late last night, attending the 10:15pm performance of Disco:  Blame it on the Boogie. THAT was a lot of fun, and the cast, while remaining professional, turned it into a big party. I'm glad we were there. 

We returned to our cabin just as the 11pm showing of Gravity was beginning on Channel 37, so, for once, we watched it from start to finish. Luckily, it's only about 90 minutes long, so by 1am we were finally falling asleep. I remember hearing the Emerald Princess dock this morning (scheduled arrival was 7am), but quickly fell back asleep after it was secured to its berth. Thus, we missed breakfast in the dining room altogether, and had a quick breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet (and I'll spare you an editorial on that).  In fact, we were so late to breakfast that we dined with several of the old cast of dancers. Yep, we're keeping dancers' hours today. 

The weather in Dominica today was partly cloudy, most sunny and HOT. Without even seeing a calendar, we can tell it's March; the weather is getting noticeably warmer. We like it. (Something tells me we're going to suffer when we get home!). I spent part of the day as planned, sipping coconut rum and cruising the net. No sooner had we left all that luscious free wifi at Starbucks on Aruba than an iOS update was released, and I wanted to get that downloaded. G popped on and off the ship, walking around the waterfront, but I pretty much stayed put once I was set up and internetting. 

My right eye is better. In fact, the swelling is almost gone, though the sclera hasn't fully recovered.  I received an email from a blog reader asking if I had glasses. No; my vision isn't correctable with glasses, only with hard contacts. Frankly, I'm loving this "no reading glasses" thing, and the dizziness is abating a bit, too. 

We were on the Promenade Deck for sailaway at 4pm.  Dominica was looking her best today, in the sun, though we did catch a couple of rainbows as we cruised north up the western coast. 

We stayed on the Promenade Deck until we ran out of island to look at, then went to Dinner with Darko. Komang is a bit under the weather and so we had a different assistant waiter tonight, Sergii from the Ukraine, and we had a chance for a brief discussion with him about the situation there. Just as with the cyclone in the Philippines last fall, to watch the news on TV is one thing; to spend our days with people whose lives are so immediately impacted is quite another. 

This cruise's Most Traveled Passengers party was held at 7:30pm in the Adagio Lounge (cutoff was lowest of the winter:  360 or so days), so we finished out our evening there. Entertainment choices, should we have chosen to avail ourselves of them, were Bobby Brooks Wilson in the Princess Theater and Country Western night in Club Fusion.

Tomorrow, in St. Thomas, I'm quite determined to get to a beach. Or at least do something to remind myself that I am on a cruise in the Caribbean. While I've enjoyed my reading and listening to audiobooks these past couple of days, I am ready to dig my toes into some soft, white sand. 

Day 125: Grenada

It was nice to not be awakened by the ship's thrusters this morning; the Emerald Princess was not docking until noon today in Grenada, so, while it wasn't exactly smooth (we were bucking the tradewinds), it wasn't "slide us around in bed" rough either, and we slept until nearly 8am. After an International Cafe stop for coffee and breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room, I tried to get on wifi to book Southwest flights to Fort Lauderdale for next October (they just opened for booking yesterday), but it was just bouncy enough that the Internet was excruciatingly slow. Still, I was eventually successful, and we are now booked for flights to Fort Lauderdale on two different dates next fall. And here we go again, before we even wrap up this year's travels. 

While I was exasperating myself, G ran into a former Marine who was one of the troops who was part of the US invasion of Grenada in 1983. This was going to be his first time back on the island. It's not exactly the magnitude of a return to Vietnam, but it must still be an emotional feeling. I've never really talked with a Grenadian about their feelings towards the US after that little brush up, but I do encourage G to leave behind his US Army Retired hat when he goes ashore. No sense courting trouble. 

Our intention had been to take the water taxi to Grande Anse Beach today, but, in the end, my eye was happiest out of the sun. We stayed in our cabin and caught part of the movie Gravity, which had been shown on MUTS last night (that's the usual practice; what is shown on MUTS one night is shown repeatedly on Channel 37 the following day). Shortly before the ship docked at noon, we went to get a slice of pizza to hold us over until dinner, but even passing through the sun to get to Prego's Pizzeria made me unhappy. I begged off for the day, but encouraged G to go on without me.  And that was his original intention...

I returned to the cabin and started watching Season 1 of Downton Abbey (which I'd not watched since last year). I'm intending to view the first three seasons again in preparation for getting caught up with Season 4 when I return home (No, no, no, no. Please don't tell me anything that's happened since Season 3!!). But here's the amazing thing:  G stayed with me and watched along. I couldn't believe it. At first it was just the old cars and implements that drew him in, but after the first episode he said, "You know, this is amazingly like our life on a cruise ship".  I had never thought about it that way, but there is a lot of dressing for dinner, idle days (never mind what a week-end is...I don't even know what a day of the week is!) and Darko does call me "Milady" (but thankfully doesn't refer to G as "Milord"). So, he's kind of right about that. At least until Season 2 and the First World War. Then...not so much. 

Speaking of dressing for dinner, we eventually summoned up the energy to do that, and went to Dinner with Darko.  Sailaway was at 7pm, and we celebrated it with Barefoot Bubbly on the Promenade Deck with cruise friends Richard and Sylvia as the lights of Grenada faded in the distance. 

We stopped by the Horizon Court Buffet for fruit and cheese (they are featuring gorgeous big peaches that are hard as rocks, so we now have ripening bags in our cabin) and then returned temporarily to our cabin to catch more of Gravity.  Our intention is to go to the10:15pm (late for us, and another reason for saving our energy today) final performance by the exiting cast of production show Disco:  Blame it on the Boogie. We talked with several of them after last night's production show by the new cast; many of them are returning home for just a couple of weeks and then going to Los Angeles to start practices for their next contracts on different ships. It was fun to hear where they'd be going, and it makes us want to book more cruises to see them perform again. (We're hopeless groupies.  No, actually, we just enjoy watching talented performers, especially young people with commitment and drive). 

We have no plans for Domenica tomorrow, other than to possibly purchase $3 all day wifi at Ruins Rock. Cafe, and to sit there drinking coconut rum and cruising the net. An example of commitment and drive after 125 days of cruising...NOT!

Day 124: Bonaire

Well...heck. My luck finally ran out today, and for such a piddling reason that I feel far more sick about that than I do for what took me there.

I awoke several times last night with my right eye glued shut. Expecting that an appointment at the Medical Center would last just minutes ("Yep. Your eye is infected. Here are some drops"), I was there when the doors were opened at 8am. But Dr. Rainer Guenzel, who I knew only socially from the Most Traveled parties, was far more thorough than that and I was there nearly an hour while he ruled out more serious things. In the end, it is simply an infection and I did leave with eye drops. I also left with a warning to not wear my contact lens in that eye for FIVE days. This leaves me with monovision, and here's the thing about that:  I don't need reading glasses (very cool) but I get dizzy when I walk (not at all cool). 

Our plans for the day were suddenly changed. We packed up my laptop and walked off the ship intending to use the Ethernet cable and high speed Internet in the Internet cafe in the pedestrian mall to download more TV shows from iTunes, but today is a holiday in Bonaire (more Carnaval celebrations) and that shop was closed. We walked through a few gift shops with me feeling increasingly dizzy in the hot sun, and then returned to the ship. We had planned to once again float and snorkel along the waterfront (this time with my phone to take photos), but I didn't think I wanted to do that today after all. Instead we stayed in the cabin while G finally caught the beginning of the movie Now You See Me (that's a treat...we see the end of a movie, then the middle and the end, long before we see the beginning). 

We took advantage of the DaVinci Dining Room being open for lunch; we were hungry, as breakfast had been very quick and very light. All on board was 1:30pm for a 2pm sailaway to allow us to arrive in Grenada tomorrow at noon. By 1:30pm, the dining room business was slow enough that assistant waiter Ahmad from Indonesia had time to show us two magic tricks...and he is incredibly good. 

We initially went out on the Promenade Deck as the Emerald Princess was preparing for sailaway. It was quite interesting to watch the - I don't know what they're called, but they're the guys who release the lines - get dropped off by the pilot boat on the ballards, and then watch as the gangway was retrieved from the pier. 

We then went up to the jogging track on Deck 19 to watch as the Emerald Princess thrust away from her berth and set a course to the southwest, to round the southern tip of Bonaire. 

The Good Returns water taxi arriving at Karel's bar next to the ship:

Bonaire was typically beautiful today. I love the water color here!

The ship's wake curves as it rounds the southern end of Bonaire before heading north to Grenada. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon with my eyes closed, listening to an audiobook in the cool darkness of our cabin. Despite its slightly rough start, a wonderful evening saved the day. First we enjoyed Dinner with Darko (with my favorite vodka lime sorbet for dessert!). Afterwards, we attended the 7:30pm Captains Circle party for Platinums and Elites, and then went to the Princess Theater to watch the first performance of production show Boogie Shoes by the new cast at 9pm. I don't know who was more excited about this:  the performers or the audience, but it was certainly a highly anticipated event!  Once again, we skipped the Ultimate Deck Party, though we did walk through the Neptunes Reef pool area where the party was held, just to see the special lighting and decorations. 

Following that, it was time for fuzzy water, eye drops and bed. Dr. Guenzel said I'd be much improved in 36 hours. I know that doesn't mean I can wear my right contact, but a little less swelling would be welcome. 

Day 123: Aruba

Well, wow.  We now know what a daytime Carnaval parade in Aruba is like, and let me say right up front that it has nothing to do with old sports cars and Harley Davidsons, as did the parade we saw in Aruba a few cruises ago. No, this one was pure Carnaval and total fun. 

Oranjestad, Aruba was a sleepy little town this Sunday morning when the ship docked at 8am. The streets were empty and the Emerald Princess was the only ship here today. We had been warned by cruise director JJ about a parade and street closures, and so were uncertain of our plans for the day, but set out to walk to the beach, carrying our lightest "beach day" load.  En route we stopped into Starbucks in the Renaissance Mall, got on their decently fast, free, cool, quiet and shaded wifi (the BIG FIVE of Caribbean wifi)...and that was as far as we got.  We sat there uploading and downloading and updating and catching up on news and weather and...well, two hours passed and we were still there. Finally, around 1pm, the Starbucks wifi was abruptly turned off. We thought that perhaps we had overstayed our welcome until we looked up and saw the mall nearly deserted.  Most of it had already been closed off with gates that rolled down (it's an open air mall; there are no doors to close and lock), and as we stragglers were leaving the mall, we saw that barricades had been set up closing off the main road to traffic, and even pedestrians were being routed around. Though we saw lots of locals setting up chairs and settling in for parade viewing, we were told it was still several hours before it began, and we returned to the ship to recharge our batteries- iPhone and personal. 

We each had two slices of pizza for lunch, and I'll spare you any more comments about lunch in the Horizon Court Buffet. It's just...not good, and even the salad bar I used to rely on has been cut in half. I did get a few slices of yellow pepper and some celery bits to accompany the pizza, and thanked my lucky stars that the DaVinci Dining Room will be open for lunch for the next two days. 

Noro cautions seem to be holding at Code Yellow, but the buffet is the only place I notice them. No salt and pepper shakers nor sugar packets on the tables, and silverware is wrapped in napkins and distributed with the plates. I don't mind the latter; in fact, I think having cups and silverware already on the tables is a major germ spreader. But the salt and pepper and sugar is missed. 

We went back to the cabin while our phones were charging and ended up napping/resting a bit. Finally, it was 3:30pm and we knew the parade was imminent, and so walked back off the ship, not sure what to expect. 

It was not Rio de Janeiro, but it was wonderful in its own right, and we certainly felt like we were part of the party. I'll post a few photos here for comparison purposes...

A float in the Sambadrome parades during Carnaval 2002:

A float during the 60th Aruban Carnaval parade in 2014:

Our view from our seats in the Sambadrome in 2002:

Our view today on Aruba:

We were definitely up close and personal today. In fact, one of us got very up close:

It seemed like every band was playing the same song, over and over and over and over. I could actually feel my breastbone vibrate from the sound, amplified a thousand times by sets of huge speakers mounted on trailers and driven in the parade. 

It appeared that all the float sponsors were commercial:  banks and casinos and liquor brands, etc. Most of the floats were not motorized, and were pushed along the parade route.

And every sponsored "group" had a beverage wagon to keep the parade participants going in the hot sun. There was an impressive amount of drinking going on, and by the time they got to where we were, towards the end of the parade route, there were a few highly inebriated participants.

The costumes were pretty spectacular, lots of feathers mounted on backpacks and headdresses and even costumes that could be rolled along instead of worn. 

The parade participants loved stopping to have their photos taken, and were very willing to pose for close ups to show off their intricate makeup. 

And body shape apparently didn't matter one bit. Everyone was letting it all hang out!

It was fun and festive and a bit raunchy and everyone was getting jiggy by the time there was a short break in action about 5:45pm. We took that opportunity to return to the ship, a quick three minute walk, and showered and dressed for dinner. The heat and sun had caught up with us, and we were worn out. 

Our table was on the side towards the port, and we watched as the Emerald Princess pushed slowly away from the pier and sailed past the parade still going on. We went up to Deck 19 for a final view of Aruba and caught the tail end of the sunset. 

With oil tankers anchored off the coast of Venezuela and a slice of crescent moon in the distance:

The Emerald Princess after dark is a beautiful thing.

With the lights of Aruba in the distance...

...and the "over the side" lights lighting up the water. 

There were two featured entertainers tonight:  vocalist Bobby Brooks Wilson in the Princess Theater and mentalist Brent Webb in the Explorers Lounge, but we've seen them both already this winter and instead opted for the hot tub on Deck 17. We left Aruba at 7pm and have a short distance to cruise overnight to arrive in Bonaire at 7am. 

Day 122: At Sea

If all sea days were like this one, I might be a bit more like my husband, and want to cruise forever. Because today was truly so good it made me stop for a moment and think sadly, "Only XX more days of this" (XX because it's still being argued...er, discussed). 

We woke today with a determination to do...something. While we enjoyed doing nothing yesterday, it was actually more tiring for us than accomplishing something, no matter how trivial. It's obvious that we are entirely unskilled at this relaxation thing.

Breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room was extremely crowded. We kept it simple; G just had fruit and juices, I had fruit and cereal. I really don't know how the wait staff remains so cheerful when it's crazy busy like that. I would be all "Sit down. Shut up. You get what you get and you won't throw a fit". (It's a shocker that I've never been recruited by the hospitality industry, isn't it?)  ;-)

After breakfast, I made a purchase at the sundries store on board. I have been eyeing this spoon rest since we boarded in November. 

The spoon rest I have at home is 30 years old and has geese on it. We used to own two mean geese, named Briggs and Stratton, so I had a lot of geese stuff at the time. Frankly, once they were too big to live in the bathtub (so, after the first 1/50th of their lives), I was never a fan of Briggs and Stratton, and the feeling was definitely mutual. I have disliked my geese spoon rest for years, and am thrilled to replace it with something clearly so dear to our hearts...a map of the Caribbean. 

G decided he was going to clean out HIS bathroom closet (aka his carry on suitcase), and, in the process, temporarily exiled me from our cabin. We didn't know, until this winter, that I am highly allergic to the Irish Spring soap he uses. As I've said before, at home we live the way God intended for couples to live, with separate bathrooms, and since G's responsible for cleaning his own, I've never been exposed to his bars of Irish Spring soap, in their wrappers or not. All he had to do today was open his suitcase where his extras were stored, and I was reaching for my rescue inhaler. At first, I ensconced myself in the whisper-quiet Adagio Lounge (no. Muzac today- heaven!) and started this blog post. After 30 minutes, I returned to the cabin to find G and cabin steward Raymond the Great moving the beds and vacuuming the corners of the room that hadn't been cleaned since we boarded. Two men cleaning?  I knew better than to get in the way of that, and quickly changed into sneakers and fled the cabin again, this time to walk on Deck 19. By the time I returned, the offensive soap was gone, the carry on suitcase had been wiped out and aired out, and our cabin was also dust-free. All this because of my allergy to a soap millions use quite successfully. It should be no surprise that I'm allergic to the Purell sanitizers too. 

I keep forgetting to mention, and so will rectify that today, that Captain Stenzel has definitely grown on us. At first, the fact that he was like Captain Nash only in that both are British put me off a bit. But it didn't take long for me to appreciate their differences. Instead of leaving the noon updates from the bridge to the Officer of the Watch (OOW), Captain Stenzel has been doing them himself, and always adds a bit of nautical information.  Today's lesson was the history of how starboard and port were so named, and since I was ready with pen and paper at hand to take notes, I will share that information with you now...

Starboard (the right side of the ship facing forward) was the first side named. It comes from "steer board" (although this was spoken as shteer board). The rudder used to steer a ship was always located on its right side; hence, steer board became starboard. 

Port (the left side of the ship facing forward) was originally known as laboard. With the rudder protruding on its right, or starboard side, a ship was always docked with its laboard side against a dock. In the 1840s, laboard, being too easily confused with similarly sounded starboard, was renamed to port, as this was the side traditionally facing a port when docked. (Picture this all being explained with the most delightful British accent). 

I found that rather fascinating, and think Captain Stenzel is a treasure for sharing that information with us. 80-ish cruises to date, and I had never known that. 

We returned to the DaVinci Dining Room for lunch, and went a bit late, hoping to avoid the rush. As waiter Alvin has told us, "These people want to be served". Well, yes, we do. I can do Sweet Tomatoes at home; I want more here. Afterwards, we followed our usual M.O. of walking hand in hand on the Promenade Deck. My husband had just cleaned our cabin, which I consider to be an act of romance of the highest order. 

We were cleaned up (though not yet dressed formally) for the evening even before the 4pm Gold and Ruby Captains Circle parties. We had a bet between ourselves as to whether we'd see the same singers doing a Motown medley or the singers from the new production show cast (I won. The "old" singers did it). Afterwards, we returned to the cabin to dress formally for the 21st time this winter (God help me). I really don't mind the dress so much; it's putting the fussy dress and the jewelry away that's getting tiresome. 

We took a bottle of Fransican Merlot that we had purchased at Total Wines in Fort Lauderdale to dinner with us, and headwaiter Johannes from South Africa retrieved it from me as we entered the Michelangelo Dining Room. He then proceeded to serve it in Riedel glasses as Darko looked on and instructed him to take care of "Milady". 

How did I ever imagine I was ready to go home?!?

The sous chef from Romania who didn't know how to cook beef tenderloins medium-rare has gone home. In his place is an Italian sous chef who can do it better than I could when I used to cook 500 steaks an hour at a Ponderosa restaurant to pay for college. (I know not much about cooking, but when it comes to beef temperature, a quick look and a touch with tongs are all I need to place it within two degrees.). Dinner of a Stilton starter, salad and tenderloins (medium rare), along with Franciscan Merlot was perfection. 

In order to get to the 6:45pm Princess Theater performance of I Got the Music (our last time with this cast), we delayed coffee and dessert until later. As we walked through the Piazza en route to the Princess Theater, pianist Pawel spotted us and began playing a song we'd requested a couple of cruises ago. 

This really is the life, isn't it?

We loved I Got the Music (37th viewing), and are so excited that this cast we've gotten to know is finally getting to go home. We will miss them, but saw new cast member Rodney later in the Piazza. He said he cannot wait to be back on stage in front of an audience in just two nights. We can't wait to see him dance, either. 

Following the show, we swung by the Captain's Welcome Aboard Party and Champagne Waterfall to drink bad champagne and enjoy good company. We talked with balance performers Lubo and Lucy and learned they are originally dancers from Bulgaria, but have lived in Orlando for 20 years. These entertainers lead such international lives. 

G wanted to see the 8pm performance of ventriloquist Mark Merchant; I wanted not to, so he went solo and I sat in the International.Cafe to talk with cruise friends Richard and Sylvia and make some blog progress. G filled me in on the ventriloquist's show over Dessert with Darko and Coffee with Komang. It sounds like my anti-ventriloquism denied me a chance to see a good show. Live and learn...

It's 10pm and we're done for the evening. We've heard that we're going to be treated to a Carnaval celebration tomorrow in Aruba, so we're not sure of our plans for the day.  We wish our friends who are in Rio for the real Carnaval a wonderful few days; ours might pale a bit in comparison, but should certainly be interesting.