One of Island Princess’s ports of call on the Grand Panama Cruise is in Oranjestad, Aruba, in port from 7am to 1pm. It was a Sunday and the shops didn’t open until 10am. With a cruise ship in town for only a few hours you’d think they’d make an exception and open up shop. Missed out on a few tourist dollars that day I’d think.
We started the day off at Dunkin’ Donuts shortly after arrival in Oranjestad. Not that we were craving donuts because they were available for breakfast on the Island Princess, but it offers free Wifi so we brought the lap top to check email. This was the last chance to get WiFi until Los Angeles in about 12 days. Internet is very sketchy to non-existent in the other ports of call. To get to Dunkin’ Donuts, walk off the cruise ship, through the terminal, and about a block down the road to get to the main street. Turn right and walk down about a block. Dunkin’ Donuts is on the second story of a building. Easy to spot. It’s only good manners to make a purchase while here using the free WiFi. They accept US dollars but the items are rather high priced.
Then we met up with friends and caught the #10 bus which goes along the beaches. This is Palm Beach, about 15 minutes bus ride from downtown Oranjestad.
If you’re a geocacher, there are a couple of easy caches to find in the Palm Beach area, including the Divi Tree Cache. It’s a little unusual to see coral and random sticks and stones around a divi tree! Could it be a camouflaged geocache?
There’s also geocache hidden nearby in front of Aruba’s Butterfly Farm.
Right across from gorgeous Palm Beach where I took a dip in the Caribbean Sea!
Here I am overlooking the Oranjestad, Aruba harbor.
These are shots I took around Oranjestad, all within an easy walk of the cruise ship terminal. Don’t you just love the pastel colors on the shops!
I even spotted John Travolta in Oranjestad, Aruba!
Don’t miss my post on 70’s heartthrobs who still make our hearts flutter.
The Island Princess was in Aruba for a very short time, from 7am to 1pm. This was a Sunday morning and the shops were all closed! Yeah you’d think they’d make a better business decision when there’s a cruise ship in town! Especially when it’s one of the last cruise ships of the season, because most of the ships were repositioning to Europe and Alaska for the summer cruising season. There were vendors with kiosks set up on the sidewalk overlooking the harbor, selling T-shirts and baseball caps.
The Island Princess in port at Oranjestad, Aruba.
It was very hot. I got back on board and grabbed a cold shower and a cold Dr. Pepper from the fridge, even though I don’t normally drink pop that early in the day.
I’ll leave you with a few photos I took once we were back onboard the Island Princess and steaming towards Cartagena, Colombia.
I always wonder about shops that close when the ships come in, seems they are missing a big opportunity but the one thing l am learning the more l travel, motivation to make extra money is not very strong like in the U.S. :-). Pretty place that is still on my list.
Especially when it’s about the last cruise ship they’ll see for 5 months! Must be enough tourists coming by plane so they don’t have to worry about changing their hours.