DAY 9-ORANJESTAD, ARUBA

Historical/Background Info:
        The island of Aruba is probably the best know of the ABC islands.  It lies just 18 miles from the northern coast of Venezuela and is 20 miles long and 6 miles wide with a population of 103,400.  Aruba has a dry climate with an arid landscape including cacti.  We have been to this island on several other cruises and what impresses me the most about it is, it is always windy here.  As with all other Caribbean islands the main cities are on the leeward (wind out of east in Caribbean) or west side of the island.  We are docked today at Oranjestad, the capital of Aruba, located midway up on west side.
        Today’s blog will be shorter as the history of Aruba is pretty much same as yesterday’s island of Bonaire.
        Aruba is generally flat and riverless.  Its beautiful white sandy beaches are located on the western and southern coasts which are protected from the strong ocean currents.  The northern and eastern coast have been pretty much untouched by humans because of the lack of protection.  The average low temperature is 80F and average high is 90F.  The constant trade winds help make it feel cooler.
        As with the other ABC islands, Dutch is the official language but the predominant language spoken on the islands is “Papiameto”, a creole language.  Aruba has one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean.  The unemployment rate here is very low.  The five industries that dominate are:  tourism, gold mining, phosphate mining, aloe export, and oil refining.  Tourism accounts for 3/4ths of the gross national product.  Most of the tourists come from the northeast US, the Netherlands, Venezuela, and Colombia.  Since the island has no water for practical purposes, the world’s largest desalination plant is located here.
        As you will see from my photos, the Dutch and Spanish architectural building are painted bright colors.  Some places to visit and do are: a butterfly farm, aloe factory, the California Lighthouse, an ostrich farm, The Baby Natural Bridge (bridge collapsed in 2006), the beautiful beaches, and a myriad of water sports.
What We Did Today:
As we have been to Aruba several times on other cruises, we did not go on any excursions today. There are 3 other cruise ships in port today but we are the only ship docked in the container/industrial area.  I took the following three photos from the top deck (#12) this morning.

          We finally have a view other than water from our balcony but it's not a great view.

 I took this free shuttle bus to where the other ships were docked outside the container area.  From there it was just short walk into town and all the shops.

   With two huge ships (Carnival & RCCL) in port there were lots of people in town.

    There was an Asian buffet for lunch on pool deck.  Above fried rice is being prepared.

 The reddish looking large pan is fish curry and other pot is Indonesian noodles.  I tried a little of both.  The curry was good but I did not care much for the fried noodles (below).

 Here is what was on today's La Veranda buffet for lunch.  Above, some cold seafood.

                                                                   Salad Bar

Hot foods

 There is a different meat being carved every day.  Today was turkey breast with either gravy and cranberry sauce.

 Some desserts pictured here.  Out on pool deck next to grill is a large selection of ice creams and some cookies.

Fresh pasta is made to order every day.  I had a bowl of linguini with bolognese sauce.  I also asked him for extra garlic and some red pepper chili flakes in it.  SOOOO GOOD!

                            Every day there are three different kinds of pizza to pick from.

                          I had some nice muscles, smoked salmon, and scallops at lunch.

Today the ship got some fresh vegetables and fruit provisioning. 

The bouquet of flowers that was in our suite at the beginning of the cruise had to be thrown out today.  Our suite steward brought us some nice new flowers.  

It is now 1:35 pm and we are preparing to set sail at 2:00 for our next port of call, Cartagena, Columbia.  It is mostly sunny now with an outside air temperature of 85F and 61% humidity.  As always, the wind is blowing here on Aruba.  Looks like I will finish this posting early today so I may take part in some of the games being played this afternoon.  There are bocce and 10 pin bowling tournaments later.

At 6:00 pm there is a Seven Seas Society cocktail party which we will be attending.  The SS Society is like the airline's frequent flier program.  In the Seven Seas Society there are five levels:  Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Titanium.  We are now at the highest level as this cruise puts us in the Titanium tier.  The benefits we are now getting include:  priority reservations at Prime 7 & Signatures, priority disembarkation, priority excursion booking, free copy of the Dallas Morning News (paper) daily, free laundry, free dry cleaning, 9 hours of free phone time per cruise segment (36 hour for this cruise), free private transfers from airport to ship and back to airport, bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne, box of Leonidas candy (Belgian chocolates), and bouquet of fresh flowers.
To be Titanium you have had to cruise 400 or more nights on Regent.

We will be dining in Compass Rose this evening.  Miso glazed sea bass (our favorite entree) is on the menu.  Tonight's show features Alberto Sanchez, a tenor, who will be singing classical and Broadway songs.

****If you missed earlier postings (I have been posting daily), you can go to the "blog archive" on right side of the blog just below itinerary.  Also clicking on the photos will enlarge them for better viewing.