Hey everyone! Well, we are back from our cruise to the
Caribbean on the Destiny. It was simply awesome! The bottom line here is that another cruise will be happening in the very near future :)
On a few small notes:
1- Guitar Hero 2 is in my clutches and ROCKS! Awesome game more on that later
2- The weather sucks!
3- Most of our pics are now up and good on the gallery -
CHECK IT OUT HERE or use the link on the right side.
Now, Let’s break this party down and tell you all about our vacation..
Day 0- Saturday, March 24th- PREP day. WE spend the entire day getting all the last minute things done. Hit target for the shorts sale and also hit CVS for some last minute stuff. WE finished packing all our clothes and also left room in every bag- I figure it was better to have a lot of ½ empty bags than a few full bags, cause I know that Rum would take up a lot of room :P We called it a night at 9pm and were in bed by 9:30.
Day 1- Sunday, March 25- Started very very early- 4am. I woke up, took my shower and woke Nicole. We then went down stairs, ate a light breakfast and by 5am, Wayne was there. We loaded up his Jeep and went straight to the airport, no traffic. By 6:15, we were thru the security and eating a breakfast sandwich at the café in terminal A at PHL. Our flight was on time and ready to go by 8am. After the 45 minute wait on the tarmac and 20 planes later, we were off to San Juan! It was not a fast flight, but not too long- 3.5 hrs. We landed in San Juan, passing over the cruise terminals and seeing the ship for the fight time from 10,000 feet. I also noted the old forts from the Spanish days- talking about the 1600-1700s forts. I make of this because these are the same forts that give me a hard time in Pirates where I try and pull into San Juan only to get shot at :P .. maybe it was because of the 20 Spanish ships I always seem to find :P Anyways, after landing, we got off and thus started the Spanish language week. I have no headaches, but I forgot how much is down here. Anyways, as we were walking thru the terminal, it was 1pm and very hungry.. and that’s when we saw the dominos girl selling pizzas for $5 each- we figured we better eat now and get it when we can- who knows when we will be at the ship. It’s a good thing because once we got onto the coach bus to the terminal for the ship, we hit some San Juan kick ass traffic- the kind that made some drivers with 4x4s go OVER the barriers (yes, the ones with the bushes and trees) .
After a good hour, we finally arrived at the terminal (now almost 2pm), unloaded our stuff and got into line. That’s when we made our first friends on the trip - Fred and Berney- Fred is a former football player turned coach and is now working as
the LB coach for the Vikings! He had a superbowl ring on, but I didn’t ask too much about that standing in line for the ship. WE passed customs, got our boarding pass, our sail and sign cards (Onboard credit cards for buying everything) and loaded onto the ship. WE found the elevators and made our way to room 8133 – 8th deck which is the veranda deck and the odd number is the starboard side on the front 1/3 of the ship. WE dropped our s tuff and made our last call for the week- we called my mom and left a quick message; we also called her mom and said a quick ‘we made it and we will see you in a week’ call. That was it! WE then put a few things away and made our way to the lido deck – deck 10 - which actually was one level above our deck and got our first drinks of the trip- a very good fruit punch mix, non alcoholic. We walked around a bit and before we knew it, it was time for dinner. Since it was the first night, everyone was an open seating in the main dining area. We didn’t know it, but there are actually 2 dining areas.. more on that later. Anyways, we were seated with a family from Chicago. They were prior cruisers and told us about St Thomas and the shopping areas there. WE shared stories and final had out first great meal of many- I got the Sirloin steak and wow- I never tasted steak so good. Maybe it was all the traveling and the crap food at the airport and stuff, but it made my night. We finished our meal and got dessert- Nicole got a warm chocolate death thingy- it was hard chocolate on the top and warm chocolate in the middle, like a soup. That was really rich, but good. We said our good bys and when we came back from dinner, met our room steward – Suapul. He is from Thailand and was very nice. We noted the dinner times and he told us his schedule, basically from the morning time and also while we were at dinner, which was the late seating – 8pm.
He also made these cool towel creatures and animals, which he did every night. By 9pm, we had our luggage, unpacked our stuff and started out of the port by 10pm.
Everyone was on the lido deck (also the pool deck) and got another fruit drink and soda, which we got a $45 soda card – this card allows us to get unlimited sodas for the entire trip. We figured we could work the system and share it thru the week, which also forced me to not drink as much soda for the week, which isn’t a bad thing at all ;) When we started out of the port, low and behold, Fred and Berney were right by us amongst 100s of people. We talked for a bit and eventually went back to the cabin for the night- St Thomas was our first port tomorrow and it was a shopping day to be had. Before going to bed, we went to 2 important seminars – one was the welcome aboard show, which was run by our kick ass cruise director, Lenny Holliday. He was a brit and was very funny and excited to see everyone onboard. Being a veteran cruise director for over 15 years, he knew all the ports and how to run ship events. He told us about stuff onboard and about the first port, so on. The other seminar was Decio, the official ship shopper – this guy was paid to shop.. Go figure. Anyways, he was excited about St Thomas and told us about all sorts of goodies to get there – the customs stuff, everything. Least to say by bed time we were ready to hit St Thomas.
Day 2 – Monday, March 26th. St Thomas. WE pulled in at 7am, but not before I woke up to a nice sunrise over the ocean. I had a lot of them when I was in the navy and I forgot how beautiful they are. Nothing but the sea breeze blowing, and the sky lighting up as the sun comes up over the water. By 8am, we were up and decided to do our own thing on the island- The plan was to go to Magens Bay till 11am, come back, get lunch and head off for some shopping till 4pm. Then back to the ship and head off. We got a cab for $16 and by 9am while everyone else was at work in the states, we were swimming in the warmest waters on a top 10 beach in the world. Ha ha! Anywhos, as we started to head back to the parking lot, we met up with a few others that were from the ship. I must note that the ship provided beach towels for us to use and allowed us to take them off, but being $22 each, it wasn’t something to leave behind.. Anyways, we met up with a few others cruisers, noting the towels, and a cab driver said, let’s go. Now here is where I must note that all the cabs look the same – picture a large flatbed pickup truck with about 6 rows of bench seats across the back, covered with a cloth covering. No doors, no seat belts.. just a bench seat. Ok, so 19 of us load up and take off – I mean TAKE OFF. The guy must have been doing 35 in a 15. The roads are narrow and go up hill.. a few of us noted that we didn’t sign up for a roller coaster ride, but raised our hands.. Anyways, the other thing to note is that this was the first of many ‘English’ roads – they drive on the left side of the road, NOT the right – Also, only on St Thomas do they use US vehicles, so the driver sits on the left side.
We take off, up the hill and get to a view point on top of a since view of the city – Charlotte Amalie. 10 minutes later we start heading for the ship, when the guy makes a left and back up another hill towards paradise point. Now this is when my sailor instinct kicks in – this guy is taking us for a ride.. Probably to a buddy bar or something. If you don’t know, in foreign countries cab drivers will pick you up, take you to a place ‘on the way’ to your location and stop for a drink at their buddy’s bar, hoping to make a few bucks off of you – anyways, here we are in a flying cab going up hill.. we gotta just stick it out at this point and hope for the best. We get there, which had Awesome views of the island, and he tells us this is a 20 minute stop. HUH??!?! What cab diver stops for 20 it minutes?? Anyways, it was a nice view, but we were getting hungry for some food, and it was going onto 1pm by now. So we load back up and that’s when the driver asks ‘who isn’t on the tour…’ question. Tour?!? Nicole and I look at each other, and she says.. ‘ umm we just wanted a cab back to the ship…’ everyone gets a good laugh at us and calls us pirates…(he he, little did they know we were actual pirates.. more later on that..) Anyways, we get to the ship where I pay the driver $20 for the extra trip for us up the hill. After a lunch, we find a cab to downtown and start our shopping. Now, Downtown St Thomas is a small street area in which there are about 100 different jewelry and trinket stores – all duty free. Also, note that this is diamond heaven and that you can actually get unset stones and not claim them on us customs. Unfortunately, we only had about 2 hours to shop, thanks to our side trip to the point, but by 4:45 we had a new watch for me and a new set of diamond earrings for Nicole. Also, we hit this cool store – Del Sol – they had stuff that changes colors in the sun – sunglasses, shirts.. everything. WE got nail polish, shirts and also a free beach bag out of it. Diamonds international had a promo going for the week –
A free bracelet is given for each of its stores on each island you visit. St Thomas was a shopping bag charm that you add to the bracelet! The only island that did not have a store was Dominica, so we would have to hit all the rest up as we went out each day. After our shopping and free stuff, we took a late cab to the ship, got a few last magnets and went back to the cabin. WE cleaned up and by 8:15 went to dinner to our official dining room.
Dining on the ship was a total different experience than the navy – no shit Joe. I’m talking about 2 waiters, a mater d.. the whole thing. WE had the nicest two ladies for our dining room staff – Victoria and Chutima, or ‘Chutee’ as she liked to be called. Victoria is from Hungary and has that eastern europeon accent, but speaks English very well. Chute is from Thailand. Anyways, both were very nice, always smiling and always were working – never a dull moment for dinner. Victoria would give us the menus, make a few recommendations and come back to take our order. Then Chutee would give us some bread, fill our waters and go get the food. Victoria would serve us and clear our table if needed- and the system worked well. Then for dessert, she would come back and do it again, only with a dessert menu. Chutee served some coffee and that would be that.
On the first night, we found that our table, #516, had a bottle of wine on it, and we soon discovered it was Susan, our travel agent – she paid for a bottle for us, way cool. I had wine all week long :D For the week, I decided to try things that I couldn’t get back home – lobster and steak.. fish, unique dishes I never heard of. I also decided to take in victories recommendations and try them all out as best I could. I knew you could order 0 steaks if you wanted, but I also didn’t want to overeat too much. Once serving was plenty for me. About 9pm, Hector, the Mater d’, announced that during the week there was going to be a competition for the dining rooms, We were on the even #, thus the starboard team, or BLUE team, while the odd numbers were RED team. During the cruise, events were going on and that the teams would score points based on the winners. At the end, a winning team would be announced.. not sure of the prize. To top it all off, the dining staff always did a performance for us around 9:15. It was a lot of fun.
After dinner, we went to the first show of the cruise, a comedy show. Too bad I lost Nicole during the seating. I thought she was upset or tired, but none the less, I had her sign and sail card, which is the room key, and basically made me go back to the room because I had no idea where she was at. A long story short, she got back and had a nice time.
DAY 3- Tuesday March 27th – Dominica:
Let me start this part off knowing something about the island. Having Ralph at work tell me that this place is a total 3rd world country set my tone before we even got there. SO we get some breakfast on lido deck, and by 10am we are pulling into the capital of Rousseau, and head off to the first tour of the cruise, a 5 hour drive to a waterfall and a natural pool. We got film of this, but the entire island has not one traffic light. They claim to drive on the left side as well, and having the driver sit on the left side, I guess it was close to true, but wow this place outs Jersey to shame – honking and what else at drivers passing by.. It was an interesting tour of the island, but after seeing the sites, we headed back. The waterfall was a hike thru the rain forest – key word – RAIN. IT came down as soon as we got off the bus after a 45 minute drive.. and wow – that’s some rain there. They get close to 300 inches a year – and with over 360 rivers on the island, it makes for a very wet place. The emerald pool is a pool that claims to add 10 years to your life with each dip you take..too bad it was still raining when we got there – but none the less we got some nice pics and headed back to the bus. After the 5 hours, we were tired hungry and just wanted to go back to the ship.
Tonight was Formal Night – we dressed in our best and walked around the ship. They had some photographers all over taking pics of people, one of which came by our table too! I had lobster and Nicole had some pasta. After dinner, Nicole called it a night and I went to a late night adult comedy show, which was good. I knew the next day was going to be full, so I went to bed shortly there after.
DAY 4- Wednesday March 28th – Barbados:
Today was going to be a relaxing snorkel day on a shipwreck, but since it wasn’t till 10, we had plenty of time to eat breakfast on the lido deck, get our stuff together and also do some early shopping. Since this was the Rum Island, when we pulled in, Nicole and I went to the shopping area right next to the ship. There were plenty of duty-Free shops setup with Cubans, rum and all sorts of clothes and stuff. We loaded up with our
6 liters of Mount Gay rum, the oldest rum maker around, and headed back to the ship to drop it all off.
Once we dropped it off, we met up with our tour group and headed off to the snorkel trip. WE met up with 3 (or Tree as they say) guys who gave us gear, let us try it on, and headed out to the boat. It was a 12’ boat with the ladder in the front of the boat, which allows you to walk right into the water without jumping over the side. WE got to the bay and got into the water. Now having snorkeled before, I knew that you had to spit into your mask to prevent fogging, so I spat and got into the water. Once we were in, Nicole started having some problems with her vest. The snorkel vest, for those that don’t know, are manually inflated thru a tube on the side- you blow into the tube and you get float action – well her vest was inflated, but the buckles weren’t tight enough, so the vest came up over her head. Then once we got one of the guys to help us, her mask fogged up.. I gave her mine and when I asked for hers, I dropped it in the water. So now I had to ask for another one. EVENTUALLY, we got our stuff on and started out to the first of 4 wrecks.
WOW – This is the place to go snorkeling if you even go on a cruise. The shipwrecks are in 10-15 feet of water, and when you toss some bread in, 100s of fish come out from everywhere. It was great and one of my favorite memories of the trip. WE spent a good 2-3 hours total, but only about an hr in the water. We had an underwater camera and took all the pictures, of which are on the gallery.
Once we got done swimming, we got back in the boat, had a drink of rum-punch (yummy) and went back to the ship. We had a few hours to walk around the shops some more, but eventually went back and called it a day. The Diamonds International charm here was a pair of beach sandals. Dinner was excellent as usual, and the evening show was Destiny Idol – where the Karaoke bar people had a competition and the finalist went to sing on the main stage, of which a Tennessee gal sang “I Will Always Love You” and nailed it perfect! We went to bed tired and a tad burnt, but had a great day in Barbados.
DAY 5 – Thursday, March 29th – St Lucia
Today was an interesting day. I awoke at 6am to get some pics
of the Pitons on the island – for those that don’t know, the Pitons are the two massive mountains that are raised from the volcanic activity- they shoot straight up from the sea floor and rise 1000s of feet up. Take a look at the pic to see what it is suppose to look like. Unfortunately, The rain clouds blocked all views of them and I got no good shots. Then it dawned on me – More rain clouds… BOOOO . We pulled in at 8am, and after an early breakfast, we walked across the landing area to the Brig Unicorn. I took a pic from the balcony of it. Anyways, it was written to be this fun sailing excursion on an old ship that was toted to be in the pirates of the Caribbean movies, but it was not so.. Ney Ney.
This ship had a motor hidden under the keel. IT also had a bar and other non- old ship stuff on it. Lastly, it was built in the 1940-50s.. go figure. WE took the ship at 8am north to Pigeon Island, which was a British fort on the northern coast of St Lucia. We then took a small boat to the shore and had a treasure hunt for some keys. One of six keys would then open a chest on the brig which had a treasure from the diamond store at the duty free shops. Cool! We set off with a map and a handful of clues. I did find something, but it wasn’t a key- it was a receipt for a bottle of rum, which was also part of the treasure hunt WOOHOO! Screw the diamond – I gots me some rum :P WE walked around for about an hour and headed back to the brig, which then returned to the cruise ship. WE are lunch and did some shopping for some tee shirts and of course bottles of Rum. Also we got the next charm here – a palm tree for the bracelet. With the rain it made for a dreary day that ended quickly. A side note here- I did get 100s of eastern Caribbean pennies from the different stores, so I am all set with my improved collection of coins for Puerto Rico and a few other board games :D.
WE came back to the cabin, cleaned up and watched a movie- with the rain, most everyone was indoors drinking and since Nicole can’t drink, well, there isn’t much we can do. Dinner at 8 was excellent again. The girls do a great job. WE then took on the show of Family feud – Men vs. Women- and it was great. The last port was tomorrow and we only had a bus type tour.. but then about 7pm, we got a note under the door- the tour was canceled! CRAP! I went to the desk with a few other options in mind and we picked a similar one out- a dockyard/ beach tour which would last all day. With this in mind, we called it a night.
DAY 6 – Friday, March 30th – Antigua.
Last island and last tour of the week- It seemed at first to be a nice day out, but by 7am, it was raining on and off. WE had breakfast and went out to the duty free shops outside the cruise pier. Now, I’ve been to foreign countries before, but the next experience was a new one for Nicole – the 100 cab drivers all hitting you up for a ride to see the sites.. one after another after another.. You could not go 5 steps after telling the first guy ‘no thanks..’ when another one comes up and hits you up for a tour.. Well, Nicole didn’t like this a bit, so we went back to the cruise ship pier and waited for the tour to start.
Once on the bus, we had a very loud tour guide that loved to talk about eating fruits and all sorts of stuff. WE eventually made it to the
Nelsons dockyard area and a scenic spot, but with all the rain coming down in sheets of water, there was no view to see. WE then headed down the road to the actual dockyard, and the rain FINALLY slowed down enough to get out and walk around for 20 minutes. I took a few pics and we found the old bakery, in which Nicole got a small breadroll and I got an apple fritter. WE then headed off in the bus to the beach. Since the island is basically a ton of natural coves and hills, you basically gotta head inland to get to another part of the island, then head from there to the other direction. An hour later, we landed at Turners beach- a dry calm beach with plenty of sunshine – FINALLY! We parked our towels and headed into the water for the hour we got. The waves were nothing to note- mainly because of the natural cove. WE found a starfish and also saw some fish in the waters there, but nothing big. We then headed back to the bus at which time we hit the rush hour traffic going back, but we did make it :)
After getting back, we did some shopping – Nicole got her last charm piece – a seahorse. WE also got a few tee shirts and magnets, then headed back to the ship to clean up and rest before dinner, which was another formal night. Once we got underway, the wind kicked into high gear and we got our first waves. They did not agree with Nicole too much at all. After some water and crackers, we got dressed and headed to dinner. I think I had a fish dinner again and I think Nicole got a steak. The show was nothing too special, but the pre-show was the newly wed game; Lenny had some good questions and we got some great responses. I would say that if we were to go back to Antigua, the only thing I would want to go try and see some more would be the dockyard. Nicole went to bed and I hit the casino – Blackjack. I just got to the $5 table when the destiny idol girl – Leslie (the one that won the contest) joined my table with her boyfriend and his buddy. Least to say, we had a lot of fun playing cards till 1am. I left about $40 poorer but made some cool friends.
DAY 7- Saturday, March 31st – Day at Sea
Today was the kick back day at sea. The ship planned some interesting events thru the day – a few interactive games like fear factor; the usual pool stuff.. but mostly a relaxing day at sea. The first thing we found was that the beach chairs and lounge chairs get taken early in the morning with people putting their towels and saving them for the afternoon. Least to say, Nicole and I did not do that, so we spent a good part of the afternoon on our balcony. Since it was ours, we could kick back and read- do a crossword puzzle and listen to the waves. We packed all our stuff and quickly ran out of room when the cabin steward dropped off the rum I got on Barbados. So I had now 6 liters of rum and a bunch of rum cakes, tee shirts and other assorted trinkets to add to the luggage. It’s a good thing we left room!
Dinner was great- I finally finished the wine and we took pictures of us with Victoria and Chutee. I also gave them our contact info just incase they would want to keep in touch with us, and a small tip too. I think it was too small, but it was all that I had to give. THe Mater D eventually came over the speaker and told us that the BLUE team won! What did we win??? Nothing!! Free dessert :) Nicole and I got our last photos from the ship and she went to bed. I took the last show of the Magic show- the guy was ok; some of the tricks were kinda cheep but most were really good. He did a good card trick which had me going- a deck of cards is on the stage. He selects a person from the audience whom then selects someone else. The 2nd person now chooses a card mentally from a deck of cards – any card. The magician then walks back to the stage, taps the closed deck (Still in the box) on the floor, opens the box and fans out all the cards – the only one not shown is the one the lady picked. Pretty cool! He also did the girl in the moving box, where he cuts it in half with swords.. and another girl trick. There were three guys all wowing at the girls, when the magician said ‘ you guys just wanna see the ladies.. well ok..’ and proceeded to do a trick in front of them with one :). It was really funny. After the show, I went to bed. We had a full day tomorrow coming and I knew I would need the rest. WE put out our luggage outside for the luggage guys to pick up, so we wouldn’t have to take it 6 floors down ourselves – it’s typical on cruise ships to do this.
Day 8 – April 1st – Puerto Rico and Home
We arrived around 5am, because when I woke at 6, we were pier side already, and the unloading process started. They basically unload all of the luggage for the drug dogs to sniff out. We ate breakfast and waited down at the big lounge on the ship. By 8:30, we were on our way out. We dropped off the customs form, showed our passports and went to the tour bus to take us to old San Juan and the fort San Cristóbal. By 9:30 we were on the road in the tour bus. We hit the capital building and then the fort. It is a very old fort dating back to the 1600s! I think it’s the biggest one the Spanish built as well – in the new world. Anyways, we took a few pictures and explored the place a bit. By 11, we went back to the bus which then took us 3 blocks to the shopping part of old san juan. We found a store and got a few items, but eventually hit the starbucks for a sandwich. Back to the bus and a straight shot to the airport.
NOW, besides having a late flight, one of the reasons why I choose a 5pm flight was to allow for plenty of time to leave and also not be in a rush- have time to eat.. so on. Wow, was I wrong. Two cruise ships worth of people dumped out onto the airport only to get into a massive line which rapped thru the airport. It must have been a 3 hour line. Eventually we got our bags and made it to the back of the line. After an hour, we were pulled from the line only to be told to wait for another hour to let the line calm down a bit, since we were on a later flight. By 2:30, they let us back into the line, which did NOT shorten up at all. At 3:40, they called for all passengers on our flight to the front of the line. WE checked in our bags, got thru security and made it to the gate. The flight loaded up nicely and we took off back to Philly on our 3.5 hour trip.
WE landed at 8:45pm, pulled into the gate and waited till almost 9:30 for our bags to get off the plane. Wayne picked us up and took us home to Tigger, who was SO HAPPY to see us. He was purring and meowing as soon as we walked into the house. After getting the bags in, it was after 10pm, at which time we went to bed.
On Monday, we each took the day off to rest, recoup and unpack. WE also did our laundry and also went food shopping and a few other things we needed to do. That was our vacation! Would we go again?? Hell yea! I’m not sure if we were to go to another southern, but we would do another cruise.
