Curacao

 Tuesday, February 25, 2025

At the Captain's toast, Captain Eldering had mentioned that he had a special treat for all of the passengers. He said that the Eurodam would be docking right downtown in Willemstad, Curacao. He encouraged everyone to be up by 6:30 am to watch as the ship sailed in.

That sounded like a great idea, but even after going to bed at 9 pm I didn't stir until Bob's alarm went off at 7 am. We turned on the TV to the bow camera channel and sure enough...we were docked right in the center of town next to the floating Queen Emma Bridge. On our first visit to Curacao our ship was docked where the NCL ship in the following photo was located. We had no time after the tour we took on that visit so we had not gotten to see the main part of town.

The NCL ship in the distance is where I assumed we would be docked.
How fun to be right downtown instead!

Bob and Jon were going to scuba dive again and needed to leave by 8:15 so we had to hustle a bit to get to the buffet for breakfast. Today the poached egg special was "Forest Mushroom Benedict". It was an English muffin topped with spinach, mushrooms, a poached egg and hollandaise sauce. That didn't appeal to me so I just had a plain muffin with the poached egg on top. (I decided I needed to limit my intake of hollandaise sauce...eating it every morning for 3 weeks could be disastrous!!) Unfortunately the eggs were barely warm. My coffee was also cold so I can't give very high marks for the breakfast.

The guys had booked their dive through "The Dive Bus" and had been put in touch with another guy on the ship who was also diving. The three of them met and shared a taxi to the dive shop. Here is Bob with a report on his dive:

Our diving experience was quite fun and surprising. We had dived in Aruba the day before, so the jitters were past us. Jon and I had both settled in again to BCD, weights, tank, and all the correct procedures. We are good partners in the water. We did 2 shore dives, both right across the road from the shop. We literally walked across the road in all our gear to step into the water. The house reef was first, and we had lots of great sea life to enjoy. The second, called Car Pile, I was nervous about. It’s billed as a pile of junk dumped in the water to attract sea life. Really? We were quite surprised at how grown over it was, the fascinating structure of large steel wheels and beams, and lots of great sea life and coral. We came out really surprised how fun that was. I had dived in Aruba and Bonaire previously, so I’m glad to now have seen a little bit of Curacao.

Michelle and I took off on foot to find a Starbucks where she could hopefully find another collector's mug. Using Google maps we walked along the waterfront until we came to the Rif Fort which had been converted into a shopping center.

Michelle stopped in one of the shops and bought a Curacao t-shirt. Just outside the walls of the fort we found the Starbucks and SCORE...they  had the mug she was looking for. We each bought a coffee which we enjoyed inside in the air-conditioning. On the way back to the ship we stopped off and on in a few shops and also went down one of the side streets window shopping. My knee wasn't happy about the walk, but I managed by going slow.

We were back on the ship around 11:00. Crew guys were still grinding on the grates outside my cabin window so Michelle and I went down to the promenade deck and sat facing the main part of the city of Willemstad...so pretty! By noon we decided not to wait on the guys and ordered pizzas through the Navigator app. We went to our usual table in the buffet and waited to get an alert that the pizzas were ready. We finished eating and the guys still hadn't returned so we went back to our cabins. A nap was sounding nice, but the workers were making so much noise that any sleep was out of the question. 

I learned to keep the curtains closed when I was changing clothes because you never knew if someone was right outside the window!

Cabin #4060. Even with the occasional work being done outside our cabin,
I appreciated having the large window that let in lots of light.

I like that most of HAL's cabins have couches or loveseats.
I used the adjustable table as my "office space" when working on my blog.

It wasn't long until Bob did come back and I went to sit with him in the buffet while he ate. Jon also joined us. I didn't stick around long because a lady sitting nearby was coughing like crazy. Drinks were still being filled by the crew so I had them fill my large insulated mug with ice water and then added a sugar-free lemonade packet when I got back to the room.

Bob, Jon and Michelle got off the ship to do a little exploring but I decided the couple of miles I had walked in the morning was all my knee was going to take. I putzed around the cabin getting my backpack organized for tomorrow's snorkeling excursion, watched some news on TV and updated my blog notes. Bob texted me a few times while they were out and said it was very hot which convinced me I had made the right decision by not going.

Just beyond where the Eurodam was docked was the Queen Juliana bridge, 185 feet above the water.

Jon & Michelle crossing the Queen Emma floating bridge.

When they returned, Bob called and made dinner reservations for 5:30 pm and when it was time, we met Jon and Michelle in the dining room. Bob, Michelle and I all ordered the wiener schnitzel and the piece of meat was MASSIVE! None of us were able to finish. And anytime lamb is on the menu, that is what Jon orders...just as he did tonight.

So good...but so big! The rest of the meal is hiding under the piece of meat!

Between the main course and dessert, I had Bob run outside to the promenade deck to get a photo of the painted buildings along the waterfront being illuminated by the setting sun. After we finished we all went out and saw the floating bridge lit up and being opened as a large ship sailed by. 

When the bridge is open (as it is in this photo) a ferry was available to cross the river.

The evening entertainment was pianist Juan Pablo. His show combined his excellent piano playing with a little humor. With his heavy accent I missed a few of the jokes and I think I was getting tired enough that I didn't enjoy the show as much as I might have normally.

No mention was made of playing cards (I think everyone was tired!) and we parted ways with Jon and Michelle right after the show. Bob and I decided tomorrow would be a room service breakfast day so we got the menu filled out. We rarely order room service so we hoped we filled it out correctly before hanging it on our door handle in the hallway. After getting things organized that we would need for snorkeling tomorrow in Bonaire, we hit the hay.

Willemstad, Curacao

Click here for Curacao Video

Tuesday, April 17 – Curacao        

Our first port…the island of Curacao. A new port for us and our third and final island in the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao). I grabbed my camera and went outside to get some photos, but instantly the lens fogged up and ended that endeavor. 😒

After breakfast I turned my phone on and crossed my fingers that T-Mobile was telling the truth when they said there is free texting and data in over 140 countries…including Curacao! I sat outside on the promenade deck and texted our kids and checked email.

When we saw Irie Tour buses loading near the ship I got worried that perhaps ship time was not the same as local time and we were going to be late for our tour. I double checked and the time was correct and our confirmation said we weren’t to meet until 9:30 am.

We had booked an independent tour called West Side Beach Hopping tour with Irie Tours. The directions indicated we were to meet at the white tent which turned out to be next to the other dock where the Navigator of the Seas had just pulled in. We hitched a ride on the shuttle (similar to a large golf cart) to get to the meeting spot.

For anyone planning a DIY day in Curacao, here are the taxi prices posted at the port.

Our tour guide was there checking off names as we arrived and seemed VERY surprised when we said we needed to be back on the ship no later than 3:30 pm. There was only one other couple from the Zaandam, the rest were passengers from the Navigator. This turned out to be a problem. The Navigator was to be in port much later than the Zaandam and the tour wasn’t due back until 4:00 or so. The guide assured us we would be back in time (which we were) but it meant cutting our tour short. More on this later…

No windows...and not the smoothest ride.

Our first stop was to see flamingos. We just stopped along the highway and the birds were quite some distance away. I had chose to not bring my “good” camera with the long zoom since I knew we would be spending time on a beach so the photos are not very impressive. With some cropping and editing, you can at least make out that they were birds. 😉  I would have much rather skipped this stop than to run out of time later in the day.

The second destination was Shete Boka National Park. Huge waves were crashing against the cliff and washing into an underground cavern. We both climbed down into the cave to see the waves (and wondering if that was really a good idea). Just as I climbed up the path to get out, a huge wave washed through the cavern soaking Bob and the others who were still there. He literally jumped straight up but there was no avoiding it!

Adding to the cairns along the path.

Inside the cavern. Although this photo doesn't show it well, the water was an incredible color of blue.

Some interesting trees at the little cafe in Shete Boka. 

 Moving on, the bus stopped at Playa Piskado…a marina that is popular with sea turtles who come to feast on the fish guts that get thrown into the water (yuck.) Several from our group snorkeled here, but we chose to stay dry since the stop was going to be short. It was interesting to watch a guy cleaning giant tuna and then using a ball bat and machete to cut them up into steaks.

Sushi anyone?

Just a short distance away was Playa Forti. A few people took the opportunity to jump from the high cliff into the water below…scary! Others wanted to jump, but fear took over when they got to the edge and saw how far down it was to the water!

Bob with our bus driver.

Finally we made it to the first beach on the tour…Playa Knip where we had an hour to swim. It was heavenly! The beach was surrounded by cliffs covered with cactus!

We passed by the oldest Catholic Church and cemetery on our way to the last beach, Porto Marie.

Passengers from the Navigator of the Seas were given two hours to spend at the beach where they could swim and get some lunch. Our unfortunate bunch of four from the Zaandam were told to be ready to leave in 25 minutes…only enough time to walk down the beach and back.

No...that is not a dog in this photo...

It is a PIG!

I questioned the guide as to why they weren’t aware that the Zaandam had shorter port times and he insinuated that the schedule had been changed (which it hadn’t.) I was expecting an apology for cutting our tour short or an offer to adjust the price, but instead he complained that we were an inconvenience since they were going to have to make a separate trip to return us to the ship.

If I had known we would spend so little time at the beach, I probably would not have booked the tour. I am sorry that we did not get to see any of the city of Willenstad…especially the colorful buildings that I have seen in so many photos. I did get some photos of the high Queen Juliana bridge and a little of the city from the promenade deck but the Navigator of the Seas was blocking much of our view. Drat.

Queen Juliana Bridge

I used the last few minutes to text home and check Facebook until the ship pulled away from the dock and headed out to sea. Time to put the phone back in airplane mode. (Or I guess in our case it was “ship mode”!)

It was Danny’s birthday so the waiters all sang to him…but it wasn’t the traditional birthday song. The Indonesian waiters sang a song in their own language while accompanying the singing with a drum, tambourines, and even tapping a silver vase with a spoon to serve as chime. Throughout the cruise we would enjoy the tune often as they serenaded others who were celebrating a birthday or anniversary.

Happy Birthday, Danny!

STARTERS

The 8 pm show in the theater was Bernie Fields…a harmonica virtuoso. Very interesting and very talented.

Before going to bed the clocks got turned back one hour...extra sleep for us!