Cruise Day 10- Curacao, November 10th

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Cruise day 10, Curacao, Monday November 10^th

Today we arrived in Willemstad, Curacao. (ok I always pronounced it kur-AH-coe, apparently it’s pronounced cur-uh-SOUW, who knew!!) This country is known for its very colorful buildings. Hannah did a research project on this country before our trip and the reason for the colorful buildings is because people would get headaches from the white buildings due to the bright sunlight!

We were in port from 8am until 8:30pm so we took our time in the morning getting ready then had a laid back breakfast in the MDR. Today was a chocolate themed breakfast! Some of the options were chocolate waffles with a caramel-banana sauce, chocolate chip pancakes, chocolate milkshake, chocolate cream cheese trifle, chocolate banana bread, etc.

Us by the welcome sign.

When we got off the ship, we caught a taxi to Mambo Beach which was about 10 minutes away. Our first impression as we drove there was how much more sophisticated this island was compared to many Caribbean islands we’ve gone to. It didn’t have the third world country feel that many of the previous islands had.

The view by the shops looking down on Mambo Beach.

We got dropped off at the beach and were quite impressed by the surroundings.  We walked past a lot of nice shops before we walked down steps to the beach. There were 2 levels of shops & restaurants that lined the beach, nicer than the boardwalks at home actually! On the beach were also some small hut-type of buildings that had grilled food & drinks. There was even a nice volleyball court right behind us.

The beach was beautiful! There was a reef out a little distance that broke the waves so the water right by us was perfectly calm which was great for the little ones. The water here was clear & beautifully warm! We could see lots of little fish swimming by our feet. There was also one of those big, floaty trampoline for the kids to jump off of into the water.

We could even see our ship in the distance from where we sat. We saw several pelicans dive bomb into the water right by us for fish. One of them came within a few feet of the kids and made them jump as they truly come out of nowhere! I went for a little walk up the beach and came across a HUGE iguana. The thing was over 2 feet long from head to tail and walked out about 5 feet in front of me. Thankfully I had my phone on me and snapped some pictures.

Olivia playing with the kids snorkel gear.

This beach was one of our favorite due to how clean it was as well as the calm water. We stayed here until almost 4pm then headed back to the ship to get ready for dinner.

The view of our ship from on top of a bridge we crossed.

This was the first time when we docked that we entered & exited on the side of the damaged life boat so we were able to get a closer view of the destruction.

The head waiters weren’t on the floor tonight like they typically are so Olivia was bummed she hadn’t seen her “buddy” yet (that’s what she calls him). So we told our waiter as we finished dinner that Olivia was asking about her buddy. He immediately said “I’ll go get him”. Didn’t our head waiter come out bearing plates of chocolate chip cookies and in his words, it was for her to pack to take to the beach the next day! He spent time talking to her which made her night! Out of all 4 cruises we've done, this by far has been the best wait staff we've ever had!

My appetizer and main course!

Ava cheesing it up on the left and Olivia carrying her napkin rabbit & hat. Hmm I can see why people asked if they were twins!

A view of Curacao from the ship.

Later on in the evening, a few friends & I went to one of the big lounges for a musical dance game. The room was divided into 2 teams. The person in charge would play a song that has known dance moves to it (like the chicken dance, macarena, gangum style, etc). Whoever knew the dance moves had to go out on the dance floor and do them. Whichever team had the most people out doing the song, won that round. It was a lot of fun! While I was participating in this, the older 4 kids were at the teen club and Kevin was watching the Eagles football game (one of the few live programs we get on the ship) while the little ones slept. Everyone had a great evening!

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All photos can be clicked on to enlarge. The photos I am sharing are a combination of ones I took as well as my kids and husband on a variety of cameras and iPhones, hence the varying quality.