Wrap Up

Well, we've been home for a week, all the laundry is washed, folded and put away, and I've been working on talks for our next cruise (more about that in a paragraph or two) and editing photographs from our just-completed voyage.  I'll include some pix below: the first from Curacao and the others are from Labadee, Royal Caribbean's private estate -- 250 beautiful acres of beaches and trees on the northern coast of Haiti (remember, if you click on the pictures, they will open in a larger version).

Royal Caribbean International leased the site a number of years ago and has been steadily improving it as a private stop for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity ships.  Some 300-500 local folks are employed to work at the site, all the crafts are made by local artisans -- and the work must be approved by RCCI with no "made in China" labels, and the company gives the governement of Haiti $10 per guest for the nation to use in social services, caring for its people.  Last year 600,000 guests visited.

When Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 Richter scale earthquake in January 2010 (followed by at least 45 "smaller" quakes -- measuring up to 4.5) affecting 3,000,000 people, Royal Caribbean stopped sending cruise ships to Labadee.  A month later, they started sailing again, drawing fire from the New York Times ("Ship of Ghouls") and other critical sources.  Royal Caribbean countered with the fact that hundreds of people, at a very critical time, were depending on their cruise ship stops for their jobs.  The New York Times did not report that RCCI gave Haiti $1 million for relief work (eventually raising the gift to $2.5 million ), nor that the company built 14 temporary schools, 7 temporary kindergartens, and an orphanage, plus two permanent schools, and at least a half dozen fresh water storage facilities.  For years following the earthquake the company sent relief supplies loaded on board by various missionary and relief organizations at no cost to those organizations.  I mentioned those facts in my Labadee talk, and reminded the folks that I am not an employee of RCCI, but I found the corporate sensitivity and desire to help worthy of praise (since except for the Royal Caribbean website, I've found no mention of these gifts and generosity).

Stepping down from my soap box, I will tell you that the weather was beautiful on our stop.  Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao were overly hot and humid (what do you expect in the Southern Caribbean) but Labadee was a mild 78 with fresh tropical breezes blowing.  Bonnie and I wandered around for about three hours -- a shore record for us when not taking an excursion.

This blog will be back around March 16, 2015 when we sail from Fort Lauderdale on the Holland America Line's "Zuiderdam," an Atlantic crossing stopping in Rome on March 31 (with stops on a Portuguese island and three stops in Spain).  We have rented an apartment in Civitavecchia (the port that serves Rome) for five nights to do some exploring, taste the local food, and enjoy Italian culture.

Giving thanks for this, and all of God's blessings, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

TTFN!

Curacao, looking from the Otrabunda

Nellie's Tavern: general store, tavern, and house of ill-repute

The Explorer of the Seas (the wires on the upper right are part of a 1/2 mile long zip line -- we did not zip)

Beach on Labadee (my postcard shot, taken with the camera in my Ghetto Phone)

Our friend Jovana whom we met in October and was glad to see us back.

December 10, 2014

Well, it’s another day at sea, another talk, another formal night.  And tonight is lobster night.  Yum!  Oh what do the simple folk do?

A leisurely day at sea.  I gave my next to last talk at 2 p.m., then we hustled down to get into the standby line for the ice show.  Our regular show was the first sea day when I was doing a talk.  I don’t remember why we didn’t go to the 4 p.m., but we made it today.  It is always such a good show.  The audience was kind of flat, but Bonnie and I were cheering lustily and some folks finally caught on.

They did three lines to get into the show today.  One was for the folks whose turn it was, and they got to go in second.  One was for the Diamond and Diamond Plus members (the local which of which there is no whicher – very frequent cruisers) and they got to go in first.  And the third line was for all the rest of us and we got to go in last.  I did find us two seats in the second row, so we were, well, well-seated.

One member of my audience for my talk today (Space: The Final Frontier) was an engineer who worked on Gemini, Apollo, Sky Lab, and the Shuttle Program.  He introduced himself to me before the talk and afterwards complimented my presentation.

Another member of the audience was Judy Resnick’s cousin.  Judy was one of the astronauts killed when the Shuttle Challenger exploded.

And still another was from Broward County, where Cape Canaveral is.  She told me that the area code for the area is 3-2-1.  For the countdown.

Tomorrow is the private resort, Labadee.  We will go ashore sometime, wander around – there are two historical sights: the old bell tower and Nellie’s place that I want to see and photograph – then stay for the bar-b-que and come back on board.  I may stick a toe into the water, just to check it out.  We’ll see.  We’ll see.

TTFN!

December 9, 2014

We had breakfast in bed this morning – scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, an assortment of sweet rolls, orange and tomato juice, and coffee.  And then it was off for dock side and a trip to the Hato Caves and a tour of old downtown Willemstad, the capital of Curacao.

Our guide for the excursion was a black man named John Paul.  He said he was the black brother of the late Pope John Paul II, but offered no credentials.  However, he was an entertaining guide, knowledgeable, and told jokes as bad as mine.

At one point he asked if we had noticed that there were no children on the streets of Willemstad or the areas through which we were driving.  He said it is mandatory that young people go to school from the ages of 5 to 20.  If children are found outside of school, police take them back to school twice.  If they are found outside the third time, police take them back to school and then go issue a fine and citation to the parents.  He said, “We know that if our children do not grow up to have an education, they will not be able to contribute to society.”  I vote we bring John Paul to the U.S. of A. to reorganize our school system.  Also the children learn four languages.  They start off with their native Papiamento (that may not be speeled correctly) which is a combination of the languages from of all of the nations that Curacao has had contact with in the past.  Then they learn Dutch, English, and Spanish.  That is required of all school children, and the languages are introduced at defined stages in their educational careers.

Hato Caves is the only cave I have visited where we had to climb up to get into, and never went down on our journey.  The entrance is 49 steps, approximately 60 meters,  above sea level.  Perhaps used by the Arawaks, the original inhabitants of the island, or by runaway slaves, this limestone cave is full of formations.  And some original inhabitants still live in the cave – bats this time.  The cave has an opening at the top of the hillside that the bats use when flying out to control the local mosquito population.  Sadly photography is permitted in only two of the five chambers we could visit, and no postcards or pictures were available for sale.

Stepping outside and starting our journey back down the 49 nine steps (who wrote the novel “The 39 Steps”?) I had the feeling of deja vu all over again.  When we booked this excursion, Bonnie and I agreed we had done a tour of historic downtown, but had never been to the cave.  Looking out from the entrance to the Caribbean just a few hundred yards away, we decide that maybe we have visited there.  Bonnie will check her journals when we return to 233, or you, dear reader, can go back through these blogs to see if there is a reference to an earlier visit by your intrepid cruisers.

After wandering around the historic city for a while, and finally finding the Postal Museum for which we had searched in vain earlier, we checked out a couple of souvenirs and returned to the ship.  I only had a $10 bill when I went into the Museum and the curator graciously allowed me free entry because he did not have $8 change U.S.  Among the exhibits was a letter brought to Curacao from the Netherlands in 1934 on the first KLM airplane flight to the island.  It cost 1.12 Dutch guilders.  Is that a lot?

Lunch in the Windjammer was followed by an official nap in Stateroom 7135.  Now I am off to publish this, then pre-dinner trivia at 5:15, a production show by the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers at 7:15 and dinner at 8:30.  My talk on “Space: The Final Frontier” will be presented tomorrow at 2 p.m.

TTFN!

December 8, 2014

We got up at 7:30, did the morning toilet, and went to breakfast in the dining room.  I had eggs benedict – oh there’s no plate like chrome for the hollandaise – but I did not sing the song, nor tell the joke.  I am saving it for the next talk on our next sea day.

We strolled through beautiful downtown Bonaire for two hours and a little bit, buying a couple of souvenirs and enjoying the morning.  We found our first cannon of this cruise and took the required picture of Granny and the cannon.  There is another ship in port, this one from Germany, a cruise line I’ve never heard of – Mein Shippe 1.  Clever name.

The vendors out on the street are not near as pushy as the ones in Aruba.  The worst place is the Bahamas.  Worse than people trying to sell you fur hats in Red Square.  We resisted all offers of tours to the North side or the South side and just wandered in and out of shops.  We did go into a supermarket and found no Mello Yello.  We did spy a tin of salted Dutch butter for $10.25, a 5 pound wheel of Guda cheese for $40, and a Coke Zero for $1.75.  We bought the Coke.  One of our table mates said he was shopping for the butter and the cheese.

Bonnie bought pink flamingo bank to go with the pink flamingo salt and pepper shakers Matt and Carey brought her back from one of their sojourns.

When we got back on, we headed for lunch in the dining room.  Trouble is they weren’t serving lunch in the dining room, so we went up to the Windjammer.  The food is good up there, but it is always the same, and I enjoy the variety of the dining room, plus being waited on.  Well, we were on Deck 3.  The Windjammer is on 11, and I said we’d ride the elevator.  Bonnie said she would walk and beat me to 11.  I won, but by about 3 steps.  She must have been sprinting up the stairs flat out to win. We shared a table with 4 other couples and had a nice lunch.  Then off to the Champagne Lounge where I stretched out on the couch and took a nap while she crocheted.  Now it’s blog posting time.  Then pre-dinner trivia, our Headliner Show, and supper.  Oh what do the simple folk do?

Tomorrow is Curacao, one of our favorite islands.  We are taking a tour to the Hato Caves, and historic downtown.  Hopefully some good pictures and adventures to share tomorrow.

TTFN!

December 7, 2014

December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. Before both the morning worship service and my Labadee talk I acknowledged the date and thanked those in the audience who had served, asking the service men and women to stand so we could honor them.

Crazy start to the day’s activities, however.  We had room service breakfast, which wasn’t crazy – quite good in fact – but when we got to the Palace Theater the Catholic service was still going on.  Father Bernard Kiratu had a good turnout, and I don’t know if he got started late, or just ran long, but his 8 o’clock was supposed to be over so my 8:45 could begin.  He wasn’t finished until after 8:45, and there were no technicians in the house to hook up my laptop, and the ship’s “church in a box” had no communion wafers.  Graciously Father Bernard gave me some of his, so we Protestants could come to the Table.

Not starting until about 9:15, I finished about 9:50, switched Power Points, and did the Labadee talk at 10:00.  Knowing the timing this morning would be close, I did my rehearsal last night, and a good thing I did or I would never have been ready.

We hung around until about 12:30 and went to lunch.  The ship cleared customs about 12:15, but we were in no rush to go ashore, so we went to the dining room and joined three other folk for lunch – a mom and dad in their 80s and their daughter, in her 50s.  What a complainer the daughter is!  Her milk wasn’t cold enough.  The soup was too salty.  The roast beef last night was too tough.  The meal the night before was not good at all.  And on and on.  I told Bonnie if we had been assigned to their table for our evening seating, we would have eaten one meal there and asked the Maitre d’hotel to move us.  Holy cow!

I did not tell you that after my first talk, a man came down at the question time and introduced himself as Allen Sisler from Friendsville, Maryland.  For those of you unfamiliar with The Old Line State, Friendsville is 20ish miles from Loch Lynn Heights.  We knew a clan of Sislers there, but this seems to be a different group.  Closed circuit to the Bro – when I mentioned Harold and the antique business, Allen said they were unrelated, and he knew of no Harold.  But I think he looks like the Harold Sislers.

And after my second talk, another man came up and told me that a Sisler from Terra Alta, WV (30 or so miles from home) was the best man in his wedding 40 some years ago.

Neither the Friendsville Group nor the Terra Altans issued from Grover Cleveland Sisler and Stella Mae Cooper, but in a small area like that, there is probably some connection a generation or so back.

But to get back to today.  We left the Explorer of the Seas at 1:45 and walked back on board at 2:45. 

I know there are folks reading this blog who think Aruba is the cat’s pajamas, but been there.  Done that.  And I must not be the only one who feels that way because a survey was placed in each cabin asking to rate all kinds of thing about our visit here.  I have never experienced that on any other cruise, or any other stop.  Maybe the cruise lines are rethinking their itineraries.  Bonnie and I were wondering if the islands make a deal with the cruise lines to bring folk, and people are complaining that they are not enjoying this stop.  Just guessing, but as for your favorite cruisers, it is not a stop that rates high on our list of favorites. 

As I said, we did an hour.  Bonnie bought $20 worth of souvenirs, and I bought one Coke Zero at her request and 5 Mountain Dew for myself (and we walked to a gas station to buy the drinks).  Big timers we are!  But when you are on a cruise ship, all is well!

Tomorrow is Bonaire, and Tuesday is Curacao.  We’ve booked a tour at Curacao, so we will have a picture or two then (it took over 15 minutes to get the pictures you’ve seen posted, so unless I find free wifi, there won’t be an enormous amount of pictures sent to you while we are sailing.  I’ll do a picture post from 233).

So while my beloved wife takes a nap I will go post this.

TTFN!

December 5, 2014

Good evening Mr. And Mrs. America and all ships at sea.  Stand by for news.

Not a bad intro, borrowed from two of our greatest newsmen – Walter Winchell and Paul Harvey (if you are too young, Google is ready when you are).

This blog is coming to you from Stateroom 7135 on the “Explorer of the Seas.” Day 2 of our final sailing for 2014.

They say that getting there is half of the fun.  I don’t know whether it is half or not, but it certainly was an adventure.

Frank (for those of you not acquainted with my new car, a 2013 Sonata, hence the nickname Frank: Frank Sonata – it was either Frank of “The Silver Bullet”) was loaded and headed south, having been toodling down Highway 25 for about 30 minutes when a cry of despair issued from the co-pilot’s seat – she had forgotten the patterns for the projects she intended to crochet on this trip.  The yarn was on board.  The needles were on board.  The patterns were still at 233 Woodland Drive.

No problem says I (your friendly neighborhood driver and blogger).  One quick U-turn professionally executed, traces restepped (or was it steps retraced) and we were once again on our way to Port Canaveral.

Somewhere north of Jacksonville we stopped for a break and to switch drivers.  I am sitting in the car waiting for Bonnie to return.  And waiting.  And when she finally appears she is laughing.  Not quite maniacal, but hilariously for certain.  It seems she came out of the ladies room, opened the backdoor of a silver car with a gray haired man in the passenger seat, and said, “Oops!  This is not our car and you are not my husband!”  But it was a silver car.

We reached our motel without further excitement, other than the horrendous traffic around Jacksonville, and went to Longhorn steak house where we consumed large portions of dead grass and dead cows.  A quick trip to a local shop for one more skein of yarn and it was off to bed.

Getting into Port Canaveral was only slightly less stressing than getting into Port Liberty.  You’d think a woman who climbs into strange cars with unknown men wouldn’t mind a little stop and go traffic, well actually, a lot of stop and go traffic.  But driving, literally four miles an hour, was stressing.  Seems like folks stayed on board the Explorer to watch the lift-off of the brand new Orion space craft – Cape Canaveral is only about 5 miles away from the cruise port, and it would have been a great vantage point.  However fuel issues and strong winds aloft delayed the launch and delayed our entry onto our ship.  We did bypass the unwashed masses to get our credentials and get on board, going straight to the Pier Coordinator while everyone else waited their turn with lesser agents.  Take that Crown and Anchor!

One of the first people we saw as we strolled down the Promenade (and we did look up at some windows where the guest were sitting in their window, but fully clothed) was Cornelia Bolocan, our friend from Romania.  She welcomed us with big hugs, and broke into a second big grin when we told her we had brought presents for her from Georgia.  Cornelia is a magnet collector (definitely not made of iron) and we are adding to her collection.  Since our suitcases were not yet in our room, we promised them to her during tonight’s Captain’s Reception – the first formal night of this cruise.

I gave my first talk today, “When Pirates Sailed the Atlantic” to about 200 folk in the Palace Theater.  Good, receptive crowd.  Tomorrow’s talk is “The ABC’s: Basic Paradise” – about Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.  I will do the protestant worship service Sunday and two more talks.  We have booked a historical excursion for Curacao and will explore Aruba and Bonaire on our own (we will do missionary work in neither island).

The ship has Christmas decorations up, so take a look at them and I’ll see you tomorrow night.

TTFN!