After breakfast on Lido, we headed to the beach. Travel Advisor recommended Palm Beach. Plus, it was recommended to ride the city bus to the beach instead of a taxi. We walked across the street from the pier and I bought 2 round trip bus tickets for $4.00 each. Got on the Route 10 bus and 12 minutes later got off at Palm Beach in front of the Palm Beach Hilton. This is a beautiful property. Gorgeous landscaping, exotic birds to see, and wonderful beach area. Hilton guests get beach chairs and bamboo umbrellas at no charge. Tourists are charged $10.00/chair. I told the guy this was double what we paid on Grand Cayman and wouldn’t rent from him. We just laid on our beach towels and had a blast. Water was very pretty, but chilly. We stayed about 4 hours.

We rode the bus back to the ship, but on the way we got off to go to a Valero station right by the pier. I wanted some Cokes and Lynn wanted some ginger ale to settle her stomach. A 12 pack of Cokes and 4 ginger ales were $16.00 USD. I guess that’s not too bad. Much cheaper that the boat prices. We walked back to the pier from the station.

After we returned to the boat, we changed and headed back out to walk around the city by the pier. We found a small mall with a lot of high end fashions. Prices reflected the fact we were not in DFW. I found a Starbucks in the mall and got a real coffee!! But one tall and one grande coffee frap were $10.00 USD in Aruba!!

Aruba is the nicest, cleanest, friendliest island we’ve seen since we were in St Maarten (Dutch side) in 2014. We will return here, but we will fly and most likely stay at the Palm Beach Hilton.

Typical Caribbean island like St Lucia and St Kitts. No desire to visit again. I saw some really cute clothes at Chez and had Lynn try them on. But the zipper on one shirt and the belt on a pair of shorts broke right off as she was trying them on. I tried on a Cariloha shirt, but had to go to a XXL, which was still tight. Salesman said it’s because they sell them in European sizes, which means kids sizes to Americans.

We booked a tour with Luc Bosma (Bonaire Photo Shoot) for the afternoon on our way back to the boat for lunch. $50.00 (includes both of us) for a 1 ½ hour tour of the southern part of the island.

The island tour was okay – typical of most Caribbean islands. We saw the salt pools and salt hills where salt is “mined” from seawater. We also saw the slave cabins from the former salt plantations. The slave quarters were very tiny. I could not stand up in one. I had to get on my hands and knees to enter and exit. At least the doorway faced the sea so they could get a breeze.

Sorobon Beach Resort was a bar with lots of wind and kite surfing. This is the only beach worth going to on Bonaire and it’s not a good beach. Diving is also very big there, plus hiking the jungle in the northern part of the island.

We had some sunburn on our face, so Lynn wanted to buy some aloe. We found a vendor at the pier who sold Bonaire aloe and we bought $100.00 worth. Turns out this was a complete waste of money. The aloe didn’t do anything for our sunburn. We bought some Australian Gold Moisture Block Tan Extender on the boat and it was a miracle worker. It helped keep our tan. The aloe was worthless. Australian Gold is stealing my business away from decades of using Panama Jack products. Bonaire is not worth a visit unless you’re diving or hiking.

WARNING: Stores and taxis in Grenada won’t take USD that has writing on it; i.e. any marking on a bill that was not there when it was printed. Plus they have a really difficult time figuring out the conversion rate.

Typical Caribbean island like St Lucia and St Kitt. Not worth visiting again.

We took a tour for $40.00 USD (includes both of us). The tour director wanted $60.00, I was haggling for $30.00. When he said $40.00 my wife jumped right in with “Sold”. I asked her later what happened and she said she wanted in the fun of the negotiation and forgot I was trying to get it lower. The tour was NOT even worth $40.00.

• $2.00 @ for Crater Lake – a large hole in the ground on top of a volcano. Nothing special

• $2.00 to photograph anyone dressed in Caribbean garb or the band. I wouldn’t pay. They are in public on public land.

• $2.00 @ to see the waterfall

• $2.00 for some idiot with a guitar to sing to you. He couldn’t sing and made up his lyrics. He didn’t have nice ones about me, but had some complimentary ones about Lynn.

• $5.00 - $20.00 to see some locals dive off the waterfall. I already paid $4.00 to get in, that should include the show.

This island nickel and dimes you to death. Shopping on this island is not worth it, either.

Recommendation – take the water taxi next to the pier for $4.00 @ (round trip) to Grand Anse Beach. Chairs are only $5.00. See George, “The Bar Guy”. Water taxis are always waiting at one end of the beach for returning passengers.

RUDE, RUDE, RUDE – Oh wait, They’re FRENCH!!

We didn’t spend any money or go anywhere on this island. We went back to the boat and spent the day at the pool.

I tried to buy some food and drink at McDonalds, but couldn’t get waited on because I speak English. How do I know this is the reason? The manager waited on 3 French speaking customers ahead of me. When I said “Howdy” she locked the register and walked away. I asked her twice if someone could take my order, but neither she nor the employee at the counter would wait on me.

They are just as rude and impolite to Americans on this island as they are on the French side of St Maarten.

We LOVE St Maarten!! It’s clean and orderly like Aruba, but then they are both Dutch. This is our 2nd visit to St Maarten by cruise. We’ll fly in on our next visit for a week-long stay.

A couple we met on the boat recommended Dawn Beach. Located on the Atlantic side next to the French border. A new favorite of ours. Mr. Busby’s beach bar is at Dawn Beach. Chairs were only $12.00 for 2 and included an umbrella. Two drinks were only $11.50 and were really good. Beach was not crowded. Water was chilly, but not so cold you didn’t want to get in. We just had to remember it is January in the Atlantic.

We stayed 4-5 hours at the beach. Taxi was only $14.00 (includes both) one way. Very reasonable considering the distance.

There aren’t any piers/docks in Grand Cayman. Ships have to anchor and tinder boats ferry passengers to shore. Seas so rough, our ship had to anchor on the southwest side of the island – not at Georgetown. We were ferried to a “spot dock” that had a gravel parking lot full of taxis. Because we were so far from Georgetown travel times and rates naturally increased. Carnival did a great job of organizing and efficiently exiting passengers off the boat to the tinder boats.

We went to the beach instead of shopping and rode in Martin’s taxi. He was very entertaining and can sing. We chose to go to a section of 7 Mile Beach called Seagrape Beach at Calico Jack’s – a beach bar. This beach was recommended by Travel Advisor. Very reasonable priced - $5.00 USD each for beach chairs – and a good beach. Calico Jack’s had clean restrooms and changing rooms. We got hungry and ordered a hamburger and fries. $9.95 Cayman $$$, but the conversion rate was $12.50 USD. Definitely not worth the conversion rate. I would hate to see what a hotel on the beach cost in USD.

We got to Seagrape Beach around 1030 hours and left at 1345. We got some really good sun and a few hours of stability on land. We asked Martin to pick us up at 1400 and he was there as promised. Taxi ride was $14.00 USD one way for the 2 of us.