Sunday, December 26, 2021; Bonaire

 Sunday, December 26, 2021; Bonaire

We awoke with the ship already tied up to the dock since Curaçao and Bonaire are very close to each other.  Klein Bonaire is a small uninhabited island known for its coral reefs was visible just outside our starboard side balcony.  For each of our ABC Islands port calls the ship has tied up on the Port side.  The views of the towns has generally been more interesting, so in future Caribbean cruises, we should consider port side cabins. It has been convenient having all 4 staterooms close by but it’s a bit of a puzzle that we are in a mini-suite with a door connecting it to the next mini-suite, so it would have been possible to have John and Price’s staterooms connected to us.  But there are entire blocks of balconies unoccupied on our deck.  Perhaps they had some blocked for Covid, but it still seems we should have been able to get adjacent staterooms if someone had actually looked at what staterooms were occupied vs empty.  

We had booked a catamaran snorkeling excursion together with our kids, Ciara’s boyfriend Tom, and his brother Sam.  Tom and Sam’s parents aren’t good swimmers, so they passed on snorkeling, opting to walk around the town instead in the morning.  The weather forecast was for 60% chance of rain.  There were some clouds looking like they wanted to rain, but we were fortunate that we had overcast sky with broken clouds that shaded us from the full rays of the sun on the open decks of the catamaran and no rain.  

Disembarkation was marked by a mandatory inspection of vaccination cards by port officials which sent many passengers scurrying back to their staterooms at the last minute. They did accept the electronic vaccination cards issued for our Apple Wallets, but New Jersey, where John lives, has yet to participate in State Health Department electronic reporting standards, so he had to present his paper cards. 

We were taken by a power catamaran water taxi from the cruise port to a small marina just a mile or so away where we transferred onto the sailing catamaran for our excursion.  While they used auxiliary power for docking maneuvers, we did go under sail for the several mile trip up the coast to the National Marine park diving and snorkeling site.  They tied up to a fixed mooring buoy that looked like it was in about 30-50’ of depth.

We had packed our own masks and snorkels, concerned about the safety of using shared breathing apparatus in the Covid era, but were expecting the vendor to provide fins.  They only provided masks, snorkels and no fins.  They also advised us not to touch anything, remove any specimens and warned us that there are stinging corals (fire corals).  Perhaps there was more potential for people to stand on corals if they had fins, but it did make swimming more work without fins.  They offered soft drinks and water for the outbound trip, and the same plus rum punch and beers for the return trip.  Ciara and Tom managed to get through 8 rum punches on the trip back.  After returning to the ship, Ciara realized that she had left her rash guard tied to a safety rail on the sailboat, so maybe that was a little too much rum punch.  But after informing the shore excursions staff, the rash guard was successfully returned to her later in the afternoon.  

After lunch at Alfredo’s, Ben and Janet did a self guided walking tour of Kralendijk, which turned out to be just 2 miles.  There were several historic buildings with classic Dutch Architecture, a couple of ancient English cannons, and a rather impressive bronze statue of Simon Bolivar, but the tour route included a couple of streets with no sidewalks and the drivers on Bonaire did not seem too concerned for pedestrians, and there seemed to be a lot of traffic for such a small island.  

Tom’s family took a van cab to Donkey Beach several miles from the cruise port where his parents got their first experiences with snorkeling, besides a brief trial in the ship’s pools earlier in the cruise.  The kids reported that the snorkeling was similar to what we had seen where the sailboat excursion had taken us, albeit closer to shore.  The kids concluded that it was decent snorkeling with a variety of fish and live corals, but we had been forever ruined for snorkeling to see sea life by our extensive and unbeatable experiences in the Galapagos.  I guess that’s why they have the reputation they do.  We might have to so the Great Barrier Reef in Australia or the Red Sea to find a place to match or exceed the Galapagos for snorkeling.  

Janet and Ben got back to the ship in time for afternoon trivia.  They played with members of the Internationals who had remained on the ship including Lindsay, Phyllis, Peggy, and Ken.  John was around but arrived after Janet and I had shown up, so he volunteered to join another group for the game.  We ended up losing by one point- a consistent pattern.  

We managed to get everyone back to the dinner table to recount the day.  I don’t think anyone has ended up with a disappointing meal so far in the dining room.  Tonight featured grilled Rockfish, Scallops and Prawns, Veal, chicken and New York strip steak.  Ben treated himself to a surf and turf by combining the scallops, prawns and steak.  

The Showtime featured a combo of the juggler and male vocalist.  Ben succumbed to post prandial somnolence and perhaps one too many coctails with a nap.  We did rally the crew for a Movie Themes trivia, which the kids were able to pitch in with.  We lost by 1/2 point, but would have won if I hadn’t changed one answer from an original impulse.  I should really know better than to second guess myself in Trivia since first impulses are usually more reliable.  I had changed the Exorcist to The Omen, when it was the Exorcist in the end.  This quiz include a Name the Composer section- a first in our experience.  Of course, everyone knows what John Williams looks like, but all the others were balding skinny middle age to senior men.  Fortunately, our son John really pulled through on these and got 2 of 3 right- Hans Zimmer and Danny Zimmer.  And Janet picked the best selling movie song of all time with Whitney Houston’s “I will always love you”, over Grease, Dirty Dancing and Saturday Night Fever.  

Tomorrow is our second formal night, so one last chance to get family portraits dressed up.  We’re pretty happy that we managed to successfully complete our itinerary when 3 other cruise ships were turned away in the last week with covid outbreaks.  The covid measures on Princess were a little more restrictive than others (masks required indoors except when actively eating or drinking- sip and cover in theaters, etc) but they may have kept us safer and therefore able to complete our cruise.  The latest concern is return trips at the end of the cruise.  Over 2000 flights were canceled on Christmas Eve, stranding travelers all over the US due to staffing shortages.  We hope January 2 doesn’t end up the same way.