Bumpy through the night and wind persisted throughout the day.
New Captain has got his foot down and rocking along at 18 knots.
Average score at Trivia but dodged the dance class – did not recognise name of dance and movement of ship limits my freedom of expression.
Cocktail party also cancelled, due to adverse weather. The new Captain seems to be a little more restrained than the previous one and suspect it was an excuse to avoid splashing out on free drinks.
Decided to walk into Bridgetown- about half hour, dodging taxi drivers and tour operators. Told them we were looking for a car hire shop. On hearing that, one of the touts offered to rent his to us. Declined and walked on. Could not find anywhere to hire a car, even though Google was showing a few outlets – it was Sunday and that may have had something to do with it.
Finally, asked a taxi driver. He was very helpful and called a few numbers but no luck.
He then said that he could take us on an island tour, for $US150 – quite a bit cheaper than the official tours who were charging 100 per person.
Turned out to be a good choice, just four of us, in a 20 seater minibus.
The driver – Orlando – took us to all of the sights and he was great fun – including Kensington Oval and Rhiyana’s houses.
Returned to the ship mid – afternoon and found an invitation to yet another cocktail party, for tomorrow evening. This time, it’s for “World Travellers” (those who are staying for the whole trip) to meet the new Captain – there was a changeover in Barbados.
Watched some tv while getting ready for dinner – The Boys from Brazil. Thought it was a little insensitive for the German passengers but perhaps it is an itinerary for catching up with family.
Day fell into its usual pattern.
Trivia team back to full strength and achieved our best score to date – 15. Winning score was 17, so still some distance from a Cunard T shirt.
Hot and sunny for our daily three laps of the deck.
Gala night tonight, so best frocks but free glass of champagne seems to have disappeared.
It is also Burn’s night and haggis on the menu, as a starter. Gave it a try – not bad but think it was an IKEA meatball in disguise.
Walked on to the ballroom after dinner but no dancing, as they were in the final stages of addressing the Haggis, which we had sadly missed. Probably have to sweep away entrails before start of dancing.
Bright, sunny and warm again. Captain says that, technically, we are still in the Atlantic and will not enter the Caribbean until we cross some imaginary line parallel with Haiti.
Trivia team back to full strength but score still not improving. One team member has annoying habit of saying “I said that”, when answers given and we have written the wrong one.
This morning’s lecture was a question and answer session with David Coulthard. It was interesting but largely based on his book – conveniently on sale in the lobby. I must admit that I was a little put off, when he told a couple of risqué and totally unnecessary jokes. Obviously bombed, given the age of the audience.
Had lunch in the buffet and sat with the German couple from a couple of days ago. More smiling and trying to recall the words but we managed.
They are Caribbean regulars and complaining about increase in prices. Husband is also an avid chess player – apparently, there is a group of 5, who play every afternoon.
Walked around the deck, sat in the sun and looked at the birds following the ship. Some photographers had their long lenses out, so must have been interesting. Someone said they were Brown Boobies but looked like Vultures to me.
Wanted to get back to the cabin to get ready for Captain’s cocktail party – doesn’t start until 7pm but if we get in the queue by 5, may get a glass of wine.
Unfortunately, Lynne starting with my cold, so missed it and had early dinner.
Very small island – only around 7 km long.
Surprisingly undeveloped, with no large hotels or tourist traps – apart from specially built cruise terminal.
Activities are limited to tours, snorkelling and boat trips.
We chose to hire a golf cart from one of the two stalls in the terminal. The two owners were competing and the price quickly come down from 120$US to 80.
It was a bit tatty and I can’t imagine it being road legal anywhere else.
Managed to get it going, with back seat passengers still on board. As we left the terminal, noticed that there were rows of shiny new carts and realised that it would probably have been better to look around a little more.
Chugged along, with passengers hanging on and complaining, as we bounced over speed bumps.
We had asked how much petrol was in the tank, as the cart did not have a fuel gauge, or dashboard. The answer was “not much” and our priority was to find a petrol station.
We finally found one and realised that “not much” meant “fumes”.
The attendant was very friendly and suggest that we should visit the lighthouse, at the North of the island first and return via the beaches – compass bearings are probably unnecessary on an island this size, left, right, forwards, backwards would suffice.
The road to the lighthouse was quite narrow and bumpy, with houses, in various stages of disrepair, on either side and rubble on the plots in between. Although there was plenty of vegetation, populated by groups of grazing donkeys, there was no evidence of any agriculture.
The island was badly damaged by a hurricane in 2019 and rebuilding is taking some time.
More donkeys at the lighthouse, with warnings about not to get to close to them, as they are bad tempered.
Found our way back to the town and stopped at a pharmacy to buy some Nightnurse and pills for my cold – 50$US. Don’t know how the locals manage – perhaps they are immune to illness, or there is a special tourist price.
Stopped at a beachside bar for lunch but was only serving American style fast food. Ordered Enchiladas with chips, without really knowing what to expect – 3,000 calories of pure Cholesterol. Very tasty but only made it half way, or maybe two thirds, way through. Wobbled back to the cart for a bit more touring and return to the ship.
Quite surprised to find such an undeveloped island but I suppose that the size means that it can’t support much tourism.
Two days at sea coming up, before reaching Barbados.
Back to Trivia but seem to have lost two team members and down to 4. Today’s questions were a little obtuse and score at the lower end of our range.
Bright, sunny and warm. Walked around the deck and spent time outside.
Dancing class was Jive. O.K. but Sergei makes the easy seem difficult, with his over complicated explanations. Hasn’t said “Simples” yet but occasionally calls us “Peoples”.
Red and Gold gala ball tonight, where passengers supposed to wear those colours. Couldn’t find anything red and shop selection of bow ties looked like they were made for clowns – would have bought one, if they had anything that lit up, or rotated but not available.
Realised that, my newly purchased, MAGA hat was a vivid red but my plan to wear it was vetoed.
Dancing after dinner and quite late to bed.
Bright and sunny morning again but dressed for the cold, before heading for the free shuttle bus to Fort Lauderdale – free seems to mean that you are dropped at a shopping mall.
Soon realised that temperature had changed – it was around 20 and humid. I had brought my backpack, in the vain hope of finding a wine shop but it was useful for storing the excess clothing.
We were here on the same day last year, to board the Queen Victoria for a cruise to Sydney and had plenty of time to walk around Fort Lauderdale – we also call again on the way back, so we were content to wander around the shops.
After about an hour, we decided to look for somewhere to get a coffee. There was a big “food centre” but they only sold fast food, with any type of sugar/caffeine overload soft drinks but no coffee.
We walked on and finally found a Starbucks, hidden in the basement of Macy’s.
Lynne sat at a table and I took my place in the queue, behind an elderly*, gentleman, who had ordered a Latte. Unfortunately, he tried to complicate matters, by saying that he wanted only one shot of coffee. The attendant asked if he wanted the same size of coffee – I did not see what deference this would make but to a professional Barista, it means “do you want the space left by the missing shot filled with water or milk?”
It became apparent that the gentleman’s first language was not English and that he did not fully understand the importance of his answer. He ventured “Milk?”
Barista rattled off “so that’s a single shot Latte, with an order of milk on the side. Will that be steamed milk, or cold milk?” – he chose steamed.
I started to shake my head, as I knew what was coming.
When the bill was presented, the gentleman said “what’s this? $12 for a cup of coffee”
The Barista explained – in the polite, contemptible, tone of someone who has taken great pleasure in doing you over – that it was the charge for the side order.
Fortunately, the gentleman was not as daft as the Barista thought and had the milk substituted by water.
I was trying to work out the volume of the missing shot of coffee and the stupidity of the whole argument.
The final straw, or coffee bean, came when the bill was presented. The Barista had one of those credit card machines, where you scroll down to indicate the amount of the tip you want to give, with zero somewhere in not the outer reaches of the Galaxy.
Another interrogation session:
“how much?”
“that’s the tip”
“I don’t want to give you a tip”
“I can’t do anything about it, the transaction has already gone through”
At this point, after waiting for ten minutes, I relinquished my second place in the ever growing queue and decided to do without the coffee and the Pythonesque ordering process.
We returned to shopping and bought a few things, before trying to find an alternative source of coffee – there were none – so started to make our way to the pick up point for the shuttle. On our way, we passed a stall, selling beauty products. The attractive young lady attendant managed to engage Lynne in conversation and despite all of my efforts, persuaded her to enter her lair, for a trial of non surgical wrinkle remover.
It was a typical time share trick and the more effort I put into putting Lynne off, the lower the price dropped – but only from ridiculous to exorbitant. The final addition of a “twoofer” did it. I had to pay up and Lynne was escorted to the expensive store, who were using the stall as a lure, to pick up her goods.
I had to accept that it was a skilful, non-surgical, wallet extraction.
I followed sulkily behind and decided that I should be allowed to buy the “Make America Great Again” baseball cap, that Lynne had previously refused to sanction.
We were, after all, here for the inauguration. I doubt if I will dare to wear it.
The Latina girl who sold it to me didn’t seem to be impressed, even as I tried to explain that I wasn’t a supporter and simply wanted a souvenir – later, on checking the bill, I had the strong suspicion that she had borrowed the Barista’s card machine.
Feeling much better today, so the social calendar is back on track.
* The term is absolute and not relative to the age of the observer.
Sun is shining once again but cold – 14º
Feeling better and heading for the tour buses, to join about 500 other passengers for a trip to the Kennedy Space Centre.
Really is a massive site, covering 7,000 acres, with buildings for SpaceX, Blue Horizon and Boeing alongside the NASA complex.
Started with a bus ride to the Saturn buildings, passing the gigantic Modular Assembly Building, with the rocket transport crawler and bits of recovered boosters in the surrounding areas.
There was also a Space X Rocket on one of the distant launch pads – distant because the blast area of an exploding rocket is 3 miles.
After a couple of hours, we caught the bus back to the main centre and wandered around the Atlantis Space Shuttle exhibit, with the real shuttle on display.
The was also a model of the space station and I thought it would be a shame to miss crawling through it. As soon as I entered, I thought it was a little claustrophobic and realised that the other passengers were children. I made my way through and out the other side, where Lynne confirmed that it was a one third scale exhibit for children – Plonker!
Moon Lander display had the Eagle lander and the original flag placed on the moon by Neil Armstrong – very realistic and could be a film set😊.
Everything was very impressive and well worth the visit.
Sun is out but still quite chilly.
Not sure if “cold” could be flu, as still coughing, sneezing and shivering.
Missed Trivia again but walked around the deck and watched some football in one of the lounges.
Not up to dressing up, so had dinner in the buffet. A German couple sat next to us but when Lynne spoke to the lady, she said that she could only speak a very small amount of English. Rather than sit in silence, I tried speaking German. They were very pleased and went rattling on, thinking my nodding and smiling indicated understanding.
It was not too bad really and we spoke about previous travels and learned that they were leaving the ship in Rio – as are a number of people.
The cruise started in Hamburg and there are quite a few German passengers but the majority are British. That may change in a couple of days, when we arrive in Fort Lauderdale.
Sun is shining and the wind has dropped. Unfortunately, have a really heavy cold.
I thought there was something happening, when we received a note about “coughing and sneezing etiquette” – didn’t do it, or if you do, use a handkerchief.
Thinking back, someone behind me sneezed when we were in the theatre and that’s probably where it came from.
Decided to miss the Trivia, rather than pass it on but took advantage of the warm weather to walk around the decks.
Thought dancing was also risky, so missed that as well.
Masked ball tonight but the cold became worse, as the day progressed and opted for an early night with room service – suppose I could have worn my Leeds United Covid mask.
