ShonandSuzie's Victory 1/22 Review (w/ many pics)

[shonandsuzie]

Superstar lol:D

 

 

Dr. Gary! Now they know we're celebrities... lol

 

Thanks for all of the positive remarks everyone! We are fun to cruise with. :) You should all join us this coming September. We cruise the first week of September every year for our anniversary. This year we'll be doing Royal Caribbean's Oasis or Allure. Stay tuned because we plan to book asap! (and Dr. Gary will be there too!)

[shonandsuzie]

What a great review!

 

Can you tell me your smuggling technique? Are they more relaxed now at security?

 

They left from san juan PR and from what I read you can take alcohol aboard and their is a store right there you can purchase alcohol from.

Two things. First off, there was some actual smuggling but it's iwannacruisenow (Gary's) technique and if I tell it he may kill me.

For the SJU port store, you could buy alcohol right there and they explained in detail how to get by security and get it on the ship. Many people failed and lost their liquor purchases but we follow directions quite well and got our stuff through with no issues. We even helped a few other people get their stuff through.

[Ksea1961]

Great trip report, great pictures! Thank you for sharing!

[shonandsuzie]

 

So as I started saying, I got in a bit of sun trouble while at the Boatyard. Not really burned but I have this wacking sun exposure issue where I "bubble up" when I get too much sun too fast. This is primarily an issue in the winter when my skin is so used to our extreme dumb sunless Michigan weather and then I "shock" it with the extreme caribbean sun. So beacuase this happened in Barbados, I decided to hide from the sun in St. Lucia.

 

We initially had planned to take a taxi to a beach since we did Cosol's tour (our favorite of all time, btw) a few years ago and a land and sea tour a couple years ago. Instead, this became another "sea" day. We explored and chilled and the sun even went behind the clouds long enough for us to hang out on the Lido deck a bit.

 

 

^OUCH!!

 

 

 

[shonandsuzie]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were hanging out for our St. Lucia "sea day", we saw a bunch of crazy drunk people coming back to the ship. Various people at various times were just stumbling and falling and being ridiculous. very entertaining.

 

[shonandsuzie]

And as explored. We found a cool feature of the Serenity deck that we missed on other days.

 

This entire wall of showers. Different types to try. Like a water park for adults!

 

 

 

 

 

[KPGirl]

A couple things, 1. not sure I have ever seen such a happy couple, 2. you must share your smuggling techniques.

[shonandsuzie]

 

 

 

This was our first time in St. Kitts. We were so excited to see it offered! I thought it was beautiful! Since we had not been there before, we booked an island tour/beach break. We didnt know anything about this island and used the boards here to collect info for months. In the end we decided on Thenford Grey tours. He has a great website and good prices. We convinced Jim and Rosemarie to come along which made it more fun.

 

We met Thenford right outside of the pier and they had signs up which made it easy to identify him. Because there were just the four of us for the shorter tour, a coworker of his, Henry, did our tour. Henry was a cool dude. Very nice (he didnt even insult us-lol). He said he is a minister at a church there on the island. He took us around and showed us the city, then the countryside and a place I call "heaven" and then finally to a beach.

 

 

 

 

[shonandsuzie]

More St. Kitts tour.

 

 

 

 

 

This white stuff are tons of birds living in the trees.

[shonandsuzie]

More St. Kitts- our favorite part; aka Heaven.

The caribbean sea and the atlantic ocean meet up here. I want to live here on the hilltop. I found a house too...just cant afford it. Darn!

 

 

 

 

 

[trvlqueen]

LOVING your review! We were on Victory in September - it's so funny how you took the "exact same cruise" and did such different things than we did. I love it! We will have to go back on that ship again! I loved that ship - and the itinerary!

 

Did not see the wall of showers when we were ther, but we didn't spend much time on Serentiy - we were there with a bunch of friends, so spent more time with them than anywhere else. Also, with the shortage of sea days, not as much time to hang on the ship.

 

As for the first week of September, that's when our group cruises too (not a formal group - just a bunch of friends that met cruising and book the same ship) - if you haven't decided yet, consider the Dream on 9/1 - would LOVE to cruise with you - I always love your reviews and would love to cruise with you guys sometime - you seem like "our kind of people"! If not this year, maybe we'll make it to the same ship sometime ...

[shonandsuzie]

Our final stop was at the beach. Cockleshell Beach. It was okay. Not my favorite beach but it had sand, water and foo foo drinks.

BYW, they had a pig there. Gross. But I guess people like seeing it there.

 

 

 

 

Our future home there in "heaven"

 

[BenjiRodney]

Loving your review, we just came back in November and already booked the Victory again for the same week this November.

[shonandsuzie]

The St. Kitts day was nearly perfect. They had a nice shopping area back by the ship and we checked that out on the way back onboard. Once inside the nice cool air conditioned ship... we took a nap! We woke up ready to go and headed to dinner.

 

 

^Shon's favorite dessert. It's from the kids menu (props to our cousin Ebony for introducing this to him!!!)

 

 

^This is more my speed.

[shonandsuzie]

 

Woo hooo! Maho beach day in St. Maarten. Let me start by saying, we LOVE orient beach. (Man, I say we LOVE a lot, I'm noticing) Anyway, we always go to orient beach here. I love the clear water with the gentle waves and the silky sand at Orient beach. I know some people dont wear tops but I've only ever saw a couple people like that whenever we've been there. I recommend that everyone go to Orient beach at least once.

With that said, our friends from previous cruises have been to Maho beach to watch the planes land and have finally convinced us to try it.

 

We (along with Jim and Rosemarie again) took a shuttle type taxi to Maho. The rate was $7 a person, I think. We had another crazy taxi driver here. His van had no air and he pretended like it did and during our drive I think his engine or transmission was dying. It smelled like burning vehicle of some sort, that's for sure. We were all dying from the fumes. Then he said, it's just my brakes. WTH? "Just the brakes" with all these winding hills. eek!

But it all worked out and we made it to the beach alive. (Aren't you so glad!? haha)

 

 

 

 

 

[jobell]

Happy, happy birthday!!!!

 

Am loving your review and you can definitely tell that you guys had an amazing time as always.

 

Look forward to reading the rest of your review. :)

[Lafayette99]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE share your smuggling techniques!!! We leave in 6 days to sail away on the VICTORY!! :-):D:D

[shonandsuzie]

Maho Beach

 

 

There are 2 sides to this beach. One is a big beach bar and the side we were on was the quieter smaller side. At this point in our trip, we were too wore out to party it up so we were low key all day. I even finished reading one of my books. It was quite nice.

 

This is the other side of the beach:

 

 

Our side:

 

 

It actually rained hard for about 5 minutes while we were here at the beach. We were cracking up because it came and went. It got sunny, everything dried up and we were laying out again within a about 10 minutes. If it rains at home, we lose a whole doggone day. Lol.

 

 

We grabbed a taxi and went back to the downtown area to shop. Taxis were very plentiful at the beach so no worries about getting a ride back.

 

The shopping area has really changed since we last shopped there. The bars/restaurants lining the beach and the beach itself is built up very nicely. We have been getting off of the ship and heading straight to Orient beach so much that we missed the progression of change. Got to remember to open our eyes.

 

Once back on the ship we saw this again...not nearly as clear but really. What good luck!?

[shonandsuzie]

Funny how time flies when you're having fun. I finished our last cruise day and didn't even realize it. Sunday was debarkation day. Boo hoo. We took advantage of our platinum perk and debarked super fast and easy. We will never carry our own luggage off of the ship or set an alarm to get off early but we will certainly use the platinum procedure again. The best ever!

 

We were not going home Sunday. We stayed another day in San Jaun and left late Monday afternoon instead. We booked a room at Sheraton Old San Juan for something new. We haven't stayed in Old San Juan before. We walked around during the day and did some shopping, ate at Senior Frogs and played around in the casino. Later we walked along the waterfront and ran upon a little festival with live bands and a craft sale. I felt Local.

Oh, and I almost forgot, we got another upgrade to a suite at the Sheraton. Really! Again....winning!

 

Our suite:

 

 

 

 

 

The view of the ship from the room:

 

The hotel restaurant view from our room:

 

[shonandsuzie]

We checked in for our flight from the hotel and alas, only one of us got the cheap first class upgrade for the first leg of the trip (Shon) but he gave it to his wife. Awwww. He must love me bunches! We both got it for the 2nd leg of the trip.

 

....and we tranferred planes at the same spot that we did on the way to SJU and had a delicious coffee drink at the same airport restaurant. The only thing different was our tanned skin tone (and our relaxed souls :) )

 

Pre cruise:

 

Post cruise:

 

The End....

 

Please feel free to ask any questions and we will try our best to answer. It's terribly difficult to anticipate what everyone will be interested in (or bored to tears by--lol) when we are taking photos along the way and writing up the review but I tried! ;)

[travel281]

Susie,

I had a blast reading your review. Thanks for the review and the beautiful pics. I felt as if I were cruising with you. I'll have to wait until June 10th to take the Victory. I'm excited already.:)

 

We might have to check out the store and try the smuggling technique. I'm practicing my big grin :D in case we succeed. I'm also practicing my perp walk :( in case we don't suceed.

[shonandsuzie]

Susie,

I had a blast reading your review. Thanks for the review and the beautiful pics. I felt as if I were cruising with you. I'll have to wait until June 10th to take the Victory. I'm excited already.:)

 

We might have to check out the store and try the smuggling technique. I'm practicing my big grin :D in case we succeed. I'm also practicing my perp walk :( in case we don't suceed.

It'll be easy. They will tell you exactly what to do. You wont get caught...unless you are one of those who doesn't listen. Lol. Happy drinkin'! :)

[shonandsuzie]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE share your smuggling techniques!!! We leave in 6 days to sail away on the VICTORY!! :-):D:D

Just go in the upstairs liquor store at the cruise terminal and buy what you want and they will tell you how to get it past security. No worries. I promise. We watched it work and we made it work.

[shonandsuzie]

Happy, happy birthday!!!!

Am loving your review and you can definitely tell that you guys had an amazing time as always.

Look forward to reading the rest of your review. :)

Thanks!!

[shonandsuzie]

LOVING your review! We were on Victory in September - it's so funny how you took the "exact same cruise" and did such different things than we did. I love it! We will have to go back on that ship again! I loved that ship - and the itinerary!

 

Did not see the wall of showers when we were ther, but we didn't spend much time on Serentiy - we were there with a bunch of friends, so spent more time with them than anywhere else. Also, with the shortage of sea days, not as much time to hang on the ship.

As for the first week of September, that's when our group cruises too (not a formal group - just a bunch of friends that met cruising and book the same ship) - if you haven't decided yet, consider the Dream on 9/1 - would LOVE to cruise with you - I always love your reviews and would love to cruise with you guys sometime - you seem like "our kind of people"! If not this year, maybe we'll make it to the same ship sometime ...

Hey, we know you! :) You are cruising with our cousins Jeff/Wendy and Lonestar/Lisa! I follow your thread but we are going to do Royal Caribbean this year and use up a "Next Cruise" certificate that we bought several years ago. We will all definately cruise again soon though, and maybe you'll be there too!