earlyoungnz
- Jul 1
- 5 min read

# 5: Curacao, Holland of the Caribbean!

Updated: Jul 3

I'm now starting to plan my trip for the morning tea and coffee to coincide with the time we are coming into our new port for the day, and this will become a ritual for the length of the cruise and subsequent cruises! There is no better place to see the new destination and the surrounding than from the middle of the harbor and the excitement starts to build up as you start planning your day. It always starts with a hearty breakfast from the buffet then head for the queue to get off the ship, getting on and off the ship in each port is basically like going through customs each way. As I mentioned, you don't have your Passport as it is retained on board, so it is solely checking on and off with your Sea Pass, (which I always wore around my neck on a Lanyard).

Today, nobody had any firm plans so Mary and I decided to tiki tour around by ourselves. Everything seemed quite close to the Capital of Willemstad so we thought that we would start with a walk around the centre and slip into a Starbucks for a coffee, (and to use their free internet!). The internet on board was touch and go at best, plus very expensive, though I hear the quality has improved more recently and the cost is more "user friendly".

The first thing that struck us was the definite change from Aruba. They are both Dutch Islands, but Curacao is very wealthy and has one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean with their main income coming from petrol refining and of course tourism. This is very evident and all of the immediate area around the port was super clean and very well maintained. After spending an hour or so walking around a pretty ritzy shopping precinct immediately in front of the port we decided to walk around behind where the ship was moored to where we could see what looked like a more bustling area with markets etc. We found a market selling the customary tourist items like caps, T Shirts and anything else you could think of and of course all branded with the name of Curacao on them. I always like to buy some mementos and I'm a bit of a "been there, done that, got the t Shirt" type of person. We came to the conclusion after a while that they were all made in the same factory somewhere and just branded for each specific Island!

After the market we headed along the wharf area to a lovely bridge that took you across the inlet to a delightful and vibrant area full of shops and cafes. After a quick bite to eat we took up the offer of a local called Melvin to show us around the city in his little Tuk-tuk, he was very well spoken, and his English was perfect. He seemed well versed in the history of the Island and for a small cost of about $25 US dollars we had him for the best part of 2 hours.

The lovely bridge we crossed and our Island transport!

We spend a delightful and informative afternoon traveling around and been shown the sights of Curacao, our guides knowledge was excellent but not too surprising when we established that he was studying history and economics at university in the US. He was very friendly and to the extent that Mary was trying to do a bit of matchmaking with our youngest daughter! I had no idea on how she planned on making that work? 😁😁

As I had mentioned earlier, I hate been late for things and knowing that we had to be back on board by 5pm I'm constantly watching the time. I know we have a 20-25 minute walk back to the ship so I'm doing my calculations and thinking that we may be cutting it fine. By the time we get back to the start point I'm feeling that all will be fine but on getting out of the Tuktuk I'm looking a bit confused, Mary asked what was wrong and I said where is the bloody bridge? It was then the Melvin pointed out that it is a floating bridge, and they swing it back and forth to let ships out. I should have realized this as there was a massive cruise liner just up the inlet and of course it had to get out somehow! I asked how we get back across and he said that there are ferries going every 15-20 minutes. I'm now starting to panic a little, but luckily there was a ferry about to leave our side to head back over the inlet. We virtually ran to make this and to my delight they delayed their departure when they saw us rushing and we were the last two on board! Once we got off on the other side, I felt pretty confident of making it back and we managed this quite easily, but I can assure you it wasn't a nice feeling. I also felt bad because of Mary's health and her energy levels were certainly not up to where they were pre cancer, the last thing I wanted to do was put pressure on her to rush.

Once we were back on board it was time to relax and after a quick freshen up and unloading the few trinkets from the day it was time to meet up with the others to discuss everyone's day's adventures. As it turned out we experienced more that all the others as it was mainly just relaxing on the closest beach for them.

There is something about putting on your good clothes to go out for the evening after touring around in shorts and a T Shirt most of the time. You try to tidy yourself up each night for dinner and a couple of times during the cruise they have a "Black Tie" night where you really get your "number ones" out. This ritual became the nightly norm, and it is meet at the Ice Bar time! After 4 days on board, we are now getting to know our way around the ship a bit better as well. We haven't been to any of the shows yet as we seem to be engrossed in everything else going on around us. You start to see the same people and even though you don't know them you start to try and pick their situations, (childish I know!) There are approx. 2300 passengers on board plus around 600 staff, so obviously there will be many that you never come across, but the opportunity is certainly there to make new and lasting friends if you make the effort to do so. We are in a group of eight travelers so while were not averse to making new acquaintances, it is not high on our list of things to do on board.

As for tonight, it's Blu Restaurant with Alana and Dan then meet up with the others for cocktails and a late night de brief! A quick flick at the casino and back to the cabin with a smile on my face!