Today is a beach day – specifically, Seven Mile Beach, which is supposed to be one of the best beaches in the Caribbean.
The Century is not docked (and not anchored either – thrusters and azipods are being used to keep the ship in place. The Crown Princess and the Disney Wonder are also doing the same thing. The tender ride is short (5 minutes) and smooth and soon we are in Georgetown.
Celebrity Century from the Tender
The New and Old of seafaring vessels
The best way to go is by cab ($4 per person), which gets you there (4 miles from the port) and allows you to use the sand and facilities of the resort hotel. You bring your own towel and can rent an umbrella ($10) or beach chair ($10).
Seven Mile Beach and Cruise Ships
The sand is nice and the water is warm. There are a lot of folks at the beach today but there is still plenty of room to stretch out and relax. The kids play in the water or build sand castles.
The waves are pretty strong and frequent – a portent of things to come.
Not wanting to wait in a long line for the last few tenders, we take another van back to the pier. Delighted that their no line, we hop onto our tender boat. The wave and wind action were so intense that the tender was slamming into the pier with major force (strong enough to move people in their seats). The boat was also rocking in all directions.
Soon we were on our way back amidst strong waves and winds. The splashing was so intense that people sitting in the unprotected areas of the boat got drenched. We were in the front and closed our windows to keep dry. The chop was severe – some people were getting queasy. The worst part was that the boat was unable to maneuver its way to the tender docking area on the Century (too much chop). It took three passes and a total of about 40 minutes for the tender boat to finally move close enough to the ship for the crew to secure the boat. It was a treacherous trip from the tender to the ship over the gangway but eventually we all made it. What an adventure at no extra charge – by the way, the kids thought it was a ton of fun. The adults – not so much.
The ship itself was pretty smooth (hard to move around 95,000 tons).
Being at the beach was great – it had been quite a while since I had beach time. It took a major shower to clean out all of the sand but it was worth it.
Steve did his Comedy act again…still funny. He did change it and added some new and funny elements.
The seas are choppy and the wave slap against the bow is pretty loud. Thank goodness for earplugs.
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