Thursday, March 7, 2019. St. Maarten

Thursday, March 7, 2019. St. Maarten

The Regal Princess was the first of four cruise ships to arrive at St. Maarten, just a bit after sunrise at 6:30AM.  We could see the VIking Sun waiting behind us as Regal Princess backed into its birth.  We ha breakfast as we were joined by the Viking Sun, Celebrity Solace, and the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas.  Since we had toured the entire island on ATV’s last time we were on St. Maarten, we elected to walk into town, which was just a 20 minute walk from the Philipsburg cruise ship pier.  We didn’t have a chance to see the beach along the Great Bay last time.  We were able to get off the ship by 7:30AM, while it was still a comfortable 76 degrees and sunny.  As we prepared to leave the Regal Princess, the Celebrity Solace had tied up across the pier from us, and we saw a most unusual thing, as they unloaded about 20 Harley Davidson motorcycles from a hold on the ship onto the dock. It appeared that they had a specialty cruise with a Harley Davidson theme going on.  

It was an easy, but not very scenic walk to the boardwalk, but once we did get to the boardwalk, the beachfront of St. Maarten was indeed very beautiful with a flawless white sand beach, beach chairs, and a few smaller palm trees scattered about.  Most of the big ones had been destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017, and there were still the wrecked hulks of a few hotels and other buildings visible if you looked closely enough.  However, the waterfront boardwalk was wide, clean and surprisingly uncrowded considering there were 4 cruise ships in town.  Perhaps, it was because most passengers were on organized ship excursions during the early part of the day, and the boardwalk would get crowded after those excursions ended.  We spotted the historic courthouse near the center of boardwalk, and ran into the Harley Davidson riders just pulling out of the downtown area in a caravan.  One gal, unfortunately, had motor trouble, and ended up getting a push start from a couple of locals.  She was presumably rescued by someone from the company that had organized the tour, and was circling around the court house to pick her up.  

We walked back to the ship and cooled off for a bit in the air conditioning before heading off to attend the morning Trivia.  This was better attended than we would have imagined because we were in a port of call, but like us, many passengers on this cruise have been to some of these ports of call on multiple occasions.  We teamed up with a couple from Georgia and a woman from Toronto, whose husband doesn’t do trivia.  This trivia was in the Vista Lounge, and did not use the video monitors.  There were 20 questions, but there was a bonus question worth 8 points which was Who are the 4 kings in a deck of cards representing?  2 Points for each correct king.  We had no idea, but one team apparently did.  They were Julius Caesar, King David, Charlemagne and Alexander the Great.  We scored 14, while the winning team had 20.  Two other questions had notable answers. One was what did Albert Einstein predict would be the weapons used in WW 4- Sticks and stones, or slingshots.  And what was the first man made object to break the sound barrier- the whip.

This was our planned pool day, so we found some deck chairs in the shade and relaxed by the pool.  We figured with most of the passengers enjoying their shore excursions, the pool deck would be less crowded, and it was pleasant.  Ben didn’t even have to swim through much traffic in the pool to swim laps.  The poolside grill was one of the things that Viking Ocean does better than Princess, although Princess’ pizza is better. We managed to get through some reading and get some naps in during our pool day.  

During afternoon tea we met a couple from Bainbridge Island, and were seated with them and a couple from Florida, although the gentleman was from Columbia and his wife was from New York originally.  They were a very nice and energetic couple.  

Afternoon trivia turned up a few trick questions and riddles, which were clever.  The questions were all verbal with nothing on the video monitor, and one question was “What is the average wait for a newborn baby”, but what most people heard was “What is the average weight for a newborn baby.  So the answer was not 7 pounds, but 9 months.  Another clever one was what do you get for free the first two times, but the third time costs a lot of money?  Answer= Teeth! And another killer bonus question that we missed, but the winning team got for 5 extra points- What is the only word that has all the vowels including Y in the English language?  Answer= FACETIOUSLY (and the vowels are also all in alphabetical order!).  So we didn’t win, but we learned some very useful nonsense.

The Elite and Platinum lounge was offering sushi, which worked out well because we had a late dinner reservation at the Crab Shack.  Normally, you have to pay extra for sushi at a dedicated sushi bar in the Piazza.  We were spoiled by the sushi on the Viking Star, which was in the buffet every night.

We watched “8 Days A Week”, a Beatles documentary by Ron Howard on TV.  We should have watched that before the Beatles trivia.  It was an interesting documentary about the touring years of the Beatles, and had been on PBS, but we had missed it.  Most of the Academy Award winning movies are available on demand for free in the rooms this cruise, but we really haven’t had much time to sit and watch the TV in our room, but maybe we’ll take advantage of that when we return to Fort Lauderdale between our East and West legs.

Our second specialty dining voucher was used tonight at The Crab Shack, which on the Regal Princess is not a dedicated venue, but rather a corner of the upstairs buffet is converted into the casual sea food restaurant in the evenings.  The tables are covered in butcher paper, and they tie a big “Crab Shack” bib around you before they seat you.  Appetizer consisted of giant popcorn shrimp and hush puppies. Both were delicious. Soup was Manhattan clam chowder which tasted like Campbell’s vegetable beef soup. They served up a bowl with king crab legs, prawns, boiled potato, and corn on the cob with drawn butter.  Ben ordered something different, a bowl with snow crab, kielbasa and mussels, but the waiter brought out two king crab leg bowls by mistake, so Ben ended up getting both dinners, which would have normally been $10 extra.  While this is unique for Princess, Viking Ocean cruises had the king crab legs and prawns available on their buffet with no extra cost any night.  But we have discovered that the availability of fresh Dungeness crab at home pretty much ruins frozen king and snow crab for us. Ironically, they served up Penn Cove Blue Mussels from Whidbey Island.  

The evening’s entertainment was a singer and dancer Solomon Jaye from Houston, TX, who put on a high energy show with songs from R&B, Motown, and Pop, along with some tap dancing.  He did a great Michael Jackson Song and dance with glittered glove and all the moves. He was backed by the Princess Band, which is a great professional band.  

Tomorrow is a day at sea as the Regal Princess makes a beeline back to Fort Lauderdale over the next two days.