Barbados

Thursday, February 23, 2023

It’s 2-23-2023! So many twos and threes!

Today we were in Barbados. We got to sleep in today, because our excursion wasn’t until 11am. We had to get up in time for breakfast before 9, because we were going to miss lunch (from 11-2). It’s all about planning for the eating! We left the ship about 10am, intending to have some time to look around the cruise port. As we exited, we saw two people getting on a shuttle bus at the end of the boat (maybe 200 feet away). I had forgotten that it said there was a shuttle to the cruise port. We started walking toward where that bus had departed from, then stopped. Why? Why was the shuttle loading at a random point down the dock when there was a canopy and a few chairs right by the gangway? We stood there. We were the only people in sight. Every time we’ve left the past few days, there have been six (really, six) uniformed officers wishing us a nice day. Today? No one. A few more people came out and walked our way. I asked them if they knew where the shuttle loaded. They didn’t know there was a shuttle (it was kinda hidden in the small print about excursions today). I started walking back to the gangway and a crew member came out. I hurried over.

Me: “Where does the shuttle stop?”

Him: “No.”

Me: “I mean where do we get on the shuttle? Where does it stop?”

Him: “We have no control over the local shuttles.”

Me: “No, not when. I can wait. I just need to know where the shuttle stops so I can wait there.”

Him: “We can’t.”

Meanwhile, a bus with a big sign that says Viking cruise port shuttle in the window drives by. Apparently, it is going to the end of the dock to turn around.

Me: “That bus (pointing). Where is it going to stop?”

Him: “It is a shuttle.”

Me: “Yes. I want to ride it. Where do I go?”

Him: “At the end of the pier.”

Me: “I should walk to the end of the pier?”

Him: “No, it is a shuttle.”

Me: “Does it stop here?”

By this time, the bus is stopping nearly in front of us. I start walking away.

Him: “Ma’am, the bus stops here.”

WHY?!?!? His English was very heavily accented, but seriously! We had six people wish us a good day, but on the day there is a shuttle bus because our boat is parked so far away, we get a guy who wants to do Who’s On First?

We got on the bus. All the people who had accumulated got on the bus. Another empty shuttle passed us, going to the end to turn around. Another empty bus passed us, going to the end to turn around. There were three buses, but we had to wait until every seat on our bus was full before we could leave. We sat for 20 minutes. I was soooooo glad we had decided to go early, because we ended up on time. Keith suggested instead of asking where the bus was going to be, I should have asked IF it actually ever went.

Our tour was very interesting. We rode all over the island. This island is smaller than Dominica, but the population is over four times greater. It is a tremendously wealthy country compared to Antigua or Dominica. We stopped in front a palace of a building with 8 condos inside. Current season a condo rents for $25,000/night. PER NIGHT! Next door was a SWANKY hotel (Tiger Woods got married on their golf course) (One Sandy Lane. Look it up, Oof). So expensive. Our guide said rooms start at $2000/night, with a minimum stay of two weeks. Rhianna is from here and her house is down the street from one of Oprah’s houses and Simon Cowell. We are a long way from yesterday. I took a picture of a new complex, with 4-5 bedroom condos and then got a shot of a traditional chattel house across the street.

Barbados accidently invented rum as a byproduct of sugar production. Barbados says you’re welcome. 😊 The island is coral limestone and is quite flat – very flat in comparison to the last two volcanic islands. We stopped at Farley Hill National Park. There was a sign that said this park was opened for all by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 15 February 1966. I like the Queen. The house was used in the 1957 movie Island in the Sun – but burned down in 1965 (some say it burned down because of equipment left behind after the filming. People say stupid things, don’t they?). We were invited to drink rum punch. I learned yesterday and passed. Keith enjoyed his again.

Our bus driver liked to honk the horn. He seemed to honk whenever he passed another tour bus – a happy greeting, perhaps? He honked sometimes when there were people gathered near the road – again, definitely like a greeting. Sometimes he just honked the horn while we were driving along in the countryside. He might be crazy. I tried to keep a good attitude, but it was jarring every time and not my favorite. Our guide just kept talking like nothing was happening.

We walked toward town just to look around, then shopped around the cruise port. I bought vanilla, because food souvenirs are best. We found the Harley Davidson store right away. My sister-in-law’s sister owns (or did own) the store. The shirts only came in SML, so they didn’t fit us. The worker lady was very tactful 😊

We ordered room service when we got back, because dinner wasn’t until 7:30 and we thought we would get cranky. Keith had jalapeno cheese fries and I had a salad. His needed fries on the side, because it was just one lump of mush. Tasty, but a weird consistency. My salad was delicious. I avoided the poached eggs that came on top, because breaking an egg into my salad seemed so weird. When the only thing left was the egg, I opened it up to eat it. It was cold. Not cooled, but cold. And like every egg I’ve had on board so far, the whites were runny. No thank you. (I’ve tried eggs every day. Not good luck. The other part is that I can’t add salt to them, because the salt grinders give you giant chunks of salt – like one chunk is enough for the whole breakfast. Our room service tray came with regular salt and pepper shakers, so I put some regular little salt in a Ziploc bag and I am taking it to breakfast tomorrow. I am also ordering my eggs over hard instead of over medium.) Keith also had a brownie, because Keith.

We watched the sail away, hoping to get a nice shot of Barbados. We had been behind boats and a container port at the dock. Since the island is so flat and the port is quite industrial, there really wasn’t much of a view. I did see from the sea what I had seen through the trees while on the bus – a giant playground of inflatables out in the sea. No one was playing on it. I wanted to play on it.

Dinner was in Manfredi’s Italian restaurant – one of the specialty restaurants. There are no upcharges for any of the restaurants on Viking (nice!), but getting reservations is a bit of a trick. When we tried, we could only get a shared table – which was fine with us. We arrived 15 minutes early and listened to a woman yell at the maître ‘d because she has two reservations for later in the cruise, but did not have one for tonight and wanted one. He said he could accommodate her at 8:00, but THAT was not good enough and she STORMED away. There is no reason for that kind of behavior. We said we were early and he said no problem, he would give us a table for two. We said we were happy to wait for the other couple, but he insisted on seating us early. The best part of the meal was the starter. Keith got the antipasto and watching him be so happy about all his cured meats was joyful for me!

We finished the night doing laundry. We checked it out yesterday and noticed that there was no vending for detergent. While we went down to guest services this morning to check out a credit card issue, we asked about detergent. Apparently, people were using the wrong detergents or the wrong amounts and bubbles were going everywhere, so they installed an automatic detergent machine. We hadn’t known such a thing existed, so didn’t know to look for it. There is just learning every day.