Day 1 Flying to Barbados on Saturday
We had been watching the weather for a few days and read with concern as the flights from Manchester were being cancelled the day before we were to travel because of the weather. We went to Gatwick early in the morning for our flight to Barbados and thankfully Check-in was quick, security was well security and then we settled for breakfast at Garfunkels. What happy people work there despite being so busy and just as surprise was how quickly our breakfasts came.
Our flight on a Thomson’s Dreamliner boarded on schedule. This was also a nice surprise as other charter flights were delayed from Gatwick.
It is an eight hour flight to Bridgetown and we made good use of the Dreamliner’s on demand movies and music as well as a roast chicken lunch and afternoon cream tea and Bridgetown was 33C on landing.
One of the benefits of cruising in the Caribbean is the immediate transfer to the ship direct from the aircraft. After checking in and getting our cruise cards we left the ship and went into the terminal to pick up some extras. Interestingly this is the bubblegum mouth wash we finished with
And then we sat and chatted with departing passengers over a few bottles of beer in the Coconuts Bar and Grill at the cruise terminal.
Dinner was in the Peninsular Restaurant and I had my fall back meal of a sirloin steak with extra mushrooms.
Over the evening meal after chatting to fellow passengers about the events of the last few days it became clearer what had been been happening to fellow passengers. P&O’s handling of so many delayed inbound and outbound flights effecting nearly 3,000 passengers had been exemplary
After nearly 20 hours of being awake it was time to retire to the cabin and we misses the ship sailing out of Barbados sometime after 23:00.
Day 2 At sea, transit to Bonaire
In the early morning we passed between St Vincent and The Grenadines just as the sun rose. The Caribbean was calm and already the temperature was rising.
After breakfast, we started our routine on a sea day, today it was two miles on the Promenade deck followed by my looking for dolphins and watching swarms of flying fish demonstrating just how far they could fly just above the waves.
At 11, I joined fellow members of several cruise Facebook groups for a meet-up in the Planet Bar. We were joined by the Captain and the Hotel Manager who were curious about strangers getting together on a cruise. There were members of the group who I’ve meet on previous cruises and by noon we had caught up on all the gossip.
Lunch was in one of the restaurants and was a salad followed by a mild chicken curry then ice cream, all accompanied by a glass of house red. The sun was on our balcony so the afternoon was spent in the shade at the stern of the ship with occasional forays into the pool there to cool down.
We had another fabulous Caribbean sunset off the coast of Venezuela.
The evening’s event was the Captain’s Gala Party, when the senior offices were all introduced. The atrium was buzzing with passengers in their formal evening clothes ready for the Marco Pierre White Gala meal (and enjoying a few free drinks served all around the atrium).
Dinner in the Oriental dining room was our first opportunity to meet the fellow members of our allocated table for second sitting.