This cruise (R) will effectively complete our circumnavigation of South America. We cruised the west side on HollandAmerica and sailed the trip around the horn on Azamara Journey.
We're going back to an old friend, Azamara Quest.
Barbados Wiki Link
A medical problem forced us to change our air reservations from Thursday, January 15 to Friday, January 16. So we have:
(via Miami, now)
JAX-MIA American 1108 0600-0725
MIA-BGI American 3141 1104-1556 all times local.
And on January 3, 2026, the USA arrested Maduro in Venezuela, which caused confusion in the flights in the Barbados corner of the world. It calmed a few days later.
Cold on departure from Jacksonville. A front had come through with air from Montana or somewhere. We rented from Enterprise a Nissan to take to the airport. Ridiculous price, but taking our car and parking it at JAX would cost more.
(continued)
It was a first to have the airplane de-iced in Jacksonville. But the flight was ok. The AA lounge at Miami had a nice breakfast buffet, much appreciated. The flight to Barbados was very nice; good service, good food. Hard to tell we were on American.
Entry was no problem; he scanned our passports and saw we had our entry visas in hand, so he just passed us through. Big, long, line for taxis, since this is the night before multiple cruise ships get underway. We were herded into a minibus and taken to our hotel with one stop prior for $31, arriving around 1700.
We're booked for the night at the Accra Beach Hotel & Spa fronting on the Caribbean at Rockley Beach. By coincidence, this is the hotel Azamara transfer people will use when they arrive the night prior to boarding. It's a large thing, spread out along the avenue. It has several dining facilities but there are small native food stands nearby that we might try for local flavor.
Check-in took a while, since their process is not swift. One unique step is that they charge an extra $50 to the card; you later can charge to the room against that. Any credit left gets refunded to the card.
We loafed for a bit, then looked around. Only one food place was open and its selection was rather sparse. We had our free drinks and returned to the room. We'll make up for it at breakfast. There's a touristy thing down the road at Oistin's that probably drew the crowd. Oh, yes, and there's no hot water, but the a/c is working.
So, despite the little things, we are here and ready to board the ship tomorrow. Since we got up at 0400, we went to bed early.
Photo Link
20260117 Saturday Boarding
We board Azamara Quest today for the fifth time. This will be our ninth cruise on Azamara ships (also nine on HA). Here's a link to a video about the cruise terminal… and its shops. Looks like a madhouse.
Up at a leisurely hour, dress. Set up the Canon camera and take a few 10x shots to ensure it's working.
Down to breakfast in the dining room. We were reminded there that this is high season - cost was $150BDS. BDS is Barbados DollarS which are linked to USD at the rate of 2:1. Mighty expensive breakfast. The room rate was $810BDS. Food was basic but filling.
We arranged for a taxi to the cruise terminal at noon. Then back to the room to do these notes and e-mail. We checked out at noon. Randy the taxi driver took us through back streets to the port to get around a long line at entry. The check-in area was confused as always. We were put on a bus to transit the industrial port to the ship.
We took most of the afternoon setting up wifi, getting our dining scheduled, holes put in our cards for the lanyards, and so forth. This took several trips to Guest Services, so now Mansoor knows us.
The mandatory attendance lecture was conducted with not too much hassle. Then we went off to dinner in the main dining room (MDR henceforth) which was nice.
The show at 2100 was Club Crooner, probably a little better than the one we saw on a previous cruise. Exiting, O asked a dancer if everything is Up to Date in Kansas City - which he'd seen the guy perform on our Singapore to Athens trip. The performer was astonished that we'd remember him 2.5 years later.
Back then to the room to settle, do notes, and sleep.
The ships in port were the sailing vessel Royal Clipper and the super yacht Emerald Sakara, plus P&O's Avia.
The picture (R) of Quest in Rio is from space via Google. If you enlarge it you can see Quest's IMO number (ship identification number). The old girl still gets around.
