ST. MAARTEN AND YODA GUY!

ST. MAARTEN
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Philipsburg, Dutch St. Maarten
Sunny with a couple drops of rain, 81 F

 About 8:30 a.m. Caribbean time, we took a water taxi from the area where seven huge cruise ships are docked to the main area of town. Seven cruise ships—that means at least 15,000-18,000 extra people on the island! To tell the truth, we were not jostled nor did we feel crowded. We hadn't been in St. Maarten for a while, so everything looks different. The main shopping street is narrow and quaint. One block off Philipsburg’s main street there are more shops, restaurants, and hotels right on a white sandy beach. We are returning to Philipsburg on February 10^th, so we decided to have lunch on the island then.
 

We discovered a shop owned by “Yoda Guy.” Nick Maley opened a Star Wars museum right on the main street. He was the designer and creator of Yoda and got an Emmy nomination for his creation of Anthony Hopkins' Hunchback of Notre Dame in the movie of that name. He is a personable guy who told us he sold his Ferrari three years ago and moved to the Caribbean. Smart!  He signed some items for usJ. 

We stopped in and out of other shops, like Diamonds International, Boolchand’s, Aruba Aloe, Tommy Bahamas, Tissot, and Del Sol. We do love looking at watches and I don’t mind looking at diamondsJ.  I don’t think I will be buying the $11,000 Crown of Light diamond that I looked atJ.

A candy shop offered free Wi-fi, not as convenient as Starbucks.  I loaded the blog (updated as of now) and saw that Erie is 3 F.  I sure do hope my dear family is doing OK in that cold weather.

After some gelato (me: lime and coconut; TK: coconut and mango), we boarded the water taxi to the area where the cruise ships docked. One cannot imagine what 7 gigantic cruise ships look like, back to front, four in a row, 3 behind. The towering behemoths make me feel like very very tiny!

We went to the comedian Chris Alpine’s show tonight. Definitely funny. E.g. he narrowed in on people from south Florida. He asked, “Why do you go on cruises to the Caribbean? Just walk outdoors.” Another: The comedian said his sister had a baby. “She named him after his father, ‘Who.’” One more:  “My sister told me not to get her son any toy guns. So I didn’t. I bought him a real one.”  Finally: Alpine said the first time he boarded a cruise ship he made the mistake of calling it a boat in front of the captain. The captain said to him, “Tomorrow morning how about I put you on a boat out in the Atlantic? I bet then you will know the difference between a ship and a boat.” That joke really tickled me—it’s so silly when people call a ship a boat. Really.  I’m surprised that I remembered that many of his jokes.

St. Maarten:  144 miles east of Puerto Rico. Population, 69,000. French, Dutch, English.

AT SEA

Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Sunny, 83 F, windy with 6-10 ft. swells

Today was a lazy routine, reading by the pool, a digital photography class, shopping presentation for St. Maarten, Tortola, and St. Thomas.  If I keep taking photography classes, I may learn more about my camera! I think I have “white balance” mastered!  Tim tell me I could give the shopping lecture—no doubt! Today’s shopping “talk” lasted for 1 ½ hours. That is way too long. Everyone stays because the presenter raffles off nice gifts.

Tonight, Cruise Critic members, Peggy and Steve from Virginia, organized a “Celebration” dinner in the Seven Seas Dining Room. Tim and I are celebrating our 30^th anniversary all year long, so we definitely counted ourselves in. Over 70 Cruise Critic people attended this enjoyable dinner. We sat with Kevin and Linda (screen name--Scotnadian) and Peggy and Steve (screen name--Plank). We discovered that Linda, Peggy, and I are all educators, so we had a lot in common. We shared cruising tales too. For one thing, Peggy and Steve were on the Royal Caribbean _________ of the Seas when it caught fire last year. 

We saw on MSNBC news last night that another Royal Caribbean ship had to return to Miami with 500 passengers who had norovirus.  Cruise lines really try to prevent norovirus—there are hand sanitizer stations throughout the ship, especially at all the restaurants. Crew also stand by the restaurants’ entrance and spray your hands with hand sanitizer. All the ships we have been on do this.  We notice other precautions, too. Passengers who have norovirus are quarantined in their staterooms for over 24 hours.

We are quite sure it is still snowing and cold in Erie. We are grateful that we are enjoying sunshine daily. 

Tonight’s towel animal was a darling elephant. Alit Setiawan of India, our cabin steward, says it takes him about one minute to make one towel animal.

TK’s Takes:  The biggest pool today was closed because of the wind—too much water splashes over the side.