February 14 - 17, 2025 - Last Three Days of Caribbean Cruise

 

My Blog Reflection

"To travel is to live."

Hans Christian Andersen

Day 7: Friday February 14th

In the morning we met our guide, Laurie, for a bus tour of Antigua. She was fabulous. I wish I could have kept track of all she told us but here is some of it.

All greetings are "Ya man". Totally cool.

St. John's is the capital of Antigua, with a population of 97,000. Antigua, along with neighboring Barbuda, form an independent country in the British Commonwealth. The English settled here in 1632 and imported slaves to build sugar plantations. There is no sugar production anymore. They obtained their independence in 1981.

Our first stop was at a fort area overlooking the ocean. Quite the harbor area.

In this picture you can see some of the land fortifications to the harbor below. We were told they also strung a cable across the opening to keep ships out.

From this location below and to the left you can see an island owned by Eric Clapton - 45 acres. He bought it after he had too many neighbors on the other side. He built a drug rehab center for celebrities but if any local resident wishes to go they are admitted for free. He built a house out on the end of the island that he rents out for $10,000 per day.

Our final stop was at Nelson's Dockyard. It is a UNESCO site and a National Park.

When it was in use as a dockyard no cats, dogs, children, nor women were allowed. Men were hired to scrape barnacles off the sides of ships in the harbor. They were paid a pint of rum and a gallon of beer per day. As a result, a job that was supposed to take four weeks, would take them four months. LOL

What is now their museum building was built in 1855. It is the youngest building on the site.

The harbor and surrounding hills protect the area and the buildings from the forces of nature. All of the original buildings are still standing and well-preserved.

It was interesting that in Antigua there is no real estate tax until the house is completed. To take advantage of this quirk in the law, most people leave an area uncompleted forever. To help the poor, there are no real estate taxes on smaller homes. Bigger homes are taxed 3-5 percent of the value of the property per year.

Everything is imported. All the cars are from Japan. It looked like 80% were Toyotas, even our bus was a Toyota.

There are many Anglican churches on the two islands due to the English colonization. The islands are now an independent Republic but still under the King of England.

There are five women to every man. It is common for men have inside children (born in marriage) and outside children (born of other women).

Schools are paid for by a 6% income tax. All children wear school-supplied uniforms. Every school uniform is different so you can identify what school a student attends. If you find a child playing hooky, you are paying for their education, so you report them. They are then dealt with by the school administration often with corporal punishment.

To continue on in school after 6th grade a student has to write an essay for review. They are given three chances to write an essay that will pass. If a student doesn't pass he/she is sent to a trade school.

Clearly there is a lot of poverty. If you pay Medicare through your paycheck then your healthcare is free. If you don't you are billed.

Cheap wooden two bedroom houses cost $30,000 to $80,000. Other homes up in the hills, owned by wealthy individuals mostly from other countries, cost up $100 million. Crazy.

Back on the ship, for Valentine's Day we gathered in the grand foyer with a large group to renew our wedding vows in a ceremony conducted by the Captain. Here we are on the sidelines waiting for the Captain to arrive for the ceremony.

A large number of couples participated. A lot of red lighting for Valentine's Day.



At the end of the ceremony loads of confetti was dropped from above which made it very festive.

After the vows ceremony we went to the theater to see the show “Topper” by the ship’s troupe. It was very weird singing and dancing. We didn't get it at all.

Day 8: Saturday February 15th

We cruised all night, all day, and all night again to get back to Fort Lauderdale.

Final cruise thoughts:

I believe at three different ports we were delayed waiting for an ambulance to pick someone up off the ship and cart them to the hospital. I named this the “75+ Crippled Rich White People’s Cruise”. I would guess 80% of the passengers were over 75 and out of 2500 passengers only about a half of dozen were non-white. A huge number of passengers were handicapped or infirm. I never saw so many regular wheelchairs, electric wheelchairs, electric scooters, walkers, canes, knee braces, and gimpy old people in one place in my life. They all have money so they were pampered by the crew. After cruising with this crowd for nine days I felt blessed.

It was always entertaining to watch folks struggling to walk up the steps out of the theater when the ship was swaying. We met one couple who were on their 40th cruise! I can't imagine a fourth. We met another couple who have been married 67 years. As I said, a 75+ crowd.

The ship was the Celebrity Eclipse. It can accommodate 2800 passengers and has a crew of 1200. It was launched in 2010 and refurbished in 2021. A nice sized ship, not overwhelming in size.

Our stateroom was on the 12th deck and was next to the elevators and the pool area. We thought it would be a noisy location but it was not at all. The elevators were the quietest I've ever seen and there were two sets of doors between us and the pool activities and music. We heard nothing. Our balcony was great with two lounge chairs and a table to sit and watch the ocean glide by. The food was for the most part excellent, especially the seated evening meals. I ate escargot as an appetizer every night. 

We paid for the drink package and learned quickly which bars to get drinks from. Some made awful drinks but most did well. The shows were enjoyable but not memorable.

We had great seas. The trip back to Fort Lauderdale was two full days. North winds as we left St. Martin caused more rocking the first day back than any other time on the entire cruise, but it was not bad at all.

The staff were the most friendly, professional, and impeccably dressed of any I have ever seen, whether on land or at sea. They are mostly young people who sign up on this ship for a season. Our evening waiter, who was from India, told us he is signed up until the end of July. He will go home then for a while. They work ten to twelve hours a day for the length of each cruise. We pulled in port and the ship loaded passengers and supplies and headed back out that same day. Essentially the crew gets no time off.

As mentioned earlier, our tour guide, Jasper, was flown home to Michigan from the Dominican Republic. When we left the ship we were told he was still in the hospital there.

We had a departure meeting on Saturday morning. Denise jumped from one topic to another, never getting any one item settled at a time. Luckily a ship crew member was there to help keep her track. One passenger, who had taken this cruise before, finally stood up and explained all we needed to know to disembark in two sentences. Refreshing. Luckily I attended the meeting because the wrong luggage tags had been left in our room. We were departure group 14.

The last day we went for a sit down lunch in the main dining room for the first time. The food was excellent. We sat next to a couple from Bakersfield, California. This was their second cruise. He was retired military. They had a long day flying back to California.

In the afternoon we attended a matinee performance by the singer, Gen Maldonado. She put on another good performance.

Kelly spent a little time in the casino. She didn't want to bring any money home. After a lobster dinner we went to bed early.

Day 9: Sunday February 16th

This cigarette display on the ship struck me as so odd. I haven't seen anything like it in many years.

 

It was a very leisurely day as things wound down. Kelly went to the casino and won back the money she lost yesterday plus some more. (She didn't share any with me.) 

We went to see a magician show in the theater at 2:00 p.m. He was entertaining.

We have to have our bags outside our room between 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. tonight. We packed our bags, put them outside the door, and went to supper at the grill, rather than the main dining room, so we could catch the 7:00 p.m. show in the theater. It was okay but not the show I expected.

Arrival in Fort Lauderdale: Monday February 17th

We had to be out of our room by 8:00 a.m. and at our muster location for disembarking at 8:25 a.m.  At 7:00 a.m. we went to the buffet to get a hearty breakfast before the long ride home - a three hour bus ride to Port Charlotte then a two hour drive to Pinellas Park. The disembarking process was really well orchestrated. We were in group fourteen. They called numbers three at a time for people to get off the ship. This kept crowds of people with wheel chairs, scooters, and carry-ons from bunching up and creating chaos. 

Once you were off the ship you walked into a huge building where luggage was sitting in groups by number. With the large signs marking the group areas, I quickly found our luggage at Group 14, grabbed it, and headed to Customs. With facial recognition we didn’t even have to show our passports. 

Once through Customs we walked a short distance to catch our bus back to Port Charlotte. The bus ride was fine but on the drive back to Pinellas Park we encountered a lot of traffic.

I enjoyed the cruise but don't know if I will ever do it again.

Once we reached the house we found our daughter, Annie, and granddaughters, Violet, and Wren, from California, waiting for us on the front porch. It will be fun spending the rest of the week with them.