The day began a little later than usual for me. I took some time to sleep in since the Carnival Breeze wouldn’t be docking in Curacao until 2 pm. After waking up and getting ready, I made my way up to the Lido Marketplace for breakfast. After giving up on the long lines, I decided to grab a croissant and wait until lunch to eat. Eventually, when lunch rolled around and the island of Curacao began to come into vision, I decided to try another burger from Guy’s Burger Joint. Today’s choice would be the Chillius Maximus. This burger has the usual works, plus a fried onion ring, donkey sauce, and chili to top it all off. It definitely ranks near the top of my favorite burgers – delicious!
Soon, we began to change course towards the island of Curacao. Within under an hour, we were docked at the Mega Pier in the capital city of Willemstad. As my family and I decided what to do, we disembarked the ship and began walking towards downtown Willemstad. Suddenly, we realized we were walking through a large outdoor plaza that belonged to the Renaissance Hotel. Realizing this, and the fact that the Renaissance had a beautiful outdoor beach style pool, we decided to finally put a special pass we had received from the Renaissance earlier this year to good use. We grabbed our beach towels along with our other beach stuff and made our way to the exclusive beach style pool overlooking the Caribbean Sea. The entire pool complex was built exactly like a beach. Not only did the pool slope down from the pool deck, but the pool and the beach were both filled with sand. It was probably one of the coolest pools I have ever been in, but it still kept the feeling that you were swimming in the ocean.
After spending a few hours at the Renaissance’s pool, my family and I decided that we wanted to continue exploring the city. Soon, we had packed up and made our way towards downtown Willemstad. To cross over into the city, we had to cross the famous pontoon pedestrian bridge, which can be moved via its pontoon boats to allow for large ships to pass into the city. Soon, after crossing into downtown, the islands Dutch roots became very apparent. Almost every building along the waterfront and down the main streets was built exactly like a building in the Netherlands. Curacao was originally a Dutch colony and is still a part of the Netherlands, and their island definitely reflects so. As we continued to walk past the Dutch style buildings, we stumbled upon a little plaza that was surrounded by shops, bars, and outdoor restaurants. Seizing the opportunity of being in such a beautiful environment with restaurants, we decided to eat at one of the local places.
Looking over the menu at a small, Dutch inspired cafe, we ordered a few Dutch plates just to try both the local and Dutch food. My personal favorite dish that we ordered was bitterballen. Bitterballen, as explained to me by our Dutch waitress, is just minced meat that is grounded up inside of a crunchy ball. It may sound unappealing, but trust me, if you’re ever in Curacao or the Netherlands, you will need to try bitterballen.
After finishing our delicious meal at the local cafe and realizing that we would need to be back onboard the Breeze soon, we decided to head back towards the ship. Unfortunately, the pontoon bridge was pulled back to allow other ships to pass, so we ended up taking the free ferry service from downtown to the resort side of the area. After a quick ride on the ferry and a brief and beautiful walk through multiple tropical plazas, we arrived at the Carnival Breeze. It was late and I was tired from our long day in Curacao, so I decided to return to my stateroom for the night. As the Breeze began to sail away from Curacao, I sat on my balcony watching the multi colored Dutch buildings slip away from view. Soon, the beautiful island of Curacao was only a light in the distance as our ship set course for Aruba.
Where Is Mike Today? Aruba
Where Will Mike Be Tomorrow? At Sea
One reply on “Carnival Breeze To The Caribbean – Day 5 – Curacao”
Any chance we can get a couple of those Guy’s Burger Joint burgers shipped? They sound soooo good! (And I’m a burger hound since I was a little boy!)
Thanks for the great post on Curacao! Will be there twice aboard Zuiderdam in November….followed by Aruba twice.