Two Weeks in the Caribbean

 

This year we decided to take a cruise during our winter RV trip to Florida. We found a great place to store the coach in Tampa and to board Tina. We also switched back to Holland America where we have taken all of our previous cruises with the exception of last summer’s Alaska cruise on Princess. We clearly prefer Holland America because of the larger shower and because of the fresh orange juice for breakfast and better coffee.

We sailed out of Tampa on Holland America’s Ryndam about 5:00 p.m .on January 27, 2013, beginning our two week Caribbean cruise.

        

 

Our first stop was at Holland America’s “Half Moon Cay,” a small island in the Bahamas.   

        

Then it was on to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We enjoyed San Juan’s old town area and old forts. The visit was particularly meaningful to George because two of his doctors are from there.

                                     

           

        

                                 

We enjoyed returning to St. John, Antigua where the high view of Nelson’s Dock Yard is always impressive.

        

        

While we have enjoyed St. Thomas, Virgin Islands in the past, we are sad to say that the shopping district has deteriorated into a cheap carnival atmosphere where store hawkers pester shoppers at every turn.

Castries, St. Lucia was new to us. We took a tour of the island that took us atop a mountain where we got a good view of our ship in the harbor.

        

        

Our ship then sailed a couple of hours to the other end of the island to pick up passengers who had taken a tour across the island.  They returned to the ship by tender.  There at Soufriere we saw the Pitons, Gros Piton and Petit Piton.

        

We enjoyed our return to Willemstad, Curacao. We like the Dutch architecture and enjoyed the public market where vendors come in their boats from Venezuela which is only 58 miles away.

        

We found Aruba and Grand Cayman unremarkable, but enjoyed the balmy weather and the days at sea.  We both enjoyed the kitchen tour on the Ryndam and seeing how the food service is organized, and Irene enjoyed the florist’s flower arranging demonstrations.  The entertainment on the ship was excellent.  We especially enjoyed the 4 shows performed by the singing/dancing group and also the Adagios, a violinist and pianist from the Ukraine..