Monthly Archives: May 2009

About Bailey, Curacao, Vacations

Dining in Curacao

Leave a comment

Sunday night we had dinner at the Sea Side Terrace. It came highly recommended by the Royal Aquarium staff, and we’d read nice reviews on line. Well, last night must have been an exception, because I’m not sure I’ve had worse service, worse food or a worse meal.

The owner raved about his rice and beans, that his fish was wonderful and fresh, his fish soup was home made and delicious. So I ordered the fish soup, fresh fish and rice and beans. Not sure how the soup was, since we never got it… The rice and beans had zero moisture in them, were cold, and were crispy – I’m not positive, but I don’t think that’s how it should be. The “fish” was three thin strips of something, coated in rubber, then deep fried til it was so overcooked that I couldn’t cut it with a knife and fork.

And the kicker – it only took 2 hours to get it! TERRIBLE!! DO NOT GO!

View from El GauchosOn a brighter note – Monday we ate at El Gauchos Steak house. When we were in Aruba last December, we ate the best meal we’ve ever had at El Gauchos. This restaurant has a complimentary shuttle, that picked us up at the hotel, drove us to the restaurant, then returned us to the hotel after dinner. Now that’s service!

The restaurant is situated on a hill, so you have an amazing view of parts of the city, and the island. The soccer stadium was lit up, with a game just finishing up as we sat down. It’s owned by a pair of Dutch brothers, but is not associated with the El Gauchos in Aruba.

The service was impeccable. Attentive, informative, friendly. The meal was delicious, starting with home made chicken soup. Now I thought I knew what chicken soup tasted like, but this was a unique creation with wonderful flavor and aroma. A nice all you can eat salad bar was also there. It was nice, but would have just preferred they bring a salad lol.

The steaks were served on large wooden chargers, and were quite simply, amazing. Easily as good as the El Gauchos in Aruba. I had mine with the roasted vegetables. They were very tasty!

For desert I had tiramisu, and Pam had some wonderful concotion called “Pyramides” — order it – you won’t be disappointed. Not that I was in anyway disappointed with the tiramisu. All in all – WONDERFUL. The view, the service, the food, and best of all the company!

About Bailey, Curacao, Vacations

Dining in Curacao

Leave a comment

Sunday night we had dinner at the Sea Side Terrace. It came highly recommended by the Royal Aquarium staff, and we’d read nice reviews on line. Well, last night must have been an exception, because I’m not sure I’ve had worse service, worse food or a worse meal.

The owner raved about his rice and beans, that his fish was wonderful and fresh, his fish soup was home made and delicious. So I ordered the fish soup, fresh fish and rice and beans. Not sure how the soup was, since we never got it… The rice and beans had zero moisture in them, were cold, and were crispy – I’m not positive, but I don’t think that’s how it should be. The “fish” was three thin strips of something, coated in rubber, then deep fried til it was so overcooked that I couldn’t cut it with a knife and fork.

And the kicker – it only took 2 hours to get it! TERRIBLE!! DO NOT GO!

View from El GauchosOn a brighter note – Monday we ate at El Gauchos Steak house. When we were in Aruba last December, we ate the best meal we’ve ever had at El Gauchos. This restaurant has a complimentary shuttle, that picked us up at the hotel, drove us to the restaurant, then returned us to the hotel after dinner. Now that’s service!

The restaurant is situated on a hill, so you have an amazing view of parts of the city, and the island. The soccer stadium was lit up, with a game just finishing up as we sat down. It’s owned by a pair of Dutch brothers, but is not associated with the El Gauchos in Aruba.

The service was impeccable. Attentive, informative, friendly. The meal was delicious, starting with home made chicken soup. Now I thought I knew what chicken soup tasted like, but this was a unique creation with wonderful flavor and aroma. A nice all you can eat salad bar was also there. It was nice, but would have just preferred they bring a salad lol.

The steaks were served on large wooden chargers, and were quite simply, amazing. Easily as good as the El Gauchos in Aruba. I had mine with the roasted vegetables. They were very tasty!

For desert I had tiramisu, and Pam had some wonderful concotion called “Pyramides” — order it – you won’t be disappointed. Not that I was in anyway disappointed with the tiramisu. All in all – WONDERFUL. The view, the service, the food, and best of all the company!

Commentary, Curacao, Vacations

Dining in Curacao

Leave a comment

Sunday night we had dinner at the Sea Side Terrace. It came highly recommended by the Royal Aquarium staff, and we’d read nice reviews on line. Well, last night must have been an exception, because I’m not sure I’ve had worse service, worse food or a worse meal.

The owner raved about his rice and beans, that his fish was wonderful and fresh, his fish soup was home made and delicious. So I ordered the fish soup, fresh fish and rice and beans. Not sure how the soup was, since we never got it… The rice and beans had zero moisture in them, were cold, and were crispy – I’m not positive, but I don’t think that’s how it should be. The “fish” was three thin strips of something, coated in rubber, then deep fried til it was so overcooked that I couldn’t cut it with a knife and fork.

And the kicker – it only took 2 hours to get it! TERRIBLE!! DO NOT GO!

View from El GauchosOn a brighter note – Monday we ate at El Gauchos Steak house. When we were in Aruba last December, we ate the best meal we’ve ever had at El Gauchos. This restaurant has a complimentary shuttle, that picked us up at the hotel, drove us to the restaurant, then returned us to the hotel after dinner. Now that’s service!

The restaurant is situated on a hill, so you have an amazing view of parts of the city, and the island. The soccer stadium was lit up, with a game just finishing up as we sat down. It’s owned by a pair of Dutch brothers, but is not associated with the El Gauchos in Aruba.

The service was impeccable. Attentive, informative, friendly. The meal was delicious, starting with home made chicken soup. Now I thought I knew what chicken soup tasted like, but this was a unique creation with wonderful flavor and aroma. A nice all you can eat salad bar was also there. It was nice, but would have just preferred they bring a salad lol.

The steaks were served on large wooden chargers, and were quite simply, amazing. Easily as good as the El Gauchos in Aruba. I had mine with the roasted vegetables. They were very tasty!

For desert I had tiramisu, and Pam had some wonderful concotion called “Pyramides” — order it – you won’t be disappointed. Not that I was in anyway disappointed with the tiramisu. All in all – WONDERFUL. The view, the service, the food, and best of all the company!

Curacao

Dining in Curacao

Leave a comment

Sunday night we had dinner at the Sea Side Terrace. It came highly recommended by the Royal Aquarium staff, and we’d read nice reviews on line. Well, last night must have been an exception, because I’m not sure I’ve had worse service, worse food or a worse meal.

The owner raved about his rice and beans, that his fish was wonderful and fresh, his fish soup was home made and delicious. So I ordered the fish soup, fresh fish and rice and beans. Not sure how the soup was, since we never got it… The rice and beans had zero moisture in them, were cold, and were crispy – I’m not positive, but I don’t think that’s how it should be. The “fish” was three thin strips of something, coated in rubber, then deep fried til it was so overcooked that I couldn’t cut it with a knife and fork.

And the kicker – it only took 2 hours to get it! TERRIBLE!!! DO NOT GO!!!
View from El GauchosOn a brighter note – Monday we ate at El Gauchos Steak house. When we were in Aruba last December, we ate the best meal we’ve ever had at El Gauchos. This restaurant has a complimentary shuttle, that picked us up at the hotel, drove us to the restaurant, then returned us to the hotel after dinner. Now that’s service!

The restaurant is situated on a hill, so you have an amazing view of parts of the city, and the island. The soccer stadium was lit up, with a game just finishing up as we sat down. It’s owned by a pair of Dutch brothers, but is not associated with the El Gauchos in Aruba.

The service was impeccable. Attentive, informative, friendly. The meal was delicious, starting with home made chicken soup. Now I thought I knew what chicken soup tasted like, but this was a unique creation with wonderful flavor and aroma. A nice all you can eat salad bar was also there. It was nice, but would have just preferred they bring a salad lol.

The steaks were served on large wooden chargers, and were quite simply, amazing. Easily as good as the El Gauchos in Aruba. I had mine with the roasted vegetables. They were very tasty! For desert I had tiramisu, and Pam had some wonderful concotion called “Pyramides” — order it – you won’t be disappointed. Not that I was in anyway disappointed with the tiramisu!

All in all – WONDERFUL. The view, the service, the food, and best of all the company!

Curacao, Vacations

Sunday – relaxing

1 Comment

Barracuda Finding Nemo Pam needs a nap! lol So I thought I’d post a bit and show you what we’ve been up to. We started the day snorkeling, just around the condo today. We saw some nice fish, but the ocean is quite different here – on one side of the resort, there is a HUGE dropoff and the ocean quickly drops away to darkness. We’ve seen a number of barracuda already.

Spotted DrumPam got to see her first “spotted drum” as well. It’s not the greatest shot of it, but it’s a very pretty fish, with his long flowing dorsal fin, that almost waves like a scarf. I’m sure we’ll get a better picture of one of them.

We did not see any turtles or moray eels yet, but we’re told this area has a lot of them. There are certainly a lot of barracuda around, way more than we saw on Aruba. This area is very well populated, and I was surprised to see so many barracuda hanging around, literally amongst our feet as we entered at the condo’s main beach.

Downtown WillemstadWillemstad is much bigger than Orangestad on Aruba. It’s a large city, really, not simply a town. It has some typical Caribbean architecture and the bright colors we saw on Aruba.

Like Orangestad, not much is open past 2 pm on Sunday. Should be fun to see how many people are around these sites we saw today, which were virtually deserted. No cruise ships in the harbor, either today.

Downtown WillemstadNice first day – we’re off to have a nice dinner – I think we’re going for fresh seafood on the beach. Who knows? We certainly don’t! We’re on vacation! We don’t have no steenking plans!

OH BTW – there is a web cam here that Peter reminded me about – The picture it shows ALMOST shows our actual unit! You can see a balcony, on the right of the picture, and we’re the NEXT unit to the right.

Click here for the webcam.

Curacao, Vacations

First looks at Curacao

4 Comments

Puddle jumper We have arrived in Curacao! I’m sitting on our deck, looking out over the ocean, having a cup of Timmy Horton’s coffee, typing this report.

We took a little 16 seat puddle jumper over to Curacao from Aruba – they said it would take 40 minutes, but it took about 25. Was a neat little trip – kinda reminded me of the puddle jumpers we took jumping the Greek Islands.

Curacao seems a lot bigger than Aruba. Willemstad seems quite large, compared to Aruba’s towns. We had a bit of an adventure finding the place – we didn’t really get lost, we just thought we were lost!

The condo is really nice – very large, 16 foot ceilings. A 400 sq ft deck out the bedroom has an outdoor dining room and 2 couches on it. It’s got good internet from out here too.

We’re going to go hop in the ocean in about 15 minutes. Hopefully, the water is clear and lots of fish are hanging about for us to capture on film!

Curacao, Vacations

Charlotte NC

3 Comments

Charlotte NC Airport.Well we’re in Charlotte, NC, and it’s 3:30 am Vancouver time. We are waiting for our connecting flight to Aruba. We have about a 3 hour layover here. It’s a very nice airport, with rocking chairs all over so you can sit and relax. There are electrical plugins, and they offer free wifi connections, too. So you can sit in the rocking chair, with your laptop plugged in, and surf the web while waiting for your flight.

Seattle’s airport charges $7.99 for 24 hrs worth of connectivity, the typical ATT ripoff “featured” in so many US airports.

We were having a bite to eat and a beer in the Seattle Taproom in the airport, when the waitress said, “you’re ordering a beer? I’ll have to see some ID.” I said, “ID? Really? How old do you have to be to drink in this town??”  But I still had to pull out my ID and prove I was over 50 I guess. (Pam was going to have a coffee, but decided to order booze so she could feel young…)

We’re heading for breakfast now, then maybe a nap til the flight. The US Airways flight from Seattle to NC was uneventful. The flight was crowded, packed even. But all went well.