Friday, February 2, 2018- Devils Island Scenic Cruising

Friday, February 2, 2018- Devils Island Scenic Cruising

We had a leisurely breakfast in the dining room this morning as the ship approached Devils Island, or more correctly, The Islands of Salvation or Iles du Salut, which is the collection of 3 islands off the coast of French Guiana made infamous by their use as a French Penal colony.  As we finished breakfast, the captain announced we were just 5 miles away, and the bridge had spotted the islands.  Fortunately for us, the ship approached with the island on the ship’s starboard side, so we got front row seats from our balcony.  The ship sailed within a quarter mile or so, so you could see how lush the vegetation was and the structures that are on the island.  The destination expert gave running commentary over the ship’s PA system as we approached the islands.  From the staterooms, you could only hear this if you turned the TV to the bow camera station and cranked the TV Volume to max.  Even then, it was hard to hear out on the balcony, but we managed.  The temperature was in mid 80’s and it was humid, but not at all uncomfortable.  

We circled past St. Joseph to approach the wharf on the south side of Royal island.  The ship launched a tender and set anchor south of Royal island.  The tender brought back some vendors who set up shop on the Lido deck with souvenirs and a stamping station.  Janet stood in line for nearly an hour, and got a brochure from the museum on the island, and had a stamp impression on the back of a blank piece of Princess notepad paper.  

While Janet stood in line, Ben swam 39 laps in the Lido pool, which he learned after questioning the ship’s staff, is 35’ in length.  Ben’s apple watch was handy for counting laps, calories and pulse rate.  It can also somehow tell what stroke you are doing, even with terrible technique.  The temperature was perfect for swimming and the sun was out with partial cloud cover.  

The indoor pool, the Lotus Pool is 39’ x 15’, but that’s probably the overall length of the pool which includes oddly shaped corners that go beyond the center lane, which looks shorter than the 35’ Lido Pool. 

Once the ship was at anchor, it swung around with the port side towards the Island, giving the port side passengers a view.  

We walked down to the Lido deck to watch the sail away from Devils island from the port side promenade deck, which was surprisingly uncrowded.  Once the ship was well underway, we had lunch in the dining room.  The highlight of lunch was they offered banana splits for dessert.  

We attended an Effy Gemstone Trivia, and learned we know very little about gemstone trivia, but they had a free raffle, which we didn’t win either. The prize was an Effy scarf and a 3 jeweled pendant.

We did the Afternoon Trivia with a random team of strangers because we arrived late.  We ended up with 21 points, but missed one question that had a total of six point possible due to bonus points, so we were knocked out of the lead by one question.  The question was which American Actress had won the most Oscars? (1pt).  Bonus points were for How many Oscars did she win (1pt), and 1 pt for each listed movie (4 pts). FYI, it was Katherine Hepburn, 4 Oscars, Morning Glory, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Lion in Winter, and On Golden Pond.

After a short nap, we went to dinner, hoping to catch the early Showtime performance of Stephane Kane, a piano entertainer, but by the time we finished dinner and dessert, his show was nearly over.  We walked to the theatre and stood in the back for his last 4 numbers, which were entertaining, but not outstanding enough to go back to the later night show to watch.  

We did a gameshow called Risk It to Win It where contestants are given 5 poker chips and asked to ante up various amounts before each question.  If you answer correctly, the house matches your ante, but if you answer incorrectly, you lose your chips, and if you don’t have enough chips to make the next ante, you were out.  You could buy out if you accumulated enough chips.  If you had 7 chips, you could buy out and get one small prize.  If you had 10 chips, you could buy out with 2 small items.  If you had 15 chips, you could buy out with 2 small items and a water bottle.  The prizes went up to a maximum of two specialty dining venue cover charges.  However, the questions were ridiculously hard, and virtually everyone was out within 1 or two hands, particularly because beyond the first two questions, which had antes of 1 or 2 chips, the antes went up to 3 and 4 chips.  People got called up in random order.  Everyone in our team went up and was out on the first questions because if you didn’t get it right, and there was a 3 chip or 4 chip ante, you didn’t have enough chips left for the next ante.  They quickly ran out of players so they allowed people to go up for extra turns.  Ben went up and on his second turn, he got the question right on a 3 chip ante.  This gave him 8 chips. Up to this point, nobody had walked off with any prizes, so he cashed out for a Wine Stopper, becoming the first to walk off the stage with a prize.  As time grew short, they cut off new players, and quickly ended up with two players who each had only 6 chips.  The host offered 2 small prizes to buy out at 6 chips, or go to the last round for 2 small prizes and a water bottle.  One player bought out, while the last player ended up with nothing because his last answer was wrong. 

We also ended up playing the evening Music Trivia with Roger (Santa), Dan from San Ramon, and a new couple Kathy and John from Miami.  Dan got swapped out for Silvia, who didn’t have a team, but knew a lot about music, and Dan didn’t recognize any of the songs up to that point.  We ended up with 20/26, while the winning team had 22.  

We retired to our room to watch one of the video taped enrichment lectures on Cold Case investigations, which was pretty interesting, looking at DNA evidence, forensics, and other factors to solve cold cases.

We have two at sea days coming up, so it’ll be a chance to kick back and relax after the rapid sequence of ports of call and excursions that were the Eastern Caribbeans.