We got up early and went to the buffet. Normally, this woud not be our choice, but we had a shore excursion to go to, and we didn't want to miss it.
Around 9:30, we left the ship and walked to the small tour bus that would take us on a 4 hour trip around St. Maarten. Our tour guide took us to several beaches - not for swimming, but for the views. And then we went to an Iguana feeding station, where, for a simple gratuity, one would have a chance to feed an Iguana. It was fun to see one of the iguanas greedily go after some leaves put in front of him, as if there would be no one there tomorrow. But there would be, as December 1st is the official start of the tourist season, and there would be larger crowds passing by this informal tourist attraction.
Next, we were off to the capital of the French side of the island, and stopped for a bite to eat. Three currencies are used on St. Maarten: the Lesser Antilles Guilder (St. Maarten and Curacao), the Euro, and the US Dollar. Many places were treating the dollar at par with the euro, even though the euro trades at 10% higher value. So, when I got the bill for lunch, I saw the Euro price with a conversion for US Dollars.
After lunch, we were off to the Airport/Maho Beach, where crazy people have decided to try getting blown back by the jet blast. Although we were not lucky enough to see people try this when a jet took off, there were a lot of people looking to get a thrill by being directly under the flight path pf the planes going in to/out of the airport.
Finally, it was back to the ship. It was a long day, and it was only 2:30 when we walked back onto the ship.
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After a chance to rest, RQS and I went to dinner. As usual, dinner was tasty, and I had a chance to taste Haggis. Yum! The rest of the meal was good as well, including the pheasant. While at our table, a couple from Ontario started up a chat with us, and we shared pleasantries while eating our dinners.
When dinner was over, we went back to our cabin. RQS was still upset at having bought internet for 2 devices, but only was credited for one. I looked at her copy of what was purchased, and I figured out why we were told we only had internet for 1 device - a combination of Cunard's wonky website and her use of the English language - she wasn't thinking like a systems analyst in her use of language, and that got the original internet specialist on the ship to think we bought internet for 1 device. Once she showed me the proof that she had purchased internet for 2 device, she marched down to the purser's office to get things fixed. I expect that will take place tomorrow morning.
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Once the internet issue was taken care of, it was time to go to see the stage show - Symphony. This was far from what we expected, but I'm glad we stayed. We were expecting a miniature symphonic concert. Instead, we got the ship's musicians and singers performing/singing Post -WW2 20th century pop music along with a prerecorded segment from the Royal Alpert Hall Orchestra for John Williams and Beatles' selections. It was much better than I would have thought, given that there was a prerecorded segment being part of the show.
