Walkabout in Oranjestad, Aruba

Posted on July 28, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of the Constellation from the marina in Oranjestad

After we finished our snorkel excursion at our port stop in Oranjestad, Aruba on Celebrity Constellation we had enough time left to explore a bit. We went to shore hoping to find an island tour as we had on Bonaire after finishing a snorkel excursion there. Unfortunately there were no waiting taxis at the port. One lone brightly colored open-sided van/bus sat empty, but the driver said an island tour would cost $100 each, a far cry from the $25 each we’d paid for the taxi tour in Bonaire. We declined at that price. He said he planned to head to a distant beach soon to pick people up who’d gone earlier and could take us there for $25 each, but besides already having seen that area from the water on the snorkel boat, getting left on a beach near to the end of a port stop without a known means of returning to the ship would not have been an inviting proposal even if we were dressed for beachgoing, which we weren’t.

ads and empty booths

We opted instead just to walk around the town in the area near to the port. On the way out we passed through a row of nearly deserted booths along the pathway out and a sign advertising shark attack drinks at Lucy’s bar in town.

shark attack drink

In town we came across that bar and happened to see one of those shark drinks at someone’s table. Possibly another passenger from the ship, or maybe a tourist staying in town somewhere.

shops next to the port

Other shops just outside the port were much busier than the booths had been. Of course these shops would be accessible to people not from the ship and as there were only 700 passengers onboard it may not have been worth the time and trouble to open many booths that day. Or perhaps they were unoccupied due to the people who had previously ran them going out of business while no ships were cruising. Some of them also could have been open earlier to provide last-minute tours and had closed for the day by then. All just speculation since we went straight from the ship to our snorkel boat and hadn’t passed through the port area earlier in the day when booths may or may not have been open.

scooters for rent near the cruise ship dock in Aruba

Just outside the port we saw scooters for rent.

bikes for rent

People looking for something to do in town could also rent bikes, which we saw in a couple different places.

submarine rides

Atlantis Submarines had an outlet near the port so that’s something else people could do there.

long row of little shops

There’s lots of small open-sided shops with brightly colored merchandise.

stand in front of one of the little shops

Local crafts are for sale too.

pink palace

We saw a place that looked something like a pink palace with several buildings sprawling across a block. It could possibly have been a hotel, but that’s just a guess.

blue horse statue

The town was dotted with blue horse statues. The first one we came across stood next to a sign that said Paarden Baai (Horse Bay) was so named because in the past horses would be offloaded from sailing ships by throwing them into the bay there, and having a strategically placed horse on shore to lure them in. Though I’d guess a horse suddenly finding itself in the sea would find the land itself pretty alluring. The sign did not explain how they threw horses off ships either. Does not sound like an easy task.

cow bench

Horses were not the only farm animals about town. We came across a cow sitting on a bench near a steak house.

pelican at the marina

We found a live creature too in the form of a pelican at a marina sitting at the end of a little channel that disappeared into a cave under a bridge in the main street.

a boat disappears into a cave under the street

Later out of curiosity in investigating where that channel led, we found that it went inside a hotel called the Renaissance Hotel. The ground floor of the hotel was open to the public with a Starbucks and other shops near to the boat stop.

boat stop inside the Renaissance Hotel

Signs at the boat stop said it was a free water taxi service for guests of the hotel who wanted to go to the listed stops at beaches and other tourist destinations on the island.

you don’t see phone booths much anymore

There were lots of shops and restaurants and a boardwalk by the marina. It also had an old-fashioned English style red phone booth.

bags at a souvenir stand near the port

The motto of Aruba is One Happy Island. They sell clothing and other souvenirs with that slogan printed on them. Our taxi tour driver in Bonaire said that was because when they burned a bunch of seized drugs the smoke wafted over to Aruba. Of course that’s not what they say in Aruba. According to them it’s because of their wonderful weather, beautiful beaches, and the island’s friendly inhabitants.

solar panel tree

There are all sorts of shops and shopping areas near to the port. We also came across a solar panel tree by a building next to a church. We saw trolley tracks by the port and in town, but did not see a trolley on them until we were nearly back to the ship. The trolley takes people into town, but by our experience you could walk there and back and have time to explore in between before the trolley ever goes by. It’s possible that it may run more often earlier in the day when more people are coming and going, or for ships with more passengers though. Or that it went by while we were somewhere where we couldn’t see the tracks. There might have been a sign somewhere with a schedule for it had we looked for one, but we didn’t.

Aruba sign

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023
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Hits and Misses on MSC Lirica

Posted on July 21, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Lirica in Khasab, Oman

On every cruise people will find things they like and don’t like about whatever ship they happen to be sailing on. These things will of course vary among passengers since different people like different things. This is my opinion of what I did and didn’t like about MSC Lirica.

We booked this cruise because of the port stop in Aqaba, Jordan so we could get to Petra

HITS

One of the biggest attractions to booking a cruise on the MSC Lirica is great itineraries at a good price. In fact this a ship that we booked specifically for the itinerary and price, not for the ship itself, though we did find plenty to like about the ship.

window seating on the Lirica

There are lots of places around the Lirica where people can find a place to sit with a view. Whether inside near a window or out on deck there’s quite a variety of different areas to watch the scenery go by.

relaxing on the back deck

Instead of having private cabins at the back of the ship, there are back decks with loungers on several levels available to anyone who wants to sit there. These are not nearly as crowded as the top decks. They also had stacks of chairs so if all the ones already set out were occupied (usually by towels rather than people) it was easy to just take a chair off the stack. There was also the option of going up or down the stairs that connected them all to a different deck if you couldn’t find a space you liked on the first one.

The Lirica also has open front balconies on multiple decks. There aren’t any loungers on the front balconies, but there is space for people to stand and see where the ship is going or take photos when sailing into port or through scenic places.

The cabins have lots of storage space. There’s a variety of drawers and cupboards to put things in as well as the closet, and plenty of room under the bed(s) to stash luggage.

piano bar – with violin

The ship has a variety of different music and dance venues with different types of music to appeal to different tastes.

mini golf

Although it is a smaller ship, it does have things to do. Besides pools and hot tubs, there’s also mini golf.

production show in the theater

This ship attracts multinational passengers speaking a variety of different languages. Their newsletter of the day’s events, which is called the Daily Planner, is available in a variety of different languages to accommodate their varied guests. Whatever language you receive your daily planner in lists scheduled activities available in that language so all the events you choose to go to will be in a language that you understand. Events and activities are held in different languages at different times or places.

The Daily Planner always had some sort of little blurb of interesting info about the port, or on sea days about MSC or a small tidbit about the ship.

Though not unlimited, wifi was by data used, not minutes, which is good because wifi on a ship is always slow. It takes a lot of minutes to load a little data so when they charge by the minute it costs a lot to accomplish a little.

Announcements on the ship are repeated in a bunch of different languages so that everyone can understand what is going on. Although MSC was originally founded in Italy and is based in Switzerland now the announcements were always given in English first before all the other languages. Probably because there are likely to be more people who understand English than any of the other individual languages even if English is not their first language.

The buffet usually had a good variety of stuff to choose from, and it wasn’t always the same things every day.

gelato stand

This ship didn’t have much in the way of specialty restaurants, but it did have a gelato place. Besides gelato they also served sorbet so there was something dairy free, which is a bonus for anyone with dairy issues. It would have been even better if the gelato and sorbet were free.

Being a European ship on an itinerary starting in Europe, I was afraid there might be many smoking areas throughout the interior, but the ship was not nearly as smokey as I feared it might be.

The crew and staff are multilingual. In the theater the same person would make announcements in more than 5 languages. Which took awhile to get through, but at least it included everybody. The main nightly shows themselves were generally done in English.

dhow boat excursion in Khasab, Oman

When booking excursions through the ship, they sent out a separate bus (or group when busses weren’t involved) for each language so they don’t have to repeat everything in a bunch of different languages. Sometimes there could be more if there weren’t enough speakers of a particular language to fill a bus, or a few leftovers of a couple languages combined if there were too many for one bus, but never as many languages as on the ship itself.

table in the dining room

They tried to assign dinner tables so that all the people at a particular table spoke the same language when they could, or at least have one in each party that could translate when that wasn’t possible. Which definitely helps in avoiding the awkward silences or separate conversations that occur with a language barrier.

couple’s massage tables

Spa services on this ship were not as expensive as what we’ve seen on some of the other lines.

They had some good quality stage shows, and a theater with mostly good seats.

MISSES

The ship has no guest laundries so on a long cruise the options for clean clothes are either buck up and pay the expense of having the crew wash it for you, or handwash in your cabin sink unless you want to bring an excessive amount of luggage.

Christmas ornament model of Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas

One of the first things I always do after the ship leaves port and the shops open is look for a Christmas ornament model of whatever ship I happen to be on in the gift shop. It’s always a disappointment if there aren’t any. Especially since we did not get off this ship until shortly before Christmas and the store clerk just said they wouldn’t be putting any out until the next cruise.

women’s steam room

The thermal suite has no pool or ceramic chairs. We were initially happy to see how cheap it was compared to thermal suites on other lines for that length of cruise, and booked pre-cruise, which saves money over the onboard price. When we got there we found their thermal suite consisted of saunas and steam rooms and a couple relaxation areas, and that was all. Plus the saunas and steam rooms were not co-ed. Apparently European men like to use them without clothing. The women’s had a sign saying proper swimwear was required, but even there someone showed up occasionally in nothing but a towel. I guess the lesson here is wait for the spa tour to book the thermal suite if you don’t know what that particular ship includes. At least it was cheap, and there was a nice view from the front relaxation area, which was never crowded.

There was indoor smoking allowed in a pub at the bottom of a stairway, and the door was not kept shut to keep the smoke from spreading beyond the confines of that particular room. It tended to waft up the stairs, and that was the stairway closest to our room.

there was a nice coffee bar – and it wasn’t open in the morning

The ship had a nice coffee bar. I don’t drink coffee, but my husband John was disappointed that the coffee bar was not open in the morning when he would have sometimes liked to have a specialty coffee. The only place open to get that in the morning was the stinky smoking pub. He also wants decaf, and there wasn’t any available at the buffet unless you order from bar service and pay for it. Instant decaf packets were free in the dining room, but when he ordered one they didn’t actually bring it to the table in time for him to have it with his breakfast so he just ended up having that packet to bring to the buffet later. Ordering one at dinner for the next day’s breakfast turned out to be the best solution – but that involves remembering to do so.

dining room on the Lirica

Service in the dining room was excruciatingly slow. Our waiter blamed it on the kitchen, but people sitting in a nearby waiter’s section were always onto dinner and sometimes even dessert before we ever got the appetizer. Instead of freely providing tapwater to everyone in the dining room they only served bottled water. This was free to passengers who booked through MSC USA as we did, but not to people who booked through their European site like our dinner time table mates had. (The water bottles they brought us were big enough to share with our dinner companions, but people at a table with nobody who booked through MSC USA had to pay for water if they wanted any.)

desserts at the buffet

Except for a few things like desserts, rather than having different stations for different items the buffet was sort of all one line, but people would cut in so as not to have to wait through whole thing for something further down. Which makes sense if you are the person who just wants to grab one thing quick, but not so much if you are the one trying to get through the line while numerous other people keep cutting in to get this or that.

The drink station at the buffet had an issue with passengers sticking their personal water bottles right onto the water or juice spigots and contaminating them.

This ship had no specific gluten free items at the buffet, no gluten free buns at the grill, and no gluten free pizza or pasta. The only gluten free stuff  they had is limited items in the dining room – and if you ask for one thing at breakfast like just a croissant or a muffin they bring out a plate of 3 things which they have to defrost to serve so it dries out and goes to waste if you don’t eat it within a short time period. Instead of serving just the one item you want, it’s a bun, a muffin, and a croissant all three. It would have been nice if they’d sent those buns up to the grill instead.

The Lirica lacked any specialty restaurants other than the gelato place and some sort of pop-up sushi place at the disco lounge in the evening. We did not check that one out. That wasn’t really a problem for us since we rarely go to the specialty restaurants anyway, but for some people it would be a drawback.

the pool deck on most cruise ships is called the Lido deck, but on the Lirica it is Vivaldi or just deck 11

There’s not a whole lot to do on your own on sea days. Europeans mainly just lounge around the pool deck – and typical of cruise ships even though it’s against the rules they put their towels and stuff out first thing in the morning to reserve “their” chairs all day long whether they actually use said chairs or not. Also typical of cruise ships, the crew never does anything about it even though there are signs posted saying that they will pick up any items left unattended for more than half an hour. We always managed to keep ourselves entertained though. There are scheduled activities for people who need someone else to provide their entertainment so it isn’t that there’s nothing for people to do.

sports equipment was only available when the outdoor stage was staffed

Sports equipment for things like the mini golf course and ping pong tables was not at the venue. You had to check the items out with the entertainment crew by the stage on the pool deck during their working hours, which is the only time those games are available for use. Other ships we have been on always have the sports equipment at the venue and people can use it whenever they want.

Trieste, Italy from the promenade deck

The promenade deck does not go around the entire ship so it’s not a good option for walking or jogging to get some exercise.

pool and hot tubs

We tried out the hot tubs up on deck one day and found they were barely warm. Which was a disappointment because hot tubs ought to be hot.

The cabin had a very tiny shower. Our shower curtain was missing several key hooks which meant that instead of curving around the outline of the shower pad it went straight across, cutting an already very small space in half.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023
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Balcony Cabin on MSC Meraviglia

Posted on July 14, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Meraviglia at Ocean Cay

MSC has varying levels of service and cabin choices that go along with the level selected. Of course the higher the level the higher the price so all of the suites are in the aurea category. The most basic level is bella, the mid-level fantastica, and the top level aurea. Balcony cabins are available at all three levels with cabins in the prime locations selling as aurea, average balcony cabins as fantastica, and those with blocked views, solid structure rather than plexiglass in front of the balcony, or located near noisy areas of the ship or at the extreme front or back the most likely to have the bella designation.

stateroom artwork

We had a fantastica balcony cabin on MSC Meraviglia. It was located at the middle of a mid-level deck, so about as mid-ship as it is possible to get. Meraviglia has two sets of stairs and elevators that connect all of the main passenger decks and we were nearly exactly halfway between them. Which is pretty handy for getting just about anywhere on the ship because you just go to whichever stairway is closest to wherever it is you want to go. There was also a lone elevator a bit closer to midship on each side, but you could not cross over from port to starboard at the cabin deck from those elevators so it was necessary to use the correct side to avoid a walk to the nearest main elevator/stairway to cross over when using that elevator to return to the cabin.

the hairdryer is hidden in a drawer that looks like angled trim under the desk

The cabin itself was about average size for a cruise ship cabin. We’ve stayed in balcony cabins on some other ships that were smaller and some that were bigger. This one did seem a bit lacking in storage space compared to most though. The closet was fairly small and it didn’t have many drawers. At first it seemed like there wasn’t even a hairdryer, but asking the steward where it was located, he pulled forward what appeared to be an angled bit of trim under the desk that turned out to actually be a drawer in which the hairdryer was contained. Our particular cabin may have had issues with the seal on the sliding door to the balcony because even when it was fully closed, locked, and latched if it was windy outside some noise howled through the edge of that door.

balcony on the deck above the one behind the lifeboats

The balcony was a bit on the small side with just room enough for 2 chairs and a small footstool. We were on the deck above the lifeboats so our view was not blocked by them, but we did look over the top.

average size cruise ship bathroom

The bathroom was about average size for a cruise ship cabin with a shower, sink, and toilet, towel racks, a bit of a counter, and 3 shelves above the counter. The shelves were of a reasonable size for cruise ship bathroom shelves, but the bar on the front edge was placed too high to keep small things from falling off the shelf.

separate shampoo and body wash, but no conditioner

Bathroom products seem to be one of the things cruise lines are currently cutting back on. The little bottles of hand lotion most ships used to provide have been non-existent lately. There’s still a soap dispenser by the sink, but where there used to usually be separate dispensers in the shower for shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, now there’s often just one all-in one. The Meraviglia still had separate shampoo and shower gel so that was better than some. It did not however have conditioner anywhere so it’s a good thing I always bring my own since you never know what you will find provided onboard.

Bathrobes are another thing that used to come standard already hanging in the closet of all the cruise ship cabins upon arrival, but lately I have had to ask the steward for one on every ship. This one was no exception. They do at least still bring one when asked for it. The other thing I had to ask for on this ship was washcloths, which normally are included with the other bath towels as standard bathroom supplies. Probably because this is a European ship, and for some reason Europeans don’t seem to use washcloths much. Very few hotels we’ve stayed in anywhere in Europe had any.

balcony cabin

The room had two beds that can be pushed together to make one, as is found in the majority of cruise ship cabins. The bed on this ship was quite comfortable. The room had a full-sized couch. The small refrigerator was set up as a mini bar, stuffed full with items that you have to pay for. We asked the steward to remove them so we could just use it as a refrigerator. There was no room to put anything else in there with all the mini-bar items taking up all the space. Stewards will always remove those items if you request it.

good to see that this ship does recycling

The garbage can out in the main room was lined with 3 bins of different sizes and colors, presumably one for garbage and two for recycling, though none of the sections was labeled as to what was expected to go in them. We just ended up putting whatever we had the most of in the bigger section and whatever else we wanted to get rid of in the smaller ones and let the steward figure out from there what was garbage and what was recyclable.

finishing drying on the wall

Like all modern cruise ships, the walls in the staterooms on the Meraviglia are magnetic. This comes in quite handy if you bring magnets to keep any paperwork organized and within easy reach on the wall. Also good for magnetic hooks, which can be used for more hanging space for clothes or other items. The hooks also come in handy for holding laundry lines. There is no self-serve guest laundry on the Meraviglia and sending laundry out to have it done by the crew is always expensive on cruise ships. The line provided in the shower is barely big enough for a couple swimsuits and this shower had structure only on one side so the magnetic hooks came in really handy for zig-zagging extra line through the shower to dry things. Stuff didn’t dry well in that bathroom even with the door open though, so once things were no longer dripping and more damp than wet lines could also be zig-zagged on the cabin wall using magnetic hooks for things to finish drying.

keeping the paperwork organized

Rather than having a sign for the doorknob or magnet for the door to indicate whether you wanted the room cleaned or didn’t want to be disturbed, this one had a switch that turned on various colors of lights above the door outside of the room. You could set it to service wanted, do not disturb, or just leave it off. It was the sort of room where you had to put your key card into a slot to make the lights inside the cabin work and it had an indicator light on the outside that let the steward know if there was a card in that slot or not so even if you turned on the light for wanting the room cleaned if there was a card in the slot he would assume someone was in there and not come in. On some ships we’ve put a business card in that slot so we didn’t have to use the key cards for it, but on this one leaving a card there all the time would have kept the steward out. Then the room never would have gotten cleaned so we just used a key card like people are supposed to. They do that so the lights are off when you leave the room whether you actually turn them off or not. That way they don’t have to generate a bunch of electricity to power lights in empty rooms. We do always turn the lights off when we leave the room whether there’s a card in the slot or not. It’s just easier with a business card so there’s no problem with the person whose card it is leaving the room and taking their card while the other person is still there, getting left sitting in the dark.

magnetic hook

With fantastica service we had twice daily cleanings, which used to be standard on all cruise ships, but is getting more and more rare these days. Our assigned steward was out sick for a portion of the cruise so a different one had to fill in. He may have been doing additional rooms to whatever he was actually assigned, but he did a good job. Probably better than our actual steward who had a tendency to miss obvious things like a vent that hadn’t been cleaned in so long it was choked completely full of dust when we first arrived.

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Quantum of the Seas

Posted on July 7, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Quantum of the Seas

Quantum of the Seas launched in 2014, the first of Royal Caribbean’s Quantum class. The 1141-foot-long ship holds over 4000 guests. Unusual onboard activities include a skydiving simulator, bumper cars, and the North Star, an observation pod that rises high above the deck for the ultimate view. There are 14 passenger decks, some just with staterooms and others with public areas. Passenger decks run from deck 3 to deck 16 with crew areas on the decks below. Unlike many cruise ships where deck 14 sits just above deck 12, this ship has a deck labeled as deck 13. After a season in the Caribbean the ship spent some years cruising Asia and currently alternates between Alaska and Australia.

stairway from the casino to the promenade

Royal’s app said that the only smoking areas on this ship were on a couple of outside decks and that there was no smoking allowed inside the ship in any public areas, staterooms, or balconies. Their daily onboard newsletter said that as well, but that’s basically false advertising because it doesn’t apply when sailing from USA ports where smoking is allowed in the casino. Unfortunately the casino on this ship is not only open at both ends, but also has a wide-open stairway going up to the promenade deck. Too bad other countries aren’t like Australia. None of the ships sailing from there are allowed to have any indoor smoking. Quantum did seem to have a better ventilation system than some ships which would clear up the smoke when the casino was unoccupied or didn’t have too many people smoking at once, but it wasn’t good enough to keep it from spreading while in heavy use.

a small portion of Quantum’s promenade

The promenade area has a variety of different shops, pubs, eateries, and music venues. The Promenade Cafe is free, but the Patisserie across the aisle has larger pastries and fancier drinks you have to pay for. Sorrento’s Pizza next to the Promenade Cafe is also free.

bumper cars in the seaplex

Quantum has a lot of places to go and a quite a variety of things to do. There’s an entertainment area called the SeaPlex that offers many ever-changing free activities. Sometimes the area hosted basketball or ping pong tournaments, but other times it might be set up for laser tag or even bumper cars. They could pretty much set it up for anything they wanted and have supplies for. The ship also offered the usual sort of cruise ship activities like trivia and music in other venues.

Two 70

Another place unique to this class of ship is a room with a wall of windows called Two 70 at the stern of the ship. That area is used for a featured show as well as for other activities. When there’s nothing going on there the windows have a great view of the wake and whatever else is behind the ship. The hallway leading to Two 7o had a wide-open central space with seating and a giant chandelier. There were a couple of eateries, a wine bar, and a few shops along the edges. Upstairs in Two 70 there was a small library and some balcony seating for the show.

the North Star rising above the ship

For a nominal fee the ship offered a couple other things unique to this ship class. One is the North Star, a viewing pod that rises 300 feet above the deck on a big metal arm. Best view ever from a cruise ship. It has windows all around and a control panel for the guide who takes people up in small groups that made reservations for that time slot.

Melissa in the iFLY skydiving simulator

Another different and interesting experience Quantum offers is the ifly skydiving simulator. It’s pretty much a vertical wind tunnel that lets you fly and is supposed to feel like you’re skydiving without having to actually jump out of a plane. I haven’t ever skydived for real so I have nothing to compare as to whether it feels similar or not. Either way it’s lots of fun.

Bionic Bar with robot bartenders

The ship has a mix of free and pay-extra eateries, but we thought the food at the free ones was plenty good enough and never tried any of the ones that cost extra. Like all cruise ships it also has quite a variety of bars. It even has a bionic bar, which looked to be an earlier version of the one found on Oasis class ships like Wonder of the Seas and Symphony of the Seas. The set-up was much the same, but the robots were bigger and less streamlined and the bottles hanging from the ceiling above them were set farther apart to accommodate the larger robots. It didn’t look like there were as many bottles there so the drink choices may have been more limited. There was no ordering pad on the counter like the newer ships have. That had to be done through a tablet in the hands of the person working there. Robots haven’t taken over yet, somebody still has to tend to them.

cascading pools in the solarium

Our favorite hangout was the solarium, which is always our favorite place on Royal and Celebrity ships. Having a solarium is one good reason to choose Celebrity or Royal Caribbean when booking a cruise. This one had a row of three cascading pools set one below the other between stairways down to the lower level with deck chairs at front-view windows. There were also a couple of hot tubs down at that level. The upper level had deck chairs too, as well as some covered pods, a bar, and the solarium bistro which was open during mealtimes and a good alternative when other places like the buffet were too crowded as well as being convenient if you happened to get hungry in the solarium when it was open. The solarium is an adults-only area enclosed in glass windows, which is a lot nicer than an outside deck on a cruise to Alaska, or any cruise if it’s cold or windy or you don’t want to fry outside in the sun. There was also an all-ages glassed in pool deck next door on this ship as well as an outside pool area behind that. About half the chairs had bright pink signs right on them saying not to save deck chairs, which seemed to work a lot better than just one sign at the entrance for keeping towels from occupying deck chairs all day with no people actually using those chairs ever in sight like happens often on cruise ships.

random people on the rock-climbing wall

Out on the outside decks there were other things to do like a rock-climbing wall and a flowrider. Alaska weather isn’t necessarily the best for outdoor things, but there were some warm days during our cruise and even on colder days there were people out there. The track on this ship is just the sort that is pretty much a painted line around the upper deck where everyone is going to walk to get from place to place anyway. It did not have the sort of promenade deck that goes all the way around, though there was a bit of space to get outside on the promenade on each side. One side had a smoking area, but that’s easily avoided by not going out on that side.

animals from 3 different elevators

The ship had some of the odd and ugly statues seemingly required in cruise ship decor here and there. It had some fancy decor too like the giant chandelier in the walkway to Two 70. Different venues around the ship each had their own unique look. Some of the elevators had a glass wall at the back with a view of more glass elevators across a little open area and a wall of butterflies going up one end. The elevators without a glass wall each had a different animal character on their back wall. Stairway art included a lot of birds and rabbits, but there was quite a mixture of other things there as well.

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The Awesome Mango Daiquiri

Posted on July 4, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

mango daiquiri

No doubt mango daiquiris are delicious. What makes this particular one so awesome? It’s just as delicious as any other mango daiquiri, but it’s made with real fruit and no added sugar! I first tried mango daiquiris on the sugar train shore excursion in Saint Kitts. They were good, but I didn’t really think about them much afterword. On the rare occasion I have a drink on a cruise it’s usually a piña colada. We’ve always avoided the all-inclusive sort of cruises because normally they cost a lot more and we’d just be subsidizing other people’s drinking. Then we happened on a good deal on a Celebrity cruise that was all inclusive so of course we had to make use of the included drink package. Not that we suddenly turned into alcoholics or anything – you can use it for specialty tea, coffee, hot chocolate, virgin drinks, or sodas too, but I did have more than the usual zero to one drink I’d normally have on a cruise. Piña coladas are good of course, but remembering the mango daiquiri from that excursion I tried that too, and they were definitely good whether virgin or not. Odds are on the ship they’re made with daiquiri mix or simple syrup (which is full of sugar) and mango juice (or some sort of mango flavoring) plus ice, but not likely any real fruit. Not sure about the train. This recipe has all the taste without any simple syrup or daquiri mix – and there’s a virgin option too.

ingredients for mango daiquiri

MANGO DAIQUIRI RECIPE

1 cup frozen mango pieces

1/2 cup ice

1/4 cup coconut rum

1/8 cup triple sec

1/8 cup lime juice

1/2 cup pineapple juice

Amounts listed are per serving. Put all ingredients into a blender and mix. The height of the solid and liquid ingredients in the blender should be about the same before blending. If your blender is weak cut the mango into smaller bits and crush the ice before putting them into the blender for ease of mixing, If the blender struggles too much add more liquid. Putting the liquids into the blender first and then adding the solids makes it easier for the blender to do its job. Probably because there’s a bit more liquid around the blades at the start that way. For other fruit daquiris substitute the fruit you want for the mango and use an appropriate juice for that fruit if pineapple doesn’t go well with it.

solid and liquid ingredients should come up to about the same height in the blender

VIRGIN OPTION

Omit the rum and triple sec and substitute 1/2 cup mango nectar per serving instead.

ready to drink

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Miami Cruise Port

Posted on June 30, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Symphony of the Seas docked in Miami

Miami, Florida has the largest cruise port in the world with 10 functioning cruise ship terminals, soon to be 11. Many terminals are built by and for specific cruise lines, though terminal J serves several of the small-ship luxury cruise lines. On-port parking is provided for drive in passengers. Drop-off passengers exit vehicles at the entrance to their ship’s terminal whether coming by private car, taxi, uber, limo, or shuttle bus. Some of the terminals are new, others have undergone recent renovations whether to modernize that particular terminal or in some cases to accommodate various cruise line’s ever-larger ships. Royal Caribbean’s Terminal A (AKA The Crown of Miami) is currently the largest cruise ship terminal in the USA. Which is fitting as Royal Caribbean at any given time has several of the largest cruise ships in the world even though some of their ships that had the designation of largest in the world at the time they were built don’t even make the top 20 now. While their older ships don’t, Royal’s newest ships do. Most of the Miami cruise ship terminals letter designations follow the alphabet, but Virgin’s is dubbed terminal V (AKA terminal H or Palm Grove.) Terminal B (Norwegian’s) is also known as the Pearl of Miami. MSC has a new terminal under construction due to open later this year. It will be the biggest once it opens, able to berth 3 ships at the same time. Two of those berths designed and built by MSC to accommodate its largest new ships, and the third by Miami-Dade for use by other lines.

ships docked in Miami

If you are arriving by uber, it’s really helpful if you know the address to the specific terminal where your ship docks so you can enter the correct address when you book the ride. Otherwise the route may be scheduled to the wrong terminal. With taxi drivers you can just say which ship it is since the ride isn’t pre-set to a specific terminal before you even get in the car like uber is. If you didn’t give the right address and your uber driver heads to the wrong ship you can divert them to the correct one, but that messes up their completion of journey on their app so it is much better to use the right address as each terminal has its own.

Miami port map

Miami Cruise Port is located on Dodge Island in the shelter of Biscayne Bay. It’s just over 9 miles from Miami airport so not too costly for taxis or ubers if you go directly to or from the airport to the cruise terminal. Ships sail in and out in a long channel guided by a pilot. If you look out at the right time you might see the pilot boat pull up next to the ship as it enters/exits the channel so the pilot can get on or off depending on which direction you are heading. Dolphins also may escort the ship through the bay.

view from Symphony of the Seas while docked in Miami

Cruise ships are not the only ships with terminals at the Port of Miami as there are facilities there for cargo ships as well. Cruise ship passengers will see them in use as they sail in or out of the port. Dodge Island is a manmade island created when the channel was dredged to improve access for shipping in the early 1900’s. It was originally several small islands, but all were joined together in further dredging that expanded the waterway in the 1960’s when the port moved to Dodge Island. The facilities have been expanded further since then with new terminals built and others remodeled to accommodate the ever-larger size of cruise ships. Construction and renovation of terminals is somewhat of an ongoing process there.

waiting to get in the door of the port building

In the old days people could just go into the building as soon as the door was open and check in for their cruise in the order they arrived, other than people with priority boarding who were always taken first. Checking in on Royal now involves scheduling a time online when you complete your cruise registration. At the port people line up at signs for their scheduled time. When the current time lane clears the next line is let through, but to a longer secondary line to get to the actual door than the one where people whose scheduled time it is get sent to.  Paperwork (or the same info on phones if people don’t have it printed out) gets checked then people are sent upstairs to wait in another line.

inside a cruise terminal in Miami

On the day we were there to board Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas once we got upstairs there was a row of lines, but people were assigned to a line rather than picking one of their choice. Some lines went to one help desk, others to two. Even the one desk line we were sent to would have moved fairly quickly if it weren’t for the person at the other end of those lines directing people from some of the other lines to the one desk our line had leaving anyone assigned to that one particular line standing still and never moving along at all unless people made a break for an open desk when she wasn’t looking. Meanwhile all the other lines filled and cleared multiple times while the people in our line went nowhere. It took forever for the two groups ahead of us to get through. When it was finally our turn as soon as the desk opened up we started heading for it, but the lady turned around and sent people who had just arrived in the next line over so recently they hadn’t even stopped walking yet there instead. As soon as one of the two desks the line on the far side of us had that was kind of hidden behind a big pole cleared we made a run for it while her back was turned and got helped there. The people behind us in line were still waiting in that line as we headed off to the ship, with another new arrival from a different line at the desk to our line. That employee was definitely more of a hindrance than a help because without her people would have just gone to the desk(s) at the head of their line and everyone would have gotten through fairly quickly. Either she really hated that particular line for some reason or somebody was doing some sort of an experiment on what people would do if they were sent to a line that never moved.

view from docked ship in Miami

Checking out involves getting off the ship, finding your luggage if you didn’t bring it out yourself, passing through customs, and then exiting the port by whatever means you had planned. That could be by private car if you parked there or had someone picking you up, by taxi uber, or shuttlebus, or on a post–cruise tour. We had an Everglades to airport excursion booked when we disembarked Symphony of the Seas because our flight was late in the day so we had lots of time and that gave us something to do.

The gangway connects the ship to the port building and is the way passengers embark and disembark

They had everyone on the excursion meet at the ice arena, but rather than any guidance to the bus we were just sent off the ship when they decided it was time for us to go, leaving everyone on their own to negotiate their way through the port and find where the tour bus stops. There were a few people out in that area to ask where to go, but not all had the same answer. People from the tour did all eventually end up in the same place, but the bus wasn’t there. There were supposed to be separate busses for Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports, but the Miami one never came so the Fort Lauderdale bus took everybody and stopped at both airports after going to the Everglades. Luckily neither tour had been full so there was room on the one bus for everyone.

view of Miami from docked ship

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Jay Peak Tram and Trails

Posted on June 23, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

tram view from the top of the peak

There is quite a network of trails going up the side of Jay Peak between Jay Peak Resort in Vermont and the top of the mountain. When the tram is running it goes all the way up to the top. Some of the trails also go to the top so the upper trails don’t necessarily have to be reached on foot when the tram is running. There are ski lifts all over the mountain too, but none of them go all the way up like the tram does. None of them were open in the off-season when we were there either. Though some of them are quite steep, there are trails under the lifts so you can hike to the tops of many of the lifts or go up one trail and then find lots of others while you are already up on the mountain.

top of a ski lift

Jay Peak is mainly a ski resort, but when visiting during other seasons the trails are available for hiking, and some for biking as well. They have trail maps in the lobby showing the hiking trails. The trails start on the peak side of the lodge near the tram, but there isn’t any signage indicating what are the official hiking trails there and what isn’t. Some Nordic ski trails start in the same general area. Their entrance is far better marked, though up on the hill it’s just colored numbers for them the same as for the hiking trails. The ski runs have name signs all over the hillside. There are a lot of different ski runs on the hill. Some ski runs go through the forest and are marked as ungroomed glade trails with a warning not to ski them alone.

entrance to a glade ski trail

glade ski trail in the fall with leaves instead of snow

If you hike up the mountain you may come across trail intersections with the numbers shown on the hiking trail map. These are often accompanied by signs for other trails saying which trails go which direction. This would be more helpful if the trails on those signs were indicated on the hiking map, but they are not because they are ski runs so the names don’t help any for figuring out where you are on the hiking trail, or in some places whether you are actually even still on a hiking trail at all or have ended up on one of the Nordic trails or a ski run.

Trail or ski run?

This of course means you have a lot more ways to get back down the mountain than indicated on the hiking map, but it also means you may not actually be on the trail you think you are. The ski runs generally go down to the lodge, often with a view of it from higher up, so if you get lost or just want to get back quicker that’s a good way to go. They’re not hard to find since there are ski runs pretty much everywhere. Unlike the hiking trails which are far more limited, poorly marked, and much harder to find.

ski runs without snow make steep, but hikeable trails

As previously mentioned, the tram goes all the way to the top of the mountain, but the numerous chair lifts only go partway. It’s not too far to hike to the top of some of those lifts if you don’t mind a sometimes steep uphill hike. Hiking all the way to the top where the tram goes would be steeper as well as farther, which is why the upper trails are marked as the most difficult on the hiking map. Distances between trail markers and the distance of each named trail would be really useful information, but it is not provided. Trails under ski lifts are obviously not the intended hiking trails, but some of the ski runs are not right by the lifts so it’s not always obvious if those are ski runs or trails unless you see a sign.

Not the top – it’s just one of the supporting towers for the tram to the left and a ski lift to the right up on what looks like the peak in this view. The actual peak is behind it and higher.

I hiked two kilometers up a ski run the second day I was there, which put me higher on the mountain than the tops of the ski runs where I’d gotten to by trails that weren’t directly under them the day before. 2k definitely seemed closer to what looked like the top than to the lodge, but the higher you go the steeper it gets. The hiking trails up that high on the map approach the peak from an angle rather than more or less straight up like the ski runs, but they are not well marked. I never found either of the hiking trails that goes all the way to the top of the peak, just lots of signs naming many different ski runs.

up on what looks like the top until you get there and find out it’s not even close

As you hike up it often looks like you are nearly there, but at the top of the next rise you see it is actually farther than you think. Then when finally reaching the top of the peak you can see from some of the ski runs you see that the actual peak is across a valley and up on another rise still quite some distance away.

you don’t want to find one of these ticks

The woods are beautiful, but they carry tiny dangers in the form of ticks. After a couple days of hiking up the mountain I found a tick on the back of my shoulder. Maybe not fully engorged, but enough that it had probably been there since the first day, which put it over the 36 hour danger zone for the possibility of contracting Lyme disease. It had black legs so was likely the bad sort of tick that carries it (deer tick). We live where there are no ticks and have no experience dealing with them but found another guest there who knew how to twist ticks out with tweezers.

lower tram station

My only prior experience with a tick was about 30 years ago of the not disease carrying kind (wood tic) in Minnesota. There they burned the tick’s back end so it would pull its head out and not leave any mouth parts behind. Either times have changed as people learn more about them, or it’s the different sort of tick or area of the country because all the locals or people from anywhere that has ticks that we talked to in Vermont said if you do that it regurgitates and you don’t want that because of more likelihood of contracting Lyme disease. Some recommended 2 or 3 weeks of doxycycline just in case and others said wait and see because the doxycycline tears up your stomach and makes you extremely sun sensitive.

on the top of the world (or at least the top of Jay Peak)

We sent a photo of the tick to our home medical clinic, who of course have no experience dealing with ticks and they did a prescription for one dose of doxycycline as hopefully a preventative and then said watch how it heals because if it heals from the inside so it looks like a bullseye or if I get sick then to come in. Apparently you have 4 weeks from a tick bite to treat for Lymes before it can spread beyond the bloodstream to cause what could become permanent issues. The symptoms for getting sick from it are about the same as Covid or the flu though so that would make it hard to tell.

trail sign at the peak

After I got home a friend of John’s contacted a doctor who is a leading expert on Lyme disease and he gave me a 3-week prescription for doxycycline, which meant I was on it a couple weeks later when I went on a Caribbean cruise. Having to avoid sun in the Caribbean is not the best of situations, but better than risking Lyme disease. I got a full-body UV blocking swimming suit, which is handy for snorkeling anyway as it eliminates the need for sunscreen over a large portion of the body. That’s a bonus for the ocean because most sunscreens are very harmful to coral and Caribbean coral is rapidly disappearing. Luckily reef safe sunscreen does exist, but that doesn’t mean everyone uses it. The full body UV blocking swimsuit has an advantage over any sort of sunscreen because it won’t wash off or wear off so you can stay out longer without worrying about getting sunburned. Great for all water sports, not just snorkeling.

tram at Jay Peak

The tram up the mountain was closed through the beginning of our stay, but opened the day I found the tick. The sun shone brightly that day, the first time since we had been there. Having both wanted to go up the tram and no more desire to hike in the woods we took the tram up after the tick was removed.

view through the tram window

The ride up the tram is probably beautiful any time of year, particularly so when all the leaves are in their finest fall colors. At the lower part it looks steep when you look up the hill from the tram, but relatively flat looking down. I can attest from walking up it that that is an optical illusion because it is all steep when you hike up it.

it looks like the tram is nearly to the peak, but that’s just the first peak, not the real peak

What looks like the uppermost tower from the lower part of the hill is really only partway up. The tram goes over the part where the land drops lower a bit after what looks like the peak from lower down, then rises up again behind the little valley that they called the bowl before it gets to the actual peak.

upper tram station

After the bowl there’s a steep rise up the last bit of the mountain. The upper tram stop is just below the highest point of the mountain. The actual peak is jagged rocks so the station is next to it.

plaque at the top of Jay Peak

Once out of the tram there’s a stairway and then some rocks to climb to get to the actual top of the peak. A small plaque marks the spot. Little puddles in the rocks from recent rain resembled tide pools, but without little sea creatures. The trees are all evergreens up that high, and the ones in the rocky top are all stunted and small like little bonsai trees.

recent rains left little pools in the rock

On a sunny day the view is excellent. If the top of the mountain was shrouded in fog as it had been much of the two previous days there probably wouldn’t be much view at all. Especially at the times where from the lodge you couldn’t even see that there was a mountain there at all. The day we went up if you stood in the right spot by the lodge where you could see that second peak you could see all the way up to the tram stop on top, and from the top you could see all of the surrounding area well beyond the lodge.

view of the next peak over from Jay Peak

When we first got out of the tram though sunny there, on the far side fog rose from a hollow covering the next peak over, which was quite close by, but the other 3 directions were clear and sunny. That fog rose and drifted away while we were there, leaving that side clear as well.

people are taller than the little trees at the top of the peak

The views from the tram and from the top were well worth the price to ride it up there. The building at the top had a restaurant in it, but like most everything else at that lodge it must be for ski season only as it was closed. Some people ride the tram up and then hike down. The upper portion of the hiking trails that go to the top are quite obvious from up there. Having no desire to set foot in that woods again I took the tram back down. The views are better from the tram than from the trails anyway.

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Saint Martin Island Tour

Posted on June 16, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of the cruise dock from the bottom of the zip line

After finishing an early morning zipline excursion in Saint Martin on our visit there on Royal Caribbean Wonder of the Seas, we had time to do something else since the ship stayed in port most of the day. The taxi stand had several tours of varying lengths, of which the per person price dropped with the addition of more people. We tagged along with 6 people from P&O Britannia, which was the other ship in port that day. They were on a 14-day cruise out of Barbados.

tour van and driver

The van was pretty spacious with a separate seat for each of the 4 couples. At capacity it could have held 15, but their tour prices only went up to 8 so they are apparently not intent on crowding people in, which makes for a nicer tour.

entering France (we were actually leaving, but the signs were for traffic going the other way)

Saint Martin has a Dutch side where the cruise docks and airport are, and a French side which is larger. Back in history both sides had salt ponds where they harvested salt and they also grew crops. Now the economy mainly depends on tourism. Although each side belongs to a different country people pass freely from one side to the other with just signs at the side of the road to indicate where one country ends and the other begins. There’s no formal border crossing.

map of Saint Martin

The van driver talked a bit about island history, putting a different spin on the story of the Dutchman and Frenchman starting at the same point and walking around the island in opposite directions until they met up again, drawing the boundary between the points where they started and finished. On an island with a total of 37 square miles the French side has 21 and the Dutch side 16. This driver said that the reason the French side is bigger is because the Frenchman swapped out the Dutchman’s water for rum so the more rum he drank the more breaks he took while the Frenchman walked along nonstop, giving that country the largest portion of the island. We’ve heard the story of dividing the boundaries that way before, but not the bit about the rum. With both the cruise port and airport in modern days the Dutch got the more lucrative side even if it is smaller. The Dutch spell the island Sint Maarten, and the French Saint Martin.

lots of iguanas

The van headed over to the French side, some of which was still recovering from hurricane damage. Most places looked fine, but some had damage or were surrounded in debris. We took a brief stop for a view of a bay where people sometimes go with their yachts. Next he stopped at a small roadside stand. They had t-shirts and other touristy stuff for sale, but their big draw was the iguana wrangler. One of the people working there provided food and water for local wild iguanas and there were a lot of them taking advantage of the easy meal. Also a bunch of small lizards like skinks or geckos. Besides the herd of iguanas next to his booth, there were more hanging out in the nearby bushes along the shore of a lake. They probably made more money each day in the iguana wrangler’s tip jar than they did selling tourist trinkets.

parasailers at Orient Beach

Next we went to Orient Beach, which the driver said was partly clothing required and partly one of the French side’s famous nude beaches. Everyone had their clothes on in the area where we parked. If someone was staying at that beach long enough to have time for it they could rent personal watercraft, go parasailing, or ride around on big blow-up things towed by a boat. We were not there long enough to take advantage of any of those things other than to take photos of other people enjoying them – and to realize it’s been a long time since we’ve been parasailing. I’d love to go again sometime, but it’s been awhile since we’ve seen it offered anywhere where we’ve been staying long enough to do it.

little bar at Orient Beach

We could see kiteboarders and windsurfers farther down the beach in the distance, but there weren’t any where we were. There were lots of beach umbrellas and a little beach bar where 2 drinks cost just a few more dollars than the price of one drink on the ship.

small jet at Maho Beach

We saw lots of island scenery on the drive. A shopping stop in the French capital of Marigot was on the agenda, but when we got there all the parking was full so we just drove through and didn’t stop. The last stop was Maho Beach where people go for plane spotting.

Where’s the beach?

Maho Beach was quite different than it had been the last time we were there. Last time it was a big beach with a tiny beach bar and a surfboard standing out on the beach with the times large airplanes were expected to fly overhead. This time it was a tiny beach with a huge bar and lots of other shops.

plane schedule for the day

There was still a surfboard listing airplane times, but it’s inside the bar now. A hurricane had gone through the Caribbean and into Florida just a few days before our cruise started. On the way to Maho Beach our driver said the storm had taken all the sand away and he wasn’t kidding. Where much of the beach had been there were just large rocks piled up next to the road and then water. The large rocks are probably there to keep the road from washing away in a storm. There was also double fencing along the airport to keep people from getting all the way up to what used to be the only fence where crazy people would stand to get blown to the beach by departing jets despite signs warning they might get killed or injured doing that.

there’s even a pool in the shopping complex now

Last time we were there people were all in beach chairs waiting for the arriving jets to get the close-up of the underside of an airplane photos and videos, but this time there was no beach under the airplane’s path, just rocks and water. We had just a short time there on the tour, but did see one jet fly in. Not the giant KLM plane that is the highlight of that beach, but not the smallest of planes that lands there either. Our driver did say that the sand will come back and there will be a beach there again.

kayak by the water behind the iguana wrangler’s stand

Following our visit to Maho Beach, the taxi brought us back to the cruise port. We saw more of the island this time than on any previous trips. We did not stop in Phillipsburg or drive through the main part of town where tourists go, but from the outskirts where we went it looked like there was construction going on to repair things from a previous hurricane. On our last port stop there the town looked pretty bedraggled from hurricane damage followed by no tourist dollars to provide income to fix anything through covid, but after having ships there again for awhile by now it has had some time to recover. The tour guide did not mention anything about any new damage in Phillipsburg from the storm that passed through just before our visit.

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Bahama Barrels: Winemaker for a Day

Posted on June 9, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

ships docked in Nassau

Our 11-day cruise on MSC Meraviglia made two port stops at Nassau, Bahamas. On the first visit John booked tours for us through Vacations to Go, who sends out a list of tours you can book through them at the port stops when you use them to book your cruise. These tours are generally at a lower cost than ones booked through the cruise line, but typically don’t provide transportation from the port. That was not an issue for us in Nassau as both the tours he booked were at Graycliff Hotel, about a 15-minute walk from the ship. He wanted to do the wine tour, but since I don’t even like the smell of wine or most other fermented things, I did not want to join him for that. Not wanting to leave me out when I said to just go by himself, he booked me for a chocolate factory tour, which turned out to be an excellent experience. Since I did not accompany him to the winery he was kind enough to write a blog about it. The winery is called Bahama Barrels.

courtyard in front of the winery

Bahama Barrels offers a unique opportunity to become a winemaker for a day.
Actually though, this is not wine making but rather wine blending, tasting and
learning.

inside the winery

The winery is housed in a quaint, historical 1937 church built by the Sisters of
Charity Academy and convent. Locals say the building went from one kind of spirit
to another. The winery is also part of the historical Charleston and Heritage
Village across the street from the historic Graycliff Mansion and belongs to the Graycliff Hotel.

stainless steel vats of aging wine line the back of the winery

Unlike most wineries, Bahama Barrels does not grow their own grapes because of
the climate, soil and mostly lack of fresh water. Instead of growing grapes they
have partnered with several vineyards from around the world. Each vineyard they
partner with adheres to Bahama Barrels strict, proprietary methods of turning
grapes into wine. Wine barrels from these vineyards are shipped to the winery in
containers. Upon arrival to Bahama Barrels the wine continues to age before
blending and bottling. Several varieties of reds and whites fill barrels or vats
throughout the old church property.

wine tasting & blending note sheet and sample labels

After quick introductions, a very charismatic young lady named Ravelle Dean
smiled and said, “I have a strict rule for this class, don’t waste any of my wine!”
Everyone laughed and then sat down on the tall wood bar chairs surrounding the
red wine-stained long wood table. Six small beakers along with one tall, 750 ml
beaker sat at each spot in front of the chairs. Five other wine enthusiasts join me
at the table with smiles waiting for the first taste of wine.

the wine class gathers around a table

Next, Dean asks several questions about wine to gauge the level of knowledge of
the students. She then explains her vast experience as a winemaker as well as
apprenticeships in several other spirits. Clearly this young lady knows her wine –
and has the experience from working, learning, and qualifying as a Master Wine
Maker.

the guide mixes John’s custom red wine blend

Each small beaker she explains, will be filled with one of the wines they
offer. Each participant tastes, grades and jots down notes about each wine tasted.
Not everyone tastes the same wine because participants are asked if they like dry
or wet sweet wines. As we learned, dry wines have less residual sugar in the wine while sweet or “wet” wines contain more sugar during fermentation. Surprisingly I thought I did not like dry wines until tasting and learning more about wines.

another participant filling their custom blend

Dean expertly guided the group through each of six wines, both white and red
varieties. By the third or fourth beaker everyone felt the effects of good wine.
After our sixth sample we began the process of blending the different wines into
the large beaker. Twenty percent dry red wine, 15 percent wet white wine etc.
Everyone created their own blend from trial and error until their own unique blend
pleased their individual palate. After everyone had their custom blend formulated
Dean and other staff members began pouring the formulas together to create the
blend. They also provide a custom label to create our own named bottle. The class
included one custom personally blended bottle per person except for a couple of
people that earned a second bottle by correctly answering wine questions, which I did.

a happy wine blender shows off his custom blended wine

Once the correct formula of wine went into the bottle, we sprayed nitrogen into
the bottle to keep air out followed by corking it and applying the seal to the top. Bahama Barrels saves each custom formula for everyone who has taken the class. If anyone ever
wants to order another bottle of their special wine, Bahama Barrels can blend it
and put the custom label on the bottle. These personalized bottles make excellent
gifts.

John gets ready to cork his wine

The length of the class was listed in the tour booking as an hour and a half, but ended up taking nearly three hours. Their address is: 8-14 West Hill Street, Nassau, The Bahamas, and is super easy to find using google maps. I gave this tour a five-star rating.

sealing the bottle

John’s tour was scheduled to start half an hour before mine, but since it was also supposed to take half an hour longer we expected to finish at the same time and set a meeting place in a row of colorful swinging tables outside the winery. I wandered over to the chocolate shop a bit before my tour was to start, but since I ended up with a private tour they went ahead and started early. It took a bit longer than the scheduled hour so I thought John would be waiting for me when I came out, but he was nowhere in sight so I went to the meeting place expecting him to come out soon.

row of swinging tables in front of the winery

Instead I received a text saying his tour was running late. An hour later after having sent him 4 texts that went unanswered I finally sent one saying I was heading back to the port because I wanted a shower before dinner and wouldn’t have time for that if I waited any longer. That text also went unanswered, as did an attempt to call him before I left. I got all the way back to the port and through security – which had a very long line – and was nearly to the gangway to get back on the ship when he finally sent a text saying his phone hadn’t beeped for the texts (neither had mine, but I checked it often to see if any had come through) and he was ready to go back to the ship. He had hoped for me to escort him since he’d had a bit much to drink during his tour, but since I was already there he had to find it on his own – which he managed to do just fine since it’s an easy walk.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023
Posted in Caribbean, Guest Blogs, Meraviglia, MSC, Port Cities, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Family Cruise

Posted on June 2, 2023 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Quantum of the Seas in Icy Strait Point

For the last couple years my Christmas gift to my mother has been to take her on a little vacation. She doesn’t need any material things. Time spent together, experiences, and memories are more important. We stayed in cozy little Airbnb cabins near parks with good hiking trails and enjoyed our short getaways, but this past Christmas I decided to do something different. I booked a cruise instead. I also included one of my sisters in the gift. She has watched my dog and businesses while I travel many times as well as being there to take care of the needs of other family. My other sister knew about the booking long before Christmas and was in on some of the cruise plans with me. She also invited her two daughters to join, though they made their own booking in a separate cabin rather than bunking with the other 4 of us. So it became a 3-generation cruise.

the family – Linda, Jennifer, Barbara, Ruth, Melissa, Lois

We chose an Alaska cruise out of Seattle as that is the most convenient port for what started out as most of us, but ended up as only half once my nieces joined. Since Barbara and her daughters all live in the middle of the country they would have to fly no matter which port it was so it didn’t make much difference to them. We all ended up converging at mom & Linda’s house the night before and taking a shuttle to the dock. We had a boarding time of 10:30am, and the girls at 11:00, but everything from 10-11 was all in the same line so we were able to board together. This was the easiest boarding I’ve experienced since Covid. No long lines outside waiting to get into the port- not that there is room for that in Seattle anyway. We went right in without a line, got checked in and then went upstairs to a big room where some people were sitting in the seats waiting to board while others were lined up by the door so they could get in first. They opened the boarding about the time we got there and it didn’t take too long to get the line moving so we got onto the ship fairly quickly.

mom arranged our spare wall magnets into flowers

The cabins weren’t going to be ready until 2pm, but the girl at the check-in desk had said we could drop our stuff in our room before then. We were going to do it first, but they were hounding everyone to check in at the muster station immediately after boarding rather than doing it just whenever during the first few hours onboard like it usually has been since they stopped doing the crowded muster drills when cruises started up again after covid. As it turned out it was a good thing I still had my stuff with me. Key cards were at the rooms so they wanted to scan the boarding pass rather than the key card at the muster station and my phone picked that time to say the ones in the app were not available. Luckily I had paper copies as a backup in my backpack, which I had not needed to pull out until then. Their cabin being on a different deck, the girls had gone to a different muster station elsewhere. We dropped our stuff off at the cabin and then met them in the buffet for lunch. They still had their stuff with them, not having been told at check-in that they could drop it off. We went to their deck to drop it off and were just about back to the main hallway when someone from the crew spotted us and asked if we were on a back-to-back cruise since we had come down that hallway before the cabins were officially opened. She seemed a bit miffed that we had been told we could drop stuff off at the cabin. Apparently if it had been someone onboard who said so they might have been in trouble, but the people out in the port don’t work for the ship and there’s so many of them they’d never know which one it was anyway. We hadn’t seen anyone on our deck, but maybe that was the only one where dropping stuff at the cabin was actually allowed.

it’s sort of like a trundle bed except both sides are the same height

Once the cabins opened and we had a bit more time to look around we were a bit puzzled by the lack of an outline of a drop-down bunk in the ceiling of what we booked as a 4-person room. We expected there to be either two bunks or one bunk and a couch bed, but it turned out that rather than bunks or couch beds that just sleep one person, Quantum of the Seas has a bed that slides out from under the seat of the couch turning it into a double bed. Which meant Barbara and I had to share a bed as we had already decided to give mom and Linda the actual beds while we slept in the secondary accommodations. The other beds started out as one, but the steward split them into two with a small nightstand in between. When night came ours was set up with two quilts folded over like sleeping bags which gave us a bit of separation. Barbara had the inside and managed to get in and out without crawling over me. Mine started with the folded edge of the quilt to the outside, but I flipped it over so the open end was where it was easy to get in and out of without bothering her. Though it was smaller than my bed at home I actually had more space because Barbara is not a bed hog like my dog Piper, who always manages to sprawl out during the night leaving me waking up on just a few inches at the edge of the bed every morning.

North Star nearly up

We had a deck 3 oceanview cabin while Mel and Jen had a balcony on deck 9. Both were near the starboard aft so they were in the same general area of the ship, theirs was just up higher. We had booked one near a public restroom thinking that might be come in handy with 4 people in a cabin, especially if someone took a long shower or when we were all returning from shore at the same time. We expected that restroom to be in a hallway near the elevator like every other public cruise ship bathroom, but instead it was inside the casino. A casino that the app and even the printed daily cruise ship newsletter said was non-smoking, yet apparently that did not apply on cruises leaving from American ports so it did get pretty smokey sometimes. Besides being open on both ends it had an open stairway right into the promenade deck so no containment for the smoke at all. It did at least have a good ventilation system that would pretty much clear out the smell overnight when there wasn’t anyone in there. Luckily there were other nearby public restrooms just a flight or two of stairs away on the next two decks above us.

green duck blending in with the fake foliage in a planter

I brought 3 ducks each for everyone to hide, figuring that was enough to make it fun, but not enough to overwhelm anybody that wasn’t into cruise ducks since I didn’t expect any of them to know about them before the cruise, and they didn’t. They all thought that was a good number too and had fun hiding theirs.

Barbara found a pink duck in a planter in the solarium

Barbara found one duck that someone else had hidden so we weren’t the only ones onboard hiding ducks. All of them had disappeared whenever we went back to check if anyone had found them. One of mine didn’t even take long enough to go back for. I saw some large letters on an empty stairway, set a little duck in one of the letters, and had just stopped to take a photo of it when a young couple snuck quietly down the stairs above me. I didn’t see them in time to slip away before they saw me so of course they stopped to see what I had been taking a photo of before I left when I saw them coming. I hadn’t gone too far to still see them and watched the girl take the duck. Silent no more, she went the whole rest of the way down that stairway loudly chirping happy words I could hear from several decks away. I have no idea what she actually said or what language she was speaking, but from the tone of her voice I think finding that duck made her day. Which was good because making someone happy when they find one is the whole point of hiding ducks.

Linda, Mel, mom & Jen in the North Star

Most of the time we all had dinner together, and sometimes breakfast too. Sometimes we all did things together on the ship like taking a ride up in the North Star, a pod unique to Royal’s Quantum Class ships that rises up 300 feet in the air for an excellent view. Most of us also tried the skydiving simulator. We all went to a couple shows together, and for most of us the favorite hang-out spot was the solarium. Walking around and exploring the ship is always fun too, which we all did alone and in various groupings.

it’s easier to get a good photo when Barbara & I have our eyes covered since we’re the least photogenic

When I cruise with my husband we avoid photographers like the plague, but when cruising with my sisters we always get a photo package. I was really glad I had bought it online before the cruise because the onboard price was more than double. I did pay $10 extra to get them put onto a flash drive because their standard is to email them and besides coming out as better quality on the flashdrive, on our last cruise the email they sent only contained less than half of the photos so if we hadn’t had a flashdrive we’d have been missing most of them. On that one they’d added the flashdrive free because we hadn’t hit the max number of photos we were allowed, but I kind of had a feeling this one wouldn’t have done that, though it didn’t matter anyway because we actually went over and had to weed some out.

Gondola at Icy Strait Point

The first port stop was at Icy Strait Point, a place none of us had been to before. We got lucky and had a beautiful day, which is really nice at that port since the highlight is a gondola up to the top of a mountain. There’s also a really awesome zipline down, or you can go back down the gondola. With or without the zipline you get unlimited rides on the gondola, which is great since most places you just get one ride up and back. After we got back to our room on the ship my mom and I saw whales really close by right out our cabin window, which really brightened up her day after a bad reboarding experience.

Jen in the ifly skydiving simulator

A little girl tried to crowd past us at the security check, which I really wouldn’t have thought anything of, but the guy running it made her wait because our stuff was already on the conveyer and you have to go through in the same order as your stuff. I was at the conveyer trying to fetch my mom’s cane and our other stuff while she walked through, but her watch made the security thing beep. Instead of asking her to take it off and walk back through like normal they asked her to take her shoes off, which caught her off-guard. She complied too quickly and would have fallen if she hadn’t caught herself on the next conveyer over, which wasn’t running. The whole thing upset her. Meanwhile while I was reaching for the cane the little girl had gotten through security and tried to grab my mom’s bag right off the conveyer. I saw her reach for it and snagged it just before her hand got there. Then when we were leaving that area she came up to me and tried to say the bag was hers, but it was definitely my mom’s. That particular bag was not something the girl could have mistaken for her own even if she’d had anything on the conveyer, which she hadn’t. Besides having mom’s things sticking out of the top, the cloth of the bag itself was a unique pattern that nobody else would have because mom’s sister made it for her about 10 years prior for a trip they took together. I guess that little girl really liked that bag. No idea where her parents were through all of that. We’ve never had anyone try to steal anything from us on a cruise ship before.

totem pole in Sitka

Slightly before the cruise we got a notice that our port stop in Skagway had been changed to Sitka. We’d had an excursion booked in Skagway, the only one that all 6 of us were going to do together. There wasn’t anything suitable to replace it with in Sitka so we just ventured out on our own. We all left the ship together, but before we even got near the shuttle to town we passed by someone with a sign for a sea and land tour. It cost more than most of us wanted to spend, but the girls jumped on it. They enjoyed the sea part more than the land part. They saw sea lions and an otter, but no whales. The rest of us took the shuttle into town and walked to the totem park. We also walked up to the old Russian church, but it was closed so we just took photos from outside and Barbara bought some nesting dolls at a little shop near the church.

Sumdum Glacier

On a couple previous cruises we’ve been supposed to go to Tracy Arm for glacier watching and ended up going down Endicott Arm instead because Tracy Arm was blocked by icebergs. Those ships both made it all the way to Dawes Glacier at the end of Endicott Arm. This ship was scheduled to go down Endicott Arm, but didn’t even get halfway through before it turned around. They didn’t make any sort of announcement about that so we all thought it was going in rather than out until Melissa said she’d been out on the upper deck early in the morning when the ship did a 360. She didn’t realize at the time that it was bailing on the glacier, but since she had internet when she finally got enough signal to check a map app it confirmed that we were leaving Endicott Arm rather than heading toward the glacier. The other ships I’ve been on that made it to the end were considerably smaller. We did see a glacier on the side of a mountain which I’m sure was Sumdum Glacier, the name being a great source of entertainment on a previous cruise. As in I went to Alaska and saw Sumdum glacier, which of course when spoken people hear as some dumb glacier. I can’t find anything that mentions any other glaciers besides that one and Dawes in Endicott Arm and the mountains in my photo look the same as the ones in other photos of Sumdum Glacier. There is an offshoot of Endicott Arm called Fords Terror where an early explorer named Ford was trapped for 6 panic-stricken hours until the tide changed so he could get back out. We probably didn’t make it far enough down Endicott Arm to get anywhere near that though.

Mendenhall Glacier

In Juneau the girls had booked a kayak excursion and the rest of us figured we’d go see what the booths on shore had to offer. Last time I was there they had all sorts of things, but this time they pretty much just had whale watching or busses out to Mendenhall Glacier. One had a sign for a trolley tour of the town. The girl in the booth said that wasn’t running that day, but they had a combo that did a tour of the town and went out to the glacier. We had all been to the glacier before on previous trips, but didn’t have anything better to do. She said the trolley would be running that tour, but the trolley was really a bus that looked like a trolley rather than an actual trolley. The town part of that tour was just the bus driver talking about stuff on the way to the glacier, though it did stop at a giant whale statue on the way back. Not surprisingly, the glacier is smaller every time we go there. We saw some kayaks near the glacier, but it wasn’t the girls. Their tour didn’t get that close. Kayaking to the glacier is something I’d like to do someday.

Linda and the whale

Our last port was supposed to be Victoria. We haven’t ever booked an excursion there before, but this time the 4 of us were going to go to Butchart Gardens while the girls did something on their own. Watching out our cabin window on the way to Victoria, the pilot boat passed by right under our window bouncing in waves that looked a whole lot bigger splashing over that little boat than they did compared to the cruise ship. The boat went out of sight before it got to where the pilot gets on the ship, too close to the ship for us to see it from our window. Many ports require a local pilot to guide the ship into port. Pilots have to get on and off ships in all kinds of weather to and from their little pilot boats. Soon we could see Victoria from our cabin window, and a Norwegian ship already docked there. We sailed past it, circled around, and sailed past again. Time came to go meet at the theater for our excursion and we were just outside the theater door when the captain announced that he and the pilot had decided it was too stormy for the ship to get into the dock. I’d never heard of a ship not making the stop in Victoria before. Maybe it happens and I just don’t know about it or maybe that ship is just too big for Alaska cruises. The bigger ships never used to go there.

solarium at night when there’s nobody there

When you cruise you have to be flexible. We had the turkey dinner we thought we were going to miss and had one last evening to hang out in the solarium. Or should I say terrarium as the girls referred to it because lounging on deck chairs in the solarium reminded them of lizards sunning on rocks in a terrarium. All it took for us to know that’s where they were going immediately after the announcement of the cancelled port was a message containing nothing but two emojis – the sun and a lizard. 🌞🦎

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2023
Posted in Alaska, Quantum of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, Shipboard Life, USA | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment