Wednesday and Thursday, March 30 and 31, 2011

After another lovely sea day, we arrived in Basseterre, St. Kitts. St. Kitts is 68 square miles and has a population of 32,000 people. It was originally known as St. Christopher and formed a colony with Nevis. The name change occurred in 1988.
They use to trade in sugar, but there are no more mills or fields. Tourism is their main livelihood. There is a lot of poverty here against a backdrop of hotels and beaches.
We took a tour of a former plantation that is now gardens and a museum. It was quite interesting as was the woman who owns it. You can't help but have a good feeling walking through the gardens as she decorates with many whimsical statues and art work.

After a complimentary rum punch (which gave quite a punch) ;) we arrived at an overlook showing us where the Atlantic and the Caribbean meet. It was a lovely spot and I have posted 2 pics from there. Afterwards we went to Frigate Beach.The sand was very coarse and uncomfortable. There were many rocks and stones as you enter the water and when trying to get back out, Joe and I lost our balance as a wave or two struck us. Boy, did that ever hurt ,not to mention how embarrassing it was to roll up on the beach.

We are going out to the Crown Grill for filet mignon and lobster tonight. The food has been excellent so far. Some of the dinners we had were prime rib, halibut, cornish hen,
Luau Pork, beef fajitas and veal shank.

We have seen two good comedians so far and hope to see the third one tonight.
Tomorrow we will be in Barbados.

A Glorius Day

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

We are out at sea today and Mother Nature gave us a winner. It is sunny and warm, with calm seas and a slight breeze. This is the 8th cruise we have taken and the first one that had stormy weather before we left the dock. I thought we would be long gone before the cold front reached Ft. Lauderdale, but it arrived around noon on Monday just as we were boarding. We rode around some pretty big thunderstorms last night as the Captain changed course to avoid some of the worst of the storms. The lightning show was quite a spectacle.

We are on the Emerald Princess for the second time. She is a grand ship carrying 3100 passengers. For this trip, we booked a balcony cabin on the Caribe deck instead of a mini-suite. The balcony cabin is small but has a much larger balcony than the mini-suites or the cabins on other decks. It is half covered so we have the choice of sun or shade. We were totally uncovered on the mini-suite balcony and lacked privacy from the cabins above. This will probably be our cabin of choice on Princess in the future.

We went for a swim, did a little Zumba, (well I did ), and got some sun on the balcony.
Tonight is formal night, so Joe is napping so he can stay up past dinner. :)
Dinner last night was excellent and we had very nice table companions. Same for breakfast this morning.

We signed up for the Chef's Table dinner and hoped we would get picked. We were!
The Chef's Table is only served twice on this cruise and 10 people are chosen per dinner. You have to sign up as soon as you get on board and hope that it isn't full already. It is a gourmet extravaganza and I will write a review of it on Sunday. We are scheduled for it on Saturday.

Caribbean Cruise 2011

It's that time again..time to pack our bags and head out to sea for a relaxing cruise in the Caribbean.




We will be embarking the Emerald Princess on Monday, March 28.
We will be visiting the islands of St. Thomas, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Barbados, Antigua and stopping at Princess Cays, Princess's private island.



Four of the islands are new for us and I will try and post pictures if the internet cooperates. I am curious to compare them to the South Pacific Islands of Bora Bora and Moorea that we visited on a previous cruise. These two were absolutely breathtaking and it will be difficult to find another island that can surpass their beauty.

Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen

Thursday, May 13, 2010


The rain stopped and the temperature improved and we got a lot of sightseeing done today. It remained cloudy however.
We got on the Hop On -Hop Off bus and our first stop was Ameliaborg Palace to see the changing of the guard and tour the palace. We got to see the guards, but the line was really long to go in the palace. We decided to keep on going and went to Nyhaven, the historic district for lunch and pictures. We really took a lot today. We also went to Tivoli, the amusement park that really has such beautiful gardens, restaurants and entertainment as well as rides for the young and daring.We also shopped on the Stroget, a shopping street closed to traffic.




Tivoli













Can't believe I ate the whole thing!



The new opera house


Nyhaven








Ameliaborg Palace

Copenhagen, Denmark

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Copenhagen, Denmark

It is a rainy cold day and we have only explored in the hotel area since checking in. We arrived at the Royal Hotel about 10:00 this morning and our room was ready. We are on the 12th floor overlooking the entertainment venue, Tivoli. We will go there tomorrow evening since they promise us the rain will be gone by then.
The hotel is in a very convenient location and a throw back to the 60s Danish Modern. Some of what we want to do is within walking distance. Tomorrow we will use the Hop On bus for a visit to the Royal Palace and to see some of the city away from the hotel.
Everyone here speaks English and it is easy to tour the city. They are very welcoming and friendly. After being on shore excursions for 3 weeks, it is nice to have the freedom to do it on our own. It is expensive here as in most major cities. The pastries are worth it though. The Danes know how to do pastry.:)

City Hall Square



Scala- Opera house and entertainment center

Tivoli

Gothenburg, Sweden

Gothenburg, Sweden

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Today was sunny and cool and our tour was in the afternoon. We visited the west coast islands of Gothenburg. Spring is just about beginning there, so the scenery was not very green. The coastline is mostly rock and the little towns remind us of Alaska.
We just finished packing...the cruise is over for us tomorrow when we arrive in Copenhagen. We will be staying in Copenhagen till Friday.

We have had a wonderful cruise, great seas and weather, great food, great entertainment and we met many nice people from all over the world. We especially loved Paris, London and Brugge(Belgium) and hope to go back for another visit.


A Swedish seaport




Boat houses




A floating hotel

Oslo, Norway

Monday, May 10, 2010

Oslo, Norway


We arrived to rainy, cold weather( it was freezing...the high was 40)and started our tour for the day with a bus tour of the city. Joe took video from the bus window, but I didn't take any pics until we got to the Maritime museum. We toured a replica of the Fram, a ship that went to both the North and South poles in the early 1900s. We then went on a tour of the fiord onboard a sailing vessel.
Oslo is located 60 miles up the fiord from the North Sea. It is a modern city and yet the oldest city in Norway. Most of Oslo was destroyed in a fire in 1624. The King of Denmark rebuilt the city and renamed it Christiana. In 1925, 300 years later, the name was changed back to Oslo.

We would have liked a little more time and warmer weather to visit more of the city.
We had a lovely afternoon of sunshine as we left Oslo and traveled through the fiord on our way to the North Sea.




The Opera House



The harbor



The ship Joanna




Fram