Day 35 - 12/24 - Philipsburg, Sint Maarten

Christmas Eve 2019 found us in port at Philipsburg with 6 other ships: Msc Divina, Carnival Fascination, Zuiderdam, Marcella Discovery 2, Celebrity Reflection, and the Berlin. There are two piers here and six ships can dock here. The Berlin anchored in the harbor until the Divina left just after 2:30pm. Then it backed in.  

For the second day in a row we went on a catamaran snorkeling and sailing excursion. There were nearly 90 on the catamaran with Golden Eagle Tours. The snorkeling was short and lousy. It was rough water and windy and they asked us after we got back on the catamaran whether we saw the cannon or helicopter or submarine. It would have been helpful to have known that before we went in the murky water. We then sailed to a white sand beach where we could swim to shore. It was a challenging swim in the current and wind. They then fed us some tasty ham and cheese sandwiches. Throughout the cruise, rum punch was pushed as well as beer. We drank Diet Coke.

After the snorkel trip returned to the pier, we shopped a bit in the pier area (I found a backup battery for my new camera) before returning to the ship to drop off our wet clothes and snorkel gear. We ate a quick lunch on board before heading back out to walk around the port area. We didn't go into Philipsburg as we'd been there in 2015 on the Eurodam. It's a mile or so walk to town or a $5 ferry ride ($7 round trip).

At this pier with 6 ships in port, the Volendam was berthed in the left side of and at the end of the big pier facing the Celebrity Reflection. The Zuiderdam was to our right and the Fascination was behind it (those two ships were facing out). So it was a long walk down the pier to our gangway. And it was like Grand Central Station with all the passengers. We sat under the Volendam's pop up tent and watched the Zuiderdam finish their final departure preparations and then push away from the pier and sail off to their next port. It's worrth noting that there was a significant incoming swell and the ships were a rocking.

We had a 4:30pm on board time but we were onboard well before then. I watched the sailaway from the Crows Nest as the ship departed just after 5pm by backing out from its berth and rotating counter clockwise 180°. I was able to take some good sunset pictures.  

While it was Gala night, we didn't see it in the program and Ian's PA announcements were pretty much unintelligible over the people noise. Dinner was in the Lido followed by some free time before the variety show with the comedian, Mike Reilly and the musical duo, 5 O'Clock Somewhere.

After the show, we changed into our formal clothes and listened to the Billboard Onboard duo play and sing iconic songs. They were very good.

At 11pm there was a special HAL program, Sounds of Christmas which was really good featuring a Philippine, an Indonesian, and a mass choir plus Vaden from the Jersey Tenors, the Captain, and Ian easing the night before Christmas. Following that there was a midnight mass for the Catholics and an interdenominational service for the Protestants. And so ended our 2019 Christmas Eve and began Christmas Day.

Tomorrow is a sea day and then Barbados. Stay tuned.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 18 - 12/07 - Belem

There are a number of directions today's post could take. But my chosen path is to set the stage with a familiar expression which is repeating itself on this cruise. It's simply, when life gives you lemons, it's time to make lemonade. And today's post will be longer than most. Our day started with a leisurely breakfast as we weren't meeting with our Cruise Critic group until 8:45am near the Main Stage where Dan V had prearranged tender tickets for our group of 27. Just after nine we were ushered down to the tender deck where we boarded a local large tender, Jubilee which was later pulled from service. It was about a 15 minute ride to the dock and just as we arrived, a local boat cut us off from our docking position. So we bobbed in the water until an official waved off the offending captain, a HAL tender departed, and we tied up and disembarked our passengers. Later we learned that local traffic has priority over cruise ship tenders regardless of wh...
Read more

Day 01 - 11/20 - Fort Lauderdale Departure

Image
I believe in Fairies We started our day with a breakfast in the hotel and watched more of the impeachment hearings until just before our 11am checkout time. After checking out we were scheduled on an 11:30am shuttle to the cruise terminal. However there were 7 ships in port with some 16-18k passenger transitioning off the system and a similar amount boarding and many guests were waiting for shuttles so ours left an hour late at 12:30pm. At the cruise terminal, we elected to keep our one roll on piece of luggage with us which turned out to be a good move. The 4-5 star check-in line was pretty long but we began to see fellow cruisers we have sailed with previously. The check-in went smooth with no health forms or yellow fever vaccine documentation required but we had To surrender our passports. We headed for the gangway and at the security desk on ty g we ship our cards wouldn't work and we were directed to the alternate security desk where the guard indicated our room had been...
Read more

Day 14 - 12/03 - Parintins, Brazil

Today's blog has four distinct themes. And they all made for a very memorable day. I love the smell of Diesel in the Morning The Volendam sailed overnight down river and pivoted 180° and assumed a position in the middle of the river facing upstream where the thrusters and drive screws aided by GPS kept it in position all day off the little town on Parintins. The river is a muddy brown color with lots of vegetation debris floating down the river at about 7 knots to unknown destinations. We didn't have specific plans other than to walk around the town. So we took our time to get ready and have a good breakfast. We made our way up to the Ocean Bar on deck 5 to get released to a tender. Just as we arrived, the 4 & 5 Star group was released and we made our way down to the tender platform where we saw that our tender vessel would be one of the local double deck river boats. We boarded it and climbed the steep stairs to the upper deck.  One could walk right up to the wheelhou...
Read more