In Search of the Dream: More on the Cruise

Coconut Beach, Barbados

I thought I’d use up just one more blog on my cruise since it was my first major holiday for quite a while.

I was quite curious to see what they’d do for Christmas on the cruise. Christmas day was scheduled to be at St Kitts and I’d heard several people say that the signature event of caviar in the surf was not to be missed. I did an open-topped train tour of the island in the morning (with rum cocktails included!); apparently they had three scheduled for Christmas day and since each one was about three hours long, that was a long day for those working. But I guess they have to take the tourists while they are around.

The caviar in the surf event was quite bizarre – the cruise staff came in by speedboat and dropped fully-clothed into the sea with a surfboard full of champagne and caviar. Everyone waded up and got their fill of champagne and as much caviar as they wished. The water was warm, maybe 27 degrees. They also set up a barbecue on the beach for lunch (including lobster, although I thought the chicken was more interesting…). It was a lot of work for the staff but a lot of fun for everyone, I hope.

There was turkey in the evening, but it was a fine dining turkey rather than your traditional roast with stuffing, brussel sprouts, gravy, pigs in blankets, and roast potatoes. Probably due to a discussion we’d had on board a few evenings earlier, where we were talking about snowballs (the drink - remember them?), they also offered everyone some egg nogg. The chief purser was hosting my table that evening.

We got two small presents with one on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas Day (thus satisfying the Europeans and the UK folk), so that was a nice touch. Decorations were added to the ship each day and on Christmas Eve they brought out gingerbread replicas of famous world landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa adorned with a multitude of sweets and cakes that you could help yourself to.

I attended two nature talks but due to the hurricanes, the dolphins and whales did not make an appearance this year; normally they would have been in the bay at St Kitts, but they weren’t around and much of the coral had been damaged. My nature highlights were seeing all the pigeons in Parque de Palomas in Puerto Rico and the pelicans at Nevis. The pelicans were incredible as they dived down vertically like bombs into the sea, often just beside tourists swimming or talking in the water. I’d never seen that before and I could have watched them endlessly.

There was, of course, evidence still of hurricane damage with fallen trees and electricity lines drooping. It was the first time our ship had stopped in Puerto Rico since the hurricane. The town looked brightly painted, so maybe we even saw some of it at its best if it had been newly restored. On some islands, it was clear that they were desperate for some trade and even now I regret not buying a dress from one woman.

I hadn’t really been prepared for different islands to have different currencies: some had Euros, some had US dollars, some had Eastern Caribbean dollars. I’ll add a few more photos this time, just for posterity!