We have been very busy, or is it lazy? We haven’t written a blog entry since November last year and it’s about time we put that right. Here’s part 1, which features our big trip in November which took us to another one of Cheryl’s bucket list destinations.

We flew into Miami to pick up our first Oceania cruise.  First impressions were good, the ship was relatively small, about 700 people, the décor was tasteful and the food was excellent. Time for a quick drink or two before sailing.

Downside became apparent quickly – probably due to it being a round trip from Miami which meant no long haul flight was required, It was full of decrepit Americans shuffling around the ship that were loud (yep, that’s Americans for you) very rude by British manners standards, and surprisingly really badly dressed given this was an upmarket cruise line.  OK, not everyone was decrepit, loud and rude as we did meet and have fun with some of them.  What was interesting was that those we did speak to didn’t have too many kind words for President Donald John Trump. 

First the Caribbean Islands of Antigua, St Lucia, Grenada and Tobago.  This area has never been a destination we had at the top of the list but it was a good chance to see what we have been missing.  What we didn’t expect was the incredible humidity which drained us.  We limited our sightseeing to exploring the port towns where we docked trying to get plenty of walking done plus one great excursion for sea kayaking.

We had now been at sea for almost a week, and Neil’s torture was about to hit the upper limit of his capacity to endure – three sea days!  The pain of sea days can be alleviated by activities which cruise ships are usually very good at but this one was not great. The cruise Director was very mumsy and the in-house entertainment team were young and inexperienced and didn’t perform all that often.  Our guest destination speaker was also incredibly dull. 

There were some positives – the afternoon enrichment lectures were a couple with huge experience of dancing & choreography of Broadway shows (her) and stunt fight choreography (him). Evening entertainment included a magician who got Cheryl onto the stage plus a husband-and-wife team with him doing a very passable Freddy Mercury show and her singing a mixture of modern songs using her opera trained voice to maximum effect.  We also found the fun loving Brits and soon had a great friendship group on board that made the most of the limited entertainment.

We soon had another first.  Crossing the equator at sea, which  is marked by the “Crossing the Line” ceremony, a centuries-old maritime rite of passage. Uninitiated sailors or passengers (“Pollywogs”) are initiated by those who have crossed before (“Shellbacks”) in a theatrical ritual presided over by a costumed “King Neptune” to welcome them into the “Ancient Order of the Deep”.  In effect we had to take a pledge, kiss a big fish and had ice cold water poured on us by members of the crew dressed in costumes.  All good fun.

‘Now’, I hear you ask, ‘what’s in the bucket that needed 3 torrid days at sea’?  900 miles inland to Manaus, Brazil and 900 miles back along The Amazon River.  6 days of sights, wildlife and constant amazement at the scale of this river – the word ‘big’ just doesn’t cut it – at times it felt like you were still at sea instead of cruising up a river.  We’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Santarem – first stop on the Amazon

Boca de Valeria – walk through a small village & boat trip.

Maneus Day 1 – excursion to swim with pink dolphins, night excursion small boat safari to look for caimans.

Manaus Day 2 – City walk through this huge city & major port halfway along the Amazon

Colourful Parantins

Alter Do Chao – A beach resort in the Amazon. Beautiful, laid back and tranquil.

Of course, 3 torrid sea days to The Amazon meant 3 torrid sea days back to Barbados, Dominica, St Martin and Puerto Rico where we did the odd excursion and braved the humidity with lots of exercise. 

Nautilus submarine excursion Bridgetown Barbados

Waterfalls walk and lunch overlooking the bay at Roseau Dominica

View from the top of the zip lines at Philipsburg, St Maarten

Sunny day exploring San Juan, Puerto Rico where we moored just a few steps from the city.

Size clearly matters in the world of cruise ships. We were dwarfed by this monster in the port.

We arrived back from Miami early December ready for the busy run up to Xmas and the New Year, and getting ready for the next trip………..

Disclaimer- this post has been sponsored by the usual bunch of cheapskate businesses who didn’t bother offering us anything at all for this valuable free publicity – again!!