All Things EARTH... part 2

[awhfy]

Love the gold on you, fits & looks great. The same dress on me looked like I needed a blood transfusion! I prefer the other one backward on you, there is a lot of pewter in it, but the fit is great (either way), if it's not too heavy I'd keep it too, not sure about the shoes with the second dress. Melody

[Sailor_Sally]

I really like the first dress on . The fit is fabulous . The second is a pretty dress but just not as pretty as the first .

[MJC]

I agree with Sally. The second dress isn't as interesting on you as the first. The gold one is perfect.

 

I'm back! We left at midnight and arrived very early this morning. After petting my kitty, I slept until noon. We had such an amazing journey! It was wonderful, and so, so hot. So hot. Hot. OMG. There were four days when we literally lived in our swimsuits. :) When I unpacked, almost every single thing went straight to laundry. The only things I didn't wear were a just-in-case tank top and a just-in-case necklace.

 

As I'm sitting here, downloading pictures etc., I feel like my chair is swaying. I love it, it feels like the cruise is still with me.

 

Here is a taste of our amazing time in Isla de Coiba:

[awhfy]

Laurie, go Orangemen! Good win against Virginia!

[laurspag]

I can barely breathe! Even the dog was barking at the tv! Orangemen and Orangewomen are in the house!!!

 

 

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[laurspag]

Margaret, I can't wait to hear all about your trip! It sounds wonderful!

 

And the brown dress is going back. I love the gold one though. That's a keeper.

 

 

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[cruzisme]

The gold one is great on you, good fit.

The other one was okay. You made the right choice.

[awhfy]

Good choice Laurie. So are you wearing orange all week? Melody

[laurspag]

You bet! And the reality is, it's fire orange. Hey, I can't help it! Workwise, I have some earthier orange options, but not enough for all week.

 

Rumor is, despite the subdued nature of banking, the boss is asking for Final Four tshirts on Friday.

[MJC]

When we arrived in Costa Rica, our plane was an hour late. Our driver was AWOL. We spied a respectable looking driver and with my miniscule Spanish we arranged to get ourselves to our hotel, which was an hour away. We missed lunch, so as soon as we could we put on our swimsuits and headed to the snack bar. And then the real bar. :) The shorts are the ones I just bought at JCP and they were so practical. I was very happy to have all my recent sporty purchases.

 

 

 

I chose this resort mostly because it was only 20 minutes from the pier, which is fairly remote. It turned out to be a perfectly nice place to spend a couple of days. The pools were lovely.

 

For dinner I wore the coral jjill dress. I quickly realized the sweater was totally unnecessary -- the lobby and restaurant were open air and plenty warm. The dress is very comfortable and with the pockets I just had to grab my key card and go.

 

 

It was very casual with plenty of folks in t-shirts and shorts at dinner. We had gotten up at 4:30am so we went to bed early.

[MJC]

I was up super early the next day, still on NY time, so I went for a walk before breakfast. I saw some hummingbirds and admired the flowers. The octagon-shaped things are bubbling pools within the larger pool. They were heavenly!

 

 

 

[Anita Latte]

Welcome back Margaret!

 

So excited to see pictures!!!

 

I only recall ever being in an open air resort once in Hawaii. How I love that feeling!

 

Love the JJill dress. I like the necklace with it too. We so rarely see you in your glasses!

[awhfy]

Great pictures Margaret. Beautiful resort. Melody

[MJC]

Our room was a little odd because the shower wasn't in the bathroom, there was a shower/Jacuzzi in a little alcove off the bedroom. But, we picked it because it had a view of the ocean. On the second day I wore my purple bathing suit with blue shorts and a matching purple and blue workout T:

 

 

I was up early again and took a walk on the beach:

 

 

We were at the pool by 8am, which was good because in the afternoon it got really busy (it was the Friday before Holy Week, when all of Costa Rica heads to the coast for vacation). Before lunch I took a Zumba class in my shorts and tshirt. It was only 1/2 hour but it was already 90 degrees by then so I was happy it was short. It was so nice to have a day with no schedule, just swimming and eating and napping whenever we wanted to.

 

I wore the green dress to dinner, and you can see that I was not a good girl with the sunscreen that day:

 

 

Of the two dresses, I think I prefer the coral one, but the green is such a fun surprise color.

[Sailor_Sally]

Margaret , Loving the pictures !

[MJC]

Our schedule was that we had to be out of the room at noon, and embarkation began at 1pm. We were only 20 minutes or so from the pier, and I told DH we could drag our feet a bit about leaving the hotel so we wouldn't be too early. But, being that he is Mr. Punctual, we were out at noon. :)

 

We began our day as usual: lazy breakfast, a couple hours laying by the pool and swimming. Since I had my amazing packing cubes, packing was a quick job. I meant to take a picture of the layers, but in general it was this. Top layer, my cosmetics case ( generally have cosmetics on one side, toiletries on the other):

 

 

Under that, my jewelry/hair stuff folder, a medium cube with tops, a medium cube with swimwear and shorts:

 

 

Under that, of which I don't have a photo, a small cube on its side with undies and socks, and a large cube with pants, sweaters, dresses, scarves. On the bottom, shoes and all those odd items that go in between (snorkel mask, round brush, mp3 speaker, etc.).

 

I had a separate smaller cosmetics bag for all the things I needed that day (which I also generally carry on the plane with me), and I used the hotel toiletries, so packing was a snap. It was great.

 

Of course we got to the pier and we were the first ones there. At Puerto Caldera the taxis are not allowed past the gate, so they radioed Windstar which had a shuttle to drive us the thirty feet to the "terminal." It was a thirty by thirty foot room with plastic folding chairs and a bathroom. They told us to put our luggage in the pile and we laughed because we WERE the pile. :) After about 15 minutes another group of six arrived and we joked that we were the welcoming committee.

 

After another ten minutes or so we checked in. We were the absolute first ones onboard!

 

[MJC]

Puerto Caldera is a small commercial port and only a few of the smaller cruise ships dock there (1500 pax or fewer, generally). They were loading some bulk goods that put a fine yellow dust in the air, so lunch was indoors and we stayed in until sail away. Due to some late flights, we didn't leave until 7:30. Because we were so far south, it was dark by 6:30 every night.

 

 

 

 

Behind the container ship is Puerto Caldera beach, which we could have walked to. It is similar in nature to the one at the resort, but has food carts and some locals were swimming there. It's much prettier, though, a bit to the north where we were, away from the shipping.

 

My embarkation outfit was a blue flowered tshirt, my new skort from JCP, a straw hat, and sparkly flip flops. Breeze is an all-suite ship, so we had a separate sitting area which turned out to be key to our comfort in such a hot climate.

 

 

 

[MJC]

On the Windstar sailing ships, sail away is always a treat because they give everyone a cocktail, hoist the sails, and play the WS "song" as you sail into the sunset. We knew we would miss the sails, and we did, but it was ok. On the new yachts, they hoist the WS flag instead. It was balmy and everyone was in a happy mood:

 

 

For dinner I wore my red Pleione top, navy blue capris, and sparkly sandals. So many people were tired from arriving that day that by 9:00pm the ship was asleep. We had an 8am hike so we retired early too:

 

[awhfy]

How do you like the Windstar experience compared to the larger mainstream lines (Celebrity, Royal). We've been looking at it, but didn't know anyone who had gone n one. Melody

[MJC]

How do you like the Windstar experience compared to the larger mainstream lines (Celebrity, Royal). We've been looking at it, but didn't know anyone who had gone n one. Melody

 

Prior to this we've been on the Wind Star and the Wind Spirit which hold 148 passengers, so comparing those to the large lines is like apples to oranges. (And our Star Breeze sailing was not at full capacity with 180.) I would say that the biggest differences are that WS goes to smaller yacht-sized ports, they offer more customized shore experiences, and that the demographic seems to be narrower (50s-60s, active, well-traveled). I think you find WS passengers are much more comfortable going off on their own in port, and much less likely to be drinking all day by pool. Huge generalizations, I know.

 

You will also feel the motion of the sea a lot more, see fewer children, and obviously not have many of the onboard amenities and activities. Our casino was teeny tiny, they offered DVDs for in your cabin, and there was a duo that played in the evenings. There may have been an impromptu bridge group. I think the idea is that your days are full and busy and nighttime is for socializing and relaxing. We met some wonderful couples who we knew by name for the whole week and saw often. The captain knew our names and we had extended chats with several of the officers who remembered us all week. I know food is subjective, but I think the food on WS is much better than Princess, although Princess is good IMO.

 

For a trip with a lot of sea days, I would definitely go larger.

 

If you have any specific questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them. We obviously find different things that appeal to us between the large and small ships. For us it really depends on where we're going and how we want to spend our days there.

[laurspag]

I'm enjoying your review and pictodiary! I love learning about different cruise lines as well. Those dresses look so good on you.

 

 

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[awhfy]

Thanks Margaret. I grew up sailing in a 40' sloop. I like the movement! Also like the different ports & fewer folks. I think we'll give it a shot. Melody

[MJC]

Laurie, thank you. I'm very happy with the dresses, they traveled well and were light enough to be comfortable in the heat, yet woven well enough to cover everything.

 

Melody, I love feeling the motion of a ship, it puts me right to sleep. Two trips on our list now are WS in Tahiti, and WS Jewels of the Windward Islands. After the heat in Panama, though, DH insists on a cool weather vacation next. :) We're leaning towards a Norwegian Fjords cruise.

Edited March 31, 2016 by MJC

[MJC]

This national park is the most popular destination for CR tourists, and it was very busy. We hired our own nature guide named Karen and got to see so many cool things, including a 2-inch bat sleeping on the bark of a tree. Here is how we went ashore every day:

 

 

Karen was great at finding things we never would have spotted on our own, and we got to look as long as we wanted. She helped us take close-up pictures through her spotting scope. I wore a gym shirt with my tech pants and hiking boots. Our hike led to a beach so we both had swimwear underneath. In this picture, the gang of people on the right were just heading to Manuel Antonio beach, which is famously beautiful:

 

 

I told you there might be monkeys…

 

 

This little deer was just by the side of the trail. It is full grown but was only the size of a medium-sized dog:

[MJC]

We passed by the crowded beach in favor of Playa Espadilla. It was absolutely gorgeous:

 

 

 

You can see that my rash guard got a lot of action. 

 

At the entrance to the park, there are some stalls for shopping, and further down this road are some food stands. We had fruit smoothies and then headed back to the ship. We left the ship at 7:30 and returned at 1:00, so we were hot, tired, and hungry.

 

 

For dinner I wore the coral dress again. I could not find a good place to take a picture. Even here the color is way off, but you can see the dress better without the sweater:

 

Edited April 1, 2016 by MJC
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