out in my headstraights by appointment only

Today we docked in Antigua, and even though clouds loomed over the dock, I hopped onto a bus with our group for a three hour tour across this amazing island. While the population here isn’t the largest, there is a rather stable environment of schools, a hospital, churches, and a thriving commercial district. Of course with three ships in the dock today, the island is rife with tourists such as myself, so I’m glad to be on a bus instead of pushing through the overcrowded streets.

We come to Nelson’s Harbor where we are treated to a brief history of the area before it starts pouring down with rain. But after a mere five minutes or so, the rain stops and it’s bright and sunny again, so we troop onward and finish the rest of our tour. We get treated to the island’s fabled rum punch, which provides quite a kick to some of our group. After raiding the gift shop, I headed back on to the ship for a late lunch and more poolside reading. Is it weird that I’ve gotten more reading done so far on this cruise than ever before?

Before heading off for dinner I decided to drop by the theatre for a stand up comic – it turns out to be a hilarious forty five minutes as he talks about everything from losing his luggage to the cabin showers, and even had time to indulge with some of the audience members. Dinner as always was exceptional and was rounded off by a Grand Mariner soufflé, which I thoroughly enjoyed. We then headed up poolside for “Celebrity Rox”, a non-stop rocking party as a sort of preview of what’s to come on New Year’s Eve. Fuelled by the energy of the dancers, scores of people joined in (myself included), and we even managed to pull off a line-dance or two.