The Picture Post

Since we really didn't do too much after our stop in Bridgetown, we'll use this last post for photos of sailaways, things to see around the ship, and food!

At our last report, we had been invited (along with 200 of our closest friends) to a heli-pad sailaway from Dominica. It certainly did give us a different perspective on the ship:

              

The next day in St. Maarten was pretty much a stay-on-the-ship day with the exception of a little shopping we managed to do in the pierside shops. The local authorities are continuing to develop the harbour area and have now blocked the easiest foot access to town. So the options are to walk along the road (not dangerous but a longer route) or take the water taxi, whose rates have now gone from $5 return trip to $7. Considering we didn't absolutely have to go into town, it wasn't worth the cost.

              

With our last sea day about half gone, we'll get the bulk of our packing done before we head out again. We did get to two lectures from ship's officers about navigation and the ship's engineering and propulsion systems, so it hasn't been an entirely 'wasted' day. So to finish off the blog for this trip, here are a few more photos. If there's anything else of interest to tell you about, we may post a little more later on.

The Gelato Bar

             

Lemongrass Creme Brulee



Larry's Three Cheesecake dessert

 

 

The Martini Bar - yes, the bar top is frosted over!

 

Crush - the other part of the wine bar. That frosty looking
stuff in the middle of the table really IS crushed ice!

 

 

One of the specialties of the bar is the Martini flight. The bartender
has made 6 different mini-martinis (1.5 oz each) and is
pouring them all at the same time.

 

Seafood salad

Branzino (snapper) seems to be the executive chef's favourite fish!

Why do we have a photo of a cake? Because it's not
a cake, it's a glass sculpture!! Made by one of the Corning
Glass Museum artisans on another cruise. It looks
positively delicious!

We've been very impressed with just about everything we've seen on this ship, and can understand why so many of Larry's clients are booking Solstice class. Though the ship is 'large' the public areas are all on a human scale, not overwhelming but big enough that everyone is comfortable and no one seems crowded. The only disappointing area has been the production shows. Although they've done a lot of work on them, two of the three didn't seem to have a theme to tie the individual acts together. The last one, Equinox - the Show, is a Cirque du Soleil style acrobatic show. The specialty performers were fantastic, but we couldn't figure out the set design, odd costumes (the ensemble dancers looked like a cross between Hobbits and Ewoks and the singers' costumes might have been designed for Star Wars) or the music and how it all was supposed to tie together.  Oh, well, maybe somebody else can explain it to us sometime. Overall, a relaxing getaway from the cold winter. Back to snowy reality tomorrow - we know; we can already hear all those little finger violins playing in the background!