Rosemary had long wanted to go on a Caribbean cruise. I had spent some time in the area while serving in the Navy in the early 1950s and had also visited Puerto Rico with daughter Diana in 2006, but I was more than willing to go again. Because the trip was Rosemary's idea and because we were at sea for her birthday, I have called it Rosemary's Caribbean Birthday Cruise.
We
prefer sailing on Holland America because of the intermediate size of
their
ships. We booked passage on MS Nieuw Amsterdam, one of their
larger ships with a passenger capacity of 2106. The Nieuw Amsterdam
measures 936 feet in length, has a beam of 105.8 and steams at a
maximum speed of 23.9 knots. She has a diesel-electric propulsion
system featuring ABB Azipod thrusters which place the electric drive
motors in pods outside the hull and connect the propellers directly
to the motor shafts. Seen below is a public domain photograph
of an azipod installed on a US Coast Guard icebreaker.
 |
| Azipod on USGCC Mackinac (WLBB-30) |
We were scheduled to
sail from Fort Lauderdale, FL on Friday, 6 December 2015 and would
return to the same port on 13 December.
Intending to visit with
my brother Don who lives in the area, we arranged to spend two nights
in Fort Lauderdale before sailing. The Ace Express Shuttle picked us
up at our home in Cottonwood and delivered us to Phoenix Sky Harbor
Airport. We caught the 1610 American Airlines non-stop flight to
Fort Lauderdale. Given the two-hour time difference, we arrived at
2221, a little later than we liked, but not too bad since we could
sleep late the next morning. The motel shuttle took us from the
airport to the Holiday Inn Express Cruise-Airport motel where we had
already booked a room, convenient to both the airport and the cruise
terminal. Our room included free WI-Fi access and was equipped with
an innovative work station in the form of a table that slid under a
shelf when not being used (below left).
The wash basin, however, was the most intriguing feature: it
appeared to be randomly placed (or, perhaps misplaced) on the
countertop in the bathroom (below right).
A storm system was
hovering over Florida when we arrived on Friday evening and didn't
dissipate until well after we sailed on Sunday. My brother, Don, who
lives nearby, was unexpectedly called in to work on Saturday and his
family were down with a flu-like virus, so we could not visit them.
Rosemary and I just spent the day hanging around the motel, reading,
working on my laptop and watching television. Anyway, It rained all
day and the wind blew so strongly as to turn umbrellas inside out.
The only really productive thing we did for the entire day was to
arrange transportation by a shuttle bus to the cruise line for the
next morning. But room service was available from a nearby
restaurant, the motel was cozy and we stayed dry.
The Nieuw Amsterdam
commenced boarding at 1300 on Sunday, 6 December and cast off at
1608, under still cloudy skies. After settling into our stateroom,
we ate dinner at the cafeteria-style dining room on the Lido Deck.
The Lido served a wide variety of good food and we ate there almost
exclusively. Each table was decorated with a bouquet of orchids as
shown below.
 |
The Lido Dining Room on MS Nieuw Amsterdam
|
We spent that night
and all of the next day at sea. A full day at sea is actually a good
way to start a cruise; it gives one time to settle in and select
activities for the rest of the cruise. We had already established
our basic priorities for the trip. Rosemary would gorge on trivia
and I would concentrate on attending the digital workshop. Several
different varieties of trivia were offered (pub, family and team);
the digital workshop concentrated on Windows 10 but also included
sessions on photography. As it turned out, I joined Rosemary for a
couple of her trivia sessions, although not as a participant, and she
attended a few of the digital workshops with me.
One
minor problem we encountered was a loose deckplate in front of the
sofa in our stateroom. It depressed when stepped on. Then, when the
weight was removed, sprang back into place, so vigorously as to spill
liquids from cups on a small table placed on the deckplate. Another
problem was with the sofa. The seat sloped down significantly at the
front (below
left)
and occupants were in danger of sliding off. Securing the deckplate
would have involved removing the carpet, so we decided to report it
for future repair and live with it for the cruise. As for the
sloping sofa seat, I just placed two of Holland America's neatly
rolled beach towels (below
right)
under the front of the cushion and, as the saying goes, “Bob's your
uncle.”
To be fair, the steward
did offer to find us another stateroom. But I had specifically
booked a stateroom amidship on the main deck because of Rosemary's
tendency to seasickness and, after all, the beach towels corrected
the couch and the deck was a small problem.
After sailing a day and
two nights, we moored alongside the pier at Grand Turk, Turks and
Caicos Islands at 0745 on Pearl Harbor Day, Tuesday, 7 December for a
7-hour stay. As we departed the ship, we paused to look at the
graceful brow of Nieuw Amsterdam looming high above us with her
bridge outlined against a white cloud floating in the pale blue sky.
Some might see it as just a large hunk of steel; I saw it as a work
of art.
 |
| MS Nieuw Amsterdam moored at Grand Turk |
The
Turks
and Caicos Islands (TCI)
are
a British
Overseas Territory consisting
of two groups of tropical islands, (the Caicos
Islands and the Turks Islands. The capitol of the territory is
Cockburn Town, located on Grand Turk Island. The territorial
population is around 31500 or, if foreigners are included, 49000.
The total land area is about 170 square miles. The official TCI
currency is the US dollar. Traffic rules require driving on the left
side of the road, but all the automobiles I saw had steering controls
on the left as is normal for driving on the right side of the road.
The main industries are tourism and offshore financing. Grand
Turk, bottom right on the below map, is the island where we berthed
and the site of our tour.
 |
Map of British Overseas Territory Turks and Caicos Islands
|
We
had arranged for a bus tour of Grand Turk during our short visit. We
wanted to see as much of the island as possible and the bus would
allow us to do that in air-conditioned comfort.
We
drove past the former United States Air Force facility where
astronaut John Glenn was debriefed after orbiting the Earth in 1962
and continued on to the Salt House, the discontinued site of the
Grand Quay Salt Company, now a museum dedicated to telling the
history of the island’s salt-raking industry and to the sale of
tourist gadgets. The displays included a replica of a windmill
(below left) used for pumping water
to the salt beds and a memorial to Mary Prince (below
right), a slave who once worked in the salt mines.
Bermudan
settlers originally came to rake salt in the Grand Turks in the
1660s. The first permanent settlement was built by the salt
collectors in 1681. Salting continued through the 18th
and 19th centuries and reached a peak of 67,000 tons
annually by the early 20th century. However, by the
middle of the 20th century, due to the high cost of
transportation, lack of a deep harbor and economies of scale, the
islands could no longer compete with other lower cost sources. By
1964 the last salting operation on Grand Turk was closed.
Windmill-driven
pumps “helped the flow of brine and pickle
between the salinas — salt ponds.”
Some of the old salt ponds, as shown below, still exist.
The
following description of work in the salting operations is provided
by the Turks & Caicos National Museum:
Raking
salt was brutal labor. The hot breeze, the soaring temperatures, and
the effects of standing in brine all day or walking barefoot over
chunks of salt crystal made the work drudgery. Cuts failed to heal
and boils developed on skin constantly exposed to brine. The bright
sun reflecting off salt water, white sand, and salt crystals
contributed to the onset of blindness. A limited diet combined with a
lack of medical care undermined general health. Until British
Emancipation of slaves in English colonies, most of the workers were
slaves, with a few poor whites and freed blacks. Emancipation in 1833
eliminated the worst abuses of slavery, but did not produce any great
change in working or housing conditions.
One
of the slaves who toiled in the salt mines, and later learned to read
and write, wrote a book, The History of Mary Prince, detailing
her experiences as a slave. The book, published in England, enjoyed
three printings in its first year. A brief outline of her life story
is told on a plaque mounted at the Salt Works and is also available
online at Wikipedia.
 |
Now unused salt ponds (salinas) at the old Grand Quay Salt Company site
|
We
returned to the ship for lunch and were underway for San Juan, Puerto
Rico at 1437, having spent just under 7 hours in Grand Turk.
Nieuw
Amsterdam arrived in San Juan the next day, 8 December 2015, at 1248
and Rosemary and I departed immediately on a tour called San Juan Old
and New. As noted in my book, A Little work and Some Luck,
I had visited San Juan numerous times while stationed aboard USS
Timbalier (AVP-54), homeported in Coco Solo, Canal Zone, in the early
1950s. Our homeport was changed from Norfolk, VA to Coco Solo, CZ in
1952, just four days after having spent three months tending
seaplanes as part of NATO Operation Mainbrace in the North Atlantic:
We
arrived back in Norfolk on October 16th and
left four days later for Coco Solo, CZ. Coco Solo was our new
homeport and we operated from there for the rest of my time aboard
Timbalier.
Additionally,
our daughter, Diana, and I had spent a few days in Puerto Rico in
2006, We visited Morro Castle and rented a car to drive around the
island and visit the El Yunque Rain Forest.
Rosemary,
on the other hand, had never before visited San Juan and I was not
really familiar with most of the sights we were scheduled to see
today.
The
CIA World Fact Book provides the following information about Puerto
Rico:
Populated
for centuries by aboriginal peoples, the island was claimed by the
Spanish Crown in 1493 following Christopher COLUMBUS' second voyage
to the Americas. In 1898, after 400 years of colonial rule that saw
the indigenous population nearly exterminated and African slave labor
introduced, Puerto Rico was ceded to the US as a result of the
Spanish-American War. Puerto Ricans were granted US citizenship in
1917. Popularly elected governors have served since 1948. In 1952, a
constitution was enacted providing for internal self government. In
plebiscites held in 1967, 1993, and 1998, voters chose not to alter
the existing political status with the US, but the results of a 2012
vote left open the possibility of American statehood. Economic
recession on the island has led to a net population loss since about
2005, as large numbers of residents moved to the US mainland. The
trend has accelerated since 2010; in 2014, Puerto Rico experienced a
net population loss to the mainland of 64,000, more than double the
net loss of 26,000 in 2010.
The
total 2015 CIA World Fact Book population estimate for Puerto Rico is
3,598,357 and that for San Juan alone is 2,643,000.
 |
| Map of Puerto Rico – San Juan is shown near the northeast corner of the island |
Having
eaten lunch before our arrival in San Juan, we were ready to
disembark and board our tour bus as soon as the ship was tied up.
Our tour would be limited to San Juan proper, the shaded area shown
on the northeast corner of the island shown on the below map and, as
had been the case at Grand Turk, the tour bus was air-conditioned and
quite comfortable.
We
had spent some time pouring over the literature provided by Holland
America for the San Juan stop. Rosemary wanted to see as much of the
city as possible without too much walking; I wanted to visit places
that I had not seen before. The brochure for the tour we had finally
settled on, San Juan Old & New, claimed that it would
provide the opportunity to:
...stroll
around the grounds of San
Cristobál Fortress.
This UNESCO World
Heritage Site was
built in 1634 to protect the city from landside attacks. San
Cristobál covers 27 acres, is the largest Spanish fort in the New
World, and boasts an excellent view over Old San Juan and the sea.
Re-board the coach and continue your guided tour to the New
City, which will take
you to the Condado District—a modern area of high-rise condominiums
and luxury resorts. Return to Old San Juan and stop at Plaza
Colón for some free
time to spend
shopping, taking enchanting pictures, and exploring the local
surroundings before you return to the ship.
Except
for whatever we chose to do within the fortress, the entire tour
could be done by bus, dismounting only if we wished to see something
up close. It included older parts of the city as well as more recent
additions and, although I had toured Morro Castle more than once, I
had never before visited San Cristobál
Fortress.
We
visited a city beach, stopping to enjoy the fresh ocean breeze, while
watching a sail surfer struggling to launch his sail (below
left) and then take off (below
right).
Our next stop was old San
Juan and San Cristobál Fortress. When construction of the fort was
finished in 1783, it basically contained the city of San Juan within
its 42-foot walls.
The main entry to the old city was by way of a set of double gates.
Old San Juan had a total six gates, only one of which, San Juan
Gate
(below),
is still in existence. It was built
in 1520 and used by visiting dignitaries.
 |
| San Juan Gate – the only gate remaining in the old wall |
In
1897, “after close to one hundred
years of relative peace in
the area, part of the fortification (about a third)”
of
the city wall, “from
San Cristobál
to the harbor docks”,
was demolished to permit
expansion of the city.
The
colonial Spanish architectural theme of the old city has been
protected by the implementation of strict remodeling and construction
codes. The National Park Service-managed San
Juan National Historic Site, established in 1949, serves to protect
and interpret the colonial era fortifications, including what remains
of the old city wall. Largely as a result of these actions,
old San Juan (below) is now a major
tourist destination.
 |
Old San Juan from the air – Castillo El Morro at front – NPS photo
|
As
intimated, our major stop in the old town was San Cristóbal
Fortress (below
left).
I was struck by the visual appeal of the American, Puerto Rican and
Spanish Empire flags flying atop the fort (below
right).
The
entrance to the fort was undergoing reconstruction at the time of our
visit. We followed the tourist shown at the right (below
left) and entered through a small side door, not
visible in the photograph. Once inside the lobby, we had to choose
between an elevator or a grim-looking, dimly-lit tunnel (below
right) to access the upper levels of the fort.
Rosemary
chose the elevator while I took the tunnel. I assumed that we would
both come out in the same general area on the next level.
Unfortunately, the tunnel took me up two levels to a plaza one level
above where Rosemary's elevator deposited her. I was still two
stories below the top and assuming the elevator had taken her even
higher I took a sloping ramp, sort of like a giant handicapped access
ramp, on to the top where I was presented with a panoramic view of
the city below.
 |
Panoramic view of San Juan from the top of San Cristóbal Fortress
|
Looking
back down at the plaza on which I had emerged after my trek through
the dimly-lit tunnel, I could see two round masonry tubes (below)
that looked somewhat like mouths of wells. A nearby sign disclosed
that they were openings to the fort's water supply.
 |
The two round masonry tubes provided access to the water supply
|
An
informational sign posted (below)
posted just near the two masonry tubes provides additional
information concerning San
Cristóbal's
water supply.
 |
| Description of water system at San Cristóbal Fortress |
Just
as I was beginning to worry about what had happened to Rosemary, she
appeared on the plaza below. I hurried back down the sloping ramp to
join her and, as it was approaching time to reboard our bus, we
descended to the lobby and left the fort to wait in a bit of shade
near the boarding area.
Our
next stop, actually more a pause, was at Colon (Columbus) Square
where we admired the statue of Christopher Columbus (below
left)
and watched tourists posing with parrots (below
right).
The vendor with the parrots must having been doing well. I don't
know what he was charging but he had no shortage of customers.
The
bus made one last stop, for shopping, in old San Juan. We found
ourselves among a plethora of touristy shops. We, however, were
ready for a before-dinner nap, so we walked down a cobblestone street
(below
left)
to the dock where Nieuw Amsterdam (below
right)
was moored. We quickly abandoned the tour and re-boarded.
Our
guide had told us that the blue cobblestones seen in the preceding
photograph (above left) were cast from iron slag, which is the waste
from iron smelting. They were brought as ballast in the bottoms of
European merchant ships in the 1700s. As the guide put it “they
were used as ballast on the way from Spain and replaced with gold for
the return journey.”
After
a very enjoyable tour we were back in time for a nap and dinner
before Rosemary's 1930 game of Pub trivia in the Queen's Lounge.
While Rosemary played trivia, I settled contentedly to continue
reading a book I had started the evening before, P. D. James' The
Skull Beneath the Skin. We were both asleep when the ship set
sail for Saint Thomas.
I
had visited Saint Thomas once before, that time aboard the USS
Timbalier (AVP-54), a seaplane tender. But that was long ago, in
1953 as a matter of fact. Following a three-month Mediterranean
deployment and a two-month overhaul in Portsmouth,
VA followed by a two-week underway training session at Guantanamo,
Cuba we had just returned to our normal seaplane tending duties in
the Caribbean. As recorded in my book, A little Work and Some Luck.
We
were back in Coco Solo by the first of November and resumed our
normal tending duties, primarily bouncing from there to San Juan and
back for the rest of my time aboard Timbalier. We did get one small
change of pace in that during a break in an operation in San Juan, we
were allowed to go to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands for three days R&R.
I distinctly remember this visit because just as I was about to go
ashore, I received a call to tell me that a motor had failed on one
of the evaporator pumps. The Evaporators (evaporative distillers)
were the units we used while underway to distill seawater for
personnel use and to feed the boilers. Neither the crew nor the
boilers could survive on seawater. A quick examination disclosed
that the motor was burned out. I had by now been promoted to EM2 and
was in charge of maintaining all the motors in the main engineering
space and repairing this one was my responsibility. We could take on
fresh water in St. Thomas and return to San Juan with no problem.
However, we were scheduled to get underway again the day after
reaching San Juan for our return to Coco Solo and we would need to
distill water during the four-day transit. The command radioed back
to San Juan to arrange an emergency rewind and had me flown back
there to deliver the motor in person.
After
placing my motor aboard the plane, I saw a crewman casually deposit
it, unsecured, near the rear. When I asked whether it shouldn’t be
tied down the pilot responded, “Nah, we’re just going to San Juan
and the weather is great.” We were no more than a few miles from
the airport at St. Thomas when the co-pilot thought he saw something
floating in the water that might be a person. The pilot decided to
take a closer look and went into a steep dive to make a closer
inspection. Only by leaping out of my seat was I able to catch the
motor as it went tumbling by straight on its way toward the cockpit.
The object in the water turned out to be a floating log. We tied the
motor down and continued our trip to San Juan. The new windings had
barely finished baking and the motor was still hot when the ship
arrived. I carted it aboard, reinstalled and tested it and we were
ready to go.
The
United States purchased the southern Virgin Islands of Saint Thomas,
Saint John, and Saint Croix (below)
from Denmark in 1917. The residents are thus US Citizens.
 |
Map of the United States Virgin Islands
|
All
I had seen of Saint Thomas during that long ago visit was the landing
strip from which the plane that flew me and my motor back to San
Juan took off. The strip, tucked into a valley looking out to sea
was short and we were almost over the ocean by the time we lifted
off.
This
time I got a better view from the mountain, high above Crown Bay of
what is now called Cyril King Airport. Although, greatly expanded
since 1953, this appears to be the same location as the old air
strip.
 |
Looking down on Cyril King Airport
|
Holland
America offered 23 different shore excursions. We chose a tour
called the Saint
Thomas Island Drive
which included the f
ollowing descriptive language and would the above
view of the old air strip:
Visit world-famous
Mountain Top, home of the
original banana daiquiri, where you will have time to browse the
charming Caribbean-themed bazaar.
Take in the views of the surrounding British Virgin Islands from the
observation platform located 1,200 feet above the sea. Vibrant colors
and Caribbean Music create a unique and festive
experience here. At Drake's Seat, gaze
below to the crystalline waters of heart shaped Magens Bay
Beach, named one of the top 10 beaches in the world by National
Geographic
Society.
We
tied up at Crown Bay in Saint Thomas at 0800 and our tour was
scheduled to start a 0830, just 30 minutes later. We hastened to
disembark and headed down the pier toward the reception area (below
left)
and then were directed to “head for the windmill” which, insofar
as I could determine, was just an ordinary building (below
right)
designed to look like a windmill. I never did determine exactly what
it was used for.
Behind
the “windmill” we found a staging area where the tour buses
loaded. There was a booth with an attendant who, when asked where we
were to board our bus, responded pleasantly enough with a vague
gesture which could have included the entire plaza and the comment,
“Wait there and the guide will call you.” That wasn't too
helpful as passengers for several different tours filled the entire
area and extremely loud music was emanating from a nearby outdoors
bar. We finally just wandered around until we found other
individuals scheduled for the same tour. Then we all waited
together, assuming correctly that the driver would not leave with so
many of his scheduled passengers missing.
According
to the best information I could find, Cyril E. King is the busiest
airport in the USVI. It covers 280 acres, has one 7000 foot paved
runway and averaged 177 aircraft operations per day (year ending
September 2014).
This
did not look anything like the landing strip I saw in 1953. On the
other hand, the general location seemed familiar and our tour guide
said that the airport originally had a much shorter landing strip
before the bay was filled in to extend it seaward. I think it must
be in the same location, but it is surely not the same landing strip
my motor and I took off from 63 years ago.
After
only a brief stop we continued on our way up the mountain toward the
“World Famous Mountain Top” on Crown Mountain that was mentioned
in the brochure. The driver parked our trolley (below
left)
in the small lot just in front of the store and we disembarked to see
just what “world famous” might mean. Mountain Top turned out to
be a well-stocked tourist shop that advertised itself as the place to
shop in Saint Thomas and the “home of the Banana Daiquiri.” A
sign posted nearby (below
right)
claims to provide the history of the drink.
We
were interested in neither the tourist trinkets on sale nor the
banana daiguiri, so we quickly made our way through the shop to the
observation deck. There, we found a view that I felt was really
worthy of the term “world view.” In the below photograph Magens
Bay is shown bottom center. Just across the spit of land that
separates the bay from the sea is seen Hans Lollick, part of the
USVI. The other small islands seen on the horizon are part of the
British Virgin Islands.
 |
| Magens Bay seen looking northeast from Crown Mountain – the small islands, visible on the horizon, are part of the British Virgin Islands. |
Before
leaving the viewing deck, I photographed Rosemary with Magens Bay in
the background (below
left).
We then made our way back through the crowd in the tourist shop to
the parking lot and stopped to admire a huge burl on a nearby tree
(below
right)
before re-boarding the trolley.
The
burl looked, at first glance, like a huge snail climbing the tree. I
made a cursory attempt to identify the tree, but without success.
From Mountain Top , our trolley traveled east along the ridge, still
with views to the north, to Drake's Seat. This is another great
viewpoint looking out over Magens Bay. A concrete bench is installed
on the upper road bank and a large viewpoint with parking is
provided on the other side of the road. Since the view, spectacular
though it was, was little different than we had seen at Mountain Top,
I settled for a photograph of Drake's Bench (below
left).
From Drake's Bench we traveled down the south side of the mountain,
stopping for a short time at another viewpoint. Here Rosemary had a
fellow traveler take a picture of us together with a donkey (below
right).
From
here we had a panoramic view of the harbors on the south side of the
island. A cruise ship is shown moored at Havensight Point (extreme
left) and Nieuw Amsterdam is at Crown Bay (extreme right).
 |
| The southside harbors – from Havensight Point to Crown Bay |
The
trolley returned us to the cruise center at the head of the dock. We
were back aboard ship in time for lunch. The Nieuw Amsterdam is
shown below as seen from outside the shops at the end of the pier.
 |
MS Nieuw Amsterdam moored at Crown Bay, Saint Thomas, USVI
|
After
lunch and an early afternoon nap I finished my P.D. James novel while
Rosemary attended a late afternoon trivia session.
The
ship departed Saint Thomas at 1645, spent that night and the next day
and night underway, arriving at Half Moon Cay at 0748 on 12 December
2015, Rosemary's birthday.
Half
Moon Cay is either owned by Holland America or leased from The
Bahamas. Some sources say it was purchased outright while others,
including the guide on the tour we took, say that Holland America
only acquired a 99-year lease. I found a Wikipedia article that
provided some general information. That article which, by the way,
contradicts the tour guide's statement that Holland America only
leases the island is presented here:
Little
San Salvador Island, also known as Half Moon Cay, is one of about 700
islands that make up the
archipelago
of
The
Bahamas.
It is located roughly halfway between
Eleuthera
and
Cat
Island.
It is a
private
island,
owned by
Holland
America
Line,
which uses it as a port of call for the
cruise
ships
it
operates in the region. Prior to being owned by HAL, Little San
Salvador was the private island of
Norwegian
Cruise
Line.
Little
San Salvador Island is located about 100 miles southeast of Nassau.
Holland America Line purchased the island in December, 1996 for a
price of $6 million USD. It has since developed 50 acres (200,000 m2)
of the 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) island, with the stated goal of
maintaining as much habitat as possible for wildlife. The island is
also a significant nesting area for waterfowl.
The island does not have deep water docking, requiring the use of
tenders
for
cruise ship passengers to disembark and embark.
Activities
offered on the island include swimming,
sunning,
scuba
diving,
jet-skiing,
cycling,
and snorkeling.
Deep-sea fishing, parasailing,
glass-bottom boat rides, and nature walks also are available. A
variety of water toys are available for rent, including Hobie
catamarans,
Sunfish
sailboats,
windsurfing sailboards,
and kayaks.
There are volleyball
and
basketball
courts,
horseshoes,
shuffleboard,
a fitness trail with exercise stations, horseback
riding,
and nature trails for hiking.
The
island appears as a mere smudge in the sea between Eleuthera and Cat
Island on the map of The Bahamas shown in the CIA World Factbook. I
have circled it in red on the below map.
 |
Map of the Bahamas
|
From
the 46 different shore excursions offered, we chose the Calypso
Island Tram tour,
described in the brochure as follows:
All
aboard for a behind-the-scenes
peek at the highlights of Half Moon Cay from the comfort of a shaded,
open-air tram, accompanied by a
professional guide. This excursion is designed to acquaint you with
the many and varied visitor areas, activities, and amenities the
island offers.
Head
out along the coastline from the marina to Cannon Point for an
overview of the beach activities and beautiful views of the bay and
your ship.
See
the island’s inter-denominational chapel and do a circuit of the
Dining Pavilion roundabout.
Check
out Pegasus Ranch and the island’s ‘airport’ where seaplanes
take off and land. The same 700-acre lagoon is also used for
jet-skiing, glass-bottom boating and kayaking.
A
brief stop at the stingray center provides a different perspective of
the lagoon and the chance to see stingrays in their natural habitat.
Back
on the tram, you’ll drive past farms that showcase local crops
grown for sustainability and beautification of the island.
The
industrial area, including the recycling and power plants, serves
many very important purposes.
Conclude
your tour at Lustre, the pearl kiosk, where you may wish to browse
for a memento of your visit.
Half
Moon Cay, Little San Salvador Island does not have a deepwater port,
so passengers were ferried to and from the reception center by
tenders. At the time of our visit there was one other ship, the MS Zuiderdam
(below left),
was moored in the harbor and we had good views and of the Nieuw
Amsterdam and her tender (below
right).
As
our tender the approached slip leading to the tender pier we had a panoramic
view of the beach.
 |
View of the beach as the tender approached the pier
|
Seen
closer up the beach would be dotted with cabanas, clamshell
umbrellas, beach chairs and sunbathers. The tall, church
steeple-like structure (red arrow)
seen at right is just that, the steeple of the Bahamian Church.
On
arrival at the Welcome Center, we boarded our tram and were off to
see the sights.
Although
not initially interested in any of the shore excursions other than
the tram ride, we thought the ride might show us something else. But
the only really interesting sight was a view of the beach and the two
ships moored in the bay.
 |
Beach bay and ships
|
Conducted
by an interesting young woman from a neighboring island who delivered
a lot of information in an entertaining manner, the tour did, as
promised, acquaint us with the “varied
visitor areas, activities, and amenities the island offers.”
However,
despite the excellent presentation of our tour guide, my overall
impression was that the island's developers had done an excellent job
of faking a destination. All of the other ports we had visited on
this cruise had a background, something that had preceded the hordes
of tourists and tourist-oriented infrastructure. Half Moon Cay, by
comparison, had only the tourists and the associated infrastructure.
Activities and facilities available included swimming, sunbathing,
snorkeling, boating, horseback riding, biking, hiking, bicycle riding
and the rental of private facilities. Prices ranged from $19.95 for
rental of a clamshell umbrella and two beach chairs to $6,199.95 for
what was called the Private Oasis Palm Package with the Ultimate
Oasis Package Upgrade. Priced for twelve persons, this $6,199.95
package includes an escorted transfer from the ship and the services
of a butler, personal chef and lifeguard. Little of this appealed to
us.
Meanwhile,
all around us, everyone else seemed to be deeply immersed in the
island's adventures and either really enjoying themselves or, at the
very least, doing an excellent job of faking it. It all made me feel
rather like an old grump.
We
returned to the ship in time for lunch and a nap before getting
underway at 1435 for Fort Lauderdale. After dinner, Rosemary played
trivia, her team winning for the second day in a row, while I settled
in with a good book. All in all, it was quite an enjoyable day.
Since
leaving Fort Lauderdale on 6 December, we had sailed a total of
2013.5 nautical miles at an average speed of 16.88 knots and visited
four ports (Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands; San Juan, Puerto
Rico; and Saint Thomas, USVI and Half Moon Cay, The Bahamas). Later
I traced our route on a map (below)
downloaded from the USGS National Map Viewer.
Red shows the rough track to Grand Turk, green to San Juan, blue to
Saint Thomas, yellow to Half Moon Cay and brown back to Fort
Lauderdale)
 |
Roughly-drawn track of the ships route
|
The
next day we ate breakfast early and were ready to disembark with the
first group of passengers when the ship docked. We were picked up by
the shuttle we had pre-arranged and were at Enterprise Car Rental
location at 0900.
In
addition to my brother, Don, who lives just a few miles from Fort
Lauderdale, I have another brother, Amos, and a sister, Leodow, who
both live in Okeechobee, Florida, just a little more than 100 miles
away and we would spend a couple of nights there before catching our
flight back to Phoenix.
We
drove to Okeechobee to visit my brother Amos, sister Leodow and their
families. We ate lunch on the way and arrived at Okeechobee early in
the afternoon. During that afternoon and evening, several other
relatives showed up to visit, among them was my sister Leodow and her
daughter Kathy, with whom Leodow lives. They are all shown below.
 |
Left to right: Nana Leodow Price Malone (author's sister), Becky Price (Amos' wife), Kathy Prevatt (Leodow's daughter), Rosemary Price (author's wife)
|
Not
entirely happy with the profile of Leodow shown above, I cropped a
full-face image (below left) of her
from another photograph. Leodow's Granddaughter (Kathy' daughter),
Elisa (Spider) Prevatt showed up with her son Boomer (below
right) and I decided to present him alongside his
great grandmother.
Amos
and Becky's granddaughter, Sara Kaitlyn Powell dropped in with her
two sons. Rylan (below left) is a
whirlwind of activity and Caiden (below right),
already walking at the age of ten months, will soon be giving him a
lot of competition.
After
having gotten her two boys settled down, she spent some time on the
floor in front of the TV with her grandmother, Becky, laughing at old
photographs.
 |
| Left to right: Becky Price and Kaitlyn Powell |
Meanwhile,
Amos and I, enjoying tea in the breakfast nook, were on the verge of
solutions to several of the world's major problems when Kathy
interrupted us for the below photograph and we lost our train of
thought.
 |
| Left to right: Amos Price and the author |
We
left Amos' late in the morning of 15 December, drove back to the Fort
Lauderdale airport and turned in our rental car. The hotel shuttle
then picked us up and delivered us to the Holiday Inn Express
Cruise-Airport motel where we had stayed before the cruise.
Our
flight to Phoenix was scheduled to take off at 0700 the next morning,
so we ate dinner in our room and turned in early. The next morning
we took the shuttle back to the airport, passed through security,
boarded our flight and were in Phoenix at about 1008. The Ace
Express Shuttle picked us up and delivered us to our door in time for
us to pick up our mail and get a good start on those coming home from
a trip chores which always follows an extended outage.
The
entire trip was very enjoyable. As always I enjoyed the time spent
aboard tremendously. As for shore excursions, I most enjoyed the
time spent on Saint Thomas, possible because of the 62-year wait
since my first aborted visit to the Island. The least enjoyable
part of the cruise was the Half Moon Cay excursion. We both thought
that was entirely too much like a movie set. I will admit, though,
that our fellow passengers all seemed to think it was really great.
Travel
was glitchless except for a very crowded check in at American
Airlines on the way home. Although we had already checked in online
and had pre-printed boarding passes, they insisted we use the kiosk
to check in again and receive new boarding passes. One benefit of
this was that our new passes classified us as pre-checked, meaning we
took the short line through screening.
The
cruise was great and I think we would both gladly do it again except
that we have now “been there and done that.”
An
added benefit of this cruise was that it was from Fort Lauderdale
and, with several relatives in the area, we could combine it with a
long-overdue visit with family members.
