Emerald Princess Cruise Day 10 -Disembarkation

So, it's over.  My groups was scheduled to disembark at 7:40 this morning.  I got up at 7:00 had a quick bite and down to the disembarkation lounge. By the time custom cleared my group it was closer to about 8:30.  that's always the way it is but I never just sleep in.  Getting my bags and through customs was a breeze.  The line moved very quickly.  Had a transfer from the Ship to the airport and have been sitting here for about an hour at this point.  I only have two hours to go before my flight leaves.

I can't help but sigh when I think about this vacation and the fact that it's ending.  It was a lot of fun.  I hope I never get to the point where I'm jaded about the Caribbean experience.  WE had 10 beautiful days.  Not one cloudy day in the entire 10 days.  I enjoyed the ports and the islands.  I may have actually developed a taste for rum (expensive rum).

I enjoyed spending time with Sue and David.  It had been two years since I had seen them last and we picked right up.  Sometimes it's alarming how similar Sue and I are.  Several times we said the same thing at the same time.   It's going to be awhile before we can connect again for a cruise.  They're going European and Transatlantic next year and I'm stay Carribean.  Maybe we can hook up for Alaska in 2016.

This is the first time I've been on a cruise that I didnt make a connection with the Cruise Directors Staff.  I also didnt do anything musical - no Karaoke or Princess Pop Choir.  I kept busy though.  Having someone with you really changes the experience.  I spent a lot of time just sitting and having drinks and talking.  I enjoyed that a lot.

I read 4 books on this cruise finishing the last yesterday afternoon at the pool.  I had two stand out waiters who would have a drink in front of me before I could order when I sat down in the lounge in the evenings.  I had enough creme brulee that it should tide me over until the next cruise.  My intent was to list the pluses and minuses of this cruise but for the life of me as i look back over the last 10 days I cant think of any minuses.   I just can't understand people who come on a cruise and are grumpy and complain about every little thing.   Why would you want to get upset for small things like the service at dinner being a little slow?  The only thing I've noticed is that I'm getting a little more impatient with older people.  Most of them are very sweet but very slow :-).

I think thats about it.  I 'm not sure how successful this diary has been, but I made a commitment to update it each day and I manged to do that (and I hardly even dipped into my free internet allotment).  In 8 hours I'll b e home and will get some pictures up tomorrow.

Emerald Princess Day 9 - Nassau, The Bahamas

This is the first time that I've been on a cruise where the last day is in a port.  We got to the Bahamas about noon today.  I got most of my packing done after breakfast  - but it really is an all day process.  Basically a suitcase open on your bed and as you finish with something for the last time  - like a bathing suit - into the suitcase it goes.  I stayed on the ship for the most part just got off for about 45 minutes to get a last few souvenirs.  Then back on.  I had a nice morning at the pool and in the sun.  Sue and David made it back from the Atlantis resort in time for afternoon trivia.  All told I won 10 out of about 25-30 of the trivia games we played.  Not a bad record.

At this point dinner is done.  The evening entertainment is over and everything is packed and taken away.  The last night of a cruise is hard for me because I just dont want it to end.  There is something about a cruise ship.  I've been to resorts for vacations but on a ship people are just friendlier.  Maybe because everyone is here for the same time.  There are no people coming and going during the week or 10 days you cruise.  Even when you dont know people by name they smile and say hello.  It's sort of like a small town.   I would live on this ship if they let me.  Though I am anxious to get home and see all my people.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day.  My disembarkation time is at 7:40 am then to the airport.  My flight doesnt get into Columbus until after 6:00 pm.  It's been a great time - I'll miss you Emerald Princess.   I'm already looking forward to the next one - two weeks next Spring.

Emerald Princess Cruise Day 8 – At Sea

Today was a day at sea and the weather was beautiful. Got up around 9:00 am and had a nice leisurely breakfast. Then off to Trivia where we won. I then went up to the pool deck. It was much harder to find a good deck chair on an at sea day than it was yesterday. I finally found one and then wnet for my dip in the pool. It was very cool and refreshing. After about 30 minutes it was up to sit in the sun and read. Did that until about 1:00 pm and had a mexican lunch – very nice. Then back to the pool and some more sun time. The sun was very strong today. No clouds and about 80 degrees. So I only made it until about 2:30 and then back into the stateroom for a little nap before afternoon trivia. WE lost that one. Then it was up to change for dinner. Diver Scallops tonight after an appetizer fo goat cheese souffle. Then 70s music trivia which we didnt do so well in. Since I had about an hour to kill before the show I come up here to get things ready to pack so it doesnt take so long tomorrow. It always makes me sad when we get to this part of the cruise. Tomorrow is the last day :-(. But everything is about as ready as it can be. After I post this I it's down to see the show and then up to the Lido deck to see whats up.

Tomorrow we dock at Nassau, The Bahamas, but I dont think I'm going to get off the ship. I've had some great experiences in Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados and St Kitts but I'm sort of “ported out” d like to have one more day of just plain relaxation.

Emerald Princess Cruise Day 7 – St Thomas

I've been to St Thomas a few times before so I didnt really get off the ship to do anything. I did get off and walk around the port a bit and did a bit of shopping. I also called my dad, since St Thomas is in the US Virgin Islands there is no international roaming. Other than that I just had a nice relaxing day on ship. I love being on ship when it's in port. It is deserted and it's like I have the whole thing to myself. I got a great deck chair, read and sunned and then took a couple of dips in the almost empty pool. Of course ther was more trivia today. It was also formal night so I had to put on a verst and tie for dinner but I did get lobster tail and chocolate souffle for the trouble. Saw a production show and thats about it. The best days on vacation arent always the most jammed packed.

Emerald Princess Cruise – Day 6 St Kitts's

Today's excursion didn't start until 11:30 so I slept in until 8:30 and got up and had a nice breakfast and then read for a bit and left the ship about an hour early to do some shopping. I had decided earlier that I wanted a ring and I fond a very nice sterling silver and whit gold ring with a 2 carat sapphire and diamond chips. I was able to get it for just over $100 so I took and and left it to be resized while we went to our excursion. Went to Romney Manor a sugar plantation that was originally owned by Samuel Jefferson the great great great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson. It has a lovely garden and we also learned how batique fabric is made. The it was off to Brimstone Hill. This is an very oild English fort that is still standing it was built so well. St Kitts was the first British Caribbean colony and was settled in 1623. There were some spectacular views and I learned a bit about how life for a British soldier at a fort was like. Hen back to the port, picked up the ring and back to the ship for the normal afternoon ritual of Lunch, dip in the pool and trivia before dinner. It was Italian night in the dining room tonight. The meal I chose was very cheese centic. Eggplant Parmesan appetizer, Fettuccine Alfredo for pasta course, Scallop and shrimp Gratinee. Two trivia games after and back up here in my state room.

Emerald Princess Cruise Day 5 – Barbados

Today we arrived at Barbados early – at about 7:00 am. My excursion was scheduled to begin at 8:35 am so I made my way off the ship at about 20 minutes early. It was a good thing, too. There was about a half mile walk from the ship to the cruise terminal where the excursions left from. I made the walk and met Sue and David and lo and behold – evidently the tour company had forgotten about this particular excursion and had to send for buses and guides. The good news is that the tour left only 10 minutes late so no harm, no foul. Plus I find that on a cruise I'm just better at rolling with things and not letting them bother me. It's an attitude that I would like to take back home with me.

The recursion was to the Foursquare and Mt Gay rum distilleries with tours and tastings at both. Foursquare is a relatively new distillery and uses very modern techniques – everything is computer controlled, they recycle the CO2 created during fermentation and sell it to soft drink manufacturers, all there waste is used as fertilizer and to water crops etc. It was pretty fantastic. Barbados is a big sugar cane growing island and we learned about how its cultivated etc. You plant this goes on for 5 years until they plow the field over and plant a different crop. We saw cotton. Then the whole cycle starts all over again. After the tour there was a tasting. Anyone who knows me will know how odd it is for me to be sipping rum at 10:00 am but it really did happen (only in Barbados). I must say that there general brand (cheapest) was pretty harsh. It burned all the way down. The sipping rum was a bit smoother but I still didnt care for it very much.

Mt Gay was the first rum distillery EVER. They were the ones who figured out that you could take the waste from sugar production (molasses) and instead of dumping it in the ocean turn it into rum. The rum paid for the refining of the sugar. They are a much more “hands on” operation. Not a lot of computer control here. They actually have a master taster who is in charge of blending the distilates to get the best tasting notes. This tasting was a little more involved as the guide explained the different notes we should find in each rum and showed us the “legs” and color. The lowest brand (only for mixing) was again pretty harsh. The middle bottle called Black Barrel was smoother and could still be used for mixed drinks. The last was their “extra old” aged 8-15 years, It had carmel and smokey notes and a much thicker mouth feel. Over all I liked the Black Barrel best so bought a bottle because “Hey, I'm in Barbados, the birthplace of rum” The x.o cost like $60-100 dollars a bottle, this is from the manufacturer, tax and duty free. The one I bought only rann about $20 a bottle – I'm looking forward to some tasty eggnog next Christmas.

An interesting fact about Barbados is that my dad was stationed here while whe was in the navy. I didnt get to see the base but it was fun to see the island that he's told me so much about.

After the tasting/tours it was pretty much the same drill. Lunch, a dip in the pool, trivia and a wonderful dinner. Not much in the way of entertainment tonight because tonight is the Ultimate Deck Party which is code for line dancing on the Lido with music that is way too loud (God, I'm getting old). Just got back from checking that out and having fun. It's hard to believe that the cruise is half done. Heavy sigh – but hey I still have half to go :-)

Emerald Princess Cruise Day 4 – St Lucia

It was another great day. I know it's getting boring to hear that every day but what can I say? Every day has been great in it's own way. St Lucia is a relatively young Island so it is very mountainous. In fact one of the main attractions at St Lucia are the Pitons. These are two lave domes – which dont look like domes at all as they rise almost straight up to a point like perfect cones. The Pitons are a Unesco World ?Heritage Site. Politically St Lucia changed hands between Great Britain and France 14 times over 150 years. Brtian won last so it was a British colony until it gained its independence in 1979.

We docked in the Capital City near the north of the island boarded a bus (Sue, Dave and I managed to get on the same bus this time) and went twisty turny through the mountains up and down over rivers and saw some great scenery. After about 3 hours – including a couple of stops for pictures – we got to Soulfre at the south of the island where we could see the Pitons. We then went to an old chocolate plantation and saw how they made chocolate in the olden days and had a yummy Caribbean lunch. Then off to sulfur springs. We actually drove into a volcanic caldera. When we got out of the bus I almost lost my lunch. They dont call it Sulfur Springs for nothing! The smell of hydrogen sulfide was overwhelming. I do not recommend climbing steep stairs and ramps with a full stomach while enveloped in the smell of rotten eggs. We were able to get pretty close and could see the bubbling boiling mud – thats 380 degrees. Evidently the mud flows from the crater and cools and people take sulfur mud baths. It's supposed to be very good for the skin.



After the drive in volcano we went back down to Soufre and boarded a Catamaran for the trip back to the port. Te trip too about half the time as the drive down. About halfway back we stopped in a bay and had a swim in the Caribbean. Very refreshing but very salty. Then all the rum punch you could drink – Not quite as strong as the punch at Nelsons Dockyard in Antigua – as we rode back to the ship. It was a lot of fun – Sunny, breezy and beautiful. I laid on the bow of the boat and looked at clouds most of the way back.



WE got back with just about enough time to shower and change for dinner. Tonight's dinner was pretty good - A mushroom tartlet, oyster, spinach, cream of potato soup, Asian spiced duck breast and a Grand Marnier Souffle with vanilla sauce. I'm getting used to this four course dinner thing. After dinner was a production show. I usually like the production shows. They're usually corny and thats totally my thing. This one, however, was more surreal than corny – Including an operatic version os “Rock Me, Amudeus”. I just ended with my jaw on my chest. I sort of got the feeling that the poor performers knew the show was sort of weird. Nothing they did just sort of a vibe I got from how they looked on the stage.




It has been a long day in the sun so after a drink with Sue and Dave I came up here to make this note and then turn in. I need my rest for Barbados tomorrow.

Emerald Princess Cruise Day 3 – Antigua

Awesome time in Antigua. Went up to the ruins of an old English fort from the 1700's and to Shirley point lookout where there were some fantastic views of English Bay. I think I got some great photos. Then down to the Nelson Shipyard - Named for ?Horatio Nelson who was stationed in Antigua for 3 years in the 18^th century. This is where the English Caribbean fleet stopped for repairs and Careening – or cleaning Barnacles of their hulls.

The only bad thing was that I got separated form sue and Dave because the bus was overloaded so I went on my own. It wasnt awful – I've done excursions on my own and I was much more comfortable in a real seat than I would have been in a jump seat. Had a free refreshment at the dockyard. A Rum Punch made with 151 that was very strong. Then back to the ship for lunch and a dip and nap before trivia. WE are sort of fading in trivia but we do have time to come back. Very nice dinner in the dining toom. The Fetuccini Alfredo in a parmasean bowl is GREAT here and I had a cream of roasted garlic soup that was mmmm so good. Then drambuie souffle with pear sauce – tres decandant. When I get home I really want to try making a souffle.

After dinner we just chatted until Movie poster trivia and 60's music trivia. We did ok in both but didnt win. Then came up to the stateroom early because tomorrow it St Lucia and I have a full day planned. Sulfur Springs, the Pitons, a Catamaran ride and then the beach. Lots of sun tomorrow!