MITSUGIRLY has a JEWEL of a time on my 1st RC cruise in years!

[mitsugirly]

We boarded the ferry and you pay once you are on your way. They give you tickets to use as a round trip so make sure you save them to return.

 

 

It was a 16 minute boat ride over to Pointe de Bout.

 

 

 

We were pulling into the harbor around 9:37am.

 

 

 

 

The walkway to the city area.

 

 

 

The restroom and snack machines.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I knew from the research that I had done that you walk right across the street, to the right, and it would take you right to the beach .

 

 

Everyone seemed to be walking this way, so...why not.

 

 

 

I started to see water so we had to be going the right way. The last thing I wanted was another mess up. I had already had enough stink eye for the day about so much walking. .

 

 

 

 

We have arrived!!!

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I stepped onto this beach and I believe the first thing out of my mouth was "wow". It was beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved every little thing about it from the size of the beach to the swimming area, the landscaping and everything. Just beautiful.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Immediately this happens of course...morphing time.

 

 

So we put our things on the sand and by a deck. There was a lady that had been standing on the deck but I wasn't sure what it was she had come out of. Maybe a small gift shop or store? I didn't investigate.

 

She finally came out and sat on one of the chairs...not like she was relaxing on the beach, like she was only going to sit for a moment and was waiting on customers or something.

 

So, I said do you rent these chairs? She said "no" then she said "do you speak French?". I returned with a "no" and she said "yes, please sit" and gave us a hand gesture to the lounge chairs. Hmm, ok. So they allow you to come here without charging for the chairs? Awesome.

 

Here's an overview of the area.

 

ToFL7TaMqcc

 

 

Looking back at the hotel. I would just love to stay here for vacation.

 

 

The water was crystal clear. This was taken standing in the water looking down. Yes, there are some rocks here.

 

 

Sakari found her first friend, a sea urchin.

 

 

A slippery dick wrasse fish

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Somehow I managed to get a spot on my lens...ugh. I hate when that happens and I don't even know it.

 

Do you see the flatfish flounder?

 

 

These are such unusual fish. They have both eyes on the top of their head looking up. Their body is flat and they blend in with the ocean floor.

 

 

Next up is a blue and yellow damselfish. These little suckers can be mean and will snip at you if you get too close to their territory. As an marine aquarium hobbyist, these fish are usually used as starter fishes to cycle an aquarium. However, there are not many fish that you can put in with them because of their "attitude" and most people get rid of them...IF they can catch them because they are quick. Did you know that the clownfish (nemo) is also in the damselfish "family"? Who would have thought such a cute little nemo could be like that? Well I'm here to tell you that my 2 clownfish definitely have attitude and it's been hard to keep any tankmates with them. "Fish are friends, not food".

 

 

I can't tell if this is a Palmetto fish or just another type of grunt.

 

 

There were some type of little holes dug everywhere, but I never did see anything come out of them. I was thinking maybe they were crabs or something.

 

 

Yikes!! Barracuda! He turned the other way and so did I!

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I was taking a picture of this grunt and the little fishes swimming along the top. I had NO IDEA how I missed this huge fish swimming by me and under me. I guess you can call this a photobomb.

 

 

 

Lots of little neon fish

 

 

Just look how clear that water is from above.

 

 

This is the area along the left side of the beach (when you are facing the water).

 

I thought this shot turned out amazing. Almost a perfect line between the upper and lower. If only there were more fish under the water in that pic and it would have turned out perfect. I do spot a few baby sergeant majors in there though.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Now there's a friendly nemo!

 

 

 

More fishy at the top. This area was so neat.

 

 

 

Here's another Damselfish, but black. This one was a little more territorial than others we have come across. He actually came after Sakari and bit her wrist band and camera. He was a little, well actually a lot, bigger than most that you see, so that would have put a bit of hurting on ya had it got skin.

 

 

A bunch of sergeant majors...very, very small ones.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

A blue striped lizard fish. These things are pretty weird and have razor sharp teeth. They are known to hide in the sand and attack their pray, which is usually other fish. If you ever see a picture of one from the front (hard to get because they will scurry off if you get too close), then they resemble a lizard.

 

 

There's 2 in this picture.

 

 

 

This is how far they were down from the top of the water.

 

 

Squirrel fish. You can always tell these by their larger than normal eyes and they are usually some form of red and hiding under a rock or nearby. They scare very easily.

 

 

Yellowtail surgeonfish and maybe some scissortail fusiliers?

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

A decent sized feather duster worm and some coral down there.

 

 

Nemari exploring.

 

 

 

Some sponges

 

 

Here's another lizard fish. You can see more of his face in this one. Kinda reminds you of an iguana.

 

 

There's an anemone in the rocks, but very hard to see due to the darkness under that rock. And of course a fish staring me down like that's his home.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Ok...I don't know how the heck I spotted this, but it caught my eye instantly when I was going by. It just didn't look like a normal rock. Do you see it?

 

 

Here is a close up...

 

 

IT'S A CLAM!! I have never seen one in the ocean before (I think???). I wasn't even for sure until I decided to dive down a little closer and it closed up really quick. I was so excited!!! Another first for me! I love when I have "firsts" on any trip.

 

So, I took a better look and seen that there was actually another. It was open one minute and then closed the next. (It's to the right of my name) and the other is at the bottom to the right of a rock that is shaped like a conch kinda.

 

 

They are pretty camouflaged but them opening and closing is what made me spot them and when they were open, it was a little zig zag mouth.

 

This is also a first...I'm not 100% positive if this is a jackknife fish or what. I first thought it was a Cardinal Fish, but we had 2 of them and it wasn't the same. Then I though maybe a tophat, but then I come across the jackknife fish and that's what I'm going with unless someone tells me different. I just know I have never seen one like this before and it was exciting. It had such pretty long and flowing fins.

 

 

Needlenose fish swimming at the top of the water.

 

 

I would say that this was the first place that I had ever seen sea urchins with greenish type spines. They had a lot of them here. Usually they are the white/gray colors like Sakari was holding in pictures. They were everywhere and picking up everything along the way. We call them bulldozers in our aquariums because they like to rearrange everything in it. They'll even pick up your coral and move it somewhere else. LOL

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

She had a collection. "Take my picture so I can put them back". Not sure just how many you need to pose proper for a terrific photo...she seemed to think 3 was her lucky number.

 

 

We decided to head across the water toward the other side and explore around the dock and restaurant that was out over the water.

 

 

Daddy was resting since I have had him up at the crack of dawn every day.

 

 

Crystal clear water

 

 

A beautiful nice sized feather duster on the rocks. I love these things. I want some big ones for my tanks. I recently had a few show up on some of my rocks, but they are VERY small and will take awhile to grow to this size. I have one that has a white double head on it (2 feather dusters in 1) and another that is blue. For those that don't know...they are a worm.

 

 

I'm wondering if this is the same type of fish that photo-bombed my other picture. It sure looks the same.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Look!!! Another clam! Can you spot it? Right under my name.

 

 

Another lizard fish.

 

 

There were some black spiny sea urchins here and also, if you look good enough in the middle of the picture, you will see a pencil sea urchin.

 

 

For some reason I drifted away from the dock area and looked down. I have no idea why I did this but something was telling me to go out a little....THEN I SPOTTED THIS...DO YOU SEE IT????

 

 

My very first SEAHORSE!!! By the way, that's a sea urchin to the right of it covered in its prized possessions it found for the day. LOL

 

 

I couldn't believe my eyes! I was actually looking at a sea horse in the ocean...that I found MYSELF! I have been looking for seahorses since 2011 and I have even scuba dived a place that is known for seahorses all the time and still never found one.

 

 

 

[Kiwifromkiev]

He (or she) as in seahorse is beautiful ;)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[mitsugirly]

I yelled for Sakari to come...she hurried. She seen it right before it went into this stuff.....

 

 

She was able to find it and held it for a second very gently (our neighbor has seahorses and she loves them). Did you realize you that seahorses can get air bubbles in the pouch (the male) and you sometimes have to burp them? Our neighbor has to take him out and burp him every so often. How do you know when they need burped? They swim upside down!!! I seahorse sit for them when they are out of town or on a cruise. They are such neat creatures...especially during feeding. Their jaws slam shut and you can hear the snapping outside the tank and it's LOUD.

 

Also...while we were on this cruise, she messaged me with the news...she became a grandma....to 16 baby seahorses!!! They had babies!!!

 

 

They had to set up a special tank for them.

 

 

They are so cute!!! They have managed to lose a lot of them though. It's not easy to keep them alive. I think the other day they said they had 6 left.

 

 

 

[rdsxgrl28]

Thank you for the quick response. We are leaving next weekend on the Jewel, our first time on RC so we are not familiar with what they have.

 

Hey Harley if you on the 4/29 Jewel cruise come over to our roll all. Massachusetts people here too

[flcruiser05]

Kim,

I love your reviews! Can't wait for more.

[mitsugirly]

So I might have my clams and oysters mixed up...I'm not really sure but those things with the shells and animals in it. LOL If anyone knows the difference, let me know. They are still a first for me.

 

Here's a bunch of them (I think). Or these could be something else.

 

 

A beautiful blue sea anemone.

 

 

 

Some Christmas tree worms (and a grunt)! My favorite of all!

 

 

 

 

There was tons of coral and sponges under here. It was beautiful.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Look at all the worms. If you see all the little tube like things in the picture with holes, those are what the feather duster worms live in and those are just not out at the time that I took the pictures. But, there's tons of them that are out. (Check out the fish peaking around the corner at me).

 

 

The whole family of fish came out to say hello.

 

 

So beautiful and bright. There's even a yellow Christmas tree worm on the left side.

 

 

They were still watching me. LOL So curious.

 

 

Just look at all those colors...there's even a dark purple in there!

 

 

Here's a bunch with blue and green in it too and I have no idea what the huge thing is at the bottom, but it was interesting.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

More blues...I love the blues and purples. You don't see it often.

 

 

 

 

Always, always, always check under docks and their pillars. I have found you can find some very interesting coral and sponges there. They are usually loaded if it's been there for awhile. Even if it's not the best snorkeling area, always check!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Ok, time to end for the night. I hope you are enjoying the snorkeling pictures.

 

I'll be back tomorrow with ANOTHER FIRST...and it was a big one for "me". Something else I have always looked for and wanted to see but haven't (although Sakari has ;)).

 

Have a wonderful evening everyone.

[warb]

Amazing Photos of Creatures I will never see on my own. Thanks for doing another great

 

Review of your Cruise.

[rkkunk]

OMG! A Seahorse!! I LOVE them! How exciting to see one!

We did a snorkel tour off the beach in Costa Maya last January. There were lots of fun things to see. Someone in the group said that they saw a seahorse. I was so bummed! But I did see a lion fish!

 

 

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[perfect match]

I'm all caught up - again. You'd think I would have learned by now to not let myself fall so far behind. :confused:

 

I really appreciate your pictures from St Maarten. I was not surprised to see how bad the destruction still is there, but I'm glad to see that some progress is being made following the total devastation they experienced there. Thank you for sharing your drive around the island with us.

 

I'm thrilled for you that you finally got to see a seahorse! I know you have been looking for one for a long time. Martinique looked beautiful. Hope I can find an itinerary that works for us to get down that way soon.

[Pellaz]

Thoroughly enjoying this review, still!

 

Happy belated birthday to Sakari! Her mer-tail is really nifty. There's a group that organizes a "mermaid swim" at a convention here every summer and I was offered the opportunity to practice swimming with a tail and to buy one for around $90 (hey, there are such things as mer-men, right?) Not a bad price for a mono-fin. Sadly I didn't have time that day to take them up on it.

 

Loving this part of the review in Martinique, too. Some of the historical novels I've been reading lately have been set in and near Martinique, and it's cool to see some of the same places mentioned that were there in 1898 during the Napoleonic Wars. :)

 

I like how you make all your individual replies to people in one big post. I think that requires a fair amount of copying and pasting (you can't just "quote" all of it) and I appreciate that extra effort to make the review a bit tighter.

 

I'm with you guys on that muster drill. By far the worst and most ridiculous muster I've ever experienced. I kept thinking, why can't you just scan our Seapass cards like other ships instead of incessantly taking verbal role call for each and every cabin, and then yelling at small children for talking when you are keeping them in the heat, packed in like sardines FOREVER when all they want to do is swim or eat or play. I know it is necessary but there are better ways to do it. Ugh, I thought it would never end. But its a small price to pay for a wonderful vacation.

 

I was astounded on my last Royal cruise to see crew members actually checking people off on a printed list as we arrived for muster. (!) I thought that was surprisingly quaint. On my last Carnival cruise they just scanned my ship card using a tablet and all three of our photos showed up, and they just waved us all to the muster location. It seemed a lot more civilized. :)

[mitsugirly]

He (or she) as in seahorse is beautiful ;)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

I think Sakari said it was a girl. She knows how to tell the difference.

 

 

Kim,

I love your reviews! Can't wait for more.

 

Thanks so much! Plenty more to come.

 

 

Amazing Photos of Creatures I will never see on my own. Thanks for doing another great

 

Review of your Cruise.

 

You are very welcome and glad you are able to see some new creatures.

 

OMG! A Seahorse!! I LOVE them! How exciting to see one!

We did a snorkel tour off the beach in Costa Maya last January. There were lots of fun things to see. Someone in the group said that they saw a seahorse. I was so bummed! But I did see a lion fish!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

It was very exciting and they are very hard to spot, which is probably why I have never noticed them before. They can look just like seaweed. I probably wouldn't have spotted this one if she wasn't against the light colored sand.

 

 

Yep, lionfish are becoming more popular in the Caribbean. They are trying to kill a lot of them because of it. They have no natural predators and they just keep multiplying.

 

I'm all caught up - again. You'd think I would have learned by now to not let myself fall so far behind.

 

I really appreciate your pictures from St Maarten. I was not surprised to see how bad the destruction still is there, but I'm glad to see that some progress is being made following the total devastation they experienced there. Thank you for sharing your drive around the island with us.

 

I'm thrilled for you that you finally got to see a seahorse! I know you have been looking for one for a long time. Martinique looked beautiful. Hope I can find an itinerary that works for us to get down that way soon.

 

Yep, I have been looking for a seahorse for forever ago! I'm so excited I finally found one...and on my own!

 

Martinique is very beautiful. I hope to return again some day.

 

Thoroughly enjoying this review, still!

 

Happy belated birthday to Sakari! Her mer-tail is really nifty. There's a group that organizes a "mermaid swim" at a convention here every summer and I was offered the opportunity to practice swimming with a tail and to buy one for around $90 (hey, there are such things as mer-men, right?) Not a bad price for a mono-fin. Sadly I didn't have time that day to take them up on it.

 

Loving this part of the review in Martinique, too. Some of the historical novels I've been reading lately have been set in and near Martinique, and it's cool to see some of the same places mentioned that were there in 1898 during the Napoleonic Wars.

 

I like how you make all your individual replies to people in one big post. I think that requires a fair amount of copying and pasting (you can't just "quote" all of it) and I appreciate that extra effort to make the review a bit tighter.

 

 

 

I was astounded on my last Royal cruise to see crew members actually checking people off on a printed list as we arrived for muster. (!) I thought that was surprisingly quaint. On my last Carnival cruise they just scanned my ship card using a tablet and all three of our photos showed up, and they just waved us all to the muster location. It seemed a lot more civilized.

 

Thanks for the birthday wishes for Sakari.

 

 

Absolutely there's mermen! The place where we buy all of her tails from has mermen tails. It's a big thing everywhere now and Sakari has showed me the conventions they have with hundreds of them swimming. You'd be amazed at how many boys want a tail when they see Sakari's.

 

 

She had 3 mermaids that came to her dive shop at Christmas and they did pictures and then pictures with Santa under the water. Sakari loved it!

 

Yea the paper check in at the safety drill was ridiculous! I even made that same comment about Carnival just scanning our cards each time and how much quicker it went. But I must have just got there at the perfect time because there was only 1 family ahead of me to check in and then us. Our portion really did go pretty smooth. I guess we got lucky.

 

 

Thanks for noticing that I reply to everyone and try to do it within the same post. It does take a lot of time and effort sifting through each post for those that will post in between my postings and then a lot of copying and pasting. But, I enjoy it. :D