Monday, February 24, 2025
Bob and I had separate plans for the day right from the beginning. He slept in while I was up by 6:15 am. I met Jon and Michelle in the buffet for breakfast at 7:00 am. Today the poached egg section was featuring "Eggs Parisian". The special featured a baguette topped with prosciutto, arugula, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. I have enjoyed rating the different presentations but today's version lost points because the food was just barely warm. Perhaps it was because we were eating early and the sauce hadn't had time to warm up on the burner yet? One new item I noticed was a giant bowl of fresh cherries. I got a plateful that the three of us sampled and I took the rest back to the cabin for Bob to taste.
He was just starting to stir when I got back to the room. I only stayed for a minute and then left to go meet Michelle. By then, Jon had already left to go explore the city of Oranjestad on foot. Michelle and I got off the ship and easily found the meeting place for our morning tour...on a submarine!
We were led across the street from the pier where we boarded a boat to take us out into open water where we would board the Atlantis submarine. The boat ride was windy and bumpy and took quite awhile before we reached the submarine. On the way, we went past a ship wreck in shallow water.
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| Looking back at the ships in port...the Eurodam, NCL Jewel & Rhapsody of the Seas |
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| Michelle & I on our way to the submarine. My beaded "necklace" you see in many photos is actually a lanyard holding my ship card. I made it at a craft class on an NCL cruise over a decade ago and still use it on every cruise! |
There were about 40 of us who transferred over to the top deck of the submarine and then crawled down the ladders located on either end to get inside. Michelle was the one who had chosen this tour but we were both anxious about experiencing claustrophobia in the tight quarters.
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| Pulling up next to the sub. |
Inside the sub everyone sat in two long rows with our backs to each other. Round portholes line the outside of the submarine where we could look out into the water.
Our dive lasted 45 minutes and reached a depth of over 140 feet! We were able to see many fish and coral and even two sunken ship wrecks. The temperature inside the sub was cool and there was air circulating so neither of us experienced the claustrophobia we had worried about. The tour is not something I would probably repeat, but it was fun and something to check off my bucket list. Submarine ride. 🗹
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| A 143 feet under the surface! 😲 |
While we were gone, Bob had gone ashore and was exploring with Jon. Michelle and I sat on the promenade deck until noon and then went to the Dive In for lunch. Bob joined us when he returned, but Jon skipped lunch in anticipation of their afternoon scuba dive.
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| A few of Bob's photos... |
The guys left around 2 pm and that was about the same time that ship workers started grinding on the rusty grates next to the lifeboat outside our cabin. It sounded like I was sitting in the dentist chair getting my teeth drilled...not a pleasant sound so I left and met Michelle at the Sea View pool. We had a very brief shower which sent us under the covered section of the deck for a short time but most of the afternoon was pleasant. When we got too warm we went into the pool and had a nice conversation with a lady from Ottawa, Canada.
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| The dive boat that Bob and Jon were on. |
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| The lifeboat work was RIGHT outside our window! So LOUD!! |
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| Plenty of open chairs by the pool! |
I was able to track Bob's iPhone and could see they were still out on a dive when Michelle and I started getting hungry. We went to the buffet and had finished dinner and the guys still hadn't returned. We were sitting at our "usual" table so when Jon got back he was able to find us. The Eurodam wasn't leaving Aruba until 11 pm so after he had eaten, Michelle convinced Jon to go ashore with her while she searched for a Starbucks to get a collector's mug.
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| Bob's diving location. |
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| It was Caribbean Night at the buffet. |
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| Success! Michelle found her Starbucks mug! |
I continued to wait on Bob at the buffet and he eventually showed up and I sat with him while he ate. (He had gone back to the cabin to shower.) By that time it was too late to make the early show in the theater (a production show featuring the singers and dancers called "All That") so we just went back to our cabin. We attempted to find a movie to watch on TV and even with the huge number available we couldn't come to an agreement on something we both wanted to see. (Just like home!! 😏) We both decided we really were tired and going to sleep sounded better than watching a movie anyway so at 9:00 we turned off the lights!
