Dorothy Piotrowski’s website

They say it’s my birthday … we’re gonna have a good time!

The day started early with room service arriving at 6:45 AM. It was still dark out! We soon arrived at Half Moon Cay (also known as San Salvador Island), which is a private island in the Bahamas, owned by Holland America. We got off the ship, and onto smaller boats (called tenders) which took us over to the island, at 8:30 AM.

I think that the girl we met in the spa yesterday described the island best … she said that it’s like a fairy tale. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth! The water is the most stunning aqua blue, and crystal clear. It’s exactly like you see on calendars and post cards. The sand is soft white. Our feet looked like shake-n-bake, coated in a soft powder.

We had rented a clam shell, which basically covers two lounge chairs, which is great when the sun is beating down. Today the sun came out off and on, and the weather was nice and warm. We ventured into the “refreshing” water and floated around for a while. We spent the rest of the time lounging and taking photos. I’m sure we have enough to make our own calendar.

The ship served a great BBQ lunch (burgers, chicken, fish, salads, etc.). We also walked around a bit to check out the sting rays that you could swim with, if you like sting rays. The day went by too quickly, and we got the last tender back at 3:00 PM. We soaked up the sun on our balcony for a while, and then went down to enjoy the loungers on the 3rd floor, as we sailed away from Half Moon Cay.

Tonight we dined at the Pinnacle Grill. We started with the Ceasar salad, make table-side. Followed by lobster bisque, again … made table side. Then we had the 7 ounce sirloin steak, with either mashed potatoes or the “jumbo” Idaho baked potato. Everything was fabulous. Dessert was over the top … first we had truffles, while waiting for our dessert. And then we had birthday cake (which was this heavenly chocolate mousse cake). Followed by our real dessert … raspberry cheesecake for Dorothy, and chocolate velvet souffle for myself. Next time we need to wear stretchy clothes!

After dinner we went to the casino, where Dorothy cashed in her winnings, while I played the slots for a very long time on only $20. We hit the Queen’s Lounge to watch karaoke for a while. And now we’re off to the showroom for the final show.

What a great birthday! Thanks to Dorothy, and to everyone for their best wishes. I hope everyone can spend their birthday on a fairy tale island some day!

Sea day means sleep in day. We finally got going around 10am and headed to the Lido Restaurant for breakfast. We enjoyed our breakfast poolside at the back of the ship. After breakfast, we went to the Lido Pool to check out the sidewalk sale. I ended up getting a little something and for each purchase you got a raffle ticket. We went down to the shops to drop off the ticket and they told us that the draw would be in five minutes. Well guess what happened, I won a beautiful watch set worth $100. Since I still had money left over on my room card, we went to the casino to try my luck. Well guess what happened, I won $100 on the Double Diamond slot machine.

It was now time to have lunch. Yesterday we received an invitation to attend The Mariner’s Society Champagne Lunch. It’s a lunch they have for people who have sailed with Holland America in the past. It was a wonderful lunch and everyone received a gift from the Captain.

We went back to the room for a pre walk nap. We signed up for the “On Deck For The Cure” 5Km walk which benefits breast cancer research. We did the walk on our previous cruise and decided to do it again. We all gathered in The Explorer’s Lounge. There must have been about fifty people participating including some cancer survivors. 5km turns out to be nine laps around the ship. It took us about seventy minutes to complete. Holland America has raised over $2 million from the walks on board their ships.

To reward ourselves for completing the 5km, we headed to the Greenhouse Spa to have a much deserved foot and ankle massage. What a great treat that was.

Since it’s a formal night, we decided to have room service for dinner. We know that whatever they are having in the main dining room, you can order for room service. We checked the menu earlier in the day and discovered that tonight it’s Surf & Turf. And that’s what we ordered along with a Ceasar Salad. It was very nice enjoying a lovely dinner in the comfort of our room.

After dinner, we caught the show in The Showroom At Sea before heading out to post the blog. We have to get it done early because of the Dessert Extravaganza at 10:30pm. Bring on the chocolate.

At 6:45am this morning, there was a banging on the door. It’s room service. We were supposed to have breakfast delivered between 7:00am and 7:30am. Oh well … I guess we’ll figure out this room service thing eventually. We enjoyed our breakfast while the ship gently sailed into Philipsburg, St. Maarten. Right behind us was Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas (biggest ship on earth, with over 10,000 passengers and crew) and Holland America’s Noordam. The Allure of the Seas docked next to the Celebrity Solstice which was already in port. When you looked at the ships side by side, the Celebrity ship is about 2/3 of the size of the Allure of the Sea. This ship is huge.

For those of you that don’t know, St. Maarten is an island that is approximatly thirty seven square miles. It is divided between the French (Saint-Martin) and the Dutch (Saint Maarten). It’s very interesting because there is double of everything. Two police departments, two different sets of currency and two airports. The electricity on the French side is 220 volts (just like in Europe) and on the Dutch side it is 110 volts. One side is peaceful and quiet, and the other is party central

 We got off of the ship and walked over to the information booth and caught up with Bernard’s Tours. It was a bit disorganized but eventually we got onto the bus. Our guide was Thomas and right from the start he was great. He told us that he made his famous Rum Punch at 5am this morning so it might be a little bit strong.

We didn’t drive too far before we had our first stop. Thomas pulled into this parking lot that looked like where you abandon cars. We walked a few feet and he started calling to the iguanas. All of a sudden, iguanas were coming from every direction. From this small pond, from the trees behind us. Thomas gave anyone who wanted to feed the iguanas some lettuce which we picked up earlier. Iguanas are vegetarians. There were at least over twenty of them, all different sizes and colours. Both Karen and I managed to feed a couple of iguanas.

We got back on the bus and that’s when the rum punch came out of the cooler. Yup … it was strong. It was strong enough that one lady didn’t even get off at the next few stops because she had a little too much to drink (after repeatedly asking … where is Mariah Carey’s house?). We stopped to meet Calvin, who showed us sea urchins, a conch shell, and a sand dollar that he had just retrieved from the ocean floor.

 Our next stop was Orient Beach where half of the beach is clothing optional. Some of the men on the bus were very excited about this. Why is it that you never see people on a nude beach that look like Christie Brinkley or Matthew McConaughey It’s always someone that looks like your grandmother or grandfather. And some people should not wear thongs! We spent about an hour there enjoying the view. The water was a beautiful turquoise colour but it was very rough today so we didn’t venture in.

There was some confusion as to which bus we should have been on because we had to be back by 2:30pm. So Thomas turned us over to Junior who was our tour guide for the rest of the day, with a bunch of other people from the Nieuw Amsterdam. We had a quick stop in Marigot which is the capital of the French side. We only had twenty minutes but we were able to pick up some Caribbean spices and some fabulous French tortes from a pastry shop called Sarafina.

The last stop of the day was the best … Maho Beach. This beach is famous because the runway of the Princess Juliana Airport starts at the beach. When the planes are landing, it appears that they are right above your head, and you can almost touch them. what is even better is when the planes are taking off. The plane gets lined up on the runway and then turns it’s jets on. What happens next is hilarious, the blast from the plane whips the sand up and has been known to throw people back into the water. Fortunately for us, we did manage to see one plane take off but the funny thing is that it wasn’t even a huge plane. Hats were flying, and people were getting pounded by the flying sand. There was supposed to be a 747 arriving from Paris while we were there but it was delayed.

All aboard time was 2:30pm and we made it back with only a few minutes to spare. Next time I think we’ll just get a cab and visit the places on our own. We didn’t even make it to the shopping district.

We were sitting on the balcony waiting for the ship to leave and we could see one gentleman hanging around the gangway. He was making a phone call, and waving his hands around. We looked at our watches and it was getting close to 3:00pm. This was a half an hour past the “all aboard” time. We were making bets as to whether he was getting on the ship without his wife or would he stay behind. At one point, he went on the ship but he came back a few minutes later with what looked like his passport. He was staying behind. At around 3:10pm, the captain had the gangway pulled back on the ship and we sailed away, while he headed back down the pier. I would hate to be his wife when she finally gets back to the dock and sees that the ship is gone. We figured she was shopping and lost track of time. Guess we’ll see them again when the ship reaches Fort Lauderdale.

We had dinner in The Manhattan Dining Room. Tonight’s appetizer was Bay Scallops Cocktail for both of us. Next up was Bacon Cheddar Cheese Soup for Karen and I had the Iced Melon Bisque. As for the entrees, Karen went with the Grilled Ginger Chicken Breast with Mango-Lime Relish and I went with the Master Chef’s Favorite Braised Short Ribs. We ended the meal with Frozen Watermelon Pie and the assorted cheese platter.

We went to The Screening Room and started to watch “Tree of Life” starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. We lasted about twenty minutes before we walked out. We just didn’t understand it (but the popcorn was good). Instead we headed to The Showroom At Sea to watch Hilby, the skinny German Juggle Boy. This guy was hilarious. The night ended as usual … heading to The Silk Den to post the blog entry. Luckily tomorrow is a “sleep in” day.

We had breakfast outside by the Sea View pool at the back of the ship this morning.  It was warm and sunny, around 80 degrees.  We thought we should work on our tans so we grabbed our books and headed to the padded loungers on the Promenade Deck (3rd deck).  There was more napping than reading done.  We were awakened by the ship’s travel guide over the loudspeaker giving us a tour as we sailed into San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Again the water was turquoise, and waves were crashing along the shoreline.  After a quick lunch by the Sea View pool, We arrived around 1pm and docked in Old San Juan.  Swimming alongside the ship was a pod of dolphins!  It didn’t take us to long to get off of the ship and head into the town. 

We spent the entire day walking around Old San Juan.  It’s a walled city that has two forts protecting it.  The streets are narrow, steep, and paved with adoquine (blue) stones and lined with old brightly coloured buildings with wrought-iron
balconies.  There were many amazing Christmas decorations.  We saw beautiful churches, government buildings, quaint shops and restaurants.  They even have a Marshall’s.  We did make it to Castillo San Cristobal which is one of the forts.

We didn’t have to be back on the ship until 7:30pm so we had dinner at Mojito’s, one of the local restaurants.  It’s been a long day of walking.  Puerto Rico is definitely somewhere to come back and spend a week, to see more of the island.  We decided to call it an early night since we arrive at our next port at 8am tomorrow morning.

There was a faint knock on the door around 6:30am and that was the sound of room service.  It was an early port of call today so we decided to have breakfast delivered to us which we enjoyed on our balcony while watching Grand Turk come into view. 

We were off the boat by 7:45am and heading towards the Grand Turk Cruise Terminal.  It’s a huge complex that has many shops and a Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville.  We walked outside of the terminal and picked up our golf cart from Nathan ($80 USD).  We read about Nathan on Cruise Critic and everyone said it’s a great way to see the island which is only seven miles long and one and half miles wide.  Before leaving, Nathan told us to just drive on the road (the cars will go around you) and stay on the left.

It was kind of nerve racking at first, driving on the road with a top speed probably of 10 miles an hour while cars are passing you.  But what we realized is that it’s a great way to see everything, slowly.  We made our way clear to the other end of the island to see the Grand Turk Historic Lighthouse.  It was sitting on top of a bluff with the waves crashing below.  To the left was the Caribbean Sea, and to the right was the Atlantic Ocean. 

We got back in the cart and drove to Bohio Beach.  On the way, we did see donkeys and horses wandering on the side of the road.  The beach was outstanding … white sandy beach and turquoise water.  The undertow was very strong, but the water was very nice.  We rented a couple of loungers to lie down and soak up the sun.  I don’t think alot of people knew of the beach since it was practically empty.

We had a little trouble getting the golf cart started but once we did, we headed to Cockburn Town which is the national capital.  We drove down Front Street and admired all of the beautiful buildings.  It was lunch time so we drove to Jack’s Shack which is right on the beach.  We had some great Jerk Chicken while enjoying the view.

We had about another hour before boarding time, so we decided to drop the golf cart back to Nathan and check out the shops at the cruise terminal.  I did manage to find some free WiFi while Karen managed to get some Christmas
shopping done.  All that fresh air exhausted us, so we just laid around the room, and enjoyed our balcony until dinner time.

We decided to do something new this trip.  That is to have dinner at the buffet.  The same choices that are served in the main dining room are also served in the buffet.  I think I had too much to eat tonight.

We ended the evening by attending the “Music From The Avalon Ballroom” show in The Showroom At Sea before heading to the Silk Den to post today’s blog entry.