Almost St Maarten!

Today we managed to not have the chair dragging olympics - at least, not until around lunchtime.  The seas were much calmer overnight and the room was pretty quiet overall.   We are due to dock in St Maarten at 2pm today, so I took the morning to get caught up on the blogs and relax a bit - I'm currently out on our balcony listening to the waves while I type.  It's been pretty sunny, but we just passed a rain squall and it's a bit cooler now.  Can't really complain though.

I've noticed that all the photos I take on my phone are getting auto-uploaded to Google....so when I go to write this blog on a completely different device they are all available - handy, but unexpected.  Lucky for me we have unlimited internet or that could be a bit expensive, that's for sure!!!

The plan for the afternoon is to head over to Shopper's Haven and check out some jewelry, before we all have dinner on the island at an Italian place - Pam says it's good, so I'll take her word for it!!!

Barbados and some hot sauce......

After some serious rocking and rolling overnight (this is very unusual, once we are close to the islands it's much calmer) we were awakened by the chair dragging championships right above our heads.....see, our room is all the way aft and right under the outside Sunset bar - most mornings haven't been too bad, but I think since we didn't dock in Barbados until 930am, everyone decided to hold the chair dragging championships right above our room.   It's truly baffling today - after almost falling out of bed when it felt like we hit a whale overnight (we didn't) the chair dragging olympics were more than I could take.....!!!

Barbados is also a nice island - it seems to have a lot more $$ than most other Caribbean islands, so feels a lot like Florida to me - pool time today - about 10am there were may 20 people around - and it was pretty sunny - my kind of pool day!

We were joined by the Costa Magica and Carnival Fascination and a smaller ship I didn't see the name of.  So the port was pretty busy, and we were wayyyyy out on the end like every other time I've been to Barbados.  Last time we were here in February, we did a snorkel tour and I bought some Barbados hot sauce on the way back......it proved very popular with the people I gave it to, so after the pool filled up AND I had picked the wrong side so I was now in the shade, we decided to brave the shuttle bus and hit the shop in the cruise dock for a few more bottles.   Total trip time - about 30 minutes and man, it was HOT out there!  I took a picture to prove we got off the ship.

We got back to ship and had our nice iced towels (ahhhhhhhh) as we got onboard, and took the day's purchases back up to the room.   We were docked in Barbados until about 6pm (all aboard at 530pm!) so we watched the Carnival Fascination leave at 5pm (she sails out of San Juan, PR from what I looked up)  Dinner in Luminae looked pretty good - so we decided to eat around 615pm, which gave us just enough time to get cleaned up and ready to go by 6pm and we started our sailaway about then too.  It's an interesting process - we had to back into a basin area around a curve (think backing around a corner in a car) and then once straight - full steam ahead!  St Maarten, here we come!

Dinner was good - took about 90 minutes and had a fabulous chocolate soufflé for dessert - probably the best I've ever had - and they had the soft rolls back, so I ate 4.  Love the soft rolls.

Tried a different bar - the World Class bar up on deck 5 - the cocktails are very fancy and served in what appears to be Waterford crystal glasses - I had the Celebrity #10, which was pretty good - not sure we'll be going back as the people watching was disappointing, although it was more chill up there.   After 9 when the 2nd show started and people were at 830 dinner, we went down to the Martini bar to see what was up - it's a good time to get seats, as most everyone is off somewhere else until about 945pm.   It did pick up a bit later, and we had some fun people watching (2 girls were having somewhat of an argument, but they were trying to keep it quiet) and the usual loud drunk old people (yes, really!).   Our entertainment for the evening was pretty much watching the KGW coverage of the snowpocalypse in Portland - looked like a friggin mess (reminds me of the one a few years back where they didn't let everyone out in time and it took me 3 hours to drive the 7 miles from Nike to my house) so can't say I was unhappy I was here vs there!!!!  Packed it up about 11pm and hoped it wasn't as rocky tonight as it's been all week! 

St Kitts and the pool

I really have nothing against the island of St Kitts - it's pretty, has some cool stuff to see (Brimstone Hill Fortress, the Batik factory) but I've seen it at least 3 times, and our port stops are not usually long enough to get over to Nevis and back (today we were docked from 7am-3pm) without doing a ship tour (with 100 of my closest friends) so we decided to stay on the ship.   I also booked a spa special (25 minute back and shoulder massage and 25 minute foot and lower leg massage) at 130pm (port day special!)  and was looking forward to that.   I think a lot of other people weren't that interested in St Kitts either, as the pool was more crowded than I expected when we showed up at 10am - at least 50-60 people for sure.

Plus the weather wasn't the greatest either - we had some storms move through - quick rain and some wind, so that was interesting.  Also, there are apparently children on the cruise (as you can see they were in the pool) but I'm pretty sure there are less than 10.

We also were docked with a few other ships - 3 to be exact, P&O Azura was at the dock with us, Seven Seas Explorer was anchored out in the harbor and far off in the distance at the commercial dock was the TUI Discovery - formerly known as Royal Caribbean's Splendor of the Seas.  It was interesting for me as we've taken 2 cruises on that ship prior - but looks like she's got an all-new paint job and name after she was sold earlier this year.  

When I went to the spa, I took this picture from the waiting area - overlooks Port Zante in St Kitts.

The spa was nice - it's expensive as it's run by Canyon Ranch - but I had some onboard credit to burn, so it was pretty much free.  I also purchased some foot massage balls (you stand on them) that I'd been looking at for a while at home (spend that onboard credit!). So that's a nice plus as well.

This photo was interesting as Google photos stitched it together for me after I'd taken some shots while we were leaving and trying to get the best angle.  It's a little creepy it was done automatically, but it turned out well, so I'll use it on the blog.

Dinner looked spectacularly uninteresting, so Chris and I decided to try Silk Harvest, which is an Asian restaurant onboard.  We had Jole, the Michaels Club concierge make us a reservation for 6pm, and we got a nice window table just as the sun was setting.  This place always surprises me as the food is outstanding every time - it's one of the least attended restaurants, I thin people are thrown off by the Asian food - anyway, you order what you like from small plates and large plates and the waiter  will tailor the amount of food you get on each to how many people you have, so there's not usually a lot of extra.  My all-time favorite is the cream cheese wontons - it's cream cheese with some scallions all wrapped up in a wonton and deep fried - they are fabulously good.  We also had some vegetable spring rolls (Chris said they were the best he every had) and some beef and chicken satays.  All were excellent - the large plates were chicken fried rice, pepper beef, orange chicken and bbq pork.  All wer pretty good - my favorite was the orange chicken.  Here are the plates after we finished -

Very tasty - we skipped dessert, and headed out to see what we could find for people watching.   The Martini bar has been a little disappointing really.....and was quiet again tonight (after a pit stop at the coffee bar so I could get caught up on my blog!  Tomorrow is Barbados, and again I don't think we are getting off!

St Thomas and some rain

We ordered room service to be delivered for breakfast at 7am - this should give us enough time to eat and get ready to leave - after our butler Glenn called at 655am with "I am ready to deliver breakfast" we got out of bed and dressed, our breakfast showed up just as we were starting to head into the harbor - we were docking at Crown Bay vs the WICO (West Indian Company) dock, which is further away from Red Hook.   Kathleen had notified our taxi driver Scotland, and he would pick us up as soon as we could get off.    Interestingly enough, we backed into the dock, so our aft room had a nice view of the dock area, and we could see Scotland waiting with his pink sign when we checked.

Once off the ship (it really wasn't nearly as busy as I expected). We headed out for a 40 minute drive to Red Hook on the other side of the island - Kathleen checked in with us while we were driving, but I told her we were wet if it was raining and wet if we were snorkeling, so it was all the same to us!
The drive was uneventful and we met up with Kathleen and Dani her mate, and off we went sailing for St John.  We ended up at Christmas Cove, which was beautiful, calm and had some of the best snorkeling I've seen in the Caribbean.  We even saw an octopus!!!

Here's a boat known as Pizza Pi that sells (and delivers!) Pizza on the high seas.  It's anchored in Christmas Cove.

The infamous Octopus.....

We then had a delicious lunch and moved the boat to another location for some snorkeling - Chris and I chose to stay on the boat with Pam, but Michael and Jordan went looking for turtles - they did see one, so it was a success!   Then a nice sail/drive back to the marina and our adventure was over.   Scotland was waiting for us and we arrived back at Crown Bay and our ship about 4pm - and we were due to sail about 5.  Sure enough, we pulled out and headed for St Kitts overnight.   

Dinner again at Luminae - the meal was good but the selections weren't our favorite and we ate off the main dining menu mostly - and we FINALLY got finished in under 2 hours.- slightly over 90 minutes if I recall correctly.  They had made some special After 8 ice cream for us (which is usually only on night 2) and it was pretty tasty!  Spent a little time people watching at the Martini bar and then it was off to bed - Chris and I had planned to hang around on the ship tomorrow, so looking forward to sleeping in!  

Sea Day 2.....another day of weather

This day was a washout from the beginning - I decided to be a lazy late sleeper and got out of bed at 1230pm (now, please note, this is 830am PST.....!).   We'd missed breakfast, so we headed upstairs for some lunch and checked out the pool.....which had 30MPH winds and some rain, so we nixed that pretty quickly.   I managed to de-magnetize my ship card (awesome) and headed to guest services to have it replaced....and they had to do Chris' as well for some reason (the explanation, which I can't repeat, made no sense but whatever).   We ended up playing games with our friends in Michael's Club, an exclusive lounge for suite guests (and fairly empty as well) for a few hours - Uno, Tenzi, Bananagrams, Spot it - all very competitive of course.    Time to get ready for dinner in Luminae again....pretty simple since no "evening chic" this time!
Dinner was pretty good - down to about 2 hours this time - we were trying to check out the show at 9pm - Gareth Oliver, a ventriloquist comedian which had gotten good reviews.   Well, I sat through about 25 minutes thinking.....this has got to get better and it didn't, so I left.   A little disappointing really - but must have been just me because all the old people seemed to be big fans (or maybe because it was free?)

Back at the Martini Bar, they set up their "ice pour" for the night - they'd pour your martini down the ramp and it would end up in your glasses (it's in the middle if you are looking)

Obviously everyone went to bed early for a good time tomorrow in St Thomas- it was pretty dead all around the ship after the show was over, so we decide to follow since we had to be off the ship at 8am to head for Red Hook and our snorkel adventure on High Pockets!

Day 2 - or what a sea day can bring you!!!

First sea day - well, you must sleep in (since the weather didn't look to hot) and about 1030am ship time (730am PST) we dragged ourselves out of bed and had a quick breakfast before they closed at 11am....usually this is the best time to have breakfast, as all the old people have been there at 6-7 am and are long gone playing bingo or some other activity....but not today!  I've never seen it so crowded and so many people just loitering around - mostly because it was a huge windstorm on the pool deck!

We sat upstairs and read - while watching all the excitement down on the pool deck of the Pool Olympics......well, not really that exciting.   It wasn't the best entertainment, but it was available so we watched.......

After an uneventful afternoon, we headed back to the room and got ready for dinner - day 2 Luminae with was "evening chic" night (it's the replacement for formal night, so just don't wear shorts and a tee shirt and you'll be fine.   Again, the assortment of outfits was spectacular - it's amazing what people consider appropriate for dinner.....!   Here's one of my favorites - he had a top hat, tails and carried a cane, she had a full Victorian dress with bustle.  I can't even imagine how hot those outfits were on the ship.  Kudos to them!

We headed to Luminae - and were given a different table and it only took 2.5 hours for dinner tonight, so I guess that's an improvement....really, it should be 90 minutes tops, if we order multiple courses and coffee.  Food was very good so we'll see if they can cut the time back.  It started out well, but things really seem to slow down when a glut of other customers come in.

Back to the Martini Bar....tonight's entertainment was the "Silent Disco" at 945pm.  What's the Silent Disco?  Well, they have a few hundred wireless headphones, which can receive 3 channels of music and you can switch back and forth.  The DJ plays the music, and everyone tunes into the channel they like....and no music is played out loud.   So there's all these random people dancing and singing out loud, with no visible accompaniment.   And yes, it's just as hilarious as you expect, party went on for about 2 hours.  Let the dancing begin!

Chris and I didn't to much dancing, but we put on the headphones to participate!!!!

Even the bar staff puts on headphones from time to time (this is Putu, our bartender from the Solstice Alaska cruise in May 2015.....

And a video of the sing a long.....see if you can guess the song!!!

After the Disco shut down at midnight, we headed for bed (also because we were turning the clocks forward to Atlantic Standard time so we'd be losing an hour of sleep!!

Muster drill, a test and some dinner.....

Muster drill is always a barrel of fun - please go sit/stand in a hot room with 300 of your not closest friends and watch a dumb video.  But it's required by law and only about 30 minutes out of my whole  cruise, so I guess it's ok.
This time our muster station was in Blu, which is the restaurant for Aqua class.  I've learned to not even leave your stateroom until the actual muster time, because no one else goes early and you just have to wait longer.  So at 315pm when the "Bing-bong" came over the intercom, we left our room and headed down 7 flights of stairs to deck 5 - and to the back of the ship for Blu.  We arrived and sat in the back (there were only a few chairs left, so we got lucky) and then proceeded to play with our phones through most of the video.    I took a picture for posterity

This is before they lowered the video screen.   So afterwards, you usually sit around until they dismiss you - but our muster captain had different ideas...we had to pass a test first to prove we were listening to her speech.  Lucky for us, the questions were pretty simple.

1. What is the name of the location of our muster station (Blu!)

2. What deck is Blu located on (deck 5)

3. What are the numbers of our lifeboats?  (19, 21, 20, 22)

We all passed with flying colors (luckily!) so we were dismissed to walk back to our rooms, along with the other 3000 passengers on board.  Needless to say, it takes a while.   So we walked up al 7 flights of stairs - arriving only slightly out of breath (lucky, it's early in the cruise and we're not complete couch potatoes yet)

Here's a nice illustration of how far we have to sail and where we will be when - there won't be any daily updates because apparently this ship doesn't have the same technology as the other ones and can't show me on the TV where we are!!! How RUDE!!!!!!

Next, the bar and dinner!!!

We have a special restaurant for us suite residents - it's called Luminae and is a portion of the main dining room they have carved off - it's quite pretty and is supposed to have superior food and service. I will agree to the service, people are crawling all over to help you, but please explain why it took almost 3 hours for us to eat the first night?  There's only 5 of us, we ordered an appetizer and dinner plus a dessert, so there is no way it should take more than 90 minutes tops.  We're hoping it's just first night issues, because it taking this long isn't going to make us come back all that frequently......Food was good (when it arrived) and we checked out the Martini Bar afterwards, which is usually where all the fun stuff happens.  Here's a few shots from night one.....

You see all kinds - I'm not sure who these 2 were looking for (but their names are Brie and Mikaela....)

It's bring your own diet tonic night!!!

We hung around and did some people watching, but the travel day and all the activity got to us, so off to bed we went.  Next, 2 days at sea!!!