The Tour Continues

And the picture storm continues.

Well, my intent yeomen, you seem to have survived the holiday season. (Note 1)

There is always this rather annoying issue about what to do with the really good chocolates. They are simply too good to stuff metronome like into your gullet through re-runs of due South. You know they are to be savoured and enjoyed one at a time. The solution is simple – as all good solutions are. You simply hide the box away from prying eyes and sticky fingers. Then, when you are in the mood, you palm them one at a time – but only when you are convinced you will avoid discovery. For discovery will force you to pass the box around.

Holiday memories are almost the same. You delve into them a little bit a time, savouring each one allowing yourself to re-live the experience, savour it and enjoy it before moving on to the next.

The only difference is that I find myself more than willing to bore you with a further instalment of ’What I did on my holidays.’ (Note 2)

Having survived dressing as a penguin and the Captain’s Reception, the next day saw us in the Grenadine Islands. Those who wanted to go ashore had the option of transferring to the island of Mayreau by means of one of the ships tenders. (Note 3)

The ship’s tenders are basically lifeboats with windows. In fact, in the event of an emergency, the tenders double up as lifeboats. Those little cute things bobbing up and down there will hold around 160 people. Of course, only the people who paid extra will get a place on the lifeboats with windows if you strike the iceberg. Given this and I the fact that I’ve not seen reports of icebergs in the Caribbean, I didn’t bother.

Mayreau is a small island. I convinced myself that there would be little to see and do ashore, so we stayed aboard the Arcadia and generally relaxed and explored. It also allowed a recharge of the batteries after the journey out. I was on holiday after all and if you can’t chill out on holiday when can you?

So Day four was spent eating, exploring the ship, eating and not taking many photographs.

It was the first real chance to unpack properly. We mooched around and had a Bar-B-Q lunch by the pool, which is at the top of the ship (there are actually two swimming pools, both on the top deck).

The bulk of the other facilities are concentrated on decks two and three (the promenade deck). Some of the facilities like the theatre and the restaurant we used a lot. Others like the art gallery, florist and the Casino not at all. There were bars, shops, a coffee shop, photo gallery and Internet café which all drew some custom from time to time.

Rumours abounded on board that there was also a gym and a spa to help you work of some of the excesses of the various eateries, but I was never curious enough to seek them out.

The lazy day drew to a close. We ate dinner, that goes without saying. (Note 4) Afterwards, wandering through to the theatre and caught a show before collapsing into bed. Yes, a hectic day all round.

So here endeth Day Four of what I did on my holidays. TO BE CONTINUED…

From 14th June, the industry standard Crozzy Standard has been applied to footnotes.

NOTE 1: Let’s face it, with the all of the Christmas decorations packed away, the house looks a bit bare. Suddenly we are forced into the realisation that we are stuck in the midst of winter. It’s cold, damp and dark. We won’t see much in the way of sunshine. And, if that isn’t enough to depress you, they put Celebrity Big Brother back on the TV (link deliberately withheld). Click to return

NOTE 2 : It is me taking pleasure at looking again at the photographs and insisting on re-living all the memories that means that it takes a long time to prepare all of these posts. Still, I’m sure you will want to indulge me. For those of you who don’t, I’m sorry, you can always amuse yourself here. Click to return

NOTE 3: One of the features of a cruise is the ability to eat 24 by 7. Not only can you eat all day, but the quality of the food is generally high too. One of my favourite meals of the day is breakfast – and on a cruise ship you get a FULL breakfast with all the trimmings plus a few you had never even thought of. After a good breakfast, I suddenly didn’t fancy the idea of a trip in one of those tenders. Click to return

NOTE 4: No day was too lazy or too hectic that required us to miss dinner. The passengers were divided into two sittings. It seemed rather odd, but any similarity to school dinners ended there. The restaurant took food and service to another level – although there was an option to further enhance the dining experience. More on that in a later entry. Click to return

TECHNORATI TAGS : Mayreau ; Tourism ; Travel ; Grenadines ; Caribbean ; Arcadia ; red1hols.