Today will be the last post of my Carribean cruise Vacation.
I'll end it the way I often do, with one last look at all of the extra photos that I took on our trip, with some random thoughts to accompany them along the way.
I hope you enjoy. Here we go.
I've started at the begining with some photos Fort Lauderdale, taken from our balcony as we set sail on day one.
It was a last look at the city before hitting the open seas.
It was our first time getting a balcony and we got quite bit of use out of it on this trip.
We spent quite a bit of time reading out there one day when there weren't any chairs on the deck because of bad weather.
Speaking of chairs, the chair situation on a cruise can be a real nightmare at times. I may have said this previously (I do that sometims) but people will wake up at the crack of dawn around 6-7am to claim chairs and then they often don't even use them until 11am or later in the afternoon. It can be a real pain in the ass on any cruise.
There were days when my wife and I would spend hours reading in our chairs and not see the person or couple or family who had claimed the chair beside us before we even arrived that day. Then we often still did not see them by the time we left. I can understand grabbing a chair and then quickly going to have breakfast for 45 minutes or so before coming back to use it, but some people go way too far with it, claiming a prime space that they don't intend to use for hours, if they ever come to claim it at all.
We saw one couple claim two chairs beside us in the sun and leave their stuff there, then hours later when we left the location we saw them in two different chairs behind us in a shaded spot...!?! It doesn't get anymore selfish and inconsiderate than two people claiming 4 chairs holding them in reserves.
Port days are the only days that chairs aren't an issue on a cruise ship. It's glorious!
On one of the days I was walking through the ship and came across this small rubber ducky with a tag attached to it directing the finder to post a photo to their duck Instagram account. Apparently this is a thing where people hide ducks around the ship for others to find. I re-hid the duck in a new location and then ended up finding like 6 or 8 more ducks throughout the trip.
One day I noticed that someone had thrown a bunch of the ducks (maybe 6 or so) from the staircase into the decorative molten waterfall. you can't see them in the photo but that was another really inconsiderate act in my opinion. Its not because of the ducks mind you, but more so because someone from the crew will need to somehow retrieve them at 50+ feet in the air. It wasn't just in the basin that they landed either, a few got caught in the ripples of the structure near in the middle and near the top. I have no idea if they have some sort of lift on board or if they would need to repel down on ropes from above since those ones were probably 150 feet in the air. It seems like it would be a little dangerous to me either way though.
Okay now how about a few food photos to lighten the mood again?
I always tried to get a table by the window in the buffet restaurant.
There is always a lot of random artwork on a cruise ship.
It creates interest and ambiance of course but I also think that they help create a visual landmark for people.
I took some pictures of some of the pieces that I liked.
Okay now I'll get into some of the pictures from the different Islands that we visited starting with Oranjestad Aruba.
Port / Harbour.
Morning vs afternoon.
Pelican on a boat.
Free Range Rooster.
Random resort hotel beach we stumbled upon.
A little grungy building but I like them.
And lastly my favorite photo of all that I took in Aruba, this beautiful tree along the water. It stood out for me like a beacon when I saw it and its one of the best photos that I took on the cruise, if you ask me.
Okay now for a few photos of Willemstad Curacao, starting with a view from our balcony.
Something that I noticed about the resort above was beach and how hotels and tourist attractions often put a lot of money and effort into creating these various illusions for guests.
Its like when a hotel takes a perfectly aimed photo for their website that shows their beach oasis on the water, but then in person you come to learn that the hotel is located in the downtown of area of a major city and that beach is tiny and you can hear the bustle of traffic 30 feet away.
This isn't that bad, but it reminds me of that a little.
I wonder if you can hear workers doing construction on the other side of those shipping containers?
Coast guard escort?
I wonder if drama is a foot?
View of the fort ramparts.
I love the color combination here. It doesn't get anymore Carribean than that.
A colorful staircase.
Okay that about does it. I'm going to end this post with ice cream. Cheers everyone!
