Yet Another Caribbean Christmas And New Year, Part Four

Wednesday 1st January 2025 – At Sea

As usual, I was awake just after six, as seems to be the habit this cruise. I lay in bed for a bit and messaged “Happy New Year” to a few friends and posted a bit on GP. I finally made it out of bed, washed and dressed, and went to leave the cabin. In my post slot, I discovered all the departure details for leaving the ship. Someone had been busy overnight. I chucked them on the dressing table—I’ll have a read after breakfast. I have all day, as it’s a sea day.

The Main Dining Room was almost empty, mainly people with young children and the older generation—those who probably didn’t see the New Year in. The girl on the MDR reception desk knows I prefer a sharing table but suggested I breakfast on my own as I might have a long wait for more sharers. They print out a ticket with the table number on it, and then a guide leads the way to your allocated table. It always amuses me when the guide has no idea where the table is located and must ask a colleague.

I was alone on a table for two, and the waiter was immediately over to pour coffee and bring the milk, butter, and marmalade. I think he was looking for something to do, as I was the only diner in his section. I ordered normal square toast, orange juice, Rice Krispies, and a mushroom omelette. The toast arrived first, and I had barely buttered the first slice before the OJ and Rice Krispies arrived. I took my morning pills with some of the OJ and poured the milk on the cereal. One thing about being on a table for one is that there is plenty of milk and butter on the table with only me using it. It disappears quickly on a six- or eight-seat table, and you end up asking for more.

I was so quick at breakfast that I beat the cabin steward, and it hadn’t been serviced. So, I took my Kindle and sat on the balcony, where it was pleasantly warm. I had only been there a few minutes when the steward turned up. He looked a bit worse for wear, and in conversation, it emerged there had been a huge party in the crew quarters last night, and he was feeling rather delicate.

With the ship heading north, my cabin is on the shady side of the ship this morning, and it is quite nice on the balcony—warm and out of the breeze. I must have dozed off because it’s time for lunch. It’s a hot dog and chips today, and one of the families I had been chatting to at the airport on the way out sat next to me. The little boy was wearing a new football shirt that Father Christmas had brought him, but his little sister, Daisy, was more interested in telling me that they were going to get ice cream as soon as Alfie, her big brother, finished his pizza. She wanted chocolate ice cream because “it is the best”.

I stopped at the sweet shop after lunch to get the obligatory giant Toblerones to take home. It was on a “buy two, get one free” offer, so I had to get three. My on-board credit is going down, but I still have over £60 left to spend in the next couple of days before going home, or it is simply lost. Perhaps I should have an expensive bottle of wine with dinner tonight! Now I’m off to watch the Brentford vs Arsenal match on one of the big-screen TVs in Brodie’s Bar.

A couple of Doom Bars and a 3-1 win—that’s what I call a decent afternoon. Now it’s back to the cabin, and I shall start the packing, as I am on a trip tomorrow morning in Martinique. I have plenty of time to get a big chunk of the packing done, a little snooze, and a shave and shower before dinner.

A table for eight this evening with two couples I have dined with before and a couple and a single lady I hadn’t. It is amazing how many of the younger single women on this cruise are veggies. I have yet to meet a male veggie on the cruise or a female veggie over retirement age. Tonight, I started with good old tomato soup, then a gammon steak with pineapple and a fried egg, chips, and peas. It reminded me of eating in a Harvester, but it was good. To finish, it was coffee cheesecake, and I added vanilla ice cream. Quite a decent dinner—not up to last night’s standard but excellent all the same.

I think a couple of vodka and lemonades should go down nicely before I pop to the Limelight Club. Matt Cardle (X-Factor winner) is on tonight at 10:30. Tickets were all gone ages ago, but I have managed to get a cancellation. I will report tomorrow.

Thursday 2nd January – Fort-de-France, Martinique

Once again, I woke early. I wish I could sleep longer, but about six every morning seems to be it. When I woke, it was just getting light, and we were heading for the cruise pier at Fort-de-France. As I lay in bed watching the mirror-calm sea, I spotted the pilot boat whizzing out to meet us. On previous holidays, I have been aware of the pilot boats rushing out to meet us, but this holiday is an exception, as this is the first time I have noticed one.

I am not a big fan of male singers, but I must admit he was very good, and the LGND’s half-brother was playing trumpet in the band. He is also quite talented, and he introduced me to his girlfriend, who is the singer with the house pop band, Pulse.

Martinique is unlike many of the other Caribbean islands in that tourism is not its most important business. I understand that the main business on the island is agriculture and that tourism is number three or four. I suppose the fact that the pier here can only accommodate a single large cruise ship at a time shows that.

My trip out this morning is only a half-day one and doesn’t leave until 09:45, so I have plenty of time for breakfast in the Main Dining Room. I was down by about 07:50 and was first on a six-person sharing table, which soon filled up. I had what has become my regular cruise breakfast: square toast, orange juice, Rice Krispies, and a mushroom omelette.

I was down for my trip well before departure time and joined the queue for the coach, which left exactly on time. On the way to the Balata Botanical Gardens, we stopped at Balata Church. It looked quite nice from outside, and there was a viewpoint that gave a nice view down over the town to the ship. Inside, the church was very ordinary, and the paint was peeling off the walls in many places. It was a good job the stop was only for ten minutes.

Back on the same twisty road, we soon reached the Botanical Gardens, which were quite busy. What a difference to the place we visited in Grenada. These gardens were beautifully kept, with manicured lawns, several small lakes, a high-level rope walk through the treetops, and loads of notices explaining what various plants and trees were. There were also loads of hummingbirds, and there were numerous sugar-water feeders about for them. There were loads of koi carp in the lakes, and a cat was busy stalking around the lake’s edge. Larry would have loved it.

Back to the ship in time for a hot dog and Pepsi Max lunch. This afternoon, I need to do a bit more packing, leaving the last few bits and pieces to put in after dinner so I can leave the suitcase outside the cabin door before midnight. The case is then transported to the airport in bond to the plane, and I don’t have to handle it until I take it off the baggage carousel at Gatwick. The cabin TV tells me it is very cold in the U.K., so I intend to have both a pullover and a warm jacket in my carry-on bag.

Down to dinner in the Main Dining Room on a table for six. I hadn’t met any of the other five before. Tonight, I started with tomato soup, then had tiger prawns with orzo pasta. This is a dish I have had before, and it is delicious. The pasta is in a rich tomato sauce, and the prawns are on a piece of garlic bread—something I really love. For dessert, I picked mixed ice cream: vanilla and honeycomb crunch. Of course, I finished my final dinner on board with a cup of coffee. A last drink in the Crow’s Nest before heading back to my cabin to put this evening’s clothes in my case, lock it, and leave it outside the cabin door for collection. The next time I see it should be on the carousel at Gatwick.

Friday 3rd January – Barbados

As usual, I awoke around six o’clock. We were already in the harbour at Bridgetown but still moving to our berth at the cruise terminal. It’s another lovely warm morning, and I’m in no rush to do anything, as according to the disembarkation paperwork, I leave the ship at 13:30. I already have an aircraft boarding card—again, it was delivered with the paperwork—and it says boarding time for the flight back to Gatport Airwick is 16:20 for a 17:20 departure. I went down to breakfast in the MDR and had my usual: orange juice, Rice Krispies, and a mushroom omelette, and of course, square toast.

Back up to the cabin, where I emptied the safe and did one last check to ensure I had left nothing in any of the cupboards or shelves. Of course, the cabin steward was hanging around and was delighted with his tip. Apparently, pounds sterling are more than acceptable in Goa. I didn’t want to be lugging my hand luggage around with me all morning, so I made use of the bag drop in the theatre and received a cloakroom ticket in return. Despite it being a beautiful morning, I decided to take a comfortable seat in Anderson’s Bar, where there was a big screen showing all the day’s flights to the U.K.

My flight was scheduled to be the third to leave the ship at 13:30. There was a flight to Manchester and one to Birmingham before mine. After my flight, there were another two to Gatwick, then another to Manchester, and finally one to Heathrow. I sat reading my Kindle, and in mid-morning, it was announced that one of the later flights to Gatwick and one to Manchester were delayed. A man sitting near me pulled out his phone and checked on Flight24. The delayed Gatwick plane had taken off two hours late, and the Manchester one four hours late.

I popped off to get a burger for lunch and retook my seat to the news that my TUI flight was still on time. Knowing the way the system for disembarking the ship works, I collected my hand luggage and took a seat in the second row of the theatre, waiting for the coaches to be readied for the trip to the airport. They invariably take people out a few rows at a time to load the airport coaches, so being near the front, I was going to be quickly away.

I got the front seat in the first coach, and it was then we were told that we would be departing from the satellite terminal at Bridgetown Airport. As we drove through Bridgetown, we were halted at a red traffic light. In the inside lane was a man on an electric bike, and a small minibus came behind him. When the lights went green, we pulled away, going straight on, and the bike shot away. From the front seat, I watched as the minibus tried to beat us away, but there was a parked car in his lane, so he pulled out into our coach. Fortunately, we only lost a light lens. The minibus didn’t get away so lightly and will need some time in the body shop.

The satellite terminal at the airport is a new experience for me, but whatever it is like, it must be better than last year’s experience of the main terminal, which was abysmal. It was overcrowded, with insufficient seating, and incredibly hot as the AC couldn’t cope. I had read about Bridgetown Airport’s satellite terminal. You may or may not know that Bridgetown was one of the few airports served by Concorde, and when it was withdrawn from service, one of the British Airways aircraft was gifted to Barbados. It is housed in a large hangar at the airport, and it is this hangar that is now used as the satellite terminal.

Well, it is quite a decent attempt at an overspill terminal. Security was fast and efficient, and the air conditioning in the huge hangar was perfectly adequate. But there were loads of seats, new clean toilets, a snack bar, and even an attempt at a duty-free outlet. My only complaint was that the announcements were hard to hear because they weren’t very loud, and they didn’t turn the background music off when they were made! But it was very strange sitting under Concorde waiting for the flight.

The flight was called, and we were all boarded before the 17:20 take-off time. It was then that the plane’s captain announced that there would be a delay to take-off as the ‘push back’ tractor had broken down. Apparently, they only have one, and its brakes had jammed on. Another TUI flight to Birmingham was supposed to be 45 minutes before us, but it too was delayed. It was first in the queue for ‘push back’, and we were second. We eventually pushed back an hour late, but the captain announced that for most of the route, we would have a tailwind, so the expectation was we would land only 40 minutes late.

As usual, we got a drinks round shortly after take-off and then a hot meal. This time it was roast chicken, roast potatoes, cabbage, and a mini Yorkshire pudding. The dessert was a piece of sponge cake and cream, and there was, as always, a roll, a chunk of cheese, and a couple of water biscuits for the cheese. It wasn’t awful, just not very imaginative. The big glass of wine was the best bit. Then the lights were dimmed, and I managed to get a couple of hours’ sleep.

About an hour and a half before landing, it was time for a laughably called Continental Breakfast. A tub of orange juice, a blueberry muffin, a strawberry yoghurt, and a Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain strawberry breakfast bar. The orange juice and muffin were OK, but I hate yoghurt, especially strawberry flavour, so that was out, and so was the breakfast bar.

Saturday 4th January – England

We landed at a minute past six, and I traipsed through the North Terminal to the e-gates. Not for the first time, the reader rejected my passport, and I had to go via a human immigration officer. He said that one of the characters on the passport number was poorly printed, and he had to type it into the system. Thank God I need a new passport before my next holiday. Then to baggage reclaim, where Gatwick had a new game. Our flight’s baggage was coming up on two separate but adjacent carousels. It’s not easy watching two carousels at the same time. I tried standing between the two belts where I could see both at the same time. I eventually spotted my case and managed to grab it just before it went back through the hole in the wall, where it would have come round a second time.

There were four customs officers standing at the entrance to the green channel, eyeing up everyone, but it was deserted in the actual customs hall. I suppose a scheduled flight from Bridgetown may get a bit of close inspection, but a charter from a cruise is probably low risk for the likes of drug smugglers. Finally, through the electronic gates and out into the arrivals hall and across the road to the car park and the ‘executive’ parking office, where I’m told that my car is on its way from the long-term parking. They have been having problems because of the freezing conditions and having to de-ice cars before they can drive them. Five minutes later, my car is back, and I have a printed QR code to get out of the drop-off zone for free. One good thing was that at least the car was still warm from it being delivered!

Gosh, was it cold as I drove home! The car told me it was -4°, and I was about ready for a sleep, but not before stopping at a Tesco Express for some bread and milk. I sighed with relief when I opened my front door, and the heating was on just as planned. I lugged my suitcase in and left it in the living room while I went up to bed to try to catch up with my sleep.

Two hours later, I awoke with cramp in both calf muscles. And it was agony. I guess it was the result of being in one position for so long on the plane. Anyway, I managed to get moving and started my unpacking and sorted out what I wanted to put away for my next holiday and what I wanted to go in the washing machine. I also sorted out the LGND’s present—the plushie Gromit. So, I popped around to take him to her, and she was delighted and immediately hugged it.

And so ended an excellent cruise and holiday. The Caribbean at this time of year is lovely, but next Christmas I shall be cruising out of Southampton to the Canaries and back via Madeira for the New Year’s Eve fireworks. I have booked on P&O Arcadia, an adult-only ship. But before that, I shall be cruising in late June, so look out for those diaries.
 

© WorthingGooner 2025