MS Maasdam Cruise Log - Mar 02-12 2012

[Spire2000]

So I thought I would take the time to put together my thoughts on our recent cruise on the MS Maasdam. I found so much great advice here on CC that I thought I would provide some opinions and facts that might help others in the future.

 

A few background points before I begin our first day.

 

We are a family of three (myself, my wife and my 3 year old daughter). We met up with my parents who are HAL 4-star mariners as part of their 2 months of cruising with HAL this winter. They had just come off 20-some days on the Ryndam and were starting 35-odd days on the Maasdam. I thought it would help ease their separation anxiety from their only granddaughter if we met up with them for a portion of their cruise.

 

This is the third cruise for both myself and my wife, while it is already my daughter's second. Our previous cruises were a short 4 day out of Miami on NCL and a 7 day trek on the Carnival Victory out of Puerto Rico. Up until two years ago, we were dedicated All-Inclusive Resort-types quite happy in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Once all the craziness started south-of-the-border, we reexamined our vacation choices and saw cruising as an option for the first time.

 

DAY 0

 

I worked a partial day on March 1st, as we didn't have to get to the airport until 2:00pm or so. I reached work at 7:30am and gradually began to notice it snowing outside. As the day goes on, more and more snow is coming down. We are scheduled to fly from Ottawa to Chicago and then on to Ft Lauderdale and I am beginning to become worried about delays. Throughout the morning, many flights are cancelled. Thankfully, as noon reaches, I see the snow has stopped as I walk to my car. Once we reach the airport, we find we are delayed about 45 minutes. All is well from there. The flight from Chicago is also delayed a bit, but we arrive safe and sound in Ft Lauderdale around 11:30pm. My folks picked us up at the airport and we head to Cambia Suites for the night.

[Spire2000]

DAY 1

 

Next morning, I indulge my wife by visiting her favourite place when she is in the US, Target. We pick up a few essentials, some snacks and some distractions for my daughter for the week, then head to the port around 11:00am. The embarkation was a breeze, far better than our experience in Miami and Puerto Rico. We were on the ship within 15 minutes of entering the doors to the terminal.

 

We reach the ship and I am struck by the amount of staff and their helpfulness while we are trying to get our bearings. My folks have been on this ship many times, but we haven't, so we found it very useful to have staff greeting you at every corner, pointing you in whatever direction you wished to go.

 

We found our cabin easily enough (NN703) and dropped our bags. The room was exactly like we had expected. It was larger than our inside cabin on the NCL Sky, but a bit smaller than the equivalent on the CCL Victory. Everything was clean and well laid out. While we were setting our things down, the steward appeared and introduced himself. His English was quite poor but we were able to communicate enough. We asked him about the bunk bed and he said it sits quite high, too high for our daughter we decided, so we asked him to make the pull out. He asked what time we would be going to bed and we said 8 or so. He said the bed would be ready when we returned.

 

So we left and grabbed some lunch in the Lido. I'm not sure if it's standard, but there were signs out stating that for the first 48 hours all food would be handled by the staff to prevent the spread of disease. The food was fine as I remember.

 

For the rest of the afternoon, we roamed the ship, getting the lay of the land. It was at this point that we really began to get an idea as to the demographics of the ship. We've been told numerous times that the median age is well north of 60. I took that to mean that there would many more seniors than there would be younger people. We were now realizing that we were wrong. There really weren't any young people at all. Out of the 1200 or so guests, there were exactly 7 people under the age of 16 and maybe 50 people under the age of 60. Now, I have nothing against folks who are older than me, and to be honest, I came to appreciate the mature behaviour of the ship by the end of trip, but I won't lie; it surprised and worried us just a little bit.

 

After the muster drill, we took my daughter up to meet the girls at the Club HAL. They have a very nice facility up there that is barely used. The girls told us that our daughter was the only one board near her age, with the next youngest being two sisters aged 8 and 12. I felt a little bad for the staff there as they go to lengths to plan all kinds of scheduled activities, but have only 0-3 kids at any time. Again, I can't stress enough how well presented the whole program was.

 

We later meandered down to the Lido again, this time for dinner. I was beginning to get a sense of general attitude of the staff behind the line at the Lido by now and I wasn't impressed. While we never really saw any lines at the buffet, I felt like the staff behind the counter did not make you feel like they were there to help. Very curt and sharp, "Yes?" was how you were greeted, not a friendly, "How can I help you?". I often felt that we were somehow inconveniencing the staff by asking them to serve us something. I'd have been more than happy to get it myself, if only I were allowed.

 

The food, once received, was actually quite good. A large improvement over the NCL and CCL equivalent buffets. The pasta station I really enjoyed, but aside from a few blah deserts (not a strong point on this ship) I didn't find anything I didn't like.

 

I don't actually remember if we saw a show that night. I think we must have but we were dead tired from two long days and we called it quits early.

[kazu]

Looking forward to the rest of your review Spire - wish we had met you at our meet and greet :D

[sail7seas]

As someone who sails Maasdam often, I am really enjoying your review.

Can't wait for more. :)

 

Thanks so much for all your efforts on our behalf.

 

[Spire2000]

Looking forward to the rest of your review Spire - wish we had met you at our meet and greet :D

 

To be honest, I didn't record any of the details as to location/date/time for the meet and once we got on board, we were kind of overwhelmed with the environment and the whole thing slipped my mind. I actually felt guilty about missing it later in the week, especially because I felt that we stood out like a sore thumb on the ship due to the presence of my daughter and it was obvious that *we* were the ones who "blew off the M&G".

[beacha]

I'm so excited to read your review, or rather your experience. Thank you for taking the time to write it, as we who will be boarding soon are gleaning so much information.

[erewhon]

Thank you for writing your review.

Looking forward to reading the next installment.

[RMLincoln]

We'll be boarding Maasdam in a few days so I hope we can read more of your experience on her. Thanks for posting it. m--

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to report on your cruise. Can't wait for the rest.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[kazu]

To be honest, I didn't record any of the details as to location/date/time for the meet and once we got on board, we were kind of overwhelmed with the environment and the whole thing slipped my mind. I actually felt guilty about missing it later in the week, especially because I felt that we stood out like a sore thumb on the ship due to the presence of my daughter and it was obvious that *we* were the ones who "blew off the M&G".

 

no worries:) we had a great time - just sorry you missed it

[mamaofami]

While we never ate dinner in the Lido, when we ate lunch there I found the servers to be very very helpful. They saw I needed help carrying my selection to a table and were always one step ahead of me. ONe day, when I wanted some plain steamed veggies and they weren't available, they made them for me. As soon as I sat, someone came to ask what beverage I wanted and always brought coffee or tea, etc. I was actually impressed with the crew in the Lido.

[Spire2000]

DAY 2, NASSAU

 

EARTHQUAKE!

 

Wait, that can't be right, we're at sea...

 

We awoke at 6:30am to the room shaking and noise so loud we thought the whole place was coming down around us. Given a few seconds, I realized what it was; the forward thrusters as the ship navigates it's way into port. You see, our cabin, NN703, was the low and most forward cabin on the ship, apparently directly beside both sets of thrusters. Each morning that we are not at sea, we would awake to the cabin seemingly ready to split apart from the sound and vibration that would go on for up to 90 minutes. How they could not warn the guests staying in this cabin about such a ruckus, I'll never know. I guess, if nothing else, it saved us from having to request wake-up calls. Incidentally, my daughter would sleep through the whole episode each morning, but that was probably because we had her up until 11 or midnight each night.

 

This is our second time in Nassau. Our first visit was two year ago during that wicked cold snap that hit Florida in January. On our first visit, I had to actually buy a sweater in town. This year though, the weather was much more agreeable.

 

Our plan was to take my daughter over to Atlantis and see the aquarium, so we grabbed a cab off the pier and headed over. Atlantis is a large place and you can see some of it as a visitor, but for a much better experience, you can purchase a day pass for the grounds. They run about $35.00 if I remember correctly. With this, you can roam the whole grounds, but cannot use the pools or water slides. I think there is a slightly higher pass you can purchase for that. What you do get though is access to "The Dig", a concept aquarium where the idea is that the lost city of Atlantis has been discovered and you tour though the excavated underground tunnels. Throughout the tunnels is an array of tanks filled will all manner of tropical fish. My daughter really enjoyed this outing. We also roamed the grounds above the tunnels and saw many other pools, both for people and for animals (sharks, sea turtles, etc...). Looks like a nice place to spend a week...

 

We headed back into town and were getting hungry. I'm a fan of trying local spots for lunch while we are off the ship. Part of the appeal of traveling for me is trying the local cuisine. We met some folks who would get off the ship in the AM, go back on for lunch and then get back off for the PM before re-boarding at the end of the day. We noticed people were doing this even at St Bart's, which is a tender port. To each their own, but that just seems like a huge hassle to us. Anyway, we popped into a cafe and had a tasty lunch, the highlight at the table being deep fried mahi mahi strips.

 

For the rest of the afternoon, we strolled around downtown. Prince Harry was going to be in town the very next day so there was a lot of decoration around town and everyone seemed excited. We got a chance to see the rebuilt Straw Market that was just a tent city last time we were there. This is easily the largest knick-knack market we've seen in the Caribbean, so much so that it is quite overwhelming, especially because each of the 100 or so booths sell identical wares.

 

After we re-boarded the ship, we had promised my daughter that she could go swimming. So her and I got changed and we headed up to the Lido. All set to get in, I put a foot in the Lido pool to see the temperature and I was shocked! It was heated! A heated pool in the Caribbean! And not just heated like you might your backyard pool to 80 or 82 degrees, this was heated to hot tub temperatures. It was easily 95-100 degrees, maybe more. I'm sorry, but that's crazy. We got in anyway and after a bit it was comfortable, the same way a hot bath is comfortable. This pool didn't seem very popular, obviously because of the temperature. It's impossible to cool off in such a thing.

 

Ironically, of the two pools, this is the one I ended up spending most of my time in. You see, there is this small area at the end of the pool where there is a dolphin statue. This area is about 8 inches deep and is barred by a steel rail. It's as close as you get to a kids pool area and my daughter loved this spot.

 

Later, we decided to try the MDR for the first time that evening. My folks, who had by now been cruising for more than two weeks on the Ryndam, had yet to try the MDR this year. We were on "anytime" dining so we showed up at 6:00pm. We were seated only moments after arriving, which was the case the entire trip. We did not experience a single wait with our "anytime" seating.

 

Now I know this next part is going to run some folks the wrong way, but remember, this is simply an account my own experiences on the ship. I found the service in the MDR to be abysmal. I get far better service at my local Outback or Kelsey's that we did in the MDR. The menus looked tasty enough, but any questions about the menu items were met with either a language barrier or simply a lack of knowledge on what was being served that night. Later on in the cruise, this barrier would be the cause of a significant incident that I will detail later on, but will require follow-up with the HAL main office. After each course, the dirty plates would sit for up to 20 minutes before being cleared, while the harried wait staff ran to-and-fro. Each meal we asked for milk for my daughter. Some evenings it showed up, some evenings it didn't (after asking multiple times) and some evenings it would appear in multiples. During the course of an hour and a half meal, we would usually see our waiter replaced twice. I have no idea where the previous fellow(s) would disappear to.

 

There are more items I could nitpick on, but you get the idea. My folks, long-time HAL cruisers were blown away at the service (or lack thereof) in the MDR on this ship. They stated that once we leave, they will not be visiting the MDR for the rest of their trip. My only real comparison is on the CCL Victory last year, and it was truly night and day better on the Victory.

 

After dinner, we went to the show (a Broadway revue if I remember correctly) and it was fine for what it was. Nothing memorable about it, but I do recall it was a tad on the short side, like all the shows.

 

Following the show, we retired for the night and looked forward to sleeping in on our sea day tomorrow.

[Seavoyage]

Hi Spire2000

 

Thank you for your informative review - we will be boarding the Maasdam in just a few weeks and really appreciate the information.

 

I wonder if your experience in the MDR was due to the "anytime" seating?

 

Yikes on the Lido pool temp....did you use the seaview pool? If so was that better?

 

Thank you again...

[Spire2000]

I wonder if your experience in the MDR was due to the "anytime" seating?

 

Could be. Since we didn't have the other option, I can't say for sure. I do know that the whole scene just seemed chaotic, as if a recent change in the way the dining room operates has people uncertain on some things.

 

 

Yikes on the Lido pool temp....did you use the seaview pool? If so was that better?

 

Yeah, the pool on the back deck was far better, but also had more people in it. We didn't try that until day 3, which is why it had yet t make an appearance here. Sitting out on the back deck can be windy while the ship is moving, but it's still nice.

[monina01]

Hi!

 

I am reading your review with great interest. My husband and myself were on the same cruise, it was our first cruise ever, and I am working on my own review.

 

It does differ alot from yours, it's really interesting to read the differences.

 

We are two of the under 60-s, of the group of 50 you mention (age 40 and 41), but it really looked to me like there were much more under 60. I really exected to see much much more people of 60 and higher, and we were suprised by the amount of people younger. Not sure how old your daugher is, but we noticed a a little boy around the age of 7. Cute little tyke, very very polite, and it looked like he was enjoying himself tremendously.

 

Now I am terrible in figuring out the ages of people but still.....it must have been more than 50 people.

 

We were on open seating, we usually ate around 8, and our experience is also very different from yours. Actually the other end of the spectrum, our plates vanished so quickly after finishing we often commented to each other that we thought someone was watching for that laste bite, before sprinting to be the first to get the plate off the table. Sometimes it went too fast....:)

 

The service we had was wonderful, and no language problem either. We had different waiters each time, because we always had a different table.

 

We ate one time at the Lido, was good, and I did not really notice the attitude of the people serving there. I did notice their attitude at breakfast, and they left us smiling. Especially a sweet beautifull girl named Patricia (at breakfast she did the omelettes, at lunch the sandwiches). Always happy and waving like crazy when we passed through the Lido from here to there.

 

So.......interesting about how your experience is so different from ours...I look forward to reading more.....(while struggling to finish my review :))

[monina01]

ps: sorry to have missed you at the meet & greet. I was actually looking for you, as I was curious because you had written you were close to our ages.

 

We had a wonderful time and met such a fun group of great, interesting and cool people.

[kazu]

Hi!

 

I am reading your review with great interest. My husband and myself were on the same cruise, it was our first cruise ever, and I am working on my own review.

 

It does differ alot from yours, it's really interesting to read the differences.

 

We are two of the under 60-s, of the group of 50 you mention (age 40 and 41), but it really looked to me like there were much more under 60. I really exected to see much much more people of 60 and higher, and we were suprised by the amount of people younger. Not sure how old your daugher is, but we noticed a a little boy around the age of 7. Cute little tyke, very very polite, and it looked like he was enjoying himself tremendously.

 

Now I am terrible in figuring out the ages of people but still.....it must have been more than 50 people.

 

We were on open seating, we usually ate around 8, and our experience is also very different from yours. Actually the other end of the spectrum, our plates vanished so quickly after finishing we often commented to each other that we thought someone was watching for that laste bite, before sprinting to be the first to get the plate off the table. Sometimes it went too fast....:)

 

The service we had was wonderful, and no language problem either. We had different waiters each time, because we always had a different table.

 

We ate one time at the Lido, was good, and I did not really notice the attitude of the people serving there. I did notice their attitude at breakfast, and they left us smiling. Especially a sweet beautifull girl named Patricia (at breakfast she did the omelettes, at lunch the sandwiches). Always happy and waving like crazy when we passed through the Lido from here to there.

 

So.......interesting about how your experience is so different from ours...I look forward to reading more.....(while struggling to finish my review :))

 

Hi Ina - looking forward to your review. Wow - it's amazing how things can be so different on the same cruise isn't it? Mind you, we were in fixed dining late - but certainly didn't have Spire's experience. If we had we would have talked to somone about it.

 

Pleasure meeting you. I am assuming you are now home and back to Europe - hope you enjoyed the Keys.

 

Gee Spire, you have me concerned as our tablemates (who were on the collectors and staying on) were going to try 'any time/whatever dining' on the lower level for a change. I hope they have a good experience:eek:

 

Thanks for sharing - a shame we missed you at the meet and greet. We weren't all ancient:D

[Typhoon1]

Looking forward to the rest. I enjoy hearing about departures in the snow, as we are faced with the same possibility.

[luv2travel06]

We were on this cruise as well and very much enjoyed it. (The flights to get there and get home...well that's another story.) We always intend to do a review, but never get around to it.

 

Stayed at Cambria Suites the night before (free with hotel points). Free shuttle to port. We were on the first one. HAL onshore staff was great, but they were struggling with some computer issues.

 

A Deck outside cabin near forward elevator, first cabin behind port side gangway was ready when we boarded. Cabin does not have fridge, so more drawers for storage where fridge would be. Cabin stewards were great, but we made no special requests of them. Luggage was in room before we needed to get ready for dinner.

 

Food was great, as always. Great tablemates at late dinner seating. Sometimes the service was a little slow in the MDR as on our Zuiderdam cruise last fall, but we attribute that to the number of tables assigned to the server. Our server, Heri, was very personable. Patricia in the Lido was so pleasant. Rollie in the Crow's Nest was great. Daily happy hours in Crow's Nest and Ocean Bars.

 

Went to most of the shows. Talented singers. Walked out of the comedy/magic show. Did not go to the R-rated late comedy show. HALCats were very good. Adagio Strings mostly played the same numbers each night at dinner--selections from the Nutcracker Suite.

 

Ports:

Nassau: Walked to Junkaroo beach and back, shopped straw market, watched other ships dock.

San Juan--Did ship's El Yunque rainforest tour. Very good! Bought Diet Coke at CVS across from pier to take back to ship.

St. Barts--Walked to beautiful Shell Beach.

Dominica--Docked at freight dock due to larger ship docked downtown. Did ship's tour of island highlights. OK.

Antigua--Went to a hotel beach for the day-glorious! Taxi charged $20 to there, $15 back.

St Thomas-- Docked at Crown Bay. Ships excursion to St. John. Hiked to Solomon and Honeymoon beaches. Beautiful!

Half Moon Cay--Glorious!

 

All aboard time for St. Thomas and HMC were 1.5 hrs earlier than times given on itinerary we printed from HAL website. Disappointing.

 

On Deck for the Cure event was done well, but not too many participants.

 

Master Chef's Dinner consisted of special menu, song before Baked Alaska parade by a couple of the dining room staff.

 

We had been on the last cruise before drydock last year. It was nice to see the updates to the cabins and other areas around the ship.

 

There seemed to be more motion than on our cruise last year, but nothing major.

 

Purchased FCC before ship even left port. Are booked for Veendam to Bermuda in May, considering Ryndam in Dec.

 

Two Carnival and one ____ Of The Seas ships docked in Nassau after us. Glad we beat them there. We will be sticking with HAL (although we are considering the NCL cruise around Hawaii next year rather than have to sail there and back).

[kazu]

We were on this cruise as well and very much enjoyed it. (The flights to get there and get home...well that's another story.) We always intend to do a review, but never get around to it.

 

Stayed at Cambria Suites the night before (free with hotel points). Free shuttle to port. We were on the first one. HAL onshore staff was great, but they were struggling with some computer issues.

 

A Deck outside cabin near forward elevator, first cabin behind port side gangway was ready when we boarded. Cabin does not have fridge, so more drawers for storage where fridge would be. Cabin stewards were great, but we made no special requests of them. Luggage was in room before we needed to get ready for dinner.

 

Food was great, as always. Great tablemates at late dinner seating. Sometimes the service was a little slow in the MDR as on our Zuiderdam cruise last fall, but we attribute that to the number of tables assigned to the server. Our server, Heri, was very personable. Patricia in the Lido was so pleasant. Rollie in the Crow's Nest was great. Daily happy hours in Crow's Nest and Ocean Bars.

 

Went to most of the shows. Talented singers. Walked out of the comedy/magic show. Did not go to the R-rated late comedy show. HALCats were very good. Adagio Strings mostly played the same numbers each night at dinner--selections from the Nutcracker Suite.

 

Ports:

Nassau: Walked to Junkaroo beach and back, shopped straw market, watched other ships dock.

San Juan--Did ship's El Yunque rainforest tour. Very good! Bought Diet Coke at CVS across from pier to take back to ship.

St. Barts--Walked to beautiful Shell Beach.

Dominica--Docked at freight dock due to larger ship docked downtown. Did ship's tour of island highlights. OK.

Antigua--Went to a hotel beach for the day-glorious! Taxi charged $20 to there, $15 back.

St Thomas-- Docked at Crown Bay. Ships excursion to St. John. Hiked to Solomon and Honeymoon beaches. Beautiful!

Half Moon Cay--Glorious!

 

All aboard time for St. Thomas and HMC were 1.5 hrs earlier than times given on itinerary we printed from HAL website. Disappointing.

 

On Deck for the Cure event was done well, but not too many participants.

 

Master Chef's Dinner consisted of special menu, song before Baked Alaska parade by a couple of the dining room staff.

 

We had been on the last cruise before drydock last year. It was nice to see the updates to the cabins and other areas around the ship.

 

There seemed to be more motion than on our cruise last year, but nothing major.

 

Purchased FCC before ship even left port. Are booked for Veendam to Bermuda in May, considering Ryndam in Dec.

 

Two Carnival and one ____ Of The Seas ships docked in Nassau after us. Glad we beat them there. We will be sticking with HAL (although we are considering the NCL cruise around Hawaii next year rather than have to sail there and back).

 

 

Thanks for sharing. I too was very happy that we arrived before those other ships. We headed back to the ship just as the hordes were arriving. Hal's timing was very nice on this cruise:)

[gelo7]

Thanks for sharing.

[Spire2000]

DAY 3 - AT SEA

 

First, sorry for the delay in getting this update. Trying to catch up on things after being away for two weeks and all that.

 

On our previous cruises, we haven't been that fond of our sea days. You see, we cruise to see the different ports, not so much because we are in love with being at sea. We always choose inside cabins because we don't feel we would get any value out of a balcony due to the fact we don't go on vacation to sit in a room. The trade off is of course on sea days we get a little stir crazy.

 

For this one, we thought we would line up a bunch of on-board activities, beginning with the galley tour at 10:30am. Well wouldn't you know it, but we don't wake up until 9:30 and by the time we get to breakfast and so on, we've missed the tour. Oh well.

 

I wish I had a lot to report on this day, but I simply don't. I gave the steel drum lessons a go, which was fun. Mostly, we hung out on the back deck, soaking up the sun enough to get a strangely patterned burn around my armpits. My daughter spent a good part of the day in Club HAL which she really loved. I can't say enough about those girls that work up there.

 

We had a good lunch on the Lido and an OK dinner in the dining room. The show this night was Bob Mackie's Broadway I believe, where the preformers sang various Broadway standards dressed in costumes designed by someone named Bob Mackie. *Shrug*

 

A short update today, I know, but the rest of the trip was much more exciting, I promise.

[Sophiebaby]

I, too, was on this cruise. The staff in the Lido couldn't be kinder or more helpful. By the second day, they knew my name and practically carried me to my table...and I am far from feeble. Hmmmm????

[Spire2000]

So I realize that I am not going to be able to give this report justice by posting each day. I just can't find the free time to throw at this log properly. Instead, I'm going to post this item with the important items from each day, then follow that with the good and the bad from the whole cruise.

 

Day 4 - San Juan

 

We had a late arrival, but a late departure, which was nice. We've been here before, and my dad has been here dozen of times with the Navy, but it was my mom's first visit. We walked all around the old city, up to the fort and then back down. The weather was very nice, though it teased a few sprinkles here and there.

 

We'd planned to have lunch at a particular spot we enjoy, but our late departure put us too late and they closed. Instead, we had a snack at Starbuck's and sat out in the town square for an hour watching the world go by. My wife was going to buy a knock-off purse, but for the third year in a row changed her mind once presented with the opportunity.

 

Next time we visit, I hope to get outside of the city and see the countryside.

 

Dinner we had on the ship in the MDR again was alright, but once again not "fine dining" quality by any means. I'm not going to harp on my displeasure with the MDR anymore until Day 8, where a major incident occurred.

 

The entertainment tonight I believe was the Nat King Cole tribute, which we skipped.

 

Day 5 - St Barts

 

This was the island I was most interested in seeing. I'd heard that the celebs flock here and I was curious to find out why. Let's just say, this place is a massive disappointment. You have to tender in to St Barts which was a new thing for us. I'm not a fan of the wait on board nor on shore to access the tenders, but of course I understand why this must be done.

 

Once on shore, we walked all around Gustavia. The shops here are much different than other Caribbean ports; selling high end clothing, furniture, services, etc. on top of the usual jewelery and watches. Strangely, no one was in any of them. The few we did enter, we were met with a chill from the employee.

 

Walking back toward the tender area, we decided to try lunch in a French-style cafe (right across from the tender dock). Between the four of us, we had 1 hamburger, 1 seafood salad, 2 chicken clubs, and two beers. Total price? $150.00 without tip. It's officially the most expensive island in the Caribbean.

 

I have a major problem with the people we encountered here. Despite the fact that two of us on our group could speak French, it was clear that the people of the island resent the cruise-ship passengers. While everything is clean and safe, you just do not feel welcome.

 

Entertainment on ship this night was a Broadway-style musical called "Goode Company" in the vein of Mad Men. Not a bad show by any means.

Day 6 - Dominica

 

My wife and I left my daughter with my folks for this port. We booked the "Dominica's Favorites" tour through the ship and were not disappointed. Dominica is very similar to St Lucia we found, both in terms of the people and the landscape. Unfortunately, we were relegated to the cargo pier outside of town. Those wishing to get into town had to pay a fee for a taxi or a shuttle.

 

The tour takes you to the waterfalls (very nice), the "crystal pool" (a serious hike down, and back up, eroded, wet steps in the deep humidity of the jungle) and the botanical gardens. Turns out we got unlucky with our tour guide, as she was simply bored, but the sites were nice. One thing I would suggest is consider walking only to the viewing point of the pool. It's too cold to get into, too small for the groups descending on it, and not worth the effort.

 

After our tour, we took the shuttle into town and walked around. We grabbed a late lunch a small cafe where I had the best jerk chicken I've ever encountered. Bathed in a red jerk sauce that was not overly spicy but full of flavour. Yum!

 

I honestly don't remember the show this night, but that's not a commentary on the quality. I was probably just tired.

Day 7 - Antigua

 

Not a whole lot to report here. The whole family was looking forward to the first beach day on our schedule. We grabbed a cab out to Dickenson Bay, which was beautiful. Sure, you have to rent chairs and what not, but the beach and water were very nice. Our cab drivers on both sides were very informative, cheerily givings us history lessons and such. Interesting to note that there is basically no crime on the island. In 2011, there were a total of 16 felonies, none against or involving tourists.

 

The show this night was "Road House" another show that combined acting and singing. It was at this show that I began to realize that much of the music at these shows is piped in and not always played by the musicians. I am a guitarist myself, and the guitar sounds in the shows up until tonight were vaguely bothering me for a reason I didn't understand. Tonight, we sat closer, and I finally recognized that the notes and chords the guitarist was playing didn't always match up to what was heard. On more occasions than I care to recite from this point on at all the shows, I saw the guitarist enter a song late. Call me old fashioned, but if you are going to employ a guitarist (violinist or cellist) for a show, let them play.

More to follow...