Category: Caribbean

November 18: After a tantalizing but very brief look at Grand Turk last week, I was even more excited about donning scuba gear for a look at the world-famous coral reef. The Carnival Liberty approaches the Grand Turk dock just in front of us, at 10:18 am. It’s a...

November 17: Our day at Half Moon Cay last week was excellent, though marred by there being 2 ships, overcrowding all the facilities. We were looking forward to seeing it with fewer people. This is a typical stairway on the Carnival Destiny We still find the interior of the...

November 16: We had no firm plans for Nassau, but thought that we’d go over to Atlantis and have a look to start. Information that we found online about day-pass options at Atlantis was contradictory so we weren’t sure how that would turn out. Another beauiful Caribbean sunrise as...

November 12: Today was entirely a beach day – 6 hours on a private island in the Bahamas, with lots of options for activities for those who choose to not just laze around. This is Explorations Cafe, the library and computer area on Deck 3 on the Noordam. This...

November 11: We were supposed to be at sea all day today, but had to make a short stop at Grand Turk to air-evacuate a sick passenger. The Lido pool area on the Noordam is lovely but on nice days (which in the Caribbean means most days) it gets...

November 10: Our port visit today was the city of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. We had planned to take a catamaran to the island of St. John for another beach and snorkeling day, but Mother Nature changed those plans. This...

November 9: Today we visited Martinique, “the island of flowers”. This French colony gets few cruise ships, in my opinion because there are few English-language excursions available and Euros are used in trade. US dollars are only grudgingly accepted even in Fort-de-France, at poor exchange rates and with change...

November 8: Today’s port was Bridgetown, Barbados. Deciding what to do here was tough – as much as I wanted to explore some of the country’s history and architecture in particular, Cathy found a catamaran tour that including snorkeling with turtles. Snorkeling with turtles was on the Bucket List,...

St. Lucia was one of the 2 ports that I’d been particularly looking forward to, and I was very much saddened to see the devastation and death brought by Hurricane Tomas just a week before our scheduled arrival. We’d had a very friendly email discussion with the tour guide...

I’m already a day behind, as we’re now sailing from Saint Lucia to Barbados, but here’s what happened before that November 5: Winds of 30-35 knots caused the outside decks on the Noordam to be closed for 2 days. Having a nice breakfast delivered to our cabin is...