Adventure Review- 3/25/12-S.Caribbean

Getting my review written took longer than I had planned. But I still wanted to post it as I'm sure there will be people looking ahead to sailing her next year. I still have to work the pictures so hopefully I'll be able to add some later. We did take pictures of the menus in the MDR every night (except Tuesday, sorry, forgot the camera). I will add at the bottom a link (if I can get it to work) to the Cruise Compasses.

A little background. We were C&A Platinum. Completing this sailing put us to Emerald. Traveling were my husband and myself. As I've written the whole review, I'll just make it easier for everyone and paste it all on this post.

Saturday –March 24-We flew to San Juan. We got our luggage quickly and headed out to get a cab. They were lined up and were on our way to hotel in minutes. After a short drive $12 cab ride, we were at the Sheraton Convention Center hotel. This is the closest hotel to the pier. There was no line and we checked in quickly. After dropping our stuff in the room we headed out and grabbed a cab to Old San Juan. We walked up and down the streets for a little while looking at different stores. There was one that I really liked. It was one that had all sorts of local artisan works for sale. It was nice to see local work and not just standard tourist junk. We decided to go to Barrachinas. I was very thirsty when we got there but sadly there was a water main problem so they couldn’t serve tap water. The food was delicious. We headed back to the hotel and played at the casino for a little bit. Afterward we headed to the infinity pool. Sadly the water was fairly cold. So we just got in the Jacuzzi and then called it a night.

Sunday–March 25- After getting all packed and ready, we headed down for breakfast. The hotel had a restaurant and it was about the only thing in town. Can you say not cheap? $15 for regular eggs, bacon, etc breakfast. $4 for coffee or juice. They had a nice buffet that included beverages and hot and cold items for $23. As we didn’t know how long it would take to get on the AOS and get to the windjammer, we went for it. After breakfast we checked out and grabbed a cab to the pier which was $12 for a 2 minute ride to the pier (to far to walk and haul our luggage).. There were still people getting off the ship. We were probably 30th in line waiting to drop off our checking in luggage by 10:40am. After waiting about 30 minutes, they started taking the checked luggage. After that we got in the priority line which moved very fast (there weren’t many people in line ahead of us). We went through security and were directed to the priority check in line and immediately were directed to a counter. After about 2 minutes we had our sail passes and headed towards the next spot. That gentleman directed us to a row of chairs. We were the 3rd row back. There were several rows of chairs facing the way our chairs were and another whole series of chairs facing another way. We chatted with folks near us. There was a drink stand in front of the chairs and after a little while the opened up and were giving people free ‘shots’ of a strawberry colada like drink. A little bit later they said they were going to start boarding. They were going to take us one row at a time. Once we got on the ship, I went to check our dining table while hubby went and took some pictures while there were no people around. Long story short, we were in the Windjammer having lunch by about 12:30. By the time we were done chatting with folks and having lunch, our cabins were open. So off we went to check it out, drop off our luggage and wander the ship some more unencumbered by carry-ons. We then took advantage of the Loyalty Ambassador to buy our next cruise certificate. We figured get it out of the way since we had ports each day. The rest of the day was left to exploring, having dinner and hitting the casino. (We didn’t do the welcome aboard show). Then off to bed.

Monday -–March 26– St. Croix – As we had no scheduled excursions, we just got up and headed to the Windjammer when we were ready. Then we headed off the ship. We walked around the square outside of the security gate as they had vendors set up with tents selling everything from standard tourist ‘stuff’ to hand crafted jewelry. After walking around the square and then the town (town took about 5 minutes) we headed back to the security gate to find out where we needed to go to get a cab to go to Christiansted. There was gentleman there that said he would drive us for $10 each way. Considering inside the gate it was $16 per person round trip we decided to go for it. As it turned out the gentleman was very nice. He drove us in his private vehicle and told us about the island. When we got to the other side of the island he said he would wait for us and not to pay till we got back to the ship. He was going to give us his phone number but we didn’t take our phone off the ship with us. After walking around the town for about an hour, we found him on a street corner and headed back to Frederiksted. As he said $20, but we gave him $30. Tonight was the first formal night.

Tuesday – March 27th- St. Martin – A group of us from our M&M had booked a private tour with Bernards. Dave was our tour guide. We had a great time. We first stopped at a reserve of some form. There was a pond with lots of iguanas. They were more than happy to see us as they were being fed bananas. There were a couple of really large ones they said were probably about 20 years old. Next stop was Orient Beach. As most of us didn’t want to just hang out, we stayed for about 45 minutes. Just enough for some folks to walk along the surf and do some shopping at their little shopping area. Then we stopped by a side beach area where there was a guy that had live starfish, sea urchins, sand dollars and conch for us to see and hold. That was really kinda neat. Lastly we headed to Maho Beach. WOW! Those planes are loud. Not to mention putting out one heck of a strong blast from the jet engines blows sand and small rocks quite hard. That night was the first guests welcome back party. There were so many people it was held in Studio B. The evening show was Kenny James, but we didn’t go.

Wednesday – March 28th – Antigua –Today we had a tour with Gordon’s. Gary was our tour guide and he did a great job. We started at the oldest church. It was small but still very nice and still being used. Then we headed to the Nelsons Dockyard area. It was very interesting. We had lunch at the dockyard’s bakery (included in the trip). Next onto Devil’s Bridge. This was a neat cliff where the ocean rushes in and goes up the edge of the cliff. That night a couple of our table mates celebrated their wedding anniversary. Our waiter and head waiter along with a couple of other waiters sang and wished them happy anniversary. Tonight we went to the Ice Show ‘Cool Art, Hot Ice’. They did a great job. After the ice show, we went to the Love & Marriage show. As always, it was hysterical.

Thursday – March 29th – St Lucia – We used Cosol Tours and Baptiste was our guide. Very nice, knowledgeable and personable guy. Cosol operates a first class operation. We stopped at a banana plantation and learned all about bananas. A fresh banana really tastes great. Then we stopped and got to try lots of different local fruits and prepared foods. They also had a van that had cooler with different drinks. This van appeared at other stops for us to have drinks along the way. Then we went to the Volcano. That sure reeked. Some folks had headaches afterwards. After the volcano, we took a boat trip to a beach and snorkeling. We then stopped at Marantha Gardens. There were some absolutely gorgeous flowers there. On the way back to the ship we stopped at a local bakery and got fresh baked bread and cheese. That night’s entertainer was ventriloquist, Ron Lucas who we enjoyed very much.

Friday – March 30th – Barbados – We booked Best of Barbados through Shore Trips. The vendor was Glory Tours and our tour guide was Quami (sp?). We went to Harrisons caves. It was interesting but I want to suggest for anyone that goes, wear a hat. Water drips on you. Nothing major, but you will probably prefer not to get wet. We then had lunch at a nice little café. Next up the Barbados Wildlife Reserve to see the green tail monkeys. There were turtles, peacocks, iguanas, deer and a variety of other wildlife. We then went to swim with the turtles. Unfortunately the water was getting rough and the turtles decided to not hang around till we got there. This night was the second formal night as well as the welcome back for Platinum and above C&A members. In attendance were the two gentlemen everyone spoke about. They were wearing their Sultan’s outfits. They were very nice and more than happy to have their photos taken with other guests. Tonight was also Quest. And our team won, which was actually interesting as we probably had the smallest team.

Saturday – March 31st – Sea day - Today hubby took the ships Behind the Scenes Tour All Access Tour. He got to see behind the theater and Studio B, the main three galleys, the decks below deck 1, the engineering control room and the bridge. Not cheap but he really enjoyed it. The farewell show with juggler Victor Zuniga

Sunday – April 1st – San Juan - Well, last day, never anything to look forward too. We self disembarked which was actually very easy. Two things I noticed as we were leaving was all the luggage was laid out already in rows with labels on the wall of the different disembarkation color codes. And there was a table with things that must have been confiscated during embarkations, irons and the like. I was actually wondering how many of these items would be claimed by the rightful owners. We walked out of the terminal and immediately got a cab to the airport. When we got out at the airport, I expected the cost to be $12 like when we left the airport. Nope, it was $24! We argued and said that’s not what we paid from the airport and he insisted it was. We just paid and left it at that. When we got inside the airport, we ran into another person from our ship and they said they had the same thing happen with their cabbie. Very interesting way of sending tourists out of town, overcharging. Nice little racket.

Hopefully this link works for ya'll. I had to scan in each page of the 7 cruise Compasses. They should be in order.

http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b101/birdylady/Adventure2012/CruiseCompass/

Feel free to ask any questions. I'll be happy to answer what I can.

Erika

Very nice review. Thanks for taking the time to post your trip.

Thank you for taking the time to write and post your review. I'm looking forward to the same itinerary in December.

Thanks for sharing. This is the same itinerary I'm on next April. Do you have any pictures of the ship?

Thanks for posting your review. I'm also on this same cruise next year (with Virtopia) and was glad to see that we can self disembark.

nice job

Thanks for sharing. This is the same itinerary I'm on next April. Do you have any pictures of the ship?

Yes, sorry, it's been a busy weekend. Let's see if some of these work.

Some more...

Hubby took a behind the scenes tour and they were allowed to take pictures, unfortunately they were told they couldn't post them. Sorry.

Erika

Some more...

Hubby took a behind the scenes tour and they were allowed to take pictures, unfortunately they were told they couldn't post them. Sorry.

 

Erika

Beep, Beep.

Thank you so much for the link to the Compass. And for the review! :)

Thank you for your review.

Hi all. I finally got a chance to get ya'll the menus. We got all of them except the second night (first formal night). We forgot the camera. Sorry.

Day 1

Seems I can't get them listed inside the postings day by day. So I'll just post for each day to help to tell them apart.

Day 3

Day 4.

Day 5.

Day 6- Second Formal Night.

Day 7

Lastly- Portifinos Menu. We didn't go, but took pictures just the same.

Hope you enjoy.

Erika

That helps with us "crazy" planners!!! ;)