Marie's Retirement Cruise Review Nov 26-Dec 4,2011

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats...

gws

Lake Worth, Florida

Lake Worth beach

Marie and I enjoyed a few days at my brother Richard's condo in Lake Worth, Florida, near Palm Beach, for a few days after returning from our cruise to the eastern Caribbean this week. We both like the area and the condo - at Lake Clarke Gardens - is in a great location, the grounds are well maintained, the pools gorgeous and it only a short walk to the nearest stores. We rented a car while we were there and hit the beach both days, 10 minutes away. We love to take long walks in the sand and did at least 4 miles each day, picking up shells and coral and even saving a flying fish that had flown the wrong way and was floundering on the beach. As you can see from the pictures there were very few other people about! 

crosswords on the beach!

Rich had recommended a Cuban restaurant, the Havana in W. Palm Beach which we tried one night. We were amazed at the quality and quantity of the dishes we had and it was the highlight of our stay there. We shared a Sabor Cubano, corn meal laced with seasoned pork, wrapped in a corn husk with the pork topped with sauteed onions, and I had one of the best flnak steaks I have ever eaten, with maduros (sweet plantain) and a salad. Marie had the same with tostones (green plantains) and yuca con mojo ( cassava, a potato like vegetable). We finished with a Tres Leches, a three milk cake made with fresh, evaporated and condensed milk, followed by a very sweet  but delicious Cuban coffee.  Nothing short of fantastic and I recommend it to anyone visiting the Palm Beach area! Thanks Richard!! 

best Cuban food in town!

We were up before 4am on the morning of the 7th as we had a 0915 flight from Punta Gorda, clear over the other side of the state. By 5am we were on our way, heading west on SR 80 which took us around the bottom of Lake Okeechobee through Belle Glade and Moore Haven and on towards Fort Myers where I got on I-75 north to the tiny airport in Punta Gorda. Our DirectAir flight had one stop in Lakeland and we were back in Plattsburgh by early afternoon and home for supper! No snow but cooler temperatures than we had been used to for the past three weeks! Now where can we go next.....gws

Lake Clarke Gardens pool

Last Day At Sea/Arrival in Florida

Day 8: Saturday the 3rd of December

Promenade deck, Navigator of the Seas

Our last day sailing from Haiti to Port Everglades was windy and choppy and it was obvious we had left the Caribbean Sea far behind us! We spent time shopping one last time in the Promenade, reading and catching a few rays, packing for an early arrival (6am) and saying goodbye to our waiters, cabin staff and our wonderful dinner aquaintances from Venezuela, promising to stay in touch.

early morning, arriving Port Everglades, Florida

 Embarking was quick and, after sailing through immigration, we grabbed a shuttle bus to the airport in Fort Lauderdale where we picked up our rental car and headed back north on the I-95 to Lake Worth for the next three days. Hopefully the weather will be pleasant until we head over to Punta Gorda for our flight home to Montreal on Wednesday. The week went by quickly for us but it was a fun trip with great food and excellent service and a fitting celebration for Marie`s retirement. But after all is said and done, we will definitely choose a smaller ship for our next cruise! gws

like this one!

Haiti? Well...not really!

Day 7: Friday the 2nd of December

Entering Labadee, Haiti

 After a night’s sailing from Puerto Rico the large hulk of Hispaniola loomed up around 8am this morning and by 9 the ship was alongside the dock at Labadee, Haiti, a ‘resort-beach-fantasy’ world leased by Royal Caribbean, hidden and forbidden from the eyes of the local population in a corner of the northwest part of the country. The location is named after Marquis de La'Badie, a Frenchman who first settled the area in the 17th century. The spelling was changed to "Labadee" to make it easier for English-speakers to pronounce (read Americans). The resort is completely tourist-oriented, guarded by a private security force, and fenced off from the surrounding area - we were not allowed to leave the property!

Free slave with a big knife!

  As it was considered a do-nothing day Marie and I spent the morning and early afternoon at one of the beaches, a lagoon like sandy stretch of sand on the other side of the ship which loomed a few hundred yards away. There was no surf to speak of and the water was like a bath but it was pleasant enough with a breeze and a view of the very green and rugged hills behind us. A reggae band played a few feet away but couldn’t seem to attract much interest; I thought they were pretty good though and felt sorry for the apathetic crowd they were playing to. They even sang a few Christmas songs just to remind us it is December! 

Reggae on the beach!

French mermaid, Labadee, Haiti

The ship put on a lunchtime BBQ for the passengers and it was quite good - jerk chicken, ribs, hamburgers, salads, fruit and desserts, but a cold beer would have been nice! They were selling rum drinks for $10 each so we made do with ice which we let the hot sun melt for us. (We had to pay for water) It was disconcerting to eat our lunch while a crowd of hungry children peered through the fence, rubbing their stomachs and asking for food. I heard later that they end up getting some of the left over food. As well, armed Haitian police roamed amongst us doing their best to look important. It was very hot after lunch and by 2pm we had had enough. A controlled group of Haitian merchants are given sole rights to sell their merchandise and establish their businesses in the resort so, on our return to the ship, we picked up a wooden carving made locally to remind us of our magical day in Haiti! Back on board we headed to the pool where we cooled off to wait for the 5pm sailing back to Florida. gws

Eating an apple, Navigator of the Seas in the background

Puerto Rico

Day 6: Thursday the 1^st of December

Coming into old San Juan harbour

After leaving St Kitts we spent a few hours enjoying one of the ship’s pools, the sea calm and the weather perfect for sailing. That night we were serenaded by our waiters to ”O Solo Mio”, it being Italian night at dinnertime. We eat at 830pm every evening, with a couple from Venezuela who live now in Miami, Marisela and Jesús, the four of us sharing a table for eight in the very beautiful and spacious dining room.

Ships waiters serenading us

Marie and I with our friends from Venezuela, Marisela and Jesús

 

The Navigator of the Seas sailed into San Juan Harbour early on the 1^st, tying up in the old city, La Ciudad Amurallada (the walled city) at 8am. Marie and I had been in Puerto Rico a few years back, on route to the Dominican Republic, but never had the chance to explore the island together. I had been here innumerable times during my Navy career, usually stopping at the US Naval Base in Roosevelt Roads, and was acquainted with the pace and flavour of San Juan. But again we didn’t have much time to enjoy all the sights of this large island as the ship was due to sail at 2pm. We contented ourselves with starting off early and having breakfast in a local favourite, the Café Manolin, then circling old San Juan on foot, from the San Cristobal Castle to the famous point of entry to the city, San Felipe Del Morro.

Between these two 400 year old forts we wandered up the old narrow cobblestoned streets, looked down on the old historic cemetery with it’s orange-domed church, walked along the boardwalk, home to wild cats (I quit counting after 100!) that lived along the rocks and bushes along San Juan Bay to Del Morro castle, picked up a few souvenirs and enjoyed the warm tropical weather of early December – little humidity, temperatures around 80 and a cool breeze coming in off the Atlantic Ocean. Tomorrow we are off to Labadee, Haiti, our last port of call before returning to Florida. gws

St Kitts

Day 5: Wednesday the 30^th of November



Approaching St Kitts, Nevis under clouds in the background

An early arrival after a short hop over to Port Zante, St. Kitts got us up at 6am and we were off the ship by 8am, trying to avoid the inevitable hawkers as we wandered into Basseterre, the capital of this pretty island. It was obvious from our first sight of St. Kitts that it was cleaner, greener and better off than St. Maarten - perhaps it was the British influence through its recent history. I had the opportunity to meet the governor of the island who had come out in his car to greet the ships passengers. He was a very large man and stayed seated in the back of his limo, but allowed Marie and I to reach in and shake his hand, nodding sagely as I said it was a delight to be there and meet such an important personage!

Mabreeka! (welcome!)

Originally known as St. Christopher when the French and English settlers arrived in the 1620s, the town of Basseterre, then  part of the French colony, is one of the oldest in the eastern Caribbean. In the 1700s as the rest of the world was falling in love with sugar, St Kitts, with its rich volcanic soil and tropical climate, had just the right conditions for a booming industry. At one time. over 68 sugar plantations dotted the 68-acre island! Those days are long gone but there are still remnants of the old plantations so we decided to book a tour by bus to Clay Villa Plantation House and Gardens to see some of this history. 

It was a half hour drive by bus – they drive on the left like in England – past the ancient volcano of Mount Liamuiga, wild goats grazing on the rocky soil and roosting egrets that were clustered in acacia trees along the roadway like great cotton balls to the former sugar plantation that was run by a very friendly couple, Philip and Bridget. Philip was ex-RCN who had been here 13 years, married to Bridget who was  of Caribe Indian ancestry and who told us the plantation and house had been in her family for 5 generations.

Clay Villa

Clay Villa was an earthly delight hidden behind high stone walls and majestic bougainvillea bushes, an oasis of life – every type of flowering shrub, tree and bush imaginable: frangipani, alamanda, plumbago, ginger lilies, mango and avocado trees, sugar apples, lemons and bananas, a bird of paradise plant and a huge coffee tree.

The views of the distant Caribbean shimmering in the bright sunshine and distant Nevis, its top hidden in cloud, were spectacular!

Me and Jesus, Clay Villa

Philip invited us into the welcoming coolness of his bar that faced the garden and sea for a cold Carib Beer before we boarded the bus and headed downhill to a nearby black volcanic sand beach for a quick swim, lunch and then back to the ship for a 5pm sailing to San Juan, Puerto Rico. gws