Maasdam 2012 - 25 Collector's Cruise

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Everyone heading back to await the cars to take them someplace for lunch and/or dinner.









After everyone left the navy boat was moved to the other dock in front of the Emir's yacht

 

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The Emir's yacht is beautiful at night -- along the entire area that is at the water line are lights



Moving the navy boat to the same dock area as the yacht meant that there didn't have to be guards in 2 areas to keep people away from the ships. I didn't have my camera with me to take pictures of the guards stopping people from entering that area which is where the cruise ships are normally docked.

When I had checked to see which cruise ships would be in Barbados with us I was surprised to see none listed. The sites I check don't list cruise lines like Kristina Cruises.

We have been here about 20 times and that was a first.

We had 2 groups of people leave the ship today. Don't know about the one couple but the other left by ambulance.

The captain came on at 6 and announced that everyone was back on board and that he wanted to leave as soon as possible. That didn't happen. Don't know where the dock crew were but we didn't leave until after 7.

 

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Fri, Feb 24 -- Grenada

We have been here several other times and do like the new pier. One thing we noticed is that some of the shops don't open at 10 as their signs indicate.

 

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When we went out the far side doors we discovered that a new tour has been added -- a train that takes youn past some of the highlights -- 50 minutes -- $19 per person -- you have 2 stops with admissions to 2 places -- the person in charge said that one of the admissions was to the fort. We were told that it runs on the hour.









We decided to go back to ship and return about 1 PM and take this tour. But when we went out on our verandah we discovered that the train at been backed along side the mall and completely covered over. They never told us that it ran only in the morning. So no tour.

On the way back to the ship Joe found a couples of crabs (too small for dinner)

 

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The new pier is right next to Fort George -- but the entrance is on the far side and you need to take a taxi to get there.









Bus compound right by the pier -- not busy most of the day -- but when school ends for the day -- it becomes very busy as this is the only way the majority of the children can get home.

 

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St Andrews Church



St Georges Church



The Old Cathedral




Some people have told us that this is an old church -- others have told us that it is an old hotel being restored. Each time we have been here we see people out on what appears to be a porch / verandah.

 

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It was interesting to see different size freighters tied off together.







AH - I did find a picture of the train all covered over in the afternoon.




Another couple left the ship today due to health reasons.

The Mariners cocktail party was at 7:15 in the Hudson & Half Moon Room. There were 22 od us who have the Platinum medals. Two new people got their silver medals. Three already had gold medals.

When we returned to the cabin around 8:15 to freshen up we discovered that there was no hot water and the cold water was a muddy color. We called the front desk as the Neptune Lounge was closed. Yes -- problems all over the ship. They claimed that they were presently flushing the lines and the water would be safe to drink. We didn't trust the system so when it was time to take medication at bed time we used bottled water.

 

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Sat, Feb 25 - At Sea

Medal holder Mariner's were told to meet in the Explorer's Lounge at 10:45 to be escorted into the dining room for the brunch. However when we got there, the acupuncture lecturer had a talk going on. So we all had to stand right in the hallway. We were assigned tables. At 11 they began to call out the table numbers and have an escort head us to the dining room. But they forgot that several of us had walkers and we had to wait for elevators to go down to the lower level. Thankfully I am familiar with dining room so we found our table as our excort took about 1/2 of the table down the inside stairs. Six of us were all 700+ day Mariners and already knew each other. There were 3 empty seats and no name card in front of 2 seats. Shortly after everyone was seated in the dining room the Hotel manager came and sat at our table. There were 2 seats left -- about 10 minutes later a couple were seated at our table -- had only 100 days. The Hotel Manager looked a little miffed as to why some of the other 700+ day Mariners hadn't been assigned to the table.

The lunch was very organized and over shortly after noon. The dining room staff was quickly getting everything served and cleaned up as the second Mariners Brunch was scheduled for 1 PM.

We never saw the captain host any tables at our brunch. Maybe he hosted a table at the second brunch.

At dinner this evening we noticed that bottles of water distributed to all the service areas in the dining room -- both levels. We didn't see any difference in the water today -- everything looked back to normal. But I guess they weren't taking any chances if some people wanted the bottled water.

This evening we got only 1/2 bucket of ice. One thing we have discovered on our deck - the ice machine is broken down and the cabin crew have to drag huge ice chests up to oour deck from another deck. When we needed ice for our cocktails out on the verandah, our concierges had to constantly go down to another deck to fill our bucket (as well as other cabin's buckets).

 

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Sun, Feb 26 - Bonaire

We were suppose to dock at 8 but we were docked by 6:30. So much for getting pictures as we sailed into the port -- a little dark.

Being as it was Sunday a few shops were closed and so were some of the restaurants.

Since it was Sunday we decided to wait until after 10 to go wondering around.

 

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Immigration / Customs House

 

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This looks like a good place to eat:

 

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Ocean side of the Harborside Mall










Our Indonesian ladies were so looking forward to eating at a restaurant that they had heard about -- it was their first time to this port -- when they got to the restaurant they discovered that it wasn't open.

 

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Karel's Restaurant is where you get the water taxi to Klein Bonaire. I know that years ago that place looked entirely different but I don't have pictures online anywhere to show what it looked liked.








Returning to the ship via the shore walk -- we spotted this urchin in the water

 

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This is the old Fish Market -- it sells some fish but more vegetables and fruits -- even a few baby palm trees.



The old Fish Market is where you get your tickets for the water taxi.


We were to leave at 5 -- but the captain announced that everyone was on board so we left at 4:45 to go to Curacao. He wanted to get there by 11. We were there by 10:30 PM and the ship was quickly cleared by the local authorities. The captain wanted to give the passengers a chance to go gambling. The only ones who got off the ship were the crew!! Our cabin stewards left at 11 and returned by 2:30 AM and were up at 5 AM for breakfast and on duty at 6 for their first jobs before they began to clean cabins at 8.

 

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Mon, Feb 27 - Curacao

Well as you know we arrived here late last night.

It was still dark when we got up -- got this picture



Don't know why the swimming pool at the Renaissance Hotel water level was so low

 

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Walkway to the Rif Fort







This puppet truck used to be out front of Rif Fort on the way to town -- but he would hide behind the truck and jump whenever someone took a picture of truck and demand a small tip. We noticed that the truck was moved inside Rif Fort and was closed up. We asked what happened and were told that the person was fired for asking for tips. Don't know if that is really true.



Queen Emma Bridge -- Pantoon Bridge -- known also as the swinging lady (the ocean was rough and you can see that even the waters in the channel were rough.


We didn't even attemp to walk over the bridge to get to town with my walker and the uneven boards. In fact many of us using walkers and scooters and some unmortorized wheelchairs all turned around and headed back to the ship.

 

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Queen Julianna Bridge -- highest bridge in the Caribbean

 

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We have never seen the waters this rough here







In the above picture you can see that th water level in the pool is little higher.

 

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We did have an incident at the Penna store at the Renaissance Hotel. I was looking for Shalimar perfume. The girl was very rude and and snapped that if I didn't have a walker I could see that it behind me down by the seat of the walker. I told her Thank You -- I am no longer interested in shopping in a store with rude people. As we left the store the three clerks were laughing at us. I knew enough of their Dutch words and what they were saying that I turned around and said I would warn other people with walkers, wheelchairs and scooters to avoid this store and that I would report this incident once back on the ship. I did -- but that is for a later segment.

I kept hearing people say on the CC board that the Maasdam and other small HAL ships always dock inside the channel -- didn't happen on our cruise. We were outside at the Mega Pier. It has been years since we docked in the -- actually we were on an NCL ship back in the early 2000's. Many people were disappointed in our dock location.

 

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Tues, Feb 28 - Aruba

Could not believe where we docked -- the freight docks near nothing!! Pier F.

Two other ships were at the main docks -- Constellation and Ventura.

We had a long walk just to get to the main walkway where you leave the secured area.