Christmas day was spent gently sailing further away from Bonaire and on toward Jamaica, with nothing but sunshine and silky sea water in between. We booked ourselves a rather strange and wonderful 9am Christmas Day treat ... a Rasul steam. I won’t go into any great detail but needless to say it was hot, sweaty and yet ... sweet smelling and thoroughly delightful. It ended with us clinking fully charged champagne glasses .. chin-chin.
I’ve not mentioned the overwhelming culinary options on board Ventura but will endeavour to give you a flavour (pun intended!) of what was on offer. We were designated a dining room: The Saffron Restaurant, for dinner each night at the early sitting of 6.30pm and discovered this entailed sitting down to eat with 6 complete strangers - apparently it’s part of the “cruise experience”. When Bob found out what the scoop was, he was heard to say… “ I’ve been talking to strangers all bloody year I don’t want to have do that on holiday as well!” ... fair enough. So we marched over to the - very pleasant and endlessly patient - Maitre’d and requested a table for 2. After a little negotiation (we played the Honeymoon card) we were reassigned to a small table in The Bay tree Restaurant at the back of the ship on the deck 7. Phew.
We loved our little corner of the restaurant. We were sat right at the back near the deep-set bow windows and took it in turns to look out at the twinkling lights of passing Islands or into the restaurant itself. People watching is always fascinating of course. Though we had our own little table, we were sat very close to a lovely Caribbean couple who now live in London. They more often than not ate elsewhere but always showed up on the formal nights dressed beautifully. Along from them was a larger round table with 4 couples plonked together in a random cruise style ... 2 of them jumped table the very first night. Oh the intrigue! Of the remaining six, two were widowed sisters from the Wirral and one of them was VERY deaf ... I SAID DEAF! Bless her but she had no idea just how LOUD she was SHOUTING ... though fairly annoying at times - it was hard to hear ourselves think - after a while it was just funny ... she was also highly opinionated which made for some fabulously raised eyebrows around the listening catchment area ... most of the restaurant it seemed.
A snippet of Montego Bay from Christine Collister on Vimeo.
Our next port of call - on Boxing Day - was Montego Bay, Jamaica. Now Bob’s been to Jamaica many times: BC (before Christine) and has lots of fabulous family memories from those visits so we didn’t have any urgency to get off and explore. The Ship was docked a fair way out of town and there was nothing of note at the port side (we checked it out ... there really was nothing) so we continued to unwind onboard and make the most of a relatively empty vessel. It was heavenly warm this day and whileing away several hours on the top deck, basking in the delicious warm sunshine, reading books and playing cards was all we wanted to do - so that's what we did - simples. Setting sail that evening was wonderful ... the sky a bright, deep gold and black canvas.
The following day we were to anchor off the shores of Gran Cayman and be shuttled to the shore by tender, however ... the weather had changed a fair bit over night and the sea was simply too choppy for the little sea craft ready to tender us across to the Island and so we had to turn around and go slooow towards Cozumel Mexico and my birthday!
Yes dear reader it was my 49th birthday on December 28th 2010 and I found myself alongside Cozumel Island. We were anchored alongside several other large cruise ships from various countries all of us marvelling at the bright sparkling turquoise waters and sharing an intermittent Mexican sun. I went ashore alone ... as is my want sometimes and let Bob gorge on a glut of sky sports football - bless him! Actually he said he had a headache but I knew what was really going on.
The little port-side retail therapy village was actually very pleasant and I had a lovely time sauntering around soaking up the colourful atmosphere. I bumped into 2 other passengers we’d talked to at gatwick when we thought we might be stranded ... Mike and Sven ... who insisted on buying me a birthday drink - I had a Mexican beer, they had margaritas. We shared a platter of nibbles and laughed raucously at our collective flamboyant natures. Twas fun. They wanted more margaritas than this 49 year old can even contemplate, so I left them to their 3rd (!) and I wended my way back to my footie-mad husband. When I got back to our little cabin, a card and a plate of chocolates awaited me... from the Captain no less! Ooer missus ...
Birthday meandering in Cozumel - Mexico from Christine Collister on Vimeo.
That evening instead of dining at Bay Tree we booked ourselves into The White Room - a Marco Pierre White restaurant no less. Ooh la-la ... tres posh nosh. This up-market eatery cost an extra £20 each (plus drinks) and was actually worth it. I’m sure it would have cost an arm and a leg at a similar land-locked extablishment. When they found out it was my birthday (I told them) they brought me a large peice of chocolate cake ... unfortunately we’d already ordered our sweet and so the cake went uneaten ... it lay in our fridge a few days, before being unceremoniously binned. What a waste ...It took 2 days to get to our next port ... the marvelous, the wonderful, the unforgettable ... New Orleans! We sailed up the majestic Mississippi river in the dark, on December 29th and docked early morning on the 30th. It took till 4pm before we cleared immigration and customs - argh! The whole thing was a mess. We were given numbers and called in groups and stood in line and bla, bla, bla ... in the end the authorities ran out of time and staff, so that when we went through to get our passports stamped, they’d dispensed with finger prints and photos, making a mockery of the entire sorry process! Hey ho. We wandered into the French Quarter and forgot about the stupid charade and soaked up the fog and steam of this marvelous city. Deep breaths everyone and - ahh.
We had the luxury of several days here and wandered back that first evening when our land legs refused to carry us any further. We were aboard by 7pm and in bed by 10pm - poor ickle pooped-out cruisers that we were. Bright and early next day we were up and off as soon as could be. This was also a turn around day for some of our fellow passengers. 300 new sailing compatriots boarded the ship replacing 400 out going holiday sailors. It was funny to see gaggles of newbies looking lost and confused at every deck level. Smugness is not a state I'm that familiar with - I'm unsure about most things a lot of the time - but the taste was sweet the few moments it lasted.
Bob and I have both been to New Orleans many times before but that didn’t detract from the palpable excitement of this delightful place.We’ve always been there in spring or summer when the climate can be stiflingly hot and muggy and the resultant street smells overwhelming to say the least. So being here in the middle of winter was a treat. It was grey and overcast but strangely warm.
We both love Cafe Du Monde which is situated slap bang in the middle of the French Quarter. We made our way through the crowded streets for their famous cafe au lait and beignets - a deep-fried doughnut mixture that comes in curled up squares and covered in icing sugar ... delicious! By the time we got to the cafe there was a huge line of people patiently waiting their turn to squeeze into the place. Not wanting to be static for too long, we walked on whistfully and passed them all and with it, the chance to savour the sweet, crispy delights of a well cooked batter mix. However ... Bob noticed a few people exiting the small side room onto the street several feet away from the main entrance, leaving the door wide open and a table in the corner empty! Before I could act on my embarrassment, he was in like flinn and there we were sitting inside and almost instantly being served by a sweet older Korean woman who just lurved our accent. When in doubt? Go with the flow I say.
New Orleans I from Christine Collister on Vimeo.
We spent the next few hours walking the beignets off and luxuriating in the wonderful street entertainment, churches, shops and bars. It was a fabulous way to end the year.New Orleans take II from Christine Collister on Vimeo.
We decided to stay on board for the evening festivities as we didn’t relish the thought of being squashed in the revelling, no doubt, drunken, heaving, crowds ... even on the delightful and inspiring streets of New Orleans. Perhaps it’s simply an age thing. We had fun on board, dressing up for the occasion. I even wore a white feather boa, bought from the French Quarter Market that day - hurrah. Somehow, despite our wanting to see the fireworks over the Mississippi river at midnight, we fell asleep before the bewitching hour and missed the whole thing. C’est la vie. Happy new year everyone!
This is as good a lace as any to end this episode. Thanks as ever for stopping by to peruse my cruise notes ... there are possibly 2 more instalments yet - hang on in there!
I hope to see you here again in a couple of weeks, by which time I'll be ensconced once more in the heart of Santa Monica, Los Angeles - never a dull moment n'est pas?
Take care till then.
Much love
Christine XX ;-)
