Tuesday March 17th St. Maarten

Got up early today since we had to be ready for our excursion by 8:15. A few showers around made for a good rainbow.  

Check this out: there are FIVE cruise ships here this morning: Costa Pacifica, Mein Schiff, Arvia, Icon of the Seas (Largest cruise ship in the world), and our little (by comparison) Zuiderdam. If you do the math, that's about 20,000 cruisers!

For our excursion, we boarded a double decker bus for a tour of the island. The traffic is terrible! We stopped at a rum distillery and cheese factory. Highlight was a stop at Maho Beach, famous for its beautiful beach right at the end of the runway at the international airport. We were only there for 15 minutes but we saw three landings and I actually got two of them on video! That's a busy little airport!

Back to the ship by 1:30 for a light lunch in the Lido. Dinner tonight was our "specialty" day at the Canelleto, which was very good! 

Our entertainment tonight was a high energy song and dance routine by the resident troupe. Very talented young people!

Back to our room to watch the final of the World Baseball Classic - USA vs. Venezuela. Unfortunately, the ESPN reception on the TV was spotty at best which made watching almost impossible.

Tomorrow we'll be in Antigua and Barbuda.

Wednesday March 18 Antigua

Another pretty morning as we docked in Antigua. Celebrity Eclipse (3000) was already there. Our excursion took off in a small bus for a tour of the island. This island has a totally different feel from yesterday's St. Maarten, which was Dutch and French. This small island is part of the British Empire, although it's independent now. So, cars drive on the "wrong" side of the road, a bit disconcerting at first when you have to drive around a roundabout the opposite direction! All the cars are right hand drive; they come from Japan where they drive this way, too.

The locals are very black with that distinctive Caribbean accent and constant "Ya Man"!

We drove the length of the island on a terrible, rough road. First stop was a National Park which displayed some ruins of an old British fort on the hill. A spectacular view of the harbor below. We bought a gourd bird house from a local guy; seemed like a good souvenir!

Then down to Nelson's Dockyard a National Park and a UNESCO Heritage Site featuring restored buildings from the British Navy's facility built in the 1700s.  A secluded harbor with lots of zillion dollar sail boats. We were treated to a glass of rum punch or fruit punch.

We were back to the ship about 1:00 and time for lunch. At our tour guide's recommendation, we found a local joint called Hemmingway's and had a great meal of a fish sandwich and a bowl of fish chowder.

Ship is underway at 4:30. Our entertainment this evening was the magician we saw on our first night. He is great!!

Tomorrow we will tour Martinique.

Thursday March 19 Martinique

Arrived at the pier about 8:00. Our pier companion this morning is Royal Clipper, a beautiful 220 passenger five masted sailing ship. Owned by a Swedish company, she'll be relocating to the Med in a few weeks.

The island is quite mountainous. Our first stop this morning was an old catholic church, built in 1926, called Church of Balata, supposedly a replica of the Sacred Heart Basilica in Paris. Its in deteriorating condition, and I wonder why it was there in the first place. This area is very tropical, with a wide variety of flora.

Back down the hill to town, then up the western shore about 50 miles to Saint Pierre. We have passed into much drier areas, rocky shores, no beaches seen. Here we find the "Memorial de la Catastrophe de 1902". This is a small museum that commemorates the great volcanic eruption of Mt. Pelee in May of 1902 which completely obliterated the town, killing about 30,000 people. Historians conclude that there was 300 ships in the harbor at the time, all of which were vaporized. So, the harbor is popular please for divers to search for sunken ships. You can see some remnants of the original buildings. This was the largest volcanic eruption in the 20th century.

Back to the pier by about 1:00, time for lunch. We walked into the center of town with its very narrow, one way streets. Stopped by the cathedral of St Louis and sat for a few minutes of a mass - all in French. Lots of restaraunts and souvenir shops. We checked out a few eateries, including a McDonalds, but passed on them all - they all looked so seedy. So, we hiked back to the ship and had a nice lunch on board.

After lunch, Sam crashed with her book but I wasn't done yet. Across the bay is an historic fort which reportedly gives tours. So, I hiked all the way over there only to find it was closed. Oh well, I got my steps in today!

Unusual port departure today - we didn't leave until 8:30PM. Extremely rare for a departure after dark!

Tomorrow we explore Dominica.

March 13-14 Fly To Miami

March 13th. Flying to Miami to join our 11 day Holland cruise to the Eastern Idlands of the Caribbean.

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Note: We are a little anxious about our coming and going to Miami to meet our cruise ship. As of today, we are a month in to a war vs. Iran. Oil shipments are stopped at the straight of Hormuz, gas prices have shot up. We are also a few months away from a Trump war in Venezuela, which has affected travel in the Caribbean a little. And, I'm sure, American's aren't liked anywhere at this point.

Oh, we are also 4 weeks into a government shutdown. So TSA folks are not getting paid. So we expect delays at the airports.

Our country is a mess!! Thank you, Donald Trump!

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Our Uber arrived at 4:00AM as ordered. We sailed through the Boise Airport and arrived in Seattle on time. Got on the plane on time....then the trouble started. It was 55 degrees when we left Boise, lightly snowing in  Seattle! Problem was, the de-icing crew got way behind. We sat on the plane for 3 HOURS waiting to get de-iced. We finally left only 3+ hours late.

Once in Miami, we easily found the hotel (Embassy Suites by Hilton) shuttle bus and finally got to our room by 9:00. Decent late dinner in the hotel restaurant. Then to bed! 

Saturday March 14 Finally on the Boat!

This morning's breakfast at the hotel buffet. Lots of cruisers here! Turns out there are six cruise ships departing from the terminal today. Think about this: that's about 30,000 people! We were advised to be at  the terminal by 11:00 and we arranged for a hotel transfer van - no problem! However, then we found out that the ship had been delayed in docking this morning due to overnight storms; so they had to process departures.So now we had to sit in the waiting hall for TWO 1/2 hours before finally boarding the ship!

We got unpacked and familiarized ourselves with the ship. Not much different from the other Holland ships we'd been on but it seems a bit smaller.

These are the ships that are docked here today; they'd all left for their Caribbean destinations by 6:00PM. 

These are the ships: 

• Icon of the Seas (largest cruise ship in the world - 8500!)
• MSC World America (6500)
• Virgin Reslient Lady (4000)
• Regent

Fine dinner in the MDR then a short dance show in the theater.

Tomorrow is a Sea Day - we look forward to a relaxing day!

 

Sunday March 15 Sea Day

Warm, sunny, windy day at sea. Busy day, nonetheless. Presentations about the Islands, "Port talks", shore excursions and pirates. Excellent dinner at the MDR included steak and Espelette Beef Tenderlon. Followed by the World Stage for the always fun introduction of the Captain and crew followed by a hilarious magician named John Accardo.

Tomorrow is another Sea Day. The Captain has said to expect a gale force wind and rough seas!

Monday March 16 Sea Day

Our second Sea Day on the final leg to the islands. Very windy today with the ship bouncing around a bit, but not serious. But even though the sun was shining, it was not a good day to be out on the decks!

Our evening entertainment was a comedian who had us laughing until our sides hurt!

Tomorrow we go ashore at Phillipsburg on St. Maarten. It will be good to get our feet on solid ground!