10/8/19: We are booked in stateroom L222 on the Crown Princess, cruising round trip out of Fort Lauderdale with Ray and Celeste who are next door in L226.
Ray drove from Englewood to Fort Lauderdale. As we drove on Alligator Alley, we checked the weather and saw there was a big rain and thunderstorm over Fort Lauderdale, but fortunately, it dissipated before we got there. We parked at an offsite facility that Ray had arranged. We drove in, they unloaded our luggage from the car and onto a shuttle, and off we went with about 6 or 8 other people on the shuttle. We were dropped off at the dock in a short time, and proceeded through the Princess embarkation. That all went smoothly and quickly. We had received information before the cruise that boarding would be delayed until 2:00PM due to the ship arriving from overseas and having to be inspected by US immigration. We arrived at the port about 1:00PM, and boarding started about 1:30PM. That was a bit of a disaster as everyone got up to be boarded at the same time. So actually getting on the ship took awhile. After we were finally on board, we grabbed a hamburger from the grill in the pool area. It was actually a really good hamburger. We explored the ship a little and kept checking for our luggage, which didn’t arrive until after we left for dinner. We have “anytime dining” and had dinner about 6:00PM. We returned to our stateroom, unpacked, watch the Rays beat Houston on TV, and went to bed. We have adjoining staterooms and the room steward opened the balcony door between our staterooms.
10/9/19: Princess Cays – We are scheduled to arrive at 9:00AM. It is a tender port which means we are suppose to get tickets to take the tenders, shuttle boats actually, from the ship to the island. But of course, tender tickets were not checked, or collected, so lots of rude people just got in the shuttle line making the rest of us who follow the rules, wait. Princess Cays has swimming beaches, snorkeling areas, trinket stores, bars, equipment rental, etc. It can be a fun beach day. They serve lunch there, too. I brought my new full face snorkel mask, and Celeste and I planned to snorkel. Dave and Ray hung out on beach chairs in the shade. Celeste and I had to walk a little distance to get to the snorkeling area. Then we had to swim around a building built in the water -I think it may have been a lifeguard station- to get to the profitable snorkel area. We saw lots of colorful fish and coral. Celeste saw a barracuda, but I didn’t see him. My favorite fish was a beautiful blue one. It was deceiving how deep the water was. It looked like you could reach down and touch the bottom, but I could not stand up. So we were swimming or floating the whole time, probably 45 minutes or so. I had a slight drip into my full face mask, around my right eye, which was stinging because I wore my contact lenses. I also felt the need after awhile to take off the mask to get a deep breath, but I wanted to stand to do it and couldn’t. And, I needed to blow my nose! Because of those discomforts, after about 45 minutes I’d had enough. If there would have been a spot to stop, stand, and get a breath of fresh air, I think I would have continued longer. I really enjoyed seeing the fish and coral. I only saw one small conch shell. The water was beautiful and clear.
After snorkeling, a Celeste and I visited some of the shops but didn’t buy anything. We went back to the guys and decided to go back to the ship instead of eating lunch at Princess Cays. A few other people were going back, too. We figured we’d have the ship to ourselves. Boy, were we wrong! Lots of people apparently didn’t go ashore. We spent a quiet afternoon, sat on the balcony, and explored the ship. We went to the “Elite” happy hour which is for frequent cruisers and suite passengers. Ray and Celeste are one status level below us, but nobody checked ID, so they went to the happy hour with us. Then we went to dinner. We were much happier with our waiter, Ricardo, although the dinner menu wasn’t great. Celeste, Ray and Dave had shrimp cocktails for an appetizer, but the shrimp were small. Celeste had the “always available” chicken, which was dry and rubbery. Dave had the “always available” salmon, which was also dry. Ray and I had a seafood stew which we thought was very good. It contained pieces of fish, shrimp, scallops, and clams in a clear broth. After dinner, we went back to our staterooms to chill as we were tired and the evening entertainment was a vocalist which did not inspire us.
10/10/19: Sea Day – Dave and I went to the dining room for breakfast and were underwhelmed. Ray and Celeste went to Horizon Court (the buffet) and really liked it. Dave and I will have to try it. I have a bit of a phobia about the buffet because of germs, but I’ll try it anyway. Dave and I went to a lecture on the Bermuda Triangle. Little did I know our ship is traveling through the Bermuda Triangle! The lecturer was only “OK”, and I found it somewhat interesting, but Dave about fell asleep. Just a disjointed and hard to follow lecture. Since we are going to the Crown Grill Dining Room tonight, one of the specialty restaurants, Dave and I had a light lunch at the International Cafe. I had green pea soup and a little orzo salad, and Dave had a ham panini and chocolate chip cookies. Dave was disappointed because they heated the panini, but it was still cold. Ray and Celeste ate at the Horizon Buffet. In the afternoon, Dave and I went to the Pyramid Game show. The game is similar to $10,000 pyramid. Passengers volunteer and if they guess 6 words, they won a plastic Princess coaster. Actually, even if they didn’t win, they were given plastic Princess coasters for participating. Watching was an entertaining way to spend an hour.
We went to dinner at Crown Grill, a specialty restaurant. I had Tiger Prawn for an appetizer, black and Blue soup which was French onion soup with blue cheese, and sea bass for my entree. Dave had a lobster cake, shrimp bisque, and a filet. Celeste had the tiger prawn, black and blue soup and Lobster. Ray had the black and blue soup and surf and turf. We all opted out of potatoes and they served mushrooms, asparagus and creamed spinach family style. We all liked the asparagus, so they had to bring more. The food was very good and very filling, but of course we had desert. Dave, Ray and I chose a bite size sampler of all the deserts and Celeste had a milk chocolate peanut butter bar.
We missed the early show and were too tired to wait for the late show. Dave and I wandered around awhile, spent some money in the casino, and ended up watching the Patriots beat the NY Giants in our stateroom.
10/11/19: St. Thomas – Ray and Celeste booked a submarine excursion, but Dave and I planned to wing it. We arrived in St. Thomas about 8:00AM. Dave and I took our time and got off the ship about 10:30AM. We had a few things we were thinking of doing. One thing was the 99 steps, which I guess is actually 103, that leads to Blackbeard’s Castle. However, Blackbeard’s Castle was closed today. There is a gondolier that goes up a mountain and supposedly has good views, but the gondolier was not running today. The last thing on our list was to go to Mountain Top which is famous for their banana daiquiris. It is an inside “mall”, which was good because we were having some rain showers. Lots of tour operators were hawking their tours, all for the same price of $25 per person, and one of their stops was Mountain Top. We opted for an open bus and took one of the tours. The guide stopped at a couple of overlooks and pointed out sights in Charlotte Amalie. He also pointed out islands in the Atlantic and Caribbean Seas. He took us to one overlook containing Drakes Seat which is a green bench with a great view over Magen’s Bay. It is a vantage point where Sir Francis Drake was suppose to have looked out for enemy ships of the Spanish fleet. We went to Mountain Top and we both had banana daiquiris. I bought a $10 visor for rowing, and Dave bought a rum sampler. The tour came back down the mountain and drove through downtown Charlotte Amalie before returning us to the shopping area by the ship. We got back to the ship mid afternoon, showered, and went to the Elite happy hour. Again, Ray and Celeste joined us at happy hour with no issue. Sometimes the crew checks ID, but not on this cruise. The hors d’oeuvres were shrimp and the cocktail of the evening was a Bacardi Limon Mojito. After happy hour we went to dinner (more food ugh). Dave and I had the fish entree and Ray and Celeste had the steak entree. Dave and I wandered the ship a bit and then went back to our stateroom.
10/12/19: Dominica – We signed up for a shore excursion which included a drive through a rain forest and then tubing down a river. There were 10 of us in a van. We were the last to get on, and there was one seat near the back and the other three up front. Dave offered, but I took the seat near the back. Unfortunately, we drove up a mountain on a very windy road and I ended up with a headache and feeling woozy, but managed not to throw up. The driver gave a commentary, but I could not hear a word he said. It was a pretty miserable ride. Finally we got to the tubing venue, ran by a company named Hibiscus.
The river was a little low, but there were several guys accompanying our group. The guys from Hibiscus would help us if we got hung up on a rock or stuck somewhere. It was a pleasant afternoon and I think we all enjoyed the tubing.
Then we had an hour long drive back to the ship, but this time I traded seats with Dave and sat closer to the front, so the ride back was better, but still a windy road. We got back to the ship about 1:30PM, and we were all pretty hungry. We opted to keep our wet clothes on and grabbed a burger in the pool area. It tasted pretty good! After lunch, Dave and I got off the ship and checked out the vendor tents, but did not buy anything. The port is in an industrial area, so there really was no place to walk, and not many vendors. We can see a business area, and I think there’s suppose to be a shuttle to the town, but we decided we’d rather get our showers and get out of our wet, stinky clothes. Went to dinner in the Michelangelo Restaurant and got out preferred servers, Ricardo and Nicolae. I had Seafood Stew, Celeste had Chicken quesadilla, Ray and Dave had Chateaubriand. After dinner, we went to a production show…Disco. We always enjoy the production shows…lots of singing and dancing. After the production show we went to a game show…”Is that your final answer?” Which is a take off of “Who wants to be a millionaire?”. They do it a little differently, using one team of 5 people. Each person answers the question independently until they miss and then the next person sits in the hot seat. Amazingly, there was a winner! Then we were all off to bed as we have an early port call in Grenada.
10/13/19: Grenada – our ship is having a thruster problem and the captain is concerned with potential strong currents in Grenada. So instead of docking, we are going to tender in.
It is a short port call, from 7:00AM until the last tender at 1:15PM. We have a ships excursion, and meet in the wheelhouse at 7:00AM (we got there at 6:50AM actually). The ship didn’t get cleared until about 7:30AM, but then finally we were on the tender heading to port. Our tour bus had 14 people and a really great guide, Valerie, and driver, Dragon. Dragon was talkative and supplemented Valerie’s commentary. We left the port area and headed up a mountain to Fort Frederick. It is a backwards fort, built with the cannons facing inland to defend from inland invaders. Before we get to the fort, our bus breaks down and we have to wait for a second bus. In not too long of time, maybe 15 minutes, we are back heading to the fort. There are beautiful views from the fort, but really not much else to see. Soon we go to leave and find we are switching buses again. Not sure what was wrong with the second bus. The air conditioning in all 3 buses was not very good. Anyway, we are driven around for probably an hour while Valerie points out various points of interest and Dragon stops at various viewpoints. Finally we reach a Spice Plantation. We are shown various spices and where and how they grow. Loofa is actually a vine that grows on a tree. We see what cocoa looks like before it is processed and Valerie describes how it becomes chocolate. Of course we bought a couple of chocolate bars. The outside air seems a bit better than the stuffy air conditioning, so we open all the windows on the bus. Then we go to a nutmeg factory. Because it is Sunday, no one is working, but we get a tour. Only 4 of the 14 actually go on the tour, but Celeste and I were 2 of the 4. The guide told us he walked 4 miles to get to the factory today. He seems very knowledgeable and gave each of us a handful of nutmegs. After the tour, Dave and Ray found a little market and we got some much appreciated cold water. Then we are off driving a long time again, through the mountains while Valerie and Dragon point out plants and trees bearing various fruits or supplying various spices.
After driving a long time, we enter Grand Etang National Park and visit a crater lake. There are monkeys in the trees as we exit the bus.
We are given a complimentary drink here And the choice could be soda, water, beer, or rum punch. Dave, Celeste and I chose the rum punch, but Ray got a beer. The rum punch was very tasty. We walked to an overlook and saw the lake which is in an extinct volcano crater. There is a lady on our bus that is not feeling well….she is diabetic so not sure if it is a diabetic issue, diesel fumes on the bus, car sickness from driving in the mountains, or something else. We left the crater lake and we’re driving to Annandale Falls, when this lady gets really sick. Valerie and Dragon drive to a house where they apparently know the homeowner, but no one is home – probably at church. Fortunately, another neighbor sees Valerie and Valerie asks them if this lady can use their restroom. So we sit stopped for awhile, until the lady and Valerie return. The lady is given lots of plastic bags in case she needs to throw up. We proceed to our last stop which is Annandale Falls. The waterfall has a drop of 30 feet and the pool beneath the falls looks very inviting.
However with our bus problems and our sick passenger, our tour is running late. So we have a quick stop at the falls.
There are 3 guys there who describe themselves as members of a jumpers club. Of course they are looking for tips. All 3 guys jump into the pool from the area at the top of the falls.
Looked like fun and the water looked very inviting for all us hot sweaty people on the bus. It is already 1:00PM, and our tour should have been over by noon. Lots of phone calls from Valerie and Dragon’s boss wondering where we are because we are running so late. Of course, all of the passengers on the bus were not concerned as Princess promises to wait for late returning passengers on ships tours. The last tender was suppose to be at 1:15PM, but we didn’t get back until about 1:30PM. They told us to have our ships card out for identification and then kind of rush us to the tender. All of Princess’s tents and signage is down, and this is the last tender so the port crew will return with us on this tender. We get on the tender and wait. Apparently they are waiting for 1 more person. They tell us it will be about 15 minutes. One of the crew brings us cool washcloths to help cool us down. The sick lady is wheelchaired out of the heat and back to the building which has air conditioning. Finally, at 2:00PM we see the sick lady being wheelchaired back, but not the person we were waiting for. Apparently they decided to wait until 2:00PM and that was it. We got back to the ship and Dave asked the crew about the missing person and they confirmed that they left one. Later, we hear an announcement that the entertainer for the evening didn’t make the ship and the evening program was a comedy presentation instead. I am thinking it was the entertainer that the shuttle was waiting for. We didn’t get back to the ship until 2:30PM and we see the sick lady with her face in a big plastic bag with medical personnel from the ship. We had not eaten since 6:00AM, and had dinner reservations in Sabatini’s, one of the specialty restaurants at 5:30PM. We decided to change Sabatini’s and got a reservation at 7:30PM instead. Then we grabbed a quick, light lunch and noticed the ship hadn’t moved away from anchor. The ship continued to sit at anchor for another hour….we did not leave Grenada until about 3:10PM. Dave and I went to the international Cafe and Ray and Celeste went to Horizon, the buffet. By the time we all ate lunch, took showers, cleaned up, got dressed, we had about 30 minutes to chill before time to go to the Platinum happy hour. Tonight the hors d’oeuvre was sushi and some kind of cherry cocktail. But since we were going to Sabatini’s we didn’t want to snack too much. We headed to Sabatini’s a little early, 7:15PM, but they seated us right away at a table that was freezing! We were all very cold, so finally they moved us, and the second table was much better. Celeste and I had artichoke soufflés and Ray and Dave had calamari appetizers. For our pasta course, we had spaghetti with seafood. There was lots of seafood and not much spaghetti, which was fine with all of us. For our entrees, Celeste and I had lobster 3 ways, Ray had a huge veal chop, and Dave had Saltimbocca. Finally, for dessert I had tiramisu and a tiramisu martini, Celeste had a chocolate mint martini, Ray had a tiramisu martini and Dave had a tart. We all enjoyed every course and had a nice time. However, because we had all gotten up very early, we retired to our staterooms after dinner. We can sleep in tomorrow morning. We are not scheduled to arrive in Bonaire until noon, and all aboard is 7:30PM.
10/14/19: Bonaire – arriving in Bonaire is very picturesque. It is the cutest island so far, and not as many mountains.
We do not have a planned ships excursion. I thought we might take a taxi tour, but that did not happen. Not sure what there is to do in Bonaire other than swim, snorkel or dive. From our balcony on the ship, we could see people in the water nearby, apparently learning to dive. The water was clear and beautiful. We did not do much. We walked around the small business/shopping area and checked the shops. Many were closed between 12:00PM and 2:00PM for lunch, and we were there about 1:45PM. Celeste and I bought a couple of visors that were $5 each, and I got some Visine because my eyes were still kinda bugging me. We are docked close to town, but the town is pretty small, so it only took an hour or so to see what we wanted to see. We got back on the ship and chilled for the afternoon, going to happy hour for sushi and a “deep sea martini”. For dinner, we sat at Ricardo and Nicolae’s table again. They had a new server they were training, Lucas. Ray had Minestrone soup and veal scallopini. Celeste had 2, yes, 2 bowls! of the chilled peach and Prosecco soup and a seafood dish with a long Italian name (it was Italian night) with shrimp, scallops, and garlic for the entree. For dinner, Dave had prosciutto, shrimp cocktail, and veal scallopini. I had a seafood antipasto, chilled peach soup with Prosecco, and the same seafood entree as Celeste. Then we went to another production show that was Motown music, which we all enjoyed. Afterwards Dave and I walked around a bit, and ended up getting an Absolute Citron and a glass of wine to take to our room.
10/15/19: Curaçao- Our last port. The ship arrived at 7:00AM, and we had a ships tour starting at 9:00AM. We had a big bus with pretty good air conditioning today. Our guide was Daneek and the driver was Hortencia. We started with a bit of a scenic drive with Daneek pointing out buildings, forts, sculptures, etc. we were given a photo op from the top of Queen Juliana Bridge.
Our first stop was an Aloe plantation. They have been producing aloe products for 22 years and use all natural materials. The life of an aloe plant is 10 years. Before they can start to harvest aloe fronds/branches (?), the plant has to be 2 years old. Then they cut the bottom fronds/branches, leaving the center to grow some more. If the plant shoots out blooms, they are cut off as the flowers zap the energy from the plant. A lady demonstrated how they harvest the aloe. First they cut the end and let the bitter red liquid drip out. What remains is like a gel with sticky goop. She cut it in small pieces to let us taste, and it literally had little to no taste, maybe a little bit like a cucumber. Then we went into their store to try some aloe juice and testers for their products. They make all kinds of lotions, soap, skin creams, shampoo, and juices. We did not buy anything, but their products are available on Amazon. The next stop was a chichi(?) factory. In Curaçao, a chichi is the oldest daughter. Basically it is a plaster figure of a fully endowed woman, and they are painted by locals. They also make a plaster figure of a man, which represents the firstborn male, called a bobo (?), and he has a large belly. The last stop, and probably the reason we signed up for this tour, was a visit to the Curaçao liquor factory. They explained how the liquor is made, which is basically from the peels of Valencia oranges with sugar, cloves, cinnamon and several other “secret” spices. When finished, it is clear, but food colors can be added, which does not change the flavor. It is sold as clear, blue, yellow, red or green. They also sell the liquor flavored with chocolate, rum raisin and tamarind. The taste of the unflavored liquor is similar to triple sec. After our tour, we were given (small) tastes of blue, chocolate and tamarind. All were very good. We could also buy cocktails, and being very hot, I bought a frozen blue something. It was margarita mix and vodka blended with ice. Then the blue Curaçao liquor was put in the bottom of a glass and the flavored, blended ice was poured on top. It was very tasty. Dave bought a sampler package of the 3 flavored liquors, and a small bottle of the clear liquor to see how it tastes in margaritas as compared to triple sec. After the Curaçao liquor factory, we headed back to the ship with our guide pointing our more places of interest.
Many of the old houses are made from local sand and stone, and have to be replastered and repainted every two years, so they are very expensive to maintain. At one time, they were private residences, but now house businesses because of maintenance costs. We got back about 12:30PM. Ray and Celeste visited some of the local vendors in the port area. Dave and I wanted to do a little walking tour, so we got back on the ship, grabbed a hamburger for lunch, and headed back off the ship. We wanted to cross the channel on their famous floating bridge. First we walked through the Renaissance Mall and Rif Fort which is an area filled with souvenir shops and bars. We continued walking along the channel, passing more local vendors. We were heading to the Queen Emma Pontoon Bridge. This pedestrian bridge is the oldest and longest floating bridge in the world, built in 1888, resting on 15 pontoons. It swings open some 30 times a day, and has the nickname of “swinging old lady”, to let big oil tankers, container and cruise ships in and out of the harbor. I have to note here that our ship, Crown Princess, was docked at Mega pier, which is on open water. When we got to the floating bridge, it was in the open position. However, when the bridge is open, there is a free ferry that runs and takes passengers across the channel. So, we rode the ferry.
We also see the Queen Emma bridge starting to close.
On the other side of the channel are more shops and stores, bars and restaurants. We were heading to the Ronde Market, one of the places pointed out by our tour guide. It is a big round building with lots of little stalls with various vendors. I saw hairdressers, clothing, food, bottles of some kind of potion, fruits, vegetables, art….a little bit of everything. But, unfortunately, nothing I wanted to spend money on. We walked back towards the Queen Emma floating bridge, and along the way, at 2:00PM, we heard bells ringing. There is a clock on a wall, with bells beneath, and beneath that was a little diorama that moved on the hour. We only saw the last few seconds, unfortunately.
We got to the bridge, which was closed, so we could walk across. When we were about 1/3 of the way, the horn sounded which meant a boat was coming and the bridge would open. Dave started to hustle as he was concerned we were going to get stuck on the bridge. As we got to the other side, the bridge was on an angle with the shore, and we had to step across about 6” of open space. The bridge was not opening fully, just enough to let a small boat through. But there is a fence to keep people from walking onto the bridge when it is operating, which was closed and we weren’t sure how to get out. Fortunately it opened to let us through. So, kind of exciting bridge crossing. We headed back to the ship, but made a stop for a couple of local beers. They tasted very good because the beer was cold and we were hot.
We got back to the ship and rested a little, took showers, and then it was time for our 5:00PM happy hour. The hors d’oeuvre was smoked salmon and the drink was a Tito’s lemon drop. After happy hour we went to dinner in our usual Michelangelo dining room with Ricardo and Nicolae.
‘We had lots of food and drink, as usual. Ray had shrimp cocktail, seafood chowder, and a meatball, rice and bean entree. He had chocolate sorbet for dessert. Celeste had a short rib starter, coconut pumpkin chilled soup, Steak and chocolate sorbet. Dave had shrimp cocktail, seafood chowder, salmon with a side of the meatballs, and a soft chocolate chip cookie with a scoop of ice cream, all covered with chocolate sauce. I had the seafood chowder, a small portion of the coconut pumpkin soup, and pork belly. Celeste and I did not care for the coconut pumpkin soup. Dave did not like the seafood chowder but Ray and I thought it was good. We had planned to go to a game show, but I wanted to stop by our stateroom first as my eyes were bothering me and I was going to put drops in them. By the time I put drops in my eyes, we decided not to go to the game show. Dave wanted to watch the world series on TV. We received our disembarkation tags, but they were wrong – they showed we transferring to the airport! So Celeste and I went to customer service to get them changed.
The next two days are sea days. We all are planning to read the books we brought. Maybe we’ll catch a lecture or show. We have reservations for the specialty restaurant tomorrow night….just what we need…more food!
10/16 – 17/ 2019: Sea Days – ship is heading back to Fort Lauderdale and we enjoy 2 days of rest and relaxation after 5 port days in a row. On Wednesday, we walked the deck for exercise and had reservations for Crown Grill in the evening. Ray had surf & turf, Celeste and I had lobster and Dave had a steak. After dinner, Celeste did some walking to get her steps in. Dave and I wandered the ship and ended up making a contribution to the casino. On Thursday, we packed. Dave and I went to a game show – “True or Moo” which is actually “True or False”. Celeste and I went to the finals for “Voice of the Ocean” and heard 6 really talented, male, passenger vocalists. We were surprised there were no females. Then we had dinner with Ricardo and Nicolae for the last time. We all had surf & turf, except instead of lobster, it was 2 very large shrimp. Not much entertainment this evening, so we went back to the stateroom to watch TV, read and relax.
10/18/2019: Disembarkation – what a mess! They let too many people off the ship at once, so the luggage claim and customs was packed. Probably took an hour to go through all the lines and finally exit the terminal.