Destiny Review Dec. 9-16 Part 5

[ECP]

Sorry to take so long, busy, busy, busy.

 

St. Lucia

December 13, 2007 - 6:30AM: Okay, I got the routine now. Boy, the things we guys do for love. But as always the view of us coming into harbour from the balcony is great as usual. Hey, did I" ever mention that I love balconies? As we entered the harbour the ship had to pass right in front of an airport runway, Lee expressed some concern on what if a plane needed to take-off/land at the same moment as the ship being in front of it, but I am sure they have lots of experience preventing that situation from happening. Off to the morning run/walk, then breakfast.

 

 

As you can see from the middle picture we tried to eat healthy meals, but as you can also see in the bottom picture the pull of the buffet is too strong to resist. Destiny's Lido deck's scrambled eggs while a lot better than what we had on the Fascination in the Bahamas are still sub-par to what you can get at any greasy spoon restaurant. I think that is because the stuff on Lido deck seemed to be made from powdered eggs. On the other-hand, the omelet station was just as good as I remembered if not better, with the only problem being long lines after about 9 AM, the bacon and french-toast was reasonable (not great, but no problems either). And the abundance of fruit, muffins, etc meant that one could always whip up a proper breakfast of your choice.

 

After some discussion Lee and I decided to find a quick tour of the island, but I can't remember what Sonya said she would do, just that she would not be with us. We all headed back to our rooms to change, agreeing to meet up later. Once at our room and on the balcony again we were greeted to the sight of musical lifeboats. All the lifeboats on the port side were deployed into the water to get their engines a chance to be turned over and to test that no problems had developed since the last round of inspections.

 

 

Then the boats were reloaded, see: http://www3.sympatico.ca/earlcolby.pottinger/Review/IM000617.AVI

 

After leaving the ship Lee and I tried to do a little shopping but we were not impressed by the stores offering the same stuff that we had already seen on the previous four islands. In time we meet a person offering a tour (ok we meet a lot of people offering tours, he just sounded better than the others) that was leaving in thirty minutes, we told him we were still shopping/looking around, but in-fact we did not find much worth looking at in the small mall set up by the docks. Finally we joined the tour group in an air-conditioned van but waited about fifteen minutes for one more couple who never did turn up.

 

So away we went. Many of the houses of the town were very picturesque in their appearance with lots of fine details (whitewash, gingerbread, shutters, stonework) in their construction. And as we were driven about the island you could easily see that many people were working to upgrade their properties as well. This is an island where the money flows, and people work to keep it moving. As usual we were taken to a high spot for photos and a street side market. Generally we just took lots of photos of different fruit trees. One odd thing we saw only on this island were the large number of dogs that just lay around on the sides of the road trusting that no-one would run them over, considering the roads and how some people were driving on they I don't understand why they were not being killed. After showing off a number of the highlights of the island the driver offered us a choice of spending some time on a beach or to continue with some more touring. By now we were toured-out and opted for the beach break.

 

We were dropped off at the beach (nice sand and water) by the Royal St. Lucia where the security guard was polite enough to snap a picture of the two us, and also told us that as usual you had to pay or be a guest of the hotel to use the facilities provided. The beach itself of course is free. So we just strolled along the beach looking around. Since vendors appear not to be allowed on the beach, they troll along near the shore in small boats, which does make for a sight for sore eyes from the decorations. We did find it a pleasant stop for the day, the sand was fine for walking on, and while we did not go into the water, the stroll itself gave us a good idea about nature of the beach and surroundings. If I ever stay in St. Lucia for a holiday this looks like a good hotel for such.

 

I remember now, Sonya took the aerial rain forest tram. She said she took lots of photos, hope to see them soon. (Later I finally got a chance to talk to her about the tram ride itself and look at the photos she had taken). Photographing jungle is hard as we already knew from the shoots we took in Dominica, but she did get some good close-ups of a hummingbird and some unusual (to a Canadian) plant growths. She declared the tram well worth the money, but bring your best camera set to it's fastest settings if you want good photos.

 

Sonya had also mentioned earlier that she now had a machine drying the area by her door. When I visited her to ask about her tram trip, I took the opportunity to take a photo while I was there. Then when returning to my own room I took a detour to take a photo of the hot tubs on the Lido deck that are under the retractable sun roof just to show that they were always available, unlike some claims I have read in the past.

 

 

Before leaving for dinner Lee and I were out on the balcony as we left port, I took the chance to get a better picture of the NCL Norwegian Jewel, which seemed to be following us island to island. Later I was told that because of very, very rough waters in some of scheduled ports she was originally to go to that the itinerary was changed to ports further south and that is why we saw her so often. I guess the claims that only Carnival misses it's scheduled ports due to storms are not true either.

 

 

At dinner the newlyweds were dancing with the waiters again.

 

 

PS. If the reviews seem to be lacking in details the further I get it is because we were starting to experience 'Caribbean Island Burnout'! Don't get me wrong, I loved this trip. But if I have the choice, never again will I do a cruise with such a lack of sea-days unless it is going somewhere I have already been so that I either just stay on-board (unlikely) or just get of the ship to do a quick walk around the local market-place/stores. If close, a beach may be an option.

 

Planning my next trip with my girlfriend right now, and St. Thomas may be in the itinerary and that is what we will do if we end up there - probably spend less than four(4) hours off the ship if even that much.

[ECP]

Reformatted for smaller screens. Things get messed up using a dual display and sometimes I forget to check it out properly.