Our Island Excursions

First stop -- Oranjestad, Aruba -- and after 2 1/2 days on the ship we were more than ready to set foot back on land! We had decided to play a round of golf at the Divi Village Golf Course rather than Tierra del Sol because we had stayed at the Divi Village years ago and thought it would be fun to revisit. Wow! What a difference two decades make!! Our former little compound of the Divi Divi and Divi Tamarijnd has now turned into a sprawling mega resort area. The course itself played well and was in good condition for an island course. Fortunately wind was not a major factor that day, but I would imagine it does come into play quite often. In the afternoon we had planned to go to Palm or Eagle Beach, but fellow cruisers that we ran into post-golf told us that both beaches were packed so instead we chose Machebo Beach which is actually close to port and a hop, skip and a jump from Alhambra Casino. The beach was lovely, with soft white sand, plenty of lounge chairs and convenient thatched roof tents to provide shade. There was also a bar/restaurant right on the beach and private massage cabanas. Mike left early but I stayed to play at the Alhambra casino for a while. Small, smoky, not highly recommended. I thought I could catch a cab while on foot heading back to the ship -- I was wrong! It's about a two mile walk, but the sidewalks are littered with broken glass so I suggest wearing something other than the flip flops I was sporting for your own safety.
Curacao was our next stop and again I had booked us a tee-time, this was at the Blue Bay Golf Club. I had originally reserved a rental car, but we couldn't find the rental car office. The thing about the Curacao pier is that it is verrrrrrrry long and if you are at the far end (which we were) you will walk for quite a while before you even come to the cruise terminal. The people on the pier are also not all that helpful when it comes to getting information. Needless to say, we ended up just renting a taxi to take us to Blue Bay (and that in itself was a project; be prepared to have a lot of patience). It was just as well, because Curacao's streets are not clearly marked and I believe we would have gotten quite lost if we had driven ourselves. The Blue Bay course is decent for the most part, some holes are truly spectacular as they play along the ocean, but it is designated cart path only (for what reason we could not determine) and therefore pace of play is slow, slow, slow. The resort caters to European visitors and that was primarily who was clogging up the course; they must not have standard rules of etiquette in Holland or Germany and it was difficult to make them understand that they should let us play through. Pay attention when you finish your round here, the club house is NOT right off the 18th green as is traditional. We drove around in the golf cart for twenty minutes before we finally found the club house by locating hole #3 and going backwards! Due to the 5+ hour round of golf, we were too tired to head back out to the beach after we dropped our clubs back off on the ship. Mike elected to stay onboard while I took a walk into the downtown area. There was a casino two blocks over from the cruise terminal that I spent some time playing in. The tables weren't open but the slot machines were. Interesting, they paid out in tickets, but you couldn't put a ticket IN to play. Like our ship, you had to go to the cashier cage to cash in the ticket. Make sure you add the tickets you are handing in (if more than 1) because they make a lot of errors and more than once I had to have them re-add the amounts.
Bonaire was a short stop so I booked an excursion through the ship. We did the Mushi Mushi catamaran sail & snorkel. The Mushi Mushi is a small family owned/run business with the husband sailing, the wife on the pier tying and untying the boat, the brother in law assisting with the snorkel gear, etc. After sailing for about 20 minutes, they anchor in the Marine Park and you have about 45 minutes for on-your-own snorkeling. The tour guide was insightful and entertaining and we learned a lot about the island. On the way back, refreshments including rum punch were served.
St. Lucia was also a short stop, so we again did a ship-sponsored excursion. This time it was a Countryside Tour and Beach Getaway. Our vehicle was an extended length Jeep with its top off. It had 6 wheels and needed all of them! This island has a topography very similar to St. Kitts and Dominica -- lots of hills, verdant vegetation, rain, crazily insane winding roads...you get the picture. Our driver may have been a madman, cutting through these wicked hairpin curves at hair raising speeds. Steep drop-offs of 400-500 feet lead us to pray that if he cut another turn too closely, we would have a head-on with an oncoming car rather than go off the side of the road! We stopped at the top of one mountain for the obligatory 15 minute local vendor stop & shop. We bought a "hematite" bracelet, necklace and earrings and took some pictures. Then it was back onto the jeep for an ungodly trek to Anse La Vouette -- a private beach at the base of a mountain with NO PAVED ROADS! We bumped and thumped over rocks, through mud, under trees; a couple of times we had to stop, back up and get a running start to make it up the next plateau. Finally arriving at the beach, it was very rugged and small but there were no rocks in the water which is often common in the Caribbean, it was all soft sand. The rum punch they served was extremely potent and I was feeling no pain after only a half glass. Back up the same mountain and then we came down into the city which was obsessively overcrowded. We were of course late returning, but the ship waited for us.
St. Kitts is an island I have seen in its entirety but Mike hadn't so we hired a private driver and I told him where to drive us. His name is Cecil and he was very informative -- highly recommend him. Mike loves learning about the history of the islands we visit so enjoyed the tour immensely. A requisite stop at Romney Manor/Caribelle Batik where we bought some tropical shirts for Mike and Richie. I had asked Cecil to drive us to the new Marriott megaresort which is at the southern end of the island, close to Timothy Beach Resort where I had stayed previously. I did want to see the Marriott, but my main concern was that I needed to find an ATM since we didn't bring that much money with us off the ship. Once I popped into the Marriott, I fell in love! Ran back out, told Cecil to bring us back to the ship instantly for lunch and then to come pick us back up in an hour to go back to the Marriott which we did. Played in the casino there for a while then went out to enjoy their beautiful beach and pool areas. The beach is on the Atlantic side of the island so the water is not as serene and tranquil as the Caribbean side, but it has a personality all its own and the facilities there are ideal. Even the loungers by the pool have personal cabanas over them. Heaven!
Old San Juan, Puerto Rico was our 2nd to last stop and it is my least favorite of all the islands. The port security are nasty and the downtown area is loud, crowded and dirty. I would avoid OSJ and stick to the Condado and Isla Verde areas unless you are a purist which I clearly am not. While taking a cab to Condado Plaza Hotel Mike left his key card folder with $$$ in the cab and someone was nice enough to finally get it to the security guards (with the $$$ still intact!). Another thing to note -- all of the casinos are completely smoke free! I have no other comments on San Juan.
Grand Turk was our final stop and I had planned to make it a beach day. For convenience, I set up my towel, book, sunglasses, etc. on a nice lounger right off the pier. Even with another ship in port (Carnival Destiny) there were still plenty of lounge chairs available. Spent some time shopping in the stores right there in the Cruise Center square. Water was cold and there was a rock shelf you had to get past so this is one of those island where water shoes might come in handy. Mike took an island tour and said it was very informative. If you go out the front of the cruise center, there are lots of vendors there offering various tours and excursions.