Rogueperson's **Live** Enchantment of the Seas 3/5/2022

[death_star]

10 hours ago, Jarmo said:

Just noticed the edit.....I remember an RA, not sure how many were in the building, but I think his name was Glenn.

I feel like I remember a Glenn but then I also remember a RA named Kris (or some spelling of Chris)

[Rogueperson]

3 hours ago, death_star said:

I feel like I remember a Glenn but then I also remember a RA named Kris (or some spelling of Chris)

Kris was who we nailed with the water

[Rogueperson]

Quick update.  I went horse back riding in Dt.  Maarten.  It was awesome.  Here is my prerequisite red dead redemption pic.  I’ll have a full update when i get back

 

[Rogueperson]

We made it back to Phillipsburg.  Usually, when my wife and I come here, we end up in Marigot at a local Restaurant.

 

We are sitting here at The Green House per recommendation of one of the tour guides.  However, when i asked the waitress what’s a good local dish, she shook her head.  Meh.  Oh well, should have been more clear.

 

Anyways, here are some images of our horseback riding adventure 

 

Good one with the wife.

 

 

 

So I missed this key piece of information, or

misread it.  Apparent we go swimming with the horses.

 

 

As you can tell, I’m wearing jeans, in expectation of horsebacking riding.  The water came up to my thigh.

 

nonetheless, this was a great excursion.

[shipgeeks]

4 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

I should mention that as this is Day 6, I finally have a day i didn’t screw up my coffee.

 

This morning, we had breakfast delivered.  Specifically, we had hot water and donuts delivered.

 

 

I hope your coffees are all trouble-free from now on!

[FionaMG]

37 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

We made it back to Phillipsburg.  Usually, when my wife and I come here, we end up in Marigot at a local Restaurant.

 

We are sitting here at The Green House per recommendation of one of the tour guides.  However, when i asked the waitress what’s a good local dish, she shook her head.  Meh.  Oh well, should have been more clear.

 

Anyways, here are some images of our horseback riding adventure 

 

Good one with the wife.

 

 

 

So I missed this key piece of information, or

misread it.  Apparent we go swimming with the horses.

 

 

As you can tell, I’m wearing jeans, in expectation of horsebacking riding.  The water came up to my thigh.

 

nonetheless, this was a great excursion.

 

It looks fantastic! 💕

[kfnesq]

On 3/3/2022 at 9:17 AM, Rogueperson said:

I'm in Aspen Hill.  I can NEVER remember how to spell Mountie Mike's name.  Is that his official name now, because i can remember that.

Fountains was HILARIOUS.  He actually posted in my live thread in 2018.

Thanks for bringing us along!   I am also in Aspen Hill - we are planning our first cruise out of Baltimore in October.  We have been on Enchantment before, although it's been a minute, but never cruised out of Baltimore.  I'm excited to not have to deal with the airport pre-cruise!

[Rogueperson]

I made it back to the ship.  Have I mentioned how much i love this port?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rogueperson]

At lunch, the closest “authentic” food they had was these conch fritters.

I had the Jerk Chicken Wrap

and the wife had the Creole Shrimp.

 

 

Despite it not being authentic, it was quite good.  I would have preferred a more

authentic dining experience, but I am not mad at what we got.  Both if these dishes are amazing.

[Rogueperson]

And of course, no visit to Phillipsburg is complete without coming here.

 

If you’re not familiar with it, its a little star was museum run by the special effects guy, Nick Maley who worked on Yoda and other films.  He was there.  I realize that the last time i visited this shop, was just before I proposed to my wife in Marigot in 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did not go into the museum portion of the store because time was running out for us.  Plus, we were running up against his closing time so we didn’t want to be THOSE guys.

 

[Rogueperson]

One thing I should add.  St. Maarten apparently rolled back their mask mandate, in the last couple of days but a lot of places still require them as you saw.  There are lots

of “no mask, no service signs” fyi.

 

[Rogueperson]

So its becoming a habit that I’m passing out around 4 or 5.

 

I wake up in time for dinner.  Tonight’s menu

Appetizers were disappointing.

 

Crispy Arancini.  My wife makes these thing amazingly.  She’s spoiled me.  There were a little bland and uninspiring.

The Salmon Rilette.  I’ve had this before and it was better.  This tasted like ground up canned Salmon.  Bleh.

Steak au Povire.  Don’t know what means, but steaks are something that is generally good here.  Add horse radish and its perfect.

 

Dessert is strawberry shortcake

and Ivory Chocolate Mouse.

 

Not bad, but i was full at this point.  Have I even been hungry at all?

 

Also, for those interested, it appears the Windjammer is now open for dinner.  Not sure if its just port days or a change.  It was not showing open for dinner at all prior to the cruise.

[BND]

6 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

At lunch, the closest “authentic” food they had was these conch fritters.

I had the Jerk Chicken Wrap

and the wife had the Creole Shrimp.

 

 

Despite it not being authentic, it was quite good.  I would have preferred a more

authentic dining experience, but I am not mad at what we got.  Both if these dishes are amazing.

Authentic what?  St. Maarten is half Dutch and half French.  

[Rogueperson]

Tonight’s headliner is Derek Floyd.  Here he is.

 

 

He is more or less a Lionel Ritchie impersonator, though he did a great Stevie Wonder impression.  I had the pleasure of seeing his show in 2018 on my solo cruise on Grandeur.  Yes, i did a live thread on that one.  I remember my impression when i saw this show on the cruise compass.  It was “meh, I’m not a big Lionel Ritchie fan”, but someone here convince me to give it a shot.  I was floored at how skilled this guy is.  Its not just the song, but he sounds just like Lionel Ritchie doing it.  My wife was the same way.  But i convinced her to go like someone convinced me and she’s happy she went.

 

At the end of the show, Bobby Broughton gave us some info that others maybe interested in.  Our next stop tomorrow, is St. Lucia.  Its One of the port that says you have to either take a cruise sponsored or government sponsored tour.  This was vague when i read it.  But according to Bobby, anything inside the port offering excursions are considered government sponsored.  We planned to take a tour with Cosol Tours who has informed me that they are government sponsored.  my email says meet at 8:20, but the ship is not docking until 9:00.  I wonder if i still have a tour.  We shall see.

[Rogueperson]

1 hour ago, BND said:

Authentic what?  St. Maarten is half Dutch and half French.  

Authentic local dishes, dutch or french.

[OnTheJourney]

On 3/9/2022 at 9:51 PM, Rogueperson said:

94 is 28 years ago!!!

Ahhh....you all are just youngsters yet. My undergrad days were the mid 70s. 

[Rogueperson]

Final post for the evening i give you tomorrow’s cruise compass.

 

 

 

 

I walked up on deck tonight.  Its REALLY windy.     One thing I noticed.  Like the Grandeur, the upper deck is too lit to see a lot of stars.  You can still see some but the light gets in the way.  I was very impressed with Brilliance and the forward area of deck 12.  The way the stack is, and the lack of lights forward in this area made it a great dark area.  But unfortunately for me, that short cruise was during the full moon and that moon was really bright.

 

Hopefully, Jewel is the same.  I bet the stars would look great near Greenland!

 

 

[DELTABLUE]

Niters!  Sleep well.

[Rogueperson]

Good Morning from Castries, St. Lucia.  Well almost. 

 

We’re not there yet.  This shot makes it look like the Mysterious Island.  Its Kind of hazy out today and already getting warm at 8am.

[BND]

10 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

Authentic local dishes, dutch or french.

We always up until this last trip in Dec went to a place over on the waterfront in Philipsburg owned by a French Woman who came over to the Dutch side everyday to operate her place.  We'd sit on the water.  We always had a baguette sandwich of some kind which is actually authentic French, just not gourmet, upscale French.  Are there any Dutch restaurants in St. Maarten?  I don't even know what they would serve.   The reality is, the population there is very diverse and food is affected by Caribbean and US influences as well as a few others.  The island's big claim to fame is guavaberry.

 

And, poivre is pepper in French, so you did have authentic French food lol.

Edited March 11, 2022 by BND

[BillOh]

On 3/9/2022 at 2:30 PM, Rogueperson said:

 

Yeah, its not isolated unfortunately.

It just got a fresh paint job last Oct (from memory) In Cadiz.  I guess that is why we see them out painting so often.  Thanks for all your posts so far, my 2nd cruise on Enchantment and first since the pandemic is 70 more days in Mid May!

[Rogueperson]

Cosol Tours took us everywhere.  We made it to the Sugar Beach Resort where i tagged the wifi.

 

I have to say St. Lucia is gorgeous.  Here are some shots.

 

 

[DELTABLUE]

Great collection of pictures today!  Loved the puffy clouds in some of the shots.

[Rogueperson]

I made it back to the ship.  The last post was a quick pic dump as i wasn’t at the resort very long.

 

Cosol Tours in St. Lucia is excellent.  It was 95 per person.  It included some local food samples, a mud bath, a trip into the volcano, and a boat and beach retreat.

 

First off, any tour that takes you outside of Castries is an adventure.  These roads ARE the main thoroughfare around the island.  

 

 

 

Note the turns.  There are signs throughout that warn you pf hairpin turns.  In reality, its NOTHING BUT hairpin turns.  The roads whip around the mountains with huge drops if you screw up.  People here drive with intent.  Passing is treacherous.

 

Its why i can get shots like this

 

 

 

The ship docks right in downtown.  This is my view from my balcony.

 

 

 

As I said before, they said this port has a restriction.  They said everyone has to have a wristband to leave the ship.  I had to leave the port to find the cosol representative so i’m not sure exactly how strict these protocols are.  They let me leave, but at the same time, there were excursion hawkers right there.  If anyone else had a different experience, let me know.  My guy was right there and led me to the small parking lot next door.

 

 

 

[Rogueperson]

So, apparently day light savings time starts tomorrow night.  St. Kitts does not use DST.  So technically, we lost an hour a week earlier and we’re not getting it back until November.