BoopTennis

Sunday St Croix

We docked on the port side. (there was only one stop where we docked on the starboard side). We grabbed breakfast at Windjammer. Lots of discussion about food on cc I know….Windjammer was not “great” but it was fine for me. Lots of choices. Open a lot of hours so you can eat whenever. It’s buffet food, I don’t think you can expect much more than that. But I always found it good enough for me and so did the rest of my family. We ate breakfast one day in the Main Dining Room, that was a little nicer, and lunch in MDR one day. Rest of Breakfast and Lunch and snacks and snacks and snacks we generally went to Windjammer. They had different options on different days which helped. Omelet station was liked by some of my family

OK our excursion for St Croix was the Gecko’s Island Adventures ATV tour. This was AWESOME. A+. We reserved it directly with them not thru the ship. I learned about them both on cc and on TripAdvisor. We rented four ATV’s, 2 people per ATV. Big rugged things heavy duty. They also have a guide with his own ATV that leads your group, and another guide on his own ATV in the rear to make sure everyone is ok.

You walk off the ship and their little office is just a block or so into town. We met about 15 minutes early for an 11:30 am tour. They provide helmets. Good to bring old clothes because you will get muddy (at least your shoes and socks will and maybe half your lower body LOL). We also took bandanas for nose and mouth (dust) but I didn’t think that was really needed. They taxi you (price included) just down the road a bit to where the ATVs are. You get instructions on how to drive (I didn’t drive but those who did in our group found it easy). Then off you go. Whole trip last a couple of hours…first on paved roads then up into the mountains and rainforest and tiny little bumpy roads with huge mud puddles that you drive thru and it splashes up and gets you wet. Just hilarious. Took 2 or 3 rest stops for pics and panoramic views etc. All 8 of us really enjoyed this (oldest age 65, youngest age 9). There was nothing about this tour that I did not enjoy. While we were gone I was able to have my backpack with all my stuff locked up in a shed and it was fine when we got back, nothing missing. I only took my little camera with me on the ATV.

There is an option with this tour to stop at Rainbow Beach and also to rent jet ski’s if you want. But we elected to go back to ship (taxi price included) and enjoy the ship the rest of the day. Again, A+ rating, I would do this excursion again in a heartbeat.

Ate lunch on ship and hung around pool relaxing rest of day

Dinner this night was formal night. Did not see many tuxes if any. Saw mostly cocktail dresses and shirts/ties some coats some not. Saw more casual attire also and no big deal no one cares. Dinner was very good, I loved our waiters. I had lobster bisque soup and shrimp cocktail as appetizers (I told you I always got two appetizers LOL). Had a spinach ravioli entrée, very yummy. Had some sort of chocolate mousse dessert which was AWESOME. Also ordered “lemon meringue pie” which was actually a small round tart LOL. Too much food but was so yummy.

i know this is probably not the right place for this question but I have looked a lot of places including the technology forum.

I am trying to post the daily cruise compasses from my cruise. I scanned but the pdf file apparently is too large even for one compass. do i need to do something to it, or take a photo of each page instead of post that like you do a photo?

any help is appreciated!

we just got back, did this tour last week . It was awesome. good fun ride, good rapids. you get very wet but no one got hurt. wear water shoes. There are LOTS of guides in the river helping everyone keep away from rocks. if you fall out of your tube the water is not too deep to stand up. there are rapids that are fast and fun and then calm water for awhile for everyone to rest a bit and get the whole group back together again.

one couple even had a baby that looked about one year told or less! not what i would suggest but the dad carried her while they did the ride and she made it thru ok

i am sure things can happen and i can certainly understand not wanting something to mess up a wedding, that is much more important!

but i felt safe with these guys (we used AnTours)

this is a fun place to go...the helipad at the front of the ship. has some benches, generally empty...and you can go all the way up to the front.

here is a photo of the Deck Chair Police. I watched them take away some people's towels that were sitting there with no people for over an hour

the ship was decorated very nicely for Christmas. Much of the time Christmas music was playing softly in the public areas. This tree is on the Promenade.

pool deck

another photo of inside our cabin, almost every day our attendant left behind a fun towel animal. Grandson really enjoyed those (i did also)

mini-golf 9 hole course up on top. pretty cute course but they are taking it and the inline skating out during dry dock next fall to put in Flowrider

inline skating course:

card/game room, we played cards there a couple nights

card room

i did not purchase a Beverage Package. I was only drinking about 2 drinks per day, we had 5 port stops, and I can deal with Windjammer coffee and tea and water. There were a couple "specials" offered throughout the week, see attachments, we did not purchase those either although we thought about it.

Day 4 package looked like it was quite limited for type of cocktails you can order (I like cosmos and "fun" drinks). Day 7 package might have been worth it but we didn't try.

Minions movie on pool deck

main dining room

line to get on the ship

iguana on the roof of the fort

and free trolley in Old San Juan

along the ride to Old San Juan

Saturday San Juan Embarkation and Cabin

Some of us grabbed quick breakfast at Starbucks, we checked out of hotel. Stopped at CVS and picked up several bottles of wine to take onboard with us (two bottles per cabin) are allowed. We put the bottles in our carryons, spread them around the 8 of us. Grabbed taxi with all 8 of us together with bags (!!) to go to pier. Got to pier around noon (not a very long ride maybe 15 min or less?) and it took about 45 minutes until we were on the ship, a little waiting but not bad, pretty orderly, we just gave them our large bags that we checked on the plane and we carried our own roller bags and backpacks on with us. (Boarding the ship for the first day is the most exciting thing to me!!)

Grabbed lunch on the ship at the Windjammer buffet, explored and hung out by pool. Cabins were ready at 2 pm and when we got to our room all our checked luggage was already there. We had 4 balcony cabins in a row Deck 8: 8282, 8284, 8286 and 8288. We had two people to a room. Each cabin had either 2 beds separated or 2 pushed together into one. Also had a sofa and small sofa table. One couple put that table in the closet to make more room to move around. Cabin was big enough for us. Room was clean and yes fabrics and colors are dated and a bit worn but not enough to bother any of us.

There was plenty of storage places in closet (wire shelves), in drawers in the desk area and bedstands, and behind the mirror doors on the desk. We put our luggage under the bed after we unpacked. One bag was too big so had to sit in corner but was not in our way. There are two AC outlets on the desk. That was enough for us to keep our electronics charged. I had taken an AC/USC charger with multiple slots but didn’t end up needing it. We did not have an extension cord and none was needed.

Balcony had one table and two chairs. I love balconies! This ship (and deck 8) has metal at the bottom of the balcony and then plexiglass so it’s not too bad. The only thing I don’t like about this ship’s balconies is that they do not open to the stateroom next to you. That is fun to do on other ships.

Bathroom had soap bars and shampoo dispenser in the shower (but I had taken my own shampoo since I am picky). The guys all used the shampoo in the dispenser. I used their Hairblower and it was good enough. Sometimes I Just went up on deck somewhere and the wind dried my hair fast LOL. I brought my own hair curling iron and flat hair iron.

Speaking of irons, I did not bring a clothes iron, that is a no-no on the ship. But I did bring a small steamer and they did not take it away (it was in a checked bag) and it worked fine for getting rid of wrinkles on shirts etc.

I had made door signs so hung those up with magnets not tape (doors are magnetic). Also had brought little magnetic white dry erase boards and dry erase pens that I put on the doors. We used those for leaving each other notes where we were going on the ship so we could find each other (eg pool, Windjammer, etc)

My 9 year old grandson got registered for Adventure Ocean (Kids club). More on that later but he loved it!

Muster was at 5:45 pm. Did not need to take your lifejackets. Very crowded but did not last too long.

Sailaway from San Juan was at 8:30 pm. Such a great feeling! Love it! We had traditional dining late seating every night with the 8 of us at one table. The main dining room has 3 levels and we were on the lowest level, Deck 3, called Vivaldi. More on food later. Dining that night started at 8:45 so there was time to enjoy Sailaway first. I thought the food choices in the Main Dining Room were great. I enjoy trying different things. I usually (always LOL) got 2 “starters” (appetizers) then one entrée and of course dessert. This first night I had Seafood Spaghetti which sounds like a weird name but was delicious.

While I think of it, San Juan is one hour later than U.S. Eastern Time zone (2 pm in San Juan when it’s 1 pm in New York), and that time never changed on the ship or any of the ports. No time changes anywhere. Some went to the casino and I went up to the pool with the big movie screen and watched Minions with my grandson. Very fun.

Our ports were:

St Croix

St Kitts

St Maarten

Dominica

Barbados

More to come…..

menu attached for Buns Burger shop San Juan

Cruise San Juan Menu Buns Burger Shop.pdf

we just returned from our Dec 19 cruise, we were in St Maarten on Tues Dec 22. We rented a large passenger van from Hertz because there were 8 of us! I reserved it at least a couple months in advance and it was the only one at the time I could find that had a large vehicle. Also because I felt secure with the Hertz name.

Everything with the rental worked perfectly. Hertz office is at the pier, they shuttle you about 3 minutes away to where the cars are. We picked it up first thing in the morning when we docked. We went around the whole island counterclockwise (headed up the east side first). Stopped at Orient Beach and stayed there longer than planned, 9 yr old played in the waves a long time and loved it. Good deals on drinks and lounge chairs etc.

Next went up around Grand Case but decided not to stop since we had spent so much time at Orient Beach. Headed down the west coast into Marigot, now its nearing 11:30 or so, we wanted to stop at a couple places there but the traffic in the town of Marigot was insane. moved about 3 mph for a long long time. Our main focus was getting to Maho so we did not stop at Marigot but kept plugging along slowly

Went to Maho, found a parking place, saw several planes come in including the big KLM jet. It was AWESOME. anyone who has not been to Maho and likes planes this is a must do

Left Maho maybe 1:30 or 1:45, traffic busy headed back to pier but not as bad as it had been in Marigot! got car back little after 2 . Drove back to car lot, guy was waiting for us so we had no wait time, 3 minute shuttle back to Hertz office, bill was correct, no issues, all good

Renting car worked for us because we had so many people (family trip)

we just got off our Dec 19 sailing out of San Juan. The main muster was at 5:45 pm. They held another muster later in the evening for people who boarded late, but almost everyone was there for 5:45. Sailaway was at 8:30 pm. We had late traditional dinner (normally 8:30), was scheduled for 8:45 that first night and we were comfortably there in time after enjoying sailaway.

we just returned from our cruise. Did the ATV tour on Dec 20. It was awesome. We had 8 of us, so rented 4 ATVs. 2 per ATV. youngest was 9 yrs old. Had 2 guides, one up front and one in the back to take good care of us. Everyone had a blast!

just got back from our cruise. We did River Tubing with AnTours on Dec 23. It was fabulous. 8 of us, another 8 or so joined us on the river and we had several guides in the water taking care of us. Tubing was fabulous everyone had a blast, 9 year old up to 60's

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sorry, taking this slow, I am still learning how to post photos.

How do I post pdf's (like compass and menu's)

i can't get it to work either, from Shutterfly. is there some privacy thing i have to turn on or off? are you selecting the url or just the photo itself? i click on the photo, right click copy and try to paste but nothing

is this from regular shutterfly album or the share site?

thank you for any help

Friday San Juan

For breakfast, the 8 of us walked across the street and to the left about half a block to restaurant named CrepeMaker, it was fun and good. Quick service, lots of choices and a GREAT fun waiter! Crepes for breakfast or lunch or even dinner, we really liked it and I will post menu shortly.

Next we headed for Old San Juan to see the forts. We thought it would be fun to take the bus, so waited at an easily marked spot for the bus near the hotel. Had to wait about 10-15 minutes. 75 cents per person and you need exact change but there were plenty of seats and it was fun to experience the locals. Ended trip at the bus terminal in OSJ, we then walked just a few blocks up to the Fort San Cristobel. Toured that for awhile and was interesting to see everything. There is a free trolley that runs between the forts but we decided to walk to Fort El Morro. Somewhat long walk but not terrible and good exercise. Walked thru a little village area, then went into the cematary to spend some time there. From there, walked up a big hill where kids fly kites and on up to El Morro. Spent some time there then when done hopped on the free trolley which took us into town. You can hop on and off as you like. We decided to grab a taxi back to the hotel from there as it was early afternoon and we wanted to enjoy the pool and beach at the hotel for the afternoon. Great time, had drinks at the pool. Sunny and 80’s all day. Later played cards at a big table in the hotel lobby bar.

Dinner Friday night the 8 of us walked down Ashford Avenue just a few blocks from the hotel to a place called Orozco’s. We all really liked this as well, Puerto Rican food and tried different appetizers and entrées. Good drinks also. Friendly service.

Walked back to hotel, stopped and got some gelato. Lovely day.