Peter's Cruise Blog
Thursday, January 1st 2009
10:40 AM
New Years Day - St. Georges, Grenada
This morning we arrived in St. Georges in Grenada.
Located north of Trinidad and Tobago and south of The Grenadines, it is the second-smallest independent country in the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus first sighted the island in 1498 and named it first Conception Island. Grenada was made a Crown Colony in 1877. St. Georges is the capital, with a population of approximately 103,000.
I'm surpised at the number of people up and about this morning, considering the heavy partying going on last night. The New Years Banquet in the Thistle Restaurant was lovely, with all the fine trimmings you would expect from a posh joint, but I don't expect to be dining in there again. I'd spoken to the Cruise Director earlier in the day to say that I'd been invited into the restaurant, and he promised me he'd speak to the Maitre De to make sure it was going to be okay, However, when I arrived for dinner at 8:45, the Maitre de assured me that he'd had no such phone call and that there were no spare seats on table 6. After a few minutes of awkwardness, and double-checking with the folks who were sat at the table, I was ready to dump the idea and head for the Palms Cafe. I'd been told by that there were two spare places there, but he still had passengers on his list filling those spaces, and despite the fact that those passengers hadn't eaten at that table since the start of the cruise, he initially wasn't prepared to take the chance of them turning up and finding me in one of their places. Eventually he conceded, common sense prevailed, and I was allowed to stay.
The dinner was good - you could tell it was posh because the portions were minute. The Haggis was duly piped-in and paraded around the room before being addressed by a gruff scotsman. I had a serving of haggis with taties and neeps, and a wee dram, as did most on the table. Not everyone was interested in the wee dram, though, so I offered to drink that of anyone who didn't wish to partake and bagged myself 3 extra shots of whiskey - YESSS! The free drink hunter strikes again!
Further free beverages were available later on the top deck, in the form of flutes of champagne, ensuring that everyone had a glass in their hand for the countdown to the new year. At the moment of changeover from the old to the new, a huge ice sculpture of the numbers 2008 were ceremonially lifted high and thrown into the swimming pool, leaving only the 2009 one standing.
For a couple of hours following this, I partook in the ritual of getting up and getting on down with my bad sounds and daddy-dancing with all and sundry - what a tart! At 2am, I'd pretty much had enough, congratulated myself on going the distance and promptly headed for bed with the partying still going strong.
Its 10:40am now, so I'm going to take a walk into the town and see what's occuring. Sailaway is at 6pm today, so all passengers have to be back on board for 5pm.
Located north of Trinidad and Tobago and south of The Grenadines, it is the second-smallest independent country in the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus first sighted the island in 1498 and named it first Conception Island. Grenada was made a Crown Colony in 1877. St. Georges is the capital, with a population of approximately 103,000.
I'm surpised at the number of people up and about this morning, considering the heavy partying going on last night. The New Years Banquet in the Thistle Restaurant was lovely, with all the fine trimmings you would expect from a posh joint, but I don't expect to be dining in there again. I'd spoken to the Cruise Director earlier in the day to say that I'd been invited into the restaurant, and he promised me he'd speak to the Maitre De to make sure it was going to be okay, However, when I arrived for dinner at 8:45, the Maitre de assured me that he'd had no such phone call and that there were no spare seats on table 6. After a few minutes of awkwardness, and double-checking with the folks who were sat at the table, I was ready to dump the idea and head for the Palms Cafe. I'd been told by that there were two spare places there, but he still had passengers on his list filling those spaces, and despite the fact that those passengers hadn't eaten at that table since the start of the cruise, he initially wasn't prepared to take the chance of them turning up and finding me in one of their places. Eventually he conceded, common sense prevailed, and I was allowed to stay.
The dinner was good - you could tell it was posh because the portions were minute. The Haggis was duly piped-in and paraded around the room before being addressed by a gruff scotsman. I had a serving of haggis with taties and neeps, and a wee dram, as did most on the table. Not everyone was interested in the wee dram, though, so I offered to drink that of anyone who didn't wish to partake and bagged myself 3 extra shots of whiskey - YESSS! The free drink hunter strikes again!
Further free beverages were available later on the top deck, in the form of flutes of champagne, ensuring that everyone had a glass in their hand for the countdown to the new year. At the moment of changeover from the old to the new, a huge ice sculpture of the numbers 2008 were ceremonially lifted high and thrown into the swimming pool, leaving only the 2009 one standing.
For a couple of hours following this, I partook in the ritual of getting up and getting on down with my bad sounds and daddy-dancing with all and sundry - what a tart! At 2am, I'd pretty much had enough, congratulated myself on going the distance and promptly headed for bed with the partying still going strong.
Its 10:40am now, so I'm going to take a walk into the town and see what's occuring. Sailaway is at 6pm today, so all passengers have to be back on board for 5pm.
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