18 - 10/19/2021 - Aruba

Of all the places in the Caribbean, I never expected to choose Aruba as a favorite place to visit.  Including this trip, we've now been here three times.  And on all three visits we've been able to spend time with a couple who live here that we met on an Asian cruise in 2019.

 

Overnight the ship sailed on smooth Caribbean seas and we apparently docked by 7am.  I say apparently as I didn't feel a thing and remained asleep. After breakfast we met our friends near the exit of the terminal area.  Our ship was docked at terminal 2 and we had the longest walk to the terminal exit having to walk 1/2 the length of our ship plus 1/2 the length of the Carnival Horizon which was berthed behind us.  From there it was a dogleg walk of about a quarter mile to the Main Street.  Since our last visits in 2019, the exit path has been revamped.

 

Just before the last vendor gauntlet, I spotted our friends and we enjoyed a friendly reunion before walking across the street to their vehicle parked in the bus parking lot.  One used to be able to look for a Pizza Hut sign, but that's been removed and new retail spaces are being developed.   They suggested that we visit the aloe farm and store so we headed there.

 

We did a short tour of the field and manufacturing facility before spending some money in the store.  For those not familiar with aloe, Aruba has been a major producer of aloe and it's highly taunted for its medicinal properties.  From there we headed to Catalina Beach for a little snorkeling which we have done there on our two previous trips.  Afterwards they drove us back downtown to Queen Wilhelmina Park so we could see the iguanas.  

 

We said our goodbyes and we walked through the park observing and photographing the iguanas.  This year they were much smaller and not in as great of a quantity.  It was a short walk from there northbound to the Nieuw Amsterdam's berth.  Along the way we stopped for lunch at Cuba's Cooking for some tasty Cuban ceviche and a Cuban sandwich.  The remainder of the short walk got us back to the Nieuw Amsterdam with 10 minutes to spare.  

 

We went to our room and changed clothes and I went out with my camera to photograph the departure.  After the fuel tanker departed, there was a message over the PA system "Would the passenger <name > in stateroom 1068 please immediately go to guest services or dial 90 on any phone".  That message delivered at that time usually means someone hasn't boarded the ship.  I went to the port side of the ship to watch the gangway removal.  It got closed up then there was another page.  Nearby there was a crewman with his 2way radio on and I overheard that the passenger was at the gate and would be there shortly.  Suddenly a crew cab pickup camp speeding up to the gangway area, and a lady got out of the passenger side rear door.  As she exited the pickup, 4 sheets of paper went flying.  She attempted to gather them up to no avail.  The gangway was reopened; and to passenger cheers, she boarded the ship.  The gangway was then stowed, the mooring lines dropped, the bow thrusters and azipods moved us away from the dock,  and we headed back out to sea through the narrow channel. Since we had to pass under the flight path of the international airport, the Captain indicated that he had to request ATC clearance.  As we passed by the airport we watched a Delta and a JetBlue airplane take off. I have a nice picture looking down the runway as the JetBlue aircraft was taking off.

 

As we sailed north we could see the California lighthouse (named for a ship that wrecked there before the lighthouse was built). Soon Aruba was physically out of sight and there was only open ocean surrounding us with the wake from the two azipods leaving their telltale diminishing white line behind us .

 

We received a notice that our 3rd Covid Antigen test was scheduled for Thursday morning between 9 & 9:30am.  So far there's been not a peep about whether there have been any reported cases onboard.

 

An excellent seafood dinner was enjoyed in the Lido before we watched the vocal impressionist, Trish Kelly, perform requests.  We then changed venues to BBKing Blues Club where we watched three of the artists tell lies in "Call My Bluff".  It was exceptionally funny.

 

For the first time ever, we ordered and ate a late night pizza at 10:30pm in the sea view pool area aft of the Lido Market Place.  It was quite good!

 

And so ended our short stay on Aruba.  One and a half sea days are ahead of us before our 2 day visit to Half Moon Cay. Stay tuned



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 09 - 10/10/2021 - At sea to Puerto Vallarto - A dolphin extravaganza

This was a really lazy day at sea. The only presentations we watched were the Q&A session with Ross, our naturalist, and the Port to Table food demonstration after lunch by Steve the Pinnacle Grill chef. This session covered preparation of carne asada and a Mexican soup. Afterwards, I positioned myself port-side on the Promenade deck up near the bow which is about 30' above the water. The view here was unobstructed and I watched a medium sized turtle float by. About an hour later off in the distance I spotted a number of dolphins.    Suddenly there were dozens and dozens of dolphins swimming around the left side and under the ship. They rode the bow wave, the waves off the mid ship hull and elsewhere out away from the ship. The water was clear and one could see the dolphins' images before they broke through the surface. I saw more dolphins at one time over the next hour than I have previously seen at one time. It was impressive and there had to a...
Read more

Day 08 - 10/09/2021 - An Electric Cabo

This morning we woke up at 6:30am to a room temperature of over 80°.     We realized the air conditioning system works on sea water and we are in much warmer water.     So I called the front desk and a representative was     there by 7am and confirmed the readings.     He indicated there were a lot of complaints.   After a quick breakfast, we reported to the Main Stage and our group was the first one dispatched on the first tender.     It was already hot and projected to hit 90°f.     There was an armed Mexican sailer on the pier and we had a bag check.     Our tour coordinator gathered us up and we made our way to a motor coach for a 45 to 60 minute ride to the venues hi hi was located up the west coast of the Baja peninsula.     Along the way several people saw a whale breech!   My adventure this day was to ride an electric bicycle.     I chose this activity s...
Read more

Day 06 - 10/07/2021 - At Sea to Cabo - 1

Southbound we head at about 14.5 knots (relatively slow) and the temperatures are getting warmer.     Today after the 9am coffee chat with the Kazemek's (Beatles tribute singers), Angela saw a pod of dolphins.     I spent much of the day reading my mystery thriller, Deadly Encounter.       I (and others I've talked with) are a bit disappointed in the lack of enrichment lectures on these sea days.     So in between reading my novel, there was a port short excursion lecture, a culinary arts lecture on chili's (quite good) and a cruise critic Meet & Greet.     We were able to connect with Jeff and Nanette who we cruised with us on the Maasdam in 2019 from Japan to Australia.       One high point of the cruise was reached today in that we observed flying fish.     For us, a cruise is really not complete until we see flying fish.     These flying fish were generally flying...
Read more