Transatlantic Escapades 2025

We arrived in La Romana, Dominican Republic this morning for disembarkation from the cruise. We didn’t have to get off too early so we gathered our final things and went down for our last breakfast. Of course we took our traditional sad face picture signifying the end of the great cruise.  Unfortunately, we were not able to get pictures of all of the crew that we wanted to include in the blog, but here are a few of our other favorite crew members.  While the cruise is over, we still have a couple days to enjoy before heading home. Our friend (former Reedley College SEED student) and his wife picked us up from the cruise terminal. We are going to spend a night with their family.  It’s a five our drive from La Romana to where they live; it’s only about 150 miles. It’s across much of the DR from southeast to northwest. It was a very scenic drive and we had an amazing lunch along the way.  After we got to their house we had a great dinner and evening talking with their f...

We docked early for a short stop in the British Virgin Islands. It seemed like a no-brainer to take an excursion to one of the nicest beaches on the island called Cane Garden Bay Beach. For whatever reason the ship leaves at 2 PM today so we made the most of it and spent the first half of the day at the beach. It’s a nice way to spend the day in December. The excursion included the drive to the beach, of course, which was quite dramatic because the islands are very mountainous and we had to travel up over the island to get to the other side where the beach was. A fellow passenger purchased too many beers on the beach and was passing them out, which was a stroke of luck for us. It was a short but fun stop. We ate lunch, napped, played cards, and had dinner to round out our last full day of the cruise. 

Over night we cruised over to St. Kitts. It’s one island of St. Kitts and Nevis — the smallest independent nation in the western hemisphere. Instead of a beach day we opted to take the scenic railway excursion. The railway uses an old sugar plantation railroad and takes guests on a 90 minute ride halfway around the island. Then we hopped in a minibus for a tour of the other half. We essentially went around the whole island. We assume it was very much like riding the actual sugar cane trains — very slow and rocky. It was an interesting to see the island.  After the tour we found a place to have some local food. We had oxtails and red beans & rice. We also tried coconut dumplings. The oxtails and rice were excellent! In the shade the weather is perfect. In the sun it’s hot! Once back on board we rested for the rest of the afternoon.  We play a bit of cribbage when we don’t have ship activities to attend. Last night Jim had a 24-point hand to open up the game, which is quite ...

After departing Cape Verde we spent the next four days at sea headed for Philipsburg, St. Maarten in the Caribbean.  Kristi has been doing quite well on this trip, considering the chronic pain and fatigue she deals with every day. When on shore she pushes herself a little bit, and on these sea days she rests a lot more, napping a couple times throughout the day. In the last week or so the Lymphedema in her right arm is causing more swelling than usual so we wrap it on and off — compression helps reduce the swelling.  We both caught a cold in Paris and the effects have lingered, not too serious. We bought medicine in Paris, Barcelona, and Málaga — each type helped with the symptoms. We’d love to let you try the expectorant we got in Barcelona — the pharmacist excitedly insisted that it was “super bien” for respiratory congestion. She was right, it did help, but it is the worst, we mean WORST, tasting remedy we’ve ever tried. Having a cold has not dampened our enjoyment of the t...