Saturday, April 25
Airline “service” has sunk to new lows in the past 6 months...making a buck in any way they can in this economy. Last fall it was cutting food service so they could sell you a sandwich. The latest, at least on USAirways, is no pillows or blankets, but they will happily sell you a sealed packet containing a blanket, an inflatable neck pillow, an eyeshade and earplugs for $7. Beer, wine and cocktails are now $7. The aforementioned sandwich, along with a couple of chips and a cookie costs $7. And when you lower the tray table, you find an advertisement for Tylenol. At least the coffee, tea and soft drinks are still free, if reduced in the amount you receive, and the planes still take you where you want to go. Lastly, kudos to the pilot on the Philadelphia to San Juan leg for the smoothest landing I’ve experienced in a long long time. I wasn’t sure we were on the ground until he turned the air brakes on!
Sunday, April 26
Note to self: Don’t sail out of San Juan again unless absolutely necessary. I was in a hotel in Old San Juan, and getting there through traffic, an exodus from some sort of sports event, and narrow streets (on a large bus. no less) was only about 2 shades better than the traffic in Saigon last fall! Virtually every hotel includes a loud casino that runs all night long...or at least until about 4:00 a.m. then starts back up at 8:00 a.m. There were nice views of the ships in port from the hotel...of course our ship wound up at the far end on the other side necessitating another bus ride. The ship in the foreground of this photo is the
Carnival Victory. Our ship is visible in the far background.
I had forgotten (since my last trip on her was in 2005) just how huge the Caribbean Princess is! My cabin is on Deck 9 which is pretty high up, but the highest deck is 18 (which is the disco way up in the air on a pedestal kind of thing). My cabin is also almost as aft as you can get, which means quite a hike to get to most anything of interest. Ah well, I suppose the extra exercise won’t hurt me. My cabin is about 2.5 to 3 feet wider than a king-size bed. Unfortunately, that space on either side is compromised above chest height by upper bunks folded up against the wall. So, to avoid having to get in and out of bed folded over at the waist, I’ve asked to have the cabin rearranged to two twin beds which will at least put all the spare space into one place.
Other than that, no problems with the cabin. Being inside, it’s easy to get to sleep because it’s darker than the inside of a cow when the lights are off. The bathroom is a wonder of smallness. Someone would really have to work hard to fall down in there due to lack of space, but the shower is actually large enough to turn around in without getting attacked from behind by the shower curtain! That’s an improvement over many ships I could name! And when was the last time you used a hotel’s or ship’s built-in hair dryer that actually performed the way the controls said? This one does, and I’m impressed!
I am still dealing with the Maitre d’ trying to get the dinner table business straightened out. Both my travel agent and Mark and Mary’s agent went round and round with Princess about getting me at their table and getting that confirmed. So now that we’re on board, I am not only not at their table, I’m not even at their dinner sitting.
Monday, April 27
At sea. Haven’t seen Mark or Mary all day (as of 5:00 p.m.) which is not particularly surprising on a ship this huge. I totally cannot imagine sailing on one of those new behemoths that carry 6,000 or more passengers! This ship has at least 2,000 more passengers on board than is rational, and the noise levels in the public spaces range from loud to complete din!.
I will say that the port and shopping expert on this ship is much much better than the one on the two long cruises I took on Holland America in 2007 and 2008. Her name is Freddie and she’s from Montreal and has been doing the shopping shtick here in the Caribbean for about 8 years now. In person, one on one, she’s lovely and very helpful. Her public lectures are about 3 steps short of a Billy Mays TV pitch, but she does get the points across to the general public, which is good. Tomorrow on Barbados it’s a bank holiday, so just about everything but the shops at the port will be closed. In a few days at St. Thomas, the whole of downtown Charlotte Amalie will be closed for their Carnival parade. Neither situation bothers me as I’ve been to both places many times, and we’ll be back at St. Thomas next week anyway.
I’m afraid that this particular trip may turn out to be a bit thin on photos. Most of the islands I’ve been to in the past and already have plenty of pics. Most of the tours being offered are either for the young and physically fit instead of physically challenged, or are tours that I’ve already taken...sometimes more than once. The young man I spoke to at the Shore Excursion Desk this afternoon was not particularly helpful...however, tomorrow I’ll try to speak to Ina whom Freddie recommended, and see if there are any other options I might be able to manage. Of course I can always just go ashore on my own, which I may wind up doing in most of these ports.
Well, time to get polished up for formal night dinner and hope that the Maitre d’ has solved the seating situation. Then perhaps I can haul the laptop to a place on board with wireless reception and upload all this rambling. Yeah, I know I sound picky on all this, but I’ve spoiled myself by traveling on smaller ships in the last couple of years.
Tuesday, April 28
Barbados. Having been here several times in the last couple of years, I opted for a lazy day on board. The temp is lovely, the sky partly cloudy, and the decks mostly deserted with the majority of the 3,000 passengers ashore.
Barbados. A quiet morning spent with Mark on the Lido deck in the shade by one of the pools. Our main entertainment was watching the crew emergency drill putt-putting about the harbor in all of the life boats, followed by hosing down and stowing each boat. After that, I found a wifi area to post and read e-mail. (Will wonders never cease! Mark actually acquired a computer and an e-mail account two weeks ago! I nearly fainted when I found out!) Then after lunch an equally quiet afternoon in one of the lounges people-watching.
St. Lucia. The port of Castries is lovely as always. This time we are docked at Point Seraphina instead of downtown...not that the two are very far apart! Here is a photo of the downtown area. As you can see, the island goes just about straight up from the water. The interesting tidbit I learned last time I was here (see the South American blog) is that St. Lucia has the highest per capita number of Nobel Prize winners of any country...2 winners from a population of about 100,000.
