Saint Thomas

Posted on September 16, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Symphony of the Seas in St. Thomas

Saint Thomas

The main US Virgin Islands consist of Saint Thomas, Saint John, and Saint Croix. The group also includes Water Island and about 50 other small islands and cays. Cruise ships stop at Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas and Frederiksted on St. Croix. St. John is accessible by boat from St. Thomas. The US Virgin Islands are a territory of the USA, as is Puerto Rico. These Caribbean islands, previously called the Danish West Indies, lie in the leeward islands of the Lesser Antilles east of Puerto Rico and west of the British Virgin Islands.

Like many Caribbean islands the earliest inhabitants – in this case thought to be Arawaks and Ciboney – were displaced by the Caribs before European exploration of the area. As with other Caribbean islands, much of the indigenous population died of European diseases they had no resistance to, or died from the harsh conditions of forced labor, being replaced by hardier slaves imported from Africa. Slave rebellions on St. John and St. Croix led to the abolishment of slavery and the downfall of the Danish sugar plantations. The US Virgin Islands became an economic burden to Denmark until finally being sold to the USA during World War 1 when the US feared the islands might be seized by Germany.

view of the port from the ship

Tourism now makes up a major portion of the islands’ economy. Periodic destruction from hurricanes has been a problem in the area throughout its history. These are hilly islands of volcanic origin. Tourists flock to the islands for white sand beaches and coral reefs. Like the rest of the region, these reefs are negatively impacted by pollution, warming oceans, overfishing, development, and tourists as well as natural disasters like hurricanes. Coral is one of the world’s major food chain bases so its destruction affects a lot more than just the tourism of a given area.

there's lots of cheap Caribbean cruises available

cruise ships at the Havensight dock

Saint Thomas Cruise Port

Charlotte Amalie where the cruise ships dock has two ports with dock space for multiple cruise ships. Paradise Point skyride is within walking distance of Havensight, the main cruise port. Lots of shops are within walking distance and there are also shops right at the port. This dock holds 3 ships in a line. There may be local tours available at the port or in town. Taxis are available at the port to take people into town.

view of dry docks by the island from Symphony of the Seas

There’s another cruise ship dock west of town called Crown Bay. This is where Symphony of the Seas docked on our visit. It could hold two ships, but ours was the only one there that day. We did not go exploring beyond the port on foot, but rumor has it there’s a beach about a 20-minute walk away and google maps says it’s about a 40-minute walk to a place called 99 Steps, at which Blackbeard’s castle sits at the top. Crown Bay appears to belong to Royal Caribbean due to its logo being present in signage at the port, but the internet says other ships dock there too.

dock in St Thomas

The shops at Crown Bay looked considerably newer and nicer than the ones at the Havensight dock did the last time I was there. Taxis are available to take passengers into town or other destinations. I had not been to this dock before on previous visits to Saint Thomas so nothing looked familiar when we came into port.

windmill at the port

Besides shops and things this port also had a windmill.

the crew had some practice driving lifeboats around while we were docked in St Thomas

Things To Do or See in St. Thomas

The island has many beaches. Snorkeling is one of the most popular excursions. Sailing (which may be combined with snorkeling) or a visit to St. John or Magens Bay are also things people like to do there.

raindrops on the window

St Thomas Skyride

Other options include a pirate museum, botanical garden, island tour, kayaking, parasailing, Coral World, an eco tour, zipline, watersports, and of course the ever-popular skyride – which was a disappointment the last time we went there as a road had been paved to the top taking out all the things there used to be to do up there other than shops and a restaurant. The view from the top and from the skyride is great though.

map of the Virgin Islands

Saint John

The island of Saint John is a close neighbor to Saint Thomas. It is a smaller and less populated island. Much of it is a national park. There is ferry service between the two islands. One of the routes runs from Charlote Amalie to Cruz Bay, the main town on St. John, which has shops, restaurants, and places to stay. Hiking, beaches, and snorkeling are popular activities there. We had originally booked a snorkel excursion that went to St. John, but it got cancelled so we did not get to go there.

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Posted in Caribbean, Ports of Call, Royal Caribbean, Symphony of the Seas | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

SeaCow Snorkel in Bonaire

Posted on September 9, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Constellation in Bonaire

Bonaire is rumored to have some of the best snorkeling in the Caribbean. On our cruise on Celebrity Constellation, we booked what they billed as a Double Dip Snorkel excursion. Our original booking was for 8:30am, which would give us lots of time to explore after the excursion. A couple days before the port we got a notification that the time had changed to 11:30, which was the second time option offered for that tour. Apparently they did not have enough people to fill two runs and the ship chose to put everyone at the later run, though the Sea Cow crew said the earlier one would have been preferable for both weather and having less other people in the area. They mentioned not being able to convince the cruise ships of that so they must all cancel the earlier time slot when two are offered and don’t both fill. Which is unfortunate for passengers wanting more time after their excursion to see other things. The ship stayed in port until 8pm, so we did still have some time to see part of the island afterword.

soft coral

While our original meeting place at the early time was inside the ship, for the later one it was out on the dock. We went out a bit ahead of the time, which turned out to be too early for our meeting point to be ready so we wandered into the closest port shop to kill some time. Should have stayed there a bit longer because just as we got back the wind whipped up and blew down most of the canvas shelters the ship people had set up on the dock. Only a couple right where they check people’s ship cards were left standing when the rain began to pour buckets. Waiting under that wasn’t helpful as it was pretty much raining sideways in the wind so we went back into the ship for about 5 minutes until the actual time to meet. We had to scan our cards and belongings to get in, and cards again to get back out a few minutes later, but within that time the rain had stopped. We got pretty well soaked in the few minutes we were out in the rain, but we were going to get wet snorkeling later anyway.

SeaCow

The SeaCow is an open sided boat with a canvas top over most of the seating, but not all of it. It wouldn’t have kept anyone dry the way it had been raining so it was a good thing the rain didn’t last long. The sun came out about the time we got to our snorkel spot at Klein Bonaire, a small uninhabited island about half a mile off the coast of Bonaire. The three crew who were not the captain each had a group to follow them once people got in the water, group numbers assigned according to where people happened to sit in the boat. We were group 1 and went with the one female guide. Once a full group was in the water and ready they set out, mainly drifting with the current, but going deeper or shallower depending on what there was to see. Once all 3 groups were off and snorkeling the captain untied the boat and it followed. Somewhere along the line the boat went ahead of everyone and stopped at the point where we were to get back in.

corals

Along the way we saw lots of coral, some of it pretty big for what you usually find in the Caribbean, and in most areas more plentiful. There were also lots of fish. The fish are generally more colorful than the coral. Caribbean coral is mostly brown or yellow, not like all the colors found in places like Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. There was a variety of corals. Some areas had a mixture of different types and others had one predominate variety.

tube sponge

There were lots of purple tubes, some of which were quite tall. Our guide identified them as tube sponges, which she said only grow about an inch a year, so the bigger ones were quite old.

fire coral

There was also fire coral, which is not actually coral, but a relative of jelly fish and it will sting you if you touch it. It rather resembled seaweed, except that it was solidly fixed in place rather than waving in the current like actual seaweed. This fire coral did not look at all like the fire coral we saw previously on a snorkel excursion in Belize. There were a lot of soft corals which do wave in the current like seaweed. Also lots of brain coral and some pretty big elkhorn coral. We saw some fan coral too and some other types as well.

turtle

A turtle swam below us for awhile, the only one we saw. The uninhabited little island we were by has turtle nesting grounds, but it was not nesting season when there would have been a lot more turtles. Klein Bonaire (Little Bonaire) is a marine preserve so nobody can build anything there to save the turtle nesting areas from destruction.

coral restoration structure

Later we came by what the guide referred to as Christmas trees. These branched metal structures had little bits of coral hanging from them, something Bonaire does to accelerate the growth. Once the bits have grown to the size they want they are glued onto places in the reef that need restoration. They’ve had an over 90% success rate with over 30,000 bits used in restoration of their reefs. The work is all done by a volunteer group, of which one of the guides on our boat works with. It probably helps that Bonaire is south of the area of the Caribbean normally hit by hurricanes, which can severely damage coral in those areas, but there are still all the other issues that affect coral like water temperature, pollution, PH, and human activity. With Caribbean reefs generally at an 80% loss, restoration is definitely important, though this was the first place we have seen any effort to do so. Every person in Caribbean waters (or anywhere else where there’s coral) can do their small part to help save the reefs by using reef safe sunscreen instead of harmful chemical sunscreen.

drop-off by the wall

After everyone got back in the boat they served juice, water, or soda before going back out for our second snorkel run. That’s why the excursion is called double dip, 2 different snorkel sessions along different areas of the little island. The water felt noticeably colder the second time in, probably due to the depth. It was a shorter run that went along the edge of the island where the land drops off from a shallow ledge at the shoreline to much deeper water. All sorts of coral grew vertically out of this wall. The wall went straight down for a ways, then sloped steeply into an abyss so quite a lot of the coral in that area grew out of the wall, though some was beneath us on the upper part of the sloped area before the bottom disappeared into the deep dark blue of the depths.

wall of coral

The wall had some ins and outs and pockets or hollow places where fish could hide. The corals often grew horizontally out of the wall and then turned to vertical growth where they had some room to spread without being up against the wall. While brain coral is usually round, there were a few sort of U-shaped ones in that area.

fish in the coral

Fish came in all sizes and colors. There were many female parrotfish, who are not nearly so brightly colored as the males. They still do their job of scraping algae off of coral though. Parrotfish are an important part of the ecosystem, keeping algae from growing too thick and suffocating the corals. The sandy beaches of the island are all made up of tiny fragments of coral pooped out of parrot fish. Most people on those beautiful sandy beaches have no idea they’re hanging out in ancient fish poop.

elkhorn coral

The boat drifted along and came out ahead of all the snorkelers again on the second round. Snorkeling with the current is definitely a lot easier than swimming against it, especially in places like that with a pretty strong current. It’s no work at all to go with the current, just relax and let it take you – as long as you pay attention to where you are going and stay out of the coral and rocks. In this case also staying with your assigned group.

fish by the wall

Back in the boat they served rum punch and other drinks on the way back. That’s pretty standard on Caribbean snorkel excursions. If they are going to include alcohol it is never before the snorkeling is finished. On this boat their punch had a higher rum to punch ratio than usual. Pretty strong stuff. Once we got back the boat docked right in front of the ship in the same little dock where it had picked us up. We had just a few yards walk to get back to the ship from the drop off point.

returning to the SeaCow

Manatees are sometimes called sea cows. It is highly unlikely anyone will see a manatee in Bonaire, but not totally impossible as there is at least one confirmed sighting of one in their national marine park. The most likely sea cow anyone will find there is the boat on which we took our snorkel tour. This was one of the better snorkel tours in the Caribbean as there was more coral than most in Caribbean places, likely due to their restoration efforts.

angelfish

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Posted in Caribbean, Celebrity, Constellation, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Pinto Deer of Clallam County

Posted on September 2, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Normally deer are pretty much just brown. They might have black tails or white tails, and fawns have white spots, but deer of any specific variety all look pretty much the same as one another with a whole lot of brown. Pretty much anywhere deer are found there are exceptions, and some people are lucky enough to spot one.

yearling piebald deer

Less than 2% of deer have excessive white, which for some reason is called piebald. In horse colors piebald refers to black and white patches, whereas pinto is any color and white so it would make more sense to call them pinto deer rather than piebald. Skewbald is any color other than black and white so that would also make more sense than calling brown and white deer piebald. Paint is another horse color term, but that one is a breed closely associated with quarter horses. All other horses with white and colored patches are pintos whether they are piebald or skewbald. Apparently the term piebald is used more loosely with other animals. In piebald deer the skin under the colored patches is black, but under the white it is pink. Some sources say they are extremely rare with estimates at anywhere from 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 30.000 or even less, which is a whole lot less than 2%.

white deer (internet photo)

Albino deer are even more rare having no pigment at all. These have white hides and pink eyes, noses, and hooves. Estimates are this occurs in about 1 out of 100,000. If a white deer has normal dark eyes and hooves it is leucistic, which while still quite a rare occurrence is not nearly as rare as albino.

deer in a yard in Gig Harbor on the Kitsap Peninsula, which is next to the Olympic Peninsula
(internet photo)

The piebald color is a genetic condition, which unfortunately can include issues other than color. Some of these deer have shorter legs than normal, roman noses, overbites, curved spines, or crooked legs. They can also have internal problems. Sadly some are born too deformed to survive. Those that survive can live to breeding age and can produce normal or piebald fawns.

yearling deer by the Elwha River in Olympic National Park (internet photo)

The Olympic Peninsula, and Clallam County specifically seem to have more than the usual number of piebald deer. Dungeness Park, which is most well-known for the Dungeness Spit certainly has its share. Part of the park is the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge, which mainly consists of the 5+ mile spit where people can take a long beach hike to a lighthouse. The other part of the park is the Dungeness Recreation Area, a county park with over 200 acres of forest, meadows, and bluffs with a campground and trails. I have personally seen 5 of the piebald deer there.

yearling siblings with their mom at Dungeness Park

Two are siblings with a plain brown mother. As yearlings they still hang with mom and are nearly her size. I’ve seen these two on and off in the park and nearby yards since they were born.

small deer at Dungeness

Once in early spring I saw another one in a seasonal swampy area of the park. Due to the time of year it had to be a yearling, but that one was quite a lot smaller than the two brown adults it was with. By its size it appeared either a very late fall baby or born way too early that spring, but odds are it was probably just stunted in its growth as can happen with the piebald deer. The brown coat on this one was a significantly lighter shade of brown than the other two yearlings.

Another one which just appeared to me as a big white spot on a hillside was confirmed to be an adult buck with a lot of white by a lady with binoculars. Perhaps the father of the yearlings. In a different part of the park there was an adult standing alone on the trail one day that had just a couple small white spots surrounded by a wide ring of tan fur much lighter than the rest of its brown coat. It had no antlers, but it was late winter when bucks may not have any so that one could have been either a buck or doe. I would guess buck because that trail runs past a small school and some kids there seemed familiar with that particular deer and called it Toby. Unfortunately it left the trail and ran off to the school before I could get a photo of it. While driving by I saw a pair of entirely very light tan deer in a yard near the park a couple times too, but I don’t know if deer of a far lighter shade of brown than normal have any relation to the piebald deer. Even though some live there a trip to the park is nowhere near a guarantee of spotting a piebald deer. The park is full of ordinary brown deer which are the ones even frequent visitors to the park see most often.

Historically many cultures did not hunt white deer, some considering them as ghosts or messengers from the spirit world. Others thought they were sacred or supernatural, or just that it was bad luck to shoot one. In today’s world some places protect them by keeping them off-limits to hunters, but many places do not. Hunting is not allowed at Dungeness Park nor in Olympic National Park so the ones there are safe from human hunters.

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Kayaking in Stoddard, NH

Posted on August 26, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of the Airbnb from the kayak

In between flying to Boston and staying in Vermont, we spent a couple nights at a lakeside Airbnb in Stoddard, New Hampshire. This house was down a dirt road in the woods. Quite remote from town, but not from other homes as the shore of the lake was pretty well surrounded by houses. Some seemed older and somewhat humble, but most looked quite nice with a few appearing new and gigantic.

houses dot the shores of Highland Lake

The Airbnb we stayed in on Highland Lake had a couple kayaks and a paddle boat out in the backyard for guests to use. A dry-entry platform for kayaks next to the dock was half covered by the paddle boat, but there was still room enough at the end to hold a kayak while getting into it. Highland Lake is a 697-acre lake sprawling between two counties in southwestern New Hampshire. It’s popular for summer activities and winter snowmobiling.

party barge on Highland Lake

Our visit was during October. Too cold for swimming, but we took the two kayaks out for a paddle around the area of the lake near to the house. It’s definitely still in use at that time of year as we saw other kayaks as well as a sort of party barge type boat full of people, and a bass boat with a lone fisherman. Also a small boat that the people were rowing when we first saw it, but under engine power later. The lake is classified as a warm water fishery and is home to several species of fish of the sort that can survive under winter’s ice.

kayaking on Highland Lake

Of the home’s two kayaks, John had the blue one and I had the red. Both were one-person kayaks. We paddled across the channel to the scenic bridge linking the island where the bnb host lives to a smaller uninhabited one, around the owner’s island, and into a shallow cove on the other side of a neighboring peninsula.

little cove

The water in the little cove stayed calm and flat even when a sudden short burst of wind brought heavy ripples to the surrounding area. All of the near shore areas seemed pretty shallow. There were lots of lilypads with no frogs on them. We did not see any frogs at all. Some areas also had seagrass or milfoil, which liked to tangle itself around the kayak paddles.

lots of lilypads, no frogs

The weather was one of those sort of if you don’t like it wait 5 minutes days. It could be sunny, windy, or overcast one minute and something completely different the next. The water had a bit of a current going, which got noticeably stronger anytime the wind picked up. It wasn’t much of a hindrance to paddling but setting the paddle down to take any photos meant drifting sometimes speedily toward shore, rocks, the other kayak, or other obstacles so being aware of the surroundings and not just the object of the photo was always important. I have a waterproof camera, but not a floating strap and it would probably be impossible to find if it went overboard and sank so I wore my running belt which is normally for holding a water bottle and kept the camera snugly zipped into the belt’s pocket. It stayed safe there, and had no chance of getting lost even if something disastrous like the kayak flipping over had happened – which it didn’t.

other kayakers

Most of our time out on the lake it was just us. We saw a bit of fall foliage in the surrounding trees, though more had yet to turn than the amount of them that already had. The party barge passed by close enough that we had to cross its wake, but the waves it made were fairly small. Big enough to feel them, but small enough not to cause any sort of problems. The other two boats we saw out there didn’t get that close and neither did any other kayaks.

it’s a big lake

We had fun paddling around the lake. It’s the first time I’d been in a kayak since our Uncruise around the San Juan Islands, which happened shortly after I broke my arm inside the elbow joint and was under strict instructions by both my doctor and physical therapist not to paddle. I could only ride as a passenger in a 2-person kayak that trip.

kayaking by the shoreline of a little island in the lake

Luckily, I can paddle now. Though I don’t have quite full range of motion and have a bit of nerve damage that extends to the fingers of that hand, it appears perfectly normal and none of it is enough that anyone else would ever notice since nobody ever pays attention to whether or not a person can fully straighten or fully bend their arm – and people rarely do either one anyway. I’ll never do a chin-up or anything similar again, but that’s not life hampering for me. It would probably devastate my daughter and granddaughter though since they are into ninja warrior competitions and that requires a lot of arm strength.

nice scenery

The biggest issue for me is that before the break I could make properly folded towel animals with the towels rolled tightly enough to hold them together on their own, but ever since I haven’t had the finger strength or dexterity to do that and have to hide rubber bands beneath folds on the heads to hold them together. The crowning glory of towel animals on my blog is the fire breathing dragon, which besides being my own invention, was the last one I made before the broken arm.

kayaking Highland Lake

Anyway, I’ve wandered a bit off the subject of kayaking around a lake, but some things end up bringing back memories by association. Kayaking is a lot of fun so I’m glad to be perfectly capable of paddling one by myself now. Cruising doesn’t get any smaller than this!

bridge by the bnb owner’s house

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Exploring Dubai

Posted on August 19, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

sign at the port

We came into Dubai on the MSC Lirica as the disembarkation port on a 3-week cruise that started in Italy and sailed around the Mediterranean before passing through the Suez Canal. We had port stops in Israel, Jordan and Oman before reaching the United Arab Emirates. Visiting Petra on the Jordan port stop was our main reason for taking this cruise, but we enjoyed the other ports as well. Our ship overnighted in Dubai before disembarkation, and we had a very late flight which gave us two days to explore.

roadside flowers

The cruise terminal in Dubai is not near town. Security screens your bags as you leave the port building so there’s a bit of a line to get out if you leave the ship the same time as everyone else. The port is too far to walk anywhere, but you can leave by taxi, uber, free mall shuttle bus, big, bus or hop on hop off bus. The big bus or hoho bus are expensive, but Dubai is huge and their routes cover a long distance. We saw maps around the city for the hoho bus and it had 3 separate routes with connecting points.

taxis by Wild Wadi water park – these are the cheap tan taxis

At the port the taxis vi for the highest bidder when there are more passengers wanting a ride than taxis available, but you can get an Uber for less than the price of a taxi or take the free mall shuttle into town. From the mall you can catch a taxi for much less than at the port. If you have the time and want to go a lot of places you would get your money’s worth to take the hoho bus, especially if one of the places you want to go is Global Village, which is a bit of a distance outside of town.

Mercato Mall

We opted for the free shuttle, which went to Mercato Mall. It’s a small mall by Dubai standards, though not really all that small. The decor there is Italian themed. In December it’s all decorated up for Christmas, like many other places in Dubai.

inside Mercato Mall

We wandered around the mall a bit, then found a taxi out front. Taxis in Dubai are pretty cheap in town so long as they are the tan sort with a taxi sign on top. The black ones that don’t say taxi charge a whole lot more, though if there aren’t any of the tan ones around and you use Uber you can get that same black car for a lot less money than you pay if you just hop in it as a taxi.

beach view of Burj Al Arab

We asked the taxi to drop us at the Burj Al Arab, which is the 7-star hotel that is shaped like a sail, and one of the major landmarks of Dubai. It was raining, which is rare for Dubai. The driver made a quick stop by a beach for the view of the hotel from there. In nicer weather that beach would be a great place for a walk, and the views of the Burj Al Arab are better there than at the hotel itself.

Burj Al Arab

When you get to the hotel, unless you are staying there or have a meal booked in one of its restaurants you can’t even pass through the gates to look at it from the outside. The taxi let us off at Wild Wadi, a water park next door to the hotel. If you walk around the area there are places where you can get a decent picture of it.

Souk Madinat Jumeirah

From there we walked to Souk Madinat Jumeirah, which is a modern recreation of an ancient market. Souk is an Arab word for a marketplace or bazar, and there are all sorts of them in different countries. Some have all new items, others are more like a flea market. Some are item themed like a gold souk or textile souk.

shop in Souk Madinat Jumeirah

This one has lots of little shops, all with new merchandise with quite a variety of items. It also has restaurants, parking, and entertainment. We walked from around in the souk for awhile until the rain let up, then went on our way. We didn’t see any taxis outside so we just headed in the direction of Palm Jumeriah until an empty one went by to flag down.

view of a beach on Palm Jumeriah from the monorail that runs up the middle to Atlantis

Palm Jumeriah is a man-made island in a shape resembling a palm tree. Each of the palm fronds is wide enough for a double row of homes or other buildings, giving each of them beach front on one edge of the palm frond. A main street runs down the center, or trunk of the palm tree. It continues out to an outer ring around the palm. The outer ring is home to a number of hotels, including Atlantis, which is where the taxi dropped us off.

Atlantis Hotel

Atlantis has a little booth outside on the sidewalk where people can book activities within the hotel, like a visit to their water park or aquarium. It also has a section of shops and restaurants where anyone can walk in whether they are staying there or have any activities booked or not. Like other touristy places in Dubai, Atlantis also had Christmas decorations in December. They also have prayer rooms alongside the restrooms for their Muslim customers. All the restrooms we saw in Dubai were clean, had western style toilets, and provided toilet paper, things we did not always find in other places in the middle east.

Inside the shopping area of the Atlantis Hotel

Everything in Dubai tends to be expensive, probably even more so at the fancy hotels. We had lunch in a little Asian restaurant in Atlantis. A little bowl each of fried rice and sweet & sour chicken, along with one cup of coffee and a pot of tea cost 180 dirham or nearly $50 USD.

Palm Jumeriah boardwalk across from Atlantis

After lunch we took a walk on the boardwalk that runs along the edge of the water next to the road on the outer circle. Neither the boardwalk nor the road go all the way back to the mainland. The only way is down the trunk section at the middle of the palm.

view of the bridge from the end of the boardwalk

The boardwalk went about 3.3k before it ended where the road had a bridge to continue farther. If it had been a nice day we would have had a great view of the city skyline including the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, but all of the buildings there were barley visible through the thick fog or possibly a mix of fog and smog that hung about all day.

foggy view of Burj Al Arab from the boardwalk

We did get a fairly decent view of the Burj Al Arab, which is closer to Palm Jumeirah than the Burj Khalifa so it appeared both larger in the view and not nearly as shrouded in fog. We didn’t walk out the other direction on the boardwalk from Atlantis, but on the map it appears to go a similar distance.

on the monorail

A monorail runs down the trunk of the palm from Atlantis to a stop called Gateway on the mainland, with several other stops in between.

view from the monorail

We took the monorail back, which probably cost more than a taxi, but was easily available and worth it just for the views. At the Gateway station you can catch trains, busses, or taxis, or call for an Uber.

Global Village

We had intended to take the train to Mall of Emirates, which is the one with the indoor ski facility just to kill some time, but enough time had passed by then to take a taxi straight from there to Global Village. We would have liked to go sooner, but it didn’t open until 4pm. That was how we found out how expensive the black taxis are since that was all that was available at the monorail station. On the way back we went by Uber and though the distance was farther going all the way to the cruise port it cost less for one of the same black cars that also runs as a taxi, which was how we learned that choice bit of information.

view from the bridge on the way into Souk Madinat Jumeirah

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Posted in Lirica, Middle East, MSC, Port Cities, Ports of Call | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Oceanview Balcony Cabin on Symphony of the Seas

Posted on August 12, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

ocean view balcony cabins line the outer edges of Symphony of the Seas

Although we have booked inside or ocean view cabins to save some money in the past, it’s usually preferable to have a cabin with a balcony. When sailing in the Covid world my sisters and I didn’t even consider a room without one. So far since cruising started back up on sailings that didn’t get cancelled people have boarded and disembarked as scheduled for most cruises. Even when a few passengers test positive during a cruise the sailings have gone on, but the future can be uncertain. If we happened to be on a ship that got quarantined and had to spend a lot of time in our cabin that little bit of outdoor space a balcony provides is the difference between the option to get some fresh air or being stuck completely inside. Hopefully cruise ship quarantines are a thing of the past as they just caused many more people to get sick back when covid first started, but you never know – especially as Covid restrictions ease and numbers of passengers on the ships increases. At the time of our sailing passengers had to provide negative tests to board, but those may have been taken before they took a flight on an airplane, stayed in a hotel, and had meals in restaurants. Then there’s the under 2 passengers who slipped through the cracks unmasked, unvaccinated, and untested that could bring anything onboard even on cruises where vaccines were required for everyone of age and tests for everyone over 2.

standard balcony on Symphony of the Seas

All that aside, it’s nice to have the balcony regardless. It gives you a bit of private outdoor space if you want to sit outside in peace, or if you just want to know what the temperature is like before getting dressed to go ashore. And the view is great too. Since there’s not a clothesline in the shower on Symphony of the Seas, it also made a bit of space to hang wet swimsuits over the chairs at least until they stopped dripping when returning from snorkeling while the ship was still in port. This was the first ship we’ve ever been on that did not have a clothesline in the shower, which even if you never do any laundry is always useful for the swimsuits. The shower did not have good places to tie a line across it either so the sort of clothesline with suction cups would have been the best for that ship.

luggage everywhere when we first got there

The room was more spacious than a standard balcony cabin on some ships, having a bed area near the balcony and a couch and desk area between there and the door. As is standard on cruise ships, the beds could be set together as one or separated into two. All the photos were taken when we first got there before the steward switched it from one bed to two so they all show it as one. The couch turned into the third bed rather than having a bunk that pulls down from the ceiling. It had two closets, one with all hanging space and the other with shelves and a small hanging space. There were also drawers in the desk. Storage space was sufficient for two people, but with three we could have used a bit more. It would have been nice if there had been a second set of shelves on the other side of the bathroom mirror rather than just on one side. If the couch had built in drawers that would have really helped for more storage without taking up extra space in the room.

A wall mounted TV sat opposite the two beds. It was surrounded by a wooden framework, which was where our swimsuits tended to end up when they were not wet enough to be dripping or anything, but still too damp to put them away.

ocean view balcony cabin

Other than the lack of storage the room was quite nice. It had outlets and USB charging ports by the desk and by one of the beds. We brought a few extras for the desk with an extender with 3 plug spaces so you get 3 for one, and a clock with 2 USB ports plugged into that so for the space of one wall plug we could plug in 3 things, and for the space of one of those 3 we had a clock plus 2 additional USB ports. Stuff like that comes in useful on cruises, especially on older ships where outlets are often scarce and USB ports may be non-existent. Even though this was a newer ship the extras were still useful since the USB ports in the bed area were in the space where you put a nightstand if the beds are together as one rather than separated into two as we had them so they weren’t convenient to use, and with 3 people there’s lots of stuff to plug in.

cabin bathroom

The bathroom had some counter space around the sink, and a shower, no tub. Only the suites have tubs on this ship. Which means the bathroom takes up a bit less of the cabin space so that’s fine. The only things we really would have changed given the option would have been to add a clothesline in the shower and 3 more shelves on the other side of the mirror.

As is usual in anything but the oldest cruise ships, the walls and doors were magnetic, which is useful if you bring magnets to keep your paperwork organized. Also if you happen to have magnetic hooks to stick to the wall and add a few more places to put things. I did not have any on that cruise, but have bought them since as they would have been very useful there.

This ship had a magnet rather than a paper sign for the door to let the steward know if you were out and about and the room was empty for cleaning or if you were in and not wanting to be bothered. I can’t remember exactly what it said, but something on the lines of sleeping off the fun and out enjoying the ship rather than do not disturb or please make-up room. Magnets are much better for this as they don’t fall off the door or get turned around accidently. I always wondered why they had paper signs for years instead of magnets until finally sailing on a ship that had them, which I think was the other time we sailed with Royal Caribbean.

balcony cabin

Overall we liked the room. Everything was in good condition and with 3 of us in the room we definitely appreciated that it was more spacious than balcony cabins on some other ships.

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Décor on Celebrity Constellation

Posted on August 5, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Grand Foyer

Celebrity Constellation has some classy décor. The Grand Foyer is the central area of the ship open several decks above the stairway with balconies around it. The popular martini bar sits alongside it, and live music often plays on one of the balconies across from the stairs.

floor décor

Fancy things could sometimes be found in hallways too, joining different flooring together.

video art

Down by the shops there was a wall of video art.

glass sculpture

One alcove had a brightly colored glass sculpture. I’m not sure if it was actually supposed to represent anything or not, but it reminded me of either snakes or kelp.

there were several sculptures similar to this one

The ship also has a lot of strange artwork. Odd art objects almost seem to be a requirement for cruise ships, but this one had more than its share. Even the photos in the hallways leading to staterooms were mostly out-of-focus pictures of objects people wouldn’t normally take photos of like telephone poles and street corners.

we were told this pool-deck statue cost a fortune

When sailing on pretty much any cruise ship I often wonder who chooses the art and what they were thinking when they did. This ship was certainly no exception, with reminders around just about every corner.

alphabet man

Outside of the buffet there was a man made out of letters of the alphabet.

solarium

The solarium had a questionable statue too.

the top of the staircase had the tallest weeds

The stairways had some of the strangest art of all on the landings between sets of stairs. On the front stairway each case displayed some weeds. Mostly dandelions in different stages of blooming and plantains, but the top case had some taller weeds with just the plantains and no dandelions.

blob art

The middle stairway had what looked like glazed blobs of clay. Mostly they were just shapeless blobs, but one had some legs sticking out of it.

stairway bird and worm

The back stairway had mostly things that looked like they were made either by or for small children, other than the bottom two levels which had jars of marbles.

flower and upside down turtle-worm

Worms seemed to be a theme for several levels.

earworms

The strangest of the worm things was these earworms.

art for sale

There’s always art for sale on cruise ships. Some of it is nice, but a lot of it is things that I can’t imagine ever wanting to hang in my house.

painting

Paintings hanging around the ship aren’t necessarily to my taste either, though some are by famous artists so I guess some people like them.

buffet display

There was some art that I liked though. There were some clever paper sculptures like this tea set in a glass case at the buffet.

paper tree picture

I liked the giant paper tree picture outside of the fancy suite restaurant too.

top deck sailboats

I also liked the metal boat sculptures found in a few places around the ship.

lower deck wall art

A lower-level hallway had a giant wall boat.

boat on a ship

Other places had boats too, though even some of those were a bit odd.

Whether it’s nice, interesting, or just plain weird it’s fun to look at the art on cruise ships.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
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Zhujiajao, China’s Canal City

Posted on July 29, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Zhujiajao canal boat

In the port talks on the Holland America Westerdam, the speaker mentioned Suzhou and Zhuiajiao as canal cities near Shanghai with old style Chinese architecture that are places worth going to see. We stayed in Shanghai a few days after disembarking and decided to pay a visit to Zhujiajao. It’s probably farther than we’d go on our own at a port stop when there’s limited time to get somewhere and back without getting left behind when the ship leaves port, but for pre or post cruise or if the ship overnights in Shanghai there’s plenty of time. Especially if you’re staying in Shanghai where you’re more likely to already be in town rather than having to add the time to take a shuttle from the cruise terminal into town to the travel time.

one of the temples in the Jangnan ancient city

From our hotel near the Bund we took the subway (line 2 which was green on the subway maps) from Nanjing Street to its second to last stop at Hongalao Railway Station where we changed to line 17 (brown) and rode that line to its second to last stop at Zhujiajao. From the West Nanjing Road stop it’s about an hour and 20 minutes total for both lines. The final stop for line 17 is a place called Oriental Land. The name sounds like a theme park for a place not in an Asian country, but it’s a 21 square mile park in China where people go for everything from rock climbing to aquatic activities, a global village showcasing the architecture of different countries, military exhibits, and more.

shop in the ancient village

Zhujiajao was not what I expected from the port talk on the ship or what some other former passengers we ran into at Yu Garden said. Rather than an actual functioning ancient little town out in the middle of nowhere where people live life in a quiet village along the canals, you exit the train (which is above ground rather than under at that end of the line) into a modern station next to a highway. One of the station exits is for two highways and the other a highway and a road. Not a highway seemed more likely to be the right choice, and that is the exit nearly everyone went to.

Taking a pedicab between the subway and ancient town insures you won’t get lost – and gives a local a chance to earn a little money. This one is at the ancient town.

Following the crowd we turned left when reaching the road next to the station. It ran next to a lake or river with flowers, an old bridge, and some people fishing. About a block from the station the crowd took a right turn, with most walking past the peddycabs offering tours for 150 yuan. We’d have kept going too, but one old guy said he’d take us to the ancient village for 20 yuan. He went straight down the road we’d started out on rather than following the crowd off to the right. After passing a school where some kids were doing some sort of dragon dance with a Chinese dragon of the sort seen in parades he turned to the right on a small narrow street. After a bit that street narrowed into an alleyway and he stopped and pointed to the ticket booth about 20 feet away.

shops along one of the wider streets in the Jangnan ancient town

The Jangnan Ancient Town there is a tourist attraction within a larger city, not an actual town where people live. The old buildings are mostly shops and restaurants now. It’s more of a theme park than a town since you have to pay to get in. It has more than one entrance so the crowd that went down the other street probably came in on the other side.

the boatman stands up going under a bridge, but warns passengers not to because a tall person could hit their head on some of the shorter bridges

Ticket options were for one with just the entry fee, or one that included a boat ride as well as entry to some other attractions. If you get the ticket that includes a boat ride there is only one boat dock that you can take that ride from, and it’s not a obvious one. If you want a boat ride and just buy the entry ticket you can purchase a boat ride separately at a number of much easier to find boat docks scattered throughout the ancient village. The wooden boats are poled down the canal by a boatman similar to the gondolas of Venice, but the style of the boat itself is not the same. These have a roofed area so when sitting in the front of the boat you can’t see the boatman’s head because it is above the roof and you are not.

inside the gates of a temple complex on the extra entries ticket it had a courtyard with things on display surrounded in buildings

there was a pretty elaborate display inside one of the temple buildings

If you plan to spend the day there the ticket with all the extras is good. Besides the boat ride it comes with entry to a couple temples, several art or crafts galleries and exhibitions, a Chinese pharmacy, post office, and a garden. Of course if you want to see all those things you have to find them first. They are scattered about throughout the village. The boat ride costs less with the combined ticket, but is also shorter than one purchased at one of the boat docks.

making intricate handmade giant lollipops

Most of the ancient buildings lining the sometimes quite narrow streets of the ancient village are shops. Some sell jewelry, many of which have not only pearl necklaces, but also tanks of oysters where people can try to find their own pearl. Other shops sell artwork, souvenirs, and the usual sort of trinkets found in the markets of Shanghai. A large number of the market stalls sell food. Roasted nuts and seeds are a popular thing as is meat, seafood, and sweets. There were people making handmade fancy lollipops in animal or zodiac designs there that we did not see in any of the markets we went to in other places.

restaurants with canal-view dining terraces

Besides the street type food in the markets, restaurants are an option and there are plenty to choose from. Dining near a window or on a terrace overlooking the canal is a popular thing to do. While the village has interesting old architecture, it’s not as fancy as what you can see right in Shanghai at Yu Garden (which was once a temple rather than a village) so it’s a long way to go if you are just looking for old buildings and markets. If it’s the boats, canals, and old bridges you want to see then it’s an excellent place to go.

tall covered bridge

There are a lot of bridges throughout the ancient town. Which makes sense since there are also a lot of canals. There are long bridges, short bridges, and even tall covered bridges. Some bridges are made of stone, but not all of them.

there were boat docks all around the ancient village for the rides you buy separately

We saw quite a lot of the town while hunting for the one boat dock with the pre-paid ride. We walked right by it several times without even realizing that was the dock because unless there is a boat sitting there you would never know it’s where they load them.

invisible boat dock

It’s not manned when there’s not a boat there, and just consists of a small structure on the side of the canal, not an actual dock like the ones where you buy the ride separately so it’s not very obvious that is the place to go. Once you find it the ride is fun.

long stone bridge

We didn’t use all the extra entry options on our ticket, but did go into a temple as well as the boat ride. We had lunch at one of the restaurants in the ancient town. The waitress didn’t speak English and we don’t speak any of the Chinese languages so it was pretty much point to a picture and hope for the best. She could answer standard questions that were probably more a memorized thing than an actual understanding, but had no idea what we were trying to ask when we wanted to know what the dumplings were made of – as in type of flour, not what was inside them.

family on a boat ride

Small children in China don’t wear diapers, and when they need to go the parents seem to pretty much just let them go anywhere. We saw one dad hold a little girl over the canal and throw toilet paper into the water when she was done. Then at the restaurant a mother at the next table over grabbed a garbage can for her little boy to pee in right in the middle of where people were eating even though the building next door was a bathroom. So you definitely see some things there you would never see in most countries. This was the only place we saw any of that during our stay in China, but we really didn’t see any small children in the touristy area of Shanghai where we were staying.

passing by another boat in the canal

On the subway on the way back to Shanghai when the train pulled into an empty station out in the boonies near Zhuiajiao a Chinese guy sitting across from us threw his water bottle out the door onto the empty platform when the train doors opened. You would think there would be litter everywhere with behavior like that, but these people think nothing of littering because they have people whose job it is to clean up after them like the little old man with a tiny push cart that we saw picking up garbage on the side of the road in Dalian.

canals of Zhujiajao

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
Posted in China, Day Trips, Holland America, Port Cities, Port City Side Trips, Westerdam | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Stoddard, New Hampshire Airbnb

Posted on July 22, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

The morning after a very eventful day where we walked the Freedom Trail, went to an aquarium, and enjoyed a sunset sail before spending a night at a hotel in Boston, we headed toward a house on Highland Lake. We had a couple days stay there at an Airbnb in Stoddard, New Hampshire on the way to our final destination in Vermont. Stoddard is a small town in Cheshire County, with a population of just over 1300 people. Stoddard had 4 glass factories in the 1800’s, and Stoddard glass is still prized by collectors to this day. The first residents settled there in 1768 and by 1790 it was a town of just over 700 people.

front of the bnb in Stoddard

The bnb we stayed in is a 2 bedroom house that sleeps 6 on the shores of Highland Lake. Each bedroom has a double or queen bed and a single bed. In addition to the two bedrooms, the cottage also has a full kitchen, living room, bathroom, and space for a dining table.

kitchen in the Stoddard lake house

It has full sized kitchen appliances including a dishwasher and was well equipped with dishes. There were also lots of supplies including condiments, coffee & tea, spices, and some food items. It had plenty of cleaning supplies including shampoo and such for personal use. The stairway door to the basement was marked private, but check-out instructions said to take the garbage and recycling to the cans down there so apparently they didn’t expect guests to stay out of there completely, probably just not to bother the things they have stored there.

biggest bedroom

It was not specified whether the washer, dryer, and ping-pong table are intended for guest use, but there were a stack of paddles and balls near the ping-pong table, as well as soap and dryer sheets above the washer so one would assume that they are. Until they find the note on the washer saying not to use it because it leaks. Perhaps that was just a temporary thing that they have fixed by now. Or they just say that because they don’t want anyone using it. They probably need it for doing laundry between guests because they’d have to take everything by boat to wash it at their house, which sits across the lake on an island. The basement also contained a pile of sleds presumably for winter guests, some blow-up water toys, a stack of wood next to a wood stove, and kindling and newspapers presumably either for the wood stove, the outdoor fire pit, or both.

smaller bedroom

Entry upon arrival is through a door code, which was not supplied until check-in day. We were given the address in advance, but not directions and found our way by google maps. There was a dead spot along the way so we rather wished we’d gone to mapquest or a similar site and printed out directions before we came. Luckily cell service came back shortly before the turn to the dirt road leading to the cottage, which was just in time because we’d gone far enough by then to consider turning around thinking we might have missed it. The entrance could have been marked better as the house number on a tiny sign on a tree pointing to a narrow gravel driveway between 2 houses of which one had a higher number and the other lower was the only indication of where to turn in. The number is on the house itself, which is not visible from the road.

view from the back deck

A back deck with table and barbecue has excellent views of the lake, as does the kitchen and the smaller bedroom. The backyard slopes toward the water. On ground level the backyard has a firepit, picnic table, and a small dock with kayaks and a paddle boat. Life vests can be found in an enclosed bin which presumably keeps them out of the rain. Instructions in the guest book recommend not swimming at the property, but rather paddling across to a swim platform by the owner’s house across the lake, which is not too far away as the island their house sits on is directly across from the bnb. I’m sure that recommendation is for summer guests as it would have been far too cold for anyone who isn’t into polar plunges to swim during our October stay. Many of the homes on the shore of that lake had boat docks and or swimming access so it is probably fairly warm water in the summer. Near the main shore and shores of little islands dotting the lake in the area where the bnb sits have shallow water that probably warms fairly quickly in the summer – and freezes in the winter according to the guest book in the house which says the lake is popular for winter snowmobiling.

lake view and backyard

The cabin had great lake views and everything needed for a comfortable stay, but also looked like it would need some major maintenance at some point if it is to remain standing long into the future as the stairway and deck were not level, and neither was the cracked concrete floor in the basement.

one tree knows it’s fall

Fall leaves are a funny thing, some years turning as early as August and other years as late as November. At least that’s how they are where we live. I’m guessing the northeast is at least somewhat the same as October ought to be prime fall color time yet some trees were just starting to turn while others remained fully green and only the minority displayed full fall foliage. There were some evergreens too, pine trees with needles that were quite soft and thin compared to the ones on the other side of the country where we’re from.

living room

The cottage had a huge flatscreen TV in a giant cabinet that was also full of books, games, and puzzles offering lots to do should inclement weather arise. It had internet with pretty speedy wifi, but no cell service so phones only worked through the wifi.

view of the house from the lake

This home was the sort of place people could either use as a base to go do other things from or find plenty to do right there. The nearest grocery stores were over half an hour away so unless guests were planning on going out and about right after dropping off their stuff grocery shopping before going to the cabin is the best plan.

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A Visit to Saint Martin

Posted on July 15, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

ships in St Martin

Our original itinerary on Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas had a port stop scheduled in Antigua instead of St Martin, but these days cruises that don’t get cancelled often have itinerary changes long before they actually set sail. Cancelled or not, we haven’t had a cruise booked that we didn’t get itinerary change notices for since Covid started.

beach and shops

The island of Saint Martin belongs to two different countries. The Dutch side where the cruise ships dock is Sint Maarten, and the French side Saint Martin, which is also how Americans generally spell it regardless of which part they are actually visiting. The story goes that a Dutchman and a Frenchman set out from the same point walking in opposite directions with the boundry line drawn across the island from the point they started to the place they met. Which would mean the Frenchman either moved faster or had easier terrain to cross because the French got a larger piece of the island.

people go to Maho Beach to get pictures of these large jets overhead

The big jets fly very low over Maho Beach

The Dutch got the side that eventually ended up with a cruise dock and airport though. Maho Beach next to Princess Juliana Airport is a popular spot for tourists to get up-close photos of the underside of airplanes. Cruise ships dock in the Dutch capital Philipsburg. There’s lots of shops right at the port. A water taxi takes people from the port to town, where there are more shops and restaurants and quite a nice beach. Bars too, and a casino. There’s also a taxi stand at the port for people who want to go elsewhere on the island.

garden at the port

On our last visit to Saint Martin we were the 4th of 4 ships at the dock. This time we were the third of 3. Docked alongside Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas and across from Carnival Magic. We’d been traveling along near the Magic for quite some time, probably since leaving Miami as there were two Carnival ships in port that day. I’ve been on the Magic before out of Port Canaveral, but not on Rhapsody.

ships at the dock

Rhapsody looked large at the dock until the Magic pulled in, but once Symphony got there it towered over the Magic as well. Rhapsody had gotten there long before the other two. It was not yet in use and had docked there when all the ships stopped sailing due to Covid and had to find somewhere to go. Which explained its derelict appearance and desperate need of a paint job where the ship’s name was slowly vanishing off the stern. When in use any little scratch gets painted over at the very next port stop and they’d never let part of the name peel away.

at the port

Saint Martin has changed since we were last there, which was not only pre-Covid, but also some years before that. Although the buildings at the port seemed to be in decent condition, it kind of had the air of a place that hadn’t been used much recently, and some places were not yet open.

street in Philipsburg

In town parts of Phillipsburg looked a bit run down during our visit. It had some severe damage in 2017’s hurricane Irma and not everything had been repaired yet. Not to mention the loss in tourist dollars due to Covid. With ships not sailing for so long a lot of places went out of business. They do depend on tourism as a main source of income for the island. Parts of the town looked rather sad and neglected, but with ships sailing again now perhaps they will be able to get things fixed up and new tenants for the empty stores.

shopping booth on the street

Not all the shops are in buildings. Some are outdoor booths. With all the vacancies, it’s not for lack of building space, so maybe they just can’t afford the rent.

water taxi dock in Phillipsburg

We came to town on a sunny day, which is normally a nice thing on a Caribbean cruise, but for me on this particular trip not so much. I took a trip to Vermont a couple weeks prior to the cruise, went hiking up a mountain, and came back with a tick of the black-legged sort (deer tick) that can carry Lyme’s Disease. Taking doxycycline for about 3 weeks to prevent that is pretty standard treatment (so we were told), but doxycycline makes people extremely sensitive to the sun, so not the best thing for a Caribbean cruise. I got a full-body UV swimming suit so I could still go snorkeling this trip, but that was the plan for other ports rather than this one.

port stop in Philipsburg, St Maarten

Besides a good slathering of sunscreen (of the mineral type which besides being more effective is also reef safe), I wore a long skirt and the sort of sweater with a loose weave so it’s not too hot for a lot more skin coverage than the weather would have called for. I thought the skirt would shade my feet so I wore sandles, but even though I stayed in the shade whenever there was any available and didn’t stay out very long my feet did get a touch of sunburn.

 

on the watertaxi

We had no plans for this port so after wandering the port area for a bit we took the water taxi to town. The fleet of yellow boats I remember from the past no longer existed. There was a large catamaran that looked to be sponsored by Diamonds International, and a smaller black boat that far more closely resembled the old yellow fleet. That was all for that day at least.

a street in Philipsburg

We wandered about town for awhile and the sisters did some shopping. A lot of the places that didn’t survive the shutdown while cruise ships were absent had for rent signs in their windows. Most buildings seemed intact, but some definitely appeared worse for the wear. A sign at the water taxi dock said build back better so apparently there are plans in the works to spruce up the town now that the tourists are back.

hot dogs

Here and there people who looked like they might be police or some sort of security had working dogs out in the sun. Then we saw one with several dogs taking a break in the shade.

tourist train

A little tourist train slunk by on the cobblestone road – only for passengers who had booked the ride onboard. Other excursions the ship offered included snorkeling and airplane spotting at Maho Beach. We didn’t go to the taxi stand to see what sort of places they take people to now and if it is anywhere besides Maho Beach. On a previous visit we’d tried unsuccessfully to take a taxi out to a zipline course in the French area, but none of the drivers wanted to go there that time. In town we had a couple offers for island tours from locals, but my sisters weren’t interested so we didn’t take them up on it.

view of the cruise port from the ship

After leaving St Maarten the Magic once again sailed nearby as our ship moved along toward the next port. We saw them there, but not at the same dock. We did not expect to see them at the last port since our last scheduled stop was Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas. Carnival has their own island there.

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Posted in Caribbean, Port Cities, Ports of Call, Royal Caribbean, Symphony of the Seas | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments