Aruba I would describe as a mini America! It was a lot of fun hanging out on the beach and by the pool for a week of rest and relaxation without having to worry about any “lost in translations”. I certainly became keen on the local two cocktails of choice Aruba Ariba and the Aruba Wave… a friend from Colombia joined me and we soon discovered that it was best to mix the two drinks by drinking both cups at the same time by use of straws! Delicious! Not much to report except cocktails in the pool, cocktails on the beach, watching Europa League football in the pool, take-away wine on the boardwalk and a few dances here and there but no late nights really! We just enjoyed the amazing weather and resort facilities!
A jeep “safari” excursion was fun but given the island is so small there wasn’t all that much to see and what we did see wasn’t too remarkable. The highlight of the tour was the Natural Pool, a pool calved out of rock on the shore giving rise to a rectangular “swimming” pool… despite it having some protection it was still very choppy!! Many people lasted a few seconds after being bashed against the rock walls… I lasted maybe 25 minutes after I found a semi safe place to perch in the water. My friend attempted snorkelling but it was far too choppy and after the Galapagos I wasn’t too interested, spoilt I know.
From Aruba it was time to head to Miami to meet a group of mates from London for a previously Corona cancelled Virgin Voyages cruise on board the recently launched and very modern Scarlet Lady. A cruise is something I thought I wouldn’t have much interest in… however after only a few minutes on board, after a very flamboyant welcome, I soon warmed to it and had a fantastic week! Little did I realise, cruises are all inclusive with regards to food and so we ate like royalty! Three huge meals a day with snacks in between and all but two meals were fantastic! The best being the high end steak restaurant, aptly named The Wake, given it was at the back of the ship with huge windows overlooking the tremendous wake left in our path! Not only was it food heavy but it was also booze heavy, bars everywhere! Most drinks were taken by the pool during the resident DJ sets, in a couple of cocktail bars and of course the nightclub, The Manor. We also befriended the resident DJ, who I think was quite taken with us given how lively we were during her sets, Jonny and I even made an appearance on her Instagram! By the end of the week we no longer needed to request the same few songs… once she saw us on the dance floor she would give us a thumbs up and smile so we knew our songs were imminent!
Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Nicole we were unable to stop at Playa del Carmen nor the Bahamas, so we had to settle for Costa Maya and Key West, both were a lot of fun but mainly just locations where you can drink in the sun! I believe Costa Maya was a small fishing village until the early 00s until it was transformed into a tourist cruise terminal with a small beach strip of shack bars a couple of miles away, this is where we spent our time. Key West had lots of little bars with country singers which was quite nice to bar crawl, and not to mention all the tourist shops… a large number of which sold very crude pro Republican T-shirts and memorabilia, I don’t think I can repeat the slogans here, but I don’t think it would be possible to sell anything near that in the UK!
The average age of the cruise was 47 and it was certainly aimed at a younger age demographic in comparison to their competitors. We met a few people in Costa Maya of young age who were very envious of our ship and cruise atmosphere, their next cruise is a Virgin Voyage. Another thing I found fascinating was the number of long time cruisers, many people I spoke to were into double digit cruises and I can see why… the food was largely phenomenal, the atmosphere was buoyant and friendly and the entertainment was enough to fill the gaps between day time pool parties / shore visits and evening cocktail bars and later night parties. I also befriended a (very!) lively American, who with his wife, was doing back to back cruises! After we docked in Miami, due to tax reasons, he had to disembark for 15 minutes and then could board again. Working online they only needed to do a couple of hours work each morning to make sure their business was ticking over before returning to the pool for cocktails! On our ship there were 20 back to back cruisers!
Unfortunately, once again due to the weather, our “Sail Away Party” had to be moved from the top floor pool to the mid deck bars. “Sail Away” is a big event, a huge pool party under the stars as we were to sail out of Miami. In fact “Sail Away” is a big event from every port and one of my highlights was our Sail Away from Key West. Key West is a renowned party town and we were due to sail at 5pm with boarding closing at 4.30pm sharp. It was a lovely day so the ship balconies and outdoor bars were full of (tipsy) people taking “Sail Away” drinks waiting for our imminent departure. Then suddenly, around 5.10pm, a large roar went up and grew in noise… everyone rushed to the port side of the ship, from where the noise began, in the distance we could see two couples sprinting out of Key West round a sharp corner heading to the pier! They were late, very late!! The whole ship cheered them on as they sprinted towards us, the two males left their partners behind in hope of saving themselves or perhaps more likely delaying the ship! They made it! As soon as they scrambled on board we began to depart after they received a rapturous welcome! The port staff waiting to release us were not so amused.
Another highlight of “Sail Away” was following the progress of the Port Captain who sailed us a few miles out of port before climbing down a rope ladder on to the dingy cruising alongside to return him to shore… by now it was gone 6.30pm and we were tipsy ourselves so he got a huge cheer from us from the deck 7 terrace bar as he climbed down the rope and peeled away to return to shore! The port captain loved it and gave us a big goodbye!
Another thing worth mentioning was how nice everyone was onboard, especially the staff! All of the staff said Virgin was the best cruise company to work for and it was very apparent. We made good friends with many of them, did shots together, spoke In Spanish together, and partied a little together!
It has been a fantastic trip and now unfortunately it is time to return to normal life but with some amazing memories! x
