harryfat1

As it got darker, the pictures looked better with a contrast of the night sky and the lights on the bridge. If we had another 30 minutes, the sky would be even darker to provide more of a contrast but we ran out of time and had to start heading back toward the ship. The Curaaco night area felt clean and safe with lots of people walking around and eating/drinking at the restaurants. At no time did we have to worry about our safety. Unlike some Caribbean island stops such as Falmouth where I wouldn’t feel safe to walk outside of the cruise terminal compound at night. Y'all can tell from the pictures and videos many families and couples are walking around in a very safe feeling environment.

My wife wanted to cross the bridge to go back to the Punda side but I didn’t want to push my luck as it was 6:40 PM by then and we had to be back on the ship by 7:30’s All Aboard time. If we cross the bridge and a few boats come through and they close the bridge and run the ferry system, it would be a tight window to rush back to the ship on time. Too old and too out of shape to be a pier runner. 🤪 If we stayed on this side of the bridge, I could control when we could get back to the ship as the walk back to the cruise terminal is less than 15 minutes. Once I cross the bridge, I lose control on the timing of the walk back. With that restriction in mind, we never made it past the mid-way point of the bridge before we started heading back

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OK. Bridge lights. That's why we are out here to see To infinity and beyond...

Speaking of lights, we had to wait for a while but they finally turned on the lights for the bridge. My wife loves the panoramic shots

Holiday music in the background as people come out to see the lights even though it's the day after Christmas: 20231226_182645.mp4

The plaza area earlier in the day wasn’t very interesting in the blazing sun but now with the sun setting and the Holiday lights up, it’s attracting a lot more visitors.

Looking back at the Rif Fort as that's where the Walking tour started this morning Some vendors along the waterfront are still open after 6 PM trying to get a little nighttime business

Yeah, if you end up on deck 6 in the Aft section, pay attention whether you are on Starboard or Port side elevators if you are coming down from the pool deck or else you will be walking in a big circle...

Before I go on with the trip report, I forgot to mention we had Internet access for 2 days while in Curaaco and Aruba as we have Verizon cell phones and VZ credit cards, and as a benefit of the credit card, we receive 2 days of International phone plans for free. And my younger son’s phone plans have hot spot data included, the rest of us just hop on his hot spot to access the internet for the 2 days while in port. Even if we had to pay, it would have been $10/day for all of us to be tethered to one phone. Good enough to check the email and send off a few pictures to people back home while in town. CFKACD is not paying for ship-based Internet prices. Anyway, Time to leave Rif Fort and continue to walk toward the bridge

Thanks for reading along. I noticed you have been with CC for almost 6 years and this is your first post in the forum – you must be a very quiet reader in the background. I’m honored to have you come out and pose a question here. I don’t think I took a picture of the door from the other side – shocking, huh? Y’all must think I take pictures of everything…🤪 But it’s the same door from the other side except you open it from the side of 270 where you have to PUSH from the handle on the other side (see red arrow). Both doors swing away from 270 and into the hallway of deck 6. They are VERY heavy so be careful If you have food or drink in your hand, you could be spilling it as you put your whole body into opening the door. The door is located next to the library on deck 6 (white arrow)

Oh, well, too bad on not being able to see the Statue of Liberty from high above. Guess the view of the NYC skyline from the NorthStar is the best you can do on boarding day.

Yeah, these guys are great. They play modern music on cellos so it’s not just boring classical music whenever you think of cello players. Whenever I watch their videos I wonder if they need a chiropractor afterwards from the way they swing their necks and body to the movement of the songs, they must be sore after every video shoot.

In case I haven’t mentioned it, the Rif Fort was an original fort built to defend the city in the old Pirate days. They re-purposed the fort to be a shopping/dining area for the tourists but they still kept part of the fort structure. A lot of people go up on the top floor to take pictures of the area This just reminds me of the Disneyland ride – Pirates of the Caribbean where you have the pirate boat attacking the castle during the ride. Time to queue up the classic song from the movie with the famous 2Cellos guys. 92 million views and counting:

Jet ski guys going up and down the waterways

If you are here for a land-based vacation, this corner table would be a super cool place to have dinner

Back to the shops and restaurants area of the Rif Fort. I Saw Del Sol workers closing shop at 6 PM so many of the shops were done by 6 PM but the restaurants and and bars were still open.

Part of the Rif Fort The waves here are pretty strong so don’t get too close to the edge of the walkway as you might get wet with a periodic wave come crashing against the sea wall Has anyone ever rented a TukTuk? How far can you go on this thing and what can you see within the range?

I might have already said it but it’s good not to have a physical cruise terminal since you can take unobstructed photos of the ship Most of the kiosks are now empty with the vendors already done for the day Similar to Solvang in CA, they have these Dutch Clogs for tourists to take pictures

For the Mooring Line fans To infinity and beyond or at the end of the pier - whichever comes first

We were definitely “going against traffic” as many people are starting to come back at 5:30 but we are one of the few leaving the ship.

So, back to the cabin to cool off some more and it’s 5 something. Do we go and take a shower and relax in a lounge playing some Trivia game or play Bingo? Does that sound like us? Of course not. That’s not our style. We are getting off the ship again. Yeap. Since the ship is docked until 8 PM and “All Aboard” isn’t until 7:30, we are off to see the night scene of Curaaco I saw a few YouTube videos on the area and I want to check out the place. Like I said, we cruise to see new things, not to relax. 5:39 time stamp photo. No more ship cleaning crew as it was this morning.

People inside Seaplex playing basketball