Victory Review 2/21....w/PICS

[SoonerOne]

We are going in October, great reviews and beautiful pics! Keep up the good work.....

[Head Shot]

Looks like Sapphire Beach would be the way to go for us next time.

[newt98]

thank you all for your comments. they are appreciated, and that is what keeps me coming back to finish!;)

[Jeans*Fanatic]

so that's it for the sj pics. actually there's one more. remember the story of my wife losing her camera in a cab? well we're headed back to get a cab to go to our room, and i'm looking at the drivers that are waiting for pax, and i'm like, "i think that's our driver from last night". but i'm not that sure, so we are on the other side of the street trying to get a closer look. then the kid jumps from the wall and starts booking it as fast as he can away from us. well not really. actually he jumps off the wall and starts walking towards us waving us down.

 

he comes jogging across the street and says " hey i have your camera". my wife broke into tears. she was so happy to get her camera back. i gave the guy $40, and he gave us a ride back to the hilton. he also gave us his phone number in case we needed another ride. we did end up using him the next morning to get to the ship, and of course he got a generous tip at the ship, and also when he took us back to the hotel.

 

this is lenin, i have his number if anybody wants to use a good kid to taxi them around when they are down there.

 

Can I please have his number!!! I will need him in May for this same exact cruise! crystaldeonnorman at yahoo dot com.

I love your review... I have it saved to my favorites... he he he he...

[jimbo5544]

Very nice review so far and excellent pictures.

[newt98]

Can I please have his number!!! I will need him in May for this same exact cruise! crystaldeonnorman at yahoo dot com.

 

I love your review... I have it saved to my favorites... he he he he...

 

i sent it to you

 

Very nice review so far and excellent pictures.

 

thanks:)

[beach410]

enjoying your review, thanks for taking the time, the pictures are great, bummer you didnt have your underwater camera, a pix of the turtle would have been awesome, my goal is to get one some day, saphire beach looked very nice..are you still disappointed that you didnt get to do megans bay?

[newt98]

enjoying your review, thanks for taking the time, the pictures are great, bummer you didnt have your underwater camera, a pix of the turtle would have been awesome, my goal is to get one some day, saphire beach looked very nice..are you still disappointed that you didnt get to do megans bay?

 

actually not really because we had friends that went to megans bay, and they said it rained most of the time. so i am actually thankful we went to sapphire.

[funsunner]

Hey Mike,

 

Great review, I feel like I was back on the cruise! You've motivated me to do mine as well.

[newt98]

i'm back. i'll try to keep on task, you know how it goes sometimes.

 

anyways, st. thomas was a good day, shopping, island tour, then beachtime. then finished it up with dinner with our cruise critic friends. we were off to a good start.

 

now dominica is our second stop. my plan was to get a taxi and go snorkeling at champagne reef. i had not really heard great things about dominica, and i didnt really care to see waterfalls and a pool, so i thought this would be a good day for snorkeling.

 

but as we got closer to morning, i was backtracking a bit a thinking about cancelling the snorkel at the reef, and just walking off the boat and finding something to do. i have never actually just walked off without a plan, so i wasn't really sure of what to expect. i did still want to end up at champagne if i could, but if not, no big deal.

 

well it was just a reguler morning, woke up to the deck chairs, which actually wasn't too bad, because i don't like sleeping late on the boat. but anyways, we get up and get ready, and go to the buffet for breakfast. btw, the lines at the buffet were never longer than i have ever seen them anywhere else. i had seen reviews that talked of long lines, and locals being obnoxiious, i didnt see any of that. back to the story, once again they had the french toast and ham, so i was happy with breakfast and ready for the day.

 

i think we docked about 10:00 in dominica, so we had plenty of time to get off the ship. we walk down the pier and as soon as we get through the gate there is a guy offering different tour packages. we were standing there with another random couple as he was giving the description of his tour, and we said "if they go, we go". so they said yes and we all got in. we had to wait about ten minutes for the bus to fill. we had about 8-10 people on the bus. oh, and i ran into the first grouchy canadian i think i have ever met. the wife went to the very front, the husband to the very back.

 

we had decided on the island tour package. it would take us to trafalagar falls, rainforest, mr nices fruit stand, emerald pool, and the black sand beach. our driver was very friendly, and i felt right away that we had made a good choice in oiperators. across the street from us there were more taxis and tour operators, but they seemed a little less than average to me, i think if you cross the street for your tour, you might not get a good of a tour operator. i think our driver, and some others were able to sit right by the gate due to senoirity type rules. he has been an operator/ taxi driver for almost twenty years.

 

the drive to trafalagar was nice, it was strange to see the trees and bush growing straight up the side of a mountain. when we got to the falls, you have to pay $5 to go see them, and $2 for the guide, we didnt know about until we got there, but we didnt really care, the grumpy canadians did though, lol. once you get out, it is a short walk to the falls. there was an elderly woman on the tour with us, and the guide told her that the walk was not that far. but it actually was a bit of a hike for an elderly woman with a bad knee. she was not happy about the length of the hike, and the amount of stairs that were involved, but she kept a good attitude.

 

as we were going up, i saw that she was having trouble, so i became her assistant helping her up the steps and over the rocks. she wanted to quit a few times, but we all encouraged her and she made it. we got some pics up there, and spent about ten minutes looking at water falling. then we headed back down, and to his credit, grumpy canadian pitched in to help get her back down the trail.

 

driving to the falls

 

this is actually at emerald pool hike

 

tralafagar falls

 

us at the falls, wish you could see them

 

coming back down, grumpy canadian on left

[falkcor]

mike my man - just want to let you know i'm following and thanks for the review.

 

i appreciate that you're doing this and love the virtual cruise tour. way to go man.

[newt98]

after the falls we headed to the emerald pool, with a stop at mr nices fruit stand. i had seen threads on this place, but never really knew what it was about. it ended up being the highlight of the day. this place was fun to hang out at. mr nice had local fruits for you to sample, along with some cocoa and cocnut mixture that they cokked. that stuff was really good. mr nice is an original character, he's funny, he sings these little tunes, and he appears to really enjoy hanging out at his fruit stand all day.

 

 

 

in case you didnt know this, it costs a dollar to use almost every restroom on this itinerary.

 

dominica

 

mr nices fruit stand

 

me and mr nice

 

black sand beach

[newt98]

after mr nice we headed to the emerald pool. it was quite the long drive, and not really worth it in my opinion. it was extremely crowded, and of course people don't know how to be patient and let you by, they would sooner knock you off of a rock and into the water than inconvenience themselves for the safety of others. i much ratherwould have liked to do the champagne reef snorkel, and pass up the emerald pool.

 

emerald pool

 

waterfall at emerald pool

 

people, rude, rude, people.

 

traffic got a little tight.

 

a block or two from the ship.

[falkcor]

dominica

 

 

what a great photo.... :cool:

[InEEDofAcruise]

I agree, Mark. Hope you are not too mad at me... I was just joking about your pic.

 

what a great photo.... :cool:

[newt98]

our last stop was the black sand beach, and as soon as we got there you could smell the gonja. this beach would not be mistaken for the french riviera, lol. but it was o.k. when we got out of the bus, we all had to decide what time to meet the driver to head back. the trip takes 30-40 minutes, and we had to be back on the ship at 4:30, for a 5:00 departure. the canadian says, how about 4:00. yea right! are you serious? the rest of us overrule her and we settle on 3:30. it was about 2:00. once we got out to the beach, there really wasn't much to do but take some pics and sit on our towels, so we were bored kind of fast. we looked around and everybody from the tour was just standing around in the shade waiting for 3:30, except for the grump canadian, lol. she was laid out with her top off reading a book. it was kind of funny.

 

we decided to pick up our stuff and head over to where most of the group was at about 3:00. everybody was ready to go except for the grumpy couple. well one of the ladies was like, screw it, i'm gonna tell her were leaving! the rest of us kind of hid behind the tree to see what would happen. the canadian stood up with her top off and smacked the lady with her book. ok, not really, she just kind of laid there and acted like she was ignoring her. but then after about five minutes she got up and we all got on the bus. we then headed back to the ship and tried to do a bit of shopping, but there wasn't really much shopping to be done, so we promptly got on the ship.

 

a block or two from the ship

 

as we were walking on the pier

 

always a good site to see at the end of the day

 

back on the ship with some drinks

 

showing off our drinks!

[newt98]

what a great photo.... :cool:

 

 

long time no see. did you get carpal tunnel from your last review?;)

[falkcor]

long time no see. did you get carpal tunnel from your last review?;)

 

indeed. :D

 

good nuff? ;)

 

anyhow, glad to see this. thanks for that. :cool:

[newt98]

so we had a good day in dominica. i know there are a number of people that saty on the boat here, my advice is to not make that mistake, if you havent seen it, don't listen to what others asy about it, see for yourself then decide. granted, there is not much to do on a return trip there, but you need to see the island at least once, we thought it was beautiful.

 

 

from the ship in port

 

again, in port

 

pulling away from port

 

uh, yeah, another pic from the ship

[newt98]

indeed. :D

 

good nuff? ;)

 

anyhow, glad to see this. thanks for that. :cool:

 

 

that review was classic man!;)

[newt98]

this is from the side thruster

 

tiny pier in dominica

 

pier in dominica

 

dominica

 

out to sea

[falkcor]

that review was classic man!;)

 

classic... but honestly still not finished... it will be...

 

but lovin yours nonetheless... haven't done this route yet...

 

so.. go, mike, go!!!

 

:cool:

[falkcor]

nice most recent photos, btw :cool:

[newt98]

tonight was formal night, i had two orders of lobster as did the wife. it wasn't bad, i also had the chocolate melting cake(warm pudding). they missed the boat with the choc melting cake this cruise. after dinner i think we pretty mcu headed to the room. and i guess one of our neighbors must have visited black sand beach, because almost every night from here on out you could smell the kgb out on the balcony.

 

joan and ken, and sue and inder from our roll call, and our trip two years back on the triumph

 

walking back after dinner

 

how do you like it! lol

 

ok, i can finally find out, what in the hell is this?

[falkcor]

ok, i can finally find out, what in the hell is this?

 

that is supposed to be a rabbit. :cool: