Sunday Dec 7, 2025
Hi All! You know how we love our sea days. Sleeping in, getting educated, eating good food and since it’s a Sunday in December… watching NFL Football!! We love our NFL Football so we got to watch a little of the 1:00, 4:00 and evening games. And my Steelers won! YAY!
After sleeping in, we started our day with a little education at the enrichment series called “The Caribbean Up Close: Treasure Islands. Pirates, Privateers and Treasure Hunters”. During the 15th century it all changed when Columbus got there and Spain claimed it. They found gold, silver and other treasures so they sent many ships.
But other Europeans countries saw Spain get rich so the English, French and Dutch started coming and many wars flared up. Of course then the pirates came, which started out as “privateers” which were independent looters paid by these same countries. The privateers got 80% of the bounty and the country got 20%.
But then these privateers decided to go out on their own and take 100% of the goods they found. Those privateers became what we now call pirates. The 17th century was when the pirates flourished. And that’s when they created the skull and cross bones flag.
The pirates would first fly the country flag and make it look like they needed help. When that country’s ship came to help they would then raise the skull and cross bones flag and ambush the other ship. Sneaky pirates!
Pirates actually practiced a form of democracy. If the crew felt the Captain wasn’t doing a good job, they can vote him out. Can we do that with our Captain?? Lol. It was a good program and they shared some great info!
We then had lunch at their Burger place called Dive In. I included a pic of the menu and while it’s somewhat basic, they truly have the best French Fries at sea! Even better than Guy Fieri’s Burger Joint on Carnival. And yes, I’ve sailed Carnival!! (Probably the opposite end of the cruise spectrum from Regent Seven Seas! Lol)
We also grabbed some goodies at the Afternoon Tea in between football games. And we got to meet “Captain Lewie” a lion dressed up like a Captain. He’s their mascot that honors the Dutch heritage since lions symbolize strength in the Netherlands. Who knew!
It was another fun day at sea and we even grabbed some sun since it was sunny and 83 degrees again. I can see why people come here during the winter! I’ll do another update after dinner tonight. Hope everyone’s having a great Sunday!
The Wandering Italian 