December 10, 2025 – Kralendijk, Bonaire – Sunny – 87F

December 10, 2025 – Kralendijk, Bonaire – Sunny – 87F

Not having very good luck getting excursions so far and we none today in Bonaire.  We will probably walk the town and perhaps find a spa.  Serenity is docked at the North Pier (not usually where we dock but this ship is smaller than our usual ships, which park at the main cruise terminal.  Today, the other terminal is hosting the Carnival Horizon, which I photographed as she arrived.

I was up pretty early and had a chance to try out the new shower.  While the water pressure is lower in this part of the ship, the shower worked fine.  I like the two position shower head holders (one at the usual end and another in the middle of the shower). This is a better situation for a lot of people, including me, since you don't have to step over the bath tub walls to get in and out of the shower.

The Marketplace this morning was essentially empty with just me and another couple there at the opening.  

I had my usual breakfast and at this point in the cruise, my coffee is already at my table when I get back from my first pass at the buffet.

I guess we are far enough east that I caught my first sunrise of the cruise.

After breakfast, I went down to Guest Services to talk to the Concierge about ordering special meals for tonight – we didn’t do that yesterday because we wound up staying in all night – tired and other reasons.  The Concierge wasn’t there yet but a nice desk agent took my order (I wrote it all down for her) and said that she would get the information to the Marketside for tonight.  Should be interesting.

At 8 AM, I took our laundry to the self-serve launderette on our deck.  The Lauderettes are located at the far Forward end of the deck - a healthy walk even from midships.

The launderettes are now accessible via key card, which is better than before when they were wide open.  I started a load, which takes 45 minutes to complete – the instructions this time out were clear (and not symbol based).  The drying cycle also takes 45 minutes.  But the whole process is easy and now you have clean clothes.  Terrific.

Ellen got Room Service this morning – Pancakes and fruit – good.  The pancakes from Room Service are twice as big as those up in the buffet.  The small pancakes upstairs tend to be a bit over because of their size.

After putting away the laundry, we exited the ship and walked down Juan Abraham St (the second street beyond the one that runs along the water) looking for a spa I found on line – “Beauty Inside Out Spa”.  We found it in a shack like building but the woman in there (a White Danish Woman) told us she was booked until 4 PM. That wouldn’t work for us so we walked back toward the ship. 

I did get some nice pictures of both Crystal Serenity and Carnival Horizon as we walked along the waterfront.

We also found the modest Bonaire City Sign (cleverly constructed with a model car seats) and took the obligatory picture (we have been lucky on this cruise to find random people to take our pictue).

On the main pier, there was another spa – “Tulip Spa” – that also was booked for the day.  People must have made reservations on the websites for these places.  One more option was in the building that held a spa that I tried to go to several times.  The spa – “Pure Essence” was now part of a complex including an upscale clothing store.  The store was not here the last time we visited Kralendijk but no matter, the prices were absurd - $150 for an hour session.  No spa on this trip – we have not been successful getting a spa appointment in several visits to Bonaire.  It’s just not Cozumel.

The spa search burned 5000 steps.

It was getting hot so after a brief visit to the vendors across from the ship, we headed back to the coolness of Serenity. 

Before I went in, I shot a picture of the World War II Monument at the dock.  It needed some repair.

When the Marketplace opened at Noon, we went through the line.  I put together a green salad with a pretty good blue cheese dressing.  I also took a roll that I would use with the two scoops of tuna I got from the Trident Grill (along with the compulsory gazpacho).  The tuna was good on the roll and light enough not to impact dinner.  Diet cokes rounded out the lunch.

We went to Palm Court for afternoon tea and piano music. This is also a good location to shoot pictures of essentially the whole city 

including the W.E.B. DuBois Footbal Stadium.

From there, it is back to the cabin – all spiffed up by the cleaning crew.

Dinner tonight was in the Waterside Restaurant, where our special ordered kosher meals were waiting.  We are back at Table 141 for this cruise and our two terrific waiters Edson (from Brazil) and Vincent.  We started off with the Butternut Squash soup which was very good. Ellen’s veal chop was huge – who knows what that might cost in the market being kosher and beef (beef prices are in the stratosphere these days).  My hot dogs were, as usual, delicious.  

Both meals were top notch and were served quickly.  We passed on dessert and instead had tea in Crystal Cove served by our super waitress Jelena. 

We stayed down there for a while and are now back in the room. We are passing on the shows tonight – “Rock and Pop a Mania” at 8:30 PM and the White Party at 9:45 PM. 

The cabin’s temperature control is a bit wonky – we had the heat all the way up and it was cold – when we got back to the room it was hot and I turned it down.  The room is cooling down now.

The room is quiet.