GAPearl Goes Solo on the Splendor! 11/1/14 SJU-MIA Repo Cruise Review.

[GreytRacer]

I couldn't believe how the eyes and faces lit up of the people in Martinique every time I said "bonjour" or "merci" or one of the other few words I remembered from French class 100 years ago! You could see their whole attitude and body language change just from me putting out that little bit of effort. The people we spoke to in St. Pierre were so friendly and helpful and we really enjoyed them. Friends of ours said that it wasn't like that in the beach area, but I was happy with the experience we had.

 

Geri

Edited November 16, 2014 by GreytRacer

[pghsteelerfan]

I was going to try to wait until you finished and I really did try, but OMG...your pictures are gorgeous!!! I really, really, really love the pictures you got at the beach in Martinique!!! Seriously, you should really consider a second career (a fun, hobby career) in photography. The composition of your pictures looks professional.

 

We were in Martinique on our honeymoon in 1992 on Carnival Festivale and thought it was BEAUTIFUL, but one problem...all I had was a film camera. I was prepared and brought 7 rolls of 36 exposure (pictures) film and had to be very selective of what I got pictures of so I have a total of 15 pictures from Martinique. :( I pretty much forgot what it looked like and I've wanted to get back to Martinique and hope to some day because all that I can remember was how pretty it was. Was this beach called Bakoua Beach (Bakoua Plage)? That's were we went for a few hours, by ferry, after exploring the city.

 

Hopefully with your review and the others (yeah, been addicted to CC the past several days and the house STILL won't clean itself) there will be a renewed interest in some of these other beautiful islands. I'd love it if Carnival based another ship (two total) in San Juan to go to some of the other islands or even have the one ship alternate between two itineraries.

 

Thank you for taking the time to do this awesome review, I am really enjoying it and looking forward to more.

[gapearl]

I was back on the ship around 4ish and went to the lido for some pizza. The lido wasn't close to being full, yet there was nowhere to sit because all the tables were dirty. I ended up eating at the bar with a couple new friends from Maryland that were having a drink. I didn't notice this as a regular occurence any other time this cruise, but the dirty tables were BAD today. I didn't see a single table get cleared while I was out there. After pizza was a sauna and a nap before dinner.

 

So here are my thoughts about Martinique. Beyond the immediate port area, no one spoke any English. None of the locals I encountered at Pointe Du Bout spoke English. Besides the cruisers, all the tourists were obviously French. I did meet a couple of locals waiting on the ferry who spoke broken English and were happy to have a chance to practice, but that was it. I really wish I had studied French a little more before coming so I could have had a chance to practice myself. I did find the people to be warm and friendly. Martinique is a place that has for sure piqued my interest. I felt as though I needed more than a few hours to get a real feel for the local culture. I think this would be a lovely place to come back and spend a week and totally immerse yourself, especially because of the language barrier. My week that I spent in Guatemala in April was with a private teacher sharpening my Spanish skills, and I'm looking into spending 2-3 weeks at a different Spanish school in Latin America next year. I think I'll do a little research to see if there might be a similar kind of French school here where I can come study for a couple weeks and refresh my French skills. I have a goal to be multilingual one day. Learning another language in another country is so much better than Rosetta Stone. :):):D:D

[SunshineCruiser24]

More more more! I love this review!

[SunshineCruiser24]

Martinique sounds AWESOME. Like it's still another culture, not a commercialized tourist area.

[gapearl]

Tonight was another great evening at dinner.

 

 

For my appetizer I had the crepes with spinach and ricotta cheese. I don't think I've ever seen this on the Carnival menu before but it was really good.

 

 

My entree was the BBQ cornish hen plus a side of mashed potatoes.

 

 

Someone else's food porn, a steak.

 

 

My dessert was the warm chocolate melting cake with _____ ice creams. You should be able to fill in the blank by now. :)

 

[gapearl]

One of my table mates, Larry. What a cool guy! We missed him the second half of the cruise because he started to not feel well, but we had some great conversations.

 

 

Monicia, here's another one of you. ;)

 

 

My jaw dropped when I saw this picture. Apparently I'm not on this cruise by myself after all. You may not believe in spiritual orbs showing up in pictures, and I don't want to start a debate, but I absolutely do. This NEVER happens in my pictures. :)

 

Edited November 16, 2014 by gapearl

[gapearl]

I noticed this morning in the Fun Times that the entertainment for tonight would be a hypnosis show. Earlier this year, I was a part of a hypnosis show in Las Vegas and said I HAVE to do that again. I arrived early and sat in the front row so I could make sure to secure my spot on stage.

 

Asad Mecci was the hypnotist and he started with a few exercises to get the audience going and so you could see if this might work for you or not. For instance, you hold both arms out in front of you shoulder width apart, eyes closed. Your mind is clear and only focusing on what he's saying. There are magnets in your hand that are getting closer, and closer, and closer, and next thing you know you open your eyes and your hands are together. About 20 of us started on stage but half the people were let go as hypnosis will not work for everyone. You really do have to let your mind go COMPLETELY BLANK and not think about I'm hungry, I'm going to the casino later, wonder where my husband is, literally NONE of that. We were put under and brought back multiple time. What did he have you do, you ask? Lucky lucky you, I have video. The quality isn't the best, but you can see and hear everything pretty well. I might be getting my hands on some other video tonight that will be a little more clear. I'm warning you, do not drink anything while you watch this, or else your screen will be drenched in a minute from laughing so hard.

 

The guys were belly dancing to win the love of a potential bride.

 

 

A naked man in front of us. That's me on the far right.

 

 

Me getting increasingly frustrated when he doesn't get my order right. I do remember being up there thinking, this guy is an idiot! Notice how I say please a lot. I'm a southern girl. :) This one you have to watch til the end. lol

 

 

I lost my belly button.

 

 

I don't remember this at all but I was clearly oblivious to everything.

 

 

If anyone has the video of me driving the car, please send it to me! haha

Edited November 16, 2014 by gapearl

[gapearl]

Yes, I remember most everything. There was a girl on stage with me at the Vegas show that remembered nothing, so everyone will respond differently to the hypnosis. The million dollar question most people have is were you really under? Is this for real? A lot of people think the folks that participate in hypnotist shows are staged actors. Let me say that I have ZERO acting experience and ZERO acting talent. It is absolutely, 120% for real. Also think about this. If we weren't really under, do you think we'd be able to sit there so calm and still while the audience is roaring in laughter?

 

 

 

If you ever happen to be on a cruise with Asad, don't be shy. Get up there and participate. Doesn't hurt that he's a hottie. :o

 

 

After the show I hit up the club for a while. By now I was famous (was all week actually, even with some crew lol). Asad was there and so was Punchliner comedian Donnell Grey. I talked with them for a few minutes and they're both really cool guys. Donnell lives in Atlanta and gave me his card since he performs at some local comedy clubs when he's not on a ship. He said to get in touch with him and he'll hook me up with some tickets. I hope I get to take him up on that offer soon.

 

I'm sorry I have to be so blunt but DJ Focus sucked. This was the third night he was playing nothing. but. reggae. Now I love reggae, I really do, but I don't want to hear it ALL night every night! The stuff he was playing tonight wasn't even mainstream reggae. It sounded like some bootleg cd he bought from the trunk of a random guy in Jamaica that recorded his crappy music at his kitchen table. Just bad! He wasn't mixing up the music at all. People were going to him requesting songs, but he wouldn't play them.

 

My girl Amberly was like this has got to stop. She went over to him like dude, you've been playing this SAME beat for three days and you have NO ONE one the dance floor! He got an attitude and was like well what do you want me to do? She replied you're the DJ, you figure it out! It was so bad she had a bartender call his boss and told him what was going on. Boss man had a talk with the him and the music was much better after that. As a matter of fact it was better the rest of the cruise. Shout out to Amberly for getting us some good music!

 

Finally, some people on the dance floor.

 

 

Out of my last four cruises, three had terrible DJs. You've got people from different backgrounds and of different ages. A good ship DJ will mix music genres and play a reggae set, a Latin set, a top 40 set, maybe an old school hip hop set, a pop set, then the obligatory wobble and cupid shuffle, you get my drift. Carnival DJs aren't doing this any more. They're not playing what the crowd wants to hear but what they want to hear. I think they need to bring back that partnership with DJ Irie and maybe offer them some extra training, because people are going to the club and not having fun. I could have been a better DJ this cruise with my playlist on my iphone. It all starts with the DJ. In the end it was a fun night and I headed to bed at 2:30 am.

 

Tonight's towel animal is a.....dinosaur???

 

 

Up next: A mermaid, a scuba diver, a student, and Jesus Christ.

 

Thanks for continuing to read everyone!

[ATHENA3]

One of my table mates, Larry. What a cool guy! We missed him the second half of the cruise because he started to not feel well, but we had some great conversations.

 

 

Monicia, here's another one of you. ;)

 

 

My jaw dropped when I saw this picture. Apparently I'm not on this cruise by myself after all. You may not believe in spiritual orbs showing up in pictures, and I don't want to start a debate, but I absolutely do. This NEVER happens in my pictures. :)

 

 

Love all your pics. When I seen your table mate pic of Larry he looks like he could be John Heald brother. :)

[gapearl]

Hi again! So excited to read another one of your great reviews!!!

 

Welcome back! Hope you're enjoying!

 

What up GA Pearl! I love reading your reviews and had to reply to this particular section. I've always thought land vacations to another country would be sort of boring when compared to cruising, but reading this section may have changed my mind. Is there a site where you post reviews of your land vacations? Would love to read them.

 

Hey there!

 

Now I will say my first time at an all inclusive in the Dominican Republic last year was terribly boring! There really wasn't anything to do. I'm not one one for sitting on my bum all day doing nothing. If you have the means, I say skip a cruise and do a land vacation. God made this world WAY too big to not see it all! Just plan and research. Pick a place outside of the Caribbean and go to a new continent. I've got places like Brazil, China, and South Africa on my radar, definitely not boring. ;) I'm also looking into combining land trips with cruises, such as a cruise from Singapore where I could stay there for a few days and then cruise to Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

 

I'll try to get some work done to my travel blog while also working on this and post a link to it at the end of the review.

[gapearl]

That was a great picture of us.

 

Sure was. :)

 

Loved being on the Jolly Roger. It was awesome. Would love to do that again if I go back to St. Croix. Thank you Kimberly for putting the excursion together.

 

That was the mushrooms I had in the mdr. Had escargot the night me & my sister went to the steakhouse.

 

You're welcome! I'm glad everyone enjoyed the Jolly Roger. I think I have pictures of the real escargot later. lol

[gapearl]

I'm absolutely loving your review! Bummer about your camera! Olympus Tough series definitely live up to their name, hope you like the camera!

 

You seem to be an awesome person to travel with!

 

Someone else onboard said they had the same camera and loved it. I'm still going to try to get my Canon G12 fixed. It there's too much damage I might buy another one. It's not covered under warranty any more. :(

 

I'd say I'm a lot of fun. Never a dull moment when I'm around. :cool:

 

I just have to say that you are adorable! And the shoes . . . OH EM GEE!!!

I'm not a solo cruiser, but I hope to see you aboard a ship some day.

 

Thank you so much! You should see how many shoes I have in my closet. I bought two new pair today and I'm running out of space! :eek: You never know, mabe one day we might run into each other onboard.

[gapearl]

Kim... I almost choked on my grape when I read how you would have had to come out of your dress to go to the bathroom because of your Spanx! :D too funny.

 

I am loving your hair with the red streaks. Your outfits are to die for, and the white dress is "wearing you!" I just love those new black shoes also, dang they are cute! You said they were tearing your feet up. Lol. But they are cute though!

 

Did you mention something about a video? Ok, when are you going to put it here?

 

The "connection" on the Breeze, still in contact? Just a yes or no will be fine, cuz I'm not nosy. :)

 

LOL funny thing is I wasn't kidding about that darn spanx! My red is starting to fade a bit and I'll likely get it touched up soon. I've never worn red hair and I'm loving it. The videos were posted from the hypnotist shows. :D I have a few more from excursions later.

 

We might text every once in a blue moon but for the most part no. My left hand is still bare and I'm still very single. :o

 

Kimberly,

 

Thank-you so much for arranging this tour...it was awesome and was a great day, I sat next to you on the boat going to Buck Island (Denise)...beautiful day.

 

You're welcome Denise! It was so nice meeting you! :)

[gapearl]

These pictures are AMAZING!!!

Wish Carnival made this one of their regular stops.

Looks beautiful:D:D

 

Thank you! I think some other cruise lines stop here regularly. It would be nice to see Carnival stop here more frequently to change up the tired old itineraries a bit.

 

I couldn't believe how the eyes and faces lit up of the people in Martinique every time I said "bonjour" or "merci" or one of the other few words I remembered from French class 100 years ago! You could see their whole attitude and body language change just from me putting out that little bit of effort. The people we spoke to in St. Pierre were so friendly and helpful and we really enjoyed them. Friends of ours said that it wasn't like that in the beach area, but I was happy with the experience we had.

 

Geri

 

I've noticed that any time you make an effort to speak the language of the country you're in, people are much more likely to be friendlier to you. I didn't have too much interaction with the people on the beach, just observed them.

[gapearl]

I was going to try to wait until you finished and I really did try, but OMG...your pictures are gorgeous!!! I really, really, really love the pictures you got at the beach in Martinique!!! Seriously, you should really consider a second career (a fun, hobby career) in photography. The composition of your pictures looks professional.

 

We were in Martinique on our honeymoon in 1992 on Carnival Festivale and thought it was BEAUTIFUL, but one problem...all I had was a film camera. I was prepared and brought 7 rolls of 36 exposure (pictures) film and had to be very selective of what I got pictures of so I have a total of 15 pictures from Martinique. :( I pretty much forgot what it looked like and I've wanted to get back to Martinique and hope to some day because all that I can remember was how pretty it was. Was this beach called Bakoua Beach (Bakoua Plage)? That's were we went for a few hours, by ferry, after exploring the city.

 

Hopefully with your review and the others (yeah, been addicted to CC the past several days and the house STILL won't clean itself) there will be a renewed interest in some of these other beautiful islands. I'd love it if Carnival based another ship (two total) in San Juan to go to some of the other islands or even have the one ship alternate between two itineraries.

 

Thank you for taking the time to do this awesome review, I am really enjoying it and looking forward to more.

 

I'm happy my pictures turned out so nice with my new camera. I don't think I'll ever do anything serious with photography. There's too much to learn about lighting and editing and settings and all that. I just like taking pictures for fun so people can see the world through my eyes. You should go back to Martinique with a digital camera this time and get some new pics! :) I agree, it would be nice if Carnival put a second ship in San Juan with a different southern itinerary.

 

As always, I'm loving your review. Thank you for all your hard work putting it together!

 

Thanks for the nice words!

[gapearl]

More more more! I love this review!

 

Martinique sounds AWESOME. Like it's still another culture, not a commercialized tourist area.

 

There's plenty more coming. I'm only 3 days into the cruise! :D

 

Martinique and a few of the other islands I'll get to are definitely not commercialized. I love visiting places where you can still see the natural beauty of a place beyond a Senor Frogs.

[gapearl]

Love all your pics. When I seen your table mate pic of Larry he looks like he could be John Heald brother. :)

 

Yeah maybe a little bit. :p

[mweiss1998]

The videos aren't working. They say they have been renamed or deleted.

[GreytRacer]

Thank you! I think some other cruise lines stop here regularly. It would be nice to see Carnival stop here more frequently to change up the tired old itineraries a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've noticed that any time you make an effort to speak the language of the country you're in, people are much more likely to be friendlier to you. I didn't have too much interaction with the people on the beach, just observed them.

 

 

They went to the beach bar that was out over the water. They said thy stood and were ignored for over 20 minutes, waiting for someone to acknowledge them. When they were, they were very rude.

 

Glad I headed out and had the interactions that I did in St Pierre!

[gapearl]

The videos aren't working. They say they have been renamed or deleted.

 

Aggghhhhhh!!!! :mad: Weird, I can play them on my ipad but not on my laptop. I'll try to get them uploaded to youtube and repost tomorrow. Thanks for letting me know.

 

They went to the beach bar that was out over the water. They said thy stood and were ignored for over 20 minutes, waiting for someone to acknowledge them. When they were, they were very rude.

 

Glad I headed out and had the interactions that I did in St Pierre!

 

That's a shame! Everyone I came across seemed nice. Glad you had a good day. I'd love to see some pictures from the catamarans.

[blueangel74]

One of my table mates, Larry. What a cool guy! We missed him the second half of the cruise because he started to not feel well, but we had some great conversations.

 

 

Monicia, here's another one of you. ;)

 

 

My jaw dropped when I saw this picture. Apparently I'm not on this cruise by myself after all. You may not believe in spiritual orbs showing up in pictures, and I don't want to start a debate, but I absolutely do. This NEVER happens in my pictures. :)

 

 

Wow. That is amazing about the orb.

 

Hope Larry was okay. He was a good guy to have at our table. Love the pictures. :)

[Mkehlb]

Hi Kim, I cracked up at your comment about HAL and Alaska. That was our 1st cruise and it was DEAD at night, and I don't mean Grateful. My husband and I love to dance so a dead nightclub was a disappointment. We have tons 'of fun in the discos on NCL and Carnival. I did get the cruising bug though. My husband got the other cruising bug, along with about 700 people on our ship! I love your reviews, they make me smile and laugh.

[prbmami]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Absolutely love the dress with those heels! I was planning on taking this cruise but ended up going to nyc instead. Hate that missed it.

[gapearl]

Wow. That is amazing about the orb.

 

Hope Larry was okay. He was a good guy to have at our table. Love the pictures. :)

 

I hope so too! Wish we could have seen him one more time to say goodbye though.

 

Hi Kim, I cracked up at your comment about HAL and Alaska. That was our 1st cruise and it was DEAD at night, and I don't mean Grateful. My husband and I love to dance so a dead nightclub was a disappointment. We have tons 'of fun in the discos on NCL and Carnival. I did get the cruising bug though. My husband got the other cruising bug, along with about 700 people on our ship! I love your reviews, they make me smile and laugh.

 

LOL I've never been on Holland America but maybe I will one day. I'm not quite ready for a quiet after 10 pm ship right now though. Sorry about the bug your husband got! :eek: Norovirus? Thanks for reading. :)