Our third day on our Virgin Voyages cruise, we woke up to the sun rising while we were still on our way to Aruba. It was faint but I could see us heading towards it.

This morning Mom and I had a reservation for breakfast scheduled at Razzle Dazzle at 8am.

Breakfast at Razzle Dazzle

Razzle Dazzle is a vegetarian forward restaurant with a few meat dishes. I ended up getting the mushroom “tartar”, the sunny side up hash, and the oh-so-famous bacon everyone says is so good. I liked what I ordered but not sure I’d get the sunny side up hash again.

Mom, the picky eater, got the chicken sandwich but she barely ate it because the bun was black and there was beet aioli. She’s allergic to a lot, so she’s skeptical of new things. It tasted fine to me (she let me cut myself a piece).

We’d be eating there again the next day for dinner and, spoiler alert, they’ll have more options she’ll prefer at that time.

By the time we finished breakfast, the ship was docked in Aruba. We didn’t have any excursions for the day, but we did want to get off the ship early to walk around. We’d actually be in port until midnight, so we technically had the whole day.

Before heading off the ship, I made sure to sign up in the karaoke room. More on that later.

Getting Off the Ship

 It was H-O-T hot in Aruba! I was thankful for any cloud cover that came. After taking some pictures with the “I love Aruba” sign, we went into the Harley Davidson store. We were hoping to get something specific, but they no longer sell collectible poker chips there (they also don’t sell poker chips at the one in Curaçao either).

We saw a Keller Williams building outside the terminal, too. That’s the brokerage my mom works under, so I knew she was going to want to stop in. But before that, we caught the free streetcar to ride around Oranjestad.

Free Streetcar Ride

If you’re stopping in Aruba on a cruise or doing a longer vacation, Oranjestad has a free streetcar to take you around the city. They have a long route and a short route. We were on the long route the first time around which stopped at the bus station, the architectural museum, the Chipi Chipi plaza, the mall and a long stop for ice cream and snacks before heading back to the terminal.

We did one round trip first to see everything, then we stayed on to get dropped off at the museum.

National Archaeological Museum Aruba and Pastechis

The National Archaeological Museum Aruba is free but they do accept donations. It was pretty cool in there. There were artifacts, a life-size hut, underground “cave”, and multi-media forms to get information. They had plaques of information in both English and Spanish.

We probably spent about 40 minutes in there (maybe less).

After the museum, we walked to the Pastechi House. We passed by it on the streetcar ride so we kind of knew how to get there, but not before getting my mom some Rituals products.

A pastechi is a soft, deep fried pastry of sorts, similar to an empanada. I got one ham & cheese for $2 USD (the menu said $3.50 but maybe that was in Aruban currency). It was warm and soft, honestly a perfect snack. I wish I’d gotten three.

After snacking on my pastechi, we tried to wait at one of the streetcar stops to catch it back to the terminal. They must’ve switched to the shorter route because we didn’t see it after 15 minutes and decided to walk back. The terminal wasn’t as far as we thought.

We stopped by the Keller Williams office so Mom could introduce herself and take pictures. Then, we headed back on the ship after getting souvenirs.

Back on the Ship

Back on Valiant Lady, I wanted to do music trivia, so I headed down to the Social Club. I was trying to eat lunch at the same time, but they wouldn’t open with food until 3pm.

Just like the day before, I joined another group’s team. Our team did well on the first round of trivia, but the second round was bad and the third would’ve been bad too but one of the women on my team was using Google and so was another team which I say is cheating but we didn’t win first place anyway (we won second place).

Regardless of what other people did, I think I redeemed myself because I was much more helpful with music trivia.

Once the game was over, I could finally get lunch from the Social Club. Mom and I got wings, and I got a Coca-Cola float. Both ice cream and soda are free on here and yet I had to pay $9 for the float (well, not really because I had a bar tab but still). Next time I’ll get a cup of ice cream, get some Coke from the Galley and make it myself.

After our lunch and Mom’s stop to get an ice cream cone, it was time for karaoke!

The Groupie

We went to the Groupie for our karaoke session. There’s a sign-up sheet for slots in the specific rooms based on the size of your group. I chose 4pm since I figured we’d be back on the ship by then.

We got there a few minutes early. No one was in the room nor signed up for the slot before me, so we went in. It was really fun, but we realized we didn’t know a lot of lyrics for the songs we chose.

They had pop, some R&B, K-pop, Disney and a wide variety of choices. You could search or use a playlist to choose your songs.

Mom and I used the full hour and then got ready for dinner. 

I was going to the Test Kitchen which was experimental dining. Mom is a picky eater, as I’ve said before, so she was going to eat somewhere else.

The Test Kitchen

The Test Kitchen has two six-course menus. The menu for this night was mushroom, egg, scallops, beef/venison (I got venison to try it), blue cheese, and chocolate. The other menu is corn, salmon, beetroot, pumpkin/shrimp/lamb, asparagus, and strawberry. The menus usually change on Wednesdays and Sundays.

There is also a vegetarian menu of gazpacho, egg, asparagus, tart, mandarin, and coconut.

Because it was just me, they sat me in the bar-style seating where we could see them putting the meals together. I sat next to another woman who was eating by herself because her husband didn’t feel well, and we chatted it up.

I ended up getting free champagne because I was chatting with her (long story short: a supervisor came up to her to rectify a situation from the night before and gave us both free champagne). I’d barely finished the cocktail I ordered but felt obligated to drink the champagne, too.

We also spoke with Nigel, the chef who was preparing the mushroom appetizers (one of my favorite courses). Our server was Pedro who was friendly and knowledgeable.

Around the World with the Diva and The Hostess

After my dinner I met back up with Mom in the room who told me she hadn’t eaten! She said she was still charging her phone, so she didn’t leave for dinner in the Galley.

After fuming at her, we went to see the show for the night. We saw Around the World with the Diva, a drag show of sorts. The dancers from the night before were a part of the performance. The show was a comedy mixed with musical numbers. I enjoyed it but I do think I liked the other two shows more so far.

After the show, Mom finally got some pizza for dinner. Then, we went to The Hostess Sings Her Secrets, a show in The Manor, a night-club on the ship. We did this at the request of our trivia host who was performing in it. The show was mainly the Hostess singing some jazzy covers of popular songs as her secrets which was fun for me. A nice way to end the night.

Our next stop on the cruise will be Curaçao! Look out for the post next week!