Eastern Caribbean Cruise 2025 - Barbados Day 2 (12/03/25)

Day 2 in Barbados, and we decided to stay on the ship and rest.  Neither of us wanted to go back outside and deal with the heat and humidity in this part of the world, and then get dressed up for another gala night.

But first...

We decided to sleep late, and go to the buffet for our first meal of the day - lunch.  I find it amazing that a buffet as small as that on this ship is big enough to serve the passengers on this ship.  However, I think it's because the main dining room is open for lunch - even on port days.

After lunch, we went back to the cabin, where RQS got ready to go to the gym to exercise.  I, on the other hand, took this chance to start work on this daily post, as well as working on my travel blog.  It gives me something to do when i don't want to go outside.  

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Dinnertime came again, and we got dressed in our best and headed to the main dining room for gala night (there would be 3 on this cruise).  We enjoyed a nice dinner, and went to a lounge to listen to some music.  I befriended a woman interested in my thoughts on cruising, and I introduced RQS to her when RQS returned from a bio break.  It was a nice way to end a nice day. And we're looking forward to a similar day tomorrow.
 

Eastern Caribbean Cruise 2025 - Barbados Day 1 (12/02/25)

 

This was a day we were dreading.  No, it's not because anything bad was about to happen.  Instead, it was because we had to wake up by 6 am to make a tour scheduled for 10 am.  If we had known better, we could have woken up at least an hour later.  But we were playing things safe, as our shore excursion instructions mentioned a 15 minute walk to the cruise terminal (or using a shuttle that ran every 15 minutes that can get overcrowded).  Since neither of us wanted to walk 15 minutes, we decided to take the first shuttle of the day.

But first....

We showered and dressed and were at the buffet before 7 am.  One problem - the main area of the buffet wasn't yet open, and we had to find our food at the other end of the buffet area.  Rushing to finish our meals, we were back in our cabin before 7:30, with a few minutes to get ready before leaving the ship to find the shuttle bus.

The pier in Bridgetown, Barbados is long.  I wouldn't recommend walking it, as it is narrow and allows for only one lane of vehicular traffic.  This means that a pedestrian lane has been squeezed out of the area where one would have buses and other vehicles pass each other in opposing directions.  We were at the far end of the pier, and I estimated that we'd walk 1/2 mile before reaching the terminal.  Use of the shuttle would be our only realistic option today.

At 8 am, we walked to the gangway and found the shuttle loading nearby.  By 8:10, we were in the terminal, ready to kill time before going outside to find our tour bus.  A little before 9 am, we went to the designated waiting area, and our tour guide arrived a few minutes late.  (Heck, it's "Island Time", nothing is on time by NYC terms when in the Caribbean.)  Narren, our guide, was dressed up like Santa, and was ready to show us the best of Barbados.

Now, I'm not going to fault Narren, but there wasn't that much to see on this tour.  Yes, we went past the home of the rich and famous. But after that, it was a long drive on twisty and bumpy roads to reach scenic vistas and an old church.  One member of our group commented that she had seen much better old churches in Europe - and I wouldn't doubt her.  Barbados has only a short history of being settled by European people.  So, shoring a 300 year old church is not enough to impress everyone. Both my partner and I agreed that we might not have taken this tour had we known how little there would be to see.  Again, I won't fault our tour guide.  It was not what we were looking for in a scenic tour. 

We were glad to get back to the ship for lunch and a nap....

- - - - - -

Around 6:30 pm, we went downstairs for dinner. My only complaint was that there were not enough Anjou Pear slices with this appetizer.  My partner noted that Cunard's version of an appetizer is not a mini-main.  Instead, it's a bite or two of tasty food.  And, as usual, I enjoyed two appetizers and a Caesar Salad. The rib eye steak was done to perfection, and the desserts were on the mark as well.  Not that much to say about dinner, save that this was the first time that RQS noticed a mistake in the restaurant's service.  Yet, we still keep getting impressed by service (in general) on this ship. 

 

mmmmm 

 

Eastern Caribbean Cruise 2025 - Domenica (12/01/25)

 

Domenica.  It looks like it might be a nice place to walk around. However,  we weren't in the mood to get off the ship today.  So we stayed on the ship, with two things in mind: 

• Laundry
• Resolution of Internet issue.

But first we had breakfast in the buffet....

After breakfast, we walked onto the promenade deck to get a view of the island. nd that's where I had a mishap that could have caused me some serious problems.  I had decided to sit down in one of the lounge chairs.  It collapsed forward because it wasn't set up right, and I fell forward.  This wouldn't be so bad, save that my cell phone almost fell off the ship.  Several more inches, and I would have lost a general purpose credit card, 2 gas cards, and my OMNY (NYC Mass Transit) card in addition to the phone.  But I was lucky, and only had a minor loss of pride.

Our next stop was to the purser's office, where we got the internet issue fixed - RQS did buy access for me, and the lady at the desk logged me into the ship's wi-fi under my account.  (Now to get the default settings fixed for my laptop.)  Finally, RQS and I can get on the internet at the same time, and not share a single account!

- - - - - -

After a chance to rest, we went down to the laundry room to wash a week's worth of clothes.  We only had 90 minutes to wash and dry our clothes, but the machines were running slow.  Even after 45 minutes of drying time, some items were still slightly damp - and that would have to wait until after dinner.

We arrived at the dining room at 6:30, and met the same 2 people who sat next to us last night.  Again, we had a pleasant chat over dinner.  And again, we noticed minor inconsistencies in staff service in the restaurant, none of which affected our enjoyment of the meal, but should be noted to management to prevent this from getting worse in future cruises.

Once back in our cabin RQS noticed something about the tour we would be taking the next morning in Barbados.  It leaves almost as soon as we get to the port, and we will need to hustle to make it to the tour bus on time.  This meant we'd have to get up very early in the morning for us, and that we'd skip tonight's show in the ship's theater.