My Cruise Adventures

Aruba

Aruba was our final island, and we had one tour we booked midway through the cruise - the Atlantis submarine. We boarded a transfer boat and Spent about ten minutes going to where the sub waited. Actually, we waited for the sub once we got there - the Coral Princess was in port before us and her passengers had the previous tour. When the sub finally surfaced, they swapped places with us and returned to port while we took our ride.

The reef was right below us as we started our descent. Our windows distorted the view somewhat, making it appear as though we were only feet away from the reef. We saw several barracudas as well as numerous other fish. The reef was not as colorful nor as populated as those I remember on Jamaica's north coast, but they were good enough that everyone had a good time. We also passed a shipwreck, and again the windows seemed to distort the view and made it appear to be not much longer than our submarine.

When we returned to the surface, we found the transfer boat had returned with a full load of passengers, but these passengers were from the island and not from a ship. Our boat dropped some passengers off at the dock where we started, but took the rest of us a few hundred yards away and dropped us off downtown.

The shopping didn't look as extensive as that on Curacao, but it had all the named shops I have come to expect in the Caribbean. We stopped in at a local place for lunch, which was reasonably priced. I once again sampled a local beer. Dad returned to the ship then, and I stopped in for my last internet access for this cruise.