Port info from my recent Coral Princess cruise

[twocats]

April 30, 2005 Aruba

Aruba Danish Queen’s Day, most of shops closed. Not sure if the particular day is celebrated annually or what.

Here we had prereserved a car from SuperCarRental online. We wanted to tour the island at our own pace since we had all day. Picked a Suzuki Vitara (at least I think it was), AC and fully enclosed. Didn’t want to get too hot or sunburned. We asked for location information at the pier for the company and were directed to a site about a block away. We signed papers and made our payment. Received a map but since most stores were closed and those open would be closing by 2 pm, we parked and shopped a bit first. Once on the road we stopped for gas, a bit of confusion, bought way too much for the ride around the island but didn’t really matter. Signs are not so good on the island and it is easy to get confused. We wasted a lot of time but everyone speaks English (most speak 5 languages if raised on the island) so we would ask for directions and get on our way. A suggestion is that if you want to stop at a beach it’s best to do it early on the ride, actually right out of town before the California Lighthouse. Somewhere in that area we saw the Jolly Pirate Ship tour. Might be a good beach there. We made the tour around the island hitting almost all of the advertised sights. Dropped the car off and walked back to the ship. All the sights mentioned here on CC were worth seeing. Pretty warm here, but not too humid, nice breeze that day. The lunch place that was the “hot spot” apeared to be “The Paddock” . After getting back on ship we could see the back which was on the water. They were having contests to see who could pole-vault the farthest over the water. Wild crowd.

Aruba is very different from your typical island, very nice, clean, friendly people and great shopping.

[jalakim]

Hi,

 

You said great shopping. What did you get.? what should I look for there?

 

Thanks

Kim

[Deloresgardella]

I haven't seen any post by you for so long I thought maybe you changed you name. I am taking a cruise to the Scandinavian countries in September. This may be pulled since it doesn't meet the only cruising. My email address is: DGardella38@aol.com, really enjoyed meeting you and your sister on the Panama cruise. Hope I don't get flamed too much for posting this.

Delores