Looking for April 1993 Sovereign Itinerary

[malackym]

Hi All,

 

Taking a shot in the dark here. I'm trying to piece together my previous sailing history. Does anyone happen to have an itinerary of the Sovereign of the Seas from April of 1993? Did a quick google search, but didn't find anything. I know we stopped in San Juan and I think St Thomas, but don't have any other information.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Mark.

[glitterbee]

We sailed on Sovereign in January 1994. If it helps, we left from Miami, then to St. Thomas (like 2 days at sea), and then to San Juan, with our final stop at Coco Cay. At the time there were sanctions agains Haiti, so they were not stopping in Labadee. Hope this helps!

[fischymom]

Just a shot in the dark but have you tried a google search for the printed travel guide book that travel agents get that they price cruises from? I am looking at one now and it is a cruise and cruisetour vacation planner. The chances of one being out there??? but worth a try.

[leaveitallbehind]

As posted by glitterbee, the itinerary as I recall from our 9/92 Sovereign (our first cruise) was:

 

Day 1: Depart Miami 5:00 PM

Day 2: Day at sea

Day 3: San Juan, PR

Day 4: Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Day 5: Day at sea

Day 6: Day at sea

Day 7: Coco Cay

Day 8: Return Miami 7:00 AM

 

I will check for our file to confirm but believe that is correct.

 

Great first cruise - great first ship!

[glitterbee]

Sovereign was my first cruise as well. I did go back, out of curiosity to see how well I remember, and our cruise was just a little reversed.

 

Day 1: Leave Miami 5:00

Day 2: At sea

Day 3: At sea

Day 4: St Thomas (hopped from St Thomas to PR for an overnight in port)

Day 5: San Juan

Day 6: At Sea

Day 7: Coco Cay

Day 8: Miami early

[leaveitallbehind]

Sovereign was my first cruise as well. I did go back, out of curiosity to see how well I remember, and our cruise was just a little reversed.

 

Day 1: Leave Miami 5:00

Day 2: At sea

Day 3: At sea

Day 4: St Thomas (hopped from St Thomas to PR for an overnight in port)

Day 5: San Juan

Day 6: At Sea

Day 7: Coco Cay

Day 8: Miami early

 

I looked and couldn't find my docs but have to believe it would have been the same as yours. So I have ours reversed I guess and thinking a little harder about it I do recall heading to San Juan after St. Thomas on one of our early cruises - so that must have been it.

 

Thanks for the update!

[malackym]

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

Just a shot in the dark but have you tried a google search for the printed travel guide book that travel agents get that they price cruises from? I am looking at one now and it is a cruise and cruisetour vacation planner. The chances of one being out there??? but worth a try.

 

Didn't find anything by printed travel guide book. What did you specifically search for to find the book you were looking at? Or did you mean you were looking at one in your hands?

 

Sovereign was my first cruise as well. I did go back, out of curiosity to see how well I remember, and our cruise was just a little reversed.

 

Day 1: Leave Miami 5:00

Day 2: At sea

Day 3: At sea

Day 4: St Thomas (hopped from St Thomas to PR for an overnight in port)

Day 5: San Juan

Day 6: At Sea

Day 7: Coco Cay

Day 8: Miami early

 

This could be it. I don't remember Coco Cay at all on that cruise. Do you remember getting into San Juan very late, like 11:00 pm? I do remember getting there late and going to a casino until about 3:00 in the morning.

 

I'm going to continue to search.

 

Thanks again.

 

Mark.

[leaveitallbehind]

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

 

 

Didn't find anything by printed travel guide book. What did you specifically search for to find the book you were looking at? Or did you mean you were looking at one in your hands?

 

 

 

This could be it. I don't remember Coco Cay at all on that cruise. Do you remember getting into San Juan very late, like 11:00 pm? I do remember getting there late and going to a casino until about 3:00 in the morning.

 

I'm going to continue to search.

 

Thanks again.

 

Mark.

 

I will continue to look as well - I'm pretty sure I have the itinerary around here somewhere. As to CocoCay - we definitely stopped there as our last port of call on our 9/92 cruise. The part I'm not remembering clearly is the arrival time in San Juan, although I do remember much of the day there.

[pjlee3333]

As posted by glitterbee, the itinerary as I recall from our 9/92 Sovereign (our first cruise) was:

 

Day 1: Depart Miami 5:00 PM

Day 2: Day at sea

Day 3: San Juan, PR

Day 4: Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Day 5: Day at sea

Day 6: Day at sea

Day 7: Coco Cay

Day 8: Return Miami 7:00 AM

 

I will check for our file to confirm but believe that is correct.

 

Great first cruise - great first ship!

 

I was on Soverign May 8, 1993 and this was the itenerary and I think the order of the stops. I appreciate the confirmation of Coco Cay. At the time in our papers it listed (or I just remembered it) as their private island. In thinking back to it it seemed more like Coco Cay than Labadee but I'm glad to see it posted.

 

I loved the map in in the Centrum of Soverign. Since the ship alternated between an Eastern and Western itenerary both were shown. It used something like a lightup board with a flashing dot to show you where the ship was and it would stay on once the ship moved to the next space.

[aurelius180]

Here's an article about cruising from December 1992 in which the author also writes about their cruise experience aboard the Sovereign of the Seas.

 

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Great+cruise+vacations.-a012937541

[leaveitallbehind]

I was on Soverign May 8, 1993 and this was the itenerary and I think the order of the stops. I appreciate the confirmation of Coco Cay. At the time in our papers it listed (or I just remembered it) as their private island. In thinking back to it it seemed more like Coco Cay than Labadee but I'm glad to see it posted.

 

I loved the map in in the Centrum of Soverign. Since the ship alternated between an Eastern and Western itenerary both were shown. It used something like a lightup board with a flashing dot to show you where the ship was and it would stay on once the ship moved to the next space.[/quote]

 

 

 

Remember it well - Loved it until the lights started heading back to Miami! Minor question, however. Back in that '90 - '95-ish timeframe I'm pretty sure the routes were dedicated by ship. I don't recall any flipped itineraries? Sovereign did the Eastern Caribbean, Majesty did the Western Caribbean, and Monarch did the Southern Caribbean - I thought week to week.

 

Our second cruise (which I did find the docs to) was the following year 8/29/93 with the following itinerary:

 

Day 1: Depart Miami 5:00 PM

Day 2: At sea

Day 3: Playa Del Carmen, MX / Cozumel MX (early AM stop to discharge passengers on the mainland for tours who then returned to the ship at Cozumel by ferry)

Day 4: Georgetown, Grand Caymen

Day 5: Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Day 6: At sea

Day 7: Coco Cay

Day 8: Return Miami 8:30 AM

 

We repeated that cruise again on Majesty in '94 and at that time Labadee replaced CocoCay on day 6 with a day at sea on day 7.

 

On the '93 Majesty they also published and distributed a "Passenger List" which listed the Sr. crew, day by day show highlights, and everyone's name and home town! Still have it! Interesting bit of trivia - Bill Kirchenbauer who most recently has been on Oasis was the star in the Variety Showtime on Majesty in '93.

 

Sorry - don't mean to turn this thread into a "Remember When" but found this stuff interesting as I was looking for the Sovereign docs......

Edited April 23, 2013 by leaveitallbehind

[oneputt18]

Here is an old newspaper article. She refers to Coco Cay as the Berry islands.

http://bahamaswriter.blogspot.com/2013/03/byfay-knowles-royal-caribbeans-oasis-of.html

read thru and click on page 1 about 3/4 thru the artcle.

[rednancy1]

Here's an article about cruising from December 1992 in which the author also writes about their cruise experience aboard the Sovereign of the Seas.

 

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Great+cruise+vacations.-a012937541

 

 

This was very interesting. Thank you for posting this. :)

[malackym]

Thanks to all for the great information! The pieces are starting to fall into place for me.

 

I was on Soverign May 8, 1993 and this was the itenerary and I think the order of the stops. I appreciate the confirmation of Coco Cay. At the time in our papers it listed (or I just remembered it) as their private island. In thinking back to it it seemed more like Coco Cay than Labadee but I'm glad to see it posted.

 

I loved the map in in the Centrum of Soverign. Since the ship alternated between an Eastern and Western itenerary both were shown. It used something like a lightup board with a flashing dot to show you where the ship was and it would stay on once the ship moved to the next space.

 

I had forgotten about that map until just now! The embers are starting to come alive in this old brain of mine. I also seem to remember that we were scheduled to go to Labadee, but because of the unrest there at the time, we didn't stop at Haiti. But do you think it was just skipped or did they replace it with Coco Cay? Can't remember. I wish I had more pictures.

 

Sorry - don't mean to turn this thread into a "Remember When" but found this stuff interesting as I was looking for the Sovereign docs......

 

No problem at all. That's kind of why I started looking for this information. It's fun to remember.

 

Mark.

[leaveitallbehind]

As mentioned before in the thread Labadee was in the original plans but the unrest in Haiti under Aristide did cause the itinerary to shift to CocoCay, which I think actually lasted for several years. I know we went there in '92 on Sovereign and again in '93 on Majesty. (I also have coffee mugs from those ships with the itineraries printed on them that says Coco Cay)

 

As I clear out my own cobwebs I previously said that in '94 Majesty shifted to Labadee on our repeat cruise. I was wrong with that as well as I now recall that was the cruise where in our attempt to call on Coco Cay we were diverted due to heavy seas to Freeport instead. Labadee had to appear on that itinerary sometime after that.

 

More trivia. We did go to Labadee in December '96 on Grandeur on her maiden voyage and the RCI CEO was on board for the first sailing. His ulterior motive apparently was to have a "meet and greet" with Rene Preval, who was elected to replace Aristide in February, which I guess signaled an end to the unrest. The meeting took place at Labadee up near what is now the straw market at Preval's military helicopter amongst a bevy of soldiers armed with M-16's. It was a short meeting at which point Preval left in his helicopter. The CEO then departed the ship in St. Thomas to board a very large sailing yacht to continue what was reported by crew to be a family vacation.

Edited April 23, 2013 by leaveitallbehind

[aurelius180]

As mentioned before in the thread Labadee was in the original plans but the unrest in Haiti under Aristide did cause the itinerary to shift to CocoCay, which I think actually lasted for several years. I know we went there in '92 on Sovereign and again in '93 on Majesty. (I also have coffee mugs from those ships with the itineraries printed on them that says Coco Cay)

 

As I clear out my own cobwebs I previously said that in '94 Majesty shifted to Labadee on our repeat cruise. I was wrong with that as well as I now recall that was the cruise where in our attempt to call on Coco Cay we were diverted due to heavy seas to Freeport instead. Labadee had to appear on that itinerary sometime after that.

 

More trivia. We did go to Labadee in December '96 on Grandeur on her maiden voyage and the RCI CEO was on board for the first sailing. His ulterior motive apparently was to have a "meet and greet" with Rene Preval, who was elected to replace Aristide in February, which I guess signaled an end to the unrest. The meeting took place at Labadee up near what is now the straw market at Preval's military helicopter amongst a bevy of soldiers armed with M-16's. It was a short meeting at which point Preval left in his helicopter. The CEO then departed the ship in St. Thomas to board a very large sailing yacht to continue what was reported by crew to be a family vacation.

 

 

Labadee stops resumed January 23, 1995. Via a new release from RCI in December 1994:

 

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/ROYAL+CARIBBEAN+CRUISE+LINE+TO+RESUME+SAILING+TO+PRIVATE+DESTINATION...-a015994400

[pjlee3333]

Thanks to all for the great information! The pieces are starting to fall into place for me.

 

 

 

I had forgotten about that map until just now! The embers are starting to come alive in this old brain of mine. I also seem to remember that we were scheduled to go to Labadee, but because of the unrest there at the time, we didn't stop at Haiti. But do you think it was just skipped or did they replace it with Coco Cay? Can't remember. I wish I had more pictures.

 

 

 

No problem at all. That's kind of why I started looking for this information. It's fun to remember.

 

Mark.

 

 

I remember going to a private island and I think it was an island, ie Coco Cay, rather than Labadee which really isn't an island.

 

By the time I was on the ship in May 1993 they may have only been doing the Eastern Itenerary but the board that lit up showed both and I thought the crew said something about doing both.

[TNcrzr4life]

I remember going to a private island and I think it was an island, ie Coco Cay, rather than Labadee which really isn't an island.

 

By the time I was on the ship in May 1993 they may have only been doing the Eastern Itenerary but the board that lit up showed both and I thought the crew said something about doing both.

 

I was on the Sovereign in May 1993. I recall doing both Coco Cay and Labadee along with San Juan and St Thomas. Seems like Labadee was first stop followed by San Juan, St Thomas, and Coco Cay. Loved that ship :)

[CUTTERSAM]

RC claims I sailed on SOS January 2011 and I have no recollection of the event whatsoever. If anyone can give me a hint???