Posts Tagged ‘Caribbean’

As always, we took out breakfast in the Epicurean and, as always, breakfast was superb: By now, the waitress knows what we have and has almost reached the point of telling us what we’ll be having. Hmm🤔, maybe we need to start mixing up our eating habits. Anyway, for today, we stuck with what we always have and very nice it was too.

Well, that was a pointless paragraph wasn’t it?

After breakfast we needed to decide what we were going to do. We’ve been to St Vincent before and to be honest, it’s never been our cup of tea but we did remember one bar that we went to (February 2022) when the consequences of Covid were still raw and so many constraints were placed upon visitors. At that time, we had decided to stay within the Port Shops area and found a bar with a clear view of the ship. We nicknamed it the cage bar as the outside seating area was fenced in with barbed wire along the top 🥴 so , we decided that was where we were to go again but before that it was back to the cabin to, have a rest!

Returning to our cabin we found that our cabin steward hadn’t yet made it up, mind you we were earlier than normal. So, we snuck in onto our balcony and told him we’d stay out of his way and that we’d quite likely be only half an hour anyway. So, we sat on the balcony, The Duchess having a little snooze while I surveyed the sea looking for sharks, dolphins, giant squid, etc but saw nothing. After half an hour I went inside to gather our stuff for going ashore completely oblivious to that fact that our steward had been in, drawn our curtains to keep the sun out, switched on the wall lights, made the bed and hoovered: This is why The Duchess calls Mr Magoo, Poor Podge had seen none of it. From this point onwards, our Cabin Steward was known as The Ninja.  

Eventually, we went ashore straight to our ‘Cage Bar’ whereupon The Duchess despatched His Podgeness to get the drinks. At the bar, Podge asks for 4 Caribs: Podge is told that if he gets a bucket, it’s 6 for the price of five. Obviously, Podge spotting a bargain, bought the bucket and went back with 6-Caribs. Poor Podge was left in no doubt as to the error of his ways and didn’t help himself when he promised to drink all the extras himself. But drink them he did. 😋  And Podge was once more feeling a little groggy. So back to the ship for a bit of a rest, again! During this ‘rest’ period, The Duchess noticed that after the lifeboats had been brought back on board after they’d had their play on the water, one of the boats hatches had been left open: This concerned The Duchess and felt that she should mention it somebody. Yeah Yeah said Podge and turned over and went back to sleep.

The evening was preceded by fivesies (Mai Tais and Pink Gin Spritz) followed by dinner in the Glass House accompanied by a glass of Bacchus before making our way to the Crows Nest for our evening drinks of Cosmopolitand and a rather nice glass of Cotswold Malt Whisky, yummy, yummy. Once more we meet the Hotel Manager who stopped by for a chat. This was the time, the time for The Duchess to express her concern that the lifeboat number 12 had been left. open after its little foray onto the water. She was worried that if it rains it will fill up with water 💦. ‘Debbie’, said the hotel manager, ‘if you [need] to use the lifeboat, getting your feet will be the least of your worries’. She conceded the point, but she did notice that the hatch was closed the next day. She remains convinced it was down to her! 

Then, it was time for bed actually, on the same day we got up. 👏

Step Count: – 7255 🥴

#50 Flight and Boarding – Day 1 (Day 1 of Week 1)

3 whiskies and 3 rosés for breakfast then head to gate 571 for boarding. Phew, got the right gate and the right time (unlike a previous occasion). Boarding the plane was actually quite painless except that two passengers went awol though they were finally located but caused us to take off 50 minutes later (when all the blue sky had disappeared!. 

First greeting was with a glass of fizzy pop: So, so nice to be back on a Tui Flight (Premium of course 😋).

Second greeting was complimentary drinks (Johny Walker Black Label for me, G&T for Tubbs) twice, each being doubles. Then, it was time for lunch accompanied by 2 glasses of white wine with a brandy chaser post lunch. Poor Podgeness is feeling weary now while Tubbs is fast asleep. 

One of the passengers spots me and says “I recognise you, you’re Podge”. It seems people have been reading my hints and tips on Facebook! Ooh Err 🥴

Now, one of the hints I had given on Facebook was make sure that they were comfortable before landing as when we alight from the plane, we DO NOT go through the airport terminal: we are taken directly from the bus to the ship where we just check in and go on board. Our luggage magically appears in our cabin after we’ve boarded and, true to form, it all worked perfectly.

Hats off to P&O.

By the time we did reach our suite, we were truly very tired and in need of a long lie down to recover from the journey 🥱 but, before we do, we needed to meet our Cabin Steward (We called him Ninja – more on that in a later post) and our Butler, both of whom would be looking after us for the next 6-weeks. I have to say that we were pleasantly surprised to find our Butler was Asmita who had in fact looked after us on our last Caribbean Cruise: We like to think that Asmita was as pleased as us.

And then, it really was time to hit the hay, as they say. 🛌

#38 Part 1

Picture this if you will. Having arisen early (06:30), His Podgeness and The Duchess check in at the airport by 08:30, for our 10:55 flight, and were in the airport lounge enjoying breakfast relaxed in the knowledge that we easily had 2 hours to relax. His Podgeness, out of idle curiosity checked the boarding cards, at 09:05 to see if there was any gate details. It was then that he noticed that the gates open at 09:10 and close at 09:35 before takeoff at 09:55, NOT 10:55. 🥴

So, so glad I checked the card otherwise we’d have still been in the lounge as our plane was taking off (thus missing a trip 18 months in the planning) and His Podgeness would have got a good kicking from The Duchess. 🥵

And here starts yet another adventure of Podge (His Podgeness) & Tubbs (The Duchess).