Sea Day

Sea Day means no plans for the day :) Dave goes for a run I walk the promanade. Breakfast from the buffet eaten on the back pool deck. We find a couple of lounge chairs open at the rear of the ship, Love  the view here! 

We pass by Cuba, I would love to take a cruise to Cuba! 

I spend a few hours rotating between reading, writing blog and swimming, it is scorching hot today. Dave comes and goes as it is too hot for him in the sun today. We have lunch from the buffet, love the salad bar on this ship. 

I head to the gym and ride a bike for 30 minutes then walk the promanade for a while, knee is much better biking than walking :( 

We hit the Ocean Bar for happy hour and again sit at the bar and visit with other guests, or are they called cruisers when you are on s ship? 

Tonight is Gala night we again request a table for two, again they act like it is not possible but find us one! We have a great ocean view and chat with a lovely couple at the next table from BC, they are doing 3 back to back cruises each being a different itinerary. Dave felt that tonight was his best dinner yet. 

After dinner we go to the Blues Club to listen to the Band BB King Allstars, they are amazing! Guess they just got on this cruise and are here for 4 months. I told Dave we may need to book another cruise on this ship soon so we can enjoy them some more! 

Tomorrow is an early day so we only hear their first show. We picked up our tender tickets today for Grand Cayman tomorrow, we  got First tender tickets :) 

Half Moon Cay

Our first day is Holland’s private island, Half Moon Cay. Half Moon Cay uses their own tenders to transport guests to the island, they are much nicer than the cruise ship tenders that they will use in Grand Cayman. We grab breakfast from the buffet and find a table outside at the back of the ship. After breakfast we decide to walk some laps on the promanade while we wait for the weather to clear, it started to rain hard but we can tell it will clear soon. Love the wrap around promanade on the Holland ships :)

Rain stops sun comes out so we gather our stuff and head to the gangway, we have a very short wait to get on a tender. The wedding party is on this tender, we keep seeing them all over the ship, they are all having so much fun together! One of the younger couples have displayed their great Tina Turner dance moves at the B.B. Blues Club :) they are a mix of ages and they definitely have lots of fun together! We have seen several large family groups of all ages on this cruise. We like to try and figure out what they are celebrating all together? 50th anniversary? 

We have a beautiful day here walking the beach, swimming, sunning and meeting and visiting with some fun fellow passengers. 

After about 5 hours we have had enough sun and take a tender back. I head to gym to ride a bike for 30 minutes since I can’t run with my bad knee :(

After a shower we head to a happy hour and enjoy visiting with a couple at the bar. We have been meeting  some nice people. Happy hour is done in 2 bars from 4-5 buy one drink get second one for 2 dollars, we split one, so we each have 1 martini, great deals :)

We go to dinner early about 5:30 and get right in, dinners so far have been okay nothing super special yet. I will say they do a great job with the salads, soup and breads though. 

After dinner we go to a trivia and Gary seated at the bar helps us, he was a good help! We do fair thanks to Gary’s help.  Then we go to hear the comedian, David Crowe, he is from Seattle and even makes some Seattle jokes, he definitely had us laughing! After the show we are tired  and call it a day, it has been a perfect cruise day :)

All Aboard Nieuw Amsterdam

We flew using Alaska air miles, making a plane change in Portland another in LA. Flight out of LA was on Virgin America, which we have never flown before. It was a nice plan with TVs on each seat back, nice to help kill 5 hours! There food and beverage service operated very different, you choose on the TV screen what you would like, including the free beverage options, there were no free food or snack options. They would just come around and deliver what you requested and as many times as you requested, the attendants seemed to do more running up and down the isles to deliver food and beverages than any other airline, not sure how efficient this system is! 

We Ubered to our Airbnb, it was a great find, close to airport, cruise port, shopping, food.

The private entrance and patio area

Little kitchen

Soft bed

We walked to breakfast and thankfully were in the restaurant when a torrential down pour and wind came up from now where! Luckily it passed over quick then we walked around the neighborhood and picked up supplies for the cruise, 2 bottles wine, case of water (you never know if cruise ship water will taste yucky) then took an Uber to the port. We checked in and didn’t have to wait long to board, this must be a smaller ship as there just aren’t as many people as the last few cruises we’ve taken.

We are able to go directly to our room, here is what our fully instructed view looks like!

Oh well at least we can see some sky and have light!

The dining room is closed for lunch due to a wedding that took place on board so we have to have lunch on the lido deck, buffet. We were plesently surprised by the buffet operations! All food is served so quests are never touching serving spoons! Of course I am thrilled with this!!!! We go through the salad bar line where an employee custom makes your salad in a huge bowl, then we ordered pizza and enjoyed our lunch in a very uncrowded  area at the back pool. We are wondering where the crowds are, this is not normal for embarkation day!

We explore the ship before the muster drill, there are some lovely areas.

At sail away the crowd finally feels bigger. This is definitely a smaller ship than we have sailed on for a while. 

We have any time dining and were immediately seated when we showed up at 6:30! I guess I got excited and forgot to take pictures of dinner! I had a yummy corn chowder, salad and we both had snapper with tropical fruit salsa. Desserts were a little disappointing! 

I ordered two because I couldn’t decide between key lime pie or the chocolate thing, neither were very good, Dave’s apple pie was best, but not great :) 

After dinner we went to the BB King Blues Club and listened and danced to a group from Memphis. They were amazing and so much fun we went back for their second show! We also spent time in piano bar where they had 2 pianists who both also sang, also very good. So far musical entertainment is great! We did walk out of the large production show though.... ugh not so good! 

A Little Winter Escape on the Nieuw Amsterdam

This cruise came into being after we discovered we would be new grandparents and would need to adjust (shorten) our winter get away so as not the miss the much anticipated birth of our adorable grandson!  We were more than happen to shorten our trip to PV but as time went on and I was feeling the need to get away in the fall, which was not going to happen, I talked Dave into adding a second short winter getaway.  With the single digit temps we have been experiencing I am sure glad we are getting away now! Add to that the fact I had a bad knee issue which interfered with the first half of our PV trip, so kind of felt like we deserved a "do over"! Tomorrow we fly to Fort Lauderdale, stay the night in an airbnb then board the Nieuw Amsterdam for 1 week in the Western Caribbean. We have been to all these ports before, except Dave has not been to their private island, Half Moon Cay, which I think is the best private island, I can't wait to go back :)



For this cruise I booked an obstructed ocean view guarantee to save money :)  In the past I have always been upgraded to full ocean view.....well not this time, I got what I paid for!  Yesterday I was excited when I received an email offering me a balcony upgrade for 99.00 each, so I called.  After being on hold for ever I was informed by a Cruise.com TA it was an error made by Holland, we could upgrade to a full ocean view for 79.00 per person or balcony for 169.00 per person.  I passed, I will keep our fully obstructed room.  The travel agent from Cruise.com told me she would wait and after we are on board and ship just pulls away ask if there are any upgrade rooms available.  I may try that!
I prepurchased a wine package for this cruise which we have never done before, not sure if it is a better deal or not so we will see :)
We leave in the morning and we are still not packed! So that is definitely on my agenda for today along with last minute getting ready like mani and pedi (do myself) eyebrow tinting (do myself), reserve rental bikes in Key West, get some cash, pack up Scout's stuff, clean house, and pack!
I will be posting to my blog when we have internet and when I have the time.  I really just use this as a way to journal so if anyone is following along it is not always very exciting! I really like to be able to look back to remind myself of what we did.  My only regret is that I didn't start this sooner so that I would have all of our European adventures documented :(
Now off to start packing!

Heading Home

We woke up to a beautiful sky



We immediately head out for a last walk on the beach.  It is so peaceful on the beach in the morning before all the activity starts up.  I enjoy watching the restaurant/bars set up for the day.







The man on the Sea Horse statue appears to be waving good bye to us : (



We go back to our room for breakfast and to pack up.
I forgot to take picture of our room 604 until we packed up, we will have this room next year.  We were very happy with it!











We head out for some last minute shopping and last lunch, always at Cafe de Olla and always enchiladas :)   My sad face :(



Dave will miss his Mexican beers.



We say good bye to Denise until we see her next year, she is the best host ever!




We take a taxi to the airport for 200.00 pesos.  Our flights on SWA were only 1/2 full. I sure hope they keep flying here, love to fly SWA, the price and points were  better than Alaska flights,  it is nice to have more options and hopefully more competitive pricing.

We had a great trip and we enjoyed sharing this special place with our friends.  They said they would join us again!

Day 18

We got home a couple days ago, I drove to Issaquah to pick up Scout and I am finally getting around to reporting on our last couple of days, so memory might not be best, add to that the lightheaded dizzy head feeling I have (motion sickness, flights followed by over and back on the pass)

Our last morning was very cloudy.  We got up and immediately went for a walk along the beach and to the French Pastry bakery to pick up and treat. We brought it back and had breakfast on our balcony.






After breakfast we took off for a long walk.  We headed up the hill towards Casa Isabel, I commented how much easier it is when it is cooler out :)



We worked our way through the neighborhood up on the hill.







Then up the staircase to Gringo Gulch


 



We walked way deep past Gringo Gulch back into a more local area





Then headed into town towards Malecon. We grab a couple of waters at the OXXO and sit on a bench for a minute watching the activities along the beachfront.
Then we decide to walk along the beach and to Lindomar resort and have lunch at La Playita.  We have had lunch there 2 other times, but first walk there my knee was so bad I couldn't enjoy the walk, second time I took a taxi this time I can enjoy my walk!






We missed happy hour but I still enjoyed one of their famous margaritas!  We spit chicken fajitas which we discovered are some of the best we have had. We enjoy the view and watching this cute young family with 3 little boys, one being a baby in the front pack.





We decide to walk back on the highway, as I decided taking the bus would take longer and we would still have to walk from the bus stop (I have put many miles on my knee I felt I should be done)
We don't have to walk far on the highway until we reach a road that takes us down past condos and ends up at our place.

I take a brief rest then head out to shop for some last minute items, I get to B Badillo street when I realize I need to go back to check in for our SWA flight.  After checking in I decide I am done and not going out until dinner.
We decide to take a glass of wine and a beer up to the roof top to see if anyone is up there having a happy hour get together.  We have not really joined up in nightly happy hours on the roof top.  There was a huge group of the usual guests.  We had a great time and stayed for a couple hours until about 7:30 then decide we should head out for dinner.
We had our last dinner at Los Muertos Brewery.