2025 Caribbean Cruise: St Martens to Antigua

 2025 Caribbean Cruise (cont'd)

St MAATENS 

(pics possibly not included in first post)

from airplane on approach

an absolute untruth...nobody found their filled out forms on the kiosks, every nobody from plane needed local help

another flight had landed just before ours, they also had no luck with the entry forms

pre-board "lounge" and these people are awaiting boarding on another cruise ship

possibly the table in room 3511 at Oyster Bay Beach Resort where THB left his  backup eyeglasses, earbuds and travel deodorant, none  of which showed up after unpacking in our suite on the Windstar Wind Surf

view of beach cleaning from outdoor casual dining at OBBR

Wind Surf (on left)

Our suite: two smaller rooms with wall taken out between them; two doors, two bathrooms, two air conditioning units, two desks, two TVs. One bed....

one couch and coffee table

shower is excellent

leaving  St. Maartens, sails are raised on the Wind Surf

first of two tenders needing repairs.

possibly the second non-functioning tender

ANTIGUA 

is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the most populous island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Barbuda became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations on 1 November 1981.

Morning update

• Weather: Rain heavy at times, cloudy, intermittent sun, temps in the 80
• The A/C in the  "bedroom" half  of the suite is spitting out  warm air, the "couch" side is fine. Maintenance arrives, turns out  the wires in the thermostat are reversed, and thus, if you turn the thermostat to warm, out comes cool air. We tell maintenance not to fix the problem (which requires opening up the ceiling) until we are off the ship...7days from now
• THB needed help with booting up his travel computer, took an hour plus several departments and DB's support. THB has no idea what happened and is no help if getting it going again

• The help desk gets all of THB's and DB's devices connoted to the ship's wife. Every first-time passenger must need help loading the ship's app.
• THB and DB received a credit on AMEX from Windstar weeks ago and could never confirm why it showed up. Turns out they had cancelled the first of our snorkeling excision, UH OH!! they also had cancelled our other two snorkeling excursion. We were able to sign up on another excursion where we  could snorkel. The work around: when we want to go snorkeling, we get shuttled into the local town and arrange our own mini-tour. 
• Dinner last night and breakfast this morning (outdoors) are fine. We buy a bottle of white and  red and they store it for us. We did not buy the alcohol package (something like $80 or $90 per day) and thus may be two of the most sober people on the ship.  

the view from our breakfast table

Evening update

• Lunch outdoors, DB has burger and fries, THB goes for the Poke Bowl with small grilled shrimp. Share cookies and passion fruit sorbet All meals are included, as is the internet and wifi (this because we booked a suite).
• THB tests his snorkel gear in the small  salt-water pool and does then7 minute workout in the gym; DB sits outside near the pool until the rain starts to come down hard. 
• THB  and DB search all over for THB's red bathing suit. Could it still be at the OBBR?

lounge act

fitness center THB forgets the squats. 

dessert, not quite enuf dark chocolate souffle

THB took a few more pics that wouldn't load from the i-phone to the pc. So this intermittent problem has returned once again. You missed out on the pics of pool, scallops, and our entertainment leader (the closest thing THB has seen to a SNL spoof in a long-time).  

Book Review

Sacred Hunger, Barry Unsworth (read by David Rintoul, pub’d in 1992,

Booker Prize Winner):

THB read this one 30+ years ago and this listing was nothing like he remembered.

Now it is a mash-up of the Lord Of The Flies, man does not sit quietly in the room, and how

the slave trade and colonization harms everyone. A British entrepreneur in the1770s tries to

save himself from bankruptcy by building a ship to transport captives living in Africa to the

Americas. His son then sets himself on a course to pay off his  father’s debts and seek

revenge for a non-slight “done” to him by his older, much kinder  cousin. Highly Recommended