January 23, 2015 Barbados

We had an amazing sleep and we once again wake to the ship pulling into it’s berth.  We dock early at 7 am and the announcement stating to all the passengers we have clearance now has been made.  We are in no rush so we roll over and go back to sleep for about an hour.

When we do wake up we feel rested and Bernie is feeling good too.  We decide to head to the beach and we dress in our swimsuits and apply the sunscreen.

I agree to meet Bernie in the International Café later as he heads up to the Horizon Court for Breakfast and I head to the IC for Muesli and my Cappuccino.

We head ashore at around 9:30 and we are at the pier further away from the port building.  There are two other ships in port situated at the coveted parking spots.  This is a working pier so the piers included other vessels as well like tug boats and also some Navy boats too.

When you get onto the pier there are small shuttle buses that will transport you to and from the port building, but we like to walk it.  It takes about 8 minutes to walk but if you have trouble walking or the heat can get to you I suggest you take the shuttle bus.

Right away when Bernie hits the sun his eye is having trouble adjusting the to brightness.  He used the drops this morning so I am guessing that is why.  Then when we walk into the building they have trouble adjusting again.  In fact he says to me I really can’t see anything, so we take a seat and wait for his eye to adjust.

We leave the building and are making our way to the exit and again as soon as the bright light hits his eye he is blinded and actually takes my hand to help him.  I question whether we should go to the beach and he says no lets go.  

But as soon as we exit the port he is still quite blind and I make an executive decision, we are returning to the ship and will enjoy our day on board.

He feels bad about this but I am totally fine with it.  Sure the beach here is amazing but we have been before and we will be back in a few weeks and we can enjoy the day on board.

As we enter the port building I chat with the woman at the flower booth and arranged for two arrangements to be made.  One for us and one for our friend who is celebrating her birthday in a few days.  We will come back later and pick them up.  If you like flowers I highly recommend you stop at her stall and get a lovely bouquet for a very reasonable price.

We are back on board at 10 am and we sit in the International Café and have another drink and then we decide to head up to the top deck for some R & R. Bernie picks a chair in the shade (which I have to say is easy to find on this ship) and I sit not too far away in the sun.  There are quite a few people on board, I am not sure if they just stayed on or if they are going off later.  We do leave here early (4 pm) so I know many of the crew have decided to just stay on.

After two hours in the sun and Bernie napping and resting his eye, we then head back ashore to pick up the two bouquets of flowers.  

Again we walk to and from the ship to the building, so we did get our exercise in today.   While walking back on board a lot of people are commenting about the flowers and where we got them.  Yes you can bring flowers back on board with no problem but you can not take them off with you when you disembark the vessel in Florida.  Very strict about that and you can be fined. 

We are back on board and as we take the stairs to the Promenade we can smell the pizza and it smells good so after dropping off the flowers we head back to Alfredos for some pizza. 

This time I have a nice salad to start and then I have a pizza that has artichokes, mushrooms and olives.  It is very good.  Oh yeah I  was going to just get a glass of Sangria which is $5.95 but you can get a large carafe of Sangria for $9.95 and you get a lot more, so I recommend the carafe instead.

Yesterday we started watching the movie Gone Girl and we need to finish it so back in the room we watch the last bit of it and oh my it is good and not what you would expect.  So if you get the chance watch the movie.

We close our eyes and take a nap, not sure why we are resting so much but hey I am on vacation and obviously my body needs it.

We wake when we hear the Captain come on the cabin announcing our departure, not sure why they are announcing this in all the rooms but since we are awake we head out to the balcony to watch sail away. 

But we are just above and two over from the aft door on Promenade that people use to go outside and the door slams constantly.  Wish they had it on an automatic door opening/closing to prevent it from slamming.  It is so loud and all you hear is BANG,  five minutes BANG, a few minutes BANG.  It gets to me after a half hour and I go inside.  I am very concerned because we are two cabins over from this one for our last leg which would put us even closer to that door.  I am almost tempted to move into an inside to get away from it.  I hope it isn’t something I hear in the cabin.  

Right now I can say I love the cabin and it’s location but it is not a quiet cabin and would recommend cabins away from public doors and just above public venues.

Events today:  Morning Trivia, Ping Pong, Shuffleboard, Basketball, Speed Sudoku, Brunchtime Trivia, soccer, knitters and needlepoint get together, bridge play, MUTS: Genesis and then Il Divo, Goofy Golf Competition, Balloon & Can Shooting at the Bullseye Simulator, Steel Pan Class, Afternoon Tea, Pop Choir, Sabbath Service, Afternoon Trivia, Zumba class.