New York to Miami - Port Calls and Tips aboard Oceania Insignia

November 1st and 2nd - St Georges, Bermuda

We literally entered Bermuda with a "Bang" as a blunderbuss toting local let go with a 1-gun salute as we passed by this fort on our starboard side.  Yeow - with all the things going on these days, hearing a loud bang when you aren't expecting it is scary -- so be warned when you're entering the harbor...

Fort "Bang"

Right after getting our breath back, we looked forward and saw this very narrow passage dead ahead -- fine - so first the natives are shooting at us and then the local pilot's going to put us on the rocks...  Actually looking at the narrow passage reminded us a little of transiting the Bay of Kotor enroute to anchoring off of Kotor town in Montenegro.  Fortunately, its all a matter of perspective -- once we brought the mirrors in port and starboard, we hardly lost any paint...

Our big day in Bermuda was centered on playing golf at Port Royal Golf Course.  The very cool part about this was that we got to see much of this very beautiful country along the way.

Great Day of Golf at Port Royal

St Georges is in the top right - the eye of the fish hook and Port Royal is all the way down on the bottom right where the hook curves up to the tip.  Transportation wise, there were plenty of cabs available pierside - all cabs run strictly by meter - no negotiating or potential for monkey business - very civil actually.  The ride which took us down the east coast of the island was very picturesque, took about 45 minutes and cost us $55 US Dollars (dollars are readily accepted).  After a lovely round of golf and with sage advice from the course starter, we headed back to the ship by local bus heading first to the largest town in Bermuda - Hamilton - where we changed buses to head up the west side of the island this time and back to Insignia.  The bus ride cost us about $10 total.  One of our strongest impressions of Bermuda was how unfailingly polite they are to each other and to visitors - as each person got on or off the bus, they exchanged pleasantries with the drivers.

On the flip side, the only bus drivers that drive faster than our bus driver from Hamilton to St. Georges are the bus drivers that take you from the port in Sorrento up the hill to the main piazza -- these guys seem to defy the laws of physics that say you can't lean something as heavy as a bus so far over without tipping all the way over.

Very picturesque course

We overnighted in Bermuda and awoke to another picture postcard day with temperatures in the low 80's and a very nice cooling breeze.  We stayed aboard and on departing St Georges, kept a weather eye on the fort to our port to make sure we didn't get another surprise 1-gun salute from our piratical friend.  Off to the south we sail for Saint Barthelemy (St Barts) three days away.




November 5th - Gustavia, St Barts

Well, when you're cruising to smaller venues, the day of the week has a very important influence on what you might consider doing.  Arriving on a Sunday, we didn't even think about things perhaps being closed up, right?  I mean small island, lots of one day visitors, 60 days after Hurricane Irma hit the island... We got off the tender (you tender in here) expecting to do some wine and cheese shopping in a French influenced setting and found that just about everything was closed.  But as this sign indicates, things are back to semi-normalcy post storm - just don't come looking for lunch on a Sunday in Gustavia.

So added a tickler to self when looking at port calls...  Look at the day of the week and then do some digging into the local culture to see if your port visit might be impacted.  So with no shopping available, we took a nice 2 hour walk around town and the hills surrounding Gustavia to get a view of things.  One thing for sure, St Barts is a more prosperous island than most of her neighbors and this shows in the streets and buildings around the port.

Streets of San Francisco - really steep but no cable cars

When walking around Gustavia, we could see evidence of Irma damage, toppled walls, broken trees, and a statue laying on its back but by and large it was clear that Gustavia - located on the west side of the island fared far better than the east side of the island where entire resorts will be closed until winter 2018.  Nature is so capricious - from Gustavia, you could look north across the channel and see St Martin (Maarten) just a few short miles away and realize that St Martin took a hugely damaging hit from Irma.  With our port call in St Barts, the tempo of our cruise aboard Insignia was hitting high gear, over the next three days we were visiting Antigua, St Lucia, and Grenada as we made our way to the south.

November 6th - St John's Antigua

Following on our theme of Hurricane Irma is the tale of two islands in this tiny country - Antigua which was ready to receive us and spirit us away on a beautiful catamaran - Mystic II - for a day long tour of Antigua's beautiful western coastline and whose commercial harbor was receiving containers and cargo as if nothing had happened - and her sister island of Barbuda which when we visited was still completely evacuated as a result of damage received by Irma's Category 5 fury (185mph winds).

Our cruise aboard Mystic II was advertised as a Lobster and Champagne cruise - and they delivered on this promise.  This was our first Oceania shore excursion and we were very happy with the value and experience delivered.  What would be interesting to find out though would be if the folks on our catamaran from other cruise lines (two other ships were in town) were paying the same or different prices for the same excursion.  Be that as it may, the view of the coast line was beautiful, the grilled lobster lunch was quite good and the booze which was included in our excursion price, never stopped.  All in all we had so much fun that we're looking for similar excursions for our upcoming cruise on Oceania Marina.

The Booze Pirates - Arrgghh

November 7th - Castries, St Lucia

We have visited St Lucia several times and very much like the island's vibe.  Since we've pretty much seen everything on our various visits, we decided to stick around the port town area and do some shopping at the local farmers market and the adjacent supermarket -- our stash of hot sauce and cabin wine had been depleted by this time so it was time to stock up.  Dodging intermittent rain showers under a couple of small umbrellas we'd packed, we shopped for local artisan crafts at the farmers market and hot sauce at the supermarket - the prices for everything were very reasonable which is something we've found to be true in St Lucia.  We loved the juxtaposition of day time and night time shots of Castries - the cars moving through the hills at night looked like fire flies floating down the hill.

November 8th - St Georges, Grenada

Our arrival aboard Insignia marked my first visit to Grenada - I didn't know what to expect but very much looked forward to visiting the town and surrounding environment.  First thing I noticed is how tall the locals are - these guys must have been at least 9 feet tall - don't know if they'd be able to make it down the Sendall Tunnel without bending over...

All kidding aside, we first walked north along the docks looking at the shops and old businesses (Abattoir - A butcher shop) that used to be the life blood of daily shopping before being replaced by supermarkets.  We turned around at the bus terminal and walked several hundred yards south where we could see the Sendall Tunnel to our left and stairs leading to Ft George on our right.  Since it looked like Ft George would have a great view, we headed up the stairs.  When we reached the top, we met a very nice young lady who volunteered to give us a guided tour of the fort and its history.   As expected, the view from the top was spectacular.  Historically speaking, Ft George is where Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was murdered in 1983, providing an excuse for the US to invade Grenada six days later.

When we asked our guide where we should eat lunch, she brought us over to the Fort's inner harbor view (above) and told us how to walk down the hill to reach BB's Softback Crab - what a great recommendation!  The softback crab dish was so tasty and our table was right on the water. Great food, great view, and even better company... From BB's we took the Sendall Tunnel back to the port and Insignia.

We could definitely envision a longer stay in Grenada the next time - really enjoyed our time there.

November 10th - Aruba

Aruba's another island we've explored end to end several times so we chose to stick close to town and do a little shopping.  The port area has lots of shopping, a very nice mall, several supermarkets, and of course, a place to have a beer on the water.

November 11th - Santa Marta, Colombia

Our visit to Santa Marta was our second to Colombia -- our first visit to Cartagena had been so wonderful, we were ready to be "wowed" by Santa Marta, Colombia's oldest city.  Well, sometimes things don't turn out as you'd planned.

As is our preference, when we are visiting a port for the first time, we like to walk the port and surrounding neighborhoods to get a feel for the people, their culture, and their lifestyle.  So after getting off the ship, we headed right (south) along the sidewalk adjacent to the beach.  If we visited St Barts on the wrong day (Sunday) we were visiting Santa Marta on the right day (Saturday) the seaside was busy and lots of hustle and bustle on the streets.  The beach was nothing to write home about - lots of locals were in the water and enjoying themselves but after seeing the beautiful beaches in Aruba, Antigua, St Lucia, and Grenada, these beaches were "meh".  So no beach for us...  What about shopping?

The streets and stores were packed with vendors and customers along Carrera 5.  We went into a supermarket which I would say was similar to a Walmart - grocery, home goods, and clothing.  Unlike our visit to Cartagena where we fearlessly trekked throughout the old town, for some reason, our guard was definitely up when walking through the streets.  As it would turn out, perhaps we had that "itchy" feeling for a reason...  While we were pricing wine and cheese in the supermarket, three young people (20's) approached us and asked where we were from, offering to exchange dollars for the local currency.  Mind you, we are in a large, well lighted, and busy store...  Anyway, there is no doubt that the two guys and a girl were pick pockets - trying to get us to pull out money so they could distract us long enough to get some.  We backed right away without letting them within touching distance and put a few aisles between us immediately.  After dealing with that (and no, we aren't paranoid, we were street smartened about pick pocket scams when we lived in Naples Italy so we know when things aren't right) we decided to head generally back to the ship.  Along the way we saw some very nice historical buildings, one of which had a very long line of locals waiting to get in.  Just as we were getting ready to figure out what the buzz was, an altercation broke out between about 6-10 men in the park across from this building - with all the shouting, a crowd quickly gathered to see why everyone was so angry.  That was our cue to go the other way and head back to the ship without delay.  Did anything come of it?  Most likely not but coming on the heels of a pickpocket experience, we were getting the distinct impression that Santa Marta was not our kind of place.

So going ashore with high hopes, we returned chastened by our experience.  Perhaps this was the port where we should have taken an excursion away from the port and been wowed by the natural wonders of Colombia - live and learn is a great motto indeed...

So, with our departure from Santa Marta, we headed almost due north bound for Miami.

On our trip back, I decided to jot down a few notes and tips we'd gathered from our experience aboard Insignia which we'll share now...

Impressions and Tips 

Casino - First up is an observation about a place we never frequent but always end up passing through whenever we're on a cruise ship -- the Casino.  So why would non-gamblers care?  Because the casino is non-smoking!  You can walk through it without getting slimed which in our memory was a first - love it...

Shipboard Service - Regardless of where we were - on the pool deck, doing Happy Hour, or eating in any of the restaurants, the service was always, "High Touch" meaning that it was impeccable - the staff was there on a moment's notice - more often than not before you'd even asked because they are paying attention and seeing what needs to be done.

Properly Hydrated Workouts - In both the gym and beside the walking/running track are coolers of water bottles or sports drinks to ensure you stay hydrated - all completely free.

Learn about streaming - Something to consider when you are aboard ships is that you may miss important sports or live TV events - all depends on their on-board programming.  Aboard Insignia we didn't get ESPN so were going to miss a very exciting World Series unless we streamed in onto one of our digital devices.  Taking advantage of our free wi-fi package, we were able to see all the games live - but if you're planning a cruise during Superbowl, Olympics, World Series, World Cup, try to find out if on-board programming includes the right channels.  If not, you will usually be able to find a website that is streaming the event live on the internet.

Wi-Fi Calling - This one's on a similar line to the last tip - the internet, if you have it available, can keep you connected with your phone.  In our case, we have AT&T on our iPhones.  Our iPhones allow you to put them in "Airplane Mode" so you don't get hit with International cell roaming charges -- but while you are in Airplane mode, you can turn wi-fi on and assuming you have an internet connection, will allow you to make and receive phone calls if you enable "Wi-Fi" calling in General - Settings - Cellular - AT&T - Wi-Fi Calling "On".  This actually worked quite well and we were able to keep in touch with folks ashore to resolve a couple of thorny issues.

Plugs in your Cabin - As advertised, we had two US electrical plug outlets in our cabin; there were also two European electrical plug outlets - which were unusable for us because we hadn't brought European plug adaptors.  We'll add these for every cruise henceforth.  Generally, our issue is the amount of plug-ins needed for our devices (yes, I know, we're on vacation and supposedly digitally detoxing) but there you are - if there's a connection available, we're on-line.  Anyway, all of our digital devices are dual voltage so no transformer is required so by carrying a couple of European plug adaptors, we will double the amount of plugs available to keep things charged up.

Water and Coffee - We are used to seeing bottles of water in our cruise cabins with "dust" on them because like us, no on wants to pay $4 for a bottle of water.  But on Oceania, we had three tall bottles of water on our ice tray each time our cabin attendant refreshed our room - free of charge...

While we're on the subject of water, we actually had several choices of bubbly water (with gas) with each meal - Pellegrino, Perrier, or a third more generic sparkling water.  Having three different choices was really nice - and once again, included free of charge.

If you're a big coffee fan, you'll also appreciate that Oceania's Barrista staffed Cafe uses Illy equipment to crank out perfect Cafe Latte's and Macchiato's - once again included and something we looked forward to getting each morning and afternoon.

Bottom Line - At some point you've got to quit writing and say what you really think.  I would say at this point - 15 years since my first cruise - I am a middling experienced cruiser.  Valerie's been cruising 30 plus years and was an officer on a cruise ship for 3 years.  We've been on bigger ships and smaller ships, mass market cruise lines and those purporting to be more exclusive - we haven't been everywhere on everything - yet - but our experience aboard Oceania Insignia was the best we've had to date.  Dollar for dollar we got exceptional value for our money.

Coral Princess - April 5-15 - Tips, Tipping, Specialty Dining and More

When we came back from lunch, our key wouldn’t work so we reported this to our cabin attendant who said he would report it to his supervisor.  Then off we went for an afternoon movie (Mocking Jay Part 2) in the Universe Lounge which is a nice venue for movie viewing.  After the movie and a glass of wine, we headed back to our cabin only to find we still couldn’t get into our room…  Grrrr - 4 hours later and nothing had been done.  So down to Passenger Services who created new key cards for us and called the Housekeeping Supervisor for Caribe Deck.  He met me at our door and had the open in one minute flat.  Then he recoded the lock and replaced the battery which was on its last legs.  All done, but ultimately, this problem should have been taken care of by our cabin attendant by following up with his supervisor to make sure it got fixed.  Just reporting things “up the chain” is not the same thing as getting it done.  

When we did manage to get into our room yesterday afternoon, there was a note from Room Service saying they’d been unable to deliver something to our room.  So we called down and 5 minutes later, chocolate covered strawberries arrived for our afternoon snack.   Hmmm, does Valerie have a secret admirer?  Well, maybe he’s still a secret since the goodies came from our Head Chef as his was of saying thanks for the feedback - good and needs improvement - we’d given to two of his assistant chefs at dinner the previous night.  It is pretty clear to us that Princess really and truly cares about the dining experience of their customers since they are taking feedback face to face rather than on comment cards after the fact.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Which brings us to the subject of Tips and Tipping…

We are paying $13.95 per day per person for our suggested gratuities which we stick with on all of our cruises.  We know the hours that our wait and cabin staff put in and including gratuities on our room bill is a way of recognizing these hours.  We could choose to authorize less than $13.95 x 2 per day but we have never chosen this path.  Rather, using the suggested gratuity as a baseline, we then reward additionally for services “Above and Beyond”.  

On this cruise, our cabin has been properly cleaned each day - almost always when we are away from our cabin - he only missed one day when I guess he was behind.  Clearly he didn’t get our door dealt with, and on a night to night basis, we kept waiting for something special - towel animals or something - to appear on our bed when we returned from dinner.  So did we feel special, “No” therefore no need to provide an additional tip.

On the other hand, our dining experience each evening in the Main Dining Room has been over the top, from the head waiter to our individual wait staff, we have felt special every time we walked in the door.  Omar has our special balloon wine glasses for the more expensive wine we’ve had with dinner each night - waiting at our places each evening along with our wine request “Simi Landslide Cabernet 2012” waiting for our signature.  Valerie gets her two pats of butter and Veronica brings over a water flask of fizzy water for our table.  In addition to the amazing service Omar and Veronika as our waiter and assistant waiter have provided, we were fortunate to have Vincent for one dinner when it was “Any Time” vice our regular fixed time, and getting to know Vangie (Evangelina) who was the waiter for the large party beside us — this lady has enough energy and personality for 10 people - and made us feel special even though she never actually waited on us.

At dinner tonight, we will give Omar and Veronika an envelope with “Above and Beyond” inside as our way of rewarding them for making our dining experience so wonderful each evening (7 of our 10 nights aboard).  It really was good…

Just before dinner last night, we attended the Captain’s Circle Party in the Universe Lounge.  The line to get in was really long, probably more than 100’ long, but once the doors opened, the line moved very smoothly, and there we plenty of seats when it was our turn.  Waiters circled with trays of complimentary drinks - mostly punch type drinks - but as we quickly found, we could ask for red wine which we did.  There were also trays with small tart/quiche appetizers for our snacking pleasure.  The Captain got up and spoke for several minutes, thanking his loyal quests for the continued growth of Princess and sharing news about upcoming launches of new Princess vessels.  All in all it was a very nice party and the three most traveled couples each received gift bags and a bottle of champagne.  The most traveled couple has more than 400 cruising days on Princess thus far - that’s a bunch…

Captains Circle Party

For our next to last day, we tried the other specialty restaurant onboard Coral Princess, the Bayou Cafe, for dinner.  The ambience was nice - lighting was lower than in Sabatini’s - and there was a piano player playing in the background (he said he plays three nights during the cruise - if you are eating in Bayou, find out about the entertainer’s schedule and schedule your dinner accordingly.

Valerie started with Escargot which she sucked down with great relish, I had grilled sausage with cheese grits - yummm…  Then we skipped over the soup and got right to the beef - two perfectly cooked Porterhouse steaks accompanied by succotash, dirty rice, and two kinds of potatoes.  The steaks were the best we’ve had on board.  The dessert that followed - another one of the Chocolate Journey creations was wonderful and overall, our evening in Bayou far surpassed our evening in Sabatini’s.

Porterhouse Steak

Chocolate Yummy...

Today - our last sea day we tried Bayou Cafe for their Pub Lunch - Fish and Chips, Chicken Curry and a couple of other selections.  We had high hopes after our wonderful dinner the previous evening in the very same venue - only to have those hopes dashed when the food arrived - so after a few bites we grabbed our beers and headed down to the main dining room for yet another wonderful meal - stuffed calamari ring appetizer, fusilli with bay shrimp and tarragon cream sauce, followed by Paella for two - which was as good as we get at the Mangrove Cafe back in Naples.  I should follow with an additional word about our desserts each day - ice cream, yogurt, and sorbets are all done freshly each day, and you really can tell the difference between “made” and “manufactured” when it comes to these delights…

To close out this note, an update on our earlier rescue…  Turns out there were 7 people aboard the boat - and based on the picture, it had some kind of rudimentary engine which had given up the ghost by the time we showed up on the scene.  Still don’t know where they were from (Cuba or Haiti) but they were clearly in distress sailing with a make shift sail and the coast of Cuba about 10 miles behind them.  They have received food, water, and medical attention and will be handed over to immigration for screening when we arrive in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow.

Coral Princess - 5-15 April 2016 - Limón Costa Rica, “Italian Night” in the Main Dining Room, and Man, these people work some hours

Our approach to  Limón was a bit rough and noisy - yes, it was lumpy after all the wind blowing the past two days - but we heard a few new sounds we hadn’t heard before.  Its funny that once you settle into a rhythm, anything out of the ordinary seems different and mildly threatening.  Our dock was essentially front and center in downtown Limon - a relatively small city spread equally along the shore and up the hills around us.  Very tropical and green - the air temperature absolutely perfect and without the humidity you normally associate with such tropical greenery.  Limon is 100 miles east of San Jose (the capitol), and 1.5 driving hours north of the border with Panama.  It is also the main port for fruit shipments (Banana, Pineapple, Cantaloupe) to the USA, Germany, Holland, and China. We saw ships from both Dole and Del Monte being loaded in an interesting ballet between ship, crane, container, and truck…

As we typically do — we read through all of the cruise line provided excursions and then proceeded to do our own by walking out of the port, talking with a couple of local tour operators, and deciding whose offer we liked best and looked the most trustworthy.  We went with Mr. Doctor, who introduced us in turn to our taxi driver and tour guide Danilo (Danilo Orlando Hall - 00506 - 85339489) who would drive, narrate, teach, and spot wildlife for us the next 6 hours.  The tour we chose was the “Scenic Drive”, “Banana Plantation”, “Canal Cruise”, and Lunch for $60 for each of us.  We much prefer private as opposed to bus tours - they give us a better chance to learn more about our guide and how people live where we are visiting.  Additionally, we probably saved about 40% and had a lot more flexibility with what we saw and how long we spent seeing it.

So off we went in Danny’s cab to see some of the coast, foliage, flowers, and animals.  Interesting that we felt a different vibe in Limon immediately - kind of a Jamaican - Latin fusion - honestly, we really liked it.  Turns out that a large number of Jamaicans were brought to Limon years ago to work and stayed to make a new life in Central America.  As noted, we liked the result…

To SW Florida residents, we felt right at home with the plants, flowers, and birds we saw along the way - except everything here seems to have grown bigger with stronger sunlight (closer to the equator) and no occasional winter cold snaps.  Then there was the addition of animals we don’t see at home except in a zoo — Howler Monkeys 50-75’ above us in large trees moving slowly from branch to branch as they fed on berries or leaves.  Continuing on the road to the banana plantation, we saw several schools and a lot of neighborhoods with small homes along the way.  None of the homes were grand or grandiose, clearly homes where working people live and raise families, many with small garden or farm plots alongside to supplement table fare and income.  Turns out that 4/11 is a national holiday — commemorating the day that a Costa Rican hero halted the advance of troops from the USA who had already conquered Honduras and Nicaragua to the north.  So traffic was perhaps lighter, the schools empty, and folks were taking some time off visiting neighbors. Oh, and for people who’d paid for a tour of the banana plantation - bummer…

Along the way to the banana plantation, we could clearly see that road conditions leave a bit to be desired — the huge amount of truck traffic loading and distributing fruit to the shipping port exceeds the government’s ability or perhaps desire to repair and upgrade the roadways to meet current demand.  Not the worst roads we’ve seen - Cambodia has that honor - but clearly in need of improvement.

We spent about ten minutes with Danny as he explained how bananas grow, the fruit is tended, and ultimately harvested.  The workers who care for and harvest the fruit have a pretty tough job and based on what Danny said, are not well paid for their labor.

Danny explaining how things work on the plantation

River of "No Return"

From the plantation, we headed to the Tortuguero canal cruise - a one hour small boat ride to see wildlife (Monkeys, Iguanas, Eagles, Caiman, Herons, and Egrets) in the waters or in trees along the canal.  If anything, it reminded me of childhood memories of the Jungle Boat ride at Disneyland - you leave civilization and head into the jungle in a small boat on a brown waterway no more than 75 yards wide as your guide points out animals along the way.  The canal trip was included in our $60 fee and was well worth the time invested.

Next, we spent about 15 minutes on a hilltop watching trucks and ships load and unload fruit containers - empty and full.  A truck pulls up with a full container - this is picked up and loaded onto the ship; the ship’s crane then brings out an empty container which is then put on the truck that takes it back to the container yard for reloading.  Apparently it takes about 36 port hours to unload the empties and reload the ships - Dole has two ships arrive and depart each week like clockwork - Del Monte was docked just forward of Dole.  Interestingly enough, we have seen the other end of the Dole pipeline in San Diego - having watched the full container ships arrive in San Diego and be off-loaded within that same 36 hour window.  Since Costa Rica’s growing season is year round, the pipeline is always moving product from plantation to market.

San Diego end of Dole fruit pipeline - this fruit comes from Pacific coast sources

Little did we know in June 2010 we'd be seeing the other end of this pipeline 6 years later...

San Diego Dole Terminal

Loading and Unloading operations in Limon - heading to Florida or Europe

Now for lunch - on a hilltop above town from which we could see our ship with NCL Pearl alongside.  We ordered a mushroom risotto, a half chicken cooked local style (grilled and then braised in a yummy coconut based sauce) with rice, beans, and a salad - accompanied by local beer and a pretty decent glass of red wine.  The restaurant - Red Snapper - was really good - honestly this is a “Must Visit” recommendation - not dirt cheap but very reasonable.  Three people (we treated Danny to lunch), four beers, one glass of wine and three entrees for $67 US (they take credit cards).  The food quality was excellent - risotto was the best we’ve had outside of Italy and we’ve never had chicken prepared like this anywhere else in the Caribbean.  Trip Advisor will be getting a review real soon….

After lunch we asked Danny to drop us off at a supermarket so we could shop for our traditional hot sauce purchase (every port in the Caribbean - we are addicted to the taste and variety offered in each country - guess this would be “Feeling the (real) Burn” LOL.  We were really happy we bought our hot sauce in the supermarket - it was slightly less than $1 US per bottle — at the port tourist shopping facility, it was $3-4 US per bottle for the exact same bottle - score!!!

Saying our goodbyes to Danny we promised sending our friends and clients his way when they visit Limon - he is a great ambassador for his city and country, educated and educating…  The 6 or so hours we spent with him taught us a lot and left us wanting to come back with more time to see and experience more of Costa Rica.

Panoramic view of Limon from Red Snapper Restaurant

Eating lunch at Red Snapper

This was truly good!!

Restaurant Red Snapper - great view, great food

Pulling away from the dock to the soft colors of sunset, we waved goodbye to Costa Rica and headed back into the Caribbean while getting ready for “Italian Night” in the Main Dining Room - what a treat we were in store for…

There are theme cuisine nights in the dining room every night - but why is it the food always tastes better on Italian night?  As these pictures show, the food looks great and tasted equally good.  A highlight was Penne Arabiata personally prepared by our head waiter, Eugenio.

As we spend time with our waiter Omar and his lovely assistant waiter Veronika, we are learning more of their life and work aboard the ship.  It has always been apparent that our waiters and cabin attendants work very hard on our cruises - honestly, we had no idea.  By comparison, when I used to do labor estimates for proposals on our software or lab work, we used 1960 labor hours to represent one labor year (52 weeks, two weeks of vacation, one week of sick leave, working 40 hours/day).  Waiter contracts are typically for 9.5 months of work -- no scheduled days off and up to 13 hours per day - 91 hours per week for 38 weeks - 3458 labor hours.  There is a little bit of time shifting and perhaps some swap arounds but I doubt they work less than 80 hours per week during their contract.  At the end of each contract, they get 2.5 months off - this is a nice chunk of time - but they've already worked almost two years worth of hours to get it.  I remember working like this when I was young and wearing a uniform - ambition, mission focus, and desire to get ahead give us an energy we'd be hard pressed to find in our later years.  My hats off to our staff, they're bright, attentive, and cheery each night; making our cruise so very special.

Veal - Val loved it...

Shrimp and Scallops Gratinata

And a little Tiramisu

Vangie, Omar, and Veronika in Gondolier garb