Travel Blog Jan 15-19, 2013

Travel Blog -Saturday and Sunday, January 18-19, 2014

Drawing to a close…at sea heading north---Go Seahawks!!

The last two full days of our trip were at sea. We left St Martin on Friday and continued our northbound voyage toward the home port of Fort Lauderdale, FL. Since these were not port days, we had two shows left to present for the guests. Our Friday show was scheduled for the afternoon so we spent the morning rehearsing and exercising on the ship’s track in lovely Caribbean weather. The winds were the same direction that the ship was traveling so no winds in our faces as we walked the track on deck 10. Very pleasant.

This next to the last show was our history piece on the Caribbean islands and we had a nice group attending in the main show lounge. Since we no longer have any ports to visit, we were not assigned any desk duty so we had the remainder of the day after our 1:30 show to read and relax on the lounges on the promenade deck. That has been our favorite hang-out since the start of the cruise as it is quieter than around the pool and usually has shade and a breeze blowing.

This was another formal night so we dressed in our formal clothes and had a nice evening with our great table mates and then attended the final production show. The singers and dancers on this trip are fabulous. With only eight in the whole company, we are amazed at the quality of the shows which they present twice a night. We know that they are young but even at that age, we wouldn’t have been able to do five minutes of their entertainment let alone two one-hour shows! We knew that we had to get up early for rehearsal for our final show so we opted to not attend the champagne gala at 11:00 pm.

It is the last full day of the 28 day cruise and we had one final show to present at 9:30 am in the main theater. We decided not to present our new pirate show but instead repeat the pirate show that we gave on the southbound journey as an encore presentation. We figured that only a few guests had probably seen our first pirate show as most of these guests did not take both cruises. We wanted to end with one of our tried and true shows so we could go ‘out with a bang’. It was very well received with lots of positive comments given to us after we were through. It was the last of 12 shows that we presented and we feel that we did not screw-up on a single show!

After the show, we changed into our shorts and tank tops and did our laps on the track and then went to lunch outside on deck. It was a pleasant and relaxing way to unwind. Next, it was time to start packing for the flight home so we went back to our stateroom and started to get all of our things back in our two suitcases, hoping that they will not be over-weight at the airport.

We spent our last dinner with our wonderful tablemates.  Baked Alaska was served or dessert.
At 7:30, Donna attended the show in the Cabaret Lounge and John stayed in our cabin to watch the NFC championship game between the the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco team.  Donna returned in time for the second half and the thrilling finale as Seattle won in the last play.  GO HAWKS!

Travel Blog -Friday, January 17, 2014

St. Martin, yet again!

It seems as if every cruise to the Eastern Caribbean stops at St. Martin.  We cannot count haw much time we have spent there.  The harbor was jam packed, with six large cruise ships in Philipsburg’s harbor. Philipsburg is the capital of the Dutch side of the island.

We had put in to serve as an excursion escort and found ourselves together on the same bus.  We had taken this tour last year, but the quality of our tour guide, a charming woman from Dominica made it quite pleasant.

Marigot, the capital of the French side

Our stop in Marigot, the French capital, was much busier than on previous cruises.  We did get a short rainstorm as we walked around.  Many of our fellow passengers donned raincoats or opened umbrellas, but, since we are from Washington we weren’t about ready to let a bit of warm rain bother us.

We completed our tour in Philipsburg and set out to our favorite bar to read our email on their wi-fi connection.  Donna disposed of 75 emails and we returned to the ship after walking the length of Front Street, the city’s main drag.

Following dinner, we were entertained by a great comedian, went dancing and turned in by 11:00.

Travel Blog -Thursday, January 16, 2014

St Lucia; a Day at the Beach

This was our fourth visit to St. Lucia. Our daughter, Kari, had recently been to St. Lucia and recommended Rodney Bay for a beach day.  The bay is located about 20 minutes north of our ship and we negotiated a taxi fare to get there. 

The beach umbrellas at scenic Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

Rodney Bay is a very upscale area, surrounded by many condos and hotels.  It is more reminiscent of Maui than any place we have visited so far on our cruise.  We arrived about 9:30 and rented an umbrella and deck chairs with a beautiful view of the magnificent bay.  Dozens of watercraft were anchored offshore, a few only a bit smaller than cruise ships!  We tried swimming in the portion of the beach in front of us, but Donna found the uncertain footing in the sand a bit too challenging.  We soon noticed a roped-off area about 50 yards down the beach and gave it a try.  I was much better and we enjoyed swimming and floating the gentle, warm waves.

The time passed quickly as we read, chatted, and swam and by 1:00 we were dressed and ready to catch our taxi back to the ship.

We again served our hour at the desk in the evening.

We really enjoy our dinner tablemates and have many laughs during that time.

On to St. Martin tomorrow!

Travel Blog -Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Tobago Revisited

Donna mans the artillery at Fort St George, Tobago

We served as tour escorts on our bus tour of this beautiful and friendly island today.  Our stops included forts, an old sugar processing plant and a few other scenic views.  This is a case of the tour guide making the tour.  Donna’s guide was excellent and John’s hardly spoke a word.

We took a stroll through Scarborough, but really couldn’t find anything of interest to buy, with the exception of some laundry detergent. 

As on every other day, we served our shift at the Port Lecturers’ table and answered questions about the next islands.  

Travel Blog -Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Coasting the Guianas

Today was a sea day, which meant that it was a work day for us.  This was to be our last destination lecture, a presentation on our ports of call in the Caribbean; Tobago, St. Lucia and St. Martin.  We were familiar with each of these, since we had visited them on our southbound voyage.

Our program was very well attended and we received many positive comments from the passengers.  This program would be rebroadcast for the next four days on the ship’s northbound voyage.

This voyage has had wonderful weather, with very little rain.  Since we are now out of the Amazon, we can again eat on deck and go outside after dark without the fear of flying and crawling critters that made nighttime activities so challenging in the Amazon Basin.

A Day at the Beach

Travel Blog   Saturday, December 28, 2013

Scarborough, Tobago, West Indies

Today was our third port day. Sunday will be an at-sea day.

We were pleased when we arrived at Scarborough harbor on the island of Tobago (pronounced to bay go).  We were the only ship in that day.  Tobago doesn’t get many cruise ships. Scarborough appeared to be a clean and well-organized city and we had a nice view of the entire waterfront area.  This was quite a contrast to the mountainous, and somewhat randomly-organized character, of our previous day’s visit to St. Lucia. 

Tobago is the smaller part of the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago and is a vacation destination for many, including the residents of the other island, Trinidad.

Since we had not enjoyed a beach day on this cruise so far, we decided that that this would be a great opportunity for one.  Our guidebooks recommended Pigeon Point, a famous beach area on the southwest end of the island.  We hailed a taxi at the port area and enjoyed the half-hour drive to the beach.

Saturday was a busy day for the residents of the island, also and the roads and towns were crowded with shoppers and beach-goers. Passing through a security gate and paying our nominal admission to the beach   Palm trees provided just the right amount of shade in the right places and we pulled our beach lounges up to a spot overlooking the sandy beach.

reserve, we were enchanted by the setting.

The beach at Pigeon Point provides nearly everything one could desire.  The water is warm and, after the first 30 feet of broken coral, the bottom was sandy.  The waves were just right, small enough so they didn’t knock you down and large enough to make swimming fun.  A reef far offshore tempers the size of the waves.  I don’t think Hawaii has any swimming beaches that can beat this.

We spent our three hours at the beach swimming, sunning, reapplying our sunscreen and talking with the other ship’s lecturer, Michael, who showed up there about an hour after we did.

Unlike many Caribbean ports, Tobago does not have dozens of vendors selling tacky tourist goods at dockside.  The central town market carried only normal goods for the Tobagans.  We will be stopping here on our return voyage and will try to find some items to bring home.

We were back aboard Pacific Princess by 2:00 and grabbed some lunch and relaxed on deck before our desk duty from 5:0-6:00.  We enjoyed music in the lounge before our 8:15 dinner.  The ship is quite a ‘roller” and the deck’s motion sometimes makes it difficult to walk. We turned in about 10:00 and tired and contented.

Sunday will be a sea day on our way to French Guiana and Devil’s Island

Beginning our Amazon Adventure

December 21, 2013

Desert Hot Springs, California

Today is the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere.  It is the shortest day of the year.

We are trying to get all of our last-minute bill-paying and packing done in preparation for our latest adventure.  An old friend, Gary, arrives today to act as a cat sitter and house sitter.  I hope Ocho, our black Persian, doesn’t terrorize him too much.

Today is a typical winter day in the Palm Springs area.  It is a mild morning with blue, sunny skies and very little wind.  You couldn’t ask for better weather.  We fly to Florida tomorrow to embark on our cruise.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast for much of the US is not promising and we hope that we can get to Florida by Monday, when our cruise departs.  This is also one of the busiest air travel weekends in the USA.  We are especially concerned about making our connection in Minneapolis.  I guess whatever happens will happen.

We will be working as lecturers on two separate 14 day back-to-back cruises which will leave Ft. Lauderdale on Monday and end in Manaus, Brazil, 1000 miles up the Amazon.

We have three ports of call in the Caribbean, a stop at Devil’s Island, French Guiana, and four stops in the Amazon.  We will spend Christmas and New Year’s Day at sea on the southbound trip. Our ship, the Pacific Princess, will offload its passengers in Manaus and bring on a new load of passengers on our northbound voyage.

We sincerely hope that Murphy’s Law does not kick in for us on this trip.  We will try to update this blog when possible.

Smooth sailing and Happy New Year.

John and Donna

You might be able to catch us during our travels on Skype at j.mollan

Minneapolis forecast

SUNDAY	SUNDAY NIGHT	MONDAY	MONDAY NIGHT
Cloudy	Cloudy	Snow	Snow	Chance Of Snow	Mostly Clear
Hi: 19°F	Lo: 14°F	Hi: 17°F	Lo: -6°F	Hi: 4°F	Lo: -14°F
		POP: 70%	POP: 60%	POP: 20%