LIVE from the Statendam - 14 day Caribbean tour!

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Dateline: Edmonton, AB, Canada

Day: -1

 

My God it's early. 4am. I didn't sleep a wink, but fortunately Shelly did. Get the last minute stuff done, shut the water off, flush all the toilets... like that. 6am rolls around before we know it and our friend shows up with a minivan to cart us and our luggage to the airport. It snowed in Edmonton last night, turning to freezing rain later on as it warmed up. We all pile into the van and off we go in the slippery, treacherous dark for parts unknown.

 

This is our first cruise. We conceived the idea last year while on holiday in Florida, booked the cruise in March and now we're here, All Cruisin Eve. Picked up a lot of good tidbits from reading CC, thanks guys! It doesn't seem real after counting down over almost 200 days to finally be hitting the road.

 

We took HAL air and they booked us with Air Canada, flying through Toronto to Miami. The flights and transit through US Customs was smooth and relatively uneventful. Even the in flight video system worked flawlessly, which I think is relatively rare on Air Canada flights, at least in my experience. We landed in Miami on time, found the lady in the red coat and waited a few minutes while she gather her flock about her and eventually went outside to catch the bus. The driver showed up soonish and we let him chuck (literally) our bags under the bus and got on board. He stopped at five or six hotels, and of course ours was the last. We did a big loop around Fort Lauderdale for some reason, skipping our hotel the first time only to come back to it later. Total driving time was two hours. Right, lesson learned: never use HAL transfers from Miami again. Take a cab. Newbie mistake numero uno I guess!

 

The hotel HAL booked us into was the Renaissance Plantation, which the driver was at great pains to differentiate from the Renaissance on 17st. I’m not sure how you’d know, the word “Plantation” never appeared anywhere on the property’s signage or anywhere else we could find. When we finally got there the remaining group didn’t get up because we thought this wasn’t our hotel yet. We piled off with our luggage and checked in with no drama. We had dinner in the very overpriced restaurant on the property, and took a look at the pool and spa area on the way back to the room and decided it was worth a dip in the hot tub, despite the somewhat chilly wind blowing. The hot tub was in fact FAR too hot to stay in for more than 1-3 minutes, and the pool was freezing cold. I’ve had swims in Canadian lakes in the spring that were warmer. Not kidding. The property is somewhat isolated by a large freeway, a pond and several industrial buildings so really isn’t much within walking distance. After our dip, we retired to catch up on lost sleep.

 

 

Dateline: Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

Day 0:

 

Up early again, pack everything up, get dressed and head out. Acting on a CC tip we walked over to the local Publix in quest of anti-barf medicine, commonly known as Bonine. We get there and they have exactly… one box. Between the two of us. So we buy it and head to where we was another “Pharmacy” sign in the same mall. Tiny little place in the back of a greeting card and gift shop sells some pharmacy stuff. Sure enough, they also have exactly one box. We cleaned them out and left safe in the knowledge we were now barf-proof and on to a fantastic vacation.

We stopped in a neat little diner style place called P.I. Bagels and got some ham an eggers to go since we had to check out by 11 and hadn’t eaten anything yet. Looked like a neat place, would have loved to have sat down for a more leisurely repast there, but we had another bus to catch.

 

We’d left the luggage out the night before with HAL tags on each and sure enough the Luggage Fairies had whisked them away during the night. Hopefully to the ship. I read that story about the couple who spent the whole cruise in one set of clothes. Not really wanting to write that kind of log, y’know? Anyway, we picked up our remaining carry ons and headed down to the ballroom where the other HAL cruisers were gathering. Looked like a good crowd of people, half headed for the Eurodam on a 7 day, the other half the Statendam on our 14 day. We chatted with a few people and finally they called our bus number and we all piled out.

Ride to the port was amusing the driver had a good sense of humour. “See that ship on the left over there?” Excited mutters of yes, sure. “Thas not yours.” Chuckles. Finally we did sight the Statendam, with the Eurodam parked not far away, just across a little cut in the harbour. Security and embarkation was smooth as butter. We did all the online stuff before we left and the vortex of passengers piling into the ship pretty much just pulled us along in their wake – we didn’t even have to walk up the boarding tunnel, just kind bounced around and tried to make sure we didn’t hurt anything we’d need later on.

 

Since we boarded relatively late compared to what I’ve read other people post, our staterooms were ready immediately. We found ours, opened the door with the ship pass and excitedly spent a few minutes checking out our digs for the next two weeks. After exploring and photographing many areas around the ship where people would soon be, we headed upstairs for the Lido and grabbed a somewhat late lunch. The food all looked great.

 

 

 

NEWSFLASH: This just in: there were TRAYS in the Lido. Yes folks, actual trays were sighted in the Lido eatery! In fact they were being handed out by an entertaining young man who cheerily told us he was previously from Indonesia, but now was from Scotland. He seemed to enjoy “R-r-r-r-r-r-rolling” his Rs in a comical parody of what I guess he thought a Scot sounded like.

 

 

 

Afterwards about 4:15 we attended the mandatory lifeboat drill. I can see why experienced cruisers begin to detest them. Let’s assemble a bunch of sweating people and make them stand as close together as possible while the overhead speaker tries to deafen them with horrible noises. Lovely! The sacrifices we make in the name of not repeating the Titanic’s mistakes… sheesh.

 

The rest of the evening we spent wandering the ship, had a beer at sailaway and went out to the bow via the Super Secret Access Hatch to leave the port. The people in the apartment buildings adjacent to the port exit were entertaining. Many waved, one guy flashed his balcony light, another had some kind of spotlight he aimed directly at the ship, and in yet another apartment there looked like a party was going on…

Finally we went to see if we could locate Jim and Ruth… just as we get to their door, out of the Neptune lounge marches Jim! He gifted us with a lovely Christmas wreath we later hung from our cabin door and went for a drink in the Ocean Bar with Jim and the lovely Ruth.

 

Afterwards we decided to try out the hot tubs in the Lido area and compare them to the hotel spa. No contest. Statendam’s tubs were a much more comfortable temperature and we stayed there for several minutes, followed by a quick swim and retired to our room for some room service and a bit of Impossible Mission 3.

 

As I sit here in the Explorations Café, Shelly is stretched out on the couch reading her book and my battery is threatening to roll over and play dead. That reminds me – a lady’s golden retriever guide dog is on board with us, and it can definitely tell a dog lover when it sees one. It pulled it’s owner right over to Shelly so it could lick her face. Tooooooo funny! The owner was very apologetic, but we don’t mind. We miss our dog who is currently enjoying a vacation of his own at Doggie Daycare.

 

Anyway, I can feel the ship gently chugging up and down with motion, reminding me of our destination: Half Moon Cay. Hopefully the weather there permits us to visit. Tomorrow is parasailing and horseback riding, followed by some sorkelling. Hate to miss those. More tomorrow. The internet connection here is worse than useless. Dialup was much faster.

Shelly’s eyes have just drooped closed, I think it’s time for us to head off to bed.

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Dateline: Half Moon Cay

Day 1

 

Set a wake up call for ourselves at 6am. We’d filled out the breakfast form the night before, and our repast duly arrived in the requested time slot. The form only allowed you to specificy an item type and quantity, not which order it went with. What arrived then was three full breakfasts for two. I think if HAL truly wants to eliminate food waste, they could do a bit of work on the breakfast food order card, or provide more than one card per room. At least the food that did arrive was of good quality and tasty.

 

We’d originally booked parasailing for 10am and horseback riding for 1pm. I was a bit worried about what time we’d be able to make it to shore via tender (which turned out to be unfounded), so I’d previously called Shore Services and had them bump the time up to 11am. The day of our arrival there was a shocking pink envelope in the mail slot of the door that said “OPEN IMMEDIATELY”. Turns out the horseback riding had been moved back to 11:40am, which clearly meant we had a problem with operlapping shorex. The office was closed, so we dropped a note in the mail slot stating we wanted the parasailing pushed back to 10am and a couple of hours later they called our stateroom to confirm the change. Whew! Disaster averted.

 

At about 8am the overhead announcements came on outling how one was to get to Fantasy Island via tender. We trooped down to the Wajang Lounge at the appointed time and were given a ticket. A few minutes wait while the organizer fiddled with her unfortunately dead radio, and we all headed out for the boat. The new tender service boats look like a dream compared to the pictures I’ve seen of the old system. Almost everyone that was going ashore was there by about 9am.

 

The Eurodam put in an appearance. She anchored off shore just behind and to the left of the Statendam, but we noticed the tenders weren’t running out to her. After a while a few ships did venture that way, but hordes of passengers did not flood the island so we can only surmise that she was only making a mail/resupply stop for the island, perhaps also to pick up or drop off staff. It was beginning to look like we had the island all to ourselves. The beach was very sparsely populated.

 

We sat out on loungers until the time for our parasailing appointment, then headed over to the boat docks. We were directed to the boat where most of the people were already waiting and got settled in, donning our harnessses. We headed out the entrance of the harbour and went to an open area on the left. The handler pulled out a parachute, attached the cords to the metal frame of the boat and let it WHOOSH into inflation behind us. He spun around and to my surprise pointed directly at me, “You sah, come up here.” Gulp. I was hoping someone else could have gone first so I could get some pointers, but it was not to be. Displaying what I hoped looked like manly skill and sea legs, I clambered up on the rear deck area and the attendant hooked me up to the parachute. “Only ting I need you to do mon when you come back is stand up. K mon?” “Right on.” was all I could mutter. FOOSH. Before I knew it the cable was paying out and I was rising higher and higher. It’s very peaceful up there. I could only barely hear the boat. I looked around but the ocean was literally empty except for the ships, the island and a few various watercraft buzzing around. I examined the island in as much detail as I could while hanging from a parachute 50 feet in the air. Before I knew it I was being pulled back in and made a decent landing on the back deck, and even managed to help the attendant right the parachute after the wind threatened to pull it over sideways. The others took their turns, we shot photos for one of the tandem groups and soon we were returned to the dock.

 

We wandered back to the beach area for some more sun lounging before our next excursion, horseback riding. I think I nodded off for a bit, listening to the waves and the white noise. Eventually the time came and we headed off for the reception area where we were to muster. We met up with a few other Canadian cruisers we’d flown out with and boarded the truck out to the horse area. A ride of a few minutes and we arrived at the locker and changing area. We shed our backpacks and other loose items and donned some alien looking-helmets and lined up for our horse assignments.

 

I’m a big guy, so they assigned me what looked like a smallish clydesdale. Shelly got a nice looking more normal sized horse. We had a really good long ride down the beach, up into the hills around the horse pens and through the lush tropical island brush and trees. We returned to the changing area, removed anything we didn’t want to get wet and went down to the beach. This time we rode the horses with only a nylon pad instead of a saddle. I got the horse that Shelly had been riding previously. We charged through the surf with them and it was fantastic. It became a game of dodging the floating horse puckies in the water, since I was bringing up the rear. I think I tired my horse out pretty quick in the surf since she was smaller than my first horse. I let her take her head and her time catching up to the others. All too soon it was over and we boarded the truck back to the entrance area. The Jamaican guys manning the horseback riding area were hilarious and really helped everyone have a good time.

 

We arrived just in time to catch the tail end of the BBQ and get something to eat. It was supposed to be 11-1pm and we got there with 10 minutes to spare. They were already packing most things up to take back to the ship. We sat down to some dogs and burgers with salad. A bit more time was spent on the breach doing some sunning and it was time to return to the ship by tender. We were both so sun baked and exhausted that we had quick showers to clean off and had about a 3 hour nap. It’s a formal night tonight but we were so exhausted even after the nap we didn’t feel like donning the monkey suits so we had dinner in the Lido.

 

Dinner wasn’t the buffet style that we were expecting, there were 6 main entrees to choose from and it was what I called “semi-served”. We were seated by an attendant, and our orders were brought to us but nobody ever asked us if we wanted drinks. Most people were drinking water when I looked around. I eventually went to the coffee station and found that they had glassses of iced tea available, so I snagged one of those. The servers looked a bit sheepish as I walked by, so I think they were probably supposed to ask and forgot. Shelly had the beef wellington and I had the chicken kiev. Hers was good, mine was very dry.

 

We went to the pool area where I asked for a mojito at the bar but they were apparently out of mint leaves until tomorrow. Rum and coke it is! We sat by the pool for a while and relaxed, and eventually headed up to where we sit now, the Explorations Café. It’s become our regular evening haunt where I write these logs and Shelly either reads her book or naps, or both (or gets kissed by strange dogs, hee hee).

 

Tomorrow is a sea day. I think we shall explore the deeper depths of the ship that we have not yet seen.

[RuthC]

So, you have whisked me off from gloomy New England to a lovely day at HMC! It's been wonderful.

I can't wait to take the rest of the cruise along with you. :)

Thanks for posting.

[DizzyDallasDi]

What a wonderful log of your first cruise! I am thoroughly enjoying reading it and can feel your excitement and exhaustion....or is it complete relaxation? :D Please continue to post as your adventure continues.

 

You are so fortunate to get to take a 14-dayer as your first cruise! I predct that by the end you'll be so accustomed to living the good life you'll be booking another in no time. Here's wishing you calm seas and beautiful sunny days for your inaugural cruise. I'm very much looking forward to the next installment.

 

Diane

[brucory]

Your live updates are wonderful... Can almost taste that beef wellington... Looking forward to hearing more...

 

:D:D:D

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Dateline: At Sea

 

Day: 2

 

Slept in a bit today, and since the clocks were rolled ahead an hour last night at 2am, it was about 10am (really 9am by our internal clocks) before we rolled out of bed. The PA announced that there would be a shorex presentation in the Van Gogh Theatre at 11am so we hustled to get ready and headed down. Mostly it was talk about how great the diamond prices were in the Caribbean and how we should buy buy buy because we'd be crazy not to. And did you know that Tanzanite has appreciated in value 20% every year? When the last mine is gone, and experts predict that will be in 12-14 years, the prices will skyrocket! Blah, we're not ones to drink the koolaid, so we left after a few minutes of that kind blather. There may have been useful port information in there later on but we couldn't stomach the blatant sales patter long enough to find out.

 

We went up to the Lido for lunch but were a bit early, so we sat down by the pool to wait the 20 minutes or so. The wind was blowing something fierce around the deck even though the roof was only open about 1/3 of the way. A lady was walking alongside the pool behind me when a major gust came through. It blew all of the potato chips clean off of her plate and I was enveloped in a snack storm as they all crashed to the deck and shattered into bits. All we could do was laugh about it! A few minutes later a steward with a trolley full of towels was traversing the same treacherous line through the Lido when the wind caught the folds just so and launched them into the air. He was so startled he crashed the trolley into a nearby post as he both tried to control the cart and catch the escaping towels at the same time. Lunch in the Lido was Italian today, I had the spaghetti and Shelly had the penne (both were excellent), followed by ice cream cones for dessert.

 

After lunch we adjourned to the cabin and took our ease. I sat out on the balcony and listened to the waves crash against the hull for a while until I suspect I drifted off. Shelly read her book inside on the couch. We roused ourselves about 1pm for the Cruise Critic meet and greet in the Crow's Nest. We had a huge turnout of people and everyone seemed to enjoy meeting everyone else. The Captain came by and the Manager of Hotel Services (I think that was his title, I was occupied when they introduced themselves). They stayed for a good long chat and answered a lot of interesting and funny questions we put to them. Both had a great sense of humour. "How many passengers does the ship hold?" "How many people can you put in the morgue?" Now that we've put names to handles we periodically run into "people we know" on the ship. Shelly and a new friend from the M&G went to the scrapbooking class, but it was a total waste of time. They basically sold you some supplies and told you to "go nuts". They walked out pretty disappointed. Sounds like HAL needs a rethink on that one.

 

Afterwards Shelly went to check out the aft pool and catch some rays, I napped again for a bit before changing and joining her. When I arrived the sun was beginning to set so we both jumped into the pool and discovered it was salt water (I think I read that somewhere on CC), and it was COOOOOLD. Nobody but a Crazy Canuck was going to get in there... so we both jumped in. Shelly lasted a few minutes before fleeing, but I did a few laps while the ship rocked back and forth and water sloshed in and out of the pool. Now that was an interesting experience! We dried off and read for a while but with the sun going down it was getting cool on the aft deck, so we went to the hot tubs on the Lido which we had thoroughly enjoyed the night before.

 

We got there and laid our stuff out beside a couple of CCers we'd met earlier and headed for the tubs. Folks, when they say "CAUTION Slippery" pay attention. One foot shot out from under me and only my ninja like reflexes stabbing a hand out to grab a railing saved me from crashing to the deck like a felled mountain. I ended up bruising a couple of toes on my foot but held my composure together while I climbed into the warm water where I could stretch them out a bit. They've since swollen up a bit but aren't really painful. Tomorrow is St. Thomas, a shopping stop. It should be interesting to see how long I can manage to hobble around like a lame duck before crying mercy. Anyway, we soaked in the tub for a while then climbed out to order dinner at the little burger joint tucked into the corner of the Lido. We both had cheeseburgers and a melange of stuff from the cart, most of which I think was intended for fajitas but went well with a burger nonetheless!

 

We returned to the room and changed out of our wet things and decided to try and see some more of the ship. We toured the lower decks, peeked into a couple of inside cabins (so glad we splurged for a verandah!) while the stewards had the door open and then went out onto the lower promenade deck to walk around the outside of the ship. Despite the "NO JOGGING" signs there were a couple of healthy looking people making laps while the ship plowed on through the dark. I guess they waited until most people had retired before going out for their runner's fix. Had to watch it on the corners though that one of them didn't come barreling into you.

 

We tripped up to the Ocean Bar for a drink where we met Lester the resident mixologist. When I asked if he could make a mojito, Lester declared that he "made the best mojito on the ship!" I assured him that I would put that to the test over the coming days and he seemed confident that his boast would hold up. True to his word, it was a very good mojito. We spotted some CCers and sat for a brief chat. We departed for a movie, they left for their assigned dinner time. I took my mojito with me as we waved goodbye to Lester and departed.

 

We decided that for lack of anything else appealing to do we'd go to the Wajang Theatre and watch the movie "The Dark Knight". We've already seen it but it was an excellent flick so neither of us minded taking in the encore. Popcorn was provided in little bags at the door. Interestingly enough a couple of people came into the theatre in the last 10 minutes of the movie, then exited with everyone else when the lights came up. Ooook? As we left we ran into another CCers husband and stopped to chat for a bit. We were standing where they were displaying some of the art to be auctioned and I found it amusing to watch the pictures sway back and forth on the wall as the ship rocked, like some kind of mechanized Disney trick at the 1001 House of Horrors.

 

So here we sit once again in the Explorations Cafe, me with my mocha, Shelly with her hot chocolate. She's already yawning. There's some kind of weird grinding noise coming from the outside of the ship and one deck below us. We're slowly getting used to all the odd noises and such that I'm sure most experienced cruisers just ignore or take in stride. Tomorrow is St. Thomas. We haven't arranged any shorex for this stop, so I guess we'll just play it by ear. We're not big shoppers so I suspect we'll just wander around town, have lunch and come back. Maybe check out the trolley that takes you up to the top of the hill for views around the island. Who knows. We have to report to the Crow's Nest for customs paperwork early tomorrow morning, so we'd best head off to bed.

[jrzebird]

A wonderful live report! I'm enjoying every word. Thanks so much for taking the time to bring us all along on your adventure!

[mudscraper]

This is nice.

 

 

Rich

[pormond]

Really enjoying the daily journals. I almost feel like I'm there.

 

Thanks - Patricia

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for checking in -- loving your report.

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Dateline: Charlotte Amalie, USVI

 

Day: 3

 

We received a notice last night that since this stop was a US port we would have to clear customs in the morning. Our appointed time was 8:15. We ordered room service again and this time the only thing screwed up was that they forgot the milk. He scooted back down and returned with it in a few minutes.

 

We ate, dressed for the day and climbed up to the Crow's Nest to check in with Uncle Sam. We were surprised to see a massive lineup of people that was flowing out the door and both down the stairs and going the other way past the elevators. We started to get the feeling that we weren't going to be turned loose on the town in any short amount of time. We inched along and the people around us were getting really annoyed. Being new, we had no frame of reference for how long this normally took. Time ticked by and before we knew it 45 minutes had passed. Several people noted that "in [some large # of previous cruises] they had never seen the customs lineup take this long!!" One lady who was walking with a cane and according to her husband suffered from MS, gave the HAL organizer a blast of what for. Thing is, the organizer explained that they had asked for 3 customs agents, received only 2 and one of them was sitting there shuffling around some kind of paperwork for more than an hour rather than clearing guests! We got within 6 people of the end of the line when the paper shuffler decided he was going to do his job after all and called for Canadians to form a separate line. We only needed to show him our passports and we received a yellow disembarking ticket. What a giant waste of time.

 

With that debacle behind us, we found the exit portal on deck 3 and hit the pier. We had of course docked at Crown Bay. I think I read something about HAL signing a contract to dock there on CC somewhere? Anyway there were tons of taxis waiting so we hopped on board one and for $4 a head they did us the favour of driving us the 2 miles to town. What a bargain! As we disembarked a bunch of barkers descended on us hawking tours. One older gentlemen asked if we were interested in a tour, and my first instinct was to blow him off like the others but he whipped out a map and proposed to show us where we would go, so we stopped to listen. His name was Riel and he seemed to be a bit more knowledgeable and genuine that the other brash and pushy young men. He explained what we'd see, how much and when and where to meet him if we decided to tour. He even wrote this info on a post-it note for us. We thanked him and left to go shopping.

 

If we were rich diamond merchants or alcholics, we would have been in heaven. I've never seen so many jewelry and liquor shops packed into such close proximity. We walked around for a while and struggled to find anything we were interested in enough to stop and browse. The Belgian Chocolate Factory was interesting, Shelly bought a small bag of chocolate truffles and we watched the lady making fresh chocolates through the window for a while.

 

We stopped to have lunch at what I think was called the Green Parrot. The Green something anyway, it's right along the waterfront. We both had gyros and Red Stripes. I liked my beer but Shelly isn't much of a beer drinker. The gyros were good but tasted more Caribbean than Greek, which considering where we were was fine by us. I've never had a gyro with the distinct taste of cinnamon. The waiter asked us if we wanted a big bottle of water, which we assumed would have been complimentary considering we'd already ordered beers but we found out later they charged us $5 for. Bit of a scam.

 

Since the town really held nothing of interest for us we decided to look up my main man Riel and do the tour with him. He showed up at the appointed time and place and led us over to the taxi stand where his tour bus was waiting. It was the standard open type with 5-6 benches that held 5 people. The tour taxis were all painted up in many different styles, some with complete themes like Spiderman and Lone Ranger. Already waiting aboard the taxi were several people, one couple from Austin TX that had come in on our ship and another mother/daughter pair that had come in on an NCL ship.

 

Speaking of ships, it was a busy port day. The Maasdam had docked just ahead of us and took the opposite berth on the Crown Bay pier, as well as three Carnival ships at the other dock and the aforementioned NCL tub (they had to sit at anchor in the center of the harbour while the Carnival family all occupied the piers, har har). I took megs of pictures of the Statendam and Maasdam berthed next to each other, as well as video of the Maasdam casting off and heading out to sea. When we get back to civilization I'll post the pictures to the thread.

 

The appointed time of noon came, Riel boarded the vehicle and we began the tour by backing out into St. Thomas traffic. They sure like to use the horn there don't they? I don't think there was a single vehicle on the road without at least one crushed or dented corner. We headed out of town at a good clip and began to climb the winding roads. The vehicles are all left hand drive, but they also drive on the left as in Great Britain and many of its former colonies. When we asked about it, we were told that when the US bought the Virgin Islands part of the deal was to keep certain cultural items intact, part of which were the rules of the road. First stop was a store on the top of a hill with a brilliant overlook of the island that sold cheap souvenirs and touristy junk. Riel took us all out onto the overlook and pointed to each area we could see in turn, named them, put some history behind them. A few people went to try the "free daquiri samples". If you bought a full sized one, they handed you the rum bottle and told you to pour your own rum. Interesting?

 

We then trooped on to a succession of various overlook points in the hills, at which Riel repeated his history lessons. He was turning out to be a wealth of knowledge. The photo ops were fantastic. I took a series of panoramic shots that I will later Photoshop together into some wide angle views. We stopped at one area where there were no other tour taxis that Riel explained was a plantation whose owner was too ill to look after it. There were banana trees, sugar cane, passion fruit, cashew trees... all gone wild and overgrown. The property was in limbo until either the farmer's son stepped up to take it over or it was sold to another family. From there we could also see the massive desalinization plant that produces about 1.5 million gallons of the drinking water per day that supplies St. Thomas. I had noticed earlier that water trucking was a bit of a cottage industry on the island.

 

Finally, Riel dropped us off right at Crown Bay. I paid his fee with a generous tip and bid him good luck. We went into the shops area at the end of the pier, ran into some fellow CCers and sat on the park bench to chat. We saw some iguanas on the rocks nearby that people had been feeding lettuce and bananas. I got some great photos and video of them. One fellow looked like he'd lost half his tail in an epic battle. It had sprinkled rain a few times on and off during the day, and each time we'd taken refuge somewhere, a shop, a bandstand. While we chatted it repeated this half hearted performance a few more times, but finally it started to rain in earnest and we all bolted for the safety of the ship.

After changing out of our wet clothes, we had a nap then headed off for cocktails with the Captain and crew in the Crow's nest. Most of the other CCers were there and we chatted for a good hour. A few members of staff came over to sit and talk for a while. They definitely read the CC boards, if there was any lingering doubts after the recent thread about the subject. Our CC friends were going to the Van Gogh Theatre to catch a comedy show, so we decided to join them. On stage was Ken and Casey the Duck, a ventriliquist act. They were quite funny, although I thought some of the jokes were a bit stale. He finished the show with an opera singing finale that was VERY impressive.

 

We retired to the room and ordered club sandwiches, sans bacon. Apparently the ship is low on bacon, quelle horreur that portends for the morning! I bought a 6 Corona special for $22, drank one with the club and jammed the other 5 into the fridge for later enjoyment.

 

Tomorrow is Antigua, and the Xtreme Circumnav with Eli's crew. Odd that HAL doesn't offer a single shore excursion for Antigua that I could find. Perhaps they added some late ones after we did our booking online. The toes I injured during "The Hottub Incident" have turned totally purple and swollen up a bit by the way. They didn't impede me much today despite all the walking we did, and I doubt they will tomorrow. We're on vacation damnit!

[Cruiser809e8r09]

I forgot to mention in my earlier entry at Half Moon Cay that the Eurodam stopped by for a medical evac. We were on the beach when they pulled in and anchored but we noticed no tenders ran out to the ship. Eventually we saw a single tender go out and come back. We were sitting on the beach when a US Coast Guard helicopter flew directly overhead, landed behind us and idled for a while before taking off again in the direction of Florida. The Captain said they were meeting a Leer jet to take the patient on somewhere else to receive care.

 

We also had a medical evac on the Statendam - within hours of boarding! We were delayed a few minutes departing because a woman had fallen and broken her ankle shortly after boarding - how sad!

[jazzsea]

Could you ask the dining room manager a question for me? Can the following tables be set up for eight rather than six?

 

37, 38, 68, 69, 128, 129, 150, 151, 156, 157

 

I have a dining room chart from Maasdam but it differs a great deal from the one I got from HAL (Seattle) for Statendam. I have 606 passengers on Statendam for January 3, 2009 and am having a heck of a time getting all of our people in the early upper and lower dining rooms.

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

Carol Neumann

JazzSea Cruises

[Susie51]

Thank you for your detailed review.

[DizzyDallasDi]

I forgot to mention in my earlier entry at Half Moon Cay that the Eurodam stopped by for a medical evac. We were on the beach when they pulled in and anchored but we noticed no tenders ran out to the ship. Eventually we saw a single tender go out and come back. We were sitting on the beach when a US Coast Guard helicopter flew directly overhead, landed behind us and idled for a while before taking off again in the direction of Florida. The Captain said they were meeting a Leer jet to take the patient on somewhere else to receive care.

 

We also had a medical evac on the Statendam - within hours of boarding! We were delayed a few minutes departing because a woman had fallen and broken her ankle shortly after boarding - how sad!

 

The Captain's Log on the Eurodam blog gave a good report of this medical evac from HMC. They had to divert their heading toward Grand Turk to take care of the patient, but made it to their intended destination on time the next day. Captain Mercer gives an excellent account of the events as well as great kudos to the USCG for their assistance.

 

http://www.eurodamnews.com/

 

You have such a wonderful writing style! If you're not a journalist, you certainly qualify. I am really enjoying your posts...please keep the updates coming!

 

Diane

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Dateline: St. John's, Antigua

 

Day: 4

 

Wake up call yanks us out of slumberland at 6:30am. We shower, dress and head down to the Lido for breakfast and take our repast inside by the windows. Eventually we meet up with the fellow CCers who are on the tour de jour with us: Adventure Antigua's Xtreme Circumnav.

 

We all troop down to deck 3 forward, grab some towels on the way out. We should have taken 2 each but more on that later. No long customs lines today, so we head directly down the boardwalk and after a minute of consulting the printout we head right along the wooden boardwalk. We note a group of what are obviously fellow cruisers seeming to stand around idly, so we wonder if this is the meeting place. A security guard assures us "reeelllaaaxx mon, you in the Caribbean now. Boat come feh you here in a bit." I'm skeptical this is the right place until I'm reminded that the email says to meet at "Exotic Antigua booth" and written on the roof above us in 2 foot high letters is.... "EXOTIC ANTIGUA". OK... perhaps I should have had another coffee before we left the Lido.

 

A few minutes pass, and sure enough a powerboat trolls down the alley between two of the cruise ships. There were several in port this day besides ours: a Carnival ship, something looking like a low budget somewhat elderly ship from France and an "AVIDA" ship with splashy colourful graphics down the sides. As the power boat turns 90 degrees to come alongside the dock, confirmation that it's our boat is written on the hull "Adventure Antigua's Xtreme". We all doff our footwear and step into the boat. We're skeptical at first that everyone will fit since there are about 18-20 of us waiting on the dock, but in no time all the seats are filled out and everyone is comfortable.

 

On board are three staff members: the Captain is JD, with mates Chris and Trevor. After introducing themselves, we power up and head out between the massive ships. We clear the harbour and JD explains that we will be stopping at a resort along the way to pick up a few additional passengers, which turns out to be Sandals. We idle in to the beach, they wade aboard and we're off.

 

We power up to about 40mph and as we zip along, Chris calls out landmarks and famous place names for the rear of the boat while Trevor does the same for the crowd in the front. Hotels that you can only be invited to stay at by a (rich) Antiguan resident, subsequently requiring board approval. Houses worth several million perched on the hillside with views you only see snaps of in rags like "Homes of the Rich and Famous". A very expensive hotel that had been completely destroyed in a hurricane around 1990 and was only now being rebuilt. A room with a view to die for? $2000 a night please.

 

The swells are noticably bigger all of a sudden and start turning into about eight feet of chop. JD begins modulating the throttle on and off to charge up one side of a large wave, cut through the crest and come crashing down on the other side. It's like a fantastic carnival ride, but right about then I'm glad I took a double dose of Bonine that morning in anticipation of exactly this scenario. Some of the ladies up front are shrieking with every big segment of hang time. JD keeps the nose into the chop until we round the point and then begins to run with the swells until we get into a more sheltered area where he can open the taps up full and really cruise.

We head towards what at first appears to be a pier that isn't attached to land. Chris explains that the next stop is an area called Stingray City. It's a basically a floating dock anchored on a shallow sandbar with some fencing on one side. Chris explains that fishermen used to come here and anchor in the clear, shallow waters to gut and clean their fish. They would toss the chum and roe into the water where the stingrays resting on the sandbar would have a feast. Pretty soon they became habituated to the free and plentiful vittles. Around this time the government banned spearfishing, putting several area fishermen out of work. They decided to band together and form Stringray City as a tourist attraction. One final wrinkle: the nearby village began to hunt the plentiful stringrays because they enjoy eating them. They put fences up around the sandbar, but only on one side so that that rays are free to come and go as they please but are protected from the village hunters on the landward side.

Xtreme docks and we all pile out. There is some muttering about Steve Irwin and being too jittery to go near the rays, but most people are game for it. There are two park rangers on hand and one comes over for a verbal rundown about how to interact with the rays safely. We learn about the "stingray shuffle" (moving your feet in the sand to avoid stepping on rays), how to hold a ray without causing them distress and some ray anatomy. We all grab snorkel equipment and head off the dock into the fenced area. There are a few shrieks as the rays begin their curious probing of our legs, but everyone gets used to them and soon we're all petting their slick exteriors and observing their gracious flight underwater. The park attendants were standing off to one side where they would let you hold a ray and have your picture taken for later purchase via internet email if you so desired. I swam around, shot tons of stills with my underwater camera and a few minutes of video.

 

All too soon we're piling back into the boat and heading out once again. We pull into a secluded bay area where we're told we can take off for a swim on the beach for about 30 minutes while they set up the lunch tables and lay out the food. "Meet back at the palm tree." We all trek through the shallows and around some trees until we find a dry path over a hill that cuts through the tropical verdure and emerges onto a white sand beach with beautiful blue-green waters. A few people head for a swim, a few lay out beach towels, I head down the beach and around a big rock. What I find on the other side is somewhat surprising, but shouldn't be. The beach area I came from is clean and nice looking, but this area is covered with scattered garbage. Flotsam and jetsam. Fishing nets, bottles of shampoo, a boot, empty bottle of outboard motor oil, a bucket, magic marker, pen top, thousands of random bits of unidentifiable plastic. All stuff that has washed up on the shore from the ocean. I know from reading his blog that Eli and his crew make regular trips out to clean up the beaches of Antigua, I can see why. It tugs at the heart to see such a beautiful place soiled by the detrius of uncaring civilization. I return from behind the rock, swim in the ocean for a bit with Shelly then head back for lunch.

 

Lunch is Caribbean style chicken, pasta, green salad, fried plantains and banana bread for dessert. All decicious. Apparently Eli's neighbour has long been their caterer and got up that morning at 4am to make the food. We take seats on various roots, pieces of driftwood and volcanic rocks and chow down while staring out at the gorgeous ocean. Eventually we clean up, toss the garbage in a sack and the crew packs everything back on to the ship. We all climb aboard and set off again.

 

Roaring on we pass Eric Clapton's house built on the tip of a rocky point he apparently owns. We pass some beautiful cliff faces that have been battered into interesting caves and shapes by the ocean surf. Eventually we make it to English Harbour where we idle around for a while and get a history lesson. We head back out and over to one side of the harbour entrance where we toss the anchor out and don snorkel gear. The water is about 25 feet deep here, so we are given fins and jump over the side of the boat. The water is almost perfectly clear and there are many interesting fish scudding about. Above us is a rocky cliff face with interesting vertical columns shaped by the time and tides. Eventually we head back to the boat, climb aboard via the treacherous ladder and assume our places for the next leg.

 

Next we stop at a secluded beach that can only be reached by boat. It's a half moon arc of pure white sand and blue waters. We jump out of the boat into shallow water and wade ashore to sample some of AA's homemade rum punch. It's pretty potent stuff, so we sip it as we wander around to a rocky point an take some photos of each other while the surf crashes on the rocks creating large white sprays. Finally we notice that a large black thunderhead is bearing down on us so we all scramble aboard. JD starts processing someone's Visa payment for the tour until the cloud is pointed out to him at which point he prudently abandons that idea and fires the engines.

 

As quick as we are, we can't outrun the weather. The storm overtakes us and we are enveloped entirely by the rain cloud. The shore is only barely visible through the downpour as we race along. We are soaked to the bone in seconds. Eventually the rain turns to small bits of hail which threatens to sandblast our faces off, so we cover up with towels until it passes. After about 30 mins of motoring through the rain, we finally reach the dockside where we settle up with JD and gather our things. We skulk back to the ship and deposit our now soaked towels in the bin, glad to be rid of the things since they now weigh about 40lbs. A hot shower, a nap and we're off to dinner in the Lido. It's a formal night tonight, but like last time we're too exhausted to get all dolled up so we keep it simple. We borrowed a DVD from the library and watched it in our cabin. Light's out.

 

Tomorrow is St.Lucia, and the ever popular Cosol's tour.

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Dateline: Castries, St. Lucia

 

Day: 5

 

Wake up call for 6am today. Shower and dress, head down to the front desk to cash in some travellers cheques. They only have mostly $5 bills. Wonderful. Head back to the room with my wallet bloated like a boat anchor. We head down to the Lido for breakfast and sit with some fellow CCers by the pool. Shelly and I are pretty badly sunburned from yesterday, forgot to put lotion on. I look like a cooked lobster. Thankfully today is mostly a driving tour so we put on a double layer of sunblock and I wear a hat plus long sleeves.

 

I booked a tour with Cosol, the ever popular tour guide in St. Lucia, a total of 14 people from our roll call thread signed up. We head out onto the pier and through a small shopping area until we reach the information desk and see a gentlemen holding a "COSOL" sign. We join a group already waiting and when we count heads successfully, we're off. We divide into two vans and head out of town for the mountains. The vans are comfortable and air conditioned, but narrow which suits the roads of St. Lucia well. Our driver is Yellowbird, Cosol's brother.

 

We wind up the hills and switchbacks until we reach a village where Yellowbird puts in an order for fresh bread to be picked up on our way back. We stop periodically for photo opportunities, but we have to keep it short because HAL shortened our excursion time for the second day in a row. No explanation offered - that's getting really irritating. We all surmise that it is to save fuel since the ship can go slower to the next destination, but that's shortchanging the customer to save money.

As we drive, Yellowbird keeps up a constant patter about this sight or that village. Questions are asked and answered. We stop at a banana plantation, which aside from tourism is the major industry in St. Lucia. Each banana tree grows from a shoot off the main tree to maturity in about 6-8 months then bears fruit only once, after which it is cut down and shredded into a mulch that is used as fertilizer for the next batch. Yellowbird buys a bunch of fresh bananas for us to sample. Delicious! We toss the peels into the field and move on.

 

We drive through a tropical rainforest and emerge at a small fishing village. We drive through the center of town and climb out the other side where we stop at a private house. The owner has laid out a feast of native St.Lucia food and we all tuck in with vigor. Piton beer, punch, water and soda isprovided. A brief rainshower rolls through and we all piled back into the van.

 

More sights, more names, more places from movie scenes. We stop at a beach for about half an hour a the base of one of the Pitons. There isn't time to go to Jalousie beach between the Pitons because HAL has shortened the day too much. It's our final stop and we head back toward the ship. We're all pretty tired and on the verge of nodding off despite the harrowing ride back along mountain roads.

 

We arrive back at the ship in better trim than we did yesterday. We head up to the room for a nap, then decide to try out the Rotterdam dining room for the first time. A somewhat dark but elegant place, we ask for a table for two and are seated immediately. We both order the Italian wedding soup, for the entree Shelly orders the chicken while I have the spaghetti. Both are good. For dessert, chocolate fudge cake for her, apple tart and ice cream for me.

 

We head up to the Lido for coffee. There was a hawaiian-themed BBQ and they are just cleaning up. They're playing disco and light music favorites. At one point, the chef (in full hat and apron getup) who does the eggs in the morning gets up and dances to ABBA with a pax. He's hilarious, a few people take pictures and video.

 

On the way back to the room we borrow the movie "Leatherheads" from the library near the Cafe, get a roll of quarters from the front desk and plan to take care of mundane things like laundry. We're about to head out for the midnight snack, which tonight is themed Cuban.

 

Tomorrow is Barbados and most likely a land tour.

[interneciak]

Live - Friday- Barbados

Free wireless at ports mall

All well

c u soon

[magictam]

Thank you dscruisin for the wonderful live thread. I look forward to checking in for new posts every day, even a couple of times a day.

 

We're schedule for the October 30th Panama Canal cruise on the Statendam. I'm a little worried through since ready numourse posts about the condidtion of the ship. Would you please share your thoughts?

 

Thank you

Tammie

[chloecruiser]

Dscruisin:

 

What a great narrative you have been providing. Thanks so much. We will be sailing on the Statendam next Saturday and are curious about anything you can tell us about the ship itself or hints you could provide to make our stay on board more enjoyable. On these boards we read very conflicting information about the dining options, the reservation process, the excursions etc. Since your trip will be most recent to our own (17 of us ranging in ages from 8 months, preteens, teenagers, 30somethings, babyboomers and WW1 91 year old) we could use all your wisdom about how to get the most out of our seven days on the Statendam. Thanks.

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Dateline: Bridgetown, Barbados

 

Day: 6

 

Unlike most of our stops, we hadn't booked anything for Barbados ahead of time. I was rather busy the week before we left and it just kind of slipped my mind. So we decided we would just pick up a tour on the pier. We got off the ship and walked through what looked like a customs area disguised as a mini shopping mall.

 

We headed out to the taxi and tour area. I think it took about 15 seconds for a tour vendor to accost us after we emerged. I quizzed him on where his tour was going, what the bus was like, how long it was, the cost, etc. They had already lined up a couple of people for the tour, several of which were on our ship. It all sounded good to me so with a bit of trepidation at signing up for a tour with the first guy to accost us, we joined the others. The side of the bus had "King's Garage" written on it. A tour operated by a garage? As we were waiting, another gentlemen was asking about a tour, but he wanted some particular type. One of the drivers lost patience with him and told him to "just get on the bus". I thought that was beyond rude and if he'd spoken to me that way, we might have had a problem. I was starting to have serious second thoughts about these bozos.

 

Finally we were asked to board the bus. It was a large greyhound style instead of the small 10 person Toyota van we all expected and had toured other islands in. We had headed out of the port area when the driver began pulling over and informed us we were to "meet our tour van here". It was already waiting for us, so it was a bit odd to be transferred, but we rolled with it. The waiting van was the expected smaller Toyota model. We all boarded and the tour began. Suddenly the driver stopped talking, took a phone call and informed us we would have to transfer BACK to the bus we had just left! We all began muttering to each other about some kind of bait and switch scam, I tried to lighten the mood a bit by joking that nobody realized this was a half and half walking/bus tour. We boarded the bus again and he drove us a couple of blocks to another rendezvous with a guy he assured us was our final driver. Another curbside transfer to another Toyota van and a driver named Joseph.

Fortunately, this was actually our last vehicle change and our driver was a knowledgeable local. We began the tour by driving west out of Bridgetown. Lots of high dollar beach resorts and golf courses. As we zipped along we snapped photos of gorgeous blue-green waters and pristine beaches maintained for priveledged guests. As we left affluent Bridgetown we began to see the real Barbados. Average people living in very modest conditions. We learned about the emancipation the slaves and saw the statue erected in honour of that date and deed. Teasing us with glimpses of their furry tails were a few green monkeys, of which we would see more later.

 

We drove a circular route around Barbados, stopping periodically at overlook points to snap pictures and pick up a refreshment. One stop was particularly memorable. As we piled out of the van, Joseph mentioned that there was captive green monkey at one of the stalls and pointed the direction. We began browsing in that direction and eventually found the poor little fellow. He was kept with a leash on a little platform at the side of a stall and was currently sitting on top of one of the storm shutters eating a segment of banana. A largish sign warned not to approach the monkey too closely as he would grasp at shiny objects. No sooner had I read that than a lady with large hoop earings walked by and sure enough the monkey leaped down and reached out to grab them as she passed. He missed and she strolled on oblivious. Another Dutch lady seemed to think the sign did not apply to her as she walked right up to the platform, grabbed a section of banana and began trying to entice him to taking it from her hand (he was already eating one). His response to this affront was interesting. He began to urinate off the side of the shutter, and while doing so passed his hand through the stream showering the woman in piss.

 

Other than the side show, I got to try a Banks beer at the vending booth which was quite good - I think my favorite local beer from the islands I've tasted so far. We toured many other places. We stopped at a church where graves in the yard all had dates several hundred years old. A small casket shaped crypt for a child was particularly poigniant. The colonial heritage of Barbados was evident with people listing origins from England, Scotland, and to our surprise even Canada. The church itself was well maintained and featured some beautiful woodwork inside.

 

We stopped on the coast near Bathsheba. One of the many vendors of beads had a baby monkey on his arm. Shelly and I took turns holdng him, I doubt he weighed more than 10 ounces and was cute as a button. The gentleman said he was approximately 6 months old and that the baby's mother lived with him as well. He would scamper from the crook of your arm to sit on your shoulder and hold on to your ear for balance. The Bathsheba coast is breathtaking, there are several house-sized boulders sitting on the shore like a giant's discarded toys. I wish I could get some of the pictures through this drinking straw of an internet connection!

 

Eventually we headed back to the port and stopped to shop a bit for some sourvenirs and necessities. A bottle of sunscreen was $30 and aloe vera $15! We decided to pick it up on board later of course. We returned to the ship just before 2pm so we went to the Lido and had lunch. We ate by the pool while the band played, featuring a steel pan as the lead. They were very good, and I distinctly remember one of the Indonesian servers singing the lyrics to Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" after the band had finished playing it.

 

We returned to the room, napped, hung out on the verandah and eventually ordered a couple of club sandwiches for dinner since we'd eaten a late lunch and the Lido was closed by the time we got an appetite. Interestingly enough, room service called me back to ask if it was OK that our club sandwiches not have bacon, since they were out. The next morning I noted a large tub of bacon in the Lido so I suspect that they simply didn't have any cooked and didn't want to make any. We went to the Explorations Cafe afterwards for mocha & tea, read a bit more. Looked like they had some kind of bad water leak problem, the engineers had teh ceiling open and were scurrying all over the place with wetvacs. The cashier area was roped off with caution tape.

 

We decided to attend our second show in the Van Gogh lounge, "World Beat". It was... terrible. Apparently it's a relatively new show and they have yet to really bring it up to snuff. The singers have too narrow a range, the music sounds like an elevator muzak version of a popular song and the choreography was terrible. The women's costumes were generally well done, but the men's were awful. It got somewhat better around the midpoint but was overall a flop.

 

The CD invited everyone to the Crow's Nest for a "Superstar Singing Competition" at 10pm following the stage show, so we went up and ordered a couple of mojitos. Leonard was right, his were better. We waited around long past 10pm, and one guy actually got up and started to sing but something was wrong with the karioke system and the DJ couldn't get it fixed so about 10:40 rolled around with no show and we decided to leave. It turned out later that the bartender hadn't given me back my room key, and when I returned to look for it both the bartender and the key were nowhere to be found. I had to have the front desk print me a new one and deactivate the old one. I haven't checked my bill yet, but will later. Annoying.

 

We went to the late night snack in the Lido, which is open from 11-12. Tonight's theme was German, and I had some excellent pasta type thing I cannot recall the German name for, and Bockwurst. Germans know how to fill a belly up with solid food, so we retired content in that respect.

 

Tomorrow is Port of Spain, Trinidad and a mountain tour with a visit to Maracas Beach.

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Dateline: Port of Spain, Trinidad

 

Day: 7

 

Since Trinidad has a somewhat unsavory reputation for crime, we decided to take a HAL bus tour rather than try to do anything on our own. We took the Maracas Bay and Scenic Mountain Tour. We had breakfast in the Lido, and left to find our guide with his sign dockside.

 

We boarded a medium sized bus with our tour guide and driver "Mr Bash". Unfortunately I can't remember the guide's name, but he was an excellent narrator and historian. He was caucasian looking but explained that he was part Irish and part Trinidadian. When he found out that there were Canadians on board, he mentioned that he had lived in Toronto for five years while doing his university degree. One particularly bad winter storm had made up his mind for him to return to Trinidad. He had also spent time in Ireland, exploring his roots I assume.

 

We left the port area and he explained that much of the land there had been reclaimed from the sea in the 1800s. There is a lighthouse sitting in the middle of a major roadway looking somewhat out of place but is near what used to be the coastline. Numerous historic government and customs houses were pointed out. We got the usual demographics and GNP information.

 

Finally we left the city and began to climb up higher into the mountains. We stopped at a few overlooks and took some fantastic pictures of the city, port and the Statendam. We had come just at the tail end of the rainy season so everything was as a verdant green. We traversed the mountains on a road built by the US military during WW2. The US had a base on Trinidad whose mission was to prevent the Germans from taking over and gaining both a strategic position and contol over Trinidad's rich natural resources. It was still in decent shape for a 70 year old road.

We stopped by a roadside stand with many religious slogans scrawled on the bamboo framing. Our guide left and returned with a cocoa pod that had been cut open to show you the seeds in the interior and the white sticky substance which is sweet and considered a treat for small children. We learned about local cocoa production, as well as other products like coffee and nutmeg. Shelly purchased for $4 a small hand decorated paper bag, inside which was: a sample of fresh ground coffee, a bag of nutmeg, a ball of ground cocoa, and a bag of bay leaves.

 

Finally we reached Maracas Bay beach, which is a gorgeous area. Shelly sampled a local delicacy called "shark and bake". It's pretty much what it sounds like: a filet of shark is deep fried and spiced heavily then inserted into a pocket of fried dough. You garnish the pocket with your choice of fresh vegetables and curried things. She declared it tasted like cod and was delicious. I wasn't hungry but did try the local beer Stag, which was OK tasting but a bit thin for my liking.

 

The beach seemed to be well maintained and had 4-5 lifeguards working until the evening. The flags were up for a strong riptide, but people seemed to be enjoying themselves in the strong surf with no problems. The beach is in a valley between two peninsulas and is very well protected. Apparently the beach was also developed by the US as a recreation area for soldiers on furlough. Today many Trinis use it post-Carnivale as a "cool down" and relaxation area for the whole family. There are fairly clean washrooms present, usable for a fee of 1 TT, or about 20 cents US. Our guide paid for all of us to have a go shortly after arriving, which I thought was a nice courtesy since nobody had anything in local currency or small change. On that topic, one of the other tour busses was supposed to go straight to the beach for a day of swimming and hadn't shown up. We found out later they had a "weak bowel issue" with a passenger. Glad we opted for the scenic tour.

 

After about 45 minutes at the beach we boarded the bus and returned to the port. We shopped for a few souvenirs and returned to the ship. It was to be another late lunch in the Lido, reading books on deck and I decided to head for a long nap while Shelly stayed on.

 

We had gotten a notice a day or so ago that our catamaran tour to Coche Island during the Isla de Margarita stop was cancelled due to the boat having engine problems. We went to the Shore Excursions desk which was of course closed (these guys keep banker's hours I swear) and filled out a request for a 4x4 tour instead, dropping it off in the box. Since tomorrow was Margarita and we still hadn't heard anything we went to ShoreEx again and this time they were open. I asked the woman what was going on and she said she'd been calling the stateroom to tell us that the 4x4 tour was also cancelled. I said I'd been napping in the stateroom for the past 3 hours and that the phone had never once rung. She mumbled something about her phone maybe being broken when she noticed her supervisor giving her the eye. So we had to take third choice, which was a bus tour called Discover Margarita. She printed the tickets there and then and thankfully the matter was resolved.

 

It was Jim's birthday so we joined Ruth and another CC couple for dinner in the Pinnacle Grille. I had the NY striploin and a baked potato, which was excellent while many of the others had the Pinnacle-cut filet, also good. One fellow had a T-bone steak, which I think came from a brontosaurus and not a cow but certainly looked tasty. We had a birthday cake made fresh for Jim by the kitchen staff, who had been tipped off by the cabin steward. The hotel manager stopped by on his rounds and wished Jim a happy birthday. After three rounds of desserts and coffee, we all waddled out of the restaurant looking like contented lizards in dire need of a rock to sun ourselves on.

 

Tomorrow is Isla de Margarita, and our third choice of a bus tour.

[RuthC]

Your postings are still making me feel warm, and a little drowzy. I want to relax in the Caribbean, too! :D

[Cruiser809e8r09]

Dateline: Isla de Margarita, Venezuela

 

Day: 8

 

Sun arise, and we two with it. The now familiar routine of showering, dressing and heading to the Lido for breakfast. Speaking of the shower, it has a distressing tendency to want to try and scald the flesh off of your bones. On mornings where the water system is in heavy demand the temperature coming out of the shower head varies greatly. I'm not sure how anyone with a mobility problem deals with it, but we both have learned the "shower burn boogie" by heart. The sink tap sucks too, it will only produce a small trickle, or a biblical flood. I totally flooded the counter once when I put a glass under the tap to get a drink of water: the rushing stream of course did a 180 in the bottom of the glass and went everywhere. The bathrooms on the Statendam desperately need refurbishing.

 

We debarked at the expected time and met up with our tour guide Orlando, "as in Flor-eeda, like Orlando, Meeeekeey Mouse, you know?". He grew up in Caracas, Venezuela but moved to Margarita Island to get away from the crime, hustle and bustle of the big city. He was an entertaining tour guide with his typically Latin flourishes, gestures and interesting turn of phrase. He explained that he had toured the world "in my hippy days, you know?" and had returned to Venezuela a few years ago.

 

Our group followed the leader out past many stalls and vendors of arts and crafts to the tour bus, which was one of the greyhound coach style units. We waited a few minutes for a few stragglers and eventually set off along the access road that connects the cruise ship pier with the main part of the island. The scenery was mostly arid and desert-like. Lots of cactus, scrub plants and spindly trees lined the roads. One thing that struck us as we got closer to town - garbage. Piles of garbage scattered everywhere. People randomly dumping the detrius of their lives wherever it was convenient. I think this had the single most negative impact on people's impressions of the area. If I were the Margarita tourist or health authority, my first job would be to open a garbage dump, and second to send out some cleanup crews.

 

We drove through city streets, many small town areas and eventually stopped in a parking lot next to a hilly area. The guide explained that as recently as last week torrential rains had washed down the hills and brought mudslides into the buildings nearby. The cleanup had evidently been done quickly because there was no sign of it, but there were several walls that had crumbled to pieces and had yet to be rebuilt. A few of the buildings had a musty odour of damp about them, and some of the cobblestones had gone missing as well. We were lead down a path between a hill and one of the buildings to emerge in a large plaza surrounding a church and several outbuildings.

 

Orlando gave us a little history lesson to explain the presence of the church. One of the nearby islands is the site of the first settlement made by Europeans in the western hemisphere (I think it was called Cubaina or something similar to that, I'll look it up when I get back to civilization). This outpost was wiped out by a massive storm that completely submerged the area, killing almost all of the settlers. Later a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary washed up on the shores of Margarita Island and was taken up as a sacred idol by the inhabitants. They first enshrined it in a small stone grotto that is still present near the church, and when built later, they moved it to the church, a position high above the altar. They take it down for parades during religous festivals, one of which had apparently just happened the day before.

 

We toured the open plaza surrounding the church, and briefly looked inside as well. It being Sunday, there was a service going on in the front half of the church so it felt a little weird to be poking around taking pictures but they seemed used to (or resigned to) it. Nearby is a small open market where locals buy and sell trade goods. I got to exercise the little spanish I know (and learned from Sesame Street): "dos agua por favor" got us a couple of bottles of water, $2 US. Nobody seemed to pay us much mind and we never felt threatened by anyone as we toured the stalls with the locals. Eventually we took a seat in a small park shaded by tall trees, featuring a statue of Simon Bolivar, the liberator of Venezuela.

Our "wander time" elapsed, we rejoined the tour group and Orlando took us into a small museum dedicated to things donated to the Virgin for favours received. He gave us an example: if you had injured your leg, you would pray to the Virgin that it might be healed. If it was, you purchased a small gold figure of a leg and donate that to the Virgin in thanks for her favour in granting your prayers. The museum was an air-conditioned building that housed many (but not all, maybe 20% he said) of the items received. We saw massive collections of gold rings, school rings, necklaces of all descriptions. I saw what looked like a small jewel-encrusted crown (sort of home made looking). There was a massive pile of what were apparently school rings, large silk gowns and what looked like religous wear with gold stitching and pearls.

 

After touring the artefacts, the ladies went to use the washroom and returned to inform us that there were NO toiletries whatsoever. No toilet paper, hand towels, nothing. Fortunately a CC friend had come equipped with various items that were shared around and they got through it OK. Takeaway lesson here is - come prepared when touring small islands.

We toured a second church, then left the area and reboarded the bus which took us over to the remains of an old fort built as a lookout station for incoming ships. They had a few of the cannons, some 18th century weapons hung on the walls and several paintings. From the fort walls you could look out over most of the island and the town we had just toured below.

 

Our next stop was a shopping area selling arts, crafts and of course: pearls. A vendor with a large stand had an impressive selection. The prices were quite good and the pearls looked to be decentquality. Orlando informed us that prices here would likely be better than anywhere else on the island or at the cruise port. Shelly picked up a necklace and bracelet for about $35 with orangish coloured round pearls spaced about every 1/2" or so. The facilities here were much better and I tried the local beer which unfortunately failed to impress. There were 2 parrots in the center of the market that were amusing. I tried my Sesame Street spanish out on them and was rewarded with the green parrot saying back "HOLA! HOLA! HOLA!". It seemed to be the only word he knew in any language I tried, but was still amusing to all of the travellers.

 

After the orgy of pearl buying, we headed out once again to a small tiki bar situated on the coast near the resort area of Margarita Island. We all had a "rum punch cocktail" (it tasted like Kool-aid and I couldn't taste the rum) and enjoyed some scenic views overlooking the ocean and local water sports areas. We snapped a few pics and eventually reboarded the bus to head back to the port.

 

After parting ways with our flamboyant guide Orlando, we shopped a bit in the port area. I'd always heard that the shopping here was the highlight of the Margarita stop but I wasn't terribly impressed. Perhaps because we simply weren't in the market for many trinkets or souvenirs.

 

We boarded the ship in plenty of time for sailaway and spent the rest of the evening in what were becoming our routine shipboard life. Naps, dinner, evening entertainment. Tomorrow would be Willemstaad, Curacao and a tour with Leo Plaate.

[INSIDERS CABIN]

What an excellent travel-blog....Thank you for your observations--they really rate a best of site award from me! Our first Hal cruise was on the Statendam, 1993, and we always enjoy catching a glimpse of her in foreign ports! Have a wonderful voyage.