January 6 - Miami, FL to CALGARY

January 6 - Miami, FL to CALGARY

still includes St. Bart's

Weather – 25º in Miami…slightly colder in Calgary

Steps – 6,275

Ahhh, Miami. Just like last year, the ship was late to be ‘cleared by local authorities.’ ALL baggage has to come off the ship before anyone cab disembark. Another instance of ‘who knows why’, but it is. Of course, the ship’s staff can’t take the bags off, that has to be done by the port employees, so we are at the mercy of their speed, or lack thereof. The first passengers were scheduled to disembark at 8AM, but that didn’t start until after 9:30. Our flight isn’t until 1:40, so we weren’t worried. I’m sure some people
are though – we’ve been there…we avoid early flights home after cruises as much as we can – way too stressful, especially for things out of our control.

good morning Miami!

farewell in crew languages

Another as usual…rooms had to be vacated by 8, so we spent the rest of the time at the pool, eating a bit of breakfast. We expected this, so it was fine.

We waited as the various groups were called to disembark…we were just taking an Uber by ourselves, so had no reason to wait, other than not being called because the whole operation was behind. Around 10:15 we decided to just leave – within an hour we were at the airport.

until next time!

making sure the bags make it

We checked in online but couldn’t link our Nexus online - we decided to wait in line to talk to a real person and get this done. On first glance, the airport seemed like a gong show, but we had our Nexus figured and were in the Delta lounge
within half an hour – TSA precheck definitely expedites security – we took nothing out of our bags…jut had them and us scanned and were through.

Arrival home was a rude awakening…blowing snow on the tarmac, still glad to be home.

I am often asked what the highlight of my trip was, I usually say everything was great, and nothing particularly stood out…not this time…MONKEYS!!! And

HOME!

generally being in the AMAZON, especially on Christmas Day especially on a jungle trek especially in the middle of a downpour.

164 days until the next journey to… ICELAND!

Thanks again for coming with us!!

BTW…27 days away, 40 written pages of blog, 16,000 words, 28 blog entries, 6 new countries visited

January 5 - Nassau, Bahamas

Weather

more north=cooler

– 23º, overcast – glorious for
me, Chris thought it was ‘cold’ – he’s grown accustomed to opening the door in the morning and being hit with a wall of heat and humidity

Steps – 6,733

One final new country to add to my list…today we are in the Bahamas. This brings the total to 79…pretty good.

Today’s visit was a mostly panoramic tour of Nassau. While I prefer a walking tour, panoramic tours cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. Plus, if the guide is good, you can learn plenty about the place –

Bahamian Rum Cake Factory

this guide thought he was hilarious, he was right…some of the time. He definitely gave interesting info.

5 minutes from the port we made a super short stop at Bahama Rum Cake Factory – these cakes are island famous and truly were delicious, not super sweet, and very moist. They were trying to have people buy, but the stop was so short that very few people did.

Atlantis and yachts

Next stop was the mega resort and theme park, Paradise Island. This is the Bahamian Vegas – ritzy, established, commercial, expensive – we always check menu prices…a steak filet was 72USD! The complex around the place had Starbucks, Ben and Jerry’s and many super yachts – not as many as Monte Carlo, but lots. Carven, our guide, told us the most expensive hotel suite on the island was 25,000!

everywhere conch

Our last stop was the John Watlings Distillery. We had a very short tour (8 minutes) of the
rum factory. We saw the bottling process which was entirely by hand. We started with a sample of the best piña colada I have EVER had –

Island coconuts

super creamy, great taste, no ice crystals. We ended with by visiting the bar…we tried a Skylarkin’ and a Bahama Grammy, both were very tasty and a tad strong – no problem taking these on the bus. 

We are back in the land of American prices. The Bahamian dollar is linked to the USD. Our drinks were 9.50USD – we’re not in Brazil anymore.

Skylarkin' and Bahama Grammy

Between stops, we travelled all over Nassau while Carven described what we were seeing and telling us about life here – for one thing, there is no income tax.

Skylarkin'

We decided to wander the area just outside the port and found lunch. We had a couple of rum cocktails and a conch platter…fritters, ceviche, and rice and beans.

The rest of the afternoon was back at the room on

Bahama Grammy

our balcony in the coolish

air watching the constant stre

shot of the balcony for perspective

am of yachts come in, and  contemplating packing.

yachts coming and going

January 4 - AT SEA

Bahamas bound

Weather – 26º, party cloudy

Steps – 5,879

Today is our last sea day and second last of the cruise. I’ve been having the usual end of vacation feelings for the last couple of days…I’m sad it’s ending, excited to be home (even if that means going back to winter) and back to my usual routine. I’m also dreading packing and flying – we don’t have far to go from Miami to Calgary, but it’s an ordeal.

shopping

I originally thought tomorrow, our last cruise day was a sea day, but I got the last 2 days mixed up. The last day being a port day is probably better. If it were a sea day, we’d likely spend it moping about the end of vacation…this way we get to see one more port and be distracted from the reality of going home.

Some people are staying on for the next 5 months – the world cruise starts the

nut vase

day we get off and ends May 17. In fact, we met a guy who with his wife boarded on Dec 1, the cruise BEFORE this one, and will stay on until the world cruise ends. This is the same guy who told me he’d been to Calgary before. He said he’d been to the Stampede the year the Canucks won the Stanley Cup. I said it was the Flames…he said, no it was the Canucks. Ummm, excuse me sir, I think I know. We went back and forth a bit until he relented (sort of) and said it didn’t matter. Ummm, yes it matters and thanks for mansplaining! Sheesh!!

It was another lazy sea day…same ol’ except for a bit of packing. Plus, I shockingly finished the Elton John book – not shockingly because I didn’t enjoy it – I really did, but shockingly because I usually spend free time blogging. I prefer to blog but also found time to read.

I also did a bit of shopping in the gift shop. Every cruise we seem to be left with a bit of ‘ship-board credit’. We get a bit from being onboard over 200 nights, and some from having Norwegian Cruise Line shares – we sometimes get credit

another sunset

from a ship promo, booking onboard, from our travel agent etc, but not this time. I got some sunglasses and lip balm…8 lip balms! Too bad they don’t still have the pedicure cream I love…I had them ship me 8 tubes of that once! The gift shop onboard doesn’t really have anything interesting to us. There’s lots of jewelry and watches – not our scene and some clothes that aren’t exactly our style, plus they usually have giant or tiny sizes. On Celebrity we were able to spend it in the casino – not on Regent, maybe someday.

We could also use the credit in the spa – Chris got a hair cut. I was going to have a pedicure, but the last of my Amazon bug bites are only just finally fading - I didn't want a pedicure all over my bites. We could also buy wine not included or pay tours. The included wine is just fine  with us, but the pay tours are sometimes interesting to us…they are usually smaller groups and to places that are costlier than what the cruise line is willing to include. There were very few pay tours this time. I’m happy with my purchase.

January 3 - San Juan, Puerto Rico

Weather – 27º, sunny, no clouds

Steps – 10,877

senate building

Being back in the US, means a face-to-face immigration inspection. Everyone on the boat must get off and be inspected before anyone gets back on…EVERYONE. This is not so much for staff, but they need to be seen before any guests are seen. It is an ordeal. We went through this last year when arriving in San Juan, so we expected this. I’m not sure if we have to do this all over again in 2 days when we arrive in Miami after having been in the Bahamas, but probably.

We are in port today for a very short time. By the time our tour got underway we were about an hour behind. This doesn’t bother us at all. One of the reasons we take Regent included excursions is that we don’t worry if they are late. The ship will never leave if a Regent excursion is late…people late on their own…that's another story.

Cuban brown anoles

One thing being late does affect is the order we

Puerto Rican beer

are visiting each site on the tour’s itinerary. Having just been in San Juan last Christmas (Jan 4 actually), we saw a lot of what is offered on the tours. We picked a tour that included a visit to San Juan’s art museum, Fort Christobal and the old city. This was the original order of the visit. We planned to see the museum and then leave the tour (this is totally acceptable) because we visited the fort and the old city last year and just wander back to the port ourselves – it is super close, or so we thought. 

Puerto Rican history

Being late meant we had to change

Puerto Rican artist self portrait

the order of the visit and visit the museum last – this threw a wrench into our plans, but oh well.

Being late also meant our visit to the fort was cut short – too bad for people who hadn’t been there before, but for us it was just fine.

Next we had some free time in the old city – we found a local beer on a

domestic violence piece

charming patio under some trees that we shared with a couple Cuban brown anoles (a type of lizard).

Lastly was the highlight of the tour for us - The San Juan Art Museum. We followed the guide for about an hour as he explained the current exhibition – What it Means to be Puerto Rican. The were pieces of art from colonial times to the present. In addition to seeing the art, the guide gave information about Puerto Rican history.

We were back on board for our 1PM sail away. This is a very short time in

Puerto Rican portraits

port. There must be a reason the ship chooses to call on Puerto Rico, but I

Puerto Rican masks

have no idea. It is a real pain when arriving AFTER being out of the US, plus we were only here a short while. The old town is a charming place close to the port where you can walk around grab lunch, do some shopping, and wander back to the port – this is what we did last year. 

January 2 - Philipsburg, St Marrten

Weather – 30º, sunny, HOT while bringing Canada II home to victory

Steps – 10, 332

Canada II

The 3,000 passenger Celebrity Reflection greets us as we open the curtains this morning, then a few minutes later the even bigger Carnival Magic sails in. It is a busy day in port. We are the smallest of 4 cruise ships with about 13,000 passengers in port – this doesn’t

ours is the baby

account for at least 5,000 additional crew. We didn’t ever notice the crowd – there definitely was a crowd, but it was totally manageable.

The island of St. Maarten has a French side and a Dutch side - where we were today.

grinding the winch

Canada II senior crew

Our tour stayed very close to the ship, so close that we could see it throughout our tour. Not that we’d have time – we were busy sailing the Canada II home to victory on the America’s Cup winning racing sailboat.

whole crew

From the port, we walked about 5 minutes to where we boarded a tender boat to take us to Canada II anchored off shore. Once on the 12 Metre Class sailing yacht (the class is 12m not the actual length of the boat), we each learned how to perform our jobs – I was both team captain and primary grinder, Chris was also a grinder – our job was to operate the ship’s manual winches to move the boom. According to Wikipedia “It is a physically demanding role with a significant impact on a racing yacht's overall performance” – yup, these are real jobs, we were flat out working to move the boom (moving the sail back and forth.) The job of a primary grinder

yachts abound

was to move a bicycle pedal type mechanism with our arms – Chris and I were both partnered

post victory chill

with 2 others. There were 3 crew, one who gave the grinder commands – when he said so, we moved the pedals like our lives depended on it. There were 3 gears, 2 forward and one back. All of this was while the boat was listing, and we were trying keep balance – it was AWESOME! 

We were on the water for about 2 hours, we practiced and then raced 2 other boats over 5 legs. Finally, we celebrated our victory over a post race rum punch.

Of course the crew was super fun. It doesn’t take much to surmise that the people are what make our experiences memorable.

lunch

awesome server

After the rum punch, we did a bit of shopping for crew shirts and then lunch. St Marrtin is exactly what we expected but didn’t find in other Caribbean ports. This is established, commercial, tourist-ville. Neither is better than the other, but we’ve expected a bit more infrastructure to help us spend money.

We wandered the beach-front strip looking for a place that called to us. Although we are on the Dutch side of the island, we found a French grocery store we had

conch fritters, beer and ICE

to check out. Firstly, there was AC. Secondly, there were things we remember of French supermarkets…chips! For the past 3 weeks, we’ve been searching for new flavoured chips…today was the day. We try to get compté chips in Europe, and hoped for them as soon as we walked in, nope…what we did get was BETTER…chevre! Had to come to the Caribbean for French chips.

road margarita

We settled on a place with live music and tables in the sand for a bucket of 5 beers and conch fritters. It was HOT, I think I used

score!

half the bucket of ice cooling myself down. We hadn’t needed a bathroom since leaving the ship 5 hours ago…we were sweating. This was a great place to chill for a while. The most interesting aspect was the kids that were put to work here. About 6 kids were running back and forth from the restaurant to the beach with menus and drinks, all the while messing around with each other…I loved just watching them do their thing.

On the way back to the ship we stopped for one last margarita for the walk – we needed hydration!

working kids

kids working

By the time we got back we stopped for a bit of food to take back to the room, showered off the sweat and salt of the day and took a nap.

and more

January 1 - Roseau, Dominica

 Weather – 28º, partly cloudy – just when you thought the rain clouds were rolling in, they rolled right out

Steps –5,867

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Although we didn’t get to bed until 1AM last night (last year we were on this same boat and were sleeping before 11) we had to be up early for dolphin and whale

New Year rum punch

watching.

whale...trust me

Despite having been on cruises A LOT, I’ve seen few whales and other than a dolphin watching trip in Oman years ago, I’ve seen few dolphins.

There were 80 other people from the cruise on the excursion with us. We were on a 2 double decker simple boat with plenty of room to move. The boat had a captain and 3 other workers who gave us the most thorough safety briefing

whale

we’ve EVER had on a boat…usually there’s little more than ‘there’s the life jackets.’

These guys also explained the whales and dolphins we could see and their hydrophones that helped them know where the animals were - we could hear the clicking sounds – very cool.

Today’s tour did not disappoint. We didn’t see the dramatic breaching we of course had hoped for, but what we did see was exciting – it’s the knowledge that we

spouting

might not see anything that makes actually seeing anything thrilling. We saw were a few mother sperm whales (12m, 15 tonnes) hanging at the surface, then showing their tails and disappearing. We saw a couple of babies sperm whales hanging at the surface. Before heading back, we saw a bunch of dolphins.

We also saw a bunch of flying fish. These seem to launch themselves off the sides of the boat back into the water. This reminded us of our cruise in the

tail!

Indian Ocean years ago, when flying fish seemed to be hurtling off the sides of the cruise ship every day.

All of a sudden it seemed like the wind picked up and the water was rougher. The guide explained that happed because we went from the calm Caribbean sea to the rougher Atlantic.

We didn’t get far from the port today…as usual, wanted a local beer, but not

baby

much seemed open, so it was back for a room service lunch on our balcony which faced the town and was in the shade...glorious.

It doesn’t seem like you can get far without being offered a rum punch. They’re always a bit different…rum, juice, spices – maybe cinnamon or nutmeg.

Speaking of the port...we remarked that it really takes very little for huge cruise ships to dock. Dominica has a short pier only about 10% or 15% of the length of

rainbow leaving Dominica

our ship. This is not an industrial port at all. There was one other cruise ship and a

releasing the ropes

ferry in today.