Fascination 8/21-26 - Girl Scout troop trip review

[stacieps]

Our group was a Girl Scout troop of six 13 year old girls and 2 chaperones. After a few stressful days the week leading up to our trip, all girls ended up with passports and all were able to go on the trip.

 

We flew JetBlue from Boston to Jacksonville on Friday 8/20. We stayed at the LaQuinta airport location. We had gotten a great rate at the LaQuinta ($29.75 per room) - which made me a little nervous about how the hotel would be. It worked out just fine - rooms were clean, free breakfast was fine. We took the hotel shuttle from the airport to the hotel. Girls were excited to find out there was a Cici’s Pizza within walking distance, so we had dinner there (for quite a bit under our budgeted amount).

 

LaQuinta also offers a free shuttle to the port on Saturday. Unfortunately, they only had a 2:30 shuttle time left that could accommodate all 8 of us. We had anticipated this and budgeted money for taxi. Friday night, the front desk gave us the number for Gator taxi to arrange for a cab for Saturday. I called and requested a van for 8 passengers, they acknowledged I had 8 people and we set the pick up for 9:45 am.

 

Saturday we checked out of LaQuinta and waited for the cab. The cab that arrived was a small minivan. The driver told us he could only take 6 and that was the biggest van they had (not sure why we weren’t told when we arranged it). We ended up fitting me and the 6 girls in the taxi and the hotel arranged to put our 2nd chaperone on a shuttle or in another taxi.

 

I arrived at port with the 6 girls, we waited outside for a little bit, then moved into the air-conditioned terminal building. Inside we were told that security lines would open at 10:30. They opened at about 10:20. It was requested that we go thru security and wait on the other side for our 2nd adult. She arrived about 20 minutes later and we started check-in. We were able to use VIP check-in since I am platinum and I had everyone in the group guaranteed by my credit card (all girls and other chaperone were going to use cash but we found it easiest to put their accounts on my credit card and they gave me cash during the week to apply to my account). We ran into 2 issues during check-in - (1) the employee had never checked in a non-us citizen, so she had to get help with our girl who is a US Resident but a Bosnian citizen; (2) one of our girls has changed her last name and had a certified copy of a court order with her passport (in old name), the agent thought we’d have to have her name hyphenated (old and new name) and we had to go to a supervisor for this. The supervisor ended up being satisfied with the way things were (booked in new name with certified court document of name change).

 

We began boarding around 11:40. After photos, and re-checking of IDs at ship entrance, we headed up to the lido deck for lunch. After lunch the girls all toured the ship to find the places they’d be using all week (Circle C, etc). We saw a lot of dolphins (12 or more) playing around all afternoon near the ship. We attended the safety drill around 3:30. At some point there was an announcement letting us know there were 600 kids on this sailing.

 

First night we had dinner in the main dining room (we chose to have assigned dining - early). Our waiter was great! After dinner girls were given a curfew time of midnight and they went off to their club for the welcome aboard party.

 

Sunday was a sea day. We spent most of the day by WaterWorks. Girls got ready early for formal night and had lots of pictures taken. Dinner in the main dining room was great (everyone had Warm Chocolate Melting cake each night we ate there).

[stacieps]

Monday we went to Half Moon Cay. We met for breakfast at 8:00 so we’d be able to get a tender early. We were on the beach by 9:00. Water was wonderful, beach was beautiful. Girls rented a couple of paddle boats for an hour. BBQ lunch was very disappointing - from trying to find the place, to finding tables, food was awful (I ended up just eating an apple), drink cups were way too small. (I found this beach to be much nicer than Disney’s Castaway Cay, but the rest of the set up is better at Disney). We stayed at the beach until 2:30 and then headed back to the ship - only had to wait a few minutes for a tender. Girls were not required to go to dining room this night (or other port day). I believe 4 girls ended up going to dining room anyway (I went to the lido). Some of the group went to the 80s show (I liked it, music was a bit too “old” for most of the girls to know).

 

Tuesday we were in Nassau. We rented rooms at Comfort Suites to we could go to Atlantis. We’d originally booked the rooms at $250 each. I kept checking and the rates went down to $200, then $150, then about a week before we left, I got a rate of $106 per room! With taxes and fees we paid $268 total for 2 rooms. We took a taxi from port to CS, checked-in, got to Atlantis just before 10am. We stayed until 3:30. Everyone had a great time at Atlantis. After Atlantis we shopped at the straw market and a few shops in that area until about 5:30. Then we went thru the security building to head back to the ship. A few girls ran ahead - they wanted to go to the dining room again for dinner. Some of the group went to the comedy/juggling show - it was good.

 

Wednesday at sea. We spent some time at WaterWorks. Girls had lots of activities going on with Cirlcle C friends. Some of us went to the towel animal demonstration and learned how to make a few things. Last dinner was in the dining room. Girls surprised the chaperones with a “thank you” cake and a couple of home-made cards. Very nice.

 

Thursday - final day. I had to be up at 6:30 to take our one non-US Citizen to immigration (told to arrive by 6:45). Seems that we docked a little late, we had to wait in the lounge for a little over ½ hour, then immigration officials came in. Looked at girl’s passport, crossed her name off the list, and we were done. We met up with the rest of the group back at our rooms and got ready for breakfast. We had a late flight (3pm) so we planned to hang out on ship as late as possible. We had breakfast, stayed on lido for a while, then opted for air-conditioning and when to main show lounge to wait. Girls wandered the ship and took lots of final pictures.

 

We arrived at airport around 11:30. Shopped a bit, had lunch at a table service restaurant, and shopped a bit more, then it was time for our flight.

 

Overall we had a great cruise. Wait staff in dining room and cabin steward were great. Room service took forever (45 minutes to over an hour) every time anyone ordered. No real complaints from anyone. I’m anxious to hear from the girls at our next meeting - will be interesting to hear what they have to say now that the trip is over.

[bfkkbc]

I am so glad it all worked out in the end!!! I was on pins and needles reading your prior thread leading up to the cruise!! :)

[CruisinManiac]

What kind of badge did the girls Scouts earn for their cruise? :D

 

BBQ lunch was very disappointing - from trying to find the place, to finding tables, food was awful (I ended up just eating an apple), drink cups were way too small. (I found this beach to be much nicer than Disney’s Castaway Cay, but the rest of the set up is better at Disney).

 

I agree about the island BBQ. Had a heck of a time finding it, and the food was disgusting. While HMC was beautiful, I still liked Disney much better than any other cruiseline island.

 

I’m anxious to hear from the girls at our next meeting - will be interesting to hear what they have to say now that the trip is over.

 

Just go on Facebook. :rolleyes:

[GrammyJill]

would you mind posting any pictures you have? We sail in 6 days!!

[going to see the world]

So glad to hear that ALL of the girls got to go. :) Hope you had fun too!