Category: Travel

Charlotte Amalie
Virgin Islands US
Sunday, March 16th

Last night we sailed through the Caribbean Sea, passed St. Croix to St. Thomas.

This is the only port on which Jeff and I have arranged an excursion with Princess. We’ve been to St. Thomas before and that time we took a cab to a ferry, took a ferry over to St. John’s and snorkeled – then reversed the process to get back to the ship. This time though, we are not in port as long and thought we’d use some of our free cabin credit and go to Trunk Bay on a Princess excursion. We’re so happy that we had decided earlier to do this because if we had to wait to be tendered in there would not be enough time for us to do much of anything on our own.

We made our way to the meeting point on the ship for our excursion and were told that because of poor conditions the snorkeling part of the day had been cancelled. Happily we have our own equipment and knowing Trunk Bay is a public beach knew we could snorkel if we chose too. But by the time we left on the tender and got to shore on St. Thomas, conditions had apparently worsened to the point that the entire beach portion of the trip was cancelled.

So, let’s review… Broken airplane, broken boat, broken beach?? Wild!

Our choice was to return our tickets for a full refund, or to take the trip over to St. John’s, be dropped off to shop, etc., and get picked up 3 hours later. Since we aren’t really shoppers, we opted out. But here we were on St. Thomas carrying our snorkeling gear and beach bag and….it starts to POUR!! In seconds we were totally drenched. Oh well, since we were already soaked, we decided to make the best of things and walked (quite a ways) over to where to boat would normally have docked. It was a long, WET walk! But honestly, it was worth it. We came upon a farmer’s market. I bought some locally made ginger granola and, from a woman who used to live in Colorado (!), some home sewn hair things. They are very cute and I bought two as gifts. This is the first time I’m sorry I had all of my hair cut off right before the cruise as I would have enjoyed wearing one. She (her name is Cindi) and I chatted a bit. We exchanged email addresses and I promised to send her my recipe for dog biscuits. She and her husband live above Megan’s Bay and she said this morning there was a huge surge that came through so it was good we hadn’t gone snorkeling as the water was really churned up.

We stopped to check the taxi schedule because in our second ten days we’ll be back to St. Thomas (it is the only port we repeat) and we are making plans on what to do then. Hope the thrusters will be repaired by then.

We walked back to town and man! it started to pour rain again! I’m drenched down to my swimsuit. We explored some alleys, went to the historic bakery district but everything was closed up tight. Oh, duh, it’s Sunday – the only shops open are the tourist ones. We catch a tender and get back to the boat about 1:30.

I figure I’m already soaked and since I was wearing my swimsuit under my clothes, I go right up to the current pool and swam 1/2 mile.

This is our second formal night. After getting all dressed up, we went up to the special hors d’oevres and met a couple, Al and Nancy Stumpf. I think we have made friends for life! Al looks like Bob Newhart did but is actually 82 years old. We just couldn’t believe it. They have done a LOT of cruising with Princess and are at the highest level. It totally threw us when they started talking about Facebook and email…turns out Al was very early in the IT profession and has great pre-Internet stories and is very techie. We really, really like them.

We had dinner tonight with a couple from Australia (very nice), a couple from Sweden (very quiet as they struggled a little bit with English) and a couple from Denver. The woman from Denver was too ANNOYING for words!!! She had a horrible loud braying voice, dominated the conversation and was an awful know-it-all. The Australian guy, Ian, was seated next to me and at one point he looked at me and crossed his eyes like “can you believe her?”. Turns out Ian and his wife, Teresa, are spending 3 weeks after the cruise driving across the US. Braying lady was telling them they must do this and that, blah, blah, blah. I gave Teresa our email and address and invited them to contact us if they found themselves in Colorado. It would be fun to see them again.

Service was a little slow in the dining room and as it turned out all of us were going to see “Blame it on the Boogie” in the Princess Theatre. Everyone at the table skipped dessert and headed for the show. Jeff and I made a detour to our room for glasses of wine to take with (and to ensure we would not be seated anywhere near that Colorado couple. hahaha.)

Not the very best day because of the weather and tendering…but dressing up was fun, meeting Al and Nancy was great – go with the flow and have a great time.

Basseterre, Saint Kitts
Saturday, March 15th
St Kitts

Jeff and I have been to St. Kitts before; in fact, one of my favorite vacation photos of us is at Brimstone Hill Fortress.

Early this morning we were awakened by the Captain making an announcement from the bridge which is unusual. He announced that only one of the ship’s six thrusters were working. Thrusters are the things that move the ship sideways and are important for moving to and away from the dock. As a result, we would not be tying up at the port in St. Kitts, but would be tendered in.

This wasn’t a problem for us as we hadn’t made any plans except just wandering around town, but there was lots of hubbub as the lifeboats were lowered. To get to shore you have to get a tender ticket and through the day they call the numbers. It’s interesting that when they make the announcements they always call the lifeboats “pontoons.” They are definitely not pontoons, but that or “tender” probably sounds better than telling people to get into the lifeboats.

We waited until the crush of those going ashore was lessened and made our way to St. Kitts. Walked around town and took some photos.

The “Circus” is a big circle and with the traffic and pedestrians it does indeed resemble a circus.

After a while we decided we were really hungry…there were plenty of the normal tourist restaurants, but that grilled chicken smelled so good! You guessed it – we went back to one of the street grills and bought a chunk of chicken to eat.  It came with a piece of garlic bread. We then made our way to an outdoor cafe and ordered a local beer. The chicken was phenomenal!!! $4 U.S. for an excellent local lunch.

This is what vacation is all about…

Back on the ship via tender I spent the afternoon reading while Jeff napped then we went to the gym and worked out.

Announcement from the captain -two of the six thrusters are fixed. Progress, but for our stop in St. Thomas tomorrow we will be tendered into shore.

Always an adventure.

Bridgetown, Barbados
Friday, March 14, 2014
Barbados

After our ship left St. Lucia yesterday, we sailed south between St. Lucia and St. Vincent, south of Cape Moule a Chique. We went southeast across the Tobago Basin to Barbados.

Though we’ve never been to Barbados, and not knowing anything at all about it (I’ve always thought of it as kind of scary) we decide to do our own thing. We even have a plan. Yes, we are slow learners. Hahaha!

After a quick breakfast of bagels and peanut butter and plain yogurt and some fruit, we walked off the ship around 9am. It was only a 10 minute walk to the bus depot.

After a short wait, we hopped a bus to Holetown – bus fare $1 US each. (This bus also goes to “Pie Town” and that sounded very tempting!) We rode a “government” bus – just a normal big bus.

Get on, put your money in the box, get your ticket. The city buses are blue with yellow stripes. We asked the driver to let us out at Coral Reef Resort. All beaches in Barbados are public and we figured that if we snorkeled at a resort there would be amenities (i.e. beer!).  45 minutes later we got off the bus, the driver had actually bypassed the bus stop to drop us right at the resort entrance and we walked to the resort’s security gate. The security guy was super helpful in giving us directions and off we went. Walked past the dive shop, all the vacationers lounging in their beach chairs and staked out a small bit of sand as our own.

It was wonderful! The snorkeling was very good and we were in the water for about an hour. Got out and watched 2 large catamarans pull up in front of us. You know you’ve picked a good spot if this is where the boat tours stop. We were cozy in our spot, and once I was dry I decided to get back in the water. It was just great! I’ve included one of my photos of a large school of blue Tangs.

All too soon, it was time to head back to the ship. Back to the bus stop…the bus stop signs are pretty funny. They say “Bus Stop, Out Of Town” or “Bus Stop, To Town.” No confusion there. 

As we waited at the bus stop a number of bright yellow large-ish minivans with blue stripes came by. Jeff asked someone waiting with us the difference between the two busses. The blue with yellow stripe busses are, as I said, run by the government and those employees are salaried. The yellow with blue stripe busses are private – running the same routes as the others for the same price – but they get paid by passenger. THAT explained why they were kind of hustling to get people on.

After several passed by, we got on a yellow bus.

OMG!! It was like riding the Night Bus in a Harry Potter movie!! You got on and before you could think, you were zooming down the road. We flung ourselves into a seat, gave a guy $1 each. He put it in a bowl at the front of the bus – guess he’ll remember that we paid. There was rasta rap BLARING from the front of the bus – I was pretty sure my eardrums were going to break! When we stopped, we STOPPED. Slamming on of brakes, everyone lurching forward. I would not have been a bit surprised to see trees or buildings flinging themselves out of the way – you Harry Potter fans will know what I mean. We were thrilled to see the bus terminal. What a great adventure!

We walked back to the port and stopped at a bar for a local beer – we deserved it! The local beer here is “Banks.”  You can see that Gumby enjoyed his immensely.

Tonight is the Captain’s Circle party – meet the captain, free booze – it is a thank you party for returning Princess sailors. We shared our table with a British couple – who currently live in Alabama. They regaled us with great stories of snorkeling in Fiji and French Polynesia.

It was a great day.

Castries, Saint Lucia
Thursday, March 13, 2014
St. Lucia

Jeff and I have never been to St. Lucia so we decide instead of taking an organized tour we’ll strike out on our own and go snorkeling.

We wend our way off the boat through the hordes hawking tours and taxis. We do stop to ask a cabbie how much the fare would be to Anse-La Raye. Our Fodors tells us that there is excellent snorkeling there. “$120. US” is his answer. When we laugh, he drops it to $100. We laugh again and tell him, “No, thanks, we’ll take the bus.” He says “There in no bus to Anse-La Raye.” I immediately retort, “Oh, yes there is, right across from the police station!”
It helps to have done your homework ahead of time…

We walk to the bus stop, which is actually quite a ways and it’s hot. As we stand there, a cab driver comes over to tell us that we may be waiting awhile as the bus doesn’t leave until it is full. Not sure if he is bs-ing us or not, we ask him how much he would charge to take us – $20. We clarify that that is $20 US and that’s for the cab, not per person. Yes and yes, so we climb in.

Holy mackerel! St. Lucia is twisty and hilly! Turns out that our driver, Quincy, is from Anse-La Raye and that it is a nice fishing village. He stops along the way to run into the market and buy some Windex and off we continue. We get to Anse-La Raye in about 45 minutes, and arrange for Quincy to come back in 3 hours (at 2 pm) to pick us up. We get out of the cab and head for the beach…except this isn’t really a beach. I mean the ocean is there, there is sand and a few colorful fishing boats pulled up on shore and 5 or 6 dogs sleeping in the sand, but there is no one in the water, no tourists at all. “This isn’t right” we think. I point out a small protected cove to Jeff “Maybe we could try there” I suggested. We wander that way. A man steps out of the shadow of a building and stops us. He saw our snorkeling gear and tells us “The water is very dirty. Most people in the village don’t have flush toilets. You don’t want to get in this water.” Well, ****, now what?

We go back to the street and see a couple of policemen. I ask if there is a dive shop in town. “No, no, this is a fishing village”. We want to be over on the point and he gestures out to sea to a point about 5 miles away. He calls to a kid and asks if he’ll take us in his boat to the point. “Sure, sure. $60 US” “No thank you” we say, he drop his price to $50. I told him that it costs us only $20 to get from Castries but he doesn’t budge.

The policeman comes back and we follow him into a combination shop/bar and he calls to the owner.

Now, the owner was incredible in his stereotypical-ness! He was a wither guy, long gray rasta hair and beard, one armed – we just KNEW he had been a pirate in some incarnation. He and the cop started talking about our options. Rasta man was kind of talking to himself, “no, that would be too expensive” “No, that is not a good solution…” Then it occurred to me that we had passed Margit Bay on our way to Anse La Raye. Margit Bay is a very popular place and is where the original Dr. Doolittle movie was filmed. “Maybe if we could get to Margit Bay?” I suggest. Rasta man calls his son – “There are some people here at the shop who need a ride, please come get them.” Okay, now we have a plan. We chat for a while with the cop and rasta man. After about 5 minutes he calls his son again “Where are you? These people are waiting!” We couldn’t believe how wonderful this guy was.

Pretty soon his son pulls up in the family car…we tell the cop, rasta man and rasta man’s son to please tell Quincy, our cab driver, to come to Margit Bay to get us. Quincy is from that village so they know him. We pile into the car and very shortly are at Margit. The son, who has a degree in hospitality and tourism and works at the Sandals resort(!), drops us off and never says anything about money. Jeff gave him $10 for getting out of bed and rescuing us.

At Margit Bay, one side is shops and yachts and you take a VERY short ferry ride (literally about 100 yards) to the beach. People were getting on the boat so we scurried aboard. We cast off…I said something about our travails and how happy we were to finally be at the beach. The pilot stopped the boat. “This boat isn’t going to the beach. This is a tour going to the Pitons. That will be $40 each US!!” Jeff asked “What’s the stowaway rate?” but there wasn’t one, so our pilot whistled for the ferry, and we climbed from one boat to the other!

Some days are just like that! The snorkeling was “okay”

We relaxed on the beach, had a couple of beers and soon it was time to hope that Quincy the cab driver had gotten our message. We decided to wait an extra 1/2 hour or until 2:30 and if he didn’t show we’d take another cab. Sure enough, 2:20 – here comes Quincy. We told him the whole tale with much laughing. He said if we had mentioned snorkeling he would have taken us to some place – which was actually the place outside Anse-La Raye in the book!

We had Quincy drop us off back where he picked us up. We walked to a liquor store because though you can’t take liquor on the ship, we had a plan – and two empty water bottles…

We bought a small bottle of gin and were quietly deciding how to discretely pour it into our water bottles (there was a cop in the store). The cashier overheard us and said “Oh, I can do that for you!” She opened the gin and began filling a water bottle. The cop said “Don’t fill it full, make the 1/2 and 1/2 so it doesn’t look suspicious!” Then Quincy walked in and the 3 of us burst out laughing.

A good story, right? Getting off the beaten path can be a little nerve wracking – you just need to keep your sense of humor!

As we sailed out of St. Lucia, we noticed the island’s airstrip…yikes! Airplanes take off and land right off the water (and over the ships).

Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
At Sea

Yesterday and through the night our ship steamed southeast passing the Eleuthera Island, San Salvador Island and the Anegada Island. We changed course slightly to transit the Sombrero Passage. High today is going to be 81 degrees.

After a nice breakfast on the balcony (coffee, fruit, yogurt) we decided it was time to get our butts in gear. Jeff went to the gym to warm up on the treadmill and to lift weights. I screwed up my courage and did something I’ve always wanted to do on the boat which has been both intimidating and maybe too difficult for me. I went to the current pool. The current pool is outside the spa and gym…it is quite small and no one is ever in the water though the 2 hot tubs are always full. This is an adults only area. I put on my swimsuit, cap, goggles, turned on the current and started to swim. It was great! The current is very strong so I struggled a little at first but soon got my rhythm. I know how long it takes me to swim 1/2 mile so I went a little longer than that since I had flailed around at the beginning. I did it! Got in my 1/2 mile and I know I’ll be doing that throughout the cruise. :-). While I was swimming other people also tried it – seems like they were just waiting for someone to be brave.

We both did today’s SuDuKo puzzle and read for a bit.

Tonight is our first formal night. We enjoy formal night because it is fun to get dressed up which is not something we do very often. There will be 4 formal nights in our 20 days. Of course we didn’t get any photos of ourselves. On the first formal night there is the Captain’s welcome aboard party – free champagne and a big champagne waterfall. We’ve seen it several times so we hung around for our free champagne – had two each and headed for dinner to beat the crowds. We also needed to eat early because we were going to a show afterwards.

Jeff and I always sign up for “anytime dining” instead of the fixed seated dining. We enjoy the opportunity to share our table with people we don’t know and eating whenever we like. Tonight we shared with a couple from the UK, a couple from Canada and a couple from Lafayette, Louisiana. The boat is overflowing with Canadians – apparently the entire country is trying to escape their winter. The couple from Louisiana were a little odd.
When you first sit down, you introduce yourself, say where you’re from and let the conversation wander.

The man from LA introduced himself, then introduced his wife as being “brilliant” and having 5 degrees. No one asked what her degrees were in, and when she talked about being an “advanced” scuba diver and telling the table that as a recreational scuba diver she had been 200 feet down, I held my tongue. I did NOT mention that I am a certified scuba instructor and that what she was saying was hogwash. I did take everything she said after that with a huge grain of salt.

Her husband, who according to her, was “just brilliant” about computers was telling us that soon humans and robots will be interbreeding… and this would be the end of the pure human race. Oh-Kay…Like I said, it is fun to share, though I think if I see them heading for our table again I will flee. Hahaha

We rushed through dinner, even skipping dessert (horrors!) to go to the show in the Princess Theater. It was a singing/dancing performance by the ship’s company of entertainers. The name of the show was “It’s a Swell Party” and Jeff put it succinctly when it said, “It wasn’t”

All in all, a very nice day.

Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis
Monday, March 10th
At Sea

Last night we sailed through the Straits of Florida, past Great Isaac Island into the Northwest Providence Channel and past Great Stirrup Cay (pronounced “key”) in the Bahamas.

Today is a day at sea and days at seas are probably our favorite part of cruising. They are sooo relaxing. The gentle ocean swells rocked us to sleep (seriously) and we didn’t wake up until after 10 am. Glorious!

Jeff went up to the buffet for coffee, yogurt and fruit and we had breakfast on our balcony.  We are almost directly below the Bridge at the very front of the ship. Check out these huge windshield wipers!

This afternoon we walked 5 miles which is 15 laps around the Promenade deck. While walking I spotted a whale off in the distance. We called to people along the deck and they rushed to the railing. Several saw the whale too. It totally messed up our “time” for our walk. We try to maintain a certain pace, but hey, when you spot a whale you really should stop!

Went to the Internet Cafe to set up our accounts. As Platinum members we get 250 minutes each for free, then to the library to pick up the daily SuDuKo puzzles and I checked out Amy Tan’s “Saving Fish From Drowning” to read.

Dinner was delicious. We both ordered the same thing: Watermelon lichee ginger appetizer, spinach gazpacho soup and tilapia with roasted potatoes and bak choi

Tonight’s ‘Movie Under the Stars’ is “Captain Phillips” which I think is kind of a weird movie to show on a ship as it is about Somali pirates high jacking a cargo ship for ransom. The movie was excellent as were the 4 bags of popcorn each we ate. Hey, it was good popcorn!

Fort Lauderdale, FL
March 9, 2014

It’s cruise day! We cannot embark until around noon, so we go for a walk. We go up to the water taxi stand to pick up a schedule as we might want to take the water taxi tour when we return to Fort Lauderdale in 10 days. Then we walk over the bridge to take some photos of the ships in port. Yikes! With bells clanging and railroad crossing gates coming down we realize we want to be on the OTHER side of this drawbridge and we scurry across.

Embarkation day can be stressful or not – I think so much depends on your attitude. We get a taxi from the hotel – ordered it at 9 this morning to pick us up at the hotel at noon. There is a scrum at the taxi stand every time a taxi pulls in, but we are relaxed knowing the cabby has our name. There is a woman trying to flag down a cab off the street, one pulls in, the cab driver has a name (not ours) but the flagger’s husband insists that since his wife flagged the cab down it is theirs. Cab driver calls a name, picks up his fare. The flagger woman returns to the curb. Slow learner…

We ride to port which is about a 5 minute walk but it takes 15 minutes by taxi because of all of the traffic. There are 8 boats in port!! Our boat is at berth 4 which we noticed because Princess is always at berth 2. Busy port today.

This will be our 8th cruise on Princess. We are Platinum members and get expedited everything. Go through security, fill out the health questionnaire, register our 2 bottles of wine, pick up our room key cards, get in line to board, have our embarkation photo taken and finally here we are!

This is our first cruise on the “Emerald Princess” but we’ve been on the Golden and the Sapphire; these all have the same layout so we already know where the restaurants, pools, bars, theater are and since we always get a mini-suite, unpacking is a snap. Electronics go in this drawer, sunglasses always go here..that sort of thing.

Because we get on the boat and are unpacked so early in the day it feels as though we get an extra day of cruising. We sit out on our balcony watching foodstuffs and other supplies being loaded.

For lunch we both had vegetable curry and a very nice garbanzo soup. I have been a vegan for the past year and I know the cruise will be a challenge, but this lunch is perfect.

3:15 – time for the safety drill. We gather up our life jackets and meet 500+ others gathered at our muster station. Happily people take this drill seriously. It takes only 30 minutes or so and who knows?

Cast off is at 4 pm. There is always a big sail-away party and we head to the top of the ship to wave at no one in particular on shore. The party is in full swing…drinking, music, lots of photos being taken. Then, an announcement from the Captain. Because we are not at our usual berth there has been some difficulty loading the luggage. We will not be underway for another hour. No one really cares. We watch 3 other cruise ships sail away before us. As the Royal Princess leaves port instead of the usual 3 long low loud blasts on the horn she booms out the theme from the Love Boat. It is a hoot! For those of you too young to remember, the original Love Boat was called the Royal Princess. To say she’s had a makeover is a gross understatement.

Finally we are underway! I am so looking forward to this vacation.

On selected evenings Elite and Platinum passengers are treated to private pre-dinner hors d’oeuvres and drink specials. We head up to the very tippy top at the back of the ship, Skywalker’s Lounge, for margaritas and fresh guacamole. These pre-dinner snacks also includes lots of fresh veggies, olives, cheese and fancy breads. This was our dinner tonight. Jeff and I both lost weight on our last cruise because we ate healthy and exercised a lot. On this trip our plan is to not GAIN weight which may be tough for 20 days. Everything you’ve heard about the availability, quantity and yummieness of cruise ship food is true!

There are so many things to do on board and we finally decide to watch a ‘Movie Under the Stars’. Tonight’s movie is “Thor: The Dark World”. Perfect mindless entertainment! We lay on cushy lounges, covering ourselves with little tartan blankets as it is windy here at the top of the ship, eating popcorn and chocolate chip cookies.

Jeff’s favorite part of any cruise is standing at our balcony railing at night, enjoying a glass of wine, watching the waves and looking at the stars. I go to bed while he communes with the universe.

Denver, CO
March 8, 2014

Today we leave on vacation! Tom Delaney is going to be at our house at 6:15 a.m.; we’ll leave the house at 6:30. That’s the plan, anyway. Last minute stuff… turn off our home wireless, empty the dishwasher, turn off the water. We travel enough that a lot of this is simply routine, so why do we always feel as though we’re in a mad rush? Tom is right on time – it takes a good friend to drag himself out of bed on a COLD Saturday morning to drive someone to Denver. Thanks, Tom!

Despite the fact that last night Denver was predicted to get 4-6 inches of snow, the roads are clear and we’re at DIA (Denver International Airport) in no time. We leave our coats, hats and gloves in the car, (pretty sure we won’t need them), bid Tom farewell and scurry into the terminal.
We’re flying Southwest and paid them to do our boarding numbers for us, so we are in the “A” group. We get our seats in row 6. We always sit window/aisle in hopes that no one will choose to take the middle, but this flight is completely booked, so we offer up the window seat.

We’re leaving right on time…well, hmmm…our plane appears to have a mechanical issue. A light in the cockpit isn’t working. Unfortunately it is the light that among other things tells the pilot that the landing gear is all the way down. Maintenance comes, 20 minutes later we hear the dreaded “This plane is not making this flight.” We all grab our carry-on – there is a young couple with a little boy and two very tiny twins, so Jeff and I help them with their stuff – and off we troop.

Good grief – you would think we had been cast away on the seas. Some folks are definitely not ‘go-with-the-flow’ sorts. Southwest is going to try to find another plane for us. They make it sound like they just need to go to the “spare airplane” closet and dust one off. We go to another gate. These gate attendants look a little frightened when they see 300 some people descending on them en masse. “Don’t get comfortable – this is not your gate – we’re looking for your plane”. Sounds like they just misplaced it.

Eventually we do get a gate and an airplane; but when we got onto our original flight they took our boarding passes, you know, the ones that tell you the numerical order in which to line up? Please, people, it’s not like this has never happened before. The gate attendants have put all the boarding passes in numerical order, they call the names, you show your id and board. It was actually quite a nice way to do it as there were only a few people at a time in the airplane’s aisle.
Jeff and I had bet that people would try to get “their” seats from the original flight. I did have my heart set on row 6 and there was the little family in our seats. Hahaha!

Off we flew to Orlando. The poor flight crew. They were great and it wasn’t their fault but sometimes people need to vent and they are a ready target. While we were wandering like the Israelites looking for the promised plane, I bought a box of See’s candy for the flight attendants. I think they were pleased to receive the appreciation from someone who expected nothing in return.

We’ve flown into Orlando plenty of times before and knew just where to get the hotel shuttle. We waited and waited and waited for our luggage which finally appeared on the carousel. All the passengers on our flight had the same worried “they did transfer our luggage to the correct plane, right?” look.

Then we waited and waited and waited AND waited for the hotel shuttle. Jeff took to waving down every Holiday Inn van that went by; finally we called the hotel again. “He’s right there.” Really? Turns out that one of the drivers we spoke to right when we got there WAS the right driver! Communication issue. We had watched him pass us at least 3 times in about 90 minutes. Finally, here we are at the Holiday Inn! Free room (using credit card points), free breakfast, we know where the supermarket is so we get our wine and bouquet of flowers for our cruise cabin and have a nice relaxing margarita and Mexican dinner at Pepe & Carlos.

Tomorrow we start our 20 day cruise!