We Were Halfway There to Half-Moon Cay- We End the First Leg of Our Cruise

The cruise-line-owned and developed island of Half-Moon Cay was our last stop before the leg ended in Fort Lauderdale.

Half-Moon Cay

Due to good weather and sailing conditions we arrived one hour earlier than scheduled, but still late by most ports of call arrival times at 0900 hours. This was a port of call that required passengers to tender to the island. We immediately noticed two new changes to the tendering process. First, the ship did not set anchors as we had experienced in the past. Instead the ship used its bow thrusters and drive system managed by a computerized GPS system to maintain its station.

Passenger Ferry

Secondly, the ship did not put out lifeboat tenders to ferry the passengers, but instead used a passenger ferry from the island to transport passengers back-and-forth.

We decided not to go ashore at this time as this would be our first stop on the next leg of our 21-day cruise. With a 0800 hour arrival and a 1500 hour departure we would also have much more time on the next go round. Capt. Larry went out on the deck to get some pictures of the island and the tendering process.

Passenger Tender

It was an overcast day and no sooner did he get set up it started to rain which really sealed the deal for not going ashore. We spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing and just taking it easy.

 We arrived back at Fort Lauderdale to shockingly cold 50° weather and lost about three fourths of the passengers who were only cruising the first 10-day leg. The rest of the 400+ passengers had to jump through some Customs and Border Control hoops. CBC requires that all passengers disembark from the ship, and those that are remaining on had to clear customs in order to return to the ship and continue their cruise.

The Island Beach

The cruise line staff were apologizing profusely for this inconvenience, but it was quite apparent that this was all on CBC. Additionally, we were told that all seven of CBC’s facial recognition cameras were out of commission. So we all assembled in the ship’s main theater and were paraded off the ship and through a cordoned maze to a CBC official who examined our passports and our faces and confirmed our identities before we were paraded back onto the ship.

Sister Ship Statendam

The whole process only took a little over an hour but one wonders why this was necessary when we all have to pass through customs at the end of our cruise.

We loaded up and left Fort Lauderdale for a second time on our way to Half-Moon Cay.

Port Everglades

We arrived the next morning, and when we went out on our balcony to view the island, we were surprised by the 66° temperature with a 23 mph northwest wind. It didn’t take much discussion between us to decide that we wouldn’t be going over to the island today.

Saturday Sailing Club

We had looked forward to some beach time, but with our tropical wardrobe we decided that we wouldn’t be very comfortable if we went over. So we spent our time on a bloody mary breakfast, reading, watching the NFL playoffs and relaxing.

Curacao, Aruba, and A Lucky Bastard!

Back Again!

Welcome to Curaçao! Our ship is docked in Willemstad and we are ready to get off and enjoy a day on the hard, especially following a sea day and a couple of past days where Capt. Larry felt a little under the weather. It’s about a 1 mile walk to the downtown area, so we followed the pathway through the RIF Fort and onto the swinging footbridge.

The Swing Bridge Closing

The bridge was just closing to river traffic as we arrived, so we are able to immediately walk across into the downtown area. At the foot of the bridge Jane made a left-hand turn and acted like she was hell-bent on getting someplace in particular. Sure enough, about two blocks from the bridge she arrived at one of her favorite linen shops, Mr. Tablecloth. She had purchased some tablecloths and napkins from this store the last time we visited Curaçao. Capt. Larry found a chair to rest in while Jane made her selections.

 

RIF Fort

We left Mr. Tablecloth and followed an alleyway to an adjacent street with lots more shops, but found nothing that really appealed to us.

We decided to head back out to a café on the riverbank and have a beer. The last time we were here beers cost around $2 a bottle, but now started at $4 and went up from there. We had a leisurely break before heading back to the ship. On our way back we encountered a new site at the foot of the bridge—The Punda Love Hearts, an outdoor sculpture comprised of three large heart-shaped forms to which numerous padlocks and been attached.

Enlarge Pic to Read Plaque

The plaque at the base of the sculpture states that this is in partnership with four retail outlets and the Iguana Café and that this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Now who would’ve thought that a local taqueria could be so preeminent as to be a contributing sponsor to such a prestigious project! Across the bridge and back to the ship.

Fast-forward one day, and now we are in Oranjestad, Aruba.

Downtown Oranjestad

Like Bonaire and Curaçao, Aruba is one of three Dutch Caribbean islands discovered in 1499. Aruba, whose motto is “One Happy Island,” is Capt. Larry’s favorite although Jane prefers Curaçao (probably because there’s no Mr. Tablecloth in Aruba).

The Magic Bus!

From the ship to the downtown area the walking distance just a little over ½ mile. Oranjestad has a very colorful downtown district with ornately decorated buildings and many sidewalk animal sculptures that provide great photo opportunities. Both sides of the main drag of Oranjestad’s tourist district are thickly populated with shops of all manner.

An American Original

And the vendors of the shops, unlike those in Curaçao, were actively courting customers with various discounts and deals trying to entice them into their stores.

Jane and Friend

As we made our way through this gauntlet we came upon the famous landmark watering hole— Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar and Restaurant. Originating on the upper West Side of Manhattan in the 1980s, this legendary restaurant chain has expanded to several tourist meccas by offering coastal cuisine, creative cocktails, and fun.

At the Marketplace

It was here that Jane had her photo made with a bovine sidewalk statue. We continued on until we came to a marketplace flagged by two giant flamingo statues. It was an open-air market and when it started to rain we found a bench and people watched until the rain eased. With not much happening we decided to make our way back towards the ship.

Enlarge for Bottle Opener

Out in the parking lot we spotted a chopped motorcycle named  Lucky Bastard which would likely be considered the ultimate chopper as it came with an attached Balashi Beer bottle opener! It doesn’t get more authentic than that!! We made our way back to the ship and finished our day with dinner and a nightcap before turning in for tomorrow’s sea day.

Our next day at sea was uneventful. Capt. Larry worked on organizing the photos we had so far taken and worked on the blog. Jane went to a talk on how to improve your memory, but she missed a good chunk of it because she couldn’t remember what time it was held (Capt. Larry has no comment!). It was a night for dressy attire, so we got spiffed up and went to the chef’s gala dinner. We went back to our room and watched a movie before calling it a night.

We Arrive inAmber Cove; Bonaire a No-Go; and We Miss San Juan

 

Our next stop was in Amber Cove, Dominican Republic. When we were here several years ago we were disheartened by all of the children that were begging and scamming the tourists.

Full Moon Over Amber Cove

Fortunately, that problem has been resolved by the development of a new resort area with self-contained entertainment. One can zip line, do water activities such as swimming with the stingrays, and even off-road adventuring all within sight of the ship. And of course there’s the duty-free shop! Little exploring or sightseeing of the Dominican Republic can be done outside of this resort. It’s pretty much a one-pony show.

We decided that we would walk off the ship later and avoid the rush. We hadn’t signed up for any shore excursions here so we would just spend our time looking at the shops adjacent to the DUFRY area and take in some of the historic and cultural information points.

Mountain Sunrise in Amber Cove

We came upon a little rest area that had some interesting orchids and tropical flowers growing in it as well as a waterfall. We made our way back to the ship, had lunch, and spent the afternoon relaxing and chilling out by the pool.

That evening, upon returning to our cabin after dinner, we had a letter from the captain stating that we would not be going to our next stop, Bonaire.

Need Ride to DUFRY, mon?

It seems that just within the past couple of weeks the people of Bonaire voted to allow only one cruiseship into their port daily. The captain said that he looked at all the options to try to get us into port, but nothing viable emerged. After consulting with corporate headquarters he announced that our next port of call would be San Juan, Puerto Rico. We would have a day in San Juan and then a sea day as we made our way to our next port, Curaçao.

Pretty Waterfall

We were disappointed with this news because we would be going to Puerto Rico on the next leg of the cruise.

We arrived in San Juan and decided not to go on shore as we had been here before and we would be visiting this port again during the second leg of our cruise. We had breakfast and then did our usual one-hour morning walk and then spent the rest of the morning reading and lounging around the pool.

Jane;s San Juan Workout

After lunch, Jane returned to the pool to finish her lounging exercises and Capt. Larry headed back to the cabin to work on the blog.

The next day was our sea day on our way to Curaçao. We did our usual morning activities and then decided to make our reservations in the specialty restaurants for the second leg of our cruise that were part of our sail-away package. We were talking with the reservation receptionist and mentioned that we had not gone ashore in San Juan because we would be doing that port again on the second leg of our cruise. The receptionist said that she didn’t think that we would be going back to San Juan, but Capt. Larry was sure that that would be our second port of call. Well, we got back to our cabin and checked the itinerary and sure enough, our second port is St. Thomas and not San Juan. Phooey! It would have been fun to revisit there.

 

 

 

We Get Some Turkey on Grand Turk

 

Day 3 and we arrive at Grand Turk Island, BVI. It surprised us that Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos were part of the British Virgin Islands as we had always considered them to be part of the Bahamas.

Welcome to Grand Turk!

So we started our day with the geography lesson! Grand Turk Island is around 7 miles long and 1 ½ miles wide with a population of around 5,000. The island was developed by the British around the mid-1800s. Historically it was important for the production of salt in its numerous salt flats, but today it is a diving mecca making tourism it’s most important industry. Grand Turk also serves as the administrative center for the Turks and Caicos archipelagoes. After we were cleared we left the ship and navigated our way to the duty-free shop (of course!) where we hunted for bargains. We didn’t find any so we headed to the meeting point where our shore excursion was to begin. Our tour consisted of a bus ride around the island to view and learn about the island’s historical and cultural highlights followed by some time on one of its beaches.
We assembled with the rest of our group and boarded one of four buses for this tour's timeslot. Our driver was a tall, bald, black, island jolly mon named Pram. Just loading the buses we knew that Pram was going to provide a distinctive version of island color!

Beautiful Water

The tour started out innocently enough with Pram providing historical, demographic, and socioeconomic information about the island. Right around after seeing John Glenn’s Mercury Friendship 7 space capsule (which we wondered if it wasn’t a replica) which he landed near here in 1962, Pram’s talking points started to go in a different direction.

Pram working the crowd

It started when we came across some donkeys which now roam the island after being released from their salt-hauling duties years ago when the salt flats were closed. Pram started describing how healthy donkey meat was and how it was processed and eaten by peoples around the world. Next he started to list all the medicinal properties from the leaves of a roadside shrub and how he drank a daily concoction of four components which included these leaves which “keep me full of energy and me woman happy. Yeah, Poppa!” Then he launched into a dissertation about how Canadians eat horsemeat and how they raise the horses and process them into stakes and salami.

Meet Mr. Conch

Then he spotted another shrub with medicinal properties and described how it could be made into a “pill” and what it was good for. Lord help us when we next drove past a large lot of goats! At this point some riders had mouths agape in disbelief, some were squinty-eyed and cringing, and some were shaking uncontrollably with laughter.

But the most bizarre part of the tour was when the bus came upon a mud-packed road that Pram backed the bus onto and into a thicket of scrubby trees for about 60 yards.

The medicinal jellyfish

Visions of a machete attack and cannibalism came into view until we came to a small clearing with wooden benches. We all exited the bus and took seats for our next medicinal lecture. Conch shells lined the perimeter of this classroom and Pram started describing how conch meat was extracted and processed for many of the island seafood dishes. Then he went behind some trees and emerged with a live conch to show the animal inside its shell. Getting medical again, he then produced a jellyfish and a sea urchin.

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"Bush Viagara"

He talked about the medicinal powers of jellyfish and how it can be made into a “pill.” As for the sea urchin he noted its powers when made into a powder and used to increase fertility. As proof he cited two island men in their 90s with 18 and 26 children respectively. How could it be anything else? He showed us a sea cucumber that they use to make sushi.

Mmmm...mouthwatering sushi!

Finally, he lectured us on how baby sea turtle blood can be used to treat convulsions in children and babies, but he didn’t back this up with any controlled clinical study. The hardest thing for Capt. Larry to swallow was Pram’s claim that modern pharmacies only arrived on the island in the last 10 years (around 2012) and that people still clung to “bush medicine”— implying that modern ways haven’t taken hold. While these stories are entertaining and help fill the tip jar they should be taken with a grain of salt. But we do wonder about that horsemeat salami the Canadians make!

We decided to forgo the beach experience with the little remaining time we had, so we returned to our ship and finished out the day with a nap, dinner, and a musical show about boy bands (yes, I said boy bands!).

Grand Turk Island Lighthouse