harryfat1

Ok. It’s been miserably hot and humid all morning and we’ve been walking for 3 hours now. Time to head back to the ship and rest and chill out (literally). Few more pictures of the Punda side before we are done

Interesting tour. Thanks for the info. I will take a look at the details later. We are only going to be in NYC for a week so the list of things to see will be longer than we have time for. NYC has more than enough things to do for 2 weeks so it's more of a question of how many places we leave off the list than what we can do. Especially in the summer when it'll be hot and icky. Not looking forward to the heat.

Yeah, the cheapo lock was bought online as CFKACD was trying to save a few bucks in getting a small lock. But, hey, it's red, right? 🤪 My wife finally found a spot in the side somewhere near the bottom to squeeze it in So we are part of the love heart

OK. Locks. Like in Paris where they have a bridge full of locks, Curaaco has a lock display area by the bridge. Wanting to join the process, cheapo me bought a cheap ass lock online to try to put it on the display along with thousands of other locks. The thing is that the display was so full that it took a while to finally find an opening for a small lock. So if you plan to add a lock to the collection, don’t be cheap like me. Bring a very long neck lock so you can put it on easily...🤪

Onward with the trip report ++++++++++++ Dushi and Curacao signs. Obligatory tourist picture spots.

You are welcome. Thanks for the kind words. I am just a volume shooter. When in doubt, take a picture as if you take enough of them, some might be decent enough to be uploaded online. Like you, by the end of the tour, I was pretty tired and hot walking in the heat/humidity that day. The brain/memory shut down after a while and I just let the pictures do the talking in the trip report as by then I don't remember which artist painted what and why. It's just easier to post the pictures and less editorial on my part since I don't remember what was what almost 2 months later. Maybe some people actually prefer it this way…🙂

Yeah, the tour guide mentioned the background of the Synagogue during the tour but by then my brain had melted from the heat/exhaustion that I forgot which building was what. At the risk of pointing out the wrong building, if I don’t know for sure, it’s best not to give out any info if I’m uncertain.

There are various free walking tours at different cities/islands. Per this website, there are over 85 cities in this community: https://freetourcommunity.com/ Every time you go to a new place, Google a free walking tour for that city to see if they have free tours there. On a side note, we are thinking about going to NYC this summer, and from my initial research, I have found a few walking tour operators for various parts of NYC so will likely book a couple of those. Personally speaking, I would rather pay someone a tip to show me some sites I would never have found on my own. Just walking around aimlessly and taking a few pictures without much insight is less interesting in my opinion.

Very nice. I was hoping for a free ride for some photos/video of the event but it wasn’t meant to be. Oh, well, guess it’ll have to be the next visit when I see the rest of the island as well as Bonaire as I need to complete the ABC island set. Just note the walking tour can be hot and tiring. Hopefully, you will get the wind to cool you off which was absent during our visit.

Familiar pose as previous artwork. The sign on the left explains this ChiChi sculpture and the corporate sponsorship during the tough Covid times. I like to think my claim to fame here on CC is my usage of the “Baby Got Back” song in trip reports. At least my buddy @BIBPhotography only remembers me for this 🤪 13 Million views can't be wrong:

I was curious about how much a stay at the Elements Hotel would be for say 5 nights in the same Christmas period for 2024. Expedia quoted me $700 for 5 nights for 4 people in a double queen bed. Not bad considering what other places could charge you. Anyway, a few last pictures before we take the elevator downstairs and look for the famous Curacao and Dushi sign. There are probably a lot of people up here at Sunset/nighttime with the Rooftop Bar drinking and chilling

Looking back at the Odyssey way in the back. Dang, we walked pretty far to get here as we looked back at where the ship was and afterward we had to walk back there in the heat. OK, the tour is over. Time to tip the nice man and we are on our own to explore the town before going back to the ship for lunch. CFKACD not paying for lunch off the ship… Zoom into the ship with the North Star up and running

OK, we have arrived at the last segment of the walking tour where RaeRae took us to the rooftop bar of the Elements Hotel for us to rest and check out the view. I am almost certain 99% of the average cruiser will not find this place on their own.

More scenery:

You can add your own editorial here to the artwork. Anything I say will be used against me in being banned for life from CC:🤪

More cool mural artwork on just about every street. Paint stores in Curaaco must have a lot of business

People from the tour bought popsicles here as I saw someone on YouTube recommending this ship Bet you that you won’t see this Santa back home from your neck of the woods. I would have queued up the “Here Comes Santa Claus” song from a YouTube channel but I think everyone is tired of Christmas songs by February so we will move on.

Continue on with the trip report: ++++++++++ The tour continued with a stop at one of the small shops where the owner knew the tour guide and they gave each one of us a small sample of Curacao liqueur to see what it tasted like as it's a very famous island product. If we had been on an island tour, many tours would have taken the tourists to the distillery out of the town so the storefront is the only place you can get a small free sample of the liqueur. Emphasize on the word small as we all got a mini Dixie cup size sample as the store owner was pretty cheap on the pour as ost got got about 2 drops worth in each. Anyway, onward with the tour. After the sampling, we saw more artwork along the way Cool bike. I assume Biker19 is reading this somewhere - what do you think?

Speaking of Princess Cruises and Asian food, on the Majestic Princess, besides the Noodle Bar upstairs at the Pool deck serving basic noodles, they also have specialty dining that serves upscale Chinese food. As far as I know, Majestic Princess is one of the rare ones that has a dedicated specialty just for Chinese food, not a combination of all the Asian food on other cruise ships. Let me know if I missed another ship out there. I think RCI had originally envisioned the Silk restaurant on the first set of Q class ships as part of the Asian flair when they were trying to jam the concept of “Dynamic Dining” down the cruisers' throats but from what I read, other than the decoration in Silk is Chinese, the food in the Silk restaurant is same as all the MDR restaurants? Personally, I would find it odd to be eating Escargot and Burritos in a red Chiense-themed restaurant but that’s just me. Anyway, the Majestic Princess’ Chinese menu had to be “adjusted” when she out to the US for the Alaska season as the original menu was too “weird” for the North American crowd. Here is the current version of what Americans think of upscale Chinese food: https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/harmony-dinner-menu.pdf I had to laugh when I first saw the menu back in 2022 when I was researching the ship ahead of our Alaska cruise. This is very “Gringo” Chinese food. Some of the “Chinese food” here doesn’t exist in Asia. It was created in North America for local consumption. For example, there’s no Crab Rangoon or General Tso’s Chicken in Asia - made in America. Sweet and sour pork is a cheap Chinese takeout as well as pork won ton soup. Not a high-end restaurant. This specialty restaurant would be empty if the ship sailed back to China without reverting to the original menu. They had to overhaul the original menu to bring the ship to Alaska. Here's the original menu: https://www.princess.com/content/dam/princess/onboard-experience/food-dining/pdfs/menu-harmony-dinner.pdf.coredownload.inline.pdf Actually, I showed a few items from my previous pictures as I highlighted them in green: The chilled jellyfish is the yellow thing in the middle Here’s the egg white fried rice with scallops: Noodles with crab: As for the yellow highlighted soup from above, how many North American cruisers will order the Chinese herbal soup? It’s just so interesting to see how much the cruise ships have to change to cater to different food tastes in various regions of the world. Some day, I will be interested in sailing on the Spectrum of the Seas sailing in Asia as I have seen videos of their Windjammer, which has different food than the Windjammer on the Odyssey even though both ships are "ultra" Q class ships. I can write more about the differences between the cultures but nobody cares. That's not why you are here - you are here to hear the Baby Got Back song. So we will move on...🤪

For those who have sailed on the Quantum and Ovation during the Alaska cruise season, I thought there was an Asian noodle place on board as both ships were built for the Asian market. But not sure if they modified it for the North American market? We sailed on the Majestic Princess to Alaska back in 2022 and that ship was also built exclusively for the Chinese market. If it wasn’t for Covid, it would never have made it to the US cruise market. The entire ship has both Chinese/English signs. They have a dedicated noodle place on the top deck that serves Asian noodles daily as I can tell you that your average overseas Asian cruiser WILL NOT eat the American/Mexican food typically found on the top decks' North American based cruise ships. Maybe an 8-year-old Chinese kid overseas will eat a hot dog or burger but his/her parents or grandparents won’t touch any hot dog or El Loco Fresh on their sailings in Asia so they need noodle shop for the overseas crowd. Here are a few pictures from the noodle bar on the Majestic Princess: You pick whatever you want and they will cook it for you

As far as I know, no North American-based cruise line offers a dim sum restaurant. If someone else knows, please let a comment below. Most land-based Chinese restaurants in the US/Canada do not offer this type of food. Only a limited number offer this in sit-down seating. There are some take-out dim sums in Chinatowns in the big cities but a full sit-down restaurant that offers this type of food is rare, especially post-COVID as many big places closed shop due to high overhead. The reason it’s rare is you need a HUGE steam area to cook this food. Every one of these round bamboo things comes from a steamer. You would need to dedicate a huge part of your kitchen to steam this as in the kitchen they are stacked like 8 high when steamed in the kitchen. You need a massive amount of steam to cook hundreds of these in a very short time for people to eat it while it’s hot as they don’t taste good cold. Carnival Excel class ship has a small booth for takeout Asian food that is supposed to have one basic steam item daily as their specials of the day. Nothing like the extensive menu selection you would find in land-based restaurants. Here's a sample menu I found online. They have 1 item per day from here:

Super cool. Do you remember what was the occasion for the military show? Was it like an Independence Day celebration? Yeah, I wanted to be on the bridge when it breaks away from the dock as it swings 90 degrees back to the other side but we never saw any watercraft sailing by to warrant the opening of the waterway.

RaeRae took us to an art store but they won't allow cameras inside so I refused to go in if they won't let me take pictures. I will just stand outside and take pictures of the area Narrow 1-lane street

Honey, what's the name of the island we are on? Oh, yeah...

So if you look at the map. we started from the left side where I showed the beginning of the walking tour. All the murals were from the purple section and now we crossed the bridge to get to the "punda" side of the city. The red arrow is right after we crossed the bridge. Google Maps says there's Punda Live Heart by the red arrow area. We have a story about that after the tour RaeRae working hard explaining to everyone about the Punda district