Day 15 Dominica

Today we were in Dominica (pronounced Dom-in-EEK-a).  Known as the Nature Island of the Caribbean, it’s all about waterfalls, rainforests, and mountains wrapped in mist. We last visited here in 2012 when J and JG went on a private family tour with H.O.T. Pepper Tours and we were trying to repeat that.  But things have changed a bit since then.  Hurricane Maria struck the island in 2017 and devastated many businesses.  Pepper is still in business, but he doesn't offer private tours any more, only 'smaller' group tours.  We ended up having a group of 14 being packed in tightly in his Nissan van.  A group of eight people had been picked up from a Royal Caribbean Ship and then he picked up six of us from the Caribbean Princess.  I was in the middle in the back (fourth) row in the van on some very windy, steep roads.  It took lots of concentration to face forward and not think about the turbulence in my stomach!

Some 30 minutes later we were at the Emerald Pool.  At the top of the list of places to see in Dominica is the Emerald Pool — one of the island’s most visited attractions. (Read very, very busy). Emerald Pool is located within Morne Trois Pitons National Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Pepper tells us this flower captures rain water, and the birds drink from it like a water fountain!

Pepper drove fast to get us to the Emerald Pool as soon as possible, but we did encounter loads of group tours from the ship as we were leaving the Emerald Pool, after a refreshing dip in the water.

We then went to a Black Sand Beach which we think is called Mero Beach for 45 minutes. Some folks rented loungers under a shade canopy for $5, some folks swam, some folks ate. J and I walked down the beach to explore. J explained white sand beaches are made from coral, and black sand beaches are made from volcanic debris.

We then made a trip in town to return the eight guests to the other ship. That became much more comfortable in the car with just six of us, plus Pepper. We then went to Trafalgar Falls. The Father and Mother Falls that make up the Trafalgar Falls are separated by a steep cliff face. The distance between the two falls is approximately 200 - 250 feet. Both falls are located on the upper course of the tributaries of the Roseau River.

The source of the larger fall, called the Father Fall (125 feet tall) comes from the Freshwater Lake through Ti-tou Gorge. The Mother Fall (75 feet tall) comes from the Breakfast River which flows from the Trois Biton Forest. The water from both falls join and end up meeting River Blanc (Wotten Waven). The vegetation around is a secondary rain forest.

We then went to the River Rock Cafe & Bar - where we had pre-ordered our meal of shrimp, veggies and rice. I was starving by 3 pm when we ate this - so really appreciated the meal.

After lunch we went to Ti Kwen Glo Cho Hot Water Spa (not a clean and shiny spa, rather an earthy sulphur fed spa). There were two pools - a warm pool (like a bath tub temperature) and a hot pool (too hot for me, but not too hot for J!)

As we were about to leave Ti Kwen Glo hot pools, Pepper got a flat tire! We were now about 4:45 pm and knew we wouldn't make our assigned dining time of 5 pm. Luckily another driver had a tire inflator to resolve the situation in a matter of 15 minutes - and shockingly, the tire held the air! Pepper says he gets about 12,000 km on a set of tires in Dominica!

Once we got back into the city, Pepper drove us through the Botanical Gardens and pointed out a lasting testament to the damage from the hurricane. The school got a brand new school bus in August of 2017 and the hurricane hit in September 18, 2017.

This was the damage inflicted by a tree on that brand new school bus!

Then we returned to the ship about 5:25 pm. We showered and headed up to the Lido Deck for our first dinner at the buffet. It was really tasty. It was a German theme and we got to eat spaetzle! And for dessert we had delicious vanilla ice cream with bananas Foster. We had a most interesting conversation with some seasoned cruisers at a table beside us. They got tired of packing dress clothes for cruises so they dress casually and always eat in the buffet!

We watched the Theatrical Production Show, Bravo, put on by a new set of singers and dancers and they did a solid job! It was a great show!

Tomorrow we visit St. Lucia! Thanks for reading along!

Day 14 St Thomas, US Virgin IIslands

Since I read a blog about 10 years ago I have wanted to visit Honeymoon Beach on Water Island. Today we did that!

First of all we needed to visit St. Thomas. This independent excursion is easier to do if you dock at the Crown Bat Marina as it is walking distance to the Ferry Island Ferry. Our ship was docked at Havensight - a distance of 5 km by taxi. Taxi rates are set by the government so they are a fixed rate to travel certain distances. 

The taxi rate from our pier to Crown Bay Marina costs $9 US per person. We loaded onto a Safari taxi that seats about 25 people and Crown Bay Marina was the first stop - about 15 minutes away. 

We knew the water taxi to Water Island left at the top of the hour so we would be catching the 11 am ferry as we just docked at 10 am. A person needed to go into the Marina office to purchase our round trip tickets for $20 US pp. 

While waiting we visited with two couples from the USA who were very friendly. They were travelling on one of the Royal Caribbean ships docked a stones throw away from the dock to catch the Water Island ferry. 

The biggest fish I have seen on this trip - it was about 3.5 feet long. We saw it from the Water Island Ferry dock.  We also saw a turtle in the distance. 

The ferry ride is a short 10 minutes over to Water Island. Generally there are golf carts (or bicycles I have been told) or feet to move around Water Island. 

We bypassed the golf carts as we knew it was a short steep walk for 3 to 5 minutes up a hill - then down to Honeymoon Beach. 

Our first glimpse of Honeymoon Beach as we walked with the four Americans. 

There were three large cruise ship excursions that had already arrived by boat when we arrived, so it was about three hours later when the crowds cleared enough for me to want to take pictures. 

The water was a beautiful blue and the white sand was comfortable underfoot. The waves were small so it was without effort to swim and snorkel.   Not much to spot for snorkelling so it was about spending time in the warmth of a beautiful Caribbean Island beach with a population of 116 people. 

We stayed for almost four hours and then decided to catch the 2:15 pm ferry back to the mainland. While walking up the steep hill, two girls driving a golf cart were kind enough to offer us a ride back to the ferry!  We gratefully accepted (though perhaps I was more excited than J). We had a friendly conversation with Rachel and Ashley. When we told them we were Canadians they said "Oh our neighbours to the North."  I told them offering two strangers a ride in a golf cart would be a very Canadian thing to do. And they replied, "That's the nicest thing anyone has said to us on this trip!"

So thank you Rachel and Ashley for being thoughtful humans!!

We stayed in the shade of the library / post office shelter while waiting for the ferry to return. 

And then all of a sudden there was a herd of people walking down the road, so we walked right down to the dock where we would dock the ferry. We knew the first 42 would get on the boat - and then we saw the smaller ferry boat arrive - and that count would cap out at 32!  And so a line of people were left at the dock as we pulled away.  The Captain said she would immediately return to Phillip's Landing on Water Island to pick up the remaining passengers. Given that there were four cruise ships in port today ( one of only 2 days in April where there were that many ships) I would have thought they would have the foresight to use only the larger size ferry!

But thanks need to got to the amazing blogger pescadoamarillo who posted her detailed instructions on how to visit Water Island independently for a very affordable price!!  Thank you J!! You set the standard on how to write an inspiring travel blog.  I can only hope to emulate you a teeny tiny bit in my efforts!

Once back at the Crown Bay Marina we hopped in a very lovely taxi van with two Australians who were also heading back to the Caribbean Princess at Havensight dock. We each paid $9 for the ride. The Aussies gave us some great insight on what to do when visiting Sydney in 2027. 

I went straight up to The World Fresh Marketplace (the buffet) on the Lido deck for a salad and bowl of miso soup. J changed his clothes in our cabin before joining me. I knew they changed the buffet offerings at 3 pm so wanted to ensure I got lunch!

We showered up for dinner and enjoyed our window while eating our meal!

The Norwegian Luna holds about the same number of passengers as our ship - about 3100 guests.

We both went to the show in the Princess Theatre featuring singer Trenyce. This time it was called Dancing to Disco. A very professional show and once again entertaining!!

Another great day!!

Day 13 At Sea

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."  I was reminded of this quote while sitting in the Caribbean Princess Theatre, listening to Destination Expert Lance Schuler share his insights about our next two ports. The quote was once said by Andre Gide, the French author, essayist and Nobel Laureate in literature. I think the quote summarizes a good part of why I love to travel. The quote reminds us to step out of familiar surroundings to see the world and grow. 

So about three of hours of my day onboard were spent in education lectures. While many folks spend hours by the pool in the sun or finding shade somewhere on deck or playing cards or Bingo,  I prefer learning stuff!

J tried to find partners for a game of bridge today but they only had three players!

We had a Cruise Critic Meeting in Skywalkers this morning. The organizer of the event is in the green T-shirt here and she is standing with some of the ship's officers in attendance. 

The two women on the left stood out. Jennifer Sesic is the Hotel General Manager. She has worked 26 years with Princess and started at the bottom and worked her way to be one of the three most senior people below the Captain. Next to her is Gabriela de Melo (Gabby) who is Guest Services Director. 

We had a really great conversation with Gabby talking about some of the challenges we were having with our future cruise planning for 2027. She created some really fun banter with us saying how she looked forward to retirement when she had such problems where she could actually cruise for fun (not work). She reminded me of what our oldest son had said to us in the past - "First World Problems Mom!" Yes indeed, we realize we are privileged to travel as much as we do. 

I did praise Gabby for how she handled some challenging questions from guests at the In Transit meeting a few days ago. She was concise, professional and clear in her expectations when dealing with what some might say were grumbling passengers. 

We did find a few minutes to go up and deck and collect some Vitamin D!

Champagne Waterfall ready and waiting. 

Captain Stephen Lewis at what will be his final night of command on the Caribbean Princess. He is going home to his family tomorrow and our new Captain will take over. It was formal night tonight. I will share menus with you here:

Our ship's officers shown today. Tomorrow we will have a new Captain to reveal!

Day 12 Princess Cays

What a delightful day in the Caribbean!! We were seasoned enough at cruising to know to grab a tender ticket right after breakfast. Today that allowed us to get in tender group three. 

J and I were lucky enough to sit on the upper deck of the tender while heading to the island. 

Tender boats are required when a port is too shallow to  allow a big cruise ship to dock - or if the infrastructure (like a pier) doesn't exist to use. So the captain dropped an anchor at the front of the ship and we used tender boats to get to shore. 

We walked along the patio stone pathway to get to the far right side of the beach - where we know the best snorkelling can be found. We found a couple of loungers available in the shade and settled in for the morning. 

My view watching J walk in backwards into the water as he was wearing snorkelling fins. Empty chairs in front of me and the Caribbean Princess in the distance. 

We had a beautiful blue sky day on this white sand beach. J snorkelled for an hour then I went out for about 30 or 40 minutes. I was hungry for a bit of lunch and J wanted to snorkel some more so we each did that. The dood and beverage team brings food over from the ship to the island. I chose to have a bratwurst sausage and some watermelon. 

There are picnic tables to eat at under shade but I elected to return our beach chairs. Once J returned we were ready to ride a tender back to the ship.

Once back on the ship we cleaned up, ate some more and had a FaceTime call with our oldest son back in Canada. Somehow the afternoon was over and we made our way to the dining room for supper!  With our new table assignment, we are the only table of two amongst two larger tables of eight. Our servers manage to take our orders and deliver our food while the other tables are still ordering drinks and looking at their menu. I like this opportunity to eat in under an hour, rather than 90 minutes!!  We love all the servers we have had this cruise and last!!

After super I went to the entertainment in the Princess theatre. Trenyce performed a tribute show to Diana Ross and Whitney Houston!  That woman has stage presence and can sing!!! She broke into the music scene in 2002-2003 while singing on the second season of American Idol. I closed my eyes when she was singing and you could have sworn Whitney Houston was in the house!  (Were it not for her untimely death that is). 

Trenyce came up the stairs in the audience right near me. 

When I returned to the room J invited me to go for a hot tub. We had the place to ourselves on deck 17- with the occasional passerby. And we could spot the stars of Orion in the sky. 

A great day at Princess Cays!!

Day 11 Turnaround Day

We have the great joy of staying on the Caribbean Princess for one more cruise. So this morning while most people (90% of the ship) are disembarking, we just had to gather in the Coral Dining Room with the other passengers who would be returning to the ship with us. 

We had the comfort of the dining room tables and chairs to sit in and enjoy our tea while all the guests checked in. We stayed there for about 40 minutes then made our way to Fort Lauderdale pier 21 port authorities. Normally Princess docks at pier 2, but the Regal Princess was docked there today. 

There were at least 17 people that needed wheelchair assistance and there weren't enough wheelchairs for everybody so that seemed to be part of the slow down. Once we used our medallion to scan off the ship we then walked to the immigration lines - processing was exceptionally quick. We simply had our photo taken by immigration. If the light turns green that means you are good!!  You can simply process to the next stage. The occasional person had the light go red and then they had to walk up to an immigration agent in person. 

Once lined up in the big hall after that step, we waited for the ship to get to the zero count (and the wheelchairs became the limiting factor here) then we were allowed to check back onto the ship. From the time we left the ship and returned back to our room - about 45 minutes had passed. 

J and I got into bathing suits and headed up to deck 17 aft to enjoy the shade, empty chairs and the views. We ended up moving to the adult only pool on deck 14 where we called my Mom and sister and our youngest son. Always great to have a reasonably stable connection for a video call!

After lunch in the Palm Dining Room (which was very busy!) we went to the future cruise booking desk to talk through future options. She confirmed my travel agent sister LC had secured great prices for our 2027 plans!

Chrisanto is our room steward and has been doing an impressive job keeping our room spotless!

We went up to deck 16 for sail away at 3 pm. It is always lovely to sail out of Fort Lauderdale!

After sail away we had some time in our room before our 5 pm dining reservation in the Island Dining Room. We had table 283 by the window which was lovely with waiter Farley and assistant Definate who gave us attentive service. 

The show in the Princess Theatre was by the Dynamic Duo who had some great strength and flexibility moves - filled with the somewhat predictable juggling in the middle. 

Tomorrow we are in the Princess Cays so we will get ready for a beach day!  Life is Good!