Steve and Cathy's Blog

We’re ba-a-a-ck! The lovely island we left five days ago is our home once again – at least for one more day. As soon as all the changes to our cruise were announced, Cathy swung into action to find us an excursion. We certainly didn’t do this place justice last time by merely wandering through the tourist area of Philipsburg, although that was a very pleasant experience. We arrive on time at 8:00am. There is one other

We pass St. Lucia, one of the islands we were to have visited, at sunrise. The time is 6:20am, and the sky is a whole lot clearer over MS Riviera than on that island. Within minutes, we see that a rain shower is covering part of the island. As they tend to do this time of year, they pass by quickly. Island of St. Lucia We have developed the habit to take breakfast at the Waves

We do indeed arrive on time at 8am. There are three ships already in the very large port, which would probably be accommodating six at this time of year if it weren’t for the pandemic. The first we see is a small tanker, the MV Selasse. This is essentially a cruise ship port, but we do see some old infrastructure that Steve guesses was used to load sugar on to bulk ships.  The other two ships

We arrive in tranquil St. John’s, the capital of Antigua (pronounced An tee’ gah) at 7am as scheduled. The Costa Deliziosa has preceded us. The parade continues, first with Explorer of the Seas, then one of the Azamura Cruises fleet, and lastly by Carnival Magic. If three of the names sound familiar, they should. We have been traveling in somewhat of a pack, which is probably quite typical of cruise lines when ships visit popular destinations

The island of St. Marten is divided in half, east to west. The northern half belongs to France, the southern half, where we are, belongs to the Dutch. The island has been divided since the signing of the Treaty of Concordia in 1648, which today remains as one of the oldest treaties still in effect. There are no border crossings or passport control stations, although there was an attempt to create them in August of 2020 in response to

Okay, let’s start off with where we should have been, which was San Juan, Puerto Rico. When we boarded Riviera, we were advised that this port of call was canceled because, of course, of Covid and CFC and local restrictions. This did not come as a total shock, as the entire Itinerary has been in a state of flux for months. It’s a big disappointment, especially for Steve. He has friends that he works with at

THE PHOTO ABOVE IS ST. LUCIA AT SUNRISE, ONE OF THE ISLANDS WE WERE TO HAVE VISITED As we have explained in a previous post, Covid-19 has devastated the cruise industry in many ways. Even now, with the CDC graciously allowing the industry to operate again, the virus rules the waves, so to speak. Nothing we can say better describes the degree to which it impacts both the industry itself and the thousands of people at

We greet the morning looking at the beautiful sunrise that begins this post above. At 8am, we arrive at our first port of call, a small town on the north coast of the island of Hispaniola, upon which lie the nations of Haiti (on the west side) and the Dominican Republic (on the east side). The D R, as it’s commonly abbreviated, is a nation of around 12 million. Puerto Plata (‘Silver Port’) was named by

Our first full day and we are at sea all day. We awaken having been traveling all night through the Old Bahama Channel and find ourselves twelve miles off the Communist Paradise known as Cuba. As we won’t reach our first port of call, Puerta Plata Dominican Republic, until tomorrow, it’s the perfect time to catch up on the blog and to get acquainted with MS Riviera. Turns out that Steve will do the former while