Our last two days of the cruise were sea days as we made our way back to Fort Lauderdale. On day 18 I still wasn’t feel great – but was certainly better than the day before. Still a good bit nauseous and my appetite had not yet returned.
View from the Diamond Club
The day basically went as follows :
Breakfast at Windjammers , time in the Diamond Club lounge, reading in our room, lunch in the Dining Room, a spa & swim, reading in our room, dinner at Windjammers, back to our room to watch some Vlogmas videos.
Chopped salad from the dining roomSunset at sea
Our last day was pretty much the same, except for the swim. And thankfully I was feeling even better again and my appetite is almost back to normal.
Breakfast at Windjammers, time in the Diamond Club lounge, reading in our room, lunch in Windjammers, PACKING, reading in our room, dinner at Windjammers (with our tablemates from the dining room), put luggage outside room, read.
Breakfast from WindjammersReading in the Diamond ClubOne of tonights dinner options in WindjammersVegetable Mongolian Stirfry from Windjammers
Can’t believe the cruise is almost over. We have enjoyed it and really enjoyed the South American ports but I do think I might prefer other modes of travel for now, or at least cruises with less sea days. I guess after 20 years of cruising our lifestyle/needs have changed somewhat and we probably aren’t getting what we used to out of cruising.
Well, todays post will be short (and not so sweet). In the early hours of the morning I was up vomitting. I was also in a lot of pain so found it impossible to sleep.
In the morning, while the vomiting had ceased, I still felt nauseous with a lot of body pain. Thankfully I was able to sleep so spent the day in bed sleeping on and off for most it. By late afternoon I was able to read so the helped keep my mind off the pain.
We were docked in Caracao today and had to cancel our tour. I did say Kevin could go on his own but he chose to stay with me. I didn’t eat all but a few dry cookies all day, and sipped on some water or Sierra Mist (lemonade as it’s known in Australia).
We face-timed Athena in the afternoon. She has been accepted into the University of Canberra so is now starting to look at apartments to rent. We also texted with Christy – she is doing okay and still getting over the cold she picked up in Iowa.
Though I still wasn’t hungry, Kevin wanted me to try eating some dinner so he bought me a selection of foods he thought I might enjoy. I managed to eat some mashed potatoes, some baked potato and few bits of cheese and crackers.
I have been feeling better few gradually throughout the day so hopefully when I wake up in the morning I will be free of pain.
No alarm needed today as we were both awake before it. Kevin was a sweetie and went and got me milk for my tea again. And I took my time waking up.
Luckily I had showered last night because I misjudged the time to leave again this morning!! But since I only had to put on swimmers and finish packing for the day I didn’t need a lot of time. However, it turns out not only did I forget the tickets (though I think Kevin could also be blamed for this since he put in the safe), I also forgot the SD card for the go-pro – which means no underwater/fish photos or video – though of course you might be glad about that :-).
After the usual breakfast at Windjammers (today Kevin had fruit) we went assure for our cruise excursion. Of course the usual waiting around ensured but eventually we were onto the huge sailing cat – which was docked right across from Serenade.
It was a big yacht and pretty full. They did put the sails up, but continued to fun the motors. It all made Kevin a little bit sleepy.
Our first stop was to snorkel with some fish. I enjoyed it, thought there was lots of fish. But Kevin, who has scuba dived, wasn’t too impressed. And we have been spoiled with other locations that we have snorkelled. Still it was lovely to be back in the warm water of the Caribbean.
One thing we didn’t like was that one of the crew was feeding bread to attract fish, then scooping out one of the fish to feed to a pelican. I understand that’s what pelicans eat but it seemed wrong having a human collect the fish for them. We had actually been admiring the pelicans who were dive bombing for fish earlier.
From here were moved to the Antilla Wreck but Kevin & I just decided to stay onboard since the wreck was quite deep and the water choppy.
Next was our lunch stop at the Pelican Pier. Our boat pull up right alongside and we just right onto the pier.
The food (BBQ meat) was all pre-plated so I had to request a vegetarian plate. I gave Kevin my plantain since he loves it so much, and I ate the salad and polenta. It was nice but not especially filling. Kevin wished he also opted for the vegetarian plate.
We also had a bit of free time on the beach – barely 40mins – could have easily enjoyed another 30-60mins here. As it was we just had time for a short swim and lie on the sunlounges.
Then it was back on the cat for the trip back to the cruise port. So although we enjoyed our day (we both loved being out on the water) it definitely could have been a lot better. I feel I made a poor choice of tour. Anyway, lesson learned – unless there is no other option we should not book a cruise excursion ever again !!!
Back in our cabin we both showered and then headed to Windjammers for another feed – since lunch had been so light. I had another veggie burger and some fries (something I rarely feel like – maybe it was the fresh air and salt water) and Kevin also got a burger. We took them back to our room to enjoy.
Then Kevin had a little nap and I edited a vlog. We watched sailaway/sunset out on the balcony, which was nice.
Then I wrote up this very quick blog post before we went back to a late dinner at Windjammers.
No alarm this morning but I still woke about 6am (which was now 7am since our time zone had changed again but we didn’t realize this until 12pm
Kevin kindly went and got some soy milk so I could make a tea & a coffee for himself. about 9am (which was 10am) we went to have breakfast at Windjammers. We sat out the back in the open which was nice and cool due to the sea breeze.
My typical breakfast on this cruise
After breakfast we went for a little exploration of the ship. We checked out the Diamond Club (for Diamond level cruisers). Would be a lovely area to use if we didn’t have our own balcony. We sat and enjoyed the view over the pool area for a little bit…
then checked out some of the bar areas….
And other areas around the ship.
and then around some of the outdoor decks. It was pretty windy out there today, but still very warm.
Back in the room for a bit where, after sitting outside in the sun for about 10mins, I worked on catching up on my blog posts. Kevin had a little nap. About 2pm there was a knock on our cabin door with a special delivery (for being diamond club members. And I confess I had half of the strawberry and half of the chocolate cup. Both were delicious. But it meant we had dessert before lunch !!
Finally we realized the correct time and about 2.30pm we went back to Windjammers (again) for a late lunch. We had planned to go the dining room but it was closed by the time we were ready for lunch. We ate outside again but this time at the back of the boat.
I spent the rest of afternoon desperately trying to catch up on the last few days blog posts before I forget all the details. We arrived in Aruba about 4pm (not that we can see much as we are facing the ocean) and after I finally finished off yesterdays blog, we headed ashore.
Dinner tonight was a surprise Kevin – The Dutch Pancake House. It was about 10 min walk and was in a really lovely place – all lit up for Christmas and there even a band/singing performance going on nearby. So we finally got to listen to some Caribbean music (sadly this ship doesn’t have a Caribbean band onboard.
Kevin and I both had pancakes. I had fruit delight and Kevin had bananas with a pina colada sauce (turns out it was our waiters invention). Both were delicious and they were the thin pancakes which I really prefer.
After dinner we strolled through the complex (mainly restaurants but some shops) and back to the ship.
We were hot and sweaty when we got back (still 28C outside) so I decided to have a cool shower to freshen up (not much point having one in the morning since we’ll be going swimming). Kevin and I then did face masks (it’s not Kevin’s normal thing but he was happy to join me). I then wrote up this post (yes, I’m all up to date and current) – just need to add in photos when I get the chance.
