02/15/10

Aruba. Finally land! Today is a national holiday, the day after the biggest of the Carnival celebrations. Because of the holiday, most of the small local shops are closed, but the big ones that are affiliated with the cruise ships are open, lusting for tourist dollars. Diamonds International, Columbian Emerald, Del Sol and others. There are several other cruise ships in port, including the newest Princess Ship, the Ruby Princess. So, with the other ships in port, there are about 10,000 folks on the street, hungry to help the local economy. It is not very frequent that we have seen two Princess Ships in a port on the same day. The Ruby is on a 10 day cruise and Aruba is its last port before the end of the cruise in Fort Lauderdale. Co got the dirt by befriending a woman from the Ruby. (She gave the woman a toilet seat cover in a restroom in town and that sealed the deal. But really, doesn’t everyone carry seat covers?)

Last night, after dinner we went to the “Newly Wed & Not So Newly Wed” game, a takeoff on the old TV show. One question was; “When your husband wants to make whoopee, what phrase, word or action let’s you know his intentions?” He said, “I love you”, she said “He rubs my upper parts”, they had been married 55 years. No points there! Of eight questions, the winners got two correct. The audience had a great time, and the contestants probably had a lot to talk about that night.

We were wandering through the ship after John’s nap today and went up to the exercise room to use the scale. There was a woman on the treadmill that I talked about at exercise class when we got home from the Fall Colors cruise last year. This woman weighs about one pound per year. She looks about 90 years old and looks to weigh 90 LBS and goes like a racer on the treadmill. Last fall, we would see her on the treadmill at least once a day! And here she is, on the same ship again. Amazing.

We saw five or six carts full of luggage heading for the ship, trailed by passengers that missed the sailing two days ago. That is a tough way to start a vacation, missing the ship and then needing to fly 1,500 miles more to catch up with the ship.

Tomorrow we will be in Curacoa, another of the Dutch Antilles Island chain and the only one we have not visited. We think (hope) that they will have some of Carnival Fat Tuesday events happening while we are there.

Late breaking news flash!!!! Co went into the casino and tripled her money. Yes, she tripled her money. Went from $2.00 to $6.00 in a matter of minutes!!!
John and Colleen