JamieLogical's Live from the Enchanted Princess 8/10

[JamieLogical]

I just wanted to give you all a heads-up that we have an early excursion this morning so I probably won't be able to post my blog about yesterday until we are back on the ship.

[JamieLogical]

WARNING: This will be a VERY picture-heavy post so be mindful if you are viewing on your phone with a limited data plan!

Yesterday was our port stop in Dominica. I was very excited about this one because neither of us has ever been there. We had an excursion booked that was scheduled to meet up onshore at 9:20, so we were able to have a fairly lazy morning. Our room service arrived right at 6:30, I spent a long time just taking photos and admiring how beautiful the island is as we sailed in, I typed up my blog, showered, and then we got all our sunscreen on and ready to go ashore.

 

We ended up getting to our meet-up spot a little early, which was a bit of a concern because it was just exposed sunshine out on the pier and was already QUITE hot for 9:00am, but luckily the mini-busses were already lined up for us and they let us load onto one with the air conditioning running while we waited for it to fill up. We briefly chatted with the couple behind us about how beautiful the sail-in was. We were then joined by two more couples, one of whom, the husband needed to walk with a cane and seemed to have a very challenging time with the limited legroom in the van. I was worried about him because I knew the description of the excursion included a short hike through the jungle.

 

Our driver was Matthew and our tour guide was Josie. As we were leaving the port area, Josie explained that this was one of three seaports on Dominica. This was the more commercial/industrial port, there was a cruise port somewhere closer to the capital, and there is one more somewhere. Apparently Princess always uses this one because of the short pier/gangway, which I will say I did appreciate. But it means there aren’t really any shops or restaurants very close to the port. You have to go about a mile into town to find those. Not that it mattered for us, because we were there on Sunday and everything was closed anyway, which is why we had booked an excursion.

 

As we drove along the tour, Josie told us all about Dominica, the damage/deaths from hurricanes David and Maria, the history of the French and the British control, the current PM and President, schools, the hospital, the locally growing fruits and vegetables, the fishing, the recent medal win by a long jumper in this year’s Olympics, and all sorts of information.

 

Our first stop was a scenic overlook from which you could get a good view of the capital and a little bit of our ship. That was apparently a very popular stop, as there were a ton of busses up there and the crowds along the railing for photos were 3-4 people deep.

 

The next stop was the botanical gardens. Josie warned us that not much is in bloom there this time of year. I had already taken several photos of flowers just on our drive and at our one stop, so I was sure I could get more and I did! I have a compulsion to take photos of every flower I see, so I apologize in advance if those sorts of photos bore you. I took a LOT of them.

 

The main attractions at the botanical gardens actually seemed to be trees versus flowers. First there was a huge banyan tree, then there was an amazing tree (sorry I don’t remember the name) that had fallen on a school bus (with no one inside) back during Hurricane David and kept growing (that tree was flowering for the first time Josie had ever seen), and then there was a “house” or “nest” made of bamboo. It was a very short walk through the gardens and it was quite sunny and hot. I was actually a little satisfied that Jodie herself was complaining about the heat as well. Made me feel a little less like a whiney tourist.

 

Back on the airconditioned van we headed to our featured stop, Trafalgar Falls. It was quite the drive up into the mountains. I am glad I didn’t have to do it. The road was barely wide enough for our one mini-bus, but there was a constant stream of other buses coming down or even cars trying to pass us! It was pretty death-defying. I tried to take some photos out the windows, but they didn’t come out very great. Then, as Josie had warned us, it started pouring down rain randomly. Apparently, in the interior of the island in the mountains, there are just constant random rain showers. Once the rain covered the van’s windows, I had to give up trying to take photos out of them.

 

We arrived at our destination and there were already many other busses and tour groups there. Josie handed out our tickets and we proceeded onto the trail, which we were told would be a 10-15 minute hike up to the falls. I was really worried about the older couples ahead of us on the bus, especially the gentleman with the cane, but he persevered! The trail wasn’t an easy one, even for me, and my husband and I do pretty serious hiking every weekend. There were stairs in sections, but they were high and uneven. A lot of it was just steep inclines. But it was a beautiful hike, We even met a friendly freshwater crab. I took more photos of flowers.

 

At the end of the trail was a multi-tiered covered platform from which you could see two waterfalls. Again this was jam-packed so I tried to take my photos quickly and get out of others’ way. Right as we were about to start heading back, it started raining again and that turned into quite a downpour as we traversed the trail. It got very slick and I was worried about the others in our group. By the time we were back to the entrance area, I felt (and probably looked) like I had showered with my clothes on. It stopped raining but became instantly steamy, so now I was drenched with rain and trying to sweat. It was pretty gross, but everyone else was in the same boat. It was still a SUPER worthwhile adventure as the falls were beautiful as was the hike.

 

Back on the bus, we headed to our final stop, which was a little bar where we received a free drink. Everyone else in my group got the coconut rum, but I hate coconut, so I went with the lime. I am happy I did as mine was quite refreshing. We actually hung out there for quite a while and had a very pleasant conversation with our bus-mates, most of whom were from Long Island originally, but now live in Florida.

 

We piled back on the bus and headed back to the ship. It was just after noon and I was far less exhausted and gross-feeling than I had been the last couple of times we returned to the ship, but I still wanted to shower and change before getting lunch. We got all the way to the mid-ship gangway when we were turned away and told we needed to use the forward gangway coming back onto the ship. A sign or something would have been nice!

 

We got back up to our room, showered and changed, and then headed to Gigi’s for lunch again since that had been so pleasant the previous day. It was just as pleasant this time. We had a nice chat with the couple next to us who also had the Premier package, but clearly hadn’t taken advantage of it the way we have, as this was their first visit to Gigi’s and they had only done O’Malley’s and Ocean Terrance one time each so far. They did so the 360 Experience (not part of the package) and loved it.

 

After lunch, it was my husband’s turn to do some laundry because he was out of moisture-wicking clothes with two more days ahead of us that would require them. I hung out in the room and napped a bit and then watched the pilot episode of The Americans, which I had never watched before. My husband’s laundry took longer than expected because apparently the dryer didn’t actually run the first time he attempted it? Also, the token machine on our floor had broken since I used it and he had to go to Deck 11 for tokens.

 

At one point my husband came back from the laundromat and said “you are going to be so mad!” Someone had left a half-eaten plate of food on the floor directly in front of OUR door! We had just had a conversation earlier in the day about what kind of heathens we have on this cruise with all the random stuff we have seen left in random places. So far, on elevator floors, I have seen an ice cream cone, an apple core, and I don’t even know how many cups and glasses. In the hallways, lots of random plates of half-eaten food. And the latest trend seems to be leaving the cold/wet washcloths and beach towels either on the floor in the hallway or stuffed between the handrails in the walls. Not even hanging neatly on the handrails, just kind of bunched up and stuffed in there. So my husband was absolutely right that I was PI**ED that someone left a plate directly in front of OUR door for one of us to trip over and making it look like we were the ones doing that sort of thing. Seriously, you are on a cruise ship where people will pick up after you so it’s not like you need to wash that dish or towel or whatever so the VERY absolute LEAST you can do is put it in a vaguely proper place! You can’t even expend the absolute bare minimum of effort and carry it to a table or bar or ledge or something? You can’t store it in your room until your room steward comes twice a day to clean it up for you?

 

We finally made our way down to Good Spirits where I got some coffee from International Cafe and we played some Rummy. My husband won. I am starting to feel like quite the loser on this cruise!

 

We dropped our stuff back at the room and headed to Bellini’s for a bit and then took our drinks out onto the “promenade” on Deck 7 to watch sail away, which was absolutely beautiful. We ran into Ian Frost and had a nice chat with him. We took a billion photos, then headed across to the port side to see the sunset as we continued our sailaway.

 

After that, we headed to O’Malley’s for dinner. Once again, nothing on the MDR menu really appealed to us and we love O’Malley’s. For those keeping track at home, we have now eaten at O’Malley’s five times, Gigi’s two times, and Ocean Terrace two times. So we are definitely maximizing our Premier package!

 

After dinner, we headed to Crown Grill to listen to Ian Frost’s two sets of the evening. They were both very enjoyable and more my thing than his last few sets which were more geared towards public consumption.

 

We wanted to call it an early night with an early excursion in St. Maarten, so my husband headed to the IC for his cookies and then up to the room. I played in the casino for a bit (still losing) and then to Slice.

 

Dominica was a really amazing port stop and I hope all of you can make it there someday to see how absolutely gorgeous it is!

 

Day's Drinks:

Lime Rum from Papillote Wilderness Retreat

Fellini from Gigi's 

Coffee w/ Bailey's from International Cafe

Vodka & Ginger Beer from Good Spirits

French 77 from Bellini's

Clover Breeze from O’Malley's 

Vodka & Ginger Ale from Crown Grill Bar

Floridora from Crown Grill Bar

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 19 by JamieLogical

[Wishing on a star]

Thanks again for the great vlog!

I even liked all of the nature and flower photos.  Some of the 'flowers' are interesting!

The shots of the hike that do not show a lot of tropical trees and flowers look like the Smoky Mountains. I grew up in E. Tennessee.

 

We now have Premier, for the first time, on our next cruise.

I don't know how we will find the time to take such good advantage of it!!!

I certainly won't be concerned with my diet onboard!!!

[Honolulu Blue]

I've been to Dominica a couple of times in my travels.  Nice place.  I'll make it back there next December.  Sint Maarten is one of my favorite stops ever, so I'm looking forward to hearing more about it. 👍

[canadarocks]

Papillote Wilderness Retreat is an AWESOME location. Beautiful gardens and thermal pools of various temperatures. We spent a day there quite a few years ago, on an independent shore excursion I arranged. Too bad you just had a short visit there. 

[grimace95120]

Hi there, thank you for the informative and interesting trip report !

Quick question, any luck ordering gelato in lieu of those monstrosity deserts ??? Seems to be personnel dependent on the charges rather than process. Wondering if you've seen or experienced gelato being "allowed" in lieu of the premium deserts?

 

Thanks

 

[JamieLogical]

Just now, grimace95120 said:

Hi there, thank you for the informative and interesting trip report !

Quick question, any luck ordering gelato in lieu of those monstrosity deserts ??? Seems to be personnel dependent on the charges rather than process. Wondering if you've seen or experienced gelato being "allowed" in lieu of the premium deserts?

 

Thanks

 

 

Yes! I have been able to do it twice so far this trip. Back in May, they forced you to order those specialty Sundaes which was incredibly dumb and wasteful.

[grimace95120]

Thanks, i appreciate the confirmation. Plain gelato is my kryptonite 🙂

[beshears]

As you mentioned, I'm a "people watcher" too. 🙂 

[beshears]

Dominica is to be one of our ports next February, and I am looking forward to checking it out. 🙂 You mentioned of the plate of food right in front of your door, which was BAD of whoever did that. It reminds me of when we went to Captain D's Sunday, and someone??? spilled a drink, and it was all over the floor. Now who??? did this, I have no clue, but the least they could have done is told one of the workers there, so they would clean it up. I finally went and told one of the workers, and she got it cleaned up. I guess the person who did it was embarrassed, but then, EVERYONE has accidents once in a while.

[EllieinNJ]

Loved Dominica.  When we were there in February on the Venezia we did the river tubing tour.  It was such fun.  We are doing it again in Nov. on the Enchanted.

[Jazzbo]

Great photos, Jamie! The ones of sail-in are beautiful. 😊

[JamieLogical]

2 hours ago, beshears said:

Dominica is to be one of our ports next February, and I am looking forward to checking it out. 🙂 You mentioned of the plate of food right in front of your door, which was BAD of whoever did that. It reminds me of when we went to Captain D's Sunday, and someone??? spilled a drink, and it was all over the floor. Now who??? did this, I have no clue, but the least they could have done is told one of the workers there, so they would clean it up. I finally went and told one of the workers, and she got it cleaned up. I guess the person who did it was embarrassed, but then, EVERYONE has accidents once in a while.

 

I am confident leaving a half eaten plate of food on the floor in front of my stateroom door was not accidental.

[kitkat343]

3 hours ago, beshears said:

Dominica is to be one of our ports next February, and I am looking forward to checking it out. 🙂 You mentioned of the plate of food right in front of your door, which was BAD of whoever did that. It reminds me of when we went to Captain D's Sunday, and someone??? spilled a drink, and it was all over the floor. Now who??? did this, I have no clue, but the least they could have done is told one of the workers there, so they would clean it up. I finally went and told one of the workers, and she got it cleaned up. I guess the person who did it was embarrassed, but then, EVERYONE has accidents once in a while.

Something else to look into - Titou Gouge is really close to trafalgar falls.  It's a bit of a swim in cold water, but you can swim up to the falls there.   The water was pretty cold when we were there last January, so if you have kids that's something to note (adults can handle it pretty well but my kids got cold).  It was warmer in August, but still pretty cold.   I don't know if ship excursions visit both locations - we had a private excursion that did both and then ended in a hot springs place.    

Edited August 19 by kitkat343

[beshears]

JamieLogical, I agree with you about the plate of food in front of your door. In the many cruises I have taken, I have never seen anyone put a plate of food in front of the door, normally it was along one of the walls to be picked up by one of the room stewards.

[Scottdalfonso]

5 hours ago, beshears said:

JamieLogical, I agree with you about the plate of food in front of your door. In the many cruises I have taken, I have never seen anyone put a plate of food in front of the door, normally it was along one of the walls to be picked up by one of the room stewards.

Which is still gross. I never even think to put dishes outside the room... I am fine just piling them up on the vanity. 

[happy42cruise]

AND you can call room service or use the app to request a pickup of your dishes!  Totally not cool to leave in the hallway especially in front of somebody else's door!

[JamieLogical]

Last night, on my way to bed, I spotted another glass on the floor in the elevator, this one was a martini glass with that famous onion and raffle ticket cocktail....

 

 

[JamieLogical]

Yesterday was our port stop in St. Maarten. I had been there once before, but my husband had not, so I wanted to make sure he got to see both sides of the island. We booked an excursion that included a bus tour of the island as well as a lagoon cruise. I knew it wouldn’t be as spectacular as the Dominica experience and I warned my husband as much.

 

We were scheduled to meet for our excursion on the pier at 8:20. At 8:00, the ship had just docked but hadn’t yet been cleared and the gangways weren’t set up. We were vaguely concerned about there being a mob of people fighting to get off as soon as possible, but there was no line whatsoever and we breezed off the ship as soon as we were cleared, so we were early to our meet-up spot and ended up having to stand around for a little while. At least the ship was providing us ample shade on the pier at that point.

 

Once our tour organizer arrived, she arranged us into a two-person wide line and we were marched over to where our bus was waiting for us. We were introduced to our driver, Charlo, but told we would be picking our tour guide up outside the gate. Her name was Wendy.

 

We drove through Phillipsburg and across the island to the French town of Marigot. I apologize for not getting many photos along the drive. I let my husband have the window seat (for once) since he hadn’t seen the island before, so it was a lot tougher for me to get any pics.

 

For anyone who doesn’t know, the island was originally settled by indigenous peoples from South America but was eventually “discovered by” and taken over by people from the Netherlands, who wanted to get rich off the salt flats that naturally occurred there. When the other major Caribbean players found out about the salt, they went to war with the Dutch over it. The island exchanged hands 16 times between the Dutch, French, Spanish, and British, but it eventually got down to just the French and the Dutch fighting halfway through the 17th century before they made a peace treaty and split the island. The French half is actually a part of France and ruled by the French government. The Dutch half is independent.

 

So, now my husband can say he’s been to France.

 

We stopped in Marigot on the French side and explored a little street market, tried to find some interesting snacks in a supermarket, wandered through an air-conditioned mall, and then wandered through the un-air-conditioned streets.

 

We got back on the bus and headed to the lagoon, crossing the border again along the way. The town on the lagoon that our boat ride originated from was called Simpson Bay and it seemed really lovely. It seemed quite walkable with lots of restaurants, shops, and bars. It even inspired my husband and me to do a little research in what a vacation there might cost. According to our tour guide, Jet Blue does some direct flights from Boston. We will have to research it a bit more.

 

Our boat ride along the lagoon was great. They provided free drinks, so I had a couple of rum & cokes. The boat was double-decker, but at least half of the upper deck was covered and shaded and there was a very nice breeze off the water, so it wasn’t hot at all. It was amazing to think that so many of the buildings we saw were either newly built or reconstructed since 2017 when 75% of the buildings on the Dutch side and 90% of the buildings on the French side were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Irma. That much rebuilding in seven years with COVID in between is very very impressive.

 

After the boat ride, it was a pretty short bus ride back to the ship. We stopped in a duty-free shop in the port to try again to find snacks (there was nothing interesting at the market in Marigot) and my husband managed to find some bacon-flavored crackers, so we will see how those are. We were also sorely tempted by a giant wheel of gouda in a cooler case, but couldn’t figure out how we would get it home!

 

We were back on the ship around 12:30 and headed back to our room to get cleaned up. We decided on the buffet for lunch. I didn’t do as well making good choices there as our previous lunch and really only ended up eating the unlabeled Aloo Gobi I had found sitting off on a station all by itself with some rice. We scoped out the dessert options and both decided to pass.

 

Back in the room, I took care of some stuff for work and then finished up my blog about our day in Dominica. Then we headed down to Good Spirits to play some board games and drink some coffee. We were going to try to play travel Catan but my heart wasn’t in it, so we played Splendor and I won! We had a little table way in the back corner, but three different people came up and said hi from Cruise Critic, so hi to anyone out there who is reading this and onboard our sailing. Feel free to drop by if you see my husband and me out and about on the ship!

 

After our game, we headed up to Bellini’s and then over to Crooners. Bon showed up and made me another mystery concoction. This one I asked him to make with gin and make it taste like a melted popsicle. He did a pretty good job!  We had a Crown Grill reservation at 6:00 but decided to go a little early and see if we could get seated. We were able to without issue. I still had my drink from Bon and my husband ordered a Bee’s Knees.

 

For my meal, I had the onion soup (always delicious!), the mussels, and the creme brulee cheesecake. Both the mussels and the cheesecake I hadn't tried at Crown Grill before and both were delicious! They gave me probably four times as many mussels as I could eat, served in a pot that was the same size you would use to cook for your whole family at home. The cheesecake should have been illegal it was so good. It was basically like a creme brulee, but instead of custard under the crispy part, it was cheesecake.

 

My husband had the tiger prawns, the lamb chops with asparagus and mashed potatoes, and the chocolate treasure. He loved all of his meal, especially the lamb.

 

Near death from overeating, we headed back to Crooners where Ian Frost was playing at 7:30. We stayed for his single set then I went to the casino for a bit while my husband went back to the room. I decided to skip the late-night pizza and just have some of our assortment of snacks while watching another episode of The Americans and then it was time for sleep.

 

Day's Drinks:

2x Rum & Coke from Explorer boat in Simpson Bay

Coffee w/ Bailey's from International Cafe

Champagne & Chambord from Bellini's 

Sailing Through Orchards from Crooners

Verjus from Crooners

Bon Concoction #4 from Crooners 

Blind Russian from Crooners

[JamieLogical]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 20 by JamieLogical

[JamieLogical]

Posting my photos from Crown Grill reminded me that they no longer have that delicious, cheesy, pull-apart bread to start with. The bread they served was fine, but definitely nothing special like the old bread was! Also, I don't know what happened to my photo of the first page of the menu, but I am sure you can find it online.

[kad56]

Who did you use for your excursion? I've been to St. Martin/Sint Maarten, but I didn't know you could do a trip around the lagoon.

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, kad56 said:

Who did you use for your excursion? I've been to St. Martin/Sint Maarten, but I didn't know you could do a trip around the lagoon.

 

I just booked it through Princess.

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

On 8/16/2024 at 7:54 AM, Essiesmom said:

I first saw Freewinds in Cartagena in 2009.  She move around between Cartagena, Aruba and Curaçao.  There has been some controversy about asbestos onboard…. EM

I have a photo of Freewinds in Aruba in 2007 when I was on the Crown Princess for my honeymoon.