Month: February 2022

Debarkation Day.

8:15 was our call time and we were called about 8 am. The whole production to get off of the ship is flawless. Easy. Easy. Easy.

Something has changed with US Customs. No more threats of taxes. No forms to fill out. Not even a separate line for “I have goods to claim”. This really has made the process simple. Not sure how they stop smuggling.

Our shuttle to the airport came for us after about a 20 minute wait. The trip to the airport was uneventful and we arrived about 9:30 am.

The whole mask thing at the airport is so ridiculous. You only need a mask when you need something. You need to get on the plane so you need a mask. Once you get off of the plane, no mask is needed. You do not need anything from anyone and no one will bother you.

It was the same when restaurants opened back up. So much fuss about entering with a mask on. No mask. No entry. Once you get to your table, mask off. Use the restroom? Mask off. Leaving? Mask off. Absolutely no issue because there is no penalty.

We spent about 5 hours in the Miami airport before we boarded and headed home. Great trip!…

Final day of the cruise.

We arrived at Nassau about 7 am. During breakfast we decided to do a walking tour of the downtown area.

We left after 9 and started seeing the sights. There is not much of anything of interest.

The walking tour was about 6 miles total. We did find a few stops not on the tour and decided to stop.

The Graycliff Cigar Company seemed interesting. We stopped in to see about 5 people rolling cigars. We were offered a class that would teach us how to roll cigars and then we could sample them with 5 pairings of rum. We passed. The $160 seemed a bit high.

John Watling’s Distillery happened along the way.

The tour lasted less than 10 mins. We were given a shot glass sized pina colada. Delicious at 10 am. We decided to do the rum tasting. 4 different rums straight up. Water chaser. Most were aged in old bourbon barrels. Nothing really said “buy me”.

We did see where the rum was packaged. Two men seated at a card table were putting labels on the rum bottles. Every bottle of rum they sell is labeled and packaged at this table.

We finished our walk in the early afternoon. All aboard was 3:30 pm. We started to pack as we needed to put out our bags by midnight. We can carry them off but it is so much easier to have them delivered to the port.

We met the Daleys up on the Lido where Tim and I had a final “sail away” cigar.

Dinner at the Lido on our last night.

After dinner we played more cards. Won some. Lost many.

Our debarkation time tomorrow is 8:15 and our flight out of Miami is 2:47. Lots of airport time tomorrow.

 …

Sea Day

Breakfast and gym. A walk along the promenade. Table tennis with Tim and a Nathan’s hot dog for lunch at the Dive In.

The ride out from Grand Turks has been the roughest water we have encountered on this voyage. A nice roll assured a nice nap on the promenade deck.

It was a gala night and we enjoyed dinner with the Daley’s in the dining room. We were approaching the end of the cruise and were starting to think about packing.

Tomorrow we visit Nassau. Key West was the original port. Not sure why is was cancelled but Tim suggested it had to do with the HAL mask mandate.…

Today we arrived in Turks and Caicos. These islands are owned by Great Britain. The many islands are great for scuba divers. We arrived on the island of Grand Turk. This island had a nice little area with shops for cruise ship passengers. We decided to take walk into Cockburn Town. It was about 3.5 miles.

The trail started out with a nice path.

It progressed into something else.

We passed lots of donkeys, road apples, horses and general trash. We also passed the Friendship 7 capsule used by John Glenn in 1962 to orbit the earth.

We passed a place that made us think of Tim and his pursuit of the perfect drink.

Were were walking so there was no need to stop at the car wash.

We checked out a possible B&B for a future stop…

.. and possible future wheels.

We passed a spot that Chris Columbus parked his ship.

Used oats.

So much sight seeing left us searching for a place to eat. We ended at the Paradise Garden.

Good food here and a nice break. Service was a bit slow but I’m sure the waitress felt overwhelmed with the 3 patrons that were there. I had the local beer and Terri the island’s finest wine.

We finished lunch and headed back to the ship. It was nice to be back in the port. Terri wanted to do a bit of shopping but a security guard began to yell. “Put on your mask”. Terri screamed back “but we are outside”. The guard did nothing but repeat his demand. This time a bit louder. Grand Turk reminded me of the Dharavi Slum in India and the security guard is worried about a mask and hand sanitizer. How about a de-lousing after our visit to this island? None was offered.

Back on the ship we enjoyed a few drinks at the sea view bar and watched as we sailed away.

We did enjoy a game of team trivia. We did rather well. We missed one of the easier questions. How old was Marilyn Monroe when she died? We did know Shakespeare longest play.

Dinner and then cards. We aren’t doing well against the Daley’s.…

Today we arrived in the Dominican Republic at 7 am. We are in port at the northern part of the island. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island and its border runs north and south through the center part of the island.

We grabbed breakfast at the Lido and made our way down to deck A. Most of the time, deck A midship is used for passengers to exit when in port. Deck A is one below the main deck which is deck 1. This is as far as the passenger elevators go. The crew uses other elevators and stairs to get to the decks below.

Our tour van was waiting for us in port. This is a HAL excursion and the van contained about 10 other passengers.

Today we visit La Aurora cigar factory. The largest cigar facility in the Dominican Republic.

Our guide was sure to remind us that we needed a mask to get on the van. We were offered hand sanitizer as we boarded. Ridiculous. The Dominican Republic needs to upgrade so much of its infrastructure before it should worry about clean hands. This is not a very clean country.

The first thing we noticed when we sat down was the lack of seat belts. Hand sanitizer, masks, but no seat belts. Probably not a need for them. I’m sure our driver is well trained and a very safe driver. Of course he had his mask on and also had a seat belt.

Our guide told us it would be about an hour to the factory. The driver ignored all rules of the road. Speeding, and passing in a no passing zone were not a problem. Thankfully I was given the hand sanitizer.  I feel so safe.

Along the way we noticed trash everywhere. Power lines came into buildings in the most hap-hazard fashion. Nothing about the lines appeared to be by design. This was government efficiency at its finest. When the government gets involved in anything, quality plummets. There is no one to complain to. There is no one in charge. It is an entity that has only one purpose. Feed itself.

We enjoyed an hour excursion admiring the beauty of the country that according to our guide provides free education, free health care. Free. Free. Free. Nothing about quality but it is free. I can see what free can do to a country. First thing that is eliminated. Free-dom. Freedom to choose. Freedom to complain.

We met our La Aurora guide, Eugene at the factory. This is more of a production facility as the cigars are all hand made. Free cigars were handed out before the tour began.

Eugene described the attitude needed to smoke a cigar. He showed us how to hold the cigar, how to put it in your mouth and demonstrated how to walk into a room with a cigar. Hilarious.

The Dominican Republic is noted for cigar production. The soil here is very favorable for the tobacco plant.

The production area was amazing. All of the work done by hand. We learned about how the leaves are harvested from different parts of the plant and labeled accordingly. These affect flavor and nicotine content. The leaves are aged for 4 years before they go in to production.

Workers are paid by amount of production. Inspectors keep the standards very high. Great tour. The tour ended in the cigar store. Some great bargains that I couldn’t pass on.

Lunch was part of the tour and we stopped at a restaurant on the way back. Good sampling of local foods. We spent about an hour here and started the journey back to the ship.

We stopped to see “touchdown” Jesus.

The ports that the cruise ships come to are all very nice and well maintained. Lots of souvenir shops, restaurants and bars. These are very different from the working ports that we have used on other cruises.

We arrived back about 3:30 pm and Tim and I enjoyed one of the free cigars that we were given. We chatted it up with a gent that was a Viet Nam veteran. He seemed to survive a lot better than other Vets I have met. This was a very difficult time for young men as they were being sent to die while politicians fought each other for political posturing. The protestors back then are now running the country. They have no problem with mandates on are drunk with emergency power.

Dinner at the Lido and then cards with the Dailey’s. Not much luck with euchre for us.

 …

Today is a sea day. We started with breakfast and then to the gym. Workout equipment is adequate. I did the elliptical trainer for 60 minutes. Terri did some weights. Most of the folks carry weight with them all day. We like to limit it to an hour each day in the gym.

We played in the corn hole tournament and took first place! The other team came in second.

Lunch and table tennis and then relaxing by the pool. Dinner was in the main dining room.

Tim and Kelley joined us. It was nice to see the dining room full and the cruise industry recovering.

Evening entertainment was another black comedian. Ken Boyd. His color was important because he referred to his audience as “white folks”. We were a bit late and were standing in the back. There were 4 seats in the front row and I said to Tim that you never arrive late and sit in front in a stand up act. Terri and Kelley decided they would take the chance and we all sat down in front. Late.

The jokes started immediately. Tim was the white guy with glasses and a bow tie. The comedian dubbed him as the “whitest guy on the ship”. The comedian looked at me and said “this is your second marriage sir”? I said yes it is. He looked at the audience and said “now how did I know that”. First marriage is for love and the second marriage is for some arm candy. Terri was thrilled with that statement. Tim took some abuse for the rest of the show but was a very good sport about it.

The step one dance company followed and did great dance numbers to current hits The laser light sets were unbelievable and well done. Great evening of entertainment.

Cards with the Daley’s an the back of the ship until about 11. I’m not sure we won anything. Maybe tomorrow.…

Today we arrive at Half Moon Cay and were able to take a tender shortly after 9am. The tender was off of the ship as usual but came from ashore. It was a double-decker tender that held may people. The water was calm and there was no issue getting ashore. The island is private and is owned by Carnival Cruise Line. Our room key worked at the shops and restaurant just as on the ship. We took a walk down the beach to the end of the crescent shaped island. Not much to see other than sand and the ocean. On the way back we stopped at Captain Morgan’s for a drink. I had a Bahama Mama and Terri a Passion Painkiller. I’m guessing that when the Cruise Industry gets back to normal, this island will be a popular stop. Nice beach and well maintained grounds.

Room for lots of people. We swam in the ocean for a few minutes after our drinks and then went to the island barbecue. Great food but some light rain in the air. We decided to eat and head back to the ship. The ride to the ship was less than 20 minutes in calm water.

We decided a while back to book another world cruise. This one leaves January of 2024 and is 128 days long. The route and stops are quite a bit different then These fill up fast and we had put a hold on it but then discovered a significant savings when you book a cruise on the ship. We went down to the future cruise deck and booked this cruise. We have a Verandah room on the back  of the ship. We also decided to book a cruise this summer. This one goes from Boston to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Stops in Greenland and Iceland sound exciting.

We sat out near the Lido pool until dinner. Beautiful day.

Dinner in the Lido today and then to the BB King Blues Club for a performance by comedian Cisco Duran. Cisco is black and fat. Both of these became part of his routine. Great act! I give him a 9.

The Step One Dance Company was on the main stage and we caught their show right after. Very polished. Very entertaining and well done.

We finished the evening with a few card games. Phase 10 was something Tim brought on the cruise. Similar to rummy but more challenging. Kelley was the winner. We finished with a hand of euchre and we were again beaten by the Daley’s.

Tomorrow is a day at sea and we set the clocks forward an hour.…

We have decided to leave the cold of Michigan and take a 7 day cruise through the Caribbean. This cruise is not so much about destinations but more of a cruise to enjoy tropical weather. We begin and end in Ft. Lauderdale and make it as far south as Turks and Caicos.

Out flight leaves at 6am. I was up at 2 am and Terri up shortly after. The wind was very strong throughout the night and we felt we needed to leave by 3:45 am to get to the airport with enough time.

The drive to the airport was very challenging. It was difficult to see the road with the snow blowing across. Smart move by leaving early. It took almost an hour. The masks had to come out after weeks of non-use. I don’t see the federal government giving up control over these for at least a decade. Just a predication. Remember the 55 mph speed limit put in place by president Nixon during the oil embargo of 1973? It was temporary to “save gas”. I believe it lasted 20 years. “15 days to slow the spread”.

Holland America has it’s own virus policies. I can’t really fault any business trying to survive the political backlash of trying to operate “normally”. Vaccine. Required. Masks. Required. Negative covid test within 48 hours of departure. Required. All employees on the ship wear KN95 masks.

The flight was uneventful and we landed in Miami about 9:30 am. 75 degrees felt great. Our HAL shuttle was waiting and we arrived at the terminal about noon. Check in was smooth and easy.

The Lido deck was waiting. Terri decided to try something new for lunch. Salad!

Our room is an inside cabin. No window to the outside. Something we have done for shorter cruises but not a good idea for the longer ones. No window to see what direction we are traveling in or what the weather looks like. Are we in port or in the middle of the ocean?

Tim and Kelley Daley joined us again on this cruise. They had some issues with the HAL shuttle and will be going to guest services for the “fruit basket”.

Dinner in the main dining room was full. I imagine that this ship is near capacity and it is a sign that people are feeling more comfortable living their lives than they are listening to their government.

After dinner we played euchre with the Daley’s on the back deck of the Lido. No luck beating them this time. 3 games to zero.

Tomorrow we are stopping at Half Moon Cay. This is owned by Carnival Cruise lines which is the parent company of Holland America and Princess Cruise Lines.…