Northeast Scenic Drive

Posted on December 9, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

roadside creek

Traveling from Stoddard, New Hampshire to Jay Peak, Vermont, we took the long way so we could cross the Cornish-Windsor covered bridge. This bridge links Cornish, New Hampshire to Windsor, Vermont across the Connecticut River and is the longest wooden covered bridge of its era still standing. The bridge is 449 feet long and was built in 1886. It’s the third longest covered bridge in the world. The Hartland Covered Bridge in New Brunswick, Canada is the longest, more than twice its length at 1,282 feet. The longest one in the USA is the Smolen-Gulf Bridge at 613 feet crossing the Ashtabula River in Ohio.

Cornish-Windsor bridge

Cornish-Windsor is the fourth bridge on the site with the first 3 destroyed by floods. The first bridge on the site was built in 1796. The current bridge had some flood damage in 1977, which was repaired. The bridge closed for deterioration in 1987, but was restored and re-opened in 1989. There is space to park alongside the road for bridge tourists on the New Hampshire side. The Vermont side has no parking signs.

old church

Our route brought us along small country roads – one of them gravel – and through small towns. Throughout New Hampshire a lot of the towns had what looked to be an old church marked as the town hall, but once we got into Vermont the old churches mostly appeared to be still functioning as churches. Some of the towns were so small there wasn’t much other than the church there, but others were actually functioning towns. Gas stations and grocery stores are scarce or non-existent in a lot of them. Though we were there in October before heading to Vermont we’d seen more green trees than fall color. There were patches along the way where it was just the opposite with bright reds, vivid yellows, and even some orange leaves outnumbering the green.

view of the parking area and river through a window in the bridge

When we got to the bridge we were happy to see the area where people can pull over and park. It was quite the tourist attraction with cars bearing license plates from assorted states coming and going in the small roadside parking area, and people taking photos of the bridge. It’s just wide enough for one car going each way, but the traffic was not constant so there was frequently time between cars to get a better look.  One couple came wandering out of the bridge on foot saying the view was fantastic through the little windows on the sides of the bridge, so of course we had to check it out. They were right about that, and there is room to get out of the way should a car come through.

tourists taking photos of the bridge

The front of the bridge had a sign saying there was a fine for not walking your horse across, but there were no horses to be seen and as cars came fairly often and fairly fast it wouldn’t really be safe to take a horse across at any speed. In between cars people took photos from the road, ever watchful as you might have to move quickly out of the way at any second. From the far side of the guardrail people could take photos in relative safety from either side of the bridge. We did not ever see two cars come from opposite sides at the same time, but if they did one would have to wait as they could not pass by each other inside of the bridge. Across the street there was a small building with a giant saw blade out front.

building with a sawblade

Once we finished taking our photos we drove across the bridge. We were glad that the New Hampshire side had that little parking area since the Vermont side not only had nowhere to park near the bridge, but also signs saying there was a fine for doing so. Foliage in Vermont was mostly the same as it had been in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts, which is to say more green than color in most places, but here and there patches with more color.

skeleton horse and buggy driver

When we passed by a house with a Halloween display that had a life-sized skeleton driver in a buggy with a skeleton horse John had to stop and take a photo. Perhaps that driver tried to cross the bridge by horse and buggy amidst the car traffic!

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
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Things to Do on Celebrity Constellation

Posted on December 2, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Constellation in Curacao

Each night after the evening cabin cleaning a paper with what’s going on the next day was left in the cabin. It always included a schedule of the day’s events and activities. They had the usual cruise ship fare of trivia, dance classes, exercise classes, games, competitions, lectures, and shows. Instead of bingo they had something called Deal or No Deal, modeled after the TV show of the same name. We looked into it one day and saw in the lounge where it was to be held, in the line waiting to buy cards, the most people we had seen in one place since boarding the ship. That includes the dining room and buffet, neither of which were ever crowded. Not that there wasn’t room enough in that lounge for all the people there, or that it would even be considered a crowd on most ships, but for this one it was since there were only 700 passengers onboard a ship that holds over 2000. You could buy one card, or for a better per card price a group of 3. The prizes offered included a free cruise, $1000, and early on in the cruise an upgrade to a suite for the rest of the cruise. On the outside all the cards looked the same with little cases numbered in a row like on the TV show, but each card is different when you open the tiny paper cases.

Deal or No Deal in the Reflections Lounge

Each card has a serial number. At the start of the game one person is picked by that number. They know who has each number and the system knows what is under each case on each card. The choice appears as random as the numbers on a screen that rapidly change until they stop on the chosen one, but who knows how random that actually is when the computer system picking the winner knows everything. The person whose card number and name gets called goes down by the screen and picks cases like on the show, except these are just pictures of cases on a video screen rather than actual physical ones. The cases on the screen go up to $1000, but the ones on the cards only go up to $50. If your card matches 2 or more of the numbers in the same case number as shown on the screen you win something. 2 numbers wins $5 in casino play (where the minimum bet on table games is $10). 3 matches wins $10 in casino play. The max prize there was 8 matches for $400 in casino play. Several people won $5 or $10 and one $50, but that was all.

one of the ship’s shops

The person actually playing gets to pick cases and then gets offers from the banker for actual cash amounts depending on what they have left available to win on the board just like on the show. The game has 2 rounds, each with a different player. The offers throughout both rounds ran from $119 to $196. The highest amount the person playing can win is $1000. One of the players stayed in until the end and ended up with $0.25 in their case. The other one took a deal for $196, which was a good choice since their chosen case contained $0.01. After the 2 rounds another card serial number is chosen for someone to spin a wheel where they get a 50% chance of winning a cruise and a 50% chance of various amounts of casino play. It’s not a real wheel, again a computer image so the results may or may not be random. The winner got $100 in casino play. It’s a pretty good money maker for the ship selling cards at $25 each or 3 for $40 and not actually giving out much cash. Plus sending the winners into the casino to spend more money. They probably make pretty good money at the ship’s shops too. They did not have the one thing I always buy if it’s available though, which is a Christmas tree ornament ship model.

spa treatment room

As is normal with cruise ships, the Constellation has a spa, though massages and things there were priced higher than we cared to pay so we didn’t use it.

gym

The gym equipment is available to use for free on your own. They also had a few classes there.

guest lecturer

The lectures in the theater were actually real lectures about whatever the subject said they were, at least the ones from outside people. Their destinations lecturer even mentioned using reef safe sunscreen, something the cruise lines themselves should make an effort to educate people about considering how many people they bring to coral reefs daily. We tried attending a lecture at the photo shop that sounded like it would be information about go-pro cameras, but it turned out to be just a sales pitch to buy one. Go-pros were the only cameras they had for sale there. Usually there are little pocket cameras available. I bought one on a ship once when the one I’d brought died during our cruise. My cell phone would be the back-up now I guess, but it would not be able to go in the water when snorkeling like my waterproof camera does.

solarium

Our favorite hangout on the Constellation was the solarium, which is kind of like a bigger version of the pool area of some ship’s thermal suites, except on this one it’s a free space. It has what they call a thalassotherapy pool. Much like the pool in the thermal suite on some ships it had racks to lay on with jets under them and some fountains, except in the thermal suites the water in those pools is usually warmer. The solarium also has some hot tubs and cushioned loungers with a view. Towels are available near all Constellation’s pool areas without having to check them out on your room card like some ships require. The solarium even has a small café that serves smoothies for a price and things like small salads and other tidbits for free at lunchtime. It’s an indoor area under glass rather than out in the elements like the main pool deck so there’s protection from wind, sun, and rain. When the café is open there are things to drink that don’t cost anything like tea, coffee, water, and juice. There’s also a bar just the other side of the door to the main pool area where people can get something to drink when the café is not open, or all sorts of things not offered at the café even when it is. Of course drinks from the bar do cost extra.

view from the solarium loungers by the window

Ships moving through the water often scare up flying fish so it’s fun to watch for them while sailing along. Sometimes there’s other wildlife too. Usually birds, but people may see other things like dolphins occasionally too.

random ping-pong table

We tried the cornhole game sitting up on the pool deck one day, which was a slick plastic one that said baggo rather than cornhole on it. We’re usually pretty good at that game, but this one was both more flexible and slicker than the usual wooden ones are. Instead of sliding into the hole the beanbags would slide right over it and off the top end of the board. They only went in from a direct hit on the hole without touching the board at all. Even landing one on the board happened much less often than usual as any that hit tended to slide off rather than sticking. There’s also a ping-pong table onboard for something people can do on their own.

little nook by windows

The ship has lots of little nooks with seating where people can read or watch the sea go by.

library

It also has an internet room with computers available for anyone who didn’t bring their own, but you don’t have to go to the internet room to use the wifi as it is available in your own cabin and around the ship. You do have to buy an internet package to use it though unless you got one included in your cruise fare. You can use it free for the Celebrity app on phones, but not for anything else on the phone. A stairway leads between the internet room and a library on the deck below.

casino

The casino usually had high minimum bets and not much business, but one day they had a half price time to attract more people. Their daily schedule advertised poker tournaments and nightly cash games, but not enough people to actually hold them ever showed up so there wasn’t any poker during our cruise.

line dance class

We’re more the entertain yourselves sort than joiners of scheduled activities, but sometimes we give it a go. We participated in a few activities on the Constellation. I tried a line dancing class, which was fun as well as good exercise. They broke down each dance into a series of steps learned one set at a time, then put them all together for the whole dance. It really didn’t matter whether people were any good at it or not. It was all just for fun. That was nice since more people are not that talented at it than are – which is good if (like me) you are one of those not-so-good dancers because when a lot of other people suck at it too you can just have fun and not worry about how you look.

“ring” toss turned out to be throwing hula hoops on a crew guy

Their ring toss turned out to be throwing hula hoops over a crew guy. Each person got 3 tries. Nobody got more than one hoop around him. Some people didn’t get any, but John and I each managed to get one. They didn’t have any prizes for that game. Maybe because there was no clear winner since all the participants had a score of either 1 or 0.

ready, aim, miss the tiny little floating ball target

The archery had a blow up target booth with balls held up on streams of air to shoot at. The arrows had a big round rubber end, not a sharp point. A real arrow would have popped the target booth. Two people at a time shot at the 4 balls. You got 3 arrows each, but if you hit a ball you got an extra arrow for each ball you hit. The first time we tried it several people hit one each, and the three that hit 2 went another round. John was one of the 3, along with 2 women, one of whom had been on our kayak excursion in Costa Maya. She was the only one who hit the target on the shoot-off round so they gave her a medal. We went there a second time and less people participated. Only two of them hit any targets. A lady hit one and a guy hit 2 so he got the medal, no shoot off needed.

aircraft carrier – for paper airplanes anyway

We tried one other game. Lots of ships we’ve been on had paper airplane contests. Usually it’s somewhere inside and whoever throws it the farthest wins. Princess put a different spin on it with a hoop and runway. On the Constellation it was the usual whoever throws it the farthest, but held outside so wind was a factor. Some planes caught the wind in a way that made them go up higher and then back down without going very far. Others caught a better breeze and sailed across the deck. When we threw ours they were the only ones who had gone far at all, the previous ones not exceeding 20 feet, most closer to 5 or 10. A couple people after us got farther though, one all the way into the tables on the other side of the ship. He won, but there was no prize. I guess the Constellation wasn’t that big on handing out prizes for their games.

movies on the top back deck

Other things to do included several movie screenings a day at the outdoor theater, and nightly shows in the indoor theater.

pool deck

Of course there are pools too, and lots of chairs around them for people who like to spend the day lounging in or near the pool. There were also hot tubs on the pool deck.

cruising duck

Some people create their own things for themselves and other people to do. I found a little rubber ducky hiding in a sort of round chair thing in the entryway from the outside deck to the hallway in front of the Reflections Lounge. It had a note on it about cruising ducks that said to post a photo and re-hide it, or keep it if you want. We just left it there for someone else to find. A few days later it was gone.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
Posted in Celebrity, Constellation, Shipboard Life | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Olympic National Park

Posted on November 25, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

The dark green areas are Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park covers a significant portion of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. Most of the park is in the center of the north end of the peninsula, but there is also a strip along the coast. The park covers 1442 square miles, or about a million acres.

winter view from Hurricane Ridge

The park includes a variety of ecosystems from glacier topped mountain peaks to temperate forest down to beaches and rugged coastline. There is a lot of old growth forest within the park. Near the coast there are rainforests. Some places in the coastal area receive over 100 inches of rain annually. Quite a contrast to Sequim on the other side of the Olympic Mountains near the north end of the peninsula, which is the driest place in western Washington. Sitting in the rainshadow of the mountains it receives only about 16 inches of annual rain.

logs pile up in winter storms

Rialto Beach, La Push WA

To protect the wildlife dogs are not allowed in much of the park, though they are allowed in some of the lodgings and on a small list of trails. Trails in ONP that allow dogs are Peabody Creek at the ONP Visitor Center on the road to Hurricane Ridge in Port Angeles (not to be confused with the Port Angeles Visitor Center on the waterfront), Rialto Beach, Kalaloch area beach between Hoh and Quinault reservations, Spruce Railroad Trail at Lake Crescent, Madison Falls Trail (Elwha), and July Creek Loop at Lake Quinault.

Piper in a log at Rialto Beach

The park’s website says passes are required to enter the park, which can be purchased online or in person at the park’s visitor centers or park entrance stations when open and staffed. Not all areas of the park require passes or payments. There were no gates, lines to get in, people checking for passes, or places to buy one at Rialto Beach, Madison Falls, Lake Crescent, or Spruce Railroad trail when I went to those places, but there were at Hurricane Ridge and Hoh Rain Forest.

Kalaloch on the coast

The park covers much of the center of the Olympic Peninsula, a lot of which is mountains. There are entrances in various places around the outskirts of the park, some of which have campgrounds or other lodgings, and some that are day use only. Another strip of the park runs along the coast. Information can be found for Olympic National Park on the US National Park website.

coastal temperate rainforest

hiking the Staircase Rapids trail

Since the park covers such a vast area and has a number of different places within the park to visit, each with its own unique characteristics, it is best to know where in the park you want to go before arriving there. While it’s not the sort of place one would usually consider as a cruise ship destination, we once visited the staircase area of the park as a shore excursion from Hoodsport in Hood Canal on a small-ship cruise with UnCruise Adventures.

the lighter green surrounding the park is Olympic National Forest

Olympic National Forest

Olympic National Forest surrounds much of Olympic National Park, extending the forested lands, but with sometimes differing rules. While dogs are only allowed on a handful of trails and in some lodgings in the park, they are allowed on all of the trails in the National Forest. It adds an additional 633,600 acres of protected forest to the foothills of the Olympic Mountain range. Speaking of the Olympic Mountains, most people have heard of Mount Olympus in Greece, but there is also a Mount Olympus in Washington State’s Olympic Mountains. It is the tallest mountain in the Olympic National Park at 7,980 feet high. The Olympic Mountains are not volcanos. Washington’s volcanos are in the Cascade range on the mainland, not on the Olympic Peninsula. There are 5 volcanos in Washington’s Cascades – Mt. St. Helens which blew up dramatically in 1980, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, Glacier Peak, and Mt. Adams.

Olympic National Forest

Some areas of the Olympic National Forest require permits or passes so it’s a good idea to check out their website and find out if anything is required in an area where you want to go before going there. There are a lot of trails within the forest. Some trails have fees and others are free to use. Parts of the forest are within five designated wilderness areas. Some of the trails run through the wilderness areas. There are 20 campgrounds and 3 rental cabins available within the national forest.

copyright My Cruise Stories 2002
Posted in USA, Washington | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Burj Khalifa

Posted on November 18, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Construction on the Burj Khalifa started 2004, completed in 2009, and the building had an official launch ceremony in January of 2010. As the tallest building in the world at 2722 feet to the tip it beats Shanghai Tower’s 2073 feet by 649 feet. We went up Shanghai Tower when we disembarked the Holland America Westerdam there on a cruise from Vancouver to Shanghai. It was the world’s second tallest building at the time, but has recently been passed by Malasia’s Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur at 2227 feet. We visited the Burj Kalifa after disembarking MSC Lirica in Dubai from a cruise that started in Trieste, Italy.

daytime view from the Burj Khalifa

As the tallest man-made structure in the world it holds a number of world records – tallest building, tallest free-standing structure, most stories (163), highest occupied floor, highest outdoor observation deck, elevator with longest travel distance, and tallest service elevator. The Burj Khalifa is currently still hanging onto its title as the tallest building in the world. There is one planned to be taller under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia called the Jeddah Tower with a proposed height of 3281 feet (one kilometer). The completion date for this tower is unknown.

night view of Dubai from the Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa houses the Armani Hotel and residences as well as 900 luxury apartments. Staying in the Armani Hotel doesn’t get you very high up the tower though since it starts at the bottom and has rooms on the 1st to 8th floors. There are also some hotel rooms on the 38th and 39th floors so the highest level with hotel rooms is on the 39th floor.

fountain at the Burj Khalifa

The 144 Armani residences are 1-2 bedroom suites from level 9-16 with fountain views. Both the Armani Hotel and residences were designed by Giorgio Armani. The other residential tower runs from the 19th to 108th stories. Residences there range from studios to 1-4 bedroom apartments to a 5 bedroom penthouse.

looking up from a balcony on the Burj Khalifa

Visiting the Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa is at the Dubai Mall. Ticket counters and meeting points for tours are in the mall. There’s also luggage storage right by that ticket counter as well as elsewhere in the mall. It’s not cheap to go up the tower, but it’s the things you don’t do that you regret and it would cost a whole lot more to go back there again and do it later if you skip it for the price and then go home wishing you had done it. The regular tickets take you to levels 124 and 125. For an extra charge you can get the premium ticket up to Sky Level on the 148th floor (555 meters). It’s well worth the money to spend the extra for the premium ticket, though it’s still not the top of the tower.

daytime views of the Burj Khalifa

The highest the public can get is by booking a meal at a lounge on levels 152-154. It’s 585 meters at the top level of the lounge with an outdoor terrace at 575 meters, so still not all the way to the top of this 163-story building. The lounge offers 3 options with afternoon high tea, dinner at sundown, or evening cocktails.

looking down on the fountain show

What’s up higher than the lounge and why can’t people go all the way to the top? Levels 160-163 are for mechanical purposes. Levels 156-159 are used for communication and broadcast. Other than the lounge the uppermost levels are corporate suites mainly used by private companies.

night view of a balcony at the Burj Khalifa

The regular At the Top ticket to levels 124 & 125 gives you an hour and a half to stay in the tower. The premium one isn’t timed and with it you can go up anywhere from an hour before to an hour after the booked time.

sunset view of Burj Al Arab from Burj Khalifa

Sunset is the most popular time so for sunset visits it’s recommended to book in advance as there is a limit to the amount of people allowed up in the tower at any given time.

sky level had little niches with fancy things

Sometimes there can be quite a line to get up the tower. Whether you have the premium ticket or just the one that goes to the 124th & 125th floors, all visitors start out in the same elevators. With the sky level ticket to floor 148 you get a VIP sticker and get to bypass the line of people with a basic ticket waiting for the elevator going up. The first elevator takes just 1 minute to go 124 floors, the fastest elevator in the world. For premium ticket holders, from that floor you board another elevator which goes up the remaining 24 floors in 15 seconds.

sky level in the Burj Khalifa

As people leave the elevator on the 148th floor they step into a fancy lounge and are offered tiny cups of tea and little sweets, which included dates, macaroons, and other cookies during our visit. There’s several chairs next to a view window and some couches in an inner room open to the view window.

the outdoor balconies had very tall glass walls

Hallways lead to other view windows, and a walk through the little gift shop leads to an outdoor balcony where there are slits between the glass panels big enough to fit a phone or small camera through in order to take photos that are not done through glass.

sunset over Dubai

We were originally told that we could stay on that level for half an hour and then proceed down to levels 124 and 125 where we could stay as long as we liked. Once we were up there they said we could stay longer so we stayed long enough to get some sunset photos before going down to the next level while there was still some color in the sky.

sky level view table with free refreshments

Up on level 148 once you stop wandering around and sit in the chairs by the window with little tables, or the couches in the inner room, which also have tables, the guys working there come around offering coffee or tea. When they deliver it they sometimes bring a little plate of the sweets along as well. You can have as much as you like and it is all included in the ticket, no extra charge. Once you go down to the lower levels snacks and drinks cost money, and once you’ve gone down you can’t go back up.

swinging pod chairs

Level 125 has view windows pretty much all the way around, some swinging pod chairs, and a video floor you can walk around on that simulates looking down to the ground through a glass floor.

virtual fountain view through the video floor

it looks and sounds like the floor has cracked, but the cracks are as fake as the view

Periodically the video floor makes loud cracking sounds and gives the appearance of cracking glass. There’s also a gift shop and a virtual reality climb the spire experience on that floor. This floor had wings painted on a window where people pose for photos between the wings making it look like they are theirs.

wings over Dubai

All of the levels have some telescope things with a big video screen where you can choose actual camera or night or day views, and little labels pop up to tell you what you are looking at. All the ones on level 148 worked fine, but some of the ones on the lower floors had issues when we were there.

stairway between levels 124 and 125

There’s a stairway from level 125 down to level 124, which has an outdoor balcony bigger than the one on level 148. It has the same spacing between glass panels for unobstructed photos. It also has a gift shop and like the other levels photographers who want to take your photo so they can try to sell the pictures to you when you go back down. There’s a snack shack there too, and wings painted on windows for more soaring over Dubai photos.

fountain show at night

Back on ground level you exit through … you guessed it – yet another gift shop. Like just about all attractions everywhere this one exits through a gift shop. It also has hallways leading back to Dubai Mall that have various interesting displays about the Burj Khalifa. When in Dubai it’s definitely worth making a trip to the top. While looking out the window up there I couldn’t help but hear the line from a song that goes “I’m on the top of the world looking down on creation” in my head.

foggy day view from the Burj Khalifa

Unfortunately it was something of a foggy day when we were up there, though it could have been worse. Rain was dumping in buckets that morning before we left the ship, and in the Uber from the port to the mall we were driving through roads that looked more like rivers. It doesn’t rain often in Dubai so they don’t have drainage in their infrastructure to handle it. It rained some our first day there as well. The rain cleared off and the sun came out before the morning was over, but the fog only cleared enough for tower views of the immediate area rather than the distant views the tower would offer on a clearer day. We didn’t have the option of waiting for better weather though since we had a flight out late that night. Even with the limited view we could see a lot and were very glad we splurged the extra money for the premium ticket.

fountain view looking down from the Burj Khalifa while the fountain is off

There’s a parklike area next to the mall and in front of the Burj Kalifa. A good section of it is filled with water and a fountain. There are fountain shows periodically throughout the day.

light show on the Burj Khalifa

After dark the Burj Kalifa puts on a light show just before the fountain show, and the fountain has lights too.

fountain show at the Burj Khalifa

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
Posted in Lirica, Middle East, MSC, Port Cities | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Food on Symphony of the Seas

Posted on November 11, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Symphony of the Seas in St. Martin

Food on Symphony of the Seas

As is customary on cruise ships, the main dining room and the buffet are the major food sources on the Symphony of the Seas, but far from the only ones. There are also many smaller eateries around the ship, some of which cost extra, and others that don’t.

pork chop dinner

The main dining room had good food and a staff that would go overboard to try and please their guests. We had all our dinners in the dining room. When you have special dietary needs dinners for the dining room are ordered the night before so they can be tailored to suit your diet. Mostly it ends up as meat, vegetables, and a potato. Unlike some ships which just leave off the sauce entirely, Symphony did make gluten and dairy free sauces. The waitstaff often work other venues during other meals, and if they see any of their special needs clients they do everything in their power to accommodate those needs in other venues as well.

dairy free desserts often came with meringue instead of whipped cream

On this ship they would take pre-orders for dining room breakfast or lunch as well, but we preferred the freedom of eating those meals when we felt like it rather than at a set time. The dining room is only open a short time for those meals, so we had them elsewhere. Cruise ships often offer set time dining at the same time and table nightly, and a more flexible dining option where you can show up anytime during the open hours and get seated where space is available. The flexible time works great for people who order straight off the menu, but for anyone with special dietary needs, dinners are best accommodated at the set time dining where you have the same waitstaff every day.

this flourless chocolate cake showed up with our desserts every night whether we ordered it or not

My sisters and I all have gluten and dairy issues of various degrees and they did a great job with tasty adaptations of the menu and sometimes custom desserts. Apparently a flourless chocolate cake is their standard gluten free dessert as they brought a plate of that every night whether we ordered it or not. It was quite tasty, but very rich. If they could make whatever we each had ordered we got one piece of the cake in addition. If there was something they couldn’t make gluten and dairy free the person who ordered it got the flourless chocolate cake instead. Generally the desserts they make onboard could be adapted while the ready-made ones could not.

the photo does not do this delicious Grand Marnier Soufflé justice

The chef even made a delicious gluten and dairy free version of the grand Marnier soufflé. He made up the recipe for it just for us. It was quite a long wait for dessert that night as it took longer to cook than he anticipated since the regular version has a shorter cooking time, but it was so good it was well worth the wait.

The buffet sometimes had pink or white dragon fruit at breakfast.

Before sailing we weren’t sure what they buffet would be like with covid, but it was pretty much what I anticipated it would be. The buffet on Symphony of the Seas, called the Windjammer, was open, but nothing was self-serve for guests unless it was already portioned out so you touched nothing but the dish it was on. Anything served in larger containers had to be dished out to individual people’s plates by someone on the crew so that no passengers touched the serving utensil. One station of the buffet contained a variety of gluten free entrees, and at breakfast the station serving pancakes and waffles and things could make gluten free pancakes or toast on request, though getting them did require a wait since they are not pre-made and ready to serve like the regular stuff.

Johnny Rockets burger joint on the boardwalk

Other food venues around the ship are Wonderland, Park Cafe, Johnny Rockets, Dog House, Jamie’s Italian, Cafe Promenade, Starbucks, Sorrentos, Vitality Cafe, Izumi, Sugar Beach, El Loco Fresh, 150 Central Park, Chops Grille, Hooked Seafood, Solarium Bistro, and the coastal kitchen which is only for people in suites. People can also order room service. Some room service breakfast items are free (though a tip should be given at delivery.) Most of the room service menu costs extra.

Jamie’s Italian at Central Park

Premium eateries – in other words the ones you pay extra for – include Wonderland, which serves imaginative cuisine, Johnny Rockets burgers (which does serve free breakfast), Jamie’s Italian and Starbucks. Izumi Hibachi & Sushi serves Japanese cuisine. The Vitality Cafe, which is at the spa, has some free items, but juices and smoothies cost extra. Sugar Beach is just what it sounds like – a candy store. 150 Central Park has upscale locally sourced dinners while Chops Grill is more of a classic steakhouse. Hooked Seafood serves fresh New England style seafood. So a good portion of the restaurants onboard do cost extra. We did not visit any of those. Some of them require reservations.

Cafe Promenade on the Royal Promenade

Places that are included in the cruise fare besides the dining room and buffet include the Park Cafe which is open at breakfast and lunch with deli style food. We peeked in one morning, but they had nothing gluten-free so we didn’t stay. The Dog House is of course hot dogs, and open at lunch and dinner (if you eat dinner early enough anyway.) Cafe Promenade is the 24-hour eatery, which had sandwiches and desserts. It always had a few gluten free items. Sorrentos has pizza ready to go, but if they don’t have what you want out and ready they can make it on request. They will also make gluten free pizza on request. El Loco Fresh has Mexican food and was our favorite lunch spot. We tried to check out the Solarium Bistro, but never came by when it was open. The website says it serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Must either be short open hours or it just wasn’t open that cruise since there were only about a third of the number of passengers the ship holds on board. Though listed as a free eatery, their menu does include some pay-extra items.

El Loco Fresh on the pool deck

Besides all the eateries, there’s also free soft ice cream, which was practically right next to El Loco Fresh so we walked past it sometimes. Because nothing was self-serve with covid, 0ne poor crew member had to stand by the formerly self-serve ice cream station to make cones for anyone who happened by wanting one. Occasionally a line formed giving him something to do, but most times we walked by there he was all alone and probably very bored. He did not have any lactose free or non-dairy options so we never had anything there.

lobster dinner on formal night

It would be hard to go hungry on a cruise ship with all the different food choices available, and this ship certainly had more places than average. Of course it’s a far bigger ship than average so it has room for a greater variety of places.

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Posted in Royal Caribbean, Shipboard Life, Symphony of the Seas | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Le Petit Chef

Posted on November 5, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Qsine on Celebrity Constellation

When we sailed on the Infinity, Celebrity’s Qsine Restaurant had an expansive menu of all sorts of crazy foods. Now on our more recent sailing with Celebrity on the Constellation, they still have a premium restaurant called Qsine, but other than the name and orange and white color scheme, it’s not the same place at all. Now Qsine has become dinner (or lunch) and a show featuring Le Petit Chef, a little animated chef who prepares food right on your plate at the table. Lunch in this restaurant is a real bargain. Often the premium restaurants on cruise ships offer lunch at a reduced price from dinner, but the menu is not the same. In this one you still get the reduced price at lunch, but with the same menu as dinner.

table setting for La Petit Chef at Qsine

Things on the table are set just so, as they need to be in the right place for the show. What looks like a plain white plate lights up around the edge when the show is about to start. The projectors are in the ceiling above, one for each plate, so the tables and chairs in this restaurant have to remain in the same place for it to work.

When that white light rings the plate if you blink or move your head or eyes a bit you see rainbow rings for a brief moment instead of white. Once they show starts that light goes away and the whole table becomes a movie screen.

menu for Le Petit Chef

There are 4 courses to the meal. The menu has a main menu option for each course and on the back of the menu there’s one other option for each course. The main menu option is the one that it will show the tiny little chef guy preparing, but whatever you actually ordered is what you will get served. They can adjust your meal for special needs like gluten or dairy free.

Le Petit Chef making soup

The first course is soup. Bouillabaisse is what the tiny little cartoon chef guy makes, but you can opt for French onion instead. To make the soup, he catches a variety of sea creatures and throws them on your plate. An octopus much bigger than him creeps its tentacles up onto the plate, but ends up losing a couple of them into the soup.

the actual bouillabaisse soup

Once the show is over, actual soup is served.

the tiny cartoon chef bronco-busting a lobster

The second course is lobster. The little chef throws a fish on the plate, which attracts a lobster much bigger than he is. It doesn’t stay on the plate, but he ropes it, and after it goes back in the water, he comes out bronco busting on the lobster, which eventually after somewhat of a struggle ends up on the plate. The alternative for this course is sea bass.

real lobster is served once the lobster portion of the show ends

Every course in the meal was quite tasty, including the lobster.

La Petite Chef cooking steak on a plate

For the main course the plate turns into a grill. The chef barbecues a steak on it and harvests some potatoes and a carrot as well as sawing down a broccoli tree to go with it. Using a gas can to light the grill doesn’t turn out well for the tiny chef at the end of the course, but then end of preparing each course never turns out well for him.

chicken from the other menu on the back

The actual food is not eaten directly off the plate that sits on the table for the show. It comes to the table on other dishes. Neither of us ordered steak so I have a photo of the alternative instead, which is chicken.

the little chef emerging from a tiny igloo

On the last course he comes out of an igloo and rolls a snowball to make ice cream. When he gets a bit farther from the igloo he’s towing two sleds full of things he uses to dress up the ice cream snowball with sauce and whipped cream and stuff. At the end he lights up a firework on top, melts his little igloo, and ends up in freshly melted water where there once was snow.

sundae

The show ends with tabletop fireworks – and of course getting served a real sundae unless you chose sorbet instead.

mango sorbet sundae

The sorbet was mango on the day we went there. It normally just comes with a strawberry, but if you ask they’ll top it with sauce and nuts to make a sundae.

tabletop fireworks

This was both the most fun and the most time-consuming meal we had onboard as it took a bit over an hour to complete. The food was also very tasty and well prepared. For a very different dining experience from anything else on land or at sea, it’s definitely the place to go if you are sailing on a Celebrity ship that offers it.

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Posted in Celebrity, Constellation, Cruise Food | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Halloween Decorations

Posted on October 28, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

decoration on the deck at a bnb in Stoddard, New Hampshire

Traveling to the northeast in October, we saw some pretty fancy Halloween decoration displays in a few places along the way.

decorations by the golf course at Jay Peak Resort

It’s always fun to travel near holidays when there’s extra things to see at the places where we stay.

decorations in a garden

Jay Peak had little displays in various places around the resort.

skeleton buggy in a roadside yard in Vermont

Some people go all out with their yard decorations.

sign on the fence of a very decorated yard

You don’t always have to travel far to find people who love the holidays.

pumpkin people

witches

There’s a nearby yard decorated elaborately every Halloween too.

skeleton crew

That’s not the only Halloween yard around. Another one has some bike-riding skeletons.

bike riding skeletons

Happy Halloween!

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Posted in Randoms, USA | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Fall Colors of the Northeast

Posted on October 21, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

several colors all on one tree

I’d always heard about the fall colors of the northeastern USA and thought there isn’t really anything so special about that. After all, there are deciduous trees in the northwest too. They turn colors in the fall. Then there’s the rest of the world. The USA isn’t the only country on the planet with trees that lose their leaves in the wintertime.

fall colors

I can’t say anything about the rest of the world, not having been everywhere in the fall, but after having been to the northeast during the fall I have finally seen just why the leaves there leave such an impression on people.

the trees are as orange as the tractors

It’s not just that there are trees that turn yellow, orange, or red. We have those in the northwest too.

red trees

What we don’t have are native trees that turn such bright shades of red or such a vibrant orange.

hills full of colorful trees

That’s not the only thing though. While there are evergreen trees in the northeast, there are also entire hillsides with nothing but deciduous trees showing off their brilliant colors uninterrupted by patches of green, where our hillsides are often dots of color between the greenery.

colorful trees by a ski lift in Vermont

It was also surprising just how rural Vermont and New Hampshire are. For tiny little states near to highly populated areas, these two states have a lot of countryside. Narrow winding roads, sometimes even dirt or gravel rather than paved run for miles through forest or farmland, passing through towns so small they may not even have a gas station or grocery store.

church ahead near the road

The towns do all seem to have what look like old churches, but in New Hampshire many of them were labeled as the town hall. Once we got to Vermont most of the churches were still churches. The towns we passed through in Vermont were also more likely to have a gas station than the ones in New Hampshire. In some New Hampshire towns the old church was just about the only thing in the whole town.

Cornish-Windsor Bridge

We did take a bit of a detour route from Boston, Mass on the way to Jay Peak, Vermont via a 2-night stay in Stoddard, New Hampshire and a route that took us over the Cornish – Windsor covered bridge between New Hampshire and Vermont.

Hutchins Bridge

On the way back we took a side trip to Montgomery, Vermont to go covered bridge hunting in a town that has 7 of them. The route google maps gave us from there to Boston included about 15 miles on a gravel road between Montgomery and the highway. Portions of that gravel road had bright yellow-leaved trees forming an archway over the road for quite long stretches.

view of Jay Peak Resort from one of its ski runs

Hiking up the hillside through the colorful trees at Jay Peak resort offered lovely views both in close-ups of all the different colors of leaves and views of brightly colored hillsides rambling off in the distance as far as the eye could see. From up on the top of the peak (which is accessible by a cable-car tram as well as on foot) the views were even more impressive.

looking down on colorful trees from the tram at Jay Peak

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Snorkeling in Saint Thomas

Posted on October 14, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Symphony of the Seas in Saint Thomas

Browsing the shore excursions pre-cruise, I found a snorkel excursion from St. Thomas that went to nearby Saint John. Having been to Saint Thomas previously, but never to Saint John this one sounded promising, especially since I have heard good things about Saint John and the snorkeling there. It’s supposed to have some of the best snorkeling in the Caribbean. I did book that excursion, but unfortunately it was not to be.

underwater snorkel selfie

Sometime before the cruise started, I received a notice saying that excursion had been cancelled. My sisters were quite looking forward to it as one had never been snorkeling and the other not for a very long time. It’s one of my favorite things to do so I’m always up for snorkeling. Knowing there’s not much near the dock at St. Thomas I found a different snorkel excursion as a substitute. This one went to a place called Christmas Cove and mentioned the possibility of seeing turtles and rays.

Crown Bay port in St. Thomas

At the port in Saint Thomas nothing looked familiar. The bow of Symphony of the Seas sat nearly on the shore and there was no room on our side of the dock for any more ships. The skyride was nowhere in sight. My other visits to Saint Thomas had been at the Havensite dock and I did not know there was another. Apparently Royal Caribbean’s giant ships like Symphony of the Seas are too big for the main dock and they dock at Crown Bay. This dock could hold two ships, one on each side rather than the 3 in a row at the more familiar Havensite dock. We were the only ship there on our visit. Judging by the name and things posted at the port this appeared to be Royal Caribbean’s private dock.

The port had all the usual cruise port shops, which looked much newer than the shopping area I remembered from the other dock. It’s a couple miles to town, but people can take a taxi. The little cove was full of the same sort of seaweed we’d seen streaking along the sea near the ship for the past few days, only there it was lapping the shore. Having booked the excursion late in the game since we were originally scheduled for a different one, we ended up on the second run near the end of our port time. Given a choice I’d have picked the earlier time, but there was no choice offered when we booked. The earlier time was probably already full.

small corals in Christmas Cove

We just stayed onboard until time to meet for our excursion rather than getting off earlier to explore. There’s just shops there anyway and the snorkel excursion was already enough time for me to spend in the sun. I was happy to see that the blurbs on their website about St. Thomas excursions mentioned that only UV blocking swimsuits or reef safe sunscreen would be allowed to protect the coral. Caribbean coral needs all the protection it can get as coral worldwide is in trouble with Caribbean coral already 80% gone. Along with warmer oceans, pollution, overfishing, human caused breakage, and storms, chemical sunscreens also damage the coral and kill their larvae. It just takes the equivalent of one drop in an Olympic sized pool to cause harm so imagine how much devastation many bodies covered in chemical sunscreen brings. Unfortunately nothing was mentioned about it on the ship nor posted in the port, nor mentioned on the excursion. While we waited for the boat some people slathered themselves in chemical poison without repercussion, probably without knowing they were contributing to the demise of the coral they were so excited to go see.

sea life in Christmas Cove

Unlike when we took a tour with Trilogy in Hawaii, who had a large container of reef-safe sunscreen available to all and insisted nobody use any that wasn’t, the crew of this excursion didn’t even mention it.

Linda on the snorkel boat

The original waiting area by the dock had no shade so us and a few other early arrivals waited nearby where there was some until we were sent over to a place closer to where the boat docked. At least that spot had a tree, though after more and more people arrived it didn’t make shade enough for everyone. Boarding was by whoever got to the boat first and we were lucky to get on just in time to get the last shady places to sit. The center of the boat had a covered area, but the bow and stern were both open to the sun so the people who ended up out there had no shade at all.

on the snorkel boat some people got shady seats and others did not

From where we sat we could see one guy out in the sun at the stern getting redder and redder and sweating up a storm looking like he was about to have a heat stroke, but he managed to survive the whole thing without one. He did not have a hat, but really could have used one. Since I was on doxycycline to keep from getting Lyme disease from a tick bite I got in Vermont just before this trip, and doxycycline makes you extremely sensitive to the sun, I had to be very careful about sun exposure that trip. The full body UV blocking swimsuit I got just before the trip and some good reef-safe sunscreen made things like snorkeling possible for me that otherwise wouldn’t have been while on that antibiotic, but even with those I still had to stay out of the sun as much as possible.

Barbara and I got the last center inside seats, and Linda got one across the aisle on the edge

On the way to Christmas Cove the crew handed out snorkel gear and explained how to use it. I have my own, but did have to take my nemesis, the snorkel vest, from them as those are required on cruise ship excursions. They just had the standard open snorkel that can get water in it, which you then have to blow out. Mine is a dry snorkel that keeps the water out, which is much nicer unless you want to dive when it then acts like a float making diving even a short distance under the surface very difficult to do. Not that diving with a snorkel vest works either because even if you don’t put any air in it there’s always some residual air from a previous user that just won’t squeeze out.

Barbara in Christmas Cove

I’ve always found warm salt water to be quite buoyant and far harder to get under than to stay on top of, but my sisters said that might just be me. One in particular said she drops like a rock and wasn’t comfortable out in the water until she got a pool noodle to help her keep afloat. The other was happy to put air into her snorkel vest. A bit too much at the start as she had to let some out to get her face in the water. I really don’t know why I’m naturally buoyant in warm salt water and they’re not. It isn’t about weight. I weigh about the same as one of them and I never noticed any difference in buoyancy between now and back when I was about 30 pounds heavier. It’s not about the level of fitness because that has not affected my buoyancy over the years either. Maybe it’s a tension thing. I’ve always found snorkeling quite relaxing, where they thought it was a pretty good workout.

sea life in Christmas Cove

People had the option of jumping over the side of the boat or taking the stairs to the water, of which the boat had two sets at the stern. Nobody jumped. Everyone waited their turn for the stairs. We were ready at the start, but then they said you can’t walk across the deck in the flippers so after taking those off and then having to put them back on when we got to the back we ended up in the second group, though just barely. While waiting around near the boat for everyone else to get in I saw a large stingray down at the bottom in the sea grass. Barbara saw it too, but Linda was having equipment issues and went back to the boat. We were lucky that it took awhile for the rest of the people to get in since that gave us a chance to see the stingray and it was the only one we saw.

staghorn coral

Finally everyone but Linda was in the water. They led us closer to shore where there was rocky structure for fish to hide in and some coral. I tried to stay with Barbara, which isn’t always easy when snorkeling, but we managed to stay near enough to find each other whenever we got separated. Most of the coral was fairly small, but there were some pretty good sized patches of staghorn coral. Unfortunately a lot of it was broken. I don’t know if that was from a hurricane or human caused damage. There were quite a few small brain corals and I saw one fan coral and a bunch of tubelike structures I didn’t recognize. They had warned of fire coral, though when I saw that before in Belize it was much larger than those tube things so they may have been either young, a different kind, or some entirely different sort of creature. Fire coral looks like coral, but is actually not coral at all, but rather something related to jellyfish – and it stings. Like actual coral there are different types of fire coral so some of what looked like unfamiliar coral species could have been the fire coral. Everything that looked like coral was small and near the bottom so not where anybody would accidently touch it.

spiny black sea urchins

There were lots of black spiny sea urchins, some of them quite large. The bigger fish tended to mostly hide under the rock ledge, but would come out sometimes. Smaller fish stayed in sight more. I did not see the abundance of striped sergeant majors that are usually present in large schools when snorkeling in tropical places.

big rock that the top stuck out above the water

Before swimming back to the boat Barbara and I swam over to some rocks sticking out of the water and there was a lot of life near them. Sealife likes structure. I hadn’t realized Linda had ever made it out there, but on the way back Barbara pointed her out on her pool noodle, so apparently she was aware that Linda had gotten back off the boat and gone snorkeling after all.

When we got almost to the boat the current was strong enough that Barbara mentioned having a hard time getting there. Pushing her toward the ladder did the trick. I wasn’t having any problems and was able to get us both there. Could be that the current was catching her air-filled snorkel vest and pushing her away, where mine was empty. Linda was not with us, but she made it to the ladder on her own.

fish near the rock ledge

I always enjoy snorkeling, but it is definitely more fun when there is more to see and quite sad that more is not done to protect what little coral the Caribbean has left. This site did have some coral and sealife, but not nearly as much as expected in a snorkel site, and no turtles while we were there. As is often done on snorkel excursions in the Caribbean, on the way back to the port the crew served rum punch. They also had a selection of other rum drinks as well as the water and soda they had available on the way there.

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Posted in Caribbean, Ports of Call, Royal Caribbean, Shore Excursions, Symphony of the Seas | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Bonaire Island Tour

Posted on October 7, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Constellation in Bonaire

After returning from a great snorkel excursion on Bonaire, we had time to change into dry things, put our wet stuff out on the balcony of our cabin on Celebrity Constellation, and head back out to see something of the island. The stand advertising taxi tours that had been at the cruise port in Kralendijk earlier was gone, but there were still a few vans and cars parked waiting to give tours. The price there was quite reasonable, just $25 per person for a 2 hour tour of which you can choose the north or south part of the island. If you start the tour early enough you could do both, but we only had time for one or the other in order to make it back before all aboard. We took the south tour. We had a great driver named Martha who told us about all sorts of things on the island. We’ve done a lot of impromptu van tours in various places, and this was one of the best. Quality of these tours often depends on the driver even if they all do go to the same places.

the salt farm leaves a box of salt crystals at the gate for people to take

The capital city of Bonaire is Kralendijk. which is where cruise ships dock. Bonaire is the B of the ABC islands – Aruba and Curacao are the other two. All three sit outside of the Caribbean’s hurricane alley. Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands, and a part of that country. The island’s original Arawak inhabitants were deported by Spaniards in the early 1500’s to work as slaves in copper mines on Hispaniola. Bonaire was colonized by the Spanish in the 1500’s and conquered by the Dutch in the 1600’s. Like our driver Martha, most of the current population are a mixture of Dutch and African descent. The climate is generally warm and dry, but also humid and windy.

beach in Bonaire

Our island tour started with a drive alongside the ocean, passing a lot of beaches. Some of them had people near the shore either returning from a dive or getting ready to go out for one. Bonaire is very popular for diving and snorkeling. Soon we came upon salt flats. Martha said Columbus came to the island looking for gold and found salt. There are 2 natural canals and 2 manmade ones that go into the area of the salt mines. The water comes in green due to the good bacteria that live in it. As water evaporates it turns to pink. The first areas we passed were pink, later there were green ones.

salt flats in Bonaire

Like so many places around the Caribbean, slaves were brought to the island from Africa. While most islands used them in sugarcane plantations, on Bonaire it was to harvest the salt. Now it is all done by machines. Something similar to a combine. Once the salt flats are dried the salt gets mounded up into hills and then loaded on ships.

salt pile and machinery

There were some giant salt hills far behind a gate, and a box of salt out in front of it that people could help themselves to. Martha had a giant crystal, far bigger than the chunks in the box, which are more like rocks than what people expect to see as salt. Those chunks can be ground up and used though, completely organic sea salt.

salt loading bridge and blue obelisk

There’s pipelines and a bridge now, a whole mechanized system for loading the salt on boats for export. No more slave labor, but there are still 4 obelisks in different colors marking where ships of old could wait to be loaded with salt.

seahorse (internet photo)

Martha said that divers like to go under the salt bridge because they find seahorses living there. She did not say if they were any close enough to the surface for snorkelers to see them.

slave huts

The slaves originally lived in a village called Rincon far across the island and had a 7-hour walk to and from the salt mines every day until tiny little coral huts were built for them to stay in during the work week, where they then walked back to the far away village on weekends. There is a set of slave huts beside the sea, and just down the road some replicas.

replica slave hut and red obelisk

Other than the color the replicas and originals look much the same. They’re about as spacious as a tent intended for 2-4 people, but slept 8-10, which would have meant packing them in like sardines. It’s hard to understand how anyone could treat another person that way, but that’s far from the worst slaves had to endure. The huts have no doors or windows, just open spaces where doors and windows should be. The hut roofs are not high enough for anyone taller than a small child to stand up inside.

lighthouse

Not far past the slave huts we stopped briefly at a lone lighthouse on the beach.

flamingos

A bit farther down the road we saw a small flock of flamingos in a shallow pond. There was a much larger flock in the distance, too far away to look like anything but a sea of pink. We saw a few more flamingos here and there along the way, but not a large flock. There are over 10,000 of them living in the Pekelmeer Flamingo Sanctuary, but tourists are not allowed there.

kiteboarders

Besides snorkeling and diving, other popular sports on Bonaire include kiteboarding and windsurfing. Along one stretch of the beach the sky was sprinkled with brightly colored kites. So many it looked like it must be hard to keep them from tangling up in one another, but the people out there know what they are doing. Martha said they were really farther apart than they appeared. Sometimes one would come in close to shore. Some of them jumped up out of the water quite high, which was fun to watch.

windsurfers

In a different area there were some little resorts and a crowded parking lot where people go to learn, practice, or just have fun windsurfing. That area was full of sails from the windsurfers, who apparently start learning as young as 4 on miniature boards. Lessons can also be found on the island for kitesurfing.

feral donkey

Besides flamingos the island also has many wild donkeys, left over from the days when they were used to haul salt to the waiting ships. There’s over 700 of them at a donkey sanctuary, and others that roam free around the island. People can go into the donkey sanctuary for a fee when it is open. We came across one standing by the roadside. Though she was a wild donkey, she was not afraid of people. Quite the opposite, she stood quietly for photos, let us pet her, and was quite disappointed that we didn’t have any treats for her. Martha said people often bring them carrots or apples.

cactus fences are popular in Bonaire to keep out feral donkeys

Fences made from many live cacti growing in a row are quite popular on the island to keep the wild donkeys out.

the goats made a run for it

Some goats behind a fence in somebody’s yard ran away when we got out of the van to take their picture so the domestic goats were much shyer than a wild donkey.

view through the door of a slave hut

After our tour we got back to the ship with plenty of time to spare before all-aboard time. When cruising you always want to be back on time because unless you are on a cruise ship excursion when it is time to go the ship is not going to wait for stragglers to come back.

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Posted in Caribbean, Celebrity, Constellation, Port Cities, Ports of Call | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments