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Oriana TA & Back 2013

January - March 2013
A 73-day adventure by Rulocal Read more
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  • TravelerOriana TA & Back 2013
    Day 45

    Sandra's place is the place to be

    February 22, 2013 in Saint Lucia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Well St Lucia was good this time round.
    For one thing everything was open, so there were plenty of shops and things to see, which there weren't last time.
    We got some free internet outside a shopping centre not far from the ship.
    Then we had the piece de resistance "Sandra's Bar", which was a shack with seats, by what passed for a river, but looked more like an open drain, but if I'm honest it didn't smell, well not much....lol.
    In Sandra's bar you could get local Piton beer for $1.20 a bottle and if you were brave enough you cold sample the delights of smoked herring and cucumber salad.
    This delightful local delicacy looked and smelled awful, but Jermain, who was one of the local characters in the bar waxed lyrical on the delights of this wonderful dish.
    We were all panicking in case he offered us a taste, which thankfully he didn't.....phew!
    The place was full of locals coming and going one of them was a girl whose name I didn't get, who before her shift behind the bar at an all inclusive beach resort, sank four or five bottles of Guinness, while telling us of the free shots to be had while she was working in the hotel bar....lol.
    All in all it was a great afternoon where we met some real people and not one of the expensive and contrived trips from the ship where the things you see and people you meet are all put there for the tourists.    Read more

  • TravelerOriana TA & Back 2013
    Day 46

    St Kitts & Nevis

    February 23, 2013 in Saint Kitts and Nevis ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    St Kitts today and it looks like we're doing a tour of the Caribbean by local bars.
    Today it was Yummies bar and Snackette, which is a typical Caribbean type bar serving local beer and local food which mainly seemed to be rice and beans served with salad. (eat in or take away)
    Once again we just sampled the beer and gave the food a miss, I'm sure one of these days we'll be brave enough to try some, somewhere.
    We had the craic with the owner who called himself 'film star' because he'd met the Prime Minister of St Kitts and had a photo to prove it.
    I must admit in the photo dressed in his white fedora hat and white suit with matching white shoes and blood red scarf he did look every inch the film star.
    Just a pity in real life his tatty shorts and T-shirt, flip flops and crooked teeth ruined the illusion, he was a nice guy though.
    We then headed back to the port and found another bar there called 'Te Pau' which sold Carib beer at 99 cents a bottle!
    Bloody hell, we'd just been paying $2 at 'Yummies bar'....lol.
    After 'Te Pau' we returned to the ship for a well earned sleep.
    Later that evening on board ship there was a 'Caribbean Pool Party' but we didn't stay as it mainly consisted of 60 to 70 year old pensioners 'dad' dancing to Bob Marley, and that is not a pretty sight.
    So we finished the evening off in lord's Tavern listening to the brilliant 'Intermission Duo' with Kandy singing at her brilliant best.
    Then off to bed for another well earned sleep.
    Tomorrow it's Tortola, which is just about the most beautiful island I've seen and because we've all seen it before and done the tours and the beach, I think just for a change we'll suss out a local bar, and continue our cultural tour of the Caribbean....hic!...
    Jennifer has had a text off Hazel & posh Peter, and I believe you're reading the blog guys, so this is a quick hi from us all, and we really do wish you were here xx    Read more

  • TravelerOriana TA & Back 2013
    Day 48

    "Buy a drink" She said!!

    February 25, 2013 in British Virgin Islands ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Road Town,Tortola today and we continued our cultural tour of the Caribbean by looking for a cheap local bar, which we initially failed to do.
    The bars we passed were either closed or as in one case to expensive at $3 a beer!!.lol
    So we headed back to the harbour bar which turned out to be even more expensive at $3.50 a beer but it did have WiFi.
    I purchased 4 Carib beers, flippin heck that cost $14!! (I'm sure I'm turning into a Yorkshire man)
    I then says to the girl behind the bar does the WiFi need a password? To which she replies "yes", so I says "what is it?"
    She replies "buy a drink".
    Then me being the complete knob head that I am says "I've just bought one, in fact I've just bought 4".
    She looks at me and I look at her for what seems an eternity.
    She then says "right what did you ask me?" I said "is there a password for the WiFi?"
    She says "yes" once again.
    So I says "what is it? 'please' ", thinking she was being funny because I hadn't said please the first time.
    To which she replied 'buy a drink'.
    I actually opened my mouth to speak when the penny FINALLY dropped 'buyadrink' ......'buyadrink', what a clever password, far to clever for me obviously.....LMFAO
    On the way back to the ship we found a proper local bar doing beers at 2 for $5 and rum punch and something called a pain killer for $5 each, John insisted we tried one after our beers, I had a rum punch and he had a pain killer.
    I can tell you they both killed pain, until the next morning when they then caused pain....will we ever learn? ....lol.    Read more

  • TravelerOriana TA & Back 2013
    Day 49

    My god the heat! The damned heat!

    February 26, 2013 in Jamaica ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Day at sea yesterday and the officer of the watch announced a temperature of 26 degrees, well I think he needs a little finger on his watch as the temperature was definitely in the 30s.
    Just ask any of the sun worshippers who vacated their sunbeds about 1pm because they were melting in the heat, the beds that is not the people...lol.

    Sheila and I had a sun free day and stayed inside most of the time, just venturing out at lunch time for the on deck Bar-BQ, which I'm sure they could have cooked without charcoal...did I mention how hot it was on deck?

    After lunch my bed was calling me so I had a nap till quiz time, you may have noticed that I've not mentioned the quizzes much recently, that's mainly due to the fact that after our good start at the beginning of the cruise, we've bombed out in most of the quizzes.
    But we still keep plugging away.
    We're hoping most of the other teams get bored of winning and stop turning up, thus giving us a better chance of winning again.
    Then again the way we've been performing if we were the only team taking part we'd still finish second....!.

    Sheila and I decided to have an early night and went to bed at 9.30pm, with the hour going back that made it 8.30 pm and the reason for me writing this blog at 4.45am.
    Well I have had 8 hours sleep plus naps.
    It's Montego Bay, Jamaica today so Sheila, Jennifer, John and I are going to continue our cultural crusade of the Caribbean.
    We've had a few warnings about the dangers of walking around Jamaica alone, but being seasoned travellers and hard cases from Bradford and Liverpool I'm sure we'll be ok.
    If that fails I'm hoping Jennifer being almost a local will help..lmao.
    It's Monday 25th of February, you know the time and it's dark outside but lovely and warm....    Read more

  • TravelerOriana TA & Back 2013
    Day 50

    George Town, Cayman Islands

    February 27, 2013 in Cayman Islands ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    We're all berthed off Georgetown Grand Cayman.
    There are five ships most are not allowed to anchor due to the coral on the sea bed, from what I can see it's only the Disney Magic that's anchored.
    The other four, that's us the Oriana, the Carnival Victory, the Aida Aura and the RCCL Independence of the Seas are all not anchored but held on position by their engines.
    The temperature is in the 80s already and it's only 9am.
    We're doing our usual two or three hours by the pool, then lunch and then we'll hit the town..    Read more

  • TravelerOriana TA & Back 2013
    Day 50

    To Hell and back!!

    February 27, 2013 in Cayman Islands ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Well we hit the town, that is after a 40 minute wait for a tender.
    When we finally got to George town it was like first day of the January sales, there where thousands of people milling around.
    We decided to leave the waterfront and take to the side streets, where John spotted a sign for the local bus that could take us to Hell for $2.50 each.
    So on we got and sure enough after about 15 minutes we arrived at Hell.
    The charge was only $2.50 each as I said, with no messing around or the driver asking for tips as is usually the case.
    The driver told is that when we were ready to come back all we had to do was stand at the front of the post office and a bus would be no more than 10 minutes.
    For those who've not been to Hell before it's quite an interesting little place with it's volcanic rocks and quaint little post office.
    For the princely sum of 95 cents you can buy a postcard and a stamp and send it to your family or friends with the postmark 'sent from Hell'.
    We had a good look around and too lots of pictures, then waited by the road and sure enough within 10 minutes a bus came and took us back to the port.
    Once again no hassle or tips wanted.
    We even had a chat with a lovely Jamaican guy who works on the island.
    I wish our pubic transport at home was as reliable and friendly.
    Back in George Town we joined the rather large queue for our tender back to the ship.
    There must have been 500 people queuing for the Oriana tender and only 5 queuing for the Aida Aura tender, obliviously the Germans can organise things far better than us Brits...
    Their tenders went back and forth like clockwork, ours either failed to launch, which happened with one of them, broke down which happened with another or ran aground on the beach which happened with the third one.
    All in all it failed to instil confidence.
    The tenders aside we all had a great day ashore, even of we didn't manage to continue our cultural tour of Caribbean bars as we couldn't find one empty enough to get served in the limited time we had left.....    Read more

  • TravelerOriana TA & Back 2013
    Day 51

    Montego Bay

    February 28, 2013 in Jamaica ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    What a disappointment!
    Montego Bay conjures up thoughts of beautiful sunshine, miles and miles of gorgeous beaches and Bobby Bloom singing the delights of Montego bay, on the island of Jamaica.
    Then P&O go and spoil it all by docking us in an industrial wasteland, trying to pass it off as a romantic tropical port, and failing miserably.
    There was literally nothing there except for a run down shopping complex just outside the port gates, where all but one shop and one bar was closed.
    We didn't use the shop but did use the VERY overpriced bar for the WiFi.
    To be honest inside the port building there were some more trinket shops and one even more expensive bar.
    You could not walk to anywhere as nothing was within walking distance.
    There was a shuttle available at $10 return which would take you to a shopping mall.
    We didn't bother with it and after having a beer in the outside bar and using the WiFi, we returned to the ship.
    By the horror stories we heard later about passengers being ripped off by the shuttle divers it was a wise move.
    All in all where P&O decided to park the ship, was second only to Alexandria in Egypt as being the worst place I've visited.    Read more

  • TravelerOriana TA & Back 2013
    Day 52

    Puerta Maya, Cozumel, Mexico

    March 1, 2013 in Mexico ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Puerta Maya today, nice place if very commercialized.
    The port area consisted of lots and lots of shops and the largest duty free shop I've ever seen.
    I must admit that there were bargains to be had especially in T shirts.
    The shop keepers were quite friendly and not to pushy, one of them was either very funny or very honest when he said to us, "senor, senora, come into my shop and give me the chance to rip you off" he said this with a great big smile...lol
    We went for a short walk outside the port and continued our Caribbean cultural tour by finding a Mexican/Chinese restaurant that had cheap beer and free WiFi, where we spent a very pleasant hour or so.
    After that it was back to the port to buy some booze for various people, then it was all aboard for another couple of drinks before a well earned afternoon nap.
    In the evening our favourite entertainment on the ship, the Intermission Duo, where appearing in the Pacific lounge, which is the main cabaret lounge on the ship and they were brilliant even sounding better than in the Lords tavern pub, which is their usual venue.
    In this bigger venue Kandy could really let her voice rip and Gordon could wap his guitar and electric piano volume right up the effect was amazing.
    They really are the best entertainment I've ever seen on board any ship I've been on, especially Kandy whose vocals are amazing.
    But it's not just the vocals she uses the mic like an instrument and literally acts out the songs she sings.
    They finished last nights spot with Wuthering Heights, by Kate Bush and imho did it better than she does, with Kandy's amazing voice and Gordons superb guitar work it was a brilliant end to a brilliant show.... They really should be headlining in the theatre.    Read more

  • TravelerOriana TA & Back 2013
    Day 53

    Way down south in Nawlins!

    March 2, 2013 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 4 °C

    It's 5 am and we're about to dock in New Orleans.
    We've been sailing along the mighty Mississippi since 9pm last night, it's still to dark to see much yet, but we have been passing lots of oil, or gas rigs in the river since we entered it's mouth.
    Also the Mississippi is longer, wider and deeper than I realised as Oriana is quite a big ship at about 70,000 tons and we've been steaming along the river for almost eight hours and we're not there yet.
    I'll be going down to get our immigration passes soon so I'll have more to report later.    Read more

  • TravelerOriana TA & Back 2013
    Day 53

    New Orleans, The Big Easy.

    March 2, 2013 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 4 °C

    Well after a very pleasant immigration clearance, the quickest and easiest we've ever had in the US.
    We went for our first walk around New Orleans, mainly in the french quarter.
    In the cold light of day it was a bit run down and seedy.
    But later on in the evening it became colourful and vibrant.
    Only three of us went out in the evening as Sheila wasn't up to it after all the walking we did in the morning.
    So she missed her voodoo reading, I just hope Dr John doesn't put a hex on us....lol.
    Anyway the first place we hit was Laffiettes old blacksmiths shop, which is the oldest bar in the french quarter.
    Out was ok, but a bit dark and dismal.
    We got talking to a group of lads from Texas who were on a stag weekend.
    We moved on to a couple of other bars and then to a bar called The Funky Pirate Blues Club, which was brilliant, the band was superb, the did all the old blues stuff by John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and guys like that.
    Another bar whose name escapes me had a young rock band on, so we had Led Zeppelin and the like.
    The one thing we didn't hear on Bourbon St was jazz, which was a shame.
    On the street though there were lots of different entertainers ranging from a guy making fantastic music on a plastic bucket to break dancers dancing on a huge chess board.
    All in all we had a great but very tiring day...think I'm getting to old for all this partying, in fact I don't think it I KNOW! it.
    If we visit New Orleans again which I'm sure we will, Bourbon St won't be top of the list, but will still be on it if quite a but lower down.    Read more

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