Day 7 – 31/03/2016 – Sun, sea and beach
We were docked in Labadee, Haiti.
We started the day with Room Service, ordered via the tv this time. And they were exactly on time! Wonderful, breakfast on the balcony with an amazing view of the ocean. We can get used to this!
Once docked about 2000 people immediately went on shore. Everyone hurried to the meeting point for their excursion. The Labadee peninsula is ‘owned’ by Royal Caribbean. It felt a little fake. There were some shops and bars next to the beaches with lounge chairs. We noticed the sea had a very nice blue color.
We had booked the “Haïtian Cultural Tour and Beach Break at Paradise Cove”. The tour started with a boattrip to Paradise Cove. We couldn’t dock, so we had to walk the last 50 meters through the water. Luckily the sea had a very comfortable temperature. We arrived on a private beach where we got a welcome cocktail. We could choose, with or without rum.
We then did a guided walk of about 45 minutes through an “authentic” Haitian village. It was all fake, nobody lived here. But we got an impression.. ‘Villagers’ were making crab cages, smashing peanuts to make peanutbutter and baking maniok bread. We tasted the bread and it was very good! The walk ended at a ‘shop’ where we could buy stuff the Haitians had made. They were starting to get pushy, so we headed back to the beach.
We still had 1.5 hours to relax on the beach before they would take us back to Labadee. Heidi couldn’t really relax. She saw crabs coming out of the ground next to her! 😛
It was time to return to Labadee. We were glad we had chosen this tour. Ok, it was all fake, but we got a good impression of the local life. Our general thought of the excursions was that they were all a little overrated and expensive.
Back in Labadee lunch was served on the island instead of on the ship. Yay, barbecue!
After exploring Labadee we returned to the ship to freshen up. It was formal night again!
We had a reservation at 7.45pm in the Main Dining Room, but there was a very long line. We had to wait about 30 minutes..
Tonight’s theme was Great-Britain and seafood.We started with a seafood cocktail. Then Heidi had a lobster tail with mashed potatoes and Jelle ate a slow roasted prime rib. Of course we couldn’t skip dessert! Jelle had a soufflé with vanilla and Grand Marnier. Heidi had a Low Fat Banana Cake.
Tomorrow we will be at sea, before returning to Fort Lauderdale the day after.
Day 8 – 01/04/2016 – It’s still 5 o’Clock somewhere!
This is the last day of the cruise. We will be at sea all day. Very early tomorrow (6.30am) we will arrive in Fort Lauderdale.
We woke up at 9am, so we were too late for breakfast in the Main Dining Room. We headed for the buffet in the Windjammer Café instead.
We bought an internet package for this last day. And good we did! Jetair had sent an email to inform us that we couldn’t fly back to Brussels. They had rebooked our ticket to a flight to Amsterdam via Washington D.C.. This isn’t bad. The flight from Orlando to Washington is departing later than our original flight to Chicago. We checked Check My Trip to check which seats we had, but all economy seats had already been taken. Normally we would get an upgrade to Economy Plus.. But that are worries for Wednesday because hey, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere! We also had to rent our car for one more day since we wouldn’t return it before 9am.
In the afternoon we went to the “Men’s International Belly Flop Competition”. A very funny competition!
We also checked out the Flowrider. This is a surfing simulator. Everyone can have a try, but we decided to play a game of minigolf! 😉
In the late afternoon we skyped with family at home and gave them a Skype tour of the ship.
On the last night the theme of the Main Dining Room was Mediterranean. For starters we had Spanish tapas. Then Jelle ate a steak and Heidi fish. For dessert Heidi had an appelstrudel with icecream and Jelle took the Chocolate Sensation.
After dinner we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.
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