2014 - 6 - St. Thomas

St. Thomas, USVI

INTERESTINGLY, OUR first and last ports of call were in the USVI. On this itinerary, I think the primary reason was that they were both close to our out and back port in San Juan. We started in St. Croix, the largest of them. We finished in St. Thomas, probably about 1/2 the physical size of St. Croix. The populations of the two islands are, however, essentially identical. St. Thomas is - at least in my opinion - the much more popular tourist attraction and more frequent cruise ship stop. The bustling Charlotte Amalie is not only the capitol city of the USVI, but by far the largest city. It houses governmental facilities, including the main building of the Supreme Court of the USVI. It is a crowded, sometimes dirty and sometimes dangerous larger city.

Downtown Charlotte Amalie - St. Thomas, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved

FORTUNATELY, much of the rest of the island is much more rural and tranquil. And beautiful. A vocanic island like a lot of the Caribbean islands, it is mountainous. Although there are numerous seaports around the island - especially on its southern side, the cruise ships dock in one of two harbors in Charlotte Amalie: "Havensight" or Crown Bay. The main piers are at the older, Havensight Port (formerly the West India Company Docks). Of the several times we have stopped there, we normally have docked at Havensight to the east of the city. One time, however, in 2012 on the Ruby Princess, we docked at the Crown Bay port, which is across the Long Bay and to the west of the center city. Crown Bay Marina houses some very large, very expensive pleasure cruisers as well.

Magens Bay - St. Thomas, USVI
Copyright  Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

SINCE THIS was our last stop on the cruise, some of the group wanted to do some shopping. So our plan as we got off the ship was to find an easy mode of transportation to downtown Charlotte Amalie, where we knew we could find anything we wanted to shop for. My wife and I had done this before, and knew that the "golf - cart style" taxis were easy and inexpensive. We walked up to one that was filling up and spoke to the driver. There was apparently a communications problem. There were 6 of us who all very clearly said we wanted to go to Charlotte Amalie. He gave us the thumbs up and we climbed aboard. It wasn't the trip I remembered from back in 2012, where it was a relatively straight shot to town. Instead we got a tour up some curvy, steep switchbacks up a mountain. Eventually, he stopped at a viewpoint looking down on one of St. Thomas' mosts popular tourist beaches: Magens Bay. It was a pretty spectacular view. After we all re-loaded, we eventually ended up at the Magen's Bay public beach. A long way from Charlotte Amalie. But we thought he just decided to take the beachgoers (which turned out to be everybody but us) first. Then he got really angry at us, saying we were trying to scam him into a ride when we told him: "no, we said Charlotte Amalie." Anyway, he grudgingly took us back to town and got paid and we all moved on with our lives. This wasn't really a photo or excursion day. We did some shopping for gifts, etc., and found a nice bar by the water and sat for a while before returning for our last night on the ship.

IT WAS a good trip. One that would be repeated (for some of us) the next year. We would not cruise again until then. We did some "world traveling" but not on a cruise ship.

That wraps up 2024 Cruises - In just a few days, we will board the Celebrity Summit for the shortest cruise I have ever taken (5 days in and out of Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas and back). It will be our 21st! I will continue to catch up, with 2025 cruises, when I return in December See you then!

Grenada

Celebrity Summit - St. George's, Grenada
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

OUR GROUP was all pretty well- educated and up to date with political current events. We were all approaching middle age (late 50's) at that time, and all remembered the events in 1983 with the "invasion" of Grenada by U.S. troops under then President, Ronald Reagan. As all military actions are, it was controversial, but its ostensible mission was to rescue U.S. students attending St. George's Medical School, in the Grenadian city of St. George's, founded by some wealthy American physicians as a place for students who were unable to get into any of the U.S. medical schools - all of which were at the time extremely competitive and had very limited openings. As a political coup was in the works, there was real concern for the safety of these students and much disagreement among Caribean nations about the "need" for the U.S. operation. It went forward.

We were a very congenial group. But not really cohesive

LOOKING BACK, I am actually surprised, given our backgrounds and political interests, that we didn't do some kind of tour - which maybe involved the University. As I think about it - and it was a pattern at all of our stops - there were a number of contributing factors. First, as I mentioned, this whole group/trip came together rather quickly and - at least in terms of planning - at the last minute. It was one of those things where we found a cruise that fit our time schedules and we just all started jumping into it. I will add to that that the "nature" of the group probably also contributed. We were a very congenial group. But not really cohesive. Part of that is - in my view - size. Having organized and having joined a few golf-outing groups over the years, I can say with some authority that there is a "manageable" number, after which it just gets too hard to try to be "organized." In the last years of our golf trips, it was not unusual for all the guys to show up at the Tee-times, and then for us to go in two or more different directions for dinners. Those factors all conspired together to make this more of a tropical vacation in the sun than a serious cultural trip. And that is o.k. For us, that has become more and more the "norm" for Caribbean cruises.

THE UPSHOT is we didn't. We did find an "island tour" down at the port entrance, in a multi-person golf cart. We were all in, and on the way to board, my wife had a (thankfully minor) "medical issue," which forced us to back out at the last minute. Of course we had to tend to things, but it sounds like they had a nice excursion, and I always was disappointed we ultimately weren't able to join. When we returned to Grenada in February of 2025, we remedied that, signing on with a several hour tour that gave us a great overview of the island. At the end, our driver did a "drive-through" of St. George's (now a full-blown university with undergraduate and other professional schools). The campus is beautiful, and if I get back, I would love to get some time to walk around and make some photographs. Until then, I'll be satisfied with the memories that we did have there.

BECAUSE WE basically stayed behind and only spent just a few minutes off the ship, I didn't see much and I didn't really make any pictures (the ones that I did make, were mostly of the City of St. George's from on the ship. I did make one nice image of the Summit moored at the pier, but for the rest, I liked my "take" in 2025 much better). Fortunately, though, I did make several photographs of our recent visit to Grenada in 2025. By then, I was also writing blogs about my cruises, so we will have been caught up by the time we get to 2025. You can read about Grenada and the St. George's story in much more detail in Another Year; Another Caribbean Cruise, complete with pictures.

Dominica

Roseau, Dominica
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THERE ARE 2 places that are kind of on the "regular" Eastern Caribbean lineup that we have only been to twice: St. Croix, and Dominica. Until this past spring, we could add Grenada to the list, but we finally visited it again in 2025 and got our trip around the Island (more on that in the next post). We will be in Dominica again for only the second time (good lord willing and the creek don't rise - hey that rising creek thing is real here in Florida 😅), in February of 2026. It will be interesting to see the changes that may have ocurred, as at least 2 major hurricane devastated Dominica since our 2014 visit.

Roseau is the capitol and primary city in Domica

WE SPENT the least amount of time here. It was a mostly rainy day. We walked around for about 1/2 hour, and then found a bar in view of the ship, where we had a couple rounds of the local stuff, before concluding that with our drink packages, we were probably better served to find a spot to sit on the ship.

Colorful Cafe and Quirky Sign - Roseau, Dominica
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THE ONE thing that - for whatever reason - really stuck with me was the really long pier that stuck out into the water from the shore. Unlike most of the Caribbean Islands that we have ported at, Dominica does not have any large, protected harbor. The cruise ships stop at Roseau, a city on the west side of the island, almost to the southern end. Roseau is the capitol and primary city in Dominica. Over 15,000 of the roughly 65,000 inhabitants of Dominica live in Roseau. As you can see from the view from our ship deck, like most Caribbean Islands these days, they favor the bright, pastel "Caribbean" colors on many of their buildings, making them fun to photograph.

Cruise Pier - Roseau, Dominica
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THE ROSEAU cruise port seemed more on the rustic side and not nearly as commercial and built-up as many of the more popular stops. They still had their share of shops and street sales points, though. Though we missed it, there is a cobblestone marketplace very near the cruise port that was once a slave trading spot (the French brought slaves from Africa through Dominica to work in their coffee plantations in the Caribbean).

Bright colors in one of Roseau's obligatory, Portside tourist shops
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

DOMINICA's "INDIGENOUS" settlers were the Arawaks (now mostly extinct). In the late 17th century, Dominica was colonized by the French, who controlled it until the end of The Seven Years War when it was taken over by the British in about 1763. The British controlled it until it gained its independence in 1978. English is the official language of the island nation. Although we didn't explore, I later learned that Dominica is noted for its natural wonders, including a boiling lake and the endangered Sisserou Parrot which is only found on Dominica. It is also the youngest of the Lesser Antilles archipelago and is supposedly still undergoing its geological formation (hence the boiling lake). I will try to do more detailed research before our trip next February. But this time, we didn't even venture far from the port.

Double Rainbow over the island of Dominica - off the stern of Celebrity Summit
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

STILL, THERE were some distinctly memorable things about that day. First, the long dock is what I always think about when Dominica comes up. It made a great diagonal element for my photograph of the cruise port (such as it is). Perhaps equally (maybe more) memorable, was the most stunning formation of double rainbows I have ever seen, of the coast of the island, just as we departed. I was able to make a few shots off the stern railing at the back of the ship - but really didn't do it justice. But a pretty cool ending to another laid back day of socialization and fun with friends. And a nice "garnish" to our sunset cocktails.

St. Kitts (Again)

Port Zante Entrance to St. Kitts from Cruise Ships
Copyright Andy Richards 2014

WOULD OUR third time stopping at St. Kitts be "a charm?" Not really. In the next several years we would stop there 2 more times, with a planned 6th stop on a scheduled cruise in 2027. Having done the island tour/catamaran ride and the narrow guage railway on our first two trips, we were kind of "excursioned - out." For the next 3 trips, I didn't really do much. Time will tell what we do in 2027.

St. Kitts Cruise Pier - Port Zante - St. Kitts, West Indies
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

ON THIS trip, we had 5 guys and 3 of them were pretty active and athletic. Two of us were less so-inclined. The three "athletes:" Bob, Mark and Bob decided to join an excursion that was designated a "volcano" climb. The 5 ladies decided to take a Jeep tour (which they reported later, was fun). Jon and I demurred on both counts (for the volcano climb, we made the right choice - even our "athletes" agreed and said it was torture). Instead, we met in the buffet for breakfast and agree to meet up down in the port later.

St. Kitts Cruise Pier - Tug - Port Zante - St. Kitts, West Indies
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

I SOON got a little "stir - crazy," so I grabbed my camera and went ashore. Its always enjoyable for me to get some time off to myself with my camera - exploring. On our first two stops on St. Kitts, we really didn't get much time to just walk around. Not knowing much about our port city (Bassetere), I didn't really leave the port area. But I always seem to find some interesting, often colorful subjects in the ports. I have always liked "marine" subjects - especially boats of every description. I started with the Tug. It has been in the marina every time I have been there. Usually it is berthed over a bit from the ship pier, but today it was moored right on our pier, so I was able to get rather close to it. I like the colors and reflections, but probably my favorite shot was a closeup I made of the bow and reflection. I have photographed it a number of times over the years - an probably will do so again.

Looking around, I had a funny sense there might be a photo here

ONE OF the unique features of Port Zante at St. Kitts is its classic arched, bright yellow entrance portico. Not only must you walk through it to get to shore, but it has become - for me - a kind of beacon of familiarity whenever we approach (or leave) St. Kitts. It immediately attracts the eye.

Port Zante - St. Kitts, West Indies
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THE PORT Zante cruise port is one of the largest, most modern, and clean of the tourist/cruise port entrances to any island we have visited in the Caribbean. It is very commercial, but also very lively. Directly inside there is a large courtyard area. It is not uncommon for performers to be out there (hoping, of course, for "donations"). There is also a large area of bar - seating, with a Gazebo style bar in the middle. It is always hopping. The drinks are good, but it is probably not your best bet. Especially if your drink of choice is beer. There are several spots in the port where there are "specials" on one of the local beers (Caribe). I would be meeting up with Jon in a short while, and we would probably be finding one of those spots.

As an unkowing viewer, my first thought would be to wonder who belonged to those sandals?
St. Kitts, West Indies
Copyright Andy Richards 2014

ON MY own time, I wandered some of the side streets of the port. It is really kind of misleading to call them side-streets, as there is not very far you can go in either direction before hitting water, while in the port area. So these "side-streets" were mainly just more tourist shops. And St. Kitts has all the "regulars:" Diamonds International, Kay's, Luis Vuitton, Nike, Duty Free stores, Cigars (remember my admonition: "Just Don't Do it"), and even a Harley Davidson store. One of my partners at the time had a thing for Harley Davidson "stuff" (he didn't - nor had he ever - owned a bike 😕), but thinking of him, I wandered down that side street. I saw a young woman (she worked in the Harley store), sitting on a picnic table, but as I walked that way, someone entered the store and she quickly walked back in. I took the brief opportunity to make what I thought was a kind of interesting photo before she returned.

Streets of Port Zante - St. Kitts, West Indies
Copyright Andy Richards 2014

BUT I probably enjoyed the next two images as much as any I have ever made - certainly one of my lasting memories of St. Kitts. I had seen the little shack with the  Caribe Beer sign (3 for $5 USD), and wandered down that street; the colors attracting me as usual. I made a few images from that spot, including some of the street activity. Finding a shady spot,I sat for a few minutes. Shortly, this very attractive, well-dressed, local woman came walking down the street. She was clearly on her way somewhere with a purpose. Looking around, I had a funny sense there might be a photo here, so I got ready. I immediately knew this was one of those "moments" that happen on the streets. Watch the guy in the blue shirt from the first to the second image. 😈 LOL. I don't blame him for looking. I did! I doubt either of them even knew I was there.

Streets of Port Zante - St. Kitts, West Indies
Copyright Andy Richards 2014

I HAVE seen the National Museum of St. Kitts a few times when we have visited. I have never been inside. It is one of those places that I probably should visit. Maybe on our next stop. It is, as you can see, a very photogenic building, and as I was looking at framing it up, I was having a hard time isolating it for any kind of interesting shot, when I realized that the people in the foreground were the interesting shot.

The National Museum of St. Kitts
Copyright Andy Richards 2014

WE KNEW the beer would be cold and cheep somewhere in the port, so as soon as Jon and I met at the appointed time and place, we began our search. I had done some scoping earlier, and it turns out we didn't have far to go. Out of the arch and immediately to the right. Caribe at The Sweet Lime for $0.99 USD! 😋 The other guys met us there at the end of their excursion and we "reminisced" about our "eventful" days before returning to our ship to clean up and get ready for sunset cocktails.

St. Croix, USVI

Celebrity Summit - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

OUR FIRST port of call after departing San Juan was nearby St. Croix, USVI. The sail was just over 100 miles from the Port of Old San Juan to Frederiksted, at the western end of St. Croix. To date, this was our one and only stop in St. Croix. It was rather different from any stop we have made in the eastern Caribbean, but we had a nice, relaxing day there. At times, it felt like we were the only ones in the port. We docked there on a Sunday morning, and the whole port was very quiet. The port and town of Frederiksted felt like "old" Caribbean ports were probably like. No EFFY, or name brand designer shops and no brand new construction My own impression is that St. Croix is not one of the very popular and heavily visited cruise stops

St. Patrick Catholic Church - Frederiksted, St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THERE WERE a lot of very old, weathered buildings that house shops, bars and restaurants. On this particular Sunday morning, things were pretty dead. Frederiksted has a population of only about 1,000 people, so I am sure the tourism is what makes it crowded. I think we were the only ship in the port that morning, At just over 2,000 passengers, the area seemed to absorb those that got off the ship rather easily.

Main Street - Frederiksted - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

ST. CROIX is the largest of the USVI chain, and yet is a relatively small island, with the primary port in Christianstadt (though the cruise ships do not come in there). The entire island has a population somewhere around 40,000. There are about 3,000 between the town and suburban part of Christanstadt. There was very little going on in the cruise port area. Because we had not made major plans for excursions, we stayed right in Frederiksted. It looks like we might have found more to do over in Christianstadt, but we didn't know about it, and to get there would have required transportation. We didn't even see any taxis out and about the day we were there.

Main Street - Frederisted - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

EVEN THOUGH clearly exposed and beaten by the Caribbean weather, the old buildings had a beauty all of their own (in it felt like each of them had soul, character, and pride that it was still standing, though sadly a couple major hurricanes came through in the years after we visited and did catastrophic damage to much of the town).

Frederiksted - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

ON THE main street, there were signs (mostly in similar buildings to what I have published here) for dentists, lawyers, and there is even a USVI Supreme Court Building. I found the sign on the pink restaurant humorous. Here we were. But they didn't appear to be open for business.

One of few bars and restaurants in the downtown Frederiksted area
Frederiksted, St. Croix - USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THERE ARE said to be a number of nice, sandy beaches around the island, and it looks like it might be place for adult families to do an extended vacation in a very laid back atmosphere. Certainly not a "wild party" destination.

Frederiksted Cemetery - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

WE WALKED around the main street and up a back street to a beautiful cemetery with a very "caribbean" scheme of bright colors and burial tombs, and then back down past a large, Catholic church (St. Patrick's) that was in full Sunday ceremony. We stopped outside the doors and listened to the music for a bit.

Frederiksted Cemetery - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

BRIGHT COLORS is a recurring theme for me photographically, and it is my good fortune that it is also a recurring theme throughout the Caribbean. St. Croix is no exception as you can see from the cemetery, and some of the brightly painted buildings in the town. So you can see where my eye was immediately attracted to this building (the Oscar E. Henry Customs House), with a large "square" or plaza in front of it and more colorful buildings off in the background.

Oscar E. Henry Danish Customs House - Frederiksted - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

BUILT IN the 1800's the Oscar E. Henry Danish Customs house is just a block off the cruise pier and within a stone's throw to the 1700's Fort Frederik. Back in the 1800's, St. Croix was a Danish colony and these houses (this one and a larger and grander one over at the port in Christianstadt - which is not a national historic place) were the first points of entry, where customs duties were collected and administered. The building is owned by the USVI government, and though there have been plans in the miss for several years to create restaurants, shops and a museum there, sadly the building remains unused - save a fresh coat of paint shortly before we visited.

Old Canons on Fort Frederik - St. Croix, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

BACK AT the pier, we passed nearby the historic, 1700's, Danish Fort Frederick, at the harbor, now a National Historic Landmark, before re-boarding our ship. The promenade in front of the fort and along the waterfront yields up one of those sandy beaches off in the distance.

Frederiksted Beach - Fort Frederik in trhe foreground
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

The Caribbean Again (This time from San Juan)

San Juan secondary cruise port - San Juan, Puerto Rico
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

FOLLOWING WHAT perhaps could be characterized as a disastrous 2013 cruising season (we don't think so), 2014 was short and mostly uneventful. But we certainly hadn't soured on cruising. Indeed we were all in. Our single cruise this year, was a short, 7-day Caribbean Cruise. By February, 2014, we had 4 cruises under our belt, including the adventure in Europe. My good friend (and partner in our law firm) and I got talking about wanting to go somewhere warm during the dead of winter. In Saginaw, Michigan, where we lived, Mid-January to about mid-March was the poster child for SAD ("seasonal affective disorder). It was grey (partly from the skies and partly from the dirty, accumulated snow and slush), cold, damp and dark. It had been some years since Bob had been on a cruise ship, and he could tell by my enthusiasm that it was time for him to get on board again.

NCL Norwegian Sun Princess from our Celebrity Summit deck - San Juan, Puerto Rico
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

HE HAD cruised before on Carnival and on Celebrity. We agreed that any choice there would be a no-brainer. Three of our first four cruises had been on Princesses, but I had really enjoyed our Celebrity Cruise and wanted to do that again. We found a nice, 10-day cruise that originated out of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and visited 5 Caribbean islands, all in a 7-day cruise.

we expected (and experienced) a relaxing, enjoyable week in the sun!

WE HAD a group of guys that belonged to a local social club and the couples occasionally would go out to dinner together. Jon and Peg were also neighbors and our boys went to school together. Another "Bob" (you may find by reading here that I have a lot of "Bob" friends) - and his wife heard about it and decided to join us. Jon and Peg signed on soon afterward. Then another friend Mark decided he and his wife needed some relief from the "winter doldrums" Suddenly, we were 5 couples. It worked well. This was the first cruise since very early on where we would actually have friends along. It was a fun group who all got along well, so we expected (and experienced) a relaxing, enjoyable week in the sun!

Our motley crew (sans the photographer - moi') - Caribbean Celebrity Summit Cruise - 2014
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

HAVING STOPPED in San Juan on the "O'Brien" cruise the year before, I was looking forward again to doing some exploring around Old San Juan. What I wasn't aware of was that there are actually 2 cruise ports in San Juan. The one we have stopped at now multiple times is on the north side of San Juan Bay, adjacent to the two forts and located in the lee (south) of the peninsula where Old San Juan is located. The new and second port is diagonally across the bay, further to the southeast, near an industrial channel at the end of the bay, and immediately adjacent to the airport. It was midafternoon by the time we landed, sorted transportation to the cruise port, and got boarded. We had started out the day in Saginaw early that morning and had a long day of travel. Though less than a mile apart as the crow flies, by vehicle it is closer to 4 miles - through the city. With little or no planning or organization, the transportation to the port has been a bit of a circus, and I could just image that group trying to organize it self for the short trip to Old San Juan and back for just a couple hours before our sail-away. I had to laugh, though. There is another Senior Frogs right on the edge of the second cruise terminal. It looks like a military building (hangar maybe)? Already on board, with a bar right at hand, we didn't even make the walk. And in spite of it being not a very "pretty" cruise port, I actually got some nice photos of Norwegian Cruise Lines ship coming in. This is the only time (so far) that we have ever done a Caribbean sailing out of anywhere but Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Tampa (in just under a month, we will be adding another Caribbean departure port: Cape Canaveral).

We continued to give a decided edge to Celebrity for its food 

I WAS still new to Celebrity (this would be only our second cruise with them) and didn't really know the ships very well. When we sailed on the Reflection in 2012, it was the newest of the Celebrity fleet. Our ship on this cruise would be the older, Celebrity Summit. At that time Celebrity had two "classes" (it really isn't a quality descriptor, more of a size and design thing) of ships: The Millenium Class and the newer "Solstice Class." At that time, we were still 4 years away from the introduction of Celebrity's newest (and currently "top") class. There were only 4 ships in the Millenium Class, and they essentially replaced a few of the cruise line's aging vessels. The "Millenium" was the first and was launched in 2000, with the Infinity, the Summit, and finally The Constellation (which became Celebrity's "flagship" until the launching the Celebrity Edge in 2018, the first of the currently newest: "Edge Class."

Celebrity Summit - Caribbean - 2014
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

MILLENIUM CLASS ships were older and a bit smaller, but certainly not inferior. In my view, they were every bit the equivalent of the smaller Princess ships we sailed on. Over time, it seemed to me that Celebrity kind of pulled away from the traditional mainstream cruise ships that Princess and HAL continued to float. They all modernized as the rolled new ships and classes out. And in some ways, Princess out-teched Celebrity (in particular with their medallion system). But Celebrity began to have a more modern edge (beginning with the Solstice class and then really moving forward with the Edge class ships). We have not been on a Millenium class ship since. But in November of this year (2025) we again board the Summit for a short Bahamas cruise.

Our "rockstar" Bar Staff on the Sunset Deck of Celebrity Summit
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THE SUMMIT was still mostly "old school," but still very clean. They did not have the top deck aft bar that would become a centerpiece social gathering spot, especially in the afternoons, on the newer class ships. Instead the bar on the back was kind of an extension of the buffet. But it was still a "happening" place and we spent a fair amount of our onboard time back there. Their dining room was traditional, at that time, still mainly by set time and assigned table. The 10 of us, of course, had our own table. We continued to give a decided edge to Celebrity for its food (in fact, the "latest, greatest" Royal Princess, I thought the food was mediocre and certainly the worst we had had on any cruise so far). The buffet was also very good. That was back in the days when Celebrity would bring out sushi rolls in the mid-afternoon and we started a daily habit of a plate of sushi out on the back deck with our sunset cocktails. Sadly, they figured out how to monetize sushi a few years later and have discontinued the afternoon buffet sushi (indeed, the current version of the Summit has a "Sushi on 5," which has become one of Celebrity's most popular "specialty" restaurants - it was nonexistent in 2014). One of the signature venues on Celebrity ships was their Martini Bar. We were first introduced to it on that cruise. It was a very cozy, oblong bar with a unique iced bartop. There was nice seating around the bar, which was situated mid-ship on deck 4. There was also a small dance floor at the bottom of the stairway from the atrium that Celebrity calls "The Grand Foyer." It quickly became our first-stop meetup location just before dinner.

None of us were on this one for heavy cultural experiences

THIS CRUISE came together kind of quickly, and with the size and nature of the group, we didn't really try to set up any excursions. We had - by this time - also learned that in the Caribbean, it was often possible to hook up an island tour on-the-fly, once ashore. None of us were on this one for heavy cultural experiences - we were looking for fun, sun, and good company. There were very few planned excursions.

Celebrity is Listening!

A SHORT time back, I suggested here that one of the things I would like to see is for cruise lines to add more overnight itineraries to their sailings! After our last couple Celebity cruises, when given the opportunity to make suggestions in their surveys, I have seconded this suggestion. I have always lamented that the only real negative I see in our cruises is the lack of time to get to know our ports and spend time there during evening and in some of our cases (we photographers) during the early morning hours. Setting up cruises with more overnight stays in ports (and maybe even multiple nights) seemed to be a winning proposition to me.

WELL, IT appears that they listened! LOL, I am not naive enough to believe they read this blog, or take my personal recommendations into account. What I do think happened is that I was not the only one making this observation. Happily, there must have been many more with the same thinking - and perhaps some in management to boot.

CELEBRITY RELEASED its 2027-2028 sailings and there appears to be an emphasis on more overnight ports and longer port stays (12 hours) in general. Hooray! According to Cruise Critic, Celebrity offerings in 2027-28 will include 60 overnight port stays, and 115 12-hour or longer port calls. This is great news to me, though how it personally effects each of us will no doubt vary. One heartening example was the suggestion that there would be multiple overnight stays during a single cruise in Japan. Will we see others? We will have to check the itineraries to see.

CHECKING MY own booked cruises, I was very pleased to see that a planned Greek Isle Tour (with Turkey and Greece in the mix) has some seemingly very long port stops at almost every port, and includes what I see as a extra long overnight in Istanbul. This is one of the most favorable cruises I have seen in a very long time.

WILL OTHER cruise lines come aboard with this new trend? Time will tell, as it will no doubt be governed by their own market research and how well received the Celebrity program is.

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THE PREVIOUS post concluded our pretty eventful 1013 cruising year. We would ultimately get home after some continuing adventures, and regroup. Princess did everything they promised, and we certainly didn't leave that experience with any kind of bad taste in our mouth. Indeed, in spite of our work commitments and being somewhat new to cruising, we jumped right back in, with cruises - this time with a group of long-time friends in Saginaw, where we lived, for winter "getaway" cruises in 2014 and 2015, and then with "both proverbial feet" in 2015 (back again on Princess for our "makeup" cruise) in the Mediterranean in 2015. Those stories are coming up in future posts, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I am leaving yet again for 10 days in Vermont to shoot the fall foliage. When I return in mid-October, I promise to get things back on track. Until then . . . . .

"Disaster" At Sea

[We are back from on of our longer trips to Europe, including a weeklong pre-cruise stay in London, and then a 12-day cruise up to the fjords of Norway. All in all, a great week, with much new "fodder" for blog posts! I am busy "curating" photographs and consolidating notes from the cruise. Here, I left off way back in 2013, with a post about the beautiful island of Mykonos, Greece. And a foreshadowing of some bad luck in the near future]

Strait of Messina - Mediterranean Sea - Sicily/Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

THE FOLLOWING day was another planned day at sea. We had to sail all the way around "the boot" of Italy, and up through the narrow, Strait of Messina, between mainland Italy (to the east) and Sicily (to the west). At its narrowest point, it is just over 2 miles between shores. Once through the Strait of Messina, it was another nearly 200 miles to Naples. The word: "disaster" in the title is, of course, hyperbole. In the overall scheme of things it is hard to describe any of our cruises using terms like "disaster" seriously. Our fortune has been good and these things are what I have come to call: "First World Problems." 😊 The day was sunny. The weather was pleasant. We were cruising along at the accustomed 14 knots of the Royal Princess. We were actually lounging in the cabin, but thinking about going upstairs to the buffet to grab some lunch and sit out on deck. Suddenly: silence! Everything came to a full stop. No lights, no TV, no engine noise. It was eerie. There was flickering, and a blip and then things came back on again. Whew! Back to normal. Not. A few seconds later, it happened again. The pattern continued for a bit and then things went quiet again.

Princess immediately stepped to the line and made things right

Royal Princess - Mediterranean
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

WE HAD visions in our mind of the recent "stranded ships" by Carnival out in the Caribbean during the past year or so. A nightmare. We thought maybe we should head up and get some food before everything went to hell. Upstairs, there was a lot of murmuring and chatter. Eventually, the captain came on and explained that they were having electronics problems. With the main propulsion unit. They were working to get things fixed. An hour or so later, he came back on with the proverbial "good news and bad news." Good news: the ship had an emergency propulsion system (a little research later revealed that this was relatively new maritime law in the aftermath of the broken down ship horror stories - all new ships and refurbished ships now have this facility). The bad news, though, was that it could only move the ship along at about 6 knots. We weren't going to make it to Naples by our scheduled time. That would - of course, wreak havoc with everyone's shore schedules. We would continue to Naples and all the ships amenities, air conditioning, food storage and preparation, the bars, shows and shops would continue to operate as normal. In the meantime, have a free drink on the ship and continue to enjoy the facilities.

Tug - Port of Naples, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

I WAS crestfallen. I had been gunning for the Amalfi Coast for the entire trip. Now it appeared as if we would miss it. But as we sat there, letting the Captain's words sink in, we realized how fortunate we were in many ways. Not stranded at sea with no sanitary facilities or food. On a beautiful cruise ship in beautiful weather in the Mediterranean. Alive, safe and healthy. This was just a blip on the screen (although one that would soon get larger). By the next day, the decision had been made to cancel the balance of the cruise. It was pretty understandable. Safety is always going to be the primary driver in these situations. I am not going to re-hash the whole story again here. I gave a detailed account of it back in the early days of this blog, in: Expanding Our Travel Horizons - Murphy's Law. I will re-iterate the positives of this adventure. Princess immediately stepped to the line and made things right. A full refund of the entire cruise. Full responsibility for getting everyone home (not just to the final cruise destination. Home). I won't say there wasn't a certain amount of chaos, but ultimately it all came together. We looked at it from a "glass is half full" standpoint. We had just gotten 3/4 of a long Mediterranean Cruise - essentially free. It was a nice vacation which had only cost us our flight over, our extra days in Venice, and incidentals. Not by any means a terrible deal. And it wasn't over yet.

Port of Naples Tug - Assisting The Royal Princess - Naples, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

WE ULTIMATELY limped into Naples at about midnight after our scheduled day. The activity woke me up and I stood out on our balcony, fascinated, watching the harbor tugs turn us around and get us situated on the docks.

Amalfi Coast (overlooking Positano) - Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

IT TURNED out that our re-scheduled flight home to Michigan wasn't until two days later. In the meantime, we were given full use and access of the ship, our stateroom, and amenities, including maintaining the buffet and dining room. We contacted Rome-in-limo to see if there was any way they could accomodate us for the Amalfi Coast. Unfortunately, they were all booked out, but what they were able to do was provide us with a driver to get us to Rome the next day for our flight out of the airport in Rome. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, they are a great company.

Looking back on Amalfi from the pier - Amalfi, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

WITH OUR new friends, Scott and Pam, we did the next best thing we could. We walked down onto the pier and hired a taxi driver for the day to take us up the Amalfi Coast. Though his English was virtually non-exsitent, we managed to negotiate a price for the day and get through to him that we wanted to see the highlights of the coast. To him, we later learned, that meant only to Amalfi and back. But we made a few stops for views, and then were on our own for about 90 minutes in Amalfi. Obviously, he wasn't a guide, but still I got to see it and make some pictures! All in all, a good day.

Amalfi Cathedral - Amalfi, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

WE WALKED around Amalfi for a few minutes and then back out through the arched entrance to the city and down to the beach and pier area, where we would meet our driver.

Amalfi Cathedral - Amalfi, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

WE WERE pleasantly surprised at the lack of crowds and ease of getting around the coast and in Amalfi. When we returned in 2017 with our friends, Paul and Linda, the staircase up to the Amalfi Cathedral was completely packed with people - and the street below, as well. I was able to walk right up to the bottom of the stairs to make this photograph. In 2017 I had to hold my camera up above the crowd in the street.

Public Beach at Amalifi, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

THE NEXT morning, the 4 of us left The Royal Princess for the last time, meeting our car and driver down in the port area. Most of the drive to Rome (just under 2 hours) was on 4-lane highways and uneventful. Our driver was a nice guy who also was one of their guides.

Near the Rome city center - right around the corner from Scott and Pam's Hotel
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

OUR DESTINATIONS were quite different. My wife and I were staying at a hotel right next to Fiumicino, Rome's airport, about 15 miles outside of Rome's city center. Scott and Pam were staying on in Rome for a couple days and were booked in a hotel right near the city center. We had a little over 1/2 day though, and we decided we would ask our driver to drop our bags at our airport hotel, and wait while we checked in. We then rode in to the city with Scott and Pam. Our driver gave us a little drive around mini-tour of inner city Rome, before dropping us off at their motel, where he presented both of us with a bottle Limoncello.

We had neither the time, nor an appointment to see the inside of the Coloseum (though Scott and Pam would get inside later that week), I did get my chance to shoot it in nice lighting from the outside - Roman Coloseum - Rome, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

AFTER THEY checked in and we consulted a map, we realized we were within close walking distance of some of the sights, including the Coloseum, the entrance to the Agora, the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. Amazingly, we saw most of these sites and covered a lot of Rome that afternoon.

Trevi Fountain - Rome, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

WE WERE pretty lucky with our timing. Although still crowded with tourists, the famed Trevi Fountain was at least approachable. We have been back twice more and the first time it was under repair and virtually closed, which the second time (in 2022) it was such a mob scene it was really impossible to get a decent view or shot of it.

The Spanish Steps - Rome, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

HAVING SEEN the iconic sights within walking distance, we took a long, slow, walk back up toward their motel, and just looked at the sights and the incredible classic architecture.

Center City - Rome, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

AS A photographer back in those days, my primary focus was on landscape images. The concept of "street photography" hadn't really ocurred to me as something I would be attracted to. I still probably wouldn't call the bulk of shooting I do when in cities on travel "street shooting," per se. I think perhaps a better description might be "cityscape." I have always like colors and quirky signs, like the pizza baker statue. But it is not often that I "see" a street scene that I think has merit as a photograph on its own. When I saw the lone young man walking on a street below me, I actually though this was one where everything would come together and make a very nice street photography photo. I think I was right.

Center City, Rome, Italy
Copyright Andy Richards 2013 - All Rights Reserved

I REALIZE my title was a bit misleading. I needed a "hook." 😁 We could have viewed it as a disaster. It could have been handled poorly by Princess and turned out a disaster. But in the end, we walked away with a good feeling about the trip and many memories of a lifetime. And with our refunded cruise fare and a generous discount applied, we knew we would be back sometime soon. And we were definitely hooked on the Mediterranean, and cruising.