Winter Trip - January-April 2017

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We drove to Tampa the day before the cruise. In Tampa we stayed at the "Quality Inn & Suites near the Fairgrounds". We stayed in a very nice room in a nice clean motel, parked the car for the 14 days we were cruising, and had a round trip shuttle to and from the cruise ship for a few dollars more than just what it would have cost to park elsewhere. We used HotelNParkign.com for this reservation, we had used them once before for a cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. The experience we had in Fort Lauderdale was very unpleasant so we researched this stay better. If we cruise out of Tampa again we will check to see if we can make the booking directly with the motel thus saving the $20.00 service fee.
On our way to the hotel we stopped to visit some of Ernie's relatives he had not seen in decades and Dale had never met. We hit really bad traffic when we got to Tampa so we did not get to the motel until after dark. We ordered food from one of the restaurants whose menu was in the room. The delivery was fast, prices were reasonable, and food was good.

Cruise Itinerary
As well as the stops listed below, there were 5 days at sea. On those days we mainly relaxed on our balcony or on the deck by the swimming pool. We played cribbage when relaxing by the pool and watched some movies in our cabin. At night we would enjoy the entertainment at the lounges and in the main theater.
  Embarkation, Tampa, FL
  Key West, FL
  San Juan, Puerto Rico
  Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
  St. John's, Antigua
  Castries, St. Lucia
  Willemstad, Curaçao
  Oranjestad, Aruba
  George Town, Grand Cayman
  Disembarkation, Tampa, FL

Embarkation, Tampa, FL
In the morning we enjoyed the complimentary hot breakfast at the motel. We then took our time getting ready to go to the ship. We were booked on the 12:00 shuttle, but since everyone booked on the shuttle was already in the lobby we departed early. Upon arriving at the terminal we gave our luggage to a porter right near where we got off the shuttle and headed for the terminal to check in. When we got to the check point to enter the terminal we could not find our boarding passes, they looked at our passports, checked their list, and let us in. We got in a long line that moved very quickly and checked in. Going in we skipped the photographers. When we reached an escalator and set of stairs most of the people in front of us were asking where the elevator was. We learned the reason why was that someone had gotten hurt on the escalator and so people were avoiding it even though it was not a faulty escalator. We walked up the stairs, which we normally would have done anyways.
Once on the ship we went to our stateroom with our carry-on luggage. We had lunch in the Lido Market which most people refer to as the buffet, but it is actually made up of several stations where they prepare the food for you. Afterwards we relaxed on the balcony of our stateroom watching tugboats towing a dry-dock out into deeper water then the boat on the dry-dock launched. We watched some pelicans flying around and diving for food. Ernie tried getting pictures of the pelicans flying past the balcony, but they would fly into the view finder, Ernie would press the button, and by the time the camera actually took the picture they would fly out of the view finder. Ernie did manage to get a couple of pictures of one in the distance. The only other ship we saw in dock was painted battleship grey, but we did not see a flag on it so we do not know if it was a military ship. (Pictures)
After the mandatory safety drill, we relaxed on the balcony a little longer before going to the dining room for supper. As usual we requested a shared table. Three other people joined us, a widower traveling alone and a couple. At first we were not sure how it would go because when Ernie said grace they all looked at him then started a loud conversation while he prayed. Afterwards though, we had a pleasant conversation with all of them, with Dale commenting afterwards that they were the most pleasant people we had met at dinner since meeting Neil & Aileen on the Panama Canal cruise. The widower walked from where he parked his car to the terminal and in the terminal he suffered a blackout and had a nasty fall. One side of his face was swollen, he had cuts on his nose, and a black eye. The couple took their first cruise on a Holland America ship 20 years ago, they have taken other cruises, but this was their first cruise on Holland America since then.
After dinner we went to the nightly show. It was a very nice show put on by the ship's band, singers, and dancers.
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Key West, FL
We docked at the Naval base in Key West. We had to be shuttled to downtown Key West and back to the ship. We were not allowed to walk anywhere on the base except from the ship to the shuttle and from the shuttle to the ship. We did not dock until 11:00 AM and knew there would be a large group of people trying to be the first ones off the ship, so we decided to have an early lunch and leave the ship after the crowd dispersed somewhat. After lunch we were able to get off the ship and directly onto the shuttle with no hassle.
In Key West we visited the Audubon House and Tropical Gardens. The house was not actually a home to the Audubons, but the story is that John J Audubon spent a lot of time there painting. The house was actually home to a family named Geiger. There was a video of an interview with a grandson of the original owner. In the video he is asked his knowledge of Audubon being there, he says that he knew he visited but never heard anything from his grandparents indicating Audubon spent much time there painting, but he did not discount that it may have happened.
The most interesting fact to us is, John Audubon who is known as a protector of birds was a bird hunter. He would shoot the birds, pose them, paint the pictures he is so well known for and then eat the birds. There were stories with some of the pictures that indicated he also shot more than he needed to, we took a picture of one of the stories. A feature of the house we found interesting was that many of the window shades had pictures on them. The walls contained many of Audubons pictures. The house was interesting and the walk in the garden was pleasant.
We walked around Key West a little then went to "The Original Key Lime Pie Bakery" so Dale could get one of her favorite desserts. Of all the places she has had key lime Pie, she likes the one at "The Original Key Lime Pie Bakery" the best. (Pictures)
The shuttle into the city was driven by Dan, we were sitting close to him so we were able to talk with him. When we mentioned that we were going to the Audubon House, Dan told us that his friend Joanne works in the gallery there and we should tell her that Dan says we can get anything we want for free. When we got there Ernie went over to the lady working in the gallery, asked if she was Joanne, when she said yes he told her what Dan had said. We had some laughs with her, but that is all we got for free. When we went to buy tickets, Ernie half-jokingly said we want two senior tickets. Though neither their website nor the sign list a price for seniors, the man at the counter laughed and took $2.00 off each ticket.
Upon returning to the ship we relaxed for a while then cleaned up and went to dinner. We sat at a table with one other couple. We had another pleasant conversation. After dinner we went to the BB King Blues Club, there was a different configuration of musicians/singers than on other Holland America cruises we have been on, but they were just as good as the one we have seen before. We went to the late show at the main stage, it was again the cruise's band, singers, and dancers. They put on a good show of Billboard number one hits of the year. Most songs were performed as medleys of snippets of each song with a few full songs done. It was a really good show.
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San Juan, Puerto Rico
We docked near Old San Juan in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We walked along the Paseo Del Morro walkway, which is between the sea and the wall that surrounds Old San Juan. We followed the walkway to a point where we could enter into Old San Juan near the El Morro National Historic Site.
El Morro is the first fortress built in Old San Juan. It is now a US National Historic Site, so we were able to use our national park senior pass for admittance. This is a large fortress with many levels. As far as we know we visited every room on every level of the fortress. We spent more than three hours in the fort.
In front of the fort is a very large grassy area for strolling around. At the lowest level of the grassy area the city wall comes in forming a rectangle outside the wall. In this rectangle is an old cemetery, Cementerio Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis. We walked down by the cemetery, but could not get through the wall at that point. We would have had to go a long way around to get into the cemetery so we just took some pictures of it from the wall.
There is another fortress at the other end of Old San Juan that we would have visited, but we did not have time. We arrived at San Juan at 1:00 PM so even though we had until 10:00 PM before we had to be back on the ship the fortresses close at 5:30 so it would have been closed by the time we crossed the city. We walked around in Old San Juan as we slowly made our way back to the ship. (Pictures)
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Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
We had made stops at St. Thomas on other cruises, but had decided each time not to do the tram that goes to Paradise Point. Ernie decided that he wanted to do this on this visit. It is less than ¼ mile walk to the tram from where the ship docked. We rode the tram to Paradise Point enjoying the scenery. At the top are several levels of viewing platforms from which to view the scenery. There are also shops and a restaurant at the top. We stayed at the top for 1½ hours or so then rode the tram back to street level. (Pictures)
That evening we had an early dinner, then went to BB King Blues Club. We then attended the late show at the Main Stage. The show dancers put on a very good show of interpretive dance, performing several dances each representing a different musical instrument.
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St. John's, Antigua
We had no plans for the stop in Antigua, so we went for a leisurely breakfast, then went ashore. We walked through many of the shops the locals have in a flea market type area. Dale saw one outfit she liked, but decided she didn't want to buy it. We then walked around a couple of blocks of the town. The only thing we bought was some cough & cold medication for Dale.
There was a steel drum band playing on the dock next to the ship. One of the members was playing a traditional set of drums, two others were playing ordinary steel drums, the third was playing actual steel drums like what you might store oil in. We listened to them from our balcony and a little bit more as we slowly walked by going off and on the ship.
Upon returning to the ship, we grabbed the cribbage board and a deck of cards and went to the deck by one of the pools. We played a few games of cribbage, had some lunch, and played a few more games of cribbage. We went to the cabin, relaxed awhile, and got cleaned up for dinner. After an early dinner we decided to catch the early show, a magic act, at the main stage. We had been going to the late show getting there about 5 minutes before show time and we could find really good seats. Arriving 5 minutes before the early show the only seats available were ones behind a pole. We decided to return to the cabin and watch a movie instead of going to the late show. We had an early excursion planned for the next morning so after the movie, we requested a 6:30 AM wake-up call and went to bed early. (Pictures)
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Castries, St. Lucia
We had not previously been to St Lucia, so we booked the "World Heritage Site Route: Beginning & Ending in Castries" excursion. Apparently, a 5 hour tour deserves a long name. We were on a shuttle bus with a driver, tour guide, and 16 other people from the ship. As we drove through the city of Castries the tour guide provided information about the history of the city. We were soon out of the city and onto the mountain roads. The roads were narrow and extremely winding, since the driver had to keep up speed on the up hills we frequently had to hold ourselves rigid to avoid falling into the person next to us as the bus strained around a sharp turn. We stopped once each way for a bathroom break, at each stop there were sub-par facilities and vendors trying to sell us things. We stopped at two places so we could take pictures of the view. At each place we were invited to open the windows so as not to have to take pictures through them, when we did this young boys came to the windows to try to sell us something.
We slowly drove by a banana plantation being given information about the banana industry and the ultimate number of uses the locals have for bananas. As we drove along the tour guide gave us a lot of information about the different types of fruits & nuts, wide variety of flowers, and the wild life on the island.
Our first stop that was more than a bathroom break, was at a spot that had a very good view of the Pitons. The Pitons are two very large volcanic cones formed from cooled lava. There are "Gros Piton" and "Petit Piton". They are the second and third highest peaks on the island and are considered the premier landmark of St. Lucia. From this location a stream of steam coming up from a cut in the mountains across from us was pointed out. This was our next destination, Sulphur Springs.
What appears to be a valley between where we viewed the Pitons and the mountains around Sulphur Springs is actually a collapsed volcano crater. The village of Soufriere (sulphur in the air) is in the crater. Sulphur Springs is a small area of steam vents, hot pools, and boiling mud pots. There was a moderate, but not overwhelming odor of sulphur. A young lady acted as our guide, she provided a lot of information about the area and answered all questions put her way.
Our final stop was at Morne Coubani Estate which is a working plantation of coconuts and cocoa beans. Our plantation guide provided information of the various flora growing there as well as about the coconut and cocoa beans. As well as learning about the production history of the plantation we saw demonstrations of the old method of processing products from the coconuts and cocoa beans. After the plantation tour we walked to an area where they had some snacks for us and the "Shac Shac Band" was playing. Our guide pronounced shac more like chuck than shack. The band was one man playing an harmonica and a type of rhythm stick. The band was good and the guides from the buses sang some local songs and danced to his music.
Our return trip to the ship had a few stops to enjoy the scenery from the bus. Our return to the dock completed a very enjoyable 5+ hour excursion.
We re-boarded the ship, cleaned up, went to an early dinner, then decided to go to the early show about ½ hour early. The area we normally sit in was almost completely filled so we checked the other side and found a few good seats left there. It was another very entertaining song & dance show performed by the ship's entertainers. (Pictures)
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Willemstad, Curaçao
In Curaçao we took an excursion to an ostrich farm & an aloe plantation. Both locations were really interesting. As usual there was a tour guide and a driver on the bus. The tour guide provided a lot of information about Curaçao as we rode to and returned from the two sites.
At the ostrich farm we boarded a truck with benches in the back and a canopy over the benches. The owner of the farm had brought two ostriches to the farm from Africa. They both died before producing offspring. He tried again with the same result, after several tries he was finally successful in keeping them alive and breeding them. They now have about 175 ostriches on the farm.
Each male is mated with two females. Ostriches do not build nests, they lay eggs on the ground. If they see an egg, they will lay their eggs around it. Male ostriches will stomp on the eggs, so fake eggs are placed on the ground near a fence where it is more difficult for the males to get to them. The females will lay the eggs near a fake egg so they are close to the fence. When there are several eggs in an area, some workers will go to the furthest away corner of the pen standing outside the fence with buckets of food. When the ostriches in the pen go to the food, "The New Guy" then runs in and collects the eggs. They put the eggs in incubators for 14 days, then they candle the eggs and return fertilized eggs to the incubator until they hatch. Eggs that are not fertilized are used for breakfast.
There were also a few emus on the farm. Differences between ostriches and emus: size (ostriches are much larger); color (ostriches-black and grey, emus-brown), number of toes on each foot (ostriches-two, emus-three), location of origin (ostriches-Africa, emus-Australia). We got to feed some ostriches. We also had pictures taken standing on an ostrich egg. An ostrich egg can support up to 430 lbs, but they are brittle so they can break if dropped or sharply hit with something, like a hammer.
There are some ostriches that can be ridden, our excursion did not include riding an ostrich. We were told that usually the excursions that include riding also include a trip to a beach, so people frequently show up wearing bathing suits to ride the ostriches. This is not a good idea because the feathers are very slippery and can also be very irritating. Riders sit near the bird's shoulders and shown how to hold onto the wings. In this position the persons mouth is just inches from the ostrich's ears. Ostriches are very nervous and react to loud noises. We were told that almost invariably someone in the riding group, after being told to hold on tight and not make any loud noise, will throw their hands in the air and shout yahoo or something similar. Ostriches can run about 50 mph achieving this speed quickly. They can also stop on a dime, riders do not stop as quickly and so the ride turns into a flight.
There are about 125 Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs on the farm, the owner likes the pigs and so they are not used for food. They do serve a purpose on the farm, they keep the grounds clean. There were several piglets including some that were only a few days old, since baby pigs are among Dale's favorite animals to watch she had a great time watching them run around.
They have three Nile crocodiles on the farm. They are about 8-feet long and are kept in an environment suited to this size so they do not get bigger. Waste from processing the ostrich meat was buried on the farm, but some dogs found it and would dig it up and eat it. This was OK until the meat ran out and the dogs starting killing and eating young ostriches. The farmer had to shoot the dogs, then purchased the crocodiles. The waste is now fed to the crocodiles. (Pictures)
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At the aloe plantation we were given a talk about aloe and its' usages. During the talk, the guide filleted an aloe leaf revealing a slimy semi-solid gel inside. She cut the gel into small pieces and ate one of the pieces. She then offered us a piece, since noone else was moving to be the first to take a piece, Ernie went first. It did not have a taste to Ernie's liking, but it was not totally disgusting. Ernie told Dale she may not care for it, but she tried a piece and agreed it was not really good but not too bad. They also passed around a piece of a leaf that had not been filleted. There was a slimy substance dripping from it, we were told to rub it on our hands that it clears up skin blemishes. The next day Dale said that a small spot on her hand was almost completely gone, she has since noticed the blemish is completely gone. After the demonstration we went into the gift shop and were given samples of pure aloe juice. We have a daughter-in-law who drinks some of this every day to help relieve digestive system problems, we are very proud of her ability to drink it every day as we found it to be a strong unpleasant taste.
When we returned to Willemstad, we walked into town. The tour guide told Ernie where there was a restaurant that served iquana, but when we went to it they did not serve iquana. We assume the guide misunderstood what Ernie was asking as the name of the restaurant is Iquana Cafe. There is a swinging bridge that is the only way into town from the dock, while we were in town they opened the bridge so we had to wait for them to close it before we could go back to the dock area. We noticed some water separated from the ocean just a little ways from the ship, when talking to a couple from the ship we found out it is actually a small beach at a resort. For $10.00 they were able to spend the day at the beach. (Pictures)
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Oranjestad, Aruba
Our stop in Oranjestad, Aruba was only for about 5 ½ hours. We did not want to do any of the available excursions, so we just went ashore and walked around for a couple of hours. Dale did find and bought a t-shirt that she wanted. (Pictures)

George Town, Grand Cayman
We booked a beach party excursion in George Town. Ernie did not feel well enough to go, so Dale went alone. She had to tender in as the dock is not big enough for ships to dock at it. Unfortunately, it rained most of the day. Dale walked the beach for a while, then looked out to where the ships were moored and could not see any of them. It was really dark over the water and it was moving toward her. When it started to rain really hard she went into the pavilion where they were to have a barbeque. Most of the food on the barbeque was somewhat spicy so Dale had a hard time finding something she could eat. When she got in the bus to return to the dock to tender back to the ship, she heard they were waiting for 8 people who had not returned to the bus. After waiting a while for them two of them boarded the bus, then the bus driver had to get going so we assume the others took a cab back to town. Dale had not taken the camera with her so there are no pictures.

Disembarkation, Tampa, FL
After having breakfast and waiting in a lounge for a couple of hours, our turn to disembark came around. Usually, when we have disembarked from a cruise we either went through customs on the ship or on the way through the terminal to where our luggage was put for pick-up. This time we went to pick up our luggage then with luggage spent about an hour in line to go through customs. We do not know if this was the cruise line, NSA, or port authority's idea of a good process, but it was horrendous and should be re-thought.
After some issues trying to reach the hotel where we had left the car, Dale noticed that there was a shuttle with the motel name on it in the shuttle parking area. Ernie checked with the driver, who came over to help bring our luggage to the shuttle. After a quick ride we were at our car and packed up.
Knowing we would have to do laundry at the end of the cruise, Ernie had found a laundromat not far away. Next door to the laundromat was a gas station with a food mart. While waiting for the laundry to finish we got some sandwiches, wings, and drinks at the food mart. Considering where we bought it, the food was surprisingly good, not too unhealthy, and reasonably priced. Once we got the clothes packed we were on our way to our next destination.

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Last updated: may 20 2017