Cruise: 11/05 – Barbados
An insanely busy holiday weekend is nearly over, and it’s time to return to the Cruise Reviews. Next up in the series is our first port of call, Barbados.
Sunrise
The ship was to pull into Bridgetown at roughly 7am, and the ship’s log information channel said the sunrise was at 6:20am. Thinking to take advantage of the coincidental times, I talked Cindy into setting an alarm for 6am so we could go up on deck and watch the sunrise as we approached the island (nicely placed in the proper east-going direction).
The alarm went off and I got up. Cindy wasn’t quite as convince, and while she struggled to get up I ran up on deck to see if the view was worth photographing. Much to my surprise there was a bright sunshine about 15 degrees above the horizon and the approaching island! Apparently the ship’s time of the sunrise was off by an hour. Needless to say I was a little ticked off to be up that early for no reason at all, but there was no going back to sleep.
We were a lot closer to port than a 7am arrival, so I went and fetched Cindy and we went up on the top deck. As we pulled in to the dock I was surprised there wasn’t even the slightest bump. I looked back from where we had come to see another ship approaching behind us. It was the Queen Mary 2. I couldn’t help but think… WE WIN. I noted this to Cindy and she just rolled her eyes. I could see a few people up on the deck of the QM2 and I’m pretty sure at least one of them yelled PODIUM!
After all that excitement, and thinking that it wasn’t yet time for breakfast, and that the shops in Bridgetown wouldn’t open until 9, we went back to bed. Ahh… vacation!
Barbados
We eventually got ourselves together and packed up a bag to take with us for a day at port. The plan was to shop a bit and look for a beach within walking distance.
Our 1 mile walk into Bridgetown changed from ‘block’ to ‘block’. First, we had to navigate our way through the labyrinthine duty free mall just to get outside. No easy task as half of it was under construction with fences everywhere. Then, we had to get away from the mob of taxis and drivers competing for fares and somehow not get run over by cars or Barbados(ites/ians/ers). Then we found ourselves walking through a nice little park/gardens along the rock-lined seawall. Then a touristy looking area with run-down and mostly empty vendor booths and buildings. Then a very smelly and scary looking fish market. Then a few blocks of what would make inner-city slums look like upper class neighborhoods. Then, finally, a harbor area and the main shopping blocks of Bridgetown, Barbados.
Cindy had noted in the shopping guides that cameras were supposedly in abundance in the duty free shops. Since I had been thinking of getting one, I made it a mission to find a deal. No deal was to be found. In fact, no cameras were to be found at all. Nowhere. Here’s a tip if you go to the southern Carribbean and expect to do some duty free shopping. You had better be interested in either jewelry, or watches, or bejeweled watches, because that is about 2/3 of what you will find. The other 1/3 is the same stores selling exactly the same T-shirts and other crap. There are unique items to be found, but they are few and far between. Then one thing we just had to do, as money spending tourists, was go into the Del Sol store and buy photosensitive, color-changing T-shirts.
After that we set off looking for a beverage and I saw a sign for Banks – a product of the local Barbados brewery. We stopped into the bar and stood around for about 10 minutes while 2 bartenders ignored us. Now… I realize we were on the islands and the pace is supposed to be relaxed, but when I watch a guy be more interested in washing bar glasses than take my cash, I don’t stick around long.We wandered south out of the center Bridgetown shopping district looking for a beach. We started to get into one of the scarier looking areas again and just as Cindy and I debated going back to the ship instead, we saw a sign for Lobsters Alive! which was marked on my map.
Lobsters Alive! is a very basic beach side bar/restaurant and the name apparently is derived from the seafood on the menu and the signs for live jazz music nightly. This was about noon, so there was no music to be found, but there were very inviting and nice looking umbrellas and chairs. The attendant walked up and told us we could get said equipment for $5 apiece, and in the exchange we would get tickets for one rum punch drink or a beer. That sounded good to me. It’s funny to have to pay money to enjoy a public beach, but we only brought one towel between us and there was no shade to be found, except at the bar.
We spent a couple hours enjoying the sand, the sun, the water and Banks beer and rum drinks. Banks is a lot like Red Stripe so if you’ve had one of those you can say you’ve had both. The rum drinks were extremely potent and Cindy and I both had very good buzzes on when it came time to walk back to the ship. It was very easy to tell which beach-goers were from which ship. The Crown Princess passengers all had the same thin, ugly and cheap looking blue and white towels. The QM2 passengers all had thick, luxurious looking emerald green towels. The kind you’d want to steal at the end of the cruise.
During one of my followup trips to the bar, I walked past a couple who were comparing vacations with another group. One guy with a thick British accent said “Look at that guy’s crazy tan lines!”. We immediately got into a lively discussion about how I got said tans and then, since they were obviously on the QM2, we discussed the two ships and our itineraries. I told him my joke about them getting coming second to Barbados. When we figured out both ships were headed for St. Lucia we made a bet. Whoever got to port last the next day had to buy drinks if we happened to see them again.
One other thing I’ll mention from the beach, and it relates to the various ‘vendors’ who stroll up and down pedaling their wares. This is a lesson in salesmanship. First there was they guy who had very reasonably priced and delicious looking fruit that we wanted to buy but didn’t because he turned us off (and was actually kinda scary). He was pushy and rude and didn’t speak clearly so we could understand, and therefore trust him. The opposite was a guy selling very beautiful watercolor paintings that we actually didn’t want but almost bought because he turned us on. He came up, asked if it was OK to talk to us, shook our hands, introduced himself and spoke clearly. He wasn’t imposing at all and it was pleasant conversation. The deal breaker, other than not really wanting the paintings, was he was wearing a St. Croix Half-Ironman shirt. That would have been fine but when I asked him about it he said he didn’t actually run the event. I hate a poser.
On the way back onto the ship there was a steel drum band set up. The guys on the right and left looked like they’d rather be just about any place else but where they were. I’m not quite sure what the guy in the middle was doing but the look on his face was priceless. I figure he was a) wanting to crack the other guy in the back of the head for not paying attention or b) he forgot he didn’t have cymbals.
Workout
After sweating out our rum and beer soaked buzzes, we got back to the ship and decided it was time for an afternoon workout. Cindy hit the treadmill and circuit machines while I did two cycle reps:
- 24 min. Cross-Country program in which I cranked up the resistance and did standing on the hardest levels. With the end of a rum buzz and no lunch, I gave myself a bit of a headache.
- 20 min. Intervals program alternating a moderate to hard resistance cranked up occasionally to max and standing. I found out Celtic Storm CDs are great for interval riding.
I then attempted to do a resistance swim but found out that it didn’t really work for my level of swimming. I described all that in a previous entry, so I won’t go into it again.
After my failed swim attempt I sat in one of the hot tubs and a couple from NY asked me about my ‘farmers’ tan. I just never get tired of explaining that.
Dinner
We ended up at dinner fairly early since it was actually lunch/dinner. We couldn’t help but notice that like the stereotype of Florida retirees, only old people eat dinner so early. It wasn’t the first time, nor the last time, that week that we felt like we weren’t kids anymore.
At our table for six was a couple from Sacramento and another pair from England. My notes tell me that these were the folks who actually knew the numbers on how many brits were aboard (330) and doing the 2 week option.
Our waiter for the evening was Wayne, from South Africa. He reminded me of Hugh Grant, but Cindy said I was nuts. In any event, every one of his dinner recommendations were what I probably would have chosen anyway so I went with him the whole way through, including desert which he noted that one could choose a double and get Banana/Banana (crème pie and ice cream)
Theater
After dinner we headed to the theater to see Tony Tilman, a Las Vegas headliner who is/was a friend, student, and very much imitator of Sammy Davis. The guy was a whirlwind of energy, intensity and talent. His show was doing songs of all kinds of genres interspersed with comedy bits centered around taunting audience members about their favorite kinds of music. In particular was a guy who wanted country, and who was from Massachusetts. He also made fun of “today’s music” and started into a Beyonce song, while doing a perfect, and hilarious, imitation of Beyonce by shakin’ his ass. He then stopped the band and said he just couldn’t do it, and wouldn’t do any songs for the ‘kids’.
Why? “Because you didn’t pay for the cruse!”
This was a really excellent show and the band was awesome given that they only had 1 hour of rehearsal, and it was definitely much better than the Motown thing
After the show we wandered our way back to the aft end. In the elevator we met some cruisers all decked out in Steelers garb and they were headed up to the big screen to watch Monday Night Football. The decks were absolutely packed and when we got to the aft we had the place nearly to ourselves. We enjoyed the stars, a bit of lightning in the distance, and what I can only assume was the lights of the QM2 out on the water.
This was barely 10pm and we didn’t last long. I couldn’t knock out the earlier headache – probably a mix of rum, sun, heat and exercise – and we went to bed early, again feeling like old people.
