FamBam Cruise 6: Barbados and back on board

On Friday, June 27, 2025, we approached the island of Barbados.

The Spanish called dibs on Barbados in the late 1400s, and the Portuguese claimed it in the 1530s and then abandoned it in 1620. The British took possession of it in 1625 and held onto it since then. In 1960 it moved towards independence and in 2021 became a republic within the British Commonwealth.

We had a little less going on that day, so we had "fancy breakfast".

Eva got a good 50% of her food into her mouth.

Then we got off to spend a day at the beach in Barbados. This was the 5th island in 5 days, so we were a bit worn out and didn't mind just hanging out for the day.

We walked through the shops on our way to the beach.

Then instead of paying $5 each for a taxi ride, we all walked a mile or so to reach the beach.

I liked the parts of the path that were in the shade.

There was a boardwalk as we got closer to the beach.

And boats by the bridge.

Finally we reached the beach, and it had beautiful, fine, white sand and pretty water.

We stood in the shade of a pier while we discussed where to set up. We eventually decided to let the salesman who approached us lead us to some umbrellas and beach chairs.

Here is a picture Mikayla took of her view from one of the lounge chairs.

Kelsi and Chase brought a beach tent (held down by four bags in the corners that you fill with sand), and this gave Eva a place to play that was in the shade and out of the sand.

The beach was pretty crowded there, with wave runners and boats you had to watch out for, but the water was pleasant and the beach was beautiful.

Some tour boats were taking people to see sea turtles, but it wasn't far from shore, so I just snorkeled out there on my own. However, once I got out there, I saw lots of little clear floating blobs (about 4 inches across) with four black spots. I was afraid I was in a bloom of jellyfish and would get stung, so I swam away as fast as I could. Then I asked the lifeguard what they were and he said that they were harmless ("Winged Comb Jellies"), and that they in fact eat the little "sea lice" (jellyfish larvae) that do sting you a little.

Here are a couple pictures I got with my GoPro.

So I tried going out one more time, but still didn't see any turtles. I later asked someone from one of the tour boats what they saw, and they said the only turtles they saw were over by the shipwrecks, which were further away.

But the jellies were kind of cool. Here's a 1-minute video of swimming through those and looking close up at one of them changing shapes.

Some of the group decided to head back to the boat, and the taxi van they were in got a flat tire and tried to keep driving longer than they should have. Eventually the hub cap rolled away, so they pulled over to retrieve it and let everyone get out.

By then, the tire was shredded!

The rest of us eventually packed up and called it a day as well.

On the way back to the ship, we saw some of the buildings, including this abandoned one that looked like it was from a war zone.

Here are three views of Parliament building as we drove by.

 

Barbados wasn't my favorite island, but we were also sort of out of energy to do much there, and were content to head back to the ship early to relax.

At dinner that night, Katelyn showed the watch tan line that she had developed on the cruise.

Dessert that night included a very nice little blueberry cobbler with ice cream.

There was also a "baked Alaska", which had a pastry with Neapolitan ice cream in the middle.

One "Survivor" challenge for that day was to see who could find the coolest souvenir for $5. There were several that were pretty good, but the winner of our votes by a clear margin was the lobster than Adam and Sienna found. Each leg, claw and antenna was attached with a spring, so it all wiggled when you bumped it. We thought it was incredible.

Here is a 4-second video showing how it looked.

The other survivor challenge was to see who could build the tallest house of cards. I don't seem to have any pictures of that, but Adam and Sienna won that one, too.

Linette and I watched a dance show that evening before calling it a night.

Sienna was reading something on her phone when she fell asleep. It had been a long week.

On Saturday, June 28, 2025, we had our one and only full day at sea, and after all those adventures, it was nice to have a day to relax.

Kyle showed his 3-color farmer's tan, also known as a "Neapoli-tan". 🤦

We did fancy breakfast again, since we had nowhere to be.

Later, we gathered on the deck for a game of shuffleboard for the final Survivor challenge.

Each team played each other team. At one point, Adam and Sienna had two discs in the 10 and 8 spot or something, which was going to make them win against Jared and Katelyn. But then Jared sent one disc in that knocked both of those completely off the board and landed itself in the 8 spot for the win. It was amazing!

Finally, it all came down to Jared & Katelyn vs. Shaylee and Mikayla. Whoever won the final shuffleboard round would be the Survivor champions for the week. It was close, but Shaylee and Mikayla pulled out the win, and got the grand prize of dinner at Chops Grill that night.

That afternoon, our favorite conference room was being used, so we used another one to play some games.

We played The Great Dalmuti, and my cards were abysmal pretty much every hand, including this one.

We enjoyed one more fancy dinner that night.

The wait staff did some dancing and had us twirl our handkerchiefs around to encourage them on.

Everyone on the cruise made eyes at Eva.

This waitress was great about getting Kyle the custom (virgin) specialty drinks he ordered.

After dinner, we just had time to run outside and see the sunset.

Linette and I went and saw the final show, which featured Max and Olga again. It had a really cute video of his early career, and him doing handstands (and single-hand stands) in various places. Then it said, "And then there was her," and showed some of Olga's acrobatic dance career, and then showed her pregnant, and then their daughter as she grew from a baby to a 9-year-old girl, doing some acrobatics of her own. After the montage, the couple came out and did some dancing and a silk routine.

We gathered in our favorite conference room again that night for games, including some Mario Kart.

Mikayla and Shaylee walked in acting all full from their fancy dinner at Chops Grill. They both had chosen the filet mignon and said it was fabulous.

We did some Rummikub that night as well.

There was a cute tribute out in the Centrum to all the countries that the staff was from.

I got one last ice cream cone from the ice cream station, and got a picture with the guy serving them up.

We hit the Windjammer for some late-night snacks, and Eva once again had fun emptying the packet box of all its sugar packets and other things.

Here's a cute 2-minute video of Kelsi seeing if she can load the packets faster than Eva can empty them. I thought it was hilarious that Eva doesn't even know they're playing--and doesn't even seem aware that she's dropping anything on the floor. And yet she holds her own pretty well! Will Mama Kelsi get all the packets in before Baby Eva gets them all out? There's one way to find out...

We did a bit more hanging out in our room that evening while Eva crawled all over everyone.

Two hours later, Kelsi came back to our room saying that Eva wouldn't go to sleep. She was deliriously tired but kept doing a fake laugh. So finally Grandpa Randy took her for a walk around the ship to give Kelsi a break. After a couple of laps on top, with some singing and bouncing, she finally conked out and I was able to deliver her back to Kelsi.

Sunday morning, Adam and I went to the Windjammer for one last breakfast, and we saw this assortment of packets that seemed like it would be Eva's dream come true!

In the next, final episode, we explore Old San Juan and return to El Yunque National Forest for one more hike before heading home.