Day 7 (Cartagene, Columbia): March 1, 2019
I don't have a lot of notes from today. We all got up and went to breakfast together. I had muesli with extra banana chips and a Mickey waffle loaded with strawberry sauce. The girls said they had their usual: Deniz a banana, hashbrown with eggs, croissant, and sausage; Dede meat, fruit, cucumber, and cheese. We were Disbounding as Huey, Dewey, and Louis today.
We got off the ship and someone told us we could have our passports stamped in the little shop right in port so I ran back to the room to get them. Well that was a waste of time because the shop wanted $5 per person to stamp them which I found ridiculous. I had brought along a game called Cartagena that we were going to play in port but I forgot it in the room and it ended up better that we didn't as all of us were in a temper by the time we got back on the ship.
The heat and humidity even early in the morning were high so we road the little bus in and wandered around the shop and purchased a few things and some internet. The cost of internet use of $3 for an hour or $5 for 2 hours. Dede was being a right teenager insisting that she HAD to use her telephone to call her girlfriend rather than my iPad and that we should get two hours. Well there was no way I was staying out there for two hours in the heat with Deniz already nearly in tears and secondly I wanted to use my iPad to check what the new itineraries were that had just dropped. I couldn't check prices but I wanted to be ready with my choices when silver day came to book. Finally, I gave in on her phone but only agreed on 1 hour telling her she could have 40 minutes of it. I left her on one bench and Deniz on another and went to look at the birds, lizards and other animals.
My biggest mistake was to forget cash. The little vendors with ice cream and such wanted cash and of course even though we just left breakfast Deniz wanted an ice cream. I suppose I should have gone back to the ship but I absolutely didn't want to leave her there and I also hated to drag her back to the ship. I felt like I couldn't win with either of them. :sigh: Sometimes it is really hard to vacation alone with your kids.
This area of Cartagena is really beautiful and laid back. Once though I went a little too far and suddenly the taxi drivers are there and very aggressive. I would like to go again someday to take a tour of the city but I knew the kids wouldn't like it.
At one point I heard Dede calling me and she said the code wasn't working. I asked if she had gone back to the Wi-Fi booth to ask for help. She hadn't. So I said I'd be there in a minute. By the time I got back she was gone. Then I was frustrated. These birds were so funny though. Sometimes they'd scream "HELLO" and sometimes "HOLA" so I thought maybe I could make them scream other things. I said, "DEDE" and they screamed, "DEDE". LOL It was great. Finally, she came around and said it was something about her phone and we needed to use my iPad. Oh really? So she took my iPad and the timer started again. Ug. Finally, my turn came but the
DCL website was heckin slow. Probably because everyone else was doing the same thing. I did make friends with this adorable little cat that didn't have but half a tail. I finally gave up and we went back to the ship staying away from one another until dinner. Lunch in Cabanas was Mexican and delicious!
My reporting from yesterday was wrong as I apparently made it to a dance class in the afternoon of this day which was the Bachata. As the dance teacher says though, "There are no mistakes in dancing, just unexpected solos." I love this attitude.
The week before we left for this trip I had made up my mind that Deniz and I would holiday in Hawaii in February of 2020 at the military hotel in Honolulu. Then when I saw the Fantasy sail away right after that huge NCL ship I was pretty sure I had to complete the grand slam before the new ships started arriving in 2021. After two or three days on board I knew I couldn't go more than 18 months without a cruise. So I visited the on board cruise planning desk to ask what a September 7 night Fantasy sailing would cost me for the two of us for 2019. A crazy $4200 for an inside cabin! Outrageous! Well that would have to wait until silver day for sure. But still there were no new paper itineraries for the 2020 cruises. I was getting nervous.
Tonight we were in Tiana's Place for the Land and Sea Menu. I ordered the doubled baked Gruyere cheese souffle (which was different than I thought it would be), Cobb salad, beef tenderloin with lobster, warm banana bread pudding (yummy). Dede had the marinated shrimp, Cobb salad, pan seared scallops with linguine (she did not like the scallops but had never had them before so decided she's just not a fan of scallops). Deniz went with the red lentil soup with coconut milk (LOVED), lemon lime roasted chicken (the accompanying rice or risotto was awful), light lemon cake, rocky road sundae. We also ordered some vegetable briyani for the table which was incredibly good (I'll show this with Dede's food).
Our towel animal tonight was an ant eater. I had to ask Noel!
I met and spoke with a lot of wonderful people on this cruise that weren't just platinum but had twenty or thirty cruises on DCL. All of them had tried other lines and all of them had come back to DCL. When I asked why the answer was usually quality. Now I know DCL doesn't go everywhere and one day I'll have to branch out to do for example my dream trip to the Falklands, but for now I'm pretty loyal. Tonight wasn't a great food night for us but typically the girls and I love the food at all three meals. One lady I spoke too today though said she liked the food on RCL better. I was surprised and said that I really liked Cabanas for lunch because of the international food of the day. Her response was, "Oh we don't even try things like that. We like very plain things." So to each their own. All things are subjective.