December 18, 2008 – Ft Lauderdale and Home

Captain John had hoped to pick up a pilot early but Ft Lauderdale doesn’t work that way. We waited off shore almost until sunrise and then began our slow sail into Port Everglades and docked shortly after 7:00. On the other side of the dock was the RSSC Voyager, fresh from drydock and ready to sail through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles where she’ll begin her World Cruise in a couple of weeks. We waited for Customs & Immigration to come on board, and waited, and waited and finally they arrived. Those of us who were over our exemption amount waited in line to declare our purchases and the customs officers were quite inconsistent in applying duty or exempting it for Brazilian jewelry. Fortunately our tab came to only $23.00. We then waited a lot longer for all the luggage to get offloaded and were finally able to debark around 10:15. Full cruisers were given private car or van transfers to the airport and we went with Wolf & Cheryl and all of our luggage to Hertz in the airport to rent a van. Wolf & Cheryl are long time cruise friends from California who were leaving for a holiday cruise 2 days later so we invited them to stay with us in Naples for that time. We arrived in Naples 1 ½ hour later, stopped for lunch and got home to relax and unwind from a wonderful cruise.

THE END

December 17, 2008 – At Sea

This was our final day of the cruise and it was a full sea day with the main activity being packing our stuff to debark the next morning in Ft. Lauderdale. Throughout the day the ship was being decorated for Christmas and the holiday cruises. Our trivia team, with spouses, had a special lunch in the Compass Rose with the main course being Dover sole. We finished the majority of our packing before trivia and one of our team members brought a bottle of champagne to trivia to celebrate our overall successes. The final trivia was quite a battle with 5 teams tying for the win. On the 1st tie breaker 3 teams answered wrong and dropped out and on the 2nd tie breaker the other team answered wrong and dropped out leaving us the final winner. Before dinner we watched the finale of the Navigator Idol with 3 singers competing for the prize. Before the contest began last year’s winner sang his winning song and a new headline singer who had boarded for the next cruise sang “Oh Holy Night” to put us all in a festive mood. All 3 contestants sang beautifully however Seth, a waiter in Compass Rose, was far superior. While the votes were counted we saw the Krew Kapers which has changed for the better with more singing from the cast members and less canned music. When Seth was announced as the winner we were told thar Mandhi & Reynoldo had tied for 2nd which we all appreciated because they were equal. We were invited to General Manager Giuseppe’s table for dinner and we had a very lively time. There was no show but there was an English Pub evening in the Stars Lounge. We went back to our suite to put out our luggage and also had some boxes we agreed to ship to California for friends which doubled the number of pieces outside our door. We also received donations of 3 bottles of champagne and 2 of wine from friends who had to fly home.

December 16, 2008 – Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos, BWI

There was plenty of wind and the ship had rolled around all night but we slept comfortably through it all. The wind kept up all day and it made deck walking difficult. We arrived at Grand Turk at 2:00pm and had a difficult time docking because a 30+ knot wind blew the ship sideways into the pier before we were far enough forward and it took several minutes of working the thrusters to position us properly. There is a new docking pier and shopping complex there that was built by Carnival Cruise Lines and it had a lot of the typical Caribbean shops. The wind kept the temperatures in the low 70s but the sun was shining and it was pleasant. After wandering around the shops we joined another couple and walked a couple of miles down the road to Governor’s Beach and spent over an hour there. A hurricane had hit the island in September and the damage was still in evidence. There were several buildings with blue tarp roofs and the power station had some portable diesel generator trailers alongside the building. We didn’t sail until 10:00pm and there was a pool deck BBQ for dinner with a huge spread of choices and after the meal the orchestra played with Regent singers singing rock songs for dancing on the deck. The music was too loud so several of us went to Galileo’s where the duo was playing quietly enough that we could talk.

December 15, 2008 – San Juan, Puerto Rico

We went to the bridge to enjoy the sail in to San Juan on a partly cloudy morning with temperatures in the mid 70s and we docked right at the edge of Old town. The docking was a bit rough because there was a 20 to 25 knot wind blowing us away from the dock and for awhile there was nobody on the dock to put the ropes around the bollards, but we finally made it. Everyone had to go to the show lounge, collect passports and parade by US Immigration officers before getting off the ship. We were in no rush since we had been here several times before and only planned to walk around the old town and have lunch. It was a pleasant day and we found a local restaurant on Calle Fortaleza and had a delicious lunch. We walked back to the ship to get a couple of items and there was a full scale U.S. coast Guard safety inspection in process. They even went through an “Abandon Ship” procedure. We headed back into town to wander around some more and returned around 4:00.

The evening dress code was formal and a surprise special event was put on for full cruisers. We went to the upper level of the show lounge at 6:15 for cocktails and the entire theater was decorated. The lower level was re made into an elegant restaurant with tables for 4 and everyone facing the stage (one seat on each end and 2 on one side.) the orchestra was playing and we were served several courses:

Caviar Surprise
Cherry Flavored Essenz of Pheasant
Gateau of goat Cheese and Fig Chutney
Sauteed Tiger Prawns with Curry and Fresh Green Asparagus
Champagne Lemon Sorbet

Choice of
Beef Tenderloin Stuffed with Foie Gras and Truffle
Or
Pan Fried Herb Marinated Fresh Red Snapper Fillet

Tropical Mouse Duo

The meal was excellent and all of the cooking was done with a portable kitchen set up in the Stars lounge. Between courses we had entertainment including officers playing instruments and singing. It was a very special evening that was enjoyed by all. When we were done the crew had only 35 minutes to convert it back to a theater for the evening show.

December 14, 2008 – Dominica

We sailed into the beautiful garden island of Dominica under partly cloudy skies and mild temperatures for a 4 hour stay. Five of us had privately booked a tubing on the river trip but when we met our guide on shore he informed us that recent heavy rains had swollen the river and it was closed to tubing. We were offered an alternative tour which we gladly accepted. As we drove the guide gave us history and information about the island. Before independence it had been controlled by both France and England and influences from both countries show up in both architecture and names of streets. The French tended to name things after locations, plants geologic formations etc and the English tended to name things after royals, Sirs & Ladies and admirals & generals. We drove up into the mountains on narrow pothole filled roads through alternating rain & sunshine (it is a rainforest after all.) We came to the twin Trafalgar waterfalls where we walked along a narrow rocky path to a sheltered platform where we could view and photograph the falls and surrounding mountains. The island is 95% volcanic and 5% limestone so the flora is quite lush with lots of fruit trees. All of their produce is organic because they don’t need fertilizer. We then walked down a rocky slope past a “Proceed past this point at your own risk” sign. We passed lots of land crabs, fern trees flowering plants and lots of rocks down to the base of the falls. It was a strenuous walk both ways but worth it for the views. We drove on and saw thermal pools, streams & rivers and forest as we winded our way up and down the mountainsides. The views were exceptional. We made a stop at Screws sulfur ponds that isn’t visited by the regular tours because it’s too small to handle a crowd. There are 5 separate natural sulfur water ponds at different temperatures and we spent ½ hour soaking in them and it felt great. After our soaking we were treated to fresh local fruits and had a sample of “bush rum”, a homemade rum with herbs & spices. It had quite a kick and a very tasty flavor. We continued back down the mountainside, through the botanical garden where we saw a school bus crushed under a baobob tree (victim of Hurricane David) and into the new town. We finally made it back to the old town and the pier and got back on the ship.

We sailed at 12:30 and had pre arranged a steak tartare lunch for 12 people to replace the one cancelled 2 days previously. The Cruise Director and Doctor & girlfriend were unable to attend but the Captain did as soon as we cleared the port and we had a wonderful lunch lasting for 2 hours. After a short power nap we made it to tea time and won trivia again. Before dinner there was the semi final for Navigator Idol where the 6 crew with the most votes competed for the 3 final slots. They were all incredible and it was difficult to pick the best 3. We had dinner with friends and started to watch the show which was the magician from a previous evening. He was even worse than before so we left quickly and went to bed.

December 13, 2008 – Barbados

It was a partly cloudy morning with temperatures in the low 80’s as we sailed into Bridgetown, Barbados. Already at the dock were Sea Princess, Seabourn Pride and a 5 Royal Clipper. The clouds soon disappeared and it became a typical hot & humid day. We had been here numerous times before so we took the 20 minute walk into town, wandered around for awhile and walked back to the ship. A special event for all cruisers, a polo match, had been scheduled but was cancelled due to recent rains turning the polo field into a mud patch. The replacement event, a high tea, was also cancelled due to the residence hosting it had another event take precedence and event number 3 was a visit to the Concorde museum which has an actual Concorde SST to look through. Going to that with 300 other people didn’t spike our interest so we spent the afternoon on the pool deck reading our books until it was time to go win trivia at tea time again. For dinner Jan & Harry Hufford invited us and 2 other couples to join them to celebrate their wedding anniversary and we had a grand time. After dinner we watched a classical pianist show.

December 12, 2008 – At Sea

It was cloudy, windy and raining when we awoke so the deck walk was avoided. We went to a lecture on the history of coffee with a tasting of 4 coffees to learn some differences in flavor. At the end of the talk there were two code blues within 5 minutes and fortunately one was just a fall with no injuries. The ship was rolling around quite a bit due to the weather. We had scheduled a steak tartare lunch for 12 people including Capt John, Doctor Claus and Cruise Director Paul but shortly after we sat Neils, the Executive Chef, came to the table and reported that the galley had lost its water supply and they were unable to clean the grinder to grind the beef so we had to order from the menu. Without complaint we all agreed to try for another day and everyone stayed and we had a great time. After lunch there the semi finals for Navigator Idol were held where 12 crew members sang and we are to vote for the best 6. 3 were easy to dismiss but selecting 6 of the following 9 was a challenge. We had a pleasant dinner with a friend whose husband was sick, saw a so so magician at the show and Pat won $500.00 at the blackjack table.