Dawn Princess World Cruise 2010 - Friday July 30, 2010

Day 70 Barbados in the Caribbean
Barbados is a 14 by 21 mile island with a population of 279,000. It was named Barbados by the Portuguese and means “bearded one” because of the shaggy exposed roots of the fig trees. I did a tour to Sunbury Sugar Plantation House, which is over 300 years old and is a living monument to plantation life of a bygone era. While we were at Sunbury, we had a cooking demonstration. The demonstrators made fish cakes and Bajan dip, Jerk chicken, Plantains which look like bananas, which were dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried, bread fruit which is evidently full of protein and extremely plentiful, Bajan rum punch and Corn N Oil which was an old time planters drink made from rum, velvet falernum and angostura bitters. After sampling this cooking we continued our trip around the island to the orchid farm. The orchids are all grown in fenced off areas to prevent the local green monkeys from destroying them. Evidently, these monkeys, which were brought to Barbados as pets are now so prolific that they destroy all the crops that are not fenced off. When we returned to the ship we had a concert given by the locals. There were dancing women, the national and international band, an acrobat who did the splits and many somersaults and a wonderfully talented stilt walker and dancer. It was a very different and most enjoyable concert. (Barbara) I went on a snorkelling tour to swim with turtles and visit an old shipwreck in a marine park. The turtles moved around our group without fear as they took food from our tour guides. There were also large fish and prolific schools of smaller ones. We were taken to and from the Dawn Princess in a high powered jet boat much faster than anything I have travelled in before. We got very wet but the water was warm. Our guide Ife was a laugh a minute as he captained the boat and handed out the rum punch at the end of the snorkelling. It was a very noisy ride home to the ship as a consequence. (Bill)

Dawn Princess World Cruise 2010 - Thursday July 29, 2010

Day 69 Antigua in the Caribbean
Although Antigua has full political sovereignty with its own Prime Minister, it was British in the past and so they still drive on the left hand side of the road. We had a beach day today. We went by car to Halcyon Beach, which had warm calm water with no creepy organisms in the water and no sharks. The water was so clear that you could see the fine white sand on the bottom. People say that Australia has the best beaches in the world, but after seeing Halcyon beach, I would disagree. Bill and I had a walk along the beautiful, clean, white sandy beach. We swam in the crystal, clear warm water and drank several rum punches. I do not like rum, but these punches, made with three different Caribbean rums were fantastic. Some of the people from the ship who may have had a few more than three of these, had to be assisted back to the ship. They say that Antigua has 365 different beaches, one for each day of the year. I liked the fact that it was completely unspoiled. Most of the buildings are single storey, although some of the hotels are two storey. There are no Gold Coast monstrosities here. Evidently, Hemingway came here and did some writing in a house that is now a restaurant. He did seem to have the knack of finding picturesque places on the planet to help inspire his writings. (Barbara)

Dawn Princess World Cruise 2010 - Wednesday July 28, 2010

Day 68 Off the coast of Puerto Rico
Today was another day at sea with quite smooth travelling. I attended Richard’s talk entitled The “Oil” of 17th Century Globalization: Sugar and Rum. During this talk he traced the history of slavery starting with Joseph from the Old Testament. During the 17th century, slaves were taken from Africa to the Caribbean to work on the sugar plantations there, the molasses from the sugar was taken to Newport to be made into rum then the rum was taken to Africa to buy slaves, and so the triangle repeated itself.
We learnt the Mayfair Quickstep at dancing class today. Tonight, we were entertained by the new group of Princess dancers and singers, who boarded the ship in New York. They did a most energetic show called Shimmy. This involved many songs and dances from the fifties. Their show was more vibrant than the shows put on by the previous group of singers and dancers. They were talented in what they did, both the male and female singer had strong voices and the whole cast acted out the songs. I am looking forward to more performances from them. (Barbara) Just for the record, the baseball game in New York resumed about 6 pm that day after a 2.5 hour rain delay. The Yankees subsequently won 12 – 6 but the “Arod” did not get his record. Choir practice continues. So far on the cruise, we have done tributes to the movies and the theatre as well as an Anzac Service and American Trilogy. On this leg, we are doing a tribute to the Big Bands (broadly speaking). Your trivia activity for tonight is to sing the first line of each song out loud. Answers in tomorrow’s blog. No cheating! In the Mood, Juke Box Saturday, Little Brown Jug, Goody Goody, On the Sunny Side of the Street, Blue Skies, Always, Sentimental Journey, And the Angels Sing, When They Begin the Beguine, Pennsylvania 6-5000, Take the A Train, Chattanooga Choo Choo, Come Fly with Me, You Make Me Feel So Young, Paper Moon, Nearness of You, I Get a Kick out of You, My Kind of Town, Chicago, Lili Marlene, I’ll be Seeing You, White Cliffs, We’ll Meet Again. (Bill)