Caribbean Cruise 2020 (page 5 of 10)

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Day 5 - St Maarten (Philipsburg port) - February 25, 2020

We had an excursion today so we met for breakfast at 8 am with similar food as yesterday, although we found the omelet bar and that was excellent! We got down to the pier and waited for our excursion to start. We first had a bus ride where our driver gave us information about the island; we stayed on the Dutch side but there is a French side to explore as well. We were dropped off at what used to be an estate and was donated. We rode a chair life to the very top of a mountain - it was very quiet and beautiful. At the very top, we had a 360 degree view of the island, its two ports, the airport, and what other islands were in the distance. We all shared a fruity drink at the very top and then went back down to catch the first Carnival bus. This was also the location of the "World's Steepest Zip line" - it looked fun but we had not signed up for that.

We got off the bus near the downtown area, and then caught a taxi to go to the airport beach. It was an adventurous ride as all his warning lights were lit up in the car, and he'd often stop for a moment to chat with other drivers. It took about 30 minute in a hot car but we got there without incident. We walked along a beautiful sandy beach where the waves were crashing in and where the airport was just on the other side of the road. We stopped at the one bar for a drink and after about 15 minutes, got a table with a view. Mike & Greta had some local "Dutch Blonde" beer that was quite tasty. We also shared a tasty plate of chips with guacamole.

We got to see a LOT of little planes fly in (including one DHL plane that truly "buzzed" the beach crowd (even the people in the bar are "wowed" him out loud). But even better were a few full-sized airliners flying in. It was a lot of fun to see them all shoot right over the people on the beach.

It started to rain around 2 pm and a lot of people started to clear out. We left a bit after 230 pm to make sure we'd get back to the boat by 430 pm. In decent traffic, it can be a 30 minute cab ride but there were SO many people there, we wanted to be safe. As we were walking back to where we'd been dropped off, a taxi-van called out to us & we boarded. We all had seats to sit in (there were already 5 or so people inside) and there was air conditioning. We got back rather quickly. $8 each way per person wasn't too bad. We got back to the boat and didn't have too long of a line to stand in to re-board.

After we got back, we sat out on the boat a bit, and then headed to our staterooms to rest up a bit before "Elegant Night". Between resting & getting ready, Greta and Mike got to watch a full episode of "Chopped" and Jim and Trina checked out the shops on the ship. We had our normal tablemates (with 4 empty chairs) and noticed the underdressed table next to us was empty tonight but a lot of the rest of dining room seemed fuller than it had been. The boat was doing some serious rocking so we all slid over a couple seats at the round table where it felt a bit better for some. We found that sitting with your back against the back of the chair was definitely the easiest way to eat.

There were multiple entrees for dinner. Mike had a shrimp cocktail for the appetizer, salmon for the main entree, and Creme Brule for dessert. Greta had both a shrimp cocktail and spinach salad for the appetizer, grilled sea bass for the main dish and a chocolate hazelnut cake for dessert. Jim had both the sea bass and lobster tail and Kraig noted he had TWO plates of lobster tail!

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