A few post-cruise thoughts about May 2022 Allure Southern Caribbean sailing

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Aruba - what a paradise...

 

We went to Eagle beach - $15 per taxi each way. It was extremely windy that day, and the umbrellas ($40 for two chaises and one umbrella) had to be dug in pretty deep. We got there pretty early  - around 9 am - and were #4 umbrella takers.

 

Ours is the left most, right next to the turtle nest (turtles hatched a week prior). This was before a hoard of tourists arrived and long before the cruise excursion dropped the people off there. The excursion didn't include chaises or umbrellas, and most of them sat under the trees in the background.

 

The water was a bit cold, and it was very windy, so our hats kept flipping up and flying off our heads... We sunburned pretty badly, despite regularly reapplying SPF50 to faces and bodies. Thankfully, I brought some liquid lidocaine as part of my medical kit, so it helped a lot.

 

There was no wifi at the bar. My hubs is addicted to his phone and he hated being so disconnected from his digital world.

Judging by the others' comments, there was a super long line at the bar for food and drinks.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Curacao.

 

Last time we went to Pirate Bay Beach bar and were left underwhelmed with the beach part. This time I did a bit more research and settled on a couple of choices: Blue Bay, Kokomo or Mambo.

When we got off the ship, a taxi driver asked where we wanted to go, and my DH's only condition was - whatever had wifi. I wanted umbrellas and the real beach... The taxi driver suggested Blue Bay "because it had it all". $40 each way. Now, I know it's more than it's supposed to be, but he was very pleasant and we didn't share a taxi with anyone, so we said yes. We didn't agree on the return time, so he provided his business card and the restaurant staff called him to come pick us up. Took him about 15 minutes to come get us. Worked great. Other people definitely scheduled a return time.

 

Must say - we were not disappointed with the Blue Bay. A lovely beach (although much smaller in person than it looked on the photos). Entrance fees were $12 per adult and $6 per kid 12 and under. You got free chaises. However, they didn't have umbrellas... but they had several free palapas, and since we got there early - we had a few to choose from. Good timing! Later the beach filled up to the brim.

 

Free wifi worked great for surfing/emailing, even though the staff told us it may get wonky. We didn't stream anything, so the speed was sufficient for emailing. We updated my parents on our vacation and they updated us on our dogs they were babysitting. 

 

I am glad CC people warned us to bring water shoes to the beach in Curacao - it was a great idea. There were many sharp rocks in the water, and DH, who refused to wear water shoes, cut his foot pretty badly. The water shoes also came in handy when exploring the tiny natural area to the right of the beach.

 

 

Got there pretty early - lots of chaises and palapas to choose from: we also fed some local birdies with some challah bread we brought from the ship for our own snacks. They took it out of our hands.

 

 

 

A can of coke was $4. The prices are in guldens (6 guldens for a can of coke), which are roughly 2 guldens to $1. But it didn't translate to $3 a coke... 🙂  Many other people were happy to spend their money on food and drinks, so the restaurant/beach bar business was booming. We did buy a can of coke, because we ran out of coke that DS brought in his RCI cup.

[babyblue78]

Hi!  Where on Eagle Beach did you get dropped off at, or where did you rent those umbrellas?  I am familiar with Eagle Beach (spent a week at Amsterdam Manor a few years ago), so just trying to decide where to go.  Thanks!

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 hour ago, babyblue78 said:

Hi!  Where on Eagle Beach did you get dropped off at, or where did you rent those umbrellas?  I am familiar with Eagle Beach (spent a week at Amsterdam Manor a few years ago), so just trying to decide where to go.  Thanks!

we were dropped off right next to Coco Loco Beach bar in front of La Quinta hotel. Oh, forgot to add - there was a lot of jackhammering construction noise coming from the hotel, but it wasn't horrible and we still enjoyed ourselves. The wind carried it away a bit.

 

We wanted to be closer to Divi Phoenix hotel (next to the butterfly farm) where we were last time, but the taxi driver dropped us off as close to the port as it was possible, as long as it was still Eagle beach.

[Vs1023]

On 6/7/2022 at 3:49 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

yeap, I am positive. 😞

Have managed not to get covid for 2.5 years, and this cruise has "gifted" me with it. 

Darn! Ugh... exactly what i'm worried about. Our last cruise was March 2020 before the world shut down and we were on Oasis.

 

I hope you recover quickly and it's not severe.