ST.VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES—HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SON B

Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sunny and hot

From our stateroom this morning we heard a rooster crowing from the island!

We got a new captain yesterday, Captain Anthony Herriott from West Sussex, England. Because of the amount of days sailing with Princess, we now have “Platinum” status. This means that we both get 250 minutes of Internet usage for free. We were able to sit in a plusher section while we waited to board the ship, too. We are invited daily to the Skywalker Lounge for hors d’oeuvres before dinner and to a Captain’s Party for a couple free drinks. If we cruise 36 more days with Princess we will get to “Elite” status and they will do our laundry for free! Tim won’t have to walk 9 steps from our stateroom to do laundry!

I logged onto Face Book to send a quick Happy Birthday message to Son B before we left for St. Vincent. We were here 22 months ago and that is when we took the “Tour from Hell” ----steep hairpin curves in the back seat of a van with empty stomachs and we took our meds that are supposed to be taken with food. We did see Dark View Falls, the site of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and Soufriere, the renowned volcano at that time, worth the discomfort.

This time we decided to just do a short walk. There was a wonderful breeze today. The main street by the port in Kingstown is not built up at all. Humble stores, humble people. They were affected by the hurricane in October this year. We sat in a little café near the ship and had water and coffee while writing post cards. Tim is sending post cards-I elected not to this trip. While we were there a Caribbean band played Christmas music—a guitar, banjo, tin cans, and an old oil barrel made into a drum. St. Vincent is located in the Windward Islands, between Grenada and St. Lucia. It is 18 miles long and 11 miles wide with a population of about 120,000.

We had pizza by the pool for lunch. There is no band by the pool on this cruise. Sometimes they do play trivia. Tim thinks most of the passengers are from retirement villages in Florida like Del Boca Vista. We hardly ever see anyone drinking by the pool. Most passengers are older than we are. Admittedly, our Panama Canal cruise had older people too, but they must have been more into fun. I think we will try to cruise more with our two sets of Cruise Critic friends. I should have paid more attention at the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet last week.

Excellent Prime Rib in the DaVinci dining room.

Later tonight the Captain issued a plea for people with O+ or O- blood to report to the infirmary if they wished to donate. At the port it was announced that there had been a medical emergency and we lingered for about ½ hour later than planned, but apparently they opted to bring the person back on the ship. I have no idea what medical services St. Vincent can offer. Anyway, Tim did go to the medical center, but they already had enough volunteers. It sure sounds like they plan to do a blood transfusion on board.

TK’s Takes: Princess now seems to allow men wearing shorts in the dining room for dinner.

Aside to Donna, Brian, Nancy, and Lawrence: the planetary sculpture that amused Lawrence and the rest of us because of a certain remark is still on Deck 5. Just for future reference.