Reflection - Review - Ultimate Caribbean - April 2, 2018 - April 13, 2018

I forgot to mention we received a reminder card for our dinner at Tuscan Grille for Tuesday 4/10/18

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Celebrity Today for Tuesday 4/10/18

Inserts that were in the Celebrity Today

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Bonaire Map

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire

We went to the gym a little before 6am. Being a port day it was pretty empty again.

When we got back to the cabin, we filled another laundry bag. We stuffed a lot in there; just socks, undies, and T shirts. We also sent two of Scott’s button down shirts for dry cleaning.

Once the laundry was organized, we showered and got dressed.

Walter delivered our room service breakfast and set it up while we were at the gym.

I had yogurt and granola.

I also wanted bacon. I expected maybe 2-3 slices; however, my plate of bacon was huge so I gave some of it to Scott.

Scott had an omelet and bacon.

We also had fresh orange juice for both of us. I had iced cappuccino and Scott had hot cappuccino.

We are really enjoying having room service for breakfast.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

We got our beach bag packed, got off the ship, and walked over to the Bonaire Cruisers tent.

They gave us directions to walk over to the area to get our golf cart once they checked us off their list.

Once we arrived, it was a pretty quick process and we were shown to our golf cart. We have the two person cart. There were bigger ones that accommodate more people.

There is a basket in the back but it’s not secure where anything is locked up. The larger golf carts looked like they have a truck like feature that probably locks.

We took the south side route.

Our cart drove a bit on the slow side. It moved but slowly. Good thing there wasn’t any traffic.

We stopped various times for pictures.

A pretty and deserted beach was our first stop. We were the only people there.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

There was foam on the side of the water along the road. I think it’s from the salt.

We saw the salt flats.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

We saw the slave huts.

First we came across a batch of white huts.

A little further up the road we came across a bunch of yellow huts.

There must be some significance to the different colors but I don’t know what it is.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

We came across another deserted beach area.

We saw a building that was burned out.

We saw a lighthouse.

We like the freedom/flexibility of traveling on our own and seeing things we want to see. Without a guide you don’t hear about the significance of what you are seeing. I guess I could have looked it up also.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

We saw a bunch of flamingoes but they were pretty far away. The pictures are from both an IPhone and our underwater camera so we couldn’t zoom far enough for a clear picture. The pink things are flamingoes. And you couldn’t walk too close to them - there was a sign saying do not enter at a certain point.

There were also several windmills in this area.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

It was surprising how desolate it was and that we didn’t see many other people.

We came across a boulder that Scott climbed on. There were waves crashing on the sides of him.

There was a teepee structure that explained the significance of where we were.

We even saw another couple also on a golf cart that stopped here too.

All of these places with beaches we’ve pulled off and looked at or even just drove by, every once in a while we would see people scuba diving. Scott wore his bathing suit since we heard Bonaire is great for snorkeling and that way he could jump in wherever he wanted to. Surprisingly, he hasn’t yet. My bathing suit was packed in the beach bag in case we found a beach we wanted to spend some time at I could easily change.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

We stopped at Sorobon Beach Club

Our original plan was to stay a while and swim, but after wandering around the grounds a bit, we decided to keep roaming the island on our golf cart instead.

Sorobon looked like a pretty nice place to hang out.

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Thanks for posting the pictures of Bonaire. Though we have been to this island 12 times by cruise ship, we have never toured the island. Always go to Kleine Bonaire for snorkeling and beach; best beach and best snorkeling from beach in Caribbean. I did not see any nice beaches in your picture except for the last couple of photos. Were there rocks ?

Thanks for posting the pictures of Bonaire. Though we have been to this island 12 times by cruise ship, we have never toured the island. Always go to Kleine Bonaire for snorkeling and beach; best beach and best snorkeling from beach in Caribbean. I did not see any nice beaches in your picture except for the last couple of photos. Were there rocks ?

Hi

Sorobon didn’t seem rocky.

Some of the other pull offs were more rocky.

Probably too rocky to swim.

We saw several places where scuba divers were but didn’t investigate them all

I didn’t get to it yet in my review but we stopped at the donkey sanctuary. That was a lot of fun.

It was our first time to Bonaire so we wanted to see what was around the island

Next time we may try Klein Bonaire to swim/snorkel.

Thank you

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Hi

 

Sorobon didn’t seem rocky.

Some of the other pull offs were more rocky.

Probably too rocky to swim.

We saw several places where scuba divers were but didn’t investigate them all

 

I didn’t get to it yet in my review but we stopped at the donkey sanctuary. That was a lot of fun.

 

It was our first time to Bonaire so we wanted to see what was around the island

 

Next time we may try Klein Bonaire to swim/snorkel.

 

Thank you

Thanks for the info concerning rocks and beach. You should try Kleine Bonaire. I can not tell you how many times I recommended this to other passengers with few takers. Bottom line is everyone who went with us to Kleine Bonaire including the couple from Syracuse, NY on this cruise have said it was their best snorkel experience ever. In April we did not see 100's of fish, we saw 1000's of fish.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

Our next stop was the Donkey Sanctuary.

In the beginning area, there were donkeys in corrals. I think these were the baby donkeys.

There was a gate that we were able to drive through since we had the golf cart; they opened it for us. They warned us not to stop for too long or a group of donkeys would surround the cart and we would get stuck.

There were some more corrals for the donkeys here but also some not behind the gates.

There was the area for the senior donkeys.

After a bit the corrals ended and the donkeys were just roaming freely.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

There were so many donkeys. And they weren’t afraid of the cart coming through.

Some of them would actually chase the cart.

Some would stick their heads in the cart.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

Scott wanted to get out of the cart and pose with the donkey when we would see a single donkey, rather than a herd. Most of the time, that donkey would run away if he got out of the cart.

We finally found one that didn’t run away and Scott was able to pose with him/her

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

Scott continues to pose with our fearless Donkey friend

At the end of the open area, we were back to the front where they had a little store.

The cost to go through and visit with the donkeys was minimal.

We left them extra for all their work caring for the donkeys.

We really enjoyed the time we spent at the Donkey Sanctuary. It was the best part of our time touring Bonaire. We highly recommend taking the time to visit.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

We drove back to town and went a little north of where the ship was docked.

There was a shopping center so we parked the cart in the parking lot and browsed some of the shops. We bought our usual souvenirs; an ornament, a magnet, a post card, and T shirts for Scott.

Back in the cart we had a little trouble finding the place to return the golf cart. We eventually found it and returned the cart.

This was a really fun way to see Bonaire. We liked the flexibility and freedom having the golf cart gave us. We would recommend it.

We walked back to the ship.

Scott already had his bathing suit on since he thought he would jump in the water at various places along our ride but he didn’t.

I changed into my bathing suit and we went up to the pool deck. We walked around a bit outside but then went to the Solarium area.

It’s a very nice set up with towels on chaired ready for you. There are also shelves with towels available.

This was our little set up. Not the chair with the tote bag on it, but the two further in with towels. We had a nice view out and it was so peaceful

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

I stopped at the Mast Grill and picked up a hot dog, a hamburger, and French fries. I also got cans of soda.

Mast Grill was set up kind of like an assembly line. You get your drinks first, then move along and order your food. It was pretty quick.

I brought the food back to our lounge chairs and was surprised when Scott said he didn’t want any. I assumed we would share.

The burger was very dry so I tossed it after a bite. The hot dog was pretty good and I ate half of it. The French fries were the best part so I ate most of them.

After I finished eating, Scott said now he was hungry and wasn’t sure what he wanted. Maybe sushi. If he had mentioned that before I went to Mast Grill, I would have been happy to have sushi too.

He took a stroll to see what he wanted to eat and came back with Macaroons from Cafe Al Bacio.

We went in the pool for a little while.

I also went in the hot tub and chatted with some people sitting there.

After a while we headed back to our cabin to put our clothes back on.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

We were invited to the rescheduled Helipad Sailaway at 2:30

It was very nice. A decent sized group of people were there. We were taken onto the helipad and handed mimosas.

There were various officers around to chat with people.

It’s so pretty seeing how the water changes the shade of blue to the much darker color where the water gets deeper.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

There were cute colorful houses all lined up.

We watched the tug boat that went over to where some of the lines were being released.

We even saw a turtle swimming in the water.

We were out on the Helipad until about 3:30.

We went back to our cabin and went in the jacuzzi on the balcony

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

We showered and got dressed for the evening.

We went to Michael’s Club.

I tried a peach bourbon drink that I read about on cruise critic. The bartender knew exactly what I was talking about and made it for me. It was pretty good.

Scott had his standard gin and tonic.

They brought us a little plate with snacks on it. It had meatballs, chicken pate, and some other thing I didn’t get what it was. Maybe something made with artichoke.

I looked at the beverage menu that was on one of the tables in Michael’s Club. They have a nice list of various thing available, many being things that could be fun to try.

They seemed to make whatever you asked for so maybe the menu was just to give you some ideas.

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

We had someone take a picture of the two of us as we were leaving Michael’s Club.

The area outside Michael’s Club (I think it’s called Ensemble Lounge) is where they held the Captain’s Club cocktail hour for Elite and above members.

That menu is more limited than the menu they have out in Michael’s Club, but it still has a nice selection to choose from.

We arranged to have a photo shoot tomorrow at 4:45

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Tuesday 4/10/18 - Bonaire - Continued

We had dinner at Tuscan Grille with Rich and Eileen.

They brought me a photo album from Curacao for my birthday (tomorrow). That was very sweet and so thoughtful since they saw I was taking pictures of everything.

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