March 3, 2020
On Super Tuesday the Jaffees drove us up to Pleasanton to catch Bart. We got to SFO with only a minute to spare. Fortunately because of Jon’s status with United and being Gold members they took care of our bags right away. They were already boarding the plane so I limped/ran over to the Domestic Terminal. There were only two minutes to spare, but we made it. The guy two rows ahead of us was not so lucky. He was buckled in but slouched over. The flight attendants tried to speak to him but he was non responsive. It took two firemen, 2 EMT’s and one flight attendant to carry him off of the plane. We all thought he was dead but as Jon was returning from the restroom he asked an attendant and she said, “No, he is still with us.” Whew! So that whole experience delayed us an hour and we barely made our connection in Houston…..again limping between terminals. So my knee was giving me a lot of pain but we weren’t going to cancel our cruise. I bought a knee brace and learned to baby it and actually it didn’t hold me back much on the trip. I missed one waterfall but Jon hiked down to it and took pictures. The corona virus was just getting going when we boarded the ship and as it turned out we were the last ship to complete its voyage. As I am writing this the state of California is under a Stay in Place order. Anyway, back to the trip. We finally made it to Fort Lauderdale and got an Uber over to Port Everglade and BEHOLD we saw our ship. The Koningsdam. She is a beauty.
2 Sea Days. We’ve made friends with the bar staff in the casino and some new friends from all over the world while playing Team Trivia.
We watched the performers at the Dual Piano bar. They are excellent and the group of dancers on board put on a great show in the amazing New World theatre. We saw three movies on the lido deck.. Leap Year, Angel has fallen and Ford vs. Ferrari. all movies enhanced by our deck chairs with pillows and a nice ocean breeze. That is our new favorite ship activity.
We also saw a culinary class on how to prepare Jerk Chicken and took a tour of the Kitchen on board the ship.
Our first port was St. Maarten, an island we had been to once before. It is half Dutch and half French. The last time we were there we spent the majority of the time on the French side. This time we wandered around the Dutch side and found a perfect spot to give my knee a rest and quench our thirst. There was a Dutch owner of an outside bar with views of our ship and the bay. We had 2 Sangrias each and it was a perfect stop.
Jon got some more of his cologne at a duty free shop there and we asked the shop owner where she and others locals like to eat. The restaurant was on Back street and we got there around 11:00 a.m., the food had not arrived yet. The food was being brought in by someone’s family member in the back of a truck. They set it up and served it to us. I had Jerk chicken and it was amazing. Jon had his first Carib of this trip.
We got back to the ship and we had our first of 3 evacuations on our journey. We heard a helicopter then watched it circle the ship a few times until they had steadied it over the pool on the aft of the ship. Someone had had a heart attack. No Corona Virus yet. (or ever as it turned out)
Our next port of call was Martinique, a definite return destination. This was our first visit to this island, a French territory. Beautiful. We joined a group that was getting a tour of the island. We stopped at the replica of Sacre coeur where there was a church service just letting out. We heard them singing hymns and enjoying fellowship.
We drove up to the rain forest on a road that the locals have nicknamed Snake Road for good reason. We saw Mt. Pele, a dormant volcano. We stopped to see a waterfall and it was too difficult for me to hike but Jon did and took some beautiful pictures. It was pretty steep and rocky. We then drove to a Rum plantation and learned a lot about that process. We even stopped on the side of the road for the tour guide to pull some branches of a tree and crumble up some leaves and pass them around. They were Bay leaves. What a wonderful fresh fragrance! We stopped at the coast for refreshments and we decided we would definitely come back here someday.
So the next island was one I had really been looking forward to seeing because I had not been there before. It is the home of the singer Rhianna and the pictures I’d seen looked great…….Barbados.
I will say they had a great port for buying gifties. We ended going to this one beach bar where we tried to order 4 different drinks. No, we don’t have this, No we don’t have that. So we left/limped to a taxi and had them take us to the Barbados Hilton and ordered Pina Coladas there at the Bar.
Sorry Barbados but my rating for you on that particular day was a rather disappointing MEH!
Another return destination we have decided is St. Lucia. What a beautiful island. We took a tour of part of the island, starting up a windy road to a vista for taking photos. The vendors emerged and swarmed…..they were very aggressive but we just took photos.
Next we stopped at an artisan studio. Wood carvings and sculptures.
We stopped on the side of the road and looked at a grove of bananas. Our driver used to own a plantation and was very knowledgeable about the growing process. We had our driver drop us off at the Craft Market. We got Roz a Miss and Mrs. Doll and Lucas an Island outfit. We took a water ferry back to the ship with a stop at the Pink Papaya for snacks and beers. “Piton Ale” (named after their dual mountains on St. Lucia) Jon had a small pizza to go with his beer and I had calamari. Yum!
So we were supposed to go to St. Kitts. St. Kitts said “Go Away”
We were supposed to go to Antigua. Antigua said “Go Away”
So we now have an extra sea day. We played in the casino and drank alot!! We watched JoJo Rabbit in our room. At Lunch we met 4 very nice people. Two from Florida and Two From Kentucky. At Dinner we met 4 boring people who talked of nothing but their love for Wood…….I’m serious!
St. Thomas is an island that we have been to a number of times so we booked a couple’s massage on the ship. Fantastic.
We decided to go to lunch in St. Thomas. I had been having a hankering for a whole fish. We asked our taxi driver where we could find one. He said “Gladys”. I got my whole fish and Jon got a Mahi Mahi sandwhich. Loved the restaurant and Gladys still cooks the food. The wait staff had cool shirts on with a quote from Gladys on the back. It goes like this:
“If you are physically tired you go to sleep. If you are emotionally tired you wake up and move on.”
That is my new favorite quote.
We had a sea day and then went to Half Moon Cay which is Holland America’s own private island. We rented a Clam Shell to cover our tops and we swam in the Cay, read books and Holland had a wonderful BBQ for all of us. A lovely end to our cruise.
We arrived in Fort Lauderdale the next morning and our whole ship was healthy. We get to the airport which is crowded beyond belief and we made our way back to California. We enjoyed our cruise and loved every minute.
