Caribbean Cruise Part 5 - What do we think about cruising and Great Stirrup Cay?

We're on the last day of our nine day cruise, and this is a beach day. While we have already visited five islands, this one is different. It's a private island. Most of the big cruise lines own an island in the Caribbean where they dock for their passengers to enjoy an island day. Holland America has Half Moon Cay, Disney Cruises have Castaway Cay, Royal Caribbean has Coco Cay. But Norwegian Cruise Lines actually invented this option when they started docking at their private island--the Great Stirrup Cay--in 1977. This island made for one of our favorite photo-ops of the trip with its swing set on the beach.

Without a dock, our ship anchored in the bay, and we tendered on smaller boats to the island. They advertise that everything on the island is free EXCEPT for kayak rentals, umbrella rentals, swimming with the pigs, the zipline, snorkel gear, etc. Passengers can also pay hundreds of dollars to rent a cabana for a little privacy, or a thousand dollars for an air-conditioned villa. Really, the only thing to do for free is to walk the beach and snorkel (if you brought your own equipment). So being the frugal travelers, we walked the beach and used our own gear to snorkel.

Only a few employees live on the island, and their job is to get ready for the arrival of that day's ship. While more than one NCL ship could be anchored here, we were lucky to share the island with only the 3,000+ passengers on our ship. So it really was easy to find areas without crowds this day. In the center of the island is an ornamental light house. So of course, Denisa had to stand at the base for a lighthouse picture.

Normally we pack snacks and eat a picnic while we are exploring each port. But a day at the NCL island means that the ship still provides food. We went to the all-day buffet for lunch after we walked the beach. Then we found some pretty good fish around the man-made snorkeling trail near the rocky side of the beach. On our last day on the cruise, we finally weren't worried about getting a sunburn that could ruin the rest of our trip.

After a day of beach time where we explored every part of the island, it was time to tender back to the Gem. We realized that this was the only opportunity to take a picture of our ship when it wasn't on a dock.

As we wrap up this nine-day cruise, what do we think of this ship? It's not the newest or the biggest, but it was recently refurbished and is very nice. Denisa likes to dance, so she likes a ship that has dance lessons and good dance floors. Mark is a good sport, and takes her dancing most evenings.

Denisa also goes to most of the educational programs, like napkin folding, and how-to-make towel animals. That brings up another change in cruising in recent years. Having a towel swan waiting on your bed, or getting a towel monkey swinging off your towel bar is a thing of the past--at least at NCL. They claim they stopped because of the extra laundry it takes to wash those extra towels. But we missed that little quirk of cruising. 

The fabulous midnight buffet with ice carvings and fancy fruit carvings, is also a thing of the past. But in one of the educational classes we learned how to carve a duck out of an orange . . . 

a bear out of a watermelon . . .

and flowers out of purple onions, radishes, and carrots. There is no way that Denisa could do any of this herself, but she did witness this food transformation.

Another educational class was designed for families with children. But people that are kids at heart were welcome, and we learned how to make balloon swords and poodles. Out of 3,000 passengers, we only saw a few families with children. A nine-day cruise during the spring means that it will not fit into most school calendars.

Now most cruise lines offer a drink package, where passengers can pay an all-you-can-drink price. In order to get their money's worth, many passengers think they have to stay drunk during the entire cruise. Back before drink packages, we would laugh at drunk passengers thinking that their check-out bill would certainly be painful. Now we are pained by all the inebriated passengers.

While cruise lines still offer complimentary dining rooms with full course menus, they have found another source of income. They now have specialty restaurants scattered over the ship, where they try to convince passengers the food will be better than in the dining room. The specialty restaurants all have special prices. NCL was offering a promotion where we could dine in one of the specialty restaurants for free--all we we had to pay was the tip. So we chose to eat at Cagney's Steak House, where a meal for two would cost around $200. It only cost us the $40 tip to eat there for "free." While the steaks were quite good, it was the slowest service of the cruise. Waiting for food for two hours made it less "special" at this specialty restaurant.

We enjoyed the food in the dining room. Our plan is for the two of us to order two different appetizers, two different salads, two different entrees, and two different desserts. When the food arrives at the table, we immediately split them so we get to taste both choices for each course. Even if we found something we didn't like, we still had plenty of food to get full--actually over-full. With all the ice cream and food available for free on a cruise ship, it's easy to gain weight. But we have figured out that walking at many of the ports can help use up some of those calories. We also never use the elevators on the ship. That includes going up to the 15th floor to the buffet or down to the 7th floor to the theater or up to the 10th floor . . . We walked lots of stairs in the course of nine days, and we weighed the same when we left the boat as when we got on.

The days of handing your dining room server and room steward a generous tip on the last day of the cruise are over. Now the cruise line will charge your credit card $20 per day per person for tips. That is distributed to the workers throughout the ship--most of which you will never come in contact with. It is less personal and removes some of the incentive for employees. So when factoring in the price of a nine day cruise for two, you must add $360 just for the mandatory tips.

We've always enjoyed the games that the cruise staff hosts on the ship. We hate to brag, but we won the riddle contest and have the prize--an NCL external battery charger--to prove it. We came in second on the escape contest, and we got almost nothing right on the pop culture trivia contest. But the cruise lines have put gaming on steroids, by buying rights to games like television's "Deal or No Deal." To participate, passengers have to buy game cards for $25. Most of the "winners" we saw won less than $25. The losers won nothing. That convinced us not to play. Passengers also spend big money to participate in the bingo games on the ship. We don't play the games that require a payment.

We're wrapping up this nine-day cruise, where we had to educate ourselves on the changes in the cruise industry. We've been cruising around North America in a motor home for the last nine years, but we have to say that we really enjoyed this cruise around the Caribbean--even with all the changes!

Caribbean Cruise Part 4 - San Juan, Puerto Rico

We are now on day 7 of our Caribbean cruise. The longest cruise we have ever taken was seven days, so we are usually packing up now. But instead, we are heading out on one of our most interesting port days. It feels like we still have lots to see and do! We were blessed with another blue-sky day when we docked in Puerto Rico.

It was a short walk into the city of San Juan, with its multi-colored houses and narrow sloping streets to explore.

We are armed with maps we printed at home, and a long list of places we intend to visit today. 

Our walk takes us along the coast to the red gate that marks the entrance to historic San Juan, that is surrounded by the old city walls.

This section is patrolled by the resident cats that keep rodents at bay.

Lest you think these feral cats are starving, we watched as a local resident sprinkled cat food in generous piles for them. All the cats hanging out in the historic center seemed very healthy and happy.

It's a great place to walk along the coast with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and those old city walls on the other.

The city walls feature many ramparts. While they look ornamental, they really served as lookouts and protected places to take aim at anyone approaching the city from the water.

We walked by many statues and plazas on our walk beside the water. Unlike some of the other islands we visited, Puerta Rico feels clean and safe.

We loved the sunshine and the beautiful blue skies that make for nice photographs. But we have to say that it was very warm in Puerto Rico in March.

We slipped into the Casa Blanca Gardens for a little shade. While the casa (house) was closed on Monday, the gardens were open and free.

The bananas were almost ripe in this tropical location.

The next item on our list was the Castillo San Felipe del Morro. Admission would normally be $10. But we are in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico and this is a national historic site. So our national park pass got us in for free.

Situated on the point of land that juts into the ocean, the lookout towers now look out over a beautiful view and the Atlantic Ocean far below.

We entered through the grand gates that were built in the 1700s.

Our stairs count went way up as we explored all five of the layers of this castle fort.

Just to show how tall the fort walls are, you can see how tiny Denisa looks in the court yard below.

We obviously took too many pictures and spent more time than we planned at Castillo San Felipe del Morro. The views show that we have wandered into another of God's wonders!

Our next stop in San  Juan was the historic cemetery not far from the fort. Because we are so close to the sea, the graves are above ground here at Cementerio Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis. While it may look like we are in the cemetery, that wall that separates us is about 15 feet tall.

We had planned to continue through the cemetery to other points on our list. But because of that wall, we had to walk all the way back around the fort to continue. We will say that it makes for a very picturesque walk with that tall ancient walls towering over us and the blue water beside us. We hate to complain, but this detour will add another mile or more to our already lengthy walk, and it was getting hot out here.

Denisa is wearing a cooling towel around her neck to help with that heat. But the sunshine has dried it AND her out. Being the gentleman that he is, Mark balanced out on the rocks to re-soak the towel with sea water to keep her cool.

The only ones enjoying the heat today were the resident iguanas.

They are obviously used to the tourists at the fort, and didn't seem to mind when we took a group picture with Mark.

We walked through the historical part of San Juan. These streets were built before automobiles, and it takes a very good driver to parallel park and drive on these narrow avenues.

The roads are paved in these unusual blue bricks that we've never seen anywhere else.

We stopped in at Cathedral Basilica Menor de San Juan Bautista, and might have paused longer than usual because it was cool inside.

Then we walked through Plaza Colon where Christopher Columbus is literally raised up on a pedestal.

Then we walked back to the coast, for our second national historic site at the Castillo San Cristobal. Again, we used our national park pass for free admission.

Denisa is glad to have her wet cooling towel, because it is hot up here on this rock fort wall. We found they had a national park film describing the role of the forts in the history of Puerto Rico. We can't give a detailed report of the riveting historical film because it was cool and dark inside the theater and it was a good time for a nap. Far behind her you can see the point of land and the Castillo Morro that we visited earlier.

In the other direction we can see our ship in the dock. We are so close, but we have more walking to do before we return to the air-conditioned comfort there. 

We are fans of visiting U.S. state capitol buildings, so don't we have to visit a U.S. territory capitol building?

It looks very much like some of the capitols we have visited on the mainland. But directly in front of this one is a white-sand beach.

They offer tours of the building, but you have to make a reservation. We didn't know when and if this stop was going to work out in our day. So we just showed up and hoped for the best. We got the best. A past senator was in the foyer, and he took us under his wing and talked the security guard to allow us to enter with him.

Then he took us into the parliament, where they were in a relaxed session.

He explained that many of the official documents of the territory are on display under the dome. He also told us that Puerto Rico would sure like to be the 51st state of the United States.

We didn't have much time for our capitol tour, but we did get a picture of the lovely capitol dome.

While we have visited most of the 50 state capitols, we had never before visited a capitolio.

Behind the capitol building we found the "walkway of the presidents." Puerto Rico honors with a statue each of the presidents that have honored them with a visit.

By the time we walked to the dock, we had tallied up 10.8 miles in Puerto Rico. While we never got out of the city, we feel that we experienced the rich history and some of the best sites. It didn't cost us any money, and we got some good exercise. It was a good day in San Juan!

Caribbean Cruise Part 3 - Tortola, BVI

For the last nine years, wandering God's wonders has been seen through the windshield of a motor home. But we're in the middle of a Caribbean Cruise, wandering God's wonders from a cruise ship. This sixth day finds us docked at Tortola, one of the BVI.

BVI stands for British Virgin Islands, and we took a picture at the port with our ship in the background.

Looking out over the island of Tortola from the Caribbean Sea, we are sure it has many cool things to see and do. But we had already decided that we wanted to spend the day on an adjacent British Virgin island--Virgin Gorda--that is famous for its "baths."

By now you know that we never book the expensive shore excursions offered by the ship. We had done the research to know that a local ferry runs between Tortola and Virgin Gorda on a regular basis, and the tickets are quite economical. You can leave on the early ferry and beat the crowds to this popular destination. We brought our own snorkel gear, so we were ready to head out on our own once again. Then we found out that two months ago the ferry company decided to no longer run this route on Sundays. Would you believe that we would be there on a Sunday?!? So the only way to get to the island of Virgin Gorda was on our ship's shore excursion. Bummer!

Our tour boat wasted no time between the islands. It was a "hang-on-to-your-hat" kind of ride to Virgin Gorda, and we were blessed with beautiful blue skies.

As we neared Virgin Gorda, we got our first views of its iconic turquoise water.

Our shore excursion included land transportation from the boat dock to the top of the trails inside the Baths National Park. Our large shore excursion group took off down the cactus-lined trail.

Occasionally we would get a break in the shrubs and cactus to get a peak at the Caribbean Sea that we were hiking towards. The trail was all downhill with a descent of 1,000 feet down to the water.

When we got down to the Baths Beach, we got our first view of the boulders that line this southern side of the island. 

The bad news of going on a large ship excursion is that you are in a crowd the entire time. We had planned to come early to beat big groups like this one. Now we are part of the big group. The good news is that there are plenty of people around to take pictures of the two of us together. We are wearing sun-protective shirts and are slathered in sun screen. We have seen many other ship passengers that are suffering through severe sunburns they got on the first day of the cruise. We are proud to say that we are close to the end of the cruise and still untanned, but comfortable.

These are the rock boulders that are the signature part of the baths trail.

They sounded the air horn to gather our large group, and we started the trail through "the baths." We walked through water and across sand on this famous trail through the national park. Water shoes or tennis shoes are strongly recommended for this trail that was listed as "strenuous" in the ship excursion description.

The water is crystal clear and bathtub temperature. What a beautiful place! We've wandered into another of God's wonders!

Our group was very close together as we got to the more technical parts of the trail. So we had time to pause, and traded turns at taking pictures of each other.

At times we had to squeeze through narrow openings . . .

and other times they had ropes and ladders to help us get over larger boulders.

Then we experienced a brilliant turn of events. We had a guide at the front, and everyone in our large group was stacked behind him in a bunch. But we realized that an older couple--even older than us--was at the other end of our large group. The guide bringing up the rear was trying to keep us all close together, but he was having to help them get up and down boulders. 

We found that if we stayed comfortably behind the front group, we had a couple minutes to enjoy picturesque areas all by ourselves before the older couple caught up with us.

We got unhurried pictures without 100 other people in them!

Our good luck means that we took way too many pictures of our journey through "the baths" of Virgin Gorda.

Our shore excursion turned out better than we thought it would. We found that we could crouch under and crawl over the boulders just fast enough to keep us in front of the last group, with time for photo shoots.

The beach got wider and we started seeing more boats in the water. That's when we knew our baths trail was ending.

This wider beach area is Devil's Bay--the end of the baths.

The boats have gathered here to bring snorkelers. This is one of the best areas to see sea life in the BVI. So we dawned the snorkel gear that we had carried through the baths and started exploring.

Denisa loves to snorkel, and she tested out all the rocky areas surrounding Devil's Bay. We found a good selection of salt water fish and some coral.

That's why she wears a long sleeve water shirt on snorkeling days. She has gotten a sunburnt back and arms after snorkeling all day. After snorkeling some, Mark is content to sit on the rocks and take pictures of Denisa in the water. She didn't get out of the water until they sounded that air horn to gather our group again.

We took a final picture of Devil's Bay and its boulders before our group started the hike up the hill. This is a loop hike that will take us back to our safari buses on a different trail than we came down. Once at the top, we rode the safari buses to the dock, and then the ferry back to Tortola.

We were back to the ship by early afternoon, super salty from all that snorkeling. After showers, it felt like we still had plenty of time to explore Tortola. So we walked from the ship into the little city of Road Town, Tortola, by the port.

It was a hot afternoon and we were sweating by the time we arrived at the little park on the coast. The grass needed to be mowed and this colorful sign was the only reason to stop here. We can say that cruisers need to have a plan to go somewhere when docked here at Road Town in Tortola, because a walk around town didn't reveal any tourist treasures.

The sun was setting as our ship left Tortola and the British Virgin Islands behind.

We love a nice sunset over the ocean!

After a busy day on shore, our evenings have taken on a regular routine. We eat in the dining room at 5:30, then head to the theatre for the evening entertainment. We've watched a nice combination of music, magic shows, and comedy on this cruise. Then we usually head to one of the clubs for group games and dancing. We're finished with day six and we're still going strong! Have we mentioned that we really enjoy cruising through God's wonders?