Around the World in 365 Days: Miami to Tortola, BVI

Day 63, Dec. 19^th: Overall, the La Quinta was quiet. Despite being very near the airport, we rarely heard any outside noise. Unfortunately, fellow travelers are not always as quiet when leaving early. A little after 6 AM two women were talking loudly in the hall, after which both John and I laid awake for close to hour trying to be quiet not to disturb the other. I got up at 7 and went to the small workout room – at least they have one – with one treadmill and one elliptical. I got in two miles. Breakfast was a little skimpy for a La Quinta – no yogurts, the coffee was decent, and a four-deep line for the waffle maker. The laundry room was across the hall, so we did a load, and I organized cruise clothes (don’t need a down coat or heavy sweaters in Miami to take on a Caribbean cruise). John had an errand – Mom needed a gait belt, so he went off to Walmart, while I resubmitted my India visa. I finally got a response from them – something about how some other detail did not match my passport – no clue what that could have been, but this time I submitted everything much more smoothly, including the picture. If it doesn’t go through this time I’ll stay on the boat. By the way – does anyone else refer to Christmas stockings as a “sock”? John texted me if I needed a “sock” and I said no – it turns out he meant a Christmas stocking, which would have been a yes. After completing the visa, I blogged, and when John returned (he’d found a yoga strap which should work for Mom), he wanted to find a deli on Collins he’d been to years before. We found the New York Deli and Juice on Collins just south of North Shore Beach Park. Not the same one he’d been to, but we both had good sliced turkey with curry sauce on bagels, and split a black & white cookie for dessert, then on to the beach. Parking was cheap, only 75 cents for just short of an hour. It was very windy and drizzly – perfect for the kiteboarders – some were getting really good air…

We found our CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS at a Walgreens near the park, before heading back to the hotel. I took a nap. It turns out, which I was told just after 4PM, Mom did not have foot rests for her travel chair. I called, and called, no one in the area carried foot rests in stock, though they were all happy to order some. One offered to sell a new travel chair for $200, but all had to order parts. Amazon had them, but not eligible for same day and would not arrive until Saturday – cruise departs on Friday. The rest of the family is staying close to downtown, so we’ll see them tomorrow and see what we can MacGyver out of a yoga strap and bungee cords. John and I had a low-key night since boarding days onto cruises can be a challenge.

Day 64, Dec. 20^th: I did use the one treadmill at the La Quinta for a 30-minute run – with someone waiting for me to finish at the end. The breakfast area was so crowded I just grabbed a cinnamon bagel and cream cheese and headed back upstairs. John and I puttered until 10:45 when we went down to catch our shuttle. The La Quinta had the system down – check in with the guy at the inside kiosk who organized the 4 shuttle busses, each going to only 1-2 cruise lines, very efficient. We miss being a priority passenger since this is our first time on MSC, but security and check-in went smoothly and took about 30 minutes. We saw my sisters, Mary and Suzan, about 20 places ahead of us in line. Kathleen and her family were about 10 minutes behind.

We found Mom up in the Calumet buffet with the others and their carry-ons (John and I have learned that even though ‘they’ say you can’t go to your room until 2PM, sometimes you can, so we dropped our stuff off in our cabin before heading up). Unfortunately, with Mom’s broken arm, she can’t use her walker, without the walker, she can’t go up a step, so she couldn’t get into her bathroom in the cabin and there weren’t any handicapped rooms available. My mother and two brothers shared a room. Their room was set up with a bunk as the 3^rd bed, but neither my 60-year-old nor 64-year-old brother could safely use the ladder. We reconfigured the room to get the mattress on the floor for Phil, and make an alley for Mom’s transport chair. We rigged the yoga strap for her feet, which worked for a short time but made her knees hurt since she needed to keep them too flexed (bent just past 90 degrees). Dinner was almost comical, we started joking that the wait staff was all in training. The crew on for one cruise were teaching the newcomers. In addition to the above, the weather was a little rough with 10-12 foot seas causing some motion, and Kathleen tends to get motion sick. I travel with an excellent stock of emergency meds, so was able to provide some meds to help her stomach settle. I did have some success that evening in the casino – some game with roses was giving bonuses inside a bonus and I ended up with 193 free spins and $83 dollars.

Day 65, Dec. 21^st: Mom got a regular wheelchair from the ship, unfortunately the wheelchair did not fit through the cabin door, so Mom transferred from her transport chair in the room, to the wheelchair in the hall, and either went down the elevator 2 floors or up 6 floors to a handicapped bathroom to use the toilet. They also did not design the bathroom sinks well for a five-foot-tall woman in a wheelchair. On the plus side, our family team won trivia and tied for the movie theme song trivia.

Lunch in the dining room highlighted the lack of experience in the dining room staff, so we decided to do the buffet for lunch. The weather and motion improved through the day. Kathleen did Mom’s hair and nails. Mom and the brothers bailed on formal night since they did not bring any “nice” clothes, but in looking around the dining room, 1/3 of the people were in polo shirts and jeans, so we made sure they knew it would not be an issue, especially since the next formal night would be Christmas Day. The casino was not as nice to me and I lost back most of what I’d won the day before.

Day 66, Dec. 22^nd: The gym was still pretty crowded, though not as much as the day before. I still couldn’t get a treadmill, so I tried the tread climber which no one was using. No one was using for a reason – that machine is just evil, in 2 minutes my thighs were burning, reducing the intensity to level two I managed to keep going for a total of 10 minutes, then went to the “power walking track” to jog for 15 minutes. We worked out a schedule of who would be hanging out with Mom since she didn’t feel able to go ashore. Once the weather settled, Mom liked to sit at a table on deck 14 to get some sun. We arrived in San Juan Puerto Rico late (we were supposed to get there at 4 PM, we docked at 5 and they started letting people off at about 5:30). When Mom, Phil, John and I went to dinner at 6, they made an announcement that they had to suspend disembarkation due to another ship’s arrival and it would be twenty minutes before passengers could continue to go ashore. We watched the wait staff run trays of water and snacks out to the people in line. My sibs made it off about 6:30, and they were close to the front of the line when the announcement came over the PA. With so few people in the dining room, dinner service was pretty quick. Mom was tired so went to bed right after dinner. Then John and I went into town. We walked up past the fort and around the fortifications.

I stopped to get a photo of a cupola, and John noticed someone coming up stairs. Most of the time when we looked down to the buildings below, there was just a straight wall. We went down the stairs, through a little park, around a narrow street – and found a really good restaurant called “La Garita”. We ate trifongo (which is a modified mofongo. Mofongo has cooked and mashed plantains, the trifongo had the plantains, sweet plantains and yucca.) We also enjoyed some conch salad and corn sticks – kind of like the breading on fried cheese sticks but no cheese inside. They were good, but the other two items were better. We enjoyed some wine and looked over the waves.

We walked back up and around, then wandered through a park in front of the tourism bureau building which had a fountain with rotating lights.

We headed back toward the ship, but decided to explore the other direction before returning, and a little beyond the dock we found a little bar/ Bodega where a lot of locals were enjoying their evening – we got Magna beers for $1.50 each. The ship was in port until 1 AM, but by 11:30 John and I were ready for bed.

Day 67, Dec. 23^rd: Tortola – British Virgin Islands. Due to being surrounded by reefs, most Virgin Island stops require tendering (transferring from the cruise ship to a boat that carries 40-200 people at a time and taking that smaller boat to the dock), but we were able to dock. I had the morning free to wander the town.

My shopping list was supplies for Mom and Christmas Stockings. I did see some cool Christmas stockings – for $19.50 (they were made from recycled sails), definitely more than I wanted to pay for 9 temporary stockings, but completely struck out on finding the Mom stuff. Mary and Suz took a “scary cab ride” over the mountain – lots of switchbacks on 1 ½ lane roads, to a pretty beach on the far side. John and I found “Pusser’s Pub”, which made and sold “Pusser’s Rum”, and meanwhile, on the beach on the other side of the Island, the sisters and niece Caitlin were looking at a Pusser’s Rum sign.

I got back at lunch to let Kathleen and Jonathan go ashore, helping Mom lay down for her nap. This afternoon’s trivia was a team event, and I was “voluntold” to be captain. We did win, because we could come up with more countries on the Mediterranean. Mom and I had the choice between Love Song trivia and singing Christmas Carols, and went for the Christmas Carols. We had a nice dinner, the staff seemed to be working together better, and after dinner Mom joined us to listen to some singers and stayed up until 8:30. I took another try in the casino – quickly losing the last of my winnings from the first night.

Next up – part two of the Christmas cruise!