shark&minnow

We had a couple sea days and stops in Grand Turk and Amber Cove. This trip was all about relaxing and exploring this huge ship. We didn't go on excursions or even stay ashore very long because I had knee surgery coming up in January.

Back at the infinity pool: 

Amber Cove:

Bolt!:

Venus Rising:

Grand Turk:

Until next time:

San Juan, Puerto Rico

First breakfast: We would run up to the coffee shop one deck up where they have fruit bowls and other breakfast items and bring them back to our balcony

I'd been wanting to have this drink at the fortune teller bar.

We usually have dinner the first night at the steak house. I love that french onion soup!

Christmas Day was cool and drizzly:

The following day was sunny and bright!

The infinity pool on Deck 8 (I think) was my favorite spot

I'd been wanting to have this drink at the fortune teller bar.

We usually have dinner the first night at the steak house. I love that french onion soup!

Christmas Day was cool and drizzly:

Christmas Eve & time to board. The Florida temps dropped to freezing!

December 23 at the hotel & lunch at FishLips.

I'm always late posting reviews of our cruises so while the weather is hot  & I'm inside keeping cool I thought Id go ahead with a Christmas review.

We flew out of San Luis Obispo, CA and changed planes in Dallas. We were just ahead of some big winter storms so we were nervous about making it, but thankfully it all went pretty smoothly and we arrived in Orlando on time and 2 nights ahead of our cruise.

We stayed at the Cape Crossing Resort & Marina

We got checked in and ate at the restaurant near the hotel: Dolphins

Which nights are elegant nights on Mardi Gras? Thank you😀

On 11/23/2022 at 9:31 AM, TxTeach79 said:

Menus at coco Cana and sky bar. Sky bar is great, but I’ll save it. That’s a long walk. Did it last time. #nopainnopain 

 

 

About how far is it? I'm having knee replacement in January so I have to pace myself but I was hoping to go to the sky bar. Thank you for your review. My son & daughter in law are UNT grads. 🙂

What was the rainbow drink called & which bar was that at? I need to try it 😀

On 6/15/2022 at 4:11 PM, ttrmom said:

Looks wonderful!!  When you went to grand turk how much were the chairs and umbrellas?  was it cash only?

I think the chairs and umbrella at Jack's Shack were about $20, but I don't remember exactly.

On 5/3/2022 at 12:35 PM, Cruise, J.D. said:

Thanks for the review! Which beach did you go to in Aruba? I saw you took the bus and there have been some questions about whether the bus to Arashi beach is running again.

We ended up going to Eagle Beach, but I think we should have gone to Palm Beach instead. I don't know about Arashi.

Our last stop was Grand Turk again, which is a lovely stop

Then our last day, last fun drink. We ate in the steakhouse again and had lobster. I didn't take pictures because how many pictures of lobster do you need? We ate an obscene amount of lobster on this trip!!

Debarkation was easy. We Ubered to La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Coca Beach. The following day we had a shuttle scheduled to take us to the airport and we had a long travel day back home.

This is where I loose track of sea days...that's a good problem to have.

Our next port was Aruba. We took the bus to the beach.

Our next stop was Curacao & this was my favorite! We walked through town and over the swinging bridge and enjoyed a blue iguana along the water front

Then another beautiful sunset & electric violins

Low & behold it was time for our mid B2B cruise Covid tests! 

The next day was our day to stay on board while most everyone else had to go home. Early morning at the port of Canaveral

I did laundry this morning

That night we had dinner in the steakhouse

Next stop was Grand Turk. We really liked this port; beautiful beach right off the ship. We walked down to Jack's Shack which is just about as far down as you can go. We got chairs, umbrella & a bucket of beers..actual craft beers, not the usual  kind of yucky ones.

The people next to us on the beach all had ties to my hometown in California, so we took a picture

Later when we were back on board we had a lobster roll and a lobster at the seafood shack

My towel friends & sunset:

Our next day was a sea day

Our next port was Amber Cove. We went ashore to take a look and then asked ourselves why would we pay for food & drinks at that pool when we had free food & drinks & a pool on board? So we returned to the ship.

Here is a windy pic....we had a lot of wind on this trip.

I got the "free" charm bracelet, at least it starts free, but it's still very inexpensive and fun. It's kind of big and there aren't other sizes.

Our 2nd day was our first port day in Nassau. It took us until after this day to really get in the swing of vacation, it's like we forgot how to vacation and we'd had that long travel day so we were a bit tired. Here's coffee at the port of Nassau. I must add that the regular coffee on board is terrible so you have to purchase it; luckily it is included with cheers.

In Nassau we walked through town along the water front to Junkanoo Beach. At the beach a nice young man grabbed us chairs and an umbrella, 3 beers and 3 shots, & maybe that was about $20

After our beach time we walked back toward the ship and we stopped at Pirate Republic Brewing

Once back on the ship we enjoyed the Mongolian bbq on the pool deck

Here is our room door, I really liked the room decor on the Magic:

I think this night was formal/lobster night. I had lobster, but hubby had lobster & prime rib & it was very good!

After lunch we went to our muster station and did that, it was very short & painless. After 1:30 we went to our room. We were in a cove balcony on the 2nd floor. I always enjoy trying rooms in different places on the ship and I was excited to be this close to the water. The only down fall of this room was that on some port days the arrival commotion was loud and right outside our window. 

At some point we had this burger

We had late dining and we requested a table for just the two of us. I like assigned dining; you just walk to your table and it's smooth a efficient. We choose late dining because we want to enjoy the day on board and see the sunset

!

I got an email saying it's write a review day so here goes! 

We sailed on March 20-April 3 in a 2nd floor cove balcony. This cruise was originally scheduled for May 2020 & like many of you we got canceled and we rescheduled many times. Finally it was time for our cruise, I continued to be very nervous about having to cancel until after our negative covid tests. We tested early Thursday morning and we flew out on Saturday for our Sunday embarkation. We flew into Orlando, arriving after midnight, and got a hotel shuttle to Hampton Inn & Suites Orlando Airport @ Gateway Village. In the morning we took a Go Port bus to the cruise port. The port area was pretty organized, they corralled people into areas according to their scheduled time, ours was 11:30, then we filed in, showed our verifly and walked right on the ship. It was all vey smooth.

We then decided to have lunch at Guy's Pig & Anchor

We were there in 2014 and I don't think they charged anything for the tour. The ferry ride was a couple dollars. We enjoyed our drinks at the outdoor bar area at the Bacardi facility. We started the tour and it was freezing cold and we decided we didn't want to do it so we left.😁 I would say definitely do it on your own unless there are time constraints and you feel more comfortable with the ship tour.

The train was great. It was light and then as we approached Anchorage we enjoyed the sunset.

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

How was the Alyeska Resort , we were suppose to be there the end of July this year, but not going to happen now, so sad?

It was very nice! Hopefully you will get there soon. We had a Caribbean Back to back scheduled for May😕

I am stopping my notifications on this thread as it has become very negative.

Happy future cruising to all!