Launched in 1989 and with a 1602 passenger capacity, Empress of the Seas is oldest and the smallest ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet. We’ve sailed on some of the much larger ships in the fleet and in many ways truly prefer the coziness of the Empress. It was almost impossible to get lost. On most ships we tease that you don’t have the ships’s geography figured out until it’s time to disembark but on Empress it was easy to find our way around. And with fewer passengers we felt like we got more personalized service. Plus there’s the fact that her only itinerary is Cuba, the theme of the ship reflected the destination of our trip and contributed to the experience. Yes, she’s older and it shows. She’s scheduled for a renovation in the near future. But we enjoyed sailing on a ship that is the transportation to a destination and not trying so hard to be a destination in and of itself as well as provided some great spaces for dancing on the deck!
Queen Mary 2’s arrival in the Port of Dakar, Senegal was heralded in the local press and greeted with ceremony. Our own excursion took us on a coach journey through the streets of the capital city to visit a Wolof village and the shore of Lake Retba, the salty lake famed for an intense pink color.
Today’s safari adventure transported us out into the Dorob National Park to have up close encounters with little creatures that are well adapted to the extreme heat and lack of water in the Namib Desert.
With a UNESCO World Heritage Site, two national parks, dozens of museums, and hundreds of tours offered in the Cape Town area there is more than plenty to do. For our two day visit we opted to concentrate on African wildlife visiting the Aquila Private Game Reserve and the Boulders Beach Penguin Colony for a wonderful chance to these fabulous animals in their own habitat.
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