Spring trip to Aruba

We are getting ready to go to Aruba.

Our schedule is:
Leave Bloomington on Thursday, February 26 at 6:05 am on Delta flight 5090 for Atlanta
Leave Atlanta on Delta flight 305 at 10:20 am arriving in Aruba at 3:33 pm - a 4 hour flight!!

We are staying at the Aurba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino - ph 297-586-9000.

Returning to Bloomington On Wednesday, March 4, leaving Aurba at 4:13 pm on Delta flight 304 for Atlanta.
We leave Atlanta for Bloomington on Delta flight 564 arriving home at 10:32 pm.

The best picture!!

This is one of the best pictures that we have ever had taken on a cruise!!

Day 10

Barb with the monkeys

Well the last day is here. We got up early because we docked at St. Kitts at 7:00 am and are leaving at 4:00 pm heading for San Juan.

We forgot to mention that early on in the cruise, Sara, one of the photographers recognized us from a Carnival cruise that we took a couple of years ago. She shared stories and laughs with us. It is fun getting to know the staff on ship and then running into them again.

We were out into the port and only real town by 9 and looked at a couple of tourist shops before hiring a cab to take us to the north part of town to the Batik factory. This is a company that makes very elaborate designs on island cotton using a wax dye process. Ed bought several shirts and Barb bought a blouse.

At the Batik factory

After the Batik factory we went to the St. Kitts Marriott – wow what a place. It has a casino and maybe will be a destination some year.

We were back on by 3pm and packed for the trip back. Tomorrow we plan to get off the ship fairly early and go to the San Juan Marriott and leave our bags with the bell man and stay on the beach until it is time to go to the airport.

The nice thing is that we were both up in the casinos – that really makes for a nice trip.

This will be the last entry until we get home – thanks for following our joys of traveling.

Barb is packed but not ready to go home!



Our Casino Hosts

 A special thanks to all of you who allow us to do this.

Day 9



Main Street - notice the ships in the background

 Well yesterday we made the mistake of staying in bed too long, just because we were in the casino late. We stayed late last night but got up at 8:00 to get out early in Antigua.

We were really impressed with the island – it is very clean and nice.

This was the first island that Barb found a really wonderful clothing shop and she bought a new dress.

After shopping, we headed for what turned out to be the best beach that we have been to so far. We stayed on the beach right next to the Sandals resort and snuck in and walked around it. It was a typical Sandals and we finally left the beach at 2pm. This sun is so hot that we can only spend 2 – 3 hours in the direct sun on the beach.

The casino - no we didn't gamble there!!

The ship departed at 6 for St. Kitts and we had a fun dinner, a magic show and then the casino.

Ed won the Blackjack with another ship’s trophy and $500!!!! That’s two for two on this cruise. Ed tied another player at the end of the regular play and there was a three hand playoff. On the last hand, the other player made a betting mistake and bet too many chips – and Ed won.

Again it is tomorrow so we will leave you and wake up in St. Kitts for our last full day on the cruise.

Lunch on the beach

The beach

Day 8

The Market

We slept late and finally made it off the ship at 10:00 am. We have been to St. Lucia three times now so we were only interested in shopping for a little while and then going to a beach.

The shopping was you typical island fare except they did have some beautiful dishes that were had made and painted. Barb bought a small square plate.

While shopping, we found a wonderful St. Lucian local fruit and vegetable market that we wandered thru. While there we found a lunch stand and had lunch. We do not know what we ate except we told them no fish. We ate with a couple of casino dealers from another ship that was in port. They told us that this was the best local place to eat in town.

Where we ate lunch

Following lunch, we told a taxi to a beautiful palm-lined beach, Marigot Bay. After a ½ hour taxi ride, we came to the bay but first had to take a short ferry across the bay to the actual beach.

After a couple of hours it was back to the ship for a little rest and we got ready for the second formal night.

The night was fun – we had a really good dinner and the casino sent us another bottle of wine. Since Barb doesn’t drink wine and I only drink a little, our table mates enjoyed most of the bottle.

The show in the lounge was their big production called “Zoom” and it was fantastic.

What did we eat for lunch???

Then on to the casino where we did very well and are calling it a night and it is already tomorrow.







On the beach

Day 7

Welcome to Barbados

 The day began in beautiful Barbados. The temperature is about 80 and we are setting out for the town and go shopping - who would think that.
We have been here before so we don’t need to tour so we decided to go downtown to the capital’s main shopping area and then go to the beach.

Shopping proved to be nothing of any interest so by 10:00 am we were at this real nice “local” beach. A bottle of water was only 90 cents and sandwiches were only $5.00!!

Barb on the beach - lots of coral

We stayed there until 2:00 pm when our taxi came to pick us up and take us back to the ship. Was the sun ever hot – we are a long ways south of Merna.
After dinner we both played in the slot tournament and Ed qualified. In the finals, out of 6 players, Ed came in last, but did win a teddy bear for last place!!



Well it is tomorrow so pretty soon we will land in St. Lucia so we better get to bed.

Our lunch shack



Part of the beach on Barbados



Day 6

Dominica as we were docking

We were able to sleep in this morning as we didn’t dock at Dominica until 10:00 am. We have never been here so we decided to hire a guide to take us around the island.

We found someone off the dock and away we went exploring. The high light was a ride up into the mountains and then a 10 minute hike to see Trafalgar Falls. The island is called the emerald isle of the windward because it has a lot of mountains and almost the entire island is rain forest or close to it. The entire island consists almost entirely of volcanic peaks and it is very impressive to see. The mountains rise right out of the ocean.

They are keeping the island very laid back as they are not allowing any major hotel to build a resort or even letting a major restaurant chain to build.

At the falls

Trafalgar Falls is actually two separate falls, one 125 feet tall and the other on 75 feet and they are virtually right together.

After our 2 ½ hour tour, we returned to the ship for lunch and then back out to go shopping. Not really anything else on the island to see so we were back on the ship by a little after 3 to get ready for the Captains party tonight and our first formal night which is always fun.

Formal night was fun. We always try to sit for awhile and just watch the people; you would be amazed what some people wear.

Our dinner partners showed up – they are newly weds, but not their first marriage and they are from Boston.

A crab along the walkway

We saw the show went to the casino and did just fine and now it is tomorrow and we dock in Barbados soon.

Ready for the first formal night