CHRISTMAS CRUISE
December 2000

Hi Everyone,

Well, just what you've all been waiting for I'm sure. A very lengthy letter about Christmas in the Caribbean. It was great of course. Didn't exactly seem like Christmas but the rest and relaxation was much needed. Just click your delete button now if you don't feel like reading for a bit. I got carried away with the details once again.

SATURDAY 12/23/00 ARUBA:
We started our trip pretty uneventfully with the exception of having to get up at about 2:45 a.m....yes...I said a.m. It was not easy. Of course there was absolutely no traffic on the roads although there were plenty of people at Logan checking in. Not unbearable, just pretty busy. Our plane took off about an hour late and we were on the boat in Aruba & all checked in by 2:30 p.m. We spent the rest of the day relaxing poolside.

SUNDAY 12/24/00 AT SEA:
The next day was a day at sea. We scoped out some of the things to do on the boat, I had a manicure and pedicure, we played a round of bingo at Miranda's request and that was about it. Lots of R & R pool side and Miranda had already made friends in the kids program. We didn't really see much of her this day. It was formal night for Christmas Eve so we got all dolled up in our tux/gown and off we went for a nice evening. The kids program had a pizza party and Miranda, of course, opted to do that. Afterwards there was the 10 p.m. - 1 a.m. pajama party that she also did. She had fun doing her thing and we had fun dancing but it was a late night and morning was going to come early!

MONDAY 12/25/00 CHRISTMAS DAY ST. THOMAS:
Well, on Christmas morning every last person on the boat had to go through immigration and show their passport before 8 a.m. This was because we had sailed from Aruba to St. Thomas which is back into US territory so we had to do the immigration thing. It was a pain, but at least it got us out of bed early. After a quick perusal of the presents Santa had left we ate breakfast and hopped in the "taxi of death" (a pickup truck type vehicle with rows of seats under a roof in the back) and spent a couple of hours on the beach. It was funny to be sunning ourselves in St. Thomas on Christmas day while the rest of the world was opening presents and cooking ham. Resting on the beach was sure a lot of fun though. Miranda had a blast swimming the entire time. I just dozed in a nice shady spot on the sand although I did manage a little swimming time. I had signed Stuart up for a Christmas day massage back at the boat, so around 1 p.m. we packed up our beach stuff and headed back to the dock. It was a much nicer taxi ride back I might add. Anything was better than the open air deathtrap we rode in on the way to the beach. They aren't exactly big on safety regulations on any of the islands!

TUESDAY 12/26/00 ST. KITTS (BOXING DAY):
While Miranda played at the kids program, we went on a snorkeling excursion arranged by the ship. It was an exciting and fast ride out to two different spots (45 min. snorkel time at each one) on a large inflatable type speed boat. I can't believe no one fell off getting there. We had to hang on for dear life while sitting on the inflatable sides of the boat. It was fun so I shouldn't complain. The snorkeling was OK, but not as great as Dominica or Hawaii. The more snorkeling sites we visit, the more picky we become. I guess that is the way many experiences work, though.

WEDNESDAY 12/27/00 ST. LUCIA:
Today the three of us spent most of the day on an island tour excursion. It began with a three hour catamaran ride along the amazing coast of St. Lucia. The boat was nice and large and it wasn't absolutely packed with people, which made it fun and easy to move around. We spent some time resting on the net area which is strung between the two sides of the boat out in front. You could look through and see the water speeding by. We danced on deck a bit to some Reggae music and we stopped on a beach for about an hour for a swim. A little while before pushing off from shore Stuart scraped his leg on fire coral and had to get back on the boat. The lady gave him a cup of grain alcohol to rub on his leg. He smelled like a brewery for the rest of the day. It wasn't that bad...just irritating for him. It cleared up and has now been just a bit itchy for the past 5 days. We had no idea that results of a run-in with fire coral had such lasting effects. It is actually worse than the natives make it out to be. We'll both be extremely careful in the future while snorkeling. This is usually when you see fire coral but there happened to be some along the side of the shore in this particular cove...what luck, huh!

Well...getting back to the island tour. Around 11:30 a.m. the boat docked after our glorious morning and we all hopped into cars where we proceeded to see the sulfur springs in the island's volcano crater, the botanical gardens, the banana plantations, & a buffet lunch at a cute little restaurant with native meals and little old island ladies cooking. I liked the banana salad the best. It was just like chicken salad. I didn't like lots of the other stuff but Stuart was in his glory. "At least I tried it," I kept telling him. The ride back to the boat was about an hour and a quarter long. It was only about 15 miles which tells you what the roads are like. One hill after another filled completely with one hairpin turn after another. It was a brutal bus ride after having eaten and Miranda got sick. Good thing I had a hat with me because by the time we had asked the bus driver to pull over...it was too late. I grabbed my baseball hat and she lost it. Poor thing. She was green. The rest of us on the bus weren't doing so hot either but we managed to keep things down. When we got back to the boat Miranda was absolutely fine (isn't that just like a kid) and Stuart had to sleep for three hours before his stomach felt better. Except for the last hour on the bus, the day was otherwise spectacular.

We learned quite a bit about island life on our day tour. The towns on St. Lucia and St. Kitts bring new meaning to what we think of as poverty. You'll have to look at the photos to appreciate what island life is like in these poorer places. It is truly amazing to see the way they live without the creature comforts that we all take for granted. Little things like running water in the house are a big deal in the villages there. Not many houses have this luxury. We saw women walking all over the island with big pots on their head filled with water. We also saw all the women and children doing laundry in the river and then laying the clothing on rocks to dry. Imagine that!

THURSDAY 12/28/00 BARBADOS:
Barbados is a great island for beaches but the town is really frightening. We had done the water thing the last time we were on Barbados so we decided to walk to the town and see what that was like. Not a good choice...we should have gone with the beach but at least now we know. The shopping was OK but certainly not great. The thing that stuck out the most to us was how dirty it was. The place was crawling with irritating taxi drivers and creepy guys who kept trying to convince us to make purchases for them using our passports so that it would be duty and V.A.T. free (tax free). Yeah...like we were actually going to go for that ruse. Do we look that gullible? It was still fun and we ended up eating at a local restaurant complete with native food. We made a couple of purchases and then headed back to the boat to get ready for another formal night. I had to have my manicure touched up, of course.

We ate in the dining room with friends we had made that week while Miranda opted out and went to another pizza and slumber party. We picked her up about 11:30 p.m. After bringing her back to the room where she went to sleep, we headed to the night club one deck down. We danced until almost two in the morning, slipping back to check on Sleeping Beauty every so often.

FRIDAY 12/29/00 AT SEA:
Well, it was bittersweet to be enjoying our last day on the boat. We had a full day at sea in which to relax and soak up the last of the suns rays. Tomorrow we would be flying back home and saying goodbye to warm weather until summertime (or so we thought). We spent the entire day on deck in lounge chairs dozing on and off and Stuart got a sunburn right through a towel. Can you believe it? We obviously didn't realize it could happen. Boy is that Caribbean sun hot! I entered the qualification round for the Black Jack tournament but didn't make it. Oh well. And that was about as exciting as things got. After dinner we packed our luggage and put the largest pieces outside of our cabin door. The porters took them away and we would claim them at the ship's terminal once we docked the next morning.

SATURDAY 12/30/00 BACK TO RI (OR SO WE THOUGHT):
This morning we took our time about getting off the boat knowing that there was no big rush since our flight was not until almost one o'clock. We finally had our act together and were in the cruise terminal collecting our luggage about 9:30 a.m. Once we confirmed that the cruise people were going to deliver our suitcases to the airport, we hired a taxi driver named Milton to give us a two hour tour of the island. And let me tell you...you can definitely see all there is to see in Aruba in two hours!

We saw the lighthouse, natural bridges, the rock formations, donkeys, the town/shopping area, and the resort hotels which are located along the island's most beautiful beaches. This was it!! Hiring a taxi driver worked out very well because we had him all to ourselves and were able to ask him tons of questions, learning quite a bit about life on the island. We also got to see so much in a short amount of time. Unlike being on a tour bus where you are forced to spend an eternity at each stop while people go to the bathroom, look in the gift shop, and all the eighty year olds take forever to get around...it was just us and Milton. I was pretty picky about choosing a taxi driver too. I immediately ruled out the driver who's taxi had tinted windows and a pair of ladies bikini underwear in the front seat. I also took the time to search out one that could speak English well enough so that we could understand and had a clean, air conditioned vehicle. Milton was great.

Now here is where the story gets good!

By the time we got to the airport, everyone else had been waiting in line for two hours (I have no idea what they were doing there so early anyway) only to find out that many flights including ours had been canceled due to a huge storm which had closed all of the major East Coast airports. Boy did we luck out arriving when we did. We could have wasted the whole morning! Anyway, the cruise people had two hotel options for the group of us that just happened to be standing there and put us all on a tour bus free of charge and off we went. First stop was the Radisson to the tune of $350/night. When we pulled up no one moved a muscle. Everyone else was waiting for the Holiday Inn which was only $250/night. Stuart and I traded looks and hopped off. Boy did we make the right choice!!!! We were on the beach having lunch before 1 p.m. and spent the rest of the day going back and forth between beach and pool. We could relax knowing that we had already seen what the island had to offer to tourists. Anyway, not only did we get to enjoy almost that entire day at the Radisson, but they had free internet service which we took advantage of, keeping our phone bill down below $20. And their concierge did all the work of keeping up with things over at TWA and letting us know what was happening. Later that night we went on a walk along the beach path which winds past many of the hotels. After walking through the Holiday Inn, we were even more thrilled with the decision we had made. We also saw the most beautiful restaurant at one of the hotels while out on our walk. It looked like a castle and had outdoor seating. Little lights were strung everywhere making it for quite the romantic setting. If we are ever in Aruba again, we'll try to get reservations there!

SUNDAY 12/31/00 RADISSON RESORT ON NEW YEAR'S EVE:
Well, the flight is rescheduled for Monday. yeah!!! Another day in paradise...beach...pool...beach...pool. Miranda had a chance to play with her friend Harriet which she had met on the cruise. Harriet's family was also stranded in Aruba and staying at the Radisson. For dinner we ate a lovely casual New Year's Eve meal at Gilligan's restaurant on the beach and then headed to back to the room. We just relaxed in front of the TV until midnight when the fireworks, which had been pretty much non-stop since we arrived on the island, reached an undescribable crescendo. The sky of the entire island was lit up for hours by constant fireworks because pretty much everybody lights them off. According to the taxi driver, this is a really huge thing and the islanders save all year to be able to do fireworks. The biggest firework you can think of costs under $40. What it takes three fire trucks, eight firemen and a team of pyrotechnists to light off for a display in any town in the US, these people are shooting off right in their backyards along with the rest of the backyards on the island. The hum of the explosions was constant with absolutely no break from about 11 p.m. to well after 1 a.m. but it pretty much continued on and off all night. There is no way to use words to describe New Year's Eve on Aruba. It is worth going to the island just to experience this night!

Meanwhile back at the Holiday Inn, as we later found out, those who stayed on the bus on Saturday had to wait in line over an hour to check in and some spent almost $150 on phone bills calling TWA because the concierge/holiday inn were absolutely no help whatsoever. Their entire day was wasted while we soaked up the sun. Then on Sunday some of them even paid the $20 cab fare each way to and from the airport to try and find out what was happening. We ate a leisurely breakfast and then got an update from the concierge that the new flight was Monday and voilà...it was off to the beach/pool again for another full day of R&R. By the time you figure in aggravation plus phone bills, they would have made out spending not too much more if they had come to the Radisson. But more importantly they would have gotten to enjoy Aruba too.

MONDAY 01/01/01 NEW YEAR'S DAY:
The only downside of the whole thing was that Monday morning we arrived at the airport at 10 am for our noon flight which didn't take off until well after 2 p.m. They only had three people checking luggage and we waited two hours in line for that. They are all working on "island time" of course. Then we spent another two hours waiting for them to fuel the plane and put food on it. The icing on the cake was that they had a smaller plane than we were supposed to have and the luggage for the entire plane had to be left behind and will be sent later tonight and delivered to us at home within the next few days (we'll see). The plane was overweight and it was either
1) stop to refuel along the way
2) leave some passengers...and I don't think anyone was going to volunteer at that point! or
3) leave the luggage.

They opted for plan three which made for an awfully COLD time of it in the 16°F weather in Boston seeing that our coats were in the luggage (luckily Miranda's was in our carry-on).

Well, despite the airport shenanigans, our time in Aruba was very well spent and we really lucked out compared to others. We barely had to spend any time at all thinking about the plane thing and were able to just rest and get ready for our trip back to reality.

TUESDAY 1/2/01 BACK TO REALITY:
And so here we are back to reality and very cold weather. They have our luggage up in Boston but now we just have to wait for delivery. Luckily we won't be needing shorts for a few months. It's a good thing because at the rate TWA operates, it just may be that long before they get down here with it.

NOTE: TWA delivered our luggage right to the door last night. I'm amazed. As a matter of fact...considering the door to door service and the weight of our luggage...I much prefer this method of "baggage claim" to the one at the airport!

Thanks for reading...those of you who made it to the end.
Kim