FORMAL NIGHT & BARBADOS

Our third day was at sea, en route to Bridgetown Barbados. We unpacked most of the rest of our suitcases and prepared for the Captain’s Welcome Reception, our first formal night on this cruise. We were disappointed because there was no reception line where we could meet the captain -- he came up on stage, made a few remarks and introduced his key crew members. We were served a glass of champagne, made a toast to a fun trip and it was over …. They seem to be cutting back on many of the extras we had on the World Grand Voyage i.e. on the last trip, small groups of passengers were invited to have dinner with the Captain in the exclusive dining room.

After another relaxing day at sea, we arrived in Bridgetown, Barbados. The weather finally warmed up to 80 degrees, but it was overcast and actually showered intermittently. Also, it was Sunday and all of the shops in town were closed. We’d taken an extensive tour of the island two years ago, when we saw Sandy Lane Golf and Country Club where Tiger Woods got married, the sugar cane plantations and old windmill that ground the cane into sugar to make their famous rum, the beautiful beaches and 5-star hotels on the western side, and the old churches. So after strolling through the shops in the terminal building, we went back on board to catch up on our email. Big surprise -- we were able to connect on Skype and make a couple of phone calls!

Late Sunday and all day Monday turned out to be pretty turbulent with 5-7 foot “swells” as we headed southeast towards Devil’s Island. We learned that eating things that are sour like grapefruit, grapefruit juice and sour green apples help settle the stomach. The small size of the ship magnifies the rocking and rolling motion, so we tried not to move around too much. Concentrating on the movie, Papillon for 2-½ hours also helped take our minds off of our queasiness. We’ve lost two hours of sleep because we passed eastward through 2 time zones so we’re 5 hours ahead of Pacific time, so that doesn‘t help much either..

Dinner tonight has the theme of Pirates and Prisoners in preparation for our stop at the former Devil‘s Island penal colony tomorrow, and they’ve been decorating the ship -- should be a fun dinner! Hope the food’s better than they showed in the movie!!