• Dinner last night was very good at Canaletto — the pasta course being especially superb, particularly the pan fried gnocchi with short-ribs
• Adrian, our cabin steward, is a wiz at folding towel animals. He made a point of especially inviting us to a demonstration today, and he seemed to be genuinely moved that we showed up for his event (he was one of two stewards hosting the show). He even invited Emerson by name onto the stage to help him fold an animal.

Meet “George” — Emerson’s towel animal creation…

Between our walks and attending a port lecture, we ate lunch in the Pinnacle Grill, which I think is a bargain at $10/pp. for a very nice meal in a speciality restaurant.

All in all, a nice and relaxing day…

View of Willemstad…

Given that this was a long day in port and that we didn’t have any particular plans, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before disembarking the ship. We then spent the morning hours wandering around Willemstad. Being a Sunday, many of the shops, restaurants, and museums were closed and the town generally felt sleepy, but it was nonetheless charming with its brightly-colored, Dutch-Caribbean architecture.

Iconic view of Willemstad…

Highlights included the Queen Emma pontoon bridge (jokingly referred to as the “Swinging Old Lady”), the floating market (which has been somewhat curtailed due to the troubles in nearby Venezuela of late), and the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue (which is the oldest continuously operating temple in the Western Hemisphere).

We returned to the ship for lunch, and I took Emerson for a swim in the ship’s pool. In the early afternoon, Libby and I walked a little over 3 miles around the deck while Emerson went to Club HAL.

Dinner was in the main dining room. Once again, Emerson especially enjoyed her meal — Caribbean jerk chicken and a white chocolate and lime pop (which was a firm lime mouse coated in a thin layer of white chocolate shaped to look like a popsicle, complete with a wooden stick). After dinner, we attended another performance by the quintet at Lincoln Center Stage and had a lengthier conversation with the viola player’s mother.

Just before bed, I noticed a large ship coming into port behind us, which I thought odd for a passenger ship at that time of day. It turned out to be the Norwegian Sun returning to port, as it had departed from Curaçao about 5 hours prior. From what I could see, they were met by an ambulance. It seemed clear that they disembarked a passenger who had taken ill, as well as their family (based on the amount of wheeled luggage that accompanied them off of the ship). The ship actually released its lines and sailed back to sea before the ambulance or police vehicle left the pier. Based on what I could see of the pace of the emergency personnel’s movement, my **guess** is that the passenger needed urgent care in the relatively near-term. It just didn’t look like a “critical, fighting desperately to save them” kind of situation. But, I could be wrong — I’m hopeful someone will be mentioned on one the cruising message boards.

Obviously, I’m hopeful for the best for the passenger and their family. My thoughts are clearly with them. At best, I’m sure this has proven to be a scary and stressful circumstance. It also reminds me of why we travel now when we can, as you never know when fortune may preclude future plans.

Today’s box score: +1 country (Curaçao)

On this cruise, we’re starting to find that pattern. Breakfast in the Lido (usually an egg white omelette, fruit, and some pistachios for me). Walking around the deck (about 3 miles each day). Watching the ATK demonstration (“New Italian Favorites” today). Enjoying the talented LCS quintet perform (“Women in Music” today).

View sailing into Aruba…

Today, we did much of that in the morning as our ship wasn’t scheduled to dock in Aruba until after 1pm. Given that folks had been on the ship for nearly two days and likely itching to get ashore, we opted to wait until after 2pm to disembark ourselves. Plus, we didn’t have a lot more planned than simply wandering around Oranjestad (Libby and I had been here previously), which we recalled as one of the nicer ports in the Caribbean.

Libby and Emerson in Aruba

The port was largely as we remembered it; although, I thought it was a bit more upscale than it appeared on this day. It’s not that it was especially run down — just a more vacant shops and a higher concentration of touristy-tacky merchandise then I’d remembered. We did a little shopping and picked up some tennis shoes for Libby, which we’d in hindsight not-so-strategically opted to leave at home. It was a pleasant enough way the spend an afternoon, though I wasn’t “feeling Aruba” today.

Indeed, it was one of those days of travel in which I just felt “off” for no particular reason. It’s not an unknown feeling to me. The first time I really recall feeling that way was on our second visit to Vienna, though I’m sure it wasn’t novel to me then either; it’s just that I don’t was more keenly aware of it that day. I’m at a loss to explain its genesis. It’s not that anything “bad” in particular happens to me on those days. I just inexplicably find myself feeling restive and/or filled with ennui on occasion when traveling.

Oh well. Enough with the psychoanalysis.

For dinner, we returned to the ship and enjoyed a surprisingly good meal in the dining room. Emerson, who’s forsaken the kid’s menu altogether, particularly enjoyed it having discovered carne asada and consuming a delightful strawberry crisp. This was followed by the aforementioned LCS concert. After the show, Emerson had a chance to meet some of the musicians, as well as the viola player’s very kind mother (who was herself a musician and violin teacher for 38 years).

View of the western tip of Haiti as we sailed past…

Between the usual grazing morning, noon, and night, we did the following:

11am America’s Test Kitchen — All About Chiles cooking show featuring recipes and tips from ATK (which replaced Food & Wine Magazine as their culinary enrichment brand partner since our prior HAL cruises)

2pm EXC Guide — semi-informative talk about Aruba and Curaçao (our next two ports of call); not as good as having a proper guest lecturer IMHO.

3pm Classical Favorites — a quintet of excellent musicians took to the Lincoln Center Stage (another brand partner) and played a variety of classic favorites from chamber music to classic rock.

Emerson joined us for the ATK cooking show and the musical performance.

For lunch, we ate at the al fresco Dive-In for some of the best hot dogs, hamburgers, and fries at sea (along with Emerson’s beloved HAL taco bar). It was as good as usual — a fan favorite with this fam.

Tonight, we had dinner in the Pinnacle Grill, which was as good as always. Stand-outs included the chef’s escargot amuse bouche, Libby’s crab cakes, my lobster bisque, and our truffle fries. The ladies all went with filet mignon steaks (very tender), and I opted for the pork chops (to be different). Although the ladies’ raspberry cheesecake “tower things” (forgot what they were actually called) and chocolate lava cakes were good, I think my lemon brûlée tart was the winner for best dessert.

The customs/immigration line was a bit long, but it didn’t take too long for us to pas through it. From there, it was smooth sailing to and through the airport. All told, we were sitting in the JetBlue terminal’s food court sipping coffee by a little after 10:00.

We happily passed two hours playing with Emerson and then boarded our plane on time for a roughly 3 hour flight back to Tampa.

Here’s a cool photo from over the Bahamas:

While it might seem like a hassle, I actually think San Juan is a fairly ideal cruise port. The cruise fares usually seem to be a bit cheaper, thereby offsetting the cost of the flights. Plus, with direct flights on a good schedule from Tampa, it’s not much more time consuming than driving down to Port Everglades and Miami. What’s more, the itineraries are usually better. By “better” I mean a greater variety of ports and fewer sea days. San Juan: two thumbs up.

For this trip, I’ll skip writing an in-depth cruise review. Overall, it was a good cruise. We like this class of ship (having sailed on her sister ship, Brilliance, twice) and the large balcony was awesome with the little one (as I expected). I think our cruises aboard the Caribbean Princess (itinerary, food, and truly “escaping completely”) and Norwegian Dawn (duration, family, Freestyle dining) were a bit better, but it’s been our best RCI cruise in the Caribbean.

Today, we’re visiting St. Lucia…

Since Emerson’s birth, we’ve been on a Thanksgiving cruise every year. At this point, I guess you could call it a quasi-tradition. Upon reflection, I can’t say that it seems especially Thanksgiving-like. It’s certainly not the Thanksgiving of our childhoods; although, I suppose it might be the Thanksgiving of Emerson’s.

In any case, this year feels especially foreign as the rest of the family is at home. That’s mostly a quirk of the calendar as we have two other cruises happening with my mother and grandfather and then with my mother and Libby’s parents in the next few months. Still, it’s odd not to have any of them here with us.

Back to St. Lucia…

We made today another “beach day” and took a taxi out to Reduit Beach in Rodney Bay ($14/pp roundtrip). This really wouldn’t have been my first choice for a beach, but it’s kind of where the taxis we’re going… so we went along with the flow. Reduit Beach is rather narrow and popular with the tourists (as it’s lined with resorts). As a result, we overpaid for our beach chairs and umbrellas ($20 for the day) and found ourselves pestered by all sorts of hawkers until they finally figured out we didn’t want to buy any of their worthless crap. Sadly, the waves were also up today, and the red flags were out. No swimming for us.

Emerson made friends with a nice family plopped next to us on the beach. They had a 19 month old daughter, who enjoyed destroying sand castles as Emerson happily built them up. All in all, they were nice people. Too bad we generally don’t like making friends.

We returned to the ship and strolled around the shopping arcade. Emerson bought some toys. I bought some St. Lucian rum (which the ship didn’t bother to confiscate… just passed it right through the x-ray machine and picked it up without a comment).

We had a later lunch aboard the ship and them played a couple of rousing rounds of miniature golf. Afterwards, we hung out on our balcony and them put Emerson down for her nap.

Tonight we returned to Chops Grille for our Thanksgiving dinner. We did this in part because we like Chops. I also couldn’t face eating our main Thanksgiving meal in the Windjammer. That just seemed wrong somehow…

After dinner, we went to the headliner show.

Today’s box score: +1 country (St. Lucia)

View of St. Lucia:

Needless to say, I felt very at home paying for our aforementioned Nutella filled crepes with euros.

We’d debated exploring more of the island, but opted to remain in town because taxis are very pricey and the ship’s shore excursions didn’t work for us. Unlike many islands, Fort-de-France was a genuinely interesting place to explore in terms of its architecture and vibe. It felt far less touristy and far more genuine than many ports that are overrun by the same brands of duty free shops.

After spending the morning on shore, we returned to the ship for lunch, a couple of rounds of mini golf, some time in the kiddie pool, and a map. We then had dinner at Portofino, the ship’s Italian specialty restaurant (which I also won’t review as we’ve “been there and done that” a few times before). Emerson was again good for us; she seems to like eating in an upscale atmosphere.

After dinner, we went to the Crown and Anchor Society’s “top tier” event and got to chat with the ship’s captain for an extended period of time. We then attended the 9:00 seating of the stage show, which Emerson thoroughly enjoyed–despite it being well past her usual bed time.

Today’s box score: +1 country (Martinique)

Then you go to bed, wake up the next morning, and all is right again.

Today, for example, was just blissful. We woke up early, ate breakfast at the uncrowded buffet, and departed the ship by 8:30. We went to Fort James Beach, which was a short taxi ride away. The beach was deserted. Literally. We were the only people on it. We swam in the water and played in the sand. Our taxi driver returned promptly at 11:30 to pick us up from our “private” beach.

We returned to the ship, got changed, and grabbed a quick lunch. It was “grande nachos” day… all the guacamole Emerson could eat! We then headed back into town and walked around for a little while, enjoying the local art galleries and higher end “trinkets and trash” shops. Libby and Emerson returned to the ship while I went to “Cheers, Antigua” for a $5 beer and some free wifi.

Upon my return, Emerson happily took her afternoon nap and then went off with Libby to the “Barbie Family Fun” event at the kid’s club. We then had dinner in the Windjammer and went to the evening’s juggling/comedy/whatever show.

All in all, a very good day in Antigua!

The goal for this trip is just to relax and have fun. We don’t really have anything planned… just hitting some beaches and chilling out. Sadly, the rest of the family is at home… but, we have a New Year’s cruise planned with Mom and Pop, and then we have another cruise on the docket for March with the entire clan (sans Pop, who ain’t up for flying to Rome).

We flew JetBlue today. It’s my new favorite 2nd rate airline. I paid $35/pp extra for “even more space” seats. They were pretty comfortable for our two and a half hour flight.

Arrival at the ship was uneventful. Quick taxi ride, check-in, drop off our stuff, and go grab lunch. When we returned to our cabin, our luggage was already upstairs. We unpacked, took a nap, and then went to the kids pool to let Emerson play.

Dinner tonight was at the Windjammer.

Here’s Emerson enjoying our al fresco dining, as well as a photo overlooking the Celebrity Summit:

Heading to our muster drill now… then we’re setting sail!