Hello all from Carnival Victory in Castries, St. Lucia! This is day 7 of vacation fun but only 5th day of the cruise. I was up at 6:30am again and no one else in the family was up this early. Therefore, I grabbed my camera and headed up to the lido deck for a cup of coffee and to take some pictures as the ship entered the port. From the boat, the port looks scenic with houses on the hillside. It was neat to watch the ship make a 180 degree turn in the bay and then dock. So today, we get off the ship on the starboard side. After the ship finished docking, I went ahead ate breakfast enjoying the peace and quiet. Afterwards, I went back to the cabin and found Mari still asleep with the blankets pulled over her head. Hence, I went out on the balcony to check out the scenery on the port side. Mari shortly woke up and came out to see if I wanted to go for breakfast. I told her that I had already eaten, so she went by herself. After she returned, we decided to go ashore to check out the little shops next to the ship.
As soon as we walked into the central terminal to the shops locals wanting to know if we wanted to go a taxi tour around the island propositioned us. When we first got on the ship, we went to the seminar about the excursions. They pretty much told us if we decide to do an excursion through the ship that they would work with the excursion tour guides to make sure we got back to the ship and if we were late, the ship would not set sail until we were back. If we made plans on our own and did planned our own excursion to save a buck or two then we were on our own to get back to the ship at this port or try to find our way to the next port to get on the ship.
Mari and I made our rounds to all 47 stories here at the port. The first thing you notice is many jewelry stores. Apparently, since these companies do a lot of turnover of product that they sell them at a reduced rate. I am not convinced that they are very reputable and personally would rather deal with local jewelry shops back home. Found a couple stores that had some souvenirs I liked for family back home but decided to wait until later when I came out with the rest of the family and check out the rest of the stores across the bay. Mari and I headed back to the cabin. When enter the cabin we find that a note on the floor canceling the excursion for the snorkel and party cruise they were going to take this afternoon due to operational difficulties by the tour operator. No sooner than we enter the cabin, Marissa is at the balcony door knocking. On the balcony, we find the rest of the family awake and getting ready to go up to the lido deck for breakfast. Marissa begins whinnying and complaining about the tour cancelled. Mari told her we would look at alternatives on the sheet and see what was available. Mari and I went with them to have a cup of coffee while they ate breakfast. No sooner than we were sitting down, Marissa again started pissing and moaning. So I headed back to the cabin. It seems like she is not happy unless everyone is miserable too.
When they got back cabin we decided to go ashore and check out the shops. Mari opted to stay aboard this time and go up to the lido deck to sun bathe. Carolyn, Marissa, David and I walked through the shopping area. As we did, it started sprinkling off and on and the humidity was getting sticky. After checking the stores out a second time and not finding anything new, we decided to take the water taxi across the harbor to check out a few more shops. As we crossed, we seen Mari on the balcony and seen a galleon. The ship was supposedly used in making the pirates of the Caribbean. It looked smaller than I would have assumed for a movie like that. Anyway, the shops across the bay were not very impressive either. While in the small shopping center/mall the rain suddenly down poured. As suddenly, it poured rain it suddenly quit. Therefore, David and I opted to walk back to the ship instead of taking the water taxi while Carolyn and Marissa went back to the ship via water taxi. We walked through a couple of flea market areas but found nothing. The most annoying thing I found was the locals pestering us wanting to take us for one or two hour island tour as we walked through the market areas. Once we got through the market area, we walked along to the boat. There were a couple of rough looking areas but we made it. As we were entering the port parking lot/market area, we were followed by vagrant want money. I do not know how many times we told him no he kept pestering us but he finally got it. The once again we had a taxi driver try to give us a tour of the fire departments in the area because I had a fire department tee shirt on. Told him that we had just gotten back from a tour and told him no thank you. We went back to a store where I had seen a couple of souvenirs. I picked up a nature-designed photo album and some banana ketchup for dad since he likes bananas so much. Ha, hope he likes it. Afterwards David and I sat down and tried some of the local beer, Patin. Again, I thought it was not very good and let him finish mine. We headed back up to the cabin after waiting for the long line to thin out before we could board again. Once aboard we stopped back by the cabin to drop off the souvenirs and cameras.
We assumed that everyone else had already eaten so David and I went to lunch back up on the lido deck. David quickly got his pizza again and it took me a while find a line that was not very long so I could get a cheeseburger and fries. It was nice eating some old fashion American cuisine. Afterwards I headed back to the cabin to find Mari, Marissa and Carolyn sitting out on the balcony watching a ship being towed by a tugboat and turned around to exit port. Marissa said something that she was glad our ship was backed into our location. I told her it was not backed but it had done a 180-degree turn right in the middle of the port and then pushed itself right up to the dock since I was awake and seen it this morning. Go figure she wanted to disagree with me and tell me that was not possible and that I was wrong. I had to just get up from the chair and walk away. I cannot believe that she can be this way. It is so frustrating. Oh well.
We set sail to our next port here at 5pm so I think I will post this and either go work out or go on up to the lido deck to see what going on there.
Oh yea, if my brother Jason reads this today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
I got the workout in using the elliptical for about 30 minutes. The only thing was I definitely could feel the ship roll while on the machine so I felt like I was holding on to dear life (exaggerating). I quickly returned to the cabin, cleaned up, and changed into my semi-formal wear. We all went down to the dining hall for supper. The meal really was not fancy tonight, I had a pasta dish, Mari had a chicken dish, David, Marissa had a fish dish, and Carolyn had shrimp dish. David and Marissa took off from supper for the lido deck for a smoke and check on cruise activities. The appetizer was something to desire, we tried fried oyster. Right now, it is making my stomach a little queasy. After supper, I returned to the room to try drinking some water to settle the stomach. Mari and Carolyn went down to the ships store to check out souvenirs and the cruise ships photos. Mari returned to the cabin with another photo of her and me disembarking the ship today. Mari, Carolyn and I went down to the cruise ships theater for a Vegas style show called Livin' In America put on by the Victory dancers. The show lasted about fifty minutes, was very good, and received a standing ovation.
We returned to the cabins and going to bed early tonight since we have a beach escape excursion tomorrow at 10am and last 4 hours. Tomorrow's port of call is St. John's, Antigua.
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