melchtour: Caribbean Cruise

Spectators from another cruise line watched us leave.

Each day the elevator's carpet would tell you the day. Sunday was our first day.

Our Ports of Call:

Round trip: Fort Lauderdale
1. Grand Turks & Caicos
2. San Juan (Puerto Rico)
3. Philipsburg/St.Maarten
4. Half Moon Cay (Bahamas).

Our first port got cancelled because of high winds. So we had TWO sea days in a row. We both got sea sick during that time.

We got into the spa room. The seat was warm.

Dinner at the Tamarind. We used our ship-board-credit.

Tea time hors d'oeuvres

Last cruise I missed the Culinary Shows, so I made sure to check it out this time.

This is the Atrium, the center of the ship.

It hangs over the main lobby.

If you look carefully, the chandelier is NYC and the bottom is its reflection.

The ship's size is 100 feet wide and almost 1,000 feet long with 11 decks.

The Niew Amsterdam is Holland America's newest ship, 2010.

There were almost 1,000 crew members working.

This ship was completely booked with over 2,000 guests!

Making a Flaming Spanish Coffee

Our first port-of-call: Puerto Rico!

We took a free trolley ride around the old San Juan.

We asked a few locals where do they like to eat.

Cafe Del Punto was mentioned each time.

Even Gary's co-worker back home referred to this restaurant.

Finding it was a challenge. It had such a small opening that you would quickly walk right past it. Then you walk through an art store till the end.

We were so happy we found it.

Gary had the Mofongo Carne with banana fritters

With a side of beans over rice.

And a Mango Smoothie.

I had the stuffed avocado relle pollo (Poi-yo)... After I mashed it up, it was more like a salad. I absolutely loved it!

Gary had some fun with the Columbus fountain in the middle of the Plaza de Colón or Columbus Square.

Christopher Columbus got this statue made after 400 years from discovering P.R.

The next two pictures were in a Haitian store.

Located right across the street from the square. We had a lot of fun in there.

Mavi is a non-alcoholic beverage that taste like a fermented carbonated apple cider. The man was nice enough to give us a free sample.

EARTHQUAKE!...nah j/k, just rain.

Now back on the ship...

St.Maarten/Philipsburg: The small island with two governments. The French and the Dutch.

On the French side, we met this lady with beer bucket who was topless. I asked her if I could take a picture of the bucket. I kept telling her, "Higher" for reasons I need not say. Finally she lifted it as high as she could. Doh!

Crepes for lunch on the French side.

Back on the ship.

Its tea time!

We met this Japanese lady who made origami out of dollar bills.

"My husuban bery rich but he no like tilavel (travel) so I do what eva I like."

She was traveling all by herself.

We were two dollars richer after meeting her.

Some of the nightly entertainment. The guy second to the right was born and raised in Hawaii.

Dessert Extravaganza! 10 P.M. Poolside. It was the coolest night on the ship!

There were all kinds of food art... Ice sculptures, Cake sculptures, fondues, castles, and lots of tiny desserts.

The bread display had braided breads, octopus shaped bread, kissing swans, an owl and even a bread that was shaped as a wedding cake!

Here's an alligator bread.

And a crab bread.

Candied apples

Just help yourself!

Bananas castle!

Cotton candy!

The last Port-of-Call: Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

When you say it fast, it sounds like, "Half Monkey".

Our horseback riding excursion

At first I thought the horses names were "My lady"...

But the locals call all female guests, My Lady and even Princess!

We rode two sets of horses.

The first horse was the land horse.

We rode him to the highest point of the island.

Gary's horse's name was Just-For-Me.

Mine was Matty.

I forgot other two.

The second horse was a water horse.

As soon as he saw the water, he jumped in it with us on top!

We felt the HORSE POWER!

It felt like the horses were GALLOPING in the water!

My legs were flying backwards!

Definitely the highlight of our trip.

After the horseback riding, we walked the beach.

And took a dip.

There was an island-wide Beach BBQ. Since this island is owned by our cruise line, everything is cash-free. If you bought something, it gets billed to your stateroom. The BBQ however was free.