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Miami - February 9
We drove down to Miami from Orlando, arriving around 11:30am. We shared an Uber from the parking garage to the ship and checked in, which was very straightforward. Once on the ship, we had to wait about an hour before our stateroom was ready, although we did sneak in a few minutes ahead of the official announcement. Then we had to wait about another hour before our luggage arrived and Kris could unpack, so by about 2:30, we were settled. We went for a walk around the ship which looked exactly like every cruise ship we had been on - lots of people checking out the ship and some getting started with an early drink.
At 5:00pm the ship departed and 30 minutes later, after we were "at sea", we heard an announcement. It wasn't entirely clear what was said, but we could guess, so we went up on deck and sure enough - naked people everywhere - as we had expected. We were still getting used to the whole "nude cruise" concept so I don't think either of us got naked that evening and we ate dinner in the main dining where everyone was casually dressed, like any other cruise.
Great Stirrup Cay - February 10
We arrived at Great Stirrup Cay next morning. Although the dock was complete enough for us to dock alongside, it was still very much under construction.
We walked ashore still fully dressed, as were most people, but took the opportunity to get a picture of the ship (naked at last).
We spent the morning and some of the afternoon on the beach. The water was a little chilly and the snorkeling wasn't great, but the beach and the general atmosphere was very pleasant and of course, everyone was naked pretty much all the time.
"Nude day At Sea" - February 11 and 12
The next two days were sea days, so we spent time on deck and getting to know our way around the ship. Although much of the entertainment wasn't necessarily to our taste, we did discover one singer named Randon from the Philippines, who we really enjoyed, although much of the time his music was drowned out by noisy people at the bar.
Curacao - Willemstad - February 13
On Friday we arrived at Willemstad, so it was "clothes on" for the next few days - at least during the day. In the morning, we walked into the town and crossed the floating bridge to the old town. In the afternoon, we took a guided tour of the city.
Bonaire, Kralendijk February 14
Next day was Bonaire and again, we took a guided tour.
Kralendijk from the ship
The island is very flat and dry with cacti everywhere, used extensively as fences.
We also visited the salt pans, where salt is made from evaporating sea water.
Nearby are small houses, more like dog kennels, which were used to house slaves working the salt pans. Hard to believe that these buildings probably housed several people for perhaps weeks at a time.
February 15 - Aruba
The last of the ABC islands - Aruba. Once again, we took a "highlights" tour. Our first stop were some monolithic rocks which really stand out in a very flat landscape.
You can climb the rocks and from the top, we could see our ship in the distance.
The second stop was the Aloe factory, Aloe is grown and harvested mainly to make skin care products.
The Aloe Vera is processed in a factory which looks suspiciously like the chem lab used by Walter White in "Breaking Bad" but I don't know if anyone else thought the same.
Our fnal stop was a lighthouse. You can climb up but we didn't bother.
That night was the "Light up the Night Dance Party" held on the pool deck, where everyone (well, not everyone) wore LED lights and danced the night away. Turned out to be hard to photograph.
You get the idea!
February 16 - "Nude at Sea Day"
This was a sea day, so we spent time working on our tans One highlight was the official "group photo" taken on the pool deck. Not everyone participated, but it was a pretty good crowd.
We are both in the picture, but it's hard to find us. We are towards the back on the left.
Paul in front, Kris is two rows behind, to the left.
February 17 - Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Everyone said Ocho Rios isn't safe, so we decided to just do a couple of organized excursions. This was our one opportunity to do a "clothing optional" tour but Kris didn't want to go snorkeling, so she did a "Green Grotto" tour while I did the "Catamaran and Snorkeling".
Descending into the "Green Grotto"
The "Catamaran and Snorkeling" trip was on a big catamaran with about 40 participants. We got naked once we were away from the dock and stayed that way until just before we arrived back. No pictures, of course because everyone was naked most of the time. Because we couldn't go to where everyone else was snorkeling and swimming (because we were naked and they were not) the snorkeling wasn't great. An interesting trade-off between good snorkeling and being naked. Something to remember in the future. The trip out and back was nice and just skinny dipping was fun.
The ship itself wasn't docked, because a huge Virgin ship had the only pier, so we were anchored out and tendered in. This had the advantage that once we were back on the ship, we could get naked again, which normally we couldn't when in port.
February 18 - Naked at sea
Another sea day, so out on the sun deck most of the time.
In the evening, we tried some thing new - naked bowling. The ship had four bowling lanes, although they didn't all work.
We actually had a lot of fun although of course we couldn't bowl to save our lives, we had so much fun, we went back again the next night and did it again. Kris did participate, but of course, no photographs were allowed!
February 19 - Great Stirrup Cay
This was a repeat of the the first day we spent at Great Stirrup Cay and we did pretty much the same things. By early afternoon, we were both feeling the sun and it had been trying to rain, so we went back to the ship for a nap.
February 20 - Miami
We sailed overnight to Miami and arrived in the early morning. The city looked fantastic.
We were off the ship by about 9am, took a taxi to our car and drove back to Orlando, arriving early afternoon. Another successful trip concluded!
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