Sunday 16 January

One thing I did forget to post on yesterday’s page was the view when I was having my clotted cream scones for tea, so here it is -

Elizabeth also took some pictures around the dining room when it was a little quieter and here they are -

Today we’re on Tortola.  Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), one of the 16 or so islands in the group which is a British Overseas Territory.

The US dollar is the official currency here and the island is home to many offshore companies that do business worldwide.  Financial services are a major part of the country's economy.

On 6 September 2017, the islands were extensively damaged by Hurricane Irma and the most severe destruction was on Tortola. News reports over the next day or two described the situation as "devastation". 

Our arrival was a little later than planned due to the Celebrity Reflection cutting in in front of us – my words, not the Deputy Captain’s who was trying to put it diplomatically, but I felt I could read between the lines.

Strangely enough, the last time we were on a Caribbean cruise was when we were on Celebrity Reflection on a 12-night Easter cruise from Fort Lauderdale.

I was out and about early to get some photos as we arrived here and, as always, it was enjoyable to be out as dawn was breaking and as we were gliding in among the islands.

We had a lighter breakfast each and set off outside. It must have been just after 8am and the place seemed to be well and truly asleep still on this Sunday morning. Excursion groups were gathering but there was little else going on.

We decided not to do an excursion as we had a bus tour of Tortola when we were last here and, with P&O’s list of excursions rather thin on the ground – as usual on this cruise – we felt we might just enjoy being here and have a general walk around. There was a trip setting off by boat to Virgin Gorda, the second most populous island in the group, but I think they were Celebrity passengers as I don’t remember seeing that trip offered by P&O.

I soon discovered that there was no free wifi to be had and we walked around the new terminal complex which has been built since we were last here in 2012. Most units were closed and there was little to do, so we decided to return to the ship and go back ashore later to see which units were closed because it was too early and which ones were closed because it is Sunday.

We then had a lazy time on the ship, the inevitable beer on the pool terrace at the stern. Elizabeth grabbed a snack lunch and later we ventured out again. We had a walk around the port area but it was particularly uninteresting and the sun was beating down hard by now and, with our phone front screen telling us that the UV levels were very high, we decided to retreat back to the terminal area to see which bars had some life in them at last.

The nicest one we found was the one nearest the ships. A quick check revealed that they had wifi and would take a credit card, so it was just a case of getting a table – not easy – but our luck was in, four people moved away and we were on it.

The wifi connection was lightning fast and would easily sustain a video call back home as well as all the other things we might want to do online. I still couldn’t satisfy what has become a minor ambition for me on this cruise, however, and that is to savour a Carib beer and we had to settle for a Mexican Corona.

There was loud honking from a ship's horn and suddenly, at 2.30pm, Celebrity Reflection left the dock and Azura stood alone. We made our way back to the ship, researched possible future holidays for a while and enjoyed the warmth without the direct sun on our balcony. The only small thing that was a nuisance was that there were one or two noisy people in speed boats roaring around the bay for a while, but they eventually cleared off.

After our evening meal we dropped in for our first quiz and came third we think out of a packed casino/bar so we were quite pleased to discover that we hadn’t lost out too much during the pandemic.

After that we went to the Malabar where we watched a full performance from Lana Domaney whom we had watched for a while a few nights before. She is a seriously good Australian singer and is almost a one-person band.

She needs a lighting and a sound technician, but clearly runs pre-recorded backing tracks and has an autocue on a tablet-size screen which she works on a stand in front of her. With a nice presentational manner as well, she gives a pleasant 45-minute performance which changes each night and she sometimes is out on deck during the day as well.

Where we briefly shared a table with Mike and Marion in 2019