February 8 - 10, 2025 - First Three Days of Our Eastern Caribbean Cruise

My Blog Reflection

"To travel is to live."

Hans Christian Andersen

Our Eastern Caribbean Cruise was nine-days long two of which were cruising to and from our destinations. There is so much to blog about the trip that I will break it down into three sections, three days at a time. 

Day 1: Saturday February 8th

We drove for two hours from Pinellas Park to Port Charlotte, Florida, to meet up with a bus of other cruisers with all of us then headed for the cruise ship in Fort Lauderdale. From Port Charlotte we headed to Fort Myers to pick up a few more cruisers. The bus took off at 7:45 a.m. from Port Charlotte. It was a three hour ride to Fort Lauderdale from Fort Myers. When we arrived at the port there were five cruise ships there. A very busy place. Here is a picture from our balcony.

Our ship was the "Celebrity Eclipse". It can handle 2,500 passengers and has a crew of 1,200. I couldn't believe the small ratio of crew to passengers. Our stateroom had a nice balcony and was on the 12th Deck next to the elevators and the pool area. We thought it would be quite noisy but it wasn't. The elevators were the quietest I have ever ridden on and there were two sets of doors between our cabin and the pool.

We pulled away from the dock around 1:00 p.m. We then literally stopped and pulled up to the next dock only about a two thousand feet away. The captain announced that someone on the ship had a medical emergency and an ambulance was on the way. The ambulance stopped just below our balcony.

Our assigned time for our sit down evening dinner in the "Moonlight Sonata Restaurant" was 5:45 p.m. We requested this earlier seating. Everyone has to dress a little for dinner in the main restaurants - collared shirts, long pants, no flip flops, no T-shirts, and no shorts. It was excellent dining with alcoholic drinks included if you liked. The appetizer menu did not change from night to night but the main menu did. I ordered escargot in olive oil for my appetizer every night and they were always delicious. This is something I rarely get in Missouri.

After dinner we went to a show in the theater by comedian Julie Barr. She was very entertaining. It was announced that the Superbowl would be shown in the theater the next evening. Go Chiefs!

Day 2: Sunday February 9th

The ship moves between 17 and 20 mph. (I have an app on my phone that calculated our speed.) Several cruise ships were nearby as we cruised. Here is one. I didn't expect that.

In the morning we attended a lecture about pirates, which was interesting because I know so little about them - past and present.

In the afternoon we attended a show by the instrumentalist, Kuba. He included a video of him playing the "Earth Harp". It is a room-sized instrument and there are only two such harps in the world. He is one of only five musicians who can play it. His main instrument was the vibraphone. It has metal keys whereas a xylophone has wooden keys. The ship's orchestra accompanied him. He also played an instrument that used radio waves to make sounds as you moved your hands over it without touching it. It was invented in the 1940s and was quite interesting.

We then settled in to watch the Superbowl. Sadly, the Chiefs were beat like an old rug. The worst I've ever seen them play. The crowd was 90% Eagles fans. Disheartened, we left before the game was over.

Day 3: Monday February 10

After traveling overnight we arrived in Grand Turk, the capital of the Turks and Caicos Islands, southeast of the Bahamas.

We took a morning bus tour to see the island and get a little history.

At one point we stopped to have a gentleman show us some local sea creatures - non-poisonous Jellyfish, Conchs, and Sea Cucumbers. There is one male to every thousand female Conchs. Our tour guide said that old boy must be kept busy. The Sea Cucumber was cool. It digests its food and releases sand as a by-product. Here are some pictures. The Jellyfish is first, then the Conchs, male and female, then the Jellyfish and Sea Cucumber.

The male is on the left.

I got to hold the female. I don't think she was happy being out of the water.

We next drove by the lighthouse which has been in use since 1852. It was built out of metal in England and shipped here and assembled. Very unusual construction.

The U.S. Naval base previously located on the island of Turk is now a community college, which is a great use of the nice buildings our government left behind.

Diesel generators provide all power for the islands. This must be expensive because gasoline is $8.00 per gallon. I am sure diesel isn't a lot cheaper. I asked about the weather. The high temperature is 85 and the low temperature 85. They have a rainy season from August - November.

A red head cactus called a "Turk Cactus" is where part of the island's name came from. The African Caicos tribe crashed on these islands centuries ago, thus the other name of the islands. There are forty islands but only eight are inhabited. The islands are a British territory but they use the American dollar for currency. The total population of all eight islands is 56,000. The largest hotel is 26 rooms. The islands are clearly not a destination for tourists to hang out for days on end. There were no yachts in the harbor.

In this picture the dark blue water is where it the sea drops off to 22,000 feet deep. Absolutely crazy. On the way to the islands we had been cruising over this deep blue water and I wondered why it was such a deep color. Now I know.

There are no snakes, nor alligators, nor any poisonous bugs on the islands. My kind of place.

They have no sales tax, no income tax, nor real estate tax. Instead there is a 35% tariff on everything coming onto the island. Everything has to be imported.

Donkeys were originally brought to the islands by settlers in the 17th century primarily to assist with labor-intensive salt mining operations. Now they are protected and roam around freely everywhere.

Salt production from dehydrating salt water was the main industry on the islands for many, many years. This was done using large salt ponds scattered throughout the island. Many ponds still exist but look like big mud puddles now. Since the salt industry is gone there is no employment. You either work for the government or you are involved in the tourist industry. About 30% of the population lives below the poverty line.

Our last stop on the tour was the beach where we were provided a chair and umbrella for one hour. After an hour we would have to pay. An hour of sun was enough for us. It was a beautiful beach.

In the evening we attended a singing and dancing show put on by the ship's troupe. 

To be continued . . .