Our Caribbean cruise from Barbados

This morning we woke up early. We went out to the balcony and saw that we were already near Guadeloupe. We watched the ship enter the port from our balcony.

Then we went for breakfast. We tried the Atlantik Mediterran, which is also a waiter restaurant for breakfast. We liked it very much and everything was delicious.

Since we had time until our excursion, we went back to the cabin. There we received a call from the onboard travel management. Unfortunately, our luggage did not arrive in Guadeloupe. Great. She told us what had happened. The airline sent the luggage to Lyon instead of Paris and did not make any loss reports, so the PIR numbers were missing on the luggage. In Lyon, the airline refused to transport the luggage any further.

She reminded us again of the free laundry service and said that we could drop off a bag of laundry at housekeeping until 7 p.m. The clean laundry would then be back in our cabin early the next morning. She also completely filled our onboard credit with the €250 per person. However, with the prices on board, that's actually nothing.

But we had another problem, we needed bathing shoes and a bag to put our bathing suits, etc. in... unfortunately, everything was in the suitcases. Normally, we could have bought it in the onboard shop, but unfortunately, we were in Guadeloupe until 10 p.m., so the shops didn't open. She promised to talk to the shop manager and find a solution.

Then we went to our meeting point at the TUI Bar. We had booked the excursion 'Canopy Adventure in the Rainforest' for today. We were checked off the list and were told to wait, as the excursion had not been approved yet. Meanwhile, we heard over the ship announcements that the taxi drivers in Guadeloupe were on strike and blocking the exit from the port area. The police were already on site. After an hour of waiting, the disappointment came. All bus excursions were canceled because the police couldn't do anything. The money was supposed to be automatically credited back to the onboard account. That worked too. We were really frustrated, it was already the second strike within 2 days that had such a negative impact on our vacation.

We decided to go into town on our own. We left the ship towards the exit. Next to us was another ship from MSC. It was crowded, already at the exit, but also on the street leading to the city. We decided to go back to the ship. We strolled around the souvenir stands on the port grounds for a while and then went back on board.

At the boarding pass check, my husband was asked to wait. A new photo had to be taken of him because he was photographed wearing a cap during boarding. Well, the 'motivated' employee didn't say anything about taking it off. Well, it didn't take long.

We went to the cabin to change and then went to the pool. Luckily, it was relatively empty and we found two free sun loungers in the shade. The majority had apparently decided to push through the overcrowded city. We made ourselves comfortable. First, we cooled off in the pool and then I had some delicious ice cream and my husband got a crepe with chocolate sauce. Then we enjoyed the sun with a few tasty cocktails. At least we still had a relaxing day.

In the afternoon, I had an appointment for a foot and leg massage at the spa. Very soothing, I can only recommend it.

When we returned to the cabin after dinner, there was a large Mein Schiff bag with bathing shoes on the desk. Size 39 for me and size 41 for my husband. I tried on the shoes right away and oh horror... I couldn't fit into the left one. My left foot has been a lot thicker than the other for a few years now, no doctor could tell me why. My husband gave me his in size 41 to try on. I just managed to get my foot in. So he squeezed his left foot into the shoe in size 39. As the saying goes, shared pain is half pain.

We also learned from the onboard travel management that our luggage will not be arriving at the next port either, as the flight connection would be too adventurous. Therefore, we handed in a laundry bag by 7 p.m.

We went to bed relatively early tonight. Tomorrow, Dominica is on the program.

In the next report, we'll talk about Dominica.