The Big Booper

From a nearby hill. The ship was running a lifeboat drill.

Day 7

St. Lucia. This island is beautiful. After breakfast we got off the ship, did a little shopping in the attractive port shopping area and hired a van-cab, along with some other people, to do some sightseeing. This is one hilly island, which accords some great scenery shots.

The highlight of the tour was a stop at a restored Indian village. The guides talked about basic living styles, tools, cooking methods and utensils. The pathway down from the road to the hut area was narrow and winding but the guide supplied stout walking sticks which were really need by our mostly older group.

Towards the end of the tour we stopped at a beach club for 10 minutes, which afforded us our best glimpse of the Pitons. Then it was back to the ship and another stop at the vendor booths at the pier.

Final shot

Couldn't leave Austin Powers out, could I?

After the show (and a shared tart) we headed back to our cabin and encountered a mysterious flying object. This ship is indeed overrun by wonderful creatures that appear in the night and then disappear during the daytime. Can’t figure out where they hide.

More of the action.

We started out at the Concierge lounge on deck 9, which was empty, everybody was either at dinner or the early show, which we passed on (Etta May comedy). We then went to dinner at our table on deck 3. These three deck dining rooms always look impressive, even after hundreds of nights in them.

After dinner,

DISCO

We found a spot that we could lean against for the show because as you get older, it gets harder and harder to stand in one spot for a long time. The show was impressive, as always, and CD Lee showed great moves in his white suit. The show started with two of the theater singers, the blonde and one of the guys and ran until the Village People were bouncing up and down the Promenade. A fun time.

Another cookie picture.

Line dancing.

We eventually went back to our cabin and while getting ready for evening activities I looked outside the window and saw that Mother Nature was putting on a show for us, starting with a glorious sunset with the Moon as a fantastic main attraction.

Day 6

Antigua. The day started out sunny with soft fluffy clouds and we decided to get off, do some walking and shopping at the pier and see how the weather developed. We had been to Antigua many times and were not in any hurry to go to a beach if the weather turned bad. After our errands on land and my daily lifeboat picture we got back on for lunch and an afternoon on the pool deck, first time this trip. It was good to see a line dancing session, a little bit of normalcy after the bad weather of the first few days. We also ran across The Couple in a fine display of daytime elegance. We realized that they were far more into clothes matching then us. Looked great.

Drat. He always reminded me the first few times, "Make sure you get my shoes". I messed up here.

Later in the evening we had our first encounter with The Couple. They always wore complementary outfits and looked great. They are an older couple married 5 years and she makes many of her dresses and his and her accessories. We had not seen them up to this point, but after tonight we seemed to run into them constantly. So there will be pictures of them in all their sartorial greatness scattered throughout the rest of this write-up. Enjoy

And DS makes fun of us because we always wear matching tee shirts on vacation; hah, we have been totally outclassed!

Tonight is Love and Marriage and we wanted to see how EFT and Leigh would handle it. Not to worry, a great job with three good couples. Of course, with this on board crowd, there were no young people as contestants. I miss that, slightly sloshed 20 somethings up there, quickly sobering up at the thought that they were going to have to talk about something, well, maybe embarrassing, and no idea how the spouse would answer. That is evil fun.Yeah!

I'm not saying what these stick figure drawings are.:D

While we were getting ready for the evening, I stood on the balcony and watched the sail-away of the Oasis and the Epic.

I bet those two people at the top rear of Epic don't know their pictures are on the internet.

A few more pictures.

Here are the two new snacks at the Cafe Promenade - vanilla cheesecake lollypops and pink lemonade tart - only available here. For comparison purposes only:), we also got a yummy chocolate chip cookie. Triple yum yum.

The weather was good here in Phillipsburg and the ships in port looked nice with the setting sun, even the Epic. Since the front half of deck 4, port side, was now accessible, I stopped here on the way to the cabin to get as close as I could up to the rope barrier and grab shots of the wounded lifeboat and it’s support cables holding it in place. I so wanted to step over the rope barrier but knew if I did, security would not be happy. So I acted my age...and gimped away after taking the shots.

After lunch we made our way back to Pedro’s and the taxi parking lot where there is a pathway down to the beach level that is not too steep. The sign warning about cameras and cell phones seemed to be gone also. In any case, no photos from this point. Club O was crowded and we had to walk almost the length of the property to find loungers that had no towels or reservation tags on them. People staying at Club O always have priority for the loungers. We stayed until a little after three when the wind came up along with a few sprinkles so we quickly packed up and hiked back to the taxi area where we got a cab and headed back to town.

Some more pictures.

Instead of driving into the pier area as has been done for years, the cab left us off just outside the pier area and we entered thru an opening in the fence, showing our ID. Seems more efficient and the cabbie can get moving faster to grab another fare.

Day 5

Land Ho! It’s sunny and we’re in St. Maarten. The ship pulled in around 9 AM and it was great to go out on our balcony and see civilization, even though it was the first time since leaving Cape Liberty that we couldn’t go out there dressed for Club Orient. We were joined by Oasis, Reflection and the fuggly NCL Epic. As well as a refueling barge, which was pushed into position right below our balcony.

After breakfast we joined the taxi line and headed out to Orient Beach to check out the damage from the recent hurricane and work on our overall tans. The driver eventually dropped all his passengers near Pedro’s near the rocks. Since we had gotten off to a late start we decided to do a little shopping for a couple of things and grab an early lunch before heading off down the beach past the rocks. Our favorite haunt, Baywatch (now Andy and Cheryl’s) was still closed and was being rebuilt so we eventually settled in at Orange Crush. These beach shacks are on land 5 feet higher then the beach and a lot of the wooden stairs had not been fully replaced so it was an adventure to move around this area. At our age we don’t scramble up and down hillsides even if they are 5 or 6 feet high, need those steps.

We had scheduled the Murder Mystery Theater up at Portofino that night. We were to meet in the Viking Crown Lounge for a pre-meal drink and then head down to the restaurant for the meal and show. We were pre-assigned tables while up in the VCL and when we got to our table, the Scottish party was there, kilts and all. Nice coincidence. I did not photograph the performance. After the meal we headed down to Schooner for late night music and then up to our cabin.

The women in front of the bride are Fiona, Amy and Denise, in no particular order.

The intruder from two nights ago had left the premises to be replaced by another mysterious critter.

The headliner for tonight was Tony Pace. We missed the show since we were up in Portofino.

Day 4

This was the last of the three full sea days so after the usual morning activities of breakfast, trivia, etc. we hit the MDR for the Tutti Salad lunch. We bumped into our tablemates, Alfred and Samia, and hit the salad bar for our customized lunches. The rains had returned again and we were looking at another washed out day. While near the Aquarium Bar we did spot a Scottish couple getting ready for a wedding renewal ceremony.

Later in the day I discovered that the damaged lifeboat hung down right outside the Champagne Bar on deck 5. Deck 4 was still off limits so I took this shot thru the circular window.

She took a sneak picture of me!

Something bad is happening to the company. First the myriad tech problems with the Q ship, then the misfire on a major marketing opportunity. Who is calling the shots, this is not their track record. Didn't a senior exec leave the company earlier this year?

Tonight was the postponed show, Fast and Furious, uh, Fast Forward. Showtimes reverted back to the usual, late seating before dinner and early seating after their dinner. We were tied up with other stuff and forgot about it. Of course we’ve seen it 3 times before so not a great loss.

After dinner we headed over to Studio B to catch the 50’s & 60’s Rock and Roll Party, to watch all the seniors try to recapture their youth.

We then went back to the theater to catch the late night comedian, Jeff Nease. He had appeared in the opening night show, which we had missed. We both liked him and he really wasn’t that blue. Guess he knew he was playing to a bunch of older adults and not a bunch of smashed 20 and 30 somethings.

Erky !

At the start of the day the weather was not that great. There was a blur of trivia, lunch, trivia etc. plus checking out the condition of the main elevators. Some of the area had been un-roped and some elevators were running but the port side outside promenade deck had been closed and would stay closed for the duration of the trip. If you wanted to avoid the Casino on deck 4 in going from one end of the ship to the other, your sole choice was the starboard side where the smokers hung out. Or go up to 5 and walk past the Promenade Café with it’s tempting goodies including cheesecake lollypops and Pink Lemonade Tarts. I got pictures, will be posted here later. However, by afternoon the sky had cleared, the temperature went up and we could see blue skies and puffy clouds. And people in bathing suits. Plus our mystery visitor from last night who was still hangin’ around our room had his shades on.

Day 3

We woke up to another dreary day at sea. Some of the main elevators were running now so we headed up to the Windjammer for a quick bite before heading down to the Schooner Bar for Morning Trivia. We didn’t have much luck this 15 day cruise, aside from a few wins, we usually did no better then a gentlemen’s second, a couple points behind the winners, usually Dumb and Dumbest ( I think). I don’t usually write down all this stuff. Our team was usually Dazed and Confused, an apt description.

After trivia we headed up to the theater for the Top Tier Event for, well, the top tiers. Plus one new Pinnacle member, from Pennsylvania. That makes 45 P’s on this cruise along with some 350 Diamond Plus and around 650 Diamonds, whole bunch of people who cruise with RCI lots. Pre-event entertainment provided by Robbin and one of the guy singers, she has some voice. The Captain had a unique entrance.

A brief aside for the Ice Show schedule, “Spirits of the Seasons” The Explorer used to have two shows on a concurrent basis, this show and “Blade” I am guessing that with the current cast who came aboard at the end of September and with the new schedule of shorter runs, the secondary show has been dropped and “Spirits” will be the sole ice skating show. There are no more tickets, you go when your lifeboat number is scheduled plus there was one more show that was open for anyone towards the end of the cruise. If you want to see a performance other then your assigned seating, there was a standby line. The staffers were looking at Seapass cards. Our assigned date was later in the cruise.

Thanks again for sharing your movie rentals with us. We did use them all surprisingly! The kids rented a few & hubby & I rented one as well. :)

 

(and thanks for the compliment on the kids! :o )

Do you mind if I post a family picture of your group here on CC?

Tonight was the first formal night. Because of luggage weight issues, this was the first cruise ever where I didn’t bring a suit, just 2 pair of dress slacks, shirts and ties. All our bags were close to the 50 lb. cutoff and it was tight. Nobody said anything. I don’t keep track of what we ate so please don’t ask me. I do know that because of the rough seas, the production show “Fast Forward” was pushed back a day and the ventriloquist, Brad Cummings was advanced a day. Reactions to Brad were mixed; we liked him especially with his puppet dragon. The human dummy was named Jeff and somebody said that it was not pre-arranged, Cummings knows where to manipulate the neck to cause you to spaz like a dummy. Other people we talked to did not like Cummings at all. Different strokes. After the show we headed back to our cabin where we had the first of many mysterious visitors.

The weather was still awful with rolling seas and the ship was rolling along with the water plus it was dank outside. With the main elevators still shut down and the open decks on top not safe there was a whole lotta crowding on the Promenade. We had a mostly older crowd on board, many with mobility issues, which further exacerbated the situation. The calypso band played all its sets on the Promenade for the first few days.

The Promenade finally quieted down right before people began to get dressed for dinner and the evening activities. In fact it was almost a ghost town, a welcome change from hours ago.

Day 2

BANG !

We were woken up at 5 AM by a loud crash and the sound of glass breaking in the bathroom. Our cabin, 7622, was port side center hump and two decks up from lifeboat 20, almost below us. A large 40-foot rogue wave had slammed into the ship and just about ripped # 20 from both it’s supports, as well as sending water into deck 4 thru broken doors and windows and down the elevator shafts. We didn’t know that at the time but did see all the broken glass on the bathroom floor. We called maintenance immediately and were told that someone would be up soon. Soon turned out to be over an hour because the crews were doing mop up all over the ship. Eventually a couple of fellows showed up accompanied by our faithful friend Henry and the mess was cleaned up. We still were not fully aware of just what had happened until we got dressed and went out for breakfast. None of the elevators in the main tower were running so we decided to walk down two decks to Café Promenade rather then up four decks to the Jammie. We saw the roped off areas and the crew directing the passengers around the danger spots explaining what had happened. Bummer, what a way to start a long planned vacation.

After our small quickie breakfast we headed over to Maharajas Lounge just down the Promenade for the Meet & Mingle, scheduled earlier then usual at 8:30 AM. There were over 300 people signed up and it appears that a whole lot of them were in attendance. I guess that the unscheduled 5 AM wakeup call helped out.

Erky-from-Turkey (Hereafter to be called EFT) ran the show and lived up to his advance billing. Lots of goodies were given out throughout the raffle and we got the new small document holder without the neck cord. Lucky we had several of the older corded models. We won a ticket for 2 free movie rentals and donated them to Jenn who needed them with her collection of 6 kids along on the trip. All her kids were good kids. At the end one of the passengers came up front wearing his EFT tribute teeshirt. I think he was named Billy and we did run into him later in the cruise. So I took his picture, great tee shirt

Best is yet to come.