Hiding from over two thousand, six hundred and four other passengers on a ship less than a thousand feet long is really very easy, just stay in your room and order everything from room service. We don’t use room service except for the daily bottles of drinking water, but we do love being on the balcony during sea days. We aren’t hermits, but we love what can only be done while cruising on the open sea and the best place we’ve found to enjoy it is on our balcony. This trip is no exception.
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| With Cuba in the background, we enter the tranquil Windward Passage toward Curacao |
We head into the appropriately named Windward Passage early on the morning of our second day with a brilliant sunrise to the east just as Cuba comes into sight on the horizon to our west. Ilse and I go up to the open top deck and watch the awakening pool activity two decks below. The Windward Passage, the channel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea between Cuba and Hispaniola, has always intrigued me. We’ve sailed it four times now, and while we’re certainly not maritime experts, we’ve come to expect a different type of cruising here from anything else we have experienced. The appropriately named passage is always an interesting part of any cruise headed toward South America or the Panama Canal from the northern hemisphere. While it’s called the Windward Passage for good reason, the introduction, the first section has always been calm for us, almost a cunning lie to seduce unaware sailors.
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| The subtle change in the sea as we pass Haiti |
Breaking into the open Caribbean south of Haiti several hours later has always been enough to make whichever ship we’ve been on shudder and shake and the Rotterdam is no different. The wooden coat hangers in the closet even rattle. This is as pleasant as any other trip through here, and far from the worst when we had gale-force winds at 54 knots across our bow and fifteen to twenty foot seas while on the Crown Princess. The staircases on the Crown Princess squealed and banged in warped protest and water in the closed off pool deck sloshed higher than than the hand rail on the deck above. This passage was sedate by comparison, but still with enough personality to remind everyone why it is so named. We won’t be coming back this way as we will swing around the other side of Cuba for our return trip.
We are headed toward Curacao, then Cartagena, and a quick stop at Gatun Lake, part of the Panama Canal, then we will visit Georgetown in Grand Cayman, a repeat of our 1993 visit way back in the last century, before heading back to Ft. Lauderdale by way of the Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico.
We had two full sea days – and one time change, ahead one hour – and we are anxiously awaiting our approach to Curacao, a port we really liked visiting way back in 2012. We are soon tied up, and after a nice relaxed breakfast, we head toward town.
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| Arriving at Willemstad, Curacao |
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| MS Rotterdam, Willemstad, Curacao Dec 2025 |
The first thing that strikes me as I look across the rolling hills around Willemstadt is the numerous chimneys and smokestakes from the many petroleum processing plants are gone. The facilities are still there, but modernized and no longer conspicuous.
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| The floating Queen Emma Bridge in the foreground, and the soaring Queen Juliana Bridge in the background, Willemstad, Curacao |
The Queen Emma bridge is cool, even if it is over 137 years old. The famous pedestrian bridge started swinging open while we were walking on it and drew oohs and aahs along with probably several thousand cell-phone photos from the pleased, conscripted “passengers.”
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| The pedestrian only Queen Emma bridge in Willemstad |
A bridge unexpectedly swinging open is a thought that would normally instill visions of chaos and panic, not the pleasant giggles and laughter that enveloped the bridge. The “Old Swinging Lady” is world famous, and famously slow. It doesn’t raise up like a draw bridge or swing on a pivot like some of the old railroad bridges. Instead, it floats open on a hinge. The pontoon bridge that lifts and falls with the tides has an operator’s shack on the picturesque Punda side of Saint Anna Bay.
The operator remotely closes the pedestrian gates on either end and starts the diesel motors that slowly propel the bridge away from from the abutment and the bridge “sails” open. Those on the bridge laugh and ride as if at an amusement park, it had enough undulation to make us hold the handrails, but the veterans of Old Swinging Lady didn’t even bother to look up. One woman hopped over the small gap between the bridge and the abutment as the bridge swung closed as she looked at her phone.
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| The oldest synagogue in the Americas |
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| The famous floating market of Willemstad - Home of the famous three dollar banana |
Being the good Samaritan that I try to be, I walked over to a couple sitting in what appeared to be a parked, brand new, locomotive pulling several open, surry-type sightseeing cars. Obviously a tourist tram waiting on passengers. Only this one was the little engine that couldn’t. The middle-aged driver was grinding the starter over and over again, but the shiny new engine only ground away mercilessly. It simply would not start. His wife, I assumed, sitting next to him was obviously getting desperate. They were both well dressed, obviously waiting on ship passengers for a local tour of Punda, on the other side of St. Anne’s from Otrabanda, which incidentally means “the other side.” He stepped down from the driver’s seat as I approached and I asked if I could possibly be of assistance.
“I don’t know,” he answered, “We just got it, it is brand new! It started fine when we drove it here!”
“Probably the choke valve is stuck open,” I answered, based on being from Miami and growing up putting my hand over carburetor throats to start cars and jeeps. I’ve done this many times before. “Well, open the engine cover and let’s see if we can fix this,” I answered.
Surprise, surprise! The fuel injected engine is part of a dedicated towing vehicle, not simply a converted jeep or truck chassis. It is state of the art and beautifully laid out, meticulously painted and labeled. It is spotlessly clean. Every label or tag, however, is written in Chinese. Well, basics still apply, I told myself and began following tubing and air ducts until the intake went out of sight behind the engine.
The woman had called an associate who arrived just as I reached the upper level of my expertise, I believe it’s still called the Peter Principle. I explained my actions to him as he stood quietly, his hands behind his back. He looked at me and said ‘Hmmm,” then reached behind the engine somehow and within a minute or so, said, “Try it now.” After several half-hearted coughs, it started just as a bus showed up and people began climbing into to the waiting tram. The woman came over to me and thanked me profusely, even though I hadn’t fixed it. “He did something inside the air cleaner, so, yes, you did.” By the time she picked up her microphone, they had a full tour loaded and ready to go. I got another big smile and a wave.
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| "Toto, we're not in Iowa anymore..." |
We return to the ship to find another behemoth docked behind us, the Carnival Horizon, a cousin to our Holland America Rotterdam, which adds another 4000 visitors to the port. The third and fourth piers, smaller than the open sea piers, are in town, and are both occupied as well. Moored alongside St. Annabaai is the Crystal Serenity, famous for having been taken by Bahamian authorities several years ago for owing well over four million dollars in outstanding fuel bills, and another, unnamed boutique cruiser docked in front of her. The completely refurbished Crystal Serenity, carrying just over a thousand passengers, is now under new ownership and is operated by Crystal Cruises.
We have dinner and head for the top deck to catch the Thursday evening fireworks. Another great visit to one of our favorite ports.
Next – Cartagena Revisited
