Aruba

First and foremost, I have to apologize that there are days when I am unable to post my blog entry. The internet on board the ship is satellite internet and is not always available. I will always post as soon as I am able to do so.

Arrived in port early this morning (8:00 am). As expected, The Jewel of the Seas was already here. We were also joined later by the Carnival Miracle. The Miracle “parked” right behind us at the dock and there is a picture of her in the slide-show. From now on, when we are in dock, the pictures will be in the form of a slide show along the side of the blog. A fourth cruise ship was docked further away from the city - we were unfamiliar with her logo and were unable to make out her name.

Aruba gained its independence from The Netherlands in 1986 and since then has lost much of it’s Dutch influence. Oranjestad is the port where the cruise ships dock in Aruba and it remains a very quaint city. This part of the city closest to the docks very much caters to the cruise ship clientele with lots of duty-free shopping. We spent a couple of hours investigating the stores and came away with 2 things – a new skirt for me and Graham’s 7 T-shirts for $20.00. While these are not T-shirts that anyone would want to wear on a daily basis, they are great for work.