The Adventures of Podge & Tubbs

Breakfast this morning gave its mixed emotions. One of happiness and even smugness as we were starting our 2nd of 3 back-to-back cruises and so while most people were either leaving or preparing to leave, we were staying on. On the flip side however, we had to say farewell to some of the loveliest people we could have met 😭, including the lovely Lady Valerie: She was a lady but not a ‘Lady’ though she was in our mind 😋.

After our exchanges of emails etc and tearful goodbyes we went for a wonder around the ship which by now was slowly emptying of so many friends and waiting for so many new friends to board in the afternoon. As we often did, we went downstairs in the atrium for a coffee to people watch. On this however we heard a different sound: We heard the sound of a large group of children and looking up we saw what we believe was a group of local children on a school trip around the cruise ship. Both Debbie and I always commented on how well turned out the school children were in the Caribbean as were these. After this we returned to our suite and had a chat with The Ninja and the subject once more turned to the price of chocolate in the Caribbean compared to England or Europe: The Ninja clearly likes chocolate, a point that was stated in the front of our memory banks. After this we relaxed on the Balcony watching people disembarking prior to new people embarking.

Then, at 12:15, The Duchess went down to the Spa for her 12:30 manicure appointment. Much to her chagrin, they could find no record of such an appointment but Mrs Me insisted she one and, had prepaid for it. They did agree to do the manicure, but she would need to come back afterwards with a copy of the booking. When she returned, with nice shiny nails she was extremely annoyed that they had no record of her booking. Well, we went through all the paperwork and found that it was actually booked for the 17th of March not the 8th – Oops. 🤣 At least no blame could be apportioned to His Podgeness though somehow he still felt that it was going to marked as his fault! 🥴

That evening we had booked ourselves on an excursion to Oistins where the otherwise sleepy fishing village of Oistins holds its weekly street party. Everything we’d read about it and from feedback from other travellers it certainly seemed like ‘the place’ to visit so we were certainly looking forward to it. For us I’m afraid, it wasn’t that great an experience: It certainly looked as though a lot of the younger generation were loving it but us oldies found it a little bit too boisterous. We walked up and down the ‘market’ and eventually selected somewhere that could offer us a table: They did this by placing a folder table, which was leaning against the side of their stall, by the kerbside and put four chairs around it. While we’re sitting and going through the menu and watching the world go by just 2 feet away from us another couple were sat down next to us. We all sat there looked at the menus with occasional glances at the youths of the day going by and selected our gastronomic delight for the night plus some much wanted beers after which we introduced ourselves and got chatting. It turned out that the other couple (Sam and Mary), of similar age, were from Ohio and had the same views on the evening plus life in general as us. Like two old grumpy couples we exchanged our [matching] views on pensions, healthcare and of course, the youth of today but recognising, reluctantly, that back in our days, we ourselves were the then ‘youth of today’. The one thing we did object to however was the having to breath in the rather strong exotic aromas of funny cigarettes (It’s bad enough having to endure this back home at the weekends) but accepted that this was part and parcel of the Caribbean. The experience led us into talking about our own health issues such as my lungs (Stage-3 COPD) and Sam’s heart. It turned out that Sam had, relatively recently, the need for open heart surgery for which his insurance had to pay $3,000,000 and he had to pay $20,000 excess! I think us in the UK should perhaps moan a little less about our own NHS which, I have to say, has always looked after me extremely well. Had I not smoked for so much of my younger years perhaps I wouldn’t need so much looking after 🥺

As we finished our meals and drinks, we bade each other Bon Voyage. We ourselves made our way back towards the coach pickup point though stopping on the way to witness the live entertainment of a DJ playing very load music and some youths break dancing: We never did however find the promised more genteel and more traditional ballroom dancing, just west of the central area where there was supposedly a chance to enjoy social dancing and listen to quieter ‘Oldie Goldies’.  So, we returned to our coach for our return trip to the ship. Once on board, we made our way to the Crow’s Nest for some rather more civilised Cosmopolitans and Malt Whiskies before retiring to bed, once more the day after we actually go up.

Step Count: – 9173 🥴

St Maarten was to be the last port of call, of cruise #50, before heading back Barbados. And, it has to be said that it’s one of our favourite stops. That said, we never ever do much other than walk into town to sit in our favourite bar (we have many favourite bars, in both the Caribbean and the Canaries 😋) La perle bleu Beach Bar, and have a couple of drinks and maybe a bite to eat. Actually, that’s exactly what we did and very nice it was too, especially the Chicken and the Mahi Mahi, yummy, yummy. 😎

Hunger sated and thirst quenched, there now followed the long walk back and, that long walk back was very, very hot. There was the option of a water taxi or even a Tuk Tuk but were they allowed by Her Tubbsness? NO!😡 His Podgeness had to walk all the way back to the ship in sweltering heat with poorly lungs and heart and sweating like he’s never sweated before 🥵. Poor Podge.  On the plus side however (always looking for a silver lining), at least we got our step count up 🥹

For the evening, as it was a formal evening, we opted for an appropriately formal dinner in the Epicurean Restaurant (at our favourite table of course). For starters we both selected Seared King Scallops and Scallop Tartare which was to be followed by the must yummy yummy main course of Tronçon of Wild Atlantic Halibut Grenobloise. As tempting as it was, especially the Crêpes Suzette or Belgian Chocolate Jaffa Cake with Pistachio Ice Cream, we give deserts a miss though we did finish our nice bottle Sauvignon Blanc before retiring to the Crows Nest for a cocktail. This time, we opted for the P&O Bafta Cocktail and wow, just wow. So much wow, we had another before retiring to bed not, on the day we got up.

Step Count: – 10,344 🥴

This was our seventh visit to Antigua and have previously taken numerous excursions to see what the island had to offer (it has a lot) but it had been over 10 years since we’d visited Nelson’s Dockyard so we felt it was time to return and explore Antigua’s English Harbour and take time to discover the charm of Nelson’s Dockyard. I can say with confidence that after a break of 10+ years, Nelson’s Dockyard still manages to impress.

Now, please don’t ask how but whenever we go an excursion in the Caribbean, we always, but always, end up in the back of the minibus.

One should always try to avoid the back seats of a minibus in the Caribbean.

Being at the back of a Minibus in Antigua highlighted just about every bump (potholes or whatever) in the roads so much that we renamed our minibus as the bone shaker: It’s quite possible of course that the bus’s suspension was questionable. Still, mustn’t grumble, we could of course have been on the UK bone shaking roads 😂

After our return, we went directly to our favourite bar, passing the Boardwalk Casino, only to find it was all closed up. Can’t help if the revamped casino and closed bar are linked 🤔. Whatever the reason we decided to return to the mother ship as the port town was rammed full of grockles from the 5-cruise ships in town.  

We sat on our balcony, gazing across at Aida Diva, and listening to the loudest music ever. Initially, we thought the music was coming from the Aida but it was actually coming from a bar in the port off the back our ship. They also played ‘Where the F*** is Alice’ but had to deploy special effects to mask F***: there were, after all, children around!

Come the time to sail away, we went up to the top deck for a sail-away party hosted by senior officers where many canapés and a variety of cocktails were in full flow. The idea of the sail away is to enjoy the ‘sail away’ in the company of fellow travellers and of course ships officers. Naturally, Podge and Tubbs missed the sail away altogether as we were engrossed in conversation with some new friends and enjoying the numerous cocktails. Needless to say, come the end of the sail-away, we needed a lie down in a dark corner. For a change, dinner was missed on account of the large number of canapés and cocktails, and so His Podgeness and Her Tubbsness had an early night going to bed the same day we got up. Poor Podge🥺: Poor Tubbs🥺.

Step Count: – 9581 🥴