St Kitts

     March 23 brought us to the island of St Kitts (shortened from its original name  of St Christopher, bestowed by Columbus in 1493). Basseterre, the capital where we docked, was founded in 1627 and has a population of about 14,000.  While the island was claimed for Spain by Columbus, it was settled in the early 17th century by the British and French.  Control went back and forth between them until 1783, when it became British after the Seven Years War. 

     We visited this island a number of years ago, before the beginning of this blog in 2012.  At that time we rode on the small gauge railroad that takes you around the coast in cars with an open upper level.  It was built in the early 20th century to transport sugar to the port from plantations around the island and was converted to a tourist attraction after the sugar industry was closed in 2005.  It’s a nice ride, but since we had already done that we decided this time to take an excursion to see Ft Brimstone, a world heritage site.

     The excursion started with a panoramic (stay on the bus) tour through the streets of Basseterre.  You can’t really get to know a city through the windows of a moving bus and it’s also hard to get decent pictures.  Among other things we saw in passing was the Berkeley Memorial with its clocktower standing in the middle of the Circus, said to be modeled on Piccadilly Circus in London.  We also passed St George’s Anglican Church, originally established in 1710 then rebuilt after being largely destroyed by an earthquake and hurricane in 1842 & 1843.  The current building was consecrated in 1859 then restored in 1869 after a devastating fire.

     We drove along the coast road, at one point passing some trees full of white egrets.

     Our first stop was at the Romney Manor Gardens.  Originally probably occupied by Carib people, this is the oldest plantation on St Kitts, established in the early 17th century shortly after Europeans took control.  Owned by an ancestor of Thomas Jefferson in the early 17th century, it became Romney Manor when purchased by the Earl of Romney, who was the first on the island to free his slaves inn 1834.  Today it is a gorgeous botanical garden.  We were there in the Spring, so it was filled with colorful flowers and splendid vistas.  There is a Saman tree that is more than 400 years old, the oldest living organism on St Kitts.   The bell tower in the picture below was used to notify the slaves when to go to and come in from the sugar fields and when to go to sleep.

     On the grounds is Caribelle Batik, where beautiful wax-resist dyed cloth is created and made into colorful clothing and other items, all of which are for sale in their shop.  We watched as this process was applied to cloth by a woman who was very much in charge:  each time someone entered without a mask she stopped working and instructed them in no uncertain terms to put one on.  We wished that were done more often in crowded public spaces in the Caribbean.  The cloth is hung outside to dry.  Their products are not cheap, but are excellent quality.  Mary purchased a batik Covid mask while we were there.

     Brimstone Hill Fortress is a stone fort built on a steep 800 foot hill by the seashore.  It was built by African slaves under the direction of British military engineers.  The British began fortifying this spot in 1690 and by 1790 it was considered impregnable, called the “Gibraltar of the West Indies.”  Yet just two years later the French gained control of it through a siege.  The British reacquired it in 1783 under the Treaty of Paris that settled the US revolutionary war and the fortress was never lost again.  The British abandoned it in 1853 and it fell into disrepair (many stones carried off to build other buildings).  Restoration began in the early 20th century and reopening for visitors began in the 1970’s.  UNESCO recognized it as a world heritage site in 1999.

     The drive up to the fortress was not easy for our bus driver as there is a sharp turn into a narrow gate to enter.  We got out at the visitor center where we watched a film about the fort’s history, then walked up the very steep stairs to the Citadel, called Fort George.

     In the Citadel were a number of canon arrayed along the walls.  To the northwest from one canon was a great view of the town of Sandy Point and the Dutch island of St Eustace in the sea beyond.

     Among other things, we saw a bell tower growing out of one wall, the Prince of Wales bastion on a lower outcropping nearer the sea, and the ruins of the Artillery Officers’ Quarters down the hill.  There were pretty spectacular views in all directions from the top of this hill.

     We drove back to the port, where we wandered around in the shops for a while then boarded the ship.  Another interesting day.

St Thomas

     We spent March 24 in Charlotte Amalie, the capital and largest city (18,000+) in the US Virgin Islands.  The city has a huge & protected harbor that attracts a lot of cruise ship visits.. We have been here 3 times before (although we spent the second visit on an excursion to sister island St John), but we have only one blog entry from those previous visits:

https://baderjournal.com/2014/05/03/

     Occupied by indigenous people when Columbus visited in 1493, the town was founded by the Danes in 1666 and named Taphus (tap house) because of its plentiful pubs.  The town received a less colorful name in 1691 when it was renamed Charlotte Amalie after the queen of Denmark at the time.  For a long time it was a pirate hangout.  In 1917 the US bought the Danish West Indies for $25 million and renamed it the US Virgin Islands.

       We had seen many of the sights here on previous visits but had been unable to visit Fort Christian, the Danish fortification at the water front, because it was closed for renovations.  Today it was open so after breakfast we walked into town to see it.  Named for the Danish King Christian V of Denmark (Charlotte Amalie’s husband), the distinctive red and yellow fort opened in 1680 in what is now the heart of the city.  It is the oldest existing structure in the US Virgin Islands.

     The entrance is under the clock tower on the side away from the water, so we walked  around there and up a small hill to enter.  The tower was originally round but was replaced with a clock tower over a new entrance in 1874.

     When it was no longer needed for defense the fort was used for a time as a prison. We walked down the steps to the prison area, which looked like a dungeon but with a small window.  As the views from the windows confirm, the water line on the other side of the street in front of the fort continues in a nearly straight line in both directions.  When the fort was built it sat on a small peninsula jutting out into the water; the land now on both sides of the fort was created later from fill.

     After walking around a while we crossed the inner courtyard and exited again under the clock tower.  Then we walked back to the port where our ship was docked.  It rained, and we got wet despite our umbrellas on the way back.

     Next to the ship at Havensight port is, you guessed it, Havensight Shopping Mall.  But this is not just any mall.  There are some seven large buildings, each lined with vendors.  And most of them seem to be selling pretty much the same stuff, all kinds of souvenirs of St Thomas:  clothes, jewelry, knickknacks, etc.  It’s a puzzle how so many businesses selling the same or similar goods can survive right next to each other. 

     So in late afternoon we left our mooring and sailed across the harbor and out to sea.  From our balcony we spotted Blackbeard’s Castle, a lookout on top of a hill built by the Danes in 1679 because Fort Christian’s location on the water did not give it a view of possibly hostile ships that might be approaching from a distance.  On our first visit here we sat in a restaurant just under the Castle and had a leisurely beer while we watched seaplanes landing and taking off in the harbor below.  It made for a really fine afternoon.  Sadly, last time we were here the whole area around the Castle was enclosed and an admission fee was required to enter.  Not an improvement.  As we reached the end of the land there was a small rainbow to bid us farewell.  Outside the port we passed a couple of islands as we headed out for a full sea day before our next stop, which was much appreciated after six consecutive days in different ports.

     We arrived in Ft Lauderdale on March 15 and had a fun dinner at an Irish Pub near the port.  On March 16 we boarded the Nieuw Statendam for a three week cruise they called the “Southern Caribbean Wayfarer."  Here is the itinerary (don’t forget that if you hover your mouse over a picture the caption will appear):

     Commissioned in 2019, Nieuw Statendam is about three years old.  But most of that time the entire cruise industry was shut down so its actual time at sea when we boarded was probably closer to a year and a half.   This is by far the youngest and the largest ship we have sailed on with Holland America.  In passenger capacity it is, at almost 2700, about twice the size of the Amsterdam and three times the size of the Prinsendam (both of which were, sadly, sold during the pandemic).  During the post-pandemic return to sea, however, cruise ships are not sailing at capacity and Nieuw Statendam  was at only about half capacity while we were onboard, about the same as Amsterdam.  It still felt like a lot of people though, and it’s hard to imagine what it must be like when this ship is full.  Even with fewer people the distance from the main dining room in the aft section to our cabin in the forward section of deck 5 (“Gershwin Deck”) seemed almost long enough to walk off all the calories!

     Many of the spaces on this ship are similar to other HAL ships we have been on, only bigger.  The atrium is lighted in purple and has no multistory central sculpture.  The crow’s nest has the usual shipwide array of front facing windows, but it also houses the shore excursion folks and a couple of interactive displays about the ports and sea routes.  There is also a section with some books (nothing like the old libraries HAL used to have), puzzles and games.  The lido pool area has two floors of seating and some casual restaurants with a huge video screen at one end of the pool.  We spent a lot of time in this area reading, with our mp3 players plugged into our ears to blot out the ship’s continual soundtrack.

     We ate most of our dinners, and breakfasts on sea days, in the Main Dining Room, which had unusual curved pillars holding up the second floor.  During the first leg of our back-to-back we had a table upstairs by the rail, but there were several hundred fewer passengers on the second leg so they closed the upstairs and everyone had to be seated downstairs.  Presty, who many of you may know from world cruises, was the dining room manager.  He recognized our faces right away and was very solicitous, arranging a table by the windows for us when we were moved downstairs.  We had arranged to share a table with our world cruise tablemates Bob & Judy, and were most disappointed when a non-Covid medical issue made them miss our cruise at almost the last minute. 

     The ship had plentiful alternative dining options, most for no additional cost.  Although it normally costs extra, we had a dinner at the Pinnacle and one at Tamarind gratis because we are 5 star mariners.  Both were excellent, but Tamarind is more exotic and interesting.  Our go-to place for lunch was the Grand Dutch Café, where we enjoyed the Dutch pea soup (not quite as good as when served on deck while visiting icy places) and superb ham and cheese sandwiches.  They also had humongous desserts, including one similar to an éclair and a chocolate chip cookie that fills a dessert plate.  On the second floor of the LIdo area we enjoyed pizza & sandwiches from the New York Deli & Pizza on one end and Dive-In hamburgers on the other.  The hamburgers are thick & juicy at the Dive-in, but we don’t like their fries or special sauce nearly as much as others do.   We have enjoyed their huge hot dogs on other ships, but this one had no sauerkraut or brown mustard so what was the point.  Near the Dive-in was a gelato bar, which was not free.  We love gelato, but theirs was good rather than great, and once you have had great gelato (which we have in Italy, Spain and New Zealand) good is kind of disappointing. We had lunch in the Lido buffet a few times as well, where they were carving rare strip loins that can be put between two pieces of bread to make a wonderful sandwich.

     Music venues also were plentiful on board the ship.  The Main Stage had shows most nights, usually featuring the ship’s dance company or its four man singing quartet.  The main stage here is surrounded by huge video screens stretching back along either side of the audience and it rather overwhelmed the unfortunate performers on stage.  There was no live music in these programs; instead the music was recorded along with large displays on the screens moving with the music.  We found this all very distracting and much preferred the performances we have seen on other HAL ships focused on live musicians and performers on stage.

     HAL’s music walk, on all of the larger ships, consists of performing groups in four different genres.  Lincoln Center Stage features a classical piano quartet and alternates in the same venue with the BB King Blues Club.  It was a lovely venue with a glass fronted balcony where we usually sat.  Billboard Onboard was a lounge with two pianists playing and singing together (not “dueling,” as is sometimes said) and the Rolling Stone Rock Room across the hall housed a really good young band with a very fine lead guitar.  We visited all of these venues except the BB King (a matter of timing rather than taste), but the Lincoln Center Stage received most of our attention because their classical performances were really outstanding.  We were told that these musicians auditioned separately for the gig and were formed into a group after being hired by HAL’s music contractor.  Their repertoire was determined by the contractor who employed them.  We had different quartets on the two legs of our cruise, but both played exactly the same shows with almost exactly the same pieces.  We don’t see how that could work on a Grand Voyage, since a week’s worth of repertoire wouldn’t go very far on a three or four month cruise.

     As on other HAL ships, there is a lot of art scattered around the Nieuw Statendam.  But while other ships we have been on have antique or classic looking artworks from around the world, this ship’s collection leans heavily toward the pop art genre.  The ship has something of a musical theme, though it is not overdone.  For example, some of the hallway carpets have images of musical instruments woven in along one wall. Among the musically themed art were a portrait of Jimi Hendrix, a reflective infinity piano hanging in an elevator bay, a melting guitar sculpture by the elevators on another floor, a sculpture made of cymbals in the front of the Main Dining room, and two huge violin hangings covered in what looked like Delft ware on the wall behind the front desk.

      There were some artworks on walls composed of unusual media.  A copy of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night on a stairway landing turns out, when viewed up close, to be made of small plastic toys and other items, and a portrait of Van Gogh was similarly made.  Some soft stripey  portraits of women turn out on closer inspection to be painted on feathers.  There was also an elaborate painting in a classical style on a surf board.

     Elevator bays on several decks had displays of ordinary items wrapped in what appears to be needlepoint.

      A very interesting photo was on a wall near the Lincoln Center Stage.  If you look only at the center section it looks like a large wood paneled room lit by skylights.  But viewing the picture as a whole makes clear that it is something entirely different.

   Near the atrium was a sculpture of a lady’s head with a very elaborate hairdo topped by a sailing ship apparently under attack by a giant squid.  And near some elevators was large copy of Michelangelo’s David made of glass (or possibly plastic).  If you look closely in his lowered hand is an iphone with which he is taking a selfie. Quite unusual.

     We have no pictures of it, but we can’t end a discussion of the ship without some mention of the Casino.  It seems that a few weeks before we sailed HAL decided to make the first leg of our back-to-back a gambler’s cruise, without informing the other passengers.  This means that they invited casino mavens from previous cruises to sail on this one at a big discount or even for free, as we understand it.  Presumably this is a money maker for HAL since all those rooms would have been empty and not generating revenue anyway because the ship’s passenger complement was so limited during the post-pandemic restart.  This meant there were about 300 more passengers on the first leg of the cruise than on the second.  To make matters worse, at the same time HAL ended the prohibition on smoking in the casino that has been in place since the return of cruising.  The result was that the casino was very crowded most of the time with many people smoking.

     The unpleasant smell from all of this smoking floated down the open stairway to the  music walk, where it was often impossible to enjoy the music.  Worse, there was an increase in folks being quarantined for COVID near the end of the first leg of the cruise (they don’t tell you how many), and it seemed to us that a casino jam packed with people sitting cheek to jowl without masks and blowing smoke around was probably a Covid superspreader.  Some passengers we talked to were forced to move to new staterooms just a day or two before we reached Ft Lauderdale so that HAL could establish a separate quarantine area on a couple of decks (since passengers had been quarantined on earlier cruises and there were so many empty cabins on the ship, why couldn’t they plan for this possibility by setting aside a quarantine section before the cruise?).  We found HAL’s handling of all this to be very disappointing, reflecting either a failure to think it through or a reaching for every last dollar regardless of the safety and enjoyment of the other passengers.

    So that’s enough about the ship.  We set sail heading south to the islands that are the main point of the trip.