Home From the Cold - A Caribbean Cruise Pt. 2

by Kal-F

Actually, peoples, this isn't Day Two yet, it's a continuation of Day One. Sorry about that.


Barbados is actually the fourth stop on the Carnival's itinerary. The majority of passengers board at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and from there go to St. Thomas, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Dominica. After leaving Barbados, the ship spends an entire day at sea before entering the port in Aruba. From there it is another day at sea before entering Puerto Rican waters again.

Security on the ship seems to be tight. One enters and leaves the ship with a sign- in-sign-out card which brings up your picture and cabin number on a monitor. All packages are screened and one goes through a metal detector machine the same as at an airport.

Reboarding the ship the second time after depositing my car at home, I head straight for my cabin and decide I would have a quick snooze before dinner time. Barb is still somewhere exploring and I am able to catch a few winks before she appears with the news that she has run into Pam and Trevor, my sister and brother-in-law who have a cabin on the same deck but on the side of the ship opposite to us. She again brings up the topic of the local economy by stating that Pam was annoyed at Trevor's disinclination to hire a porter to carry her numerous bags.

This information is given in the spirit of self-vindication as in not only, "See, I wasn't the only one who wanted a porter" but also with the veiled suggestion: "Why are you guys so cheap?" The latter idea doesn't bother me as much as the awakening concern for the local Barbadian economy, so much so that I consider leaving the ship again and getting a porter to help me back onto the ship with my now empty backpack.

However, before I can voice this redemptive suggestion, Barb announces that she is off again, this time to the Purser's desk to report that the cabin safe is not functional. The worry about the local economy immediately subsides with her departure and I doze off into the comfort of the king size bed which is actually two double beds pushed together, probably with the thought that a couple not yet in their fifties would inhabit the room and regard the lack of distance between the beds as a significant asset. No longer an issue with the current inhabitants.

More tomorrow...