The Big Booper

This afternoon the wonderful ice skating troupe put on the last performance of “Spirit of the Seasons” followed up an hour later by a special presentation for the top tiers. Each skater did a short routine followed up by an audience Q & A session. The questions were concentrated mainly on the background of the skaters and the issues in adapting to the small rinks aboard a ship. Long straight high-speed runs become shorter slower curving routes. It takes even these high end skaters months to fully feel comfortable zooming around these small rinks and this crew has only been on since the end of September. You couldn't tell by watching them.

More Cabin

The pool band, playing on the pool deck!

I finally got around to taking pictures of our E hump balcony cabin when it was neat. The Explorer was one of the first ships to have the Star Trek Transporter Tube shower stalls, no more getting felt up by a shower curtain.

Day 13

At Sea. Today we experimented by going to the Concierge Lounge on Deck 9 for breakfast, the first time we ever did that. We ran into our tablemates from NJ, Alfred and Samia. This was the only time we saw lox at breakfast. Denzil and his crew put out a nice light spread.

We ran across six of the Coke Freestyle machines, two in the Promenade and two in each wing of the Windjammer.

After leaving Studio B we once again ran into The Couple who looked dapper. Loved that tie.

We're taking the doorway sign on all our future cruises, may there be many more. Many thanks to GrandmaGail.

After dinner, we went over to Studio B for the Quest. We were looking forward to watching how Leigh and EFT ran it. Heh heh heh. They did a great job. At the end after the traditional parade of beauties sorta dressed up we left Studio B.

Jenn and her family.

As the day wound down we had another beautiful sunset.

This was one of the last nights of trivia with our trivia buddies

Chantal and Marc

Kevin and Christie

On the pool and sports deck.

The ship pulled away for it’s 2.5 day run to Port Canaveral and with the nice warm sunny weather people were all over the outdoor areas. So we decided to explorer the Viking Crown Lounge.

Yes, we ran into each other again.

With the short stay there was not much time to do anything that required touring; we’ve been here several times before. I finally found a 55mm PL filter for the FZ70 at Boolchands, none of the camera stores on the other islands had much in the way of that size filter. The camera has a huge zoom lens and the glass is bigger then most non-DSLR cameras but smaller then the lenses on the bigger DSLRs. The downtown area here is bright and colorful which also describes the other two ABC islands. Bonaire is the newest so it looked shinier but all in all they are three very attractive places to stop

Day 12

Aruba. This was the last stop and most of the passengers were perturbed that we got in at 7 AM and all aboard was 12:30 PM. The feeling was that Bonaire and Aruba should have been switched since there is a lot more to do in Aruba.

We were in port with the Coral Princess, doing a partial Panama Canal transit. If we ever do another Canal run it will be with this ship or it’s sister; I don’t need plumbing problems. There also was a ship named Freewinds, which is owned by the Church of Scientology and used for training sessions.

We then walked out onto the Deck four promenade and stood at the rail looking at the water and the Moon. So Peaceful. Tomorrow is Aruba, the last stop before heading home to Florida.

We didn’t do much when we got back to the ship other then trivia. We decided to pass on the show in the theater, an Elton John cover show. We did go to the Remembrance Day ceremony held in the Promenade where taps was played from the Bridge.

After dinner, we went to the Big Band Dancing event held in Maharajas. Our kind of music. And some very good dancers.

Some more pictures.

Early in the afternoon we were caught in a rainstorm that lasted around 15 minutes. When it stopped we hustled our way back to the ship in case it started again. We bumped into The Couple and they were prepared for inclement conditions. We don’t arrange these meetings, they just do lots of the things that we do. Notice his shirt and her skirt.

I can't help but wonder how many suitcases The Couple needs for their cruising?

That picture is coming. Last day.

We helped the island economy by buying some nice tee shirts and a bb cap for me. Almost my entire collection of ball caps was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy when a giant oak tree fell on our house causing well over $100,000 damage One of my goals on this trip was to replace all those hats. DW is still fuming about that.

Day 11

Bonaire. This was the first time ever that we had ported in Bonaire. We knew that it was known for snorkeling and scuba and that the water was crystal clear. Just looking out from our port balcony we could see how clear the water was and observe the beauty of the port area.

Since we don’t snorkel we decided to just get off the after breakfast and see what the place was like. The port area is bright, colorful and clean. There appears to be a push by the island to greatly expand the retail businesses here and we noted many new buildings almost finished just waiting for completion and tenants.

As touted in the tourist brochures, the water is crystal clear.

At the end I snapped another picture of the couple, two different outfits today. Then up to the cabin, to be greeted by the longest nighttime towel visitor we have ever had. I had trouble moving him from the bed to the couch but at least he doesn’t bite.

Success. I got the shoes in the picture.

We were a little bit late to the Cabaret showtime starring the RC singers. The two men were dressed as if they were going out to eat at Applebees while Sandy was dressed to kill, a sign of the times for performers. We had to leave before Robbin came out to perform. Music trivia time.

At dinner tonight our waiter made an origami giraffe. It had spots and a long yellow neck so that’s what it must have been. After dinner we hit karaoke again to support our tablemate Marc. He sang along with Ken of The Couple, EFT teeshirt guy from the M & M, and a couple of other decent singers.

We walked back across the bridge, stopped to take pictures and hiked back to the ship. It had been a long day and we both needed a rest.

I ran into a quartet of models promoting some product and their handler volunteered to take a picture of all five of us. Oh Happy Days.

Life imitates art - I was taking a picture of this street art when ...

Read this sigh fast ...

The Vision at dockside.

We stumbled across this synagogue, the oldest in our hemisphere.

There was a single cab waiting outside which we took to get back to downtown, time to check out the town. It had been years since we were here and it appeared to have been really spruced up. With perfect timing we arrived at the Queen Emma pontoon bridge as it was opening for a small ship to slip through. It’s always fascinating to watch it go thru the cycle and then close again.

At first, I misread this....

The next stop appeared to be an ordinary fish tank with fish swimming around in the water. Then we noticed some tough guys at the bottom of the tank. Yep, the stars of lobster night were putting on a boxing match.

We then started the cycle again after a 15-minute delay to catch the dolphin show in its entirety before we hit the small cafeteria with an extremely limited selection of human food. There is also a gift shop. Surprise. It had some nice stuff, many with logos.

He caught it !

The next stop was at a tank with several lemon sharks, which the guide insisted could be petted. Not on your life. The guide also let some of the guests feed the sharks. Bait was attached to a foot long metal probe, which was then waved in the water right in front of the shark.

SNAP!

Also, no thanks on this.