Day 20 At Sea

Today was our final day at sea. We ate breakfast and lunch in the dining room. 

We filled our morning with a cooking demonstration by the Director of Restaurants, Silvio Zampieri from Italy and the Executive Chef, Welde Villarreal from the Philippines. 

Executive Chef Welde on the left, Dir of Restaurants Silvio on the right.

They had a fun banter back and forth and made a pasta  dish, shrimp dish and assembled a Black Forest cake.  We went on a kitchen tour on deck 5 after the demonstration. 250 people work in the kitchen. 216 people work serving the food. That means nearly half of the 1100 staff onboard have something to do with food!

Some of the food staff on stage getting applauded for their outstanding work.

I spent 45 minutes online checking in for our flights tomorrow. We plan to disembark tomorrow with group 1A as soon as clearance is given - which we expect to be by 7:30 am. We will be self sufficient to carry all our luggage off ourselves. Therefore there is no need to part with our luggage tonight to have staff move it off for us. 

After packing our bags we had one last hot tub on deck 17 Aft. Today we had half a dozen kids that joined us as they moved back and forth from the hot tub to the kids play area pool. 

This is how busy the pool is on the last sea day of a cruise!

The shade offered on Deck 17 Aft that I used yesterday for six hours, and is situated near our favourite hot tub!

Dinner was cauliflower soup, and prime rib with baked Alaska for dessert.  It was delicious. The staff paraded through the dining room so guests could applaud all their hard work. 

Then we headed upstairs for one last Movie Under the Stars. Tonight the 7 pm feature is Dirty Dancing featuring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray!  J suggested we put on our bathing suits after the movie to practice the lift in the water like was featured in the movie!  Ha!  That would be good for a laugh!!

There are so many amazing staff on the Caribbean Princess, but I think my favourite is the woman pictured front and centre here, Gabriela de Melo (Gabby) who is Guest Services Director.  She had such an amazing banter with J and I every single time we encountered her.  Princess works hard to create a work environment favourable enough to recruit and keep stellar staff such as Gabby!  Keep it up Princess!

Life has been good to us this year!

Day 19 At Sea

 What a delightful day at sea.  I took a totally unusual approach to this day at sea.  I did what many people do on every sea day and found a deck chair, put on my bathing suit and read a good book!  That is really out of character for me - but the fact that we had eaten breakfast early and I was looking for a deck chair by 8:30 am, meant I found a chair in the shade!  And my shade lasted, shockingly, for six hours!  It was a clever canopy that worked perfectly with the direction of the ship and how the sun was moving in the sky.  There is no way I could have lasted in the sun directly for even 15 minutes, so it was quite heavenly for me!  I left my phone with J in the stateroom, so I don't have any pictures of my day - but it is firmly etched in my memory!

At 2:30 pm I was back in the room to change into presentable attire to attend a future cruise presentation by Rania of Morocco.  She really did an excellent job.  She talks about different Princess regions of the world, and food and drink is shared with attendees.

I am showing food, but I could show a champagne flute just as easily!

Something J and I have observed in all of our snorkelling this year, is the amount of sea grass floating in the ocean.  It was first evident when we kayaked and snorkelled in St. Thomas.  Our guide there told us that as the patches grow bigger, they smell more foul.  Then another time we were snorkelling somebody told me that fish get caught in the sea grass and die (and of course that would be a foul smell if fish decompose for some days).  And yesterday, snorkelling in Antigua the sea grass was more evident.

This is picture of a large patch of sea grass off the side of the ship today.

We have never cruised in April before - so maybe this is a seasonal thing in the Caribbean, but it is noteworthy.  Maybe a sign of warming waters?

Tonight it was formal night with the option to have surf and turf.  I asked only for the lobster tail.  J had both.  We had a delicious pistachio chocolate dome dessert for supper.

J all cleaned up for formal night!

We are going to the Production Show Born to Be Wild tonight!  And  I am thrilled to be finished my blog before we go see it!

Day 18 Antigua

 We pulled into port at St. John's, the capital of Antigua.  We pulled up to the same pier as we did last visit - and that was good because we arranged to meet with our driver, Latoya at the same taxi pick up stand at 8:30 am.

We had talked with some Cruise Critic people who suggested Deep Bay Beach for snorkelling in Antigua.  So we asked Latoya to drive us to Deep Bay Beach.  The final mile of road was of very questionable quality, so many taxi drivers don't want to drive it - but Latoya drove nice and slow to prevent any damage to her car!

Once at the end of the road, we had to climb several steps to cross a pedestrian bridge over a waterway, then walk a fairly level path to the beach.  We chose to take the steep path to the right to climb up to Fort Barrington.  The Fort was built in 1779 and received the name of Admiral Samuel Barrington.

Fort Barrington sitting atop a steep little climb of about 300 feet.

Looking down on Deep Bay Beach from Fort Barrington

A panoramic view from the top of Fort Barrington

We chose to hike down the far side of the Fort to see where we were told the Atlantic meets the Caribbean.  That was cool to see.    

This vantage point also allowed us to see how far out a white buoy marker was off the shore to snorkel to a sunken ship - the British steamship, the SS Andes, sank June 9, 1905.  It is said to be a good  artificial reef now with aquatic life.  I decided from atop the hill, that I would not be snorkelling out that far to see a wreck. We hiked down the trail and J had to hold my hand at steep parts to help me get down. That whole excursion took us 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Now, fully dripping with sweat, we made our way to the beach.

Our little patch of shade on the right side of the beach to allow us to snorkel along the rocks, out to the same point where we had hiked to.

We got dropped our few belongings and went into the water with our snorkelling gear on.  I wear a little waterproof bag that I put my phone in, along with my cash and a credit card.  If anybody steals our ship's towels and sandals we can live with that!

The Royalton Hotel shares the beach (but not their road to access it!) and they are situated further to the left.

Snorkelling was not stellar - J would rate it a 4 out of 10.  The water clarity was a problem and there were not too many fish.  We heard from another snorkelling couple that the water was clear yesterday, so we got unlucky today.  We also talked to some paddle boarders and found that there were turtles in the bay.  That would have been cool to see!

J swam out to the sunken ship - and felt a bit unsafe once swimming away from the shore and going to the buoy for fear of getting hit by a jet ski.

The rocks at the end of the point.  Photo taken by J with our waterproof camera.

One of the masts of the sunken ship (the deck of the ship was 8 - 12 feet below the surface).

We had arranged to meet Latoya at 1 pm so we packed up our belongings and walked back to the parking lot at 12:45 pm where she was ready and waiting!

Once back aboard the Caribbean Princess, we showered and cleaned up and went for lunch on the Lido deck.  We were both tired and dehydrated so we had a little nap while watching an HGTV program.

After dinner in the dining room, we went to a Platinum and Elite member appreciation night.  We learned that there are 3,171 guests on board.  1300 are first time Princess cruisers, 729 gold (2 cruises), 343 Ruby (5 cruises or less), 479 Platinum (6 - 14 cruises) and 320 Elite (15+ cruises).  The top three cruising people had 850, 1375 and 1750 days cruising with Princess!  J came with me tonight so that made it more fun than last time!

And now my blog is finished for the night.  Two more sea days to report on!

Day 17 Martinique

Today we decided to buy a walking tour app through GPSmycity.  We used the app and completed the City Introduction Walk of Fort-de-France in Martinique!  We actually didn't 'buy' the app as they had a 3 day trial for free - so used it very successfully.  This is the summary of the first 7 stops on our tour of 11 sites to see:

The island of Martinique is owned by France.  It is an overseas territorial collectivity, not a separate country or colony.  Residents are French citizens (who speak French!), the currency is the euro and it is part of the European Union.  In 1946 the country voted to become part of the French Republic.

Our first stop was at the Departmental Museum of Archaeology.  Once we had paid our 4 Euros (€) to enter and quickly learned that we would be putting our French to good use to read every single information sign inside the building!  A person shouldn't be surprised - Martinique is owned by France!

This was the coolest mural on the floor.  It showed all the Caribbean islands and how they are positioned on the map.  J is pointing to Martinique with his foot.  You can see Sainte-Lucia is below his foot (and therefore further south) so we know we are heading north now back towards Florida as we make our way to Antiqua tomorrow.

A more complete view of the floor mural.

We made our way across the street to Savannah Park.  A beautiful, vibrant, huge park in the centre of the city.

At each of these stops, we could play a recorded message, telling us more details about the site we were seeing.   We then went to Schoelcher Library.   This is where we ran into a friend we met at the Cruise Critic meeting so she joined us for several stops until we got to the Central Market.

We then went to the Old Courthouse, where the square out front of the courthas has been a focus of discussion.  It formerly featured a statue of Victor Schoelcher, a figure associated with the abolition of slavery in French colonies.  The statue was vandalized in recent years, sparking debates about the role of historical monuments.  Remember Victor Schoelcher was against slavery, not in favour of it.

We then went to Saint Louis Roman Catholic Cathedral - which has a spire 59 metres tall.  The cathedral's framework, is engineered to withstand various natural disasters, including fire, earthquakes and cyclones.  That is quite the feat, given that construction was initiated in 1895 (after a cyclone destroyed the previous cathedral in 1891).

Inside Saint Louise Cathedral

We then went to the Grand Market where spices, fruits, vegetables and souvenirs were sold.

We then made our way to the Theatre Aime Cesaire - which at one time was the Town Hall - and now houses performing arts shows. 

J took this photo from inside looking outside of the Theatre Aime Cesaire.

We then found a traditional French bakery where we bought a sandwich on some lovely bread.  We laughed as we ordered (in French) asking for a jambon et fromage sandwich, to which they replied no fromage.  Okay, then juste jambon!  Then we asked them to cut it in half.  The older woman at the till said, no, and the younger woman, with the sandwich in hand said oui and was cutting it in half.  Then the older woman gave a chuckle.  J in his halting French said, "Nouse aimons les Français!"  The young girl smiled and laughed and we said Merci and bonjournée!  

We walked down the street to our next stop and ate our delicious sandwich and drank our juice before entering in the Regional Muscum of History and Ethnography.  It gave us a glimps of the Creole culture of the late 19th century.  Though it was predominantly French, this museum did have English translations beside the French information.  Again it cost 4 € to enter the museum.

J enjoyed trying to pick a mango from a tree in front of the museum!  He left the fruit on the tree!

While the Fort Saint Louis is a Must-see attraction, it is only to be seen from the outside.  We were advised by somebody who works there that it isn't open to the public.  Though we later met a family that said if you could find where to buy tickets, a tour was being offered at 2 pm.  That was cutting it a bit tight for our all - aboard time of 3:30 pm.

And right across the street from Fort Saint Louis is French Beach.

You can see more of Fort Saint Louis behind French Beach here

We have had glorious weather here in the Caribbean for both of our cruises.  Today it mercifully clouded over as we ended our walking tour.  I was dripping with sweat and looking for shade.

We headed back to the ship about 1:30 pm and ate a little more lunch.  We then went up on deck 17 to have a lukewarm hot tub (perfect) and then sat on a lounger to read under the cloudy skies!

Supper was lovely (if slower than usual tonight - and I was hungry!)  Tonight's entertainment was Jassen (sounds like JAYson) Allen who performed Lionel Richie music.  He was a Las Vegas calibre entertainer.

One more port tomorrow - and then two sea days before our lovely vacation is over!

Day 16 St. Lucia

We pulled into Castries, St Lucia early this morning. As we were nearing the island, I slipped up on deck 16 at about 5:30 am. The educational lecturer Lance Schuler had suggested it was a great opportunity to see the two pitons as you approach the island. Though it was a lowly quiet experience in the morning, the light really didn't hit the two mountains to show off their glorious beauty. 

The pitons are the two mountains evident on the right.  We would get to see this UNESCO World Heritage site up close and personal today!

J tried to catch up with me but I had returned to the room by the time he got up high on deck. We ate breakfast on the Lido and ran into our dinner assistant server Definate. She advised us that they held our table for us in the Island dining room. She said they are more forgiving when the all aboard call in port was later (6:30 pm last night). So our table was empty and waiting for us last night. I must have seen the table in front of ours when I took a peak in the dining room. And now we know!

We met up with our driver Vergel at 8:45 am this morning. We booked a private car to take us exactly where we wanted to go. It was a stellar day, just like in 2012 when we last visited!  Vergel was an excellent driver (very safe) and tour guide.

We drove south from the city of Castries along the west coast towards the Pitons. 

We the got to stop at a bakery that makes cassava bread. 

This is Cassava root - like a potato.

Grinding the cassava root into a flour (after peeling and soaking)

Cooling racks on the wall.

Baking the bread on banana leaves.

This is cherry flavoured bread that I couldn't resist biting into because it was warm and delicious!!

Marigot Bay

That is the Caribbean Princess in port behind us!

After cassava bread we stoped at Cacao Sainte Lucie - a French chocolate shop that gave free samples of a high end chocolate - like Bernard Callebaut chocolates (now Master Chocolat) in Canada!  We bought a teeny tiny four pack of chocolates and consumed them at this lookout:

After this stop we headed to do the Tet Paul hike that would get us closer to the Pitons.

This was about the steepness of the path for the first 2/3 of the hike.  (It was only about one hour round trip)

And the views were magnificent!

Our guide, Fabio, led our group of eight and was a stellar photographer!

Some enterprising individual carries cold drinks, snacks and souvenirs up to the top of this hike every day!

Our group at the top of the hike with the 360 degree view!

While we worked to get up to the top - it really was a spectacular way to view the pitons up close and personal.  This hike cost $10 US and the profits went to the local village of about 400 people (Fabio's village!)

After our hike, our driver Vergel, took us to the Regional area of Soufriere, where we went to see the Sulphur Springs and Black Water Hot pools.  St. Lucia feature's the Caribbean's only Drive In Volcano.  J and I chose to walk so we could see the bubbling lava up close!

After we learned that we were IN a volcano, I was reassured to hear that before a volcano erupts all the birds and animals will go eerily silent for a few weeks.  All is well, because I hear the birds singing!

We then went to have some fun in the Black Water Pools - with temperatures of 38 C or 100 F.

The closer pools are hotter than the ones further in the distance.

You put the grey mud on first, let it dry and then the black

Clearly I wasn't as skilled as the tour guide who did the artwork on the Newlyweds above!

After the mud dried, you went inside the pools and worked it off your skin and provided your skin with a wonderful facial for the whole body!  There are cold freshwater showers offered once you get out - and four simple change rooms!

We then made our way back to the ship as our seven hour tour had come to an end.  What a marvelous day!

Supper was delicious ( and we were hungry as we had skipped lunch).  I then watched a quirky movie on MUTS and then came in to write my blog - more than 2 full hours of effort to get things in place tonight.  Somehow the tool has become incredibly frustrating.  If you don't see a post written by me tomorrow - you'll know why!