Day 6 – Charlotte Amelie, St Thomas, USVI
The Grand Pacific dining room had shashuka as the special for breakfast – feta and poached eggs on bed of tomato, peppers, onions and spices served in a mini-cast iron frying pan. I added an English muffin and bacon. (Norwegian rotates its breakfast menus, so every third day I skip oatmeal.) Then I climbed to the Library for the crossword puzzle and took a photo from the pool deck to share a view of Charlotte Amelie on Facebook. Settling into a shady spot on the top deck, I pushed through the multiple email mailbox queues before walking into the Garden Café for buffet lunch about 1. Another big mixed salad with a few sides of “Asian food”.
Returning to my chair as the chaise longue were so hard and inflexible that my back and butt hurt, I read some on the reader until nearly 4. Putting my feet up in the cabin, I had my “French hour” with foie, cheese, bread and wine from St Martin. Up to the Spinnaker for the solo gathering, down to Pacific for dinner with Jack, Brenda, Bob, Ross and Jacki. My choices were cream of asparagus soup, Italian meatballs, chicken and seafood paella with the Snickers pound cake to finish.
Leaving the dining room, I climbed a flight and went into the shops where I unsuccessfully participated in the two raffles. Heading forward, I had a Jameson’s Stout before heading to the theater to watch a Ukrainian couple perform acrobatics. They are roughly the same height, and I found it to be a good show. Back to Tankards where I met up with Bill and Joy and Rob and Michelle for more drinks. My notes say we closed the bar just before midnight. Somewhere along the line, the Jameson’s was finished and I switched to Bushmills, which caused me to think of Sheila, my cocktail hour drinking buddy on my recent October TA.
Day 7 – Tortola, BVI
Another day where I stayed aboard as I have little interest to visit beaches, snorkel, dive or shop. Oatmeal for breakfast, a salad at the buffet for lunch, sitting with folks from Quebec. The view from the shade on Deck 13 was of the Ilma Ritz Carlton, a 500-passenger luxury cruiser launched last year. The mattresses on the chaises looked too comfortable. By lunch, the local mobile network was grinding to a halt, so I read.
After my treat of another French hour in my cabin, I met up with the solos and descended for dinner. Gary, Paul, Rhonda, Todd and Beverly were at our table for 6. With my usual glasses of tempranillo and sangiovese, I had the blue cheese soup, scallops, and the rotisserie chicken, ending with a crème brûlée. Because I left my journal in the dining room under the chair, no notes on my later evening activities, but I was probably at Tankards with Jay and Bryan behind the bar.
Day 8 - Castries, St Lucia
This being my third visit to St Lucia, I had booked a ship’s excursion, Soufriere by land and sea, to further explore the island. On my previous trips I’d managed to visit and photograph the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, and was satisfied with my images from the second visit. Albeit the original starting time was 9:30, we received clearance to disembark at 10, and soon the pier was crowded with fellow passengers forming rough queues for their day’s adventures.
Into one of 3 buses with the same itinerary, we passed through the containers of the port as we headed through town to the hills overlooking the harbor. Passing the gate of the Government House, our first stop was an overlook of a marina where local crafts were available and folks used the facilities. I particularly like a truncated pole which had been carved and painted.
At our next stop overlooking Soufriere, reached following roads that climbed and dipped as they twisted following the hillscape, the Pitons were off in the distance, and volcanic fumes rose in the foreground. Down into the harbor and then out to Mourne Coubaril Estate, we sat at long tables for a cafeteria-style lunch. My chicken was delicious.
Then off to a demonstration of how cacao is grown, roasted, ground and used to produce chocolate. Featured was a donkey walking around a mill. A stop at the Toraille waterfall allowed those prepared with bathing costumes to get doused.
Back to Soufriere harbor, we were joined by the other groups and boarded a catamaran for about an hour on the water. This afforded us with more angles to photograph the Pitons and the coastline. The captain pulled into a cove and those who wanted to slipped off into the water for a swim. Continuing, more fishing villages dotted the coast, with the near full moon hanging low in the sky.
We returned to the harbor in Castries, gaining easy access to the ship’s pier, and avoiding the trap of the duty-free markets. Marketed as six-and-a-half hours, we were away closer to seven-plus.
Returning to my cabin, there was a message my journal had been turned into the Service Desk, so once I freshened up, I collected it and climbed to meet the solos. No notes on who was at the table, but my meal was cream of spinach soup (made fresh, but probably not fully washed as it tasting a bit of dirt), garden salad, beef goulash and sherbet.
After dinner at Tankards, I noted that few people were in the public spaces on Deck 6, despite two seriously important NFL games being broadcast, and the hypnotist in the theater. I had a Bushmills, finished the bottle of Glenfiddich, and then a Jameson’s Stout and still was in my cabin by half ten. I’d spent my evening speaking with a newlywed couple Anita and Michael from Ireland.
Day 9 – at sea
Originally scheduled for Grenada or Tobago, here was an opportunity to relax with a day just cruising. Breakfast started with a plate of cut melon pieces and then shashuka.
Importantly, I returned to my cabin and backed up the photos I had in the phones and camera. Then up to the Library for the daily crossword puzzle which I completed in Spinnaker. I read my ebook while the origami class sputtered, followed by two talks – cruising operations with officers, and future cruise opportunity (mostly a CruiseNext promotion, rather than destinations and itineraries which I expected.)
Lunch in the Pacific was corn chowder, shrimp fritters, Cuban rotisserie chicken and mocha pot-au-crème. After lunch I took a nap and then read for a bit. Not many folks showed up for the solo meeting, and I was to meet Mo, a British widow, for dinner at Moderna, the Brazilian steakhouse specialty dining venue. Dinner there is familiarly referred to a death-by-protein. There’s a really nice salad bar to start, followed by waiters holding barbecue spits with hunks of meat. If you desired a piece, they carved it off and you use tongs to move it to your plate. The eight offerings are on the menu; of the beef, only the flank steak was tender. Both chicken offerings were tasty, and I felt the lamb was the best. We both skipped the pork cuts, and Mo’s favorite was the grilled pineapple. I tried the chocolate tres leches cake for dessert.
When they presented the chit for the evening, I noted they had over-charged for the wine, and left with it still being disputed. Back at Tankard, Aura, the beverage manager, took the information and it was corrected. Jay wanted me to try Toki, a Japanese whiskey, which was okay. I returned to the Jameson’s Stout he’d found at another bar, stashing the bottle away just for me. With a couple from Newfoundland and Bill and Joy, we closed the bar.
Day 10 – Oranjestad, Aruba
Before I went to get breakfast, I prepared a bag of laundry. One of the Latitude perks is a free bag per excursion. (I think it should be per week, but, hey, free laundry!) I advised Aug, my room steward, so it would get in before the 9am cut-off. Oatmeal, fruit, juice and decaf in the Pacific dining room, and then I headed to the gangway.
Maybe my fourth visit to Aruba, I had no real plans. I’d taken my photo of the orange-roofed San Francisco di Asis Pro-Cathedral, so I decided to return to Pepe Margo Distillery. A small commercial venture, I decided to just sit at the bar and do the tasting. While there, in walked Bill and Joy, who I’d suggested visit, and they took the tour of the production facilities as I sampled rums, gin and liqueurs. Their “cocktail of the day” was a daiquiri made with the aloe vera liqueur, which I found interesting.
Bill had engaged with a consulting distiller, visiting from Germany. He pulled out a bottle of his own product, Rumreich, aged in bourbon casks, which I also got to taste. He didn’t share his other prizes, Valerie and Feller BrennerelKultur, aged in Amarone casks, but unopened. Leaving the distillery, I wandered back through shops until I reached the port, boarding the Jade about 2. After dropping my camera, I climbed to the Garden Café for another big mixed salad, with a slice of pepperoni pizza.
Staying on the upper decks, I found shade and read emails before the solo gathering. Dinner with David, Sebastian and Alex was bruschetta, cheese ravioli, seafood brochette with raspberry sherbet to finish.
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