h20skibum

After we got back to the ship, we ate, cleaned up, and walked to town. Across the floating bridge Had to get photos of the colorful buildings We found a heart sculpture with the locks of love on them Birds Since we walked over later in the day, not many on the street We have been working hard on this cruise so we won’t be kidnap targets Made it back without being pier runners

Busy day for us in Curaçao. Entertainment on the pier Our excursion was snorkeling with the turtles, then a beach break. This is the same excursion we did in October, and loved it. Shot a lot of video, but these are just a couple frame extracts Two for the price of one we snorkeled at the beach break and I have a lot of video I haven’t pulled frames from yet, but lots of colorful fish.

In October, it wasn’t too bad. It has only been in the low to mid 80’s, but humidity is 85% or higher, so it makes it hot. Reminds me of our hot August nights. Wait, I think there is a song by that name.

When you try it, make sure they make the strawberry layer well frozen, as well as the pina colada layer. The bottom layer should be thick, so the blue floats on it, before they add the frozen pina colada layer I had them make one at solarium bar, and they just used the strawberry liquid. It was not as good. CYD, at Schooner bar now has it down. He recognized me coming in this afternoon, and said “Same thing?” He makes the best.

Good morning Curaçao. Too many clouds for a sunrise Off to meet our snorkeling excursion now.

A few pictures from last night at Aruba Boardwalk CP

My unscientific guess, based on observations today, is that there are no traffic lights. Just saw round a bouts everywhere. Maybe it is because we were talking about them at dinner the other night with our table mates.

Sometimes a picture is easier than typing ingredients. Although it says the Pub, they no longer make frozen drinks.

Yes, we spent the day at Eagle beach. I just posted a few photos on Sue’s thread.

I also found that someone had my license plate. But after a hot walk back (24,000 steps for the day so far), we stopped at Schooner Bar to have them make us a couple Union Jack Lava Flows. Ohhhh sooo good. I did have to show him the Royal recipe, but he did great.

We had no plans for the day in Aruba, other than a beach day at Eagle Beach. We got a late start in our walk there. We walked there the last time we were here in October, but today was much more humid. For those who want to walk it, it is 3200 steps from the port to reach Divi Beach, then another 2200 from Divi to Eagle. Overall, about a 50 minute walk. When we got there at 10:30, they rented the last of the $40 umbrella and two loungers to the couple in front of us. So, we went next door, and got the last of the $50 umbrella and two loungers. Yea, for those prices they should include a drink. But the views are amazing, and the water so nice. Found this setup on our walk back to the ship.

I know it is for dinner as the Samba Grill. They were setting up and had the menu posted. We have not gone there though. The Bistro was open on boarding day, and we ate there then. Haven’t paid attention at other times.

Busted!! So we are sitting in Windjammer this morning, and a waiter walks up to us and says “I know you”. We hadn’t run into him yet on this cruise, but saw him every day when we were on in March. He says “You are the cookie people”. Evidently that is our nickname, because we each stop and get four cookies each, to keep our cabin stocked. 🤣🤣 Then he remembered our names. It is nice to be remembered, but maybe we should work at something other than cookies to be remembered by. An I think I may have stumbled on why we put on some pounds on these cruises. 🤣🤣

An update on our broken suitcase travel claim. Finally received notification that they processed it for payment. 75% of original cost, which is what was in the policy. However, it took a phone call last week, and they agreed to expedite it. Still it was two months to the day when I called, and a month after my previous contact. Now I can throw that old one away.

Kind of like having a boat. A lot of cost for the limited season in our area, but we still have it. My sunrise photo of the day from Aruba.

Picture trouble, so let’s try sunrise at Aruba again.

Yes, in this one they used three decks and handed out a card at each bar. After they handed out the first card, they figured out they needed to keep track of the cards everyone got, so no one was combining hands. They had 80% going to the best hand, and 20% to the worst hand, although they were considering the worst hand as the fewest points when adding card values. I don’t agree with that method, because you could then technically have the best and worst hand if you had four twos and a three. I have run a couple of these, and in those cases I had the cards in sealed envelopes in a bag, and everyone would reach in the bag and draw an envelope at each bar. Then at the final bar, each person opens one envelope at at time, and let the excitement build as each card is revealed. The envelope method keeps people from combining hands.

We haven’t had any food porn for a while, so here goes. Dinner last night started with the poblano pepper soup. Then, since we didn’t find anything on the menu that appealed to us, we had the Chops filet. I don’t think they really know what they should charge for these. Before the pandemic, it was always 16.95 plus the gratuity that made it $20. The last few cruises, they just charged $16.95, and we even got the head waiter involved when we told him we thought it should be $20, and he said that the 16.95 included gratuity. So last night, it is back to $20, and it was the first time we didn’t have to sign a slip. Deserts were Mississippi mud pie and cheesecake

Well, let me try to post a picture then. Yesterday, we did a pub crawl/poker run with 31 other people. It was a good time, although we donated money again, because we had two loosing hands. I kept hoping Susan would draw that third ace, which would have been a winner.

We are on this same cruise with you. This is our fifth cruise since the restart, and first time back on Allure since March. Granted, the passenger count is up to around 5,000 for this sailing, but there has also been a noticeable increase in staffing. Many more bartenders and bar servers, plus many more dining staff. Waitstaff don’t have near as many tables to cover as on earlier cruises. Even the brief time we were in Windjammer for breakfast yesterday, we were asked at least half dozen times if we needed anything. We are doing traditional dining, and service has been outstanding. Trying to do MTD at 6:45 is like people coming to the port outside their boarding time to line up and get in early. It was a hassle, even before the pandemic. I do agree they need to look into the buffet at Labadee. It was so much worse than CocoCay.

Back early, when the pandemic started, we contracted for some work to be done on our house. It was the perfect time, because everyone was hungry for work, and there were no supply shortages for construction materials. Plus, this was before the government began giving money away. Anyhow, we had a large bow window (about 12’x6’) replaced with a custom Pella one. The company asked if I would write a review, so I did, and added some photos. Now I occasionally get notifications from Google about how many people have viewed those photos. Today I got one that says over 10,000 people have viewed. Has anyone had this type of feedback for any reviews you may have done? Not sure now, how I like 10,000 people looking in my window. 😱

Yes, but for me it always seems like it is outgoing to the family rather than incoming from them. 🤣

I don’t know why it is hit or miss with the noise. I think they may have ice machines in there, because I see cabin stewards going in and out with ice buckets. Maybe it depends on crew schedules, or who knows what. Ours on deck 10 this cruise has not been noisy, but deck 11 on Oasis was.

She is collecting the money that Susan and I donated. 🤣🤣

Prayers for a good outcome Just read further. So sorry for your loss