Our vacation this year was our long awaited Caribbean cruise. We decided that since we had to fly all the way to San Juan, Puerto Rico to board the ship, we would make the most of it and we booked two back-to-back seven day cruises on board Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas. The itineraries were as follows:
| Week 1 Day 1 - Depart San Juan PR Day 2 - Day at Sea Day 3 - Barbados Day 4 - Saint Lucia Day 5 - Antigua Day 6 - Saint Maarten Day 7 - Saint Croix | Week 2 Day 1 - Depart San Juan PR Day 2 - Saint Thomas Day 3 - Saint Kitts Day 4 - Day at Sea Day 5 - Aruba Day 6 - Curaçao Day 7 - Day at Sea |
The cruise was to depart Sunday night so we thought it would be fun to spend the weekend at Walt Disney World in Orlando before flying into San Juan. The following is our detailed account of our great adventure!
Thursday September 8th – On Our Way
I left work about 5:30pm and headed home to finish packing. Lorne had to work a little longer so I had pretty much everything ready to go when he arrived. He grabbed the last couple of things and then we sat down to double check that we had everything in order. Ryan came home and after sorting out an issue with his cable/cable box and TV, we finally said our goodbyes and were on our way! We crossed the border about 7:30pm, stopped for dinner in Bellingham and arrived at the Hilton Hotel in Seattle a little after 11pm. We headed off to bed as we had an early morning ahead of us.
Friday September 9th – Seattle to Orlando
Woke up at 6:00am, got ready, gathered our belongings and headed out to catch the 7:00am shuttle to the airport. The shuttle was on time and we boarded along with a few other travelers. Once onboard, I happened to notice (thank goodness!!) that I did not have my glasses on! I had accidentally left them back in the room. We jumped off the shuttle and I waited with the luggage while Lorne ran back in to get them. The shuttle driver was very nice and he waited for Lorne to return. We boarded the shuttle again and we were finally off to the airport. We had already checked in for our flight with Alaska Airlines on our iPhones so we would be trying out the iPhone boarding passes for the first time. We cleared security (the boarding passes worked great!) wandered over to the food court for some breakfast, then found a seat at our gate and waited until it was time to board the plane.
Our flight took off on time at 8:45am. It was a long flight (5 ½ hours) and was more or less uneventful, which is always a good thing when it comes to flying!
We landed on time, about 5:15pm. We only brought carry-on luggage with us, so once we landed we took the shuttle to the main terminal and found the loading area for Disney’s Magical Express. While waiting in line we saw it start to rain, then the skies opened up and it was absolutely pouring like crazy! It was our turn to board the bus and we got soaked just getting on the bus. As people were still boarding we saw a big flash that was immediately followed by a huge crash of thunder, powerful enough to shake the whole bus! We were beginning to think that we would have to find some gum boots for the next day but shortly after we were on our way the rain stopped and the skies brightened up again.
We arrived at Disney’s Pop Century Resort, checked in and headed to our room. The Pop Century Resort is a tribute to everything “pop” through the Classic Years (50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s). Each decade had three or four buildings of guest rooms and around the buildings all things “pop” for that era.
Our room was located in one of the three 1980’s buildings way, way, way, way in the back area. It was so fun to walk through the grounds and see all the pop culture in its huge glory. Huge as in everything was enormous in size!
After dropping our bags off, we headed back to the main building to find some dinner at the food court. We ordered some shrimp lo mien and beef and broccoli. The food came in those cute little Chinese takeout containers. We grabbed some chopsticks, something to drink, paid the cashier, found a seat and dug in. We didn’t realize how hungry we were! After eating, we went out to the front and boarded the bus for Downtown Disney. It was about a 20 minute bus ride to Downtown Disney which totally surprised us because in California, Downtown Disney is right beside Disneyland and within walking distance. We were beginning to see exactly how spread out Disney World was in comparison! We wandered through Downtown Disney, checked out all the fun buildings, listened to the entertainment and bought a few souvenirs. We caught the bus back to Pop Century, walked way, way, way, way to the back area to our room and called it a night.
Saturday September 10th – Walt Disney World
We woke up about 9:00am which of course felt like 6:00am to us with the three hour time zone change. But since we were excited to start the day, it didn’t even bother us. We got ready, stopped at the main building for some breakfast, and then went out to board the bus for the Magic Kingdom. Once we arrived at the Magic Kingdom, we headed for the gates and were quite surprised that the entrance to the park was very similar to Disneyland, except that there was one obvious difference, opposite the entrance in Disneyland is California Adventure, but opposite the entrance to the Magic Kingdom in Disney World is an enormous lake!!
We spent the day enjoying the park and deciding which rides we preferred in Disneyland or in Disney World more. One thing we really liked was how most of the lineups in Disney World were covered or shaded from the hot sun. Although both parks are very similar in layout, there are small differences here and there that gave us the feeling that we were walking through Disneyland in an alternate universe!
After we had rode on all the rides we wanted, ate all the food we wanted, and had all the fun we could pack into one day, we decided it was time to leave. Lorne had the idea that we should take the monorail over to one of the other resorts to check it out but when we got to the monorail station, it was closed. We spotted the ferry that would also take us across the lake so we jumped on to see where it would go. It first stopped at the Grand Floridian Resort. Very nice resort! We stayed on the ferry and the next stop was the Polynesian Resort. We decided we had to get off and explore this one so we did. We took a few pictures, wandered through the grounds and ended up at another monorail station. The monorail was now working, so we hopped on and took it back to the Magic Kingdom. We headed to the bus terminal, found our bus and went back to our resort. We browsed the gift shop in the main building for a bit and then went back to our room. We packed and prepared what we could for the morning and then headed off to bed.
Sunday September 11th – Orlando to San Juan
Crawled out of bed at 7:30am (still felt like 4:30am to us!), packed up and headed to the main building to check out, grab some breakfast and wait for Disney’s Magical Express to pick us up at our 9:00am pick up time.
The bus was a bit late, but we had lots of time and we had already checked in on our iPhones with American Airlines and had our iPhone boarding passes ready to go. The bus arrived and when we got to the airport we simply had to head to the security lineup. Lorne showed his iPhone boarding pass and they scanned it. I showed mine and the scanner didn’t work. One of the security officers took my iPhone and passport and tried the scanner in the next line but it was not working either. He asked me to follow him through the “authorized personal only” area to try the scanners on the other side. It took a while but finally the scanner was able to scan my boarding pass. As he was bringing me back to where Lorne was waiting, he had to attend to something urgent and asked me to wait right where I was. A lot of “authorized” people were looking at me wondering why I was in this area alone and it felt kind of weird. Soon he returned and said to wait another minute and he would go bring Lorne over to where I was waiting. He did and then he told us that he would put us through the employee line to apologize for the delay we had with the scanner not working. It was like getting a “fast pass” at the airport!
Our flight left Orlando on time at 12:05pm and we arrived in Miami at 1:05pm. We found our gate for our connecting flight (Miami to San Juan) and waited for our boarding call. The flight was scheduled to leave at 1:55pm. Boarding should have started around 1:30pm but it didn’t. Instead they made an announcement that that the plane required some additional inspection / clearance since it had arrived from an international destination. As we were waiting, Lorne noticed his iPhone boarding pass was blank. It was fine for the flight from Orlando but for some reason now it wasn’t working. He had to stand in a long line at the podium to have them print a paper boarding pass for him. Boarding finally started about 2:15pm. As we were about to board, my iPhone started to complain that it could not check me in, which was weird because I was already checked in. It still showed my boarding pass and thankfully it worked to get me on the plane. Everyone boarded quickly (I think everyone was quite anxious to finally get going) and we were at last on our way. Lorne could see out the window that we were next in line for take off but we didn’t move. We sat there for what seemed like forever. The pilot finally announced that there was some discrepancy with one of the passenger’s ID. He was trying to talk the control tower into letting him relay the information by radio, but they wouldn’t go for it and insisted we turn around and go back to the gate. We turned around and headed back to our gate, but now our gate was occupied with another plane so we had to go to the next gate. The plane stopped and the pilot turned everything off so they could open the doors but it turned out that the walkway ramp at this gate was broken. We almost had to move to another gate but they managed to get the walkway to extend far enough so they could join it up to the plane by pushing the plane back a few feet. Finally the door opened and some people come onto the plane to talk to the pilot, got off the plane, came back on the plane and got off the plane again which continued for about 20 minutes. When they left, the pilot announced that there had been a glitch in the system somewhere, and as it turned out there was no problem with someone’s ID. Everyone was totally annoyed. We were originally scheduled to be flying by 1:55pm. It was now 3:10pm and we were still sitting on the plane going nowhere. The pilot then assured us he would fly faster than the legal limit as he and his crew were destined for a layover in San Juan and wanted to get there just as fast as we all did. So we all settled back in our seats, fastened our seatbelts and waited… and waited…. and waited. The pilot came on again to tell us that we needed to refuel, but since everything at the airport works on a very tight schedule we would have to wait as we were not in the rotation anymore. About 15 minutes later they showed up to refuel us, but when they finished we still didn’t move anywhere. The pilot then announced that we needed to wait for them to find someone to push us back. It was now 3:30pm and we were still sitting there, getting nervous that we weren’t going to make it to the ship before the 7:00pm cut off time for boarding. We were originally supposed to land in San Juan at 4:30pm which would have given us ample time to get to the cruise ship terminal. But with this lengthy delay, Lorne and I started to consider “Plan B” options of what to do if we didn’t arrive in time. At 3:45pm a “push crew” arrived to back our plane out of the gate and we then made our way to the runway for a second time. Lorne was happy we were finally moving but I told him I wouldn’t be able to breathe until we were actually in the air. Finally at 4:00pm we took off from the Miami airport and the pilot came on the loudspeaker with a big, loud, happy “WOO HOO”!!!
The flight from Miami to San Juan was supposed to take two and a half hours but the pilot kept his word and we managed to arrive in San Juan at 6:00pm, a half hour earlier than the anticipated flight time! We were so very happy to be there and were even happier that we did not have any checked baggage so we were able to get off the plane and head straight for the ground transportation. Well… as straight as possible as all the signs were in Spanish and we had to stop and ask someone which way to the taxis. Thankfully they pointed us in the right direction and we got in line. When our turn came, a taxi pulled up, we jumped inside and told him to drive as quickly as possible to the cruise ship terminal. We tried to enjoy the mini tour of San Juan but we were closely watching our time. We made it to the terminal at 6:30pm, gave the taxi driver a nice tip, grabbed our bags and ran inside to check in then ran up the ramp and onto the ship. We arrived at our cabin (7600) at 6:55pm! We still couldn’t believe we finally made it!!
Monday September 12th – Day at Sea
Woke up around 9:00am and headed to the Windjammer Buffet for breakfast. We found a table at the back of the ship (a somewhat secret area for the first couple of days!) and ate breakfast outside watching the water with a nice breeze blowing. After breakfast we headed off to explore the ship. It was drizzling on and off most of the day. I went back to unpack and Lorne wandered around the ship to take some photos. At noon we went to the Vortex Lounge to attend the Cruise Critic’s Meet and Mingle meeting that we signed up for on their website. We met lots of people from all over and we exchanged stories of past cruises we have been on. After the meeting, we found the Sea View Café for lunch (fish & chips) then went back to the cabin to relax a while. Got ready for dinner (formal night) and went down to the dining room for our 6:00pm seating. Our table mates were Doug and Jenny (who were on their 18th cruise) and Caitlyn and Tim (first time cruisers on their honeymoon). We had a great dinner with lots of wonderful conversation.
Shari: escargot, fillet of beef, bittersweet soufflé
Lorne: lobster bisque, shrimp ravioli, strawberry cheesecake
After dinner we played in the casino for a while and came out with an extra $20. Headed back to the cabin to prepare for the next day and turned in early.
Tuesday September 13th – Barbados
Room service arrived at 7:00am as requested. Lorne headed up to the buffet to grab some breakfast to bring back to the room, while I enjoyed my room service breakfast out on our balcony watching us dock in Bridgetown. We had an 8:30am tour for the Segway of Barbados adventure. We met our group on the pier and were escorted to the waiting motor coach. It was a long, bumpy 45 minute drive through town (saw a Royal Bank of Canada and KFC) over to the rural side of the island near Cove Bay. After hair nets, helmets, elbow pads and knee pads were securely in place we were given personal instruction on the do’s and don’ts of riding the Segway. Lorne, of course, was an expert as he had previously ridden a Segway in Hawaii and in Mexico. This was my first time riding one. I quickly got the hang of it but apparently getting off it was a little harder than expected and I fell trying to get off my segway at our first stop. Afterwards, I received VERY personalized attention from the instructors as I’m sure they saw me as a huge liability at this point! After our tour we were all given some well deserved rum punch and prepared for the long bumpy ride back to the pier.
Back at the pier we grabbed a taxi to head into town as we planned to have lunch at the Waterfront Café. Once we were in the town area, we had to switch taxis at what seemed to be a central taxi switching location to take us to the restaurant. The town area was quite busy but we found the Waterfront Café. It was a little smaller than we had expected but the food and view were both amazing. I had a mojito and crab cake sandwich, Lorne had a Diet Coke and the chicken sandwich. He had wanted to try their famous “flying fish” but they were out of them for the day. After lunch we wandered around the waterfront a bit but it was quite hot and muggy and we already had soaked up quite a bit of sun while out Segwaying so grabbed a taxi and were back on the ship about 2:30pm. Had a shower and then napped for a couple of hours. The heat really made us tired.
Dinner was at 6:00pm. Doug and Jenny did not make if for dinner but Caitlyn and Tim were there along with two new table mates Kevin and Tony. They have cruised a few times and it was fun getting to know them.
Shari: beef & veal stuffed pasta, beef shoulder, cheesecake sampler
Lorne: beef & veal stuffed pasta, beef shoulder, s/f ice cream
After dinner we checked out the theatre and watched a bit of the show “Screen to Stage” then off to the Schooner Bar to listen to Tony B play piano. Lorne wasn’t feeling well so we turned in early.
Wednesday September 14th – Saint Lucia
Room service arrived at 7:00am as requested. Lorne headed up to the buffet to grab some breakfast to bring back to the room, while I enjoyed my room service breakfast out on our balcony watching us dock in Castries. We had an 8:30am tour for the Land and Sea to the Pitons adventure. We met our group on the pier and were escorted to the waiting motor coach. Our tour guide was very informative about the island and we learned a lot from her tour. The island is very clean and very green. We learned the people are very self sufficient, and found them to be very friendly. The roads were very windy with many hairpin turns up into the mountains. While driving through the town we noticed again the Royal Bank of Canada, Scotia Bank and KFC! We stopped for photo ops at many view points along the way. At one of the stops we had the chance to sample some banana ketchup and banana barbeque sauce. The banana ketchup was so good we decided to buy a bottle to bring home with us. We continued on our way, stopping for a bit in a little fishing village, then on to Soufriere to see the famous Piton Mountains. We were surprised to find out that the taller Piton was known as Petit Piton and the shorter Piton was known as the Gros Piton. They were named for their width, not their height. Next we visited the Botanical Gardens with the Diamond Mineral Falls and the mineral baths. The plants were very beautiful and walking though the shade was a nice relief, although it did start getting quite muggy again. We had lunch at an old Estate House. They served us banana salad (similar to potato salad), green salad, fresh avocado, deep fried plantains, chicken stew and local fish along with banana/strawberry ice cream for dessert. It was delicious! After lunch the bus took us back to the wharf and we boarded a catamaran for our sail back to Castries. The sun was quite warm but we had a nice breeze on the boat. The catamaran stopped in a secluded bay so people could swim for a while or walk along the black sand beach. Lorne went for a swim, while I took some photos from the boat. Once everyone was back on board, the bar opened and the rum punch flowed! We sailed past Marigot Bay and then followed the edge of the island back to the pier. It was a long day (seven hour tour) but well worth it.
Back on the ship we showered, grabbed a small snack in the buffet and relaxed a bit until our dinner reservation (7:00pm) at the specialty restaurant Portofino’s. The meal was amazing. We shared a basket of assorted breads with olive oil/balsamic vinegar for dipping. We both chose the prawn risotto to start (so yummy!) and then chose the skewer of seafood which included lobster, scallops, shrimp and salmon on a huge skewer brought to your table. They assist you with removing the seafood onto your plate. The presentation was beautiful and the food delicious. After our meal they brought out a “dessert appetizer” with two cookies and two chocolate dipped strawberries. We splurged and ordered dessert as well. Lorne had the Black Forest Mousse and I had the Tiramisu, which came with a “French Kiss” shot. We could not believe all this food for only $20 per person! Everything was very delicious but we were incredibly full so we walked around the ship for a while. We stopped at the theatre and watched the comedy show then off to the Schooner Bar for some piano music. It was here I discovered my new favourite drink… Baccardi Torched Cherry Rum and Diet Coke. That night I became known as the “Baccardi Torched Girl” and whenever one of the servers saw me they would simply look at me and say “Barcardi Torched?” Of course I would usually say “yes”!! We had a few drinks, listened to the music and turned in about 11:00pm.
Thursday September 15th – Antigua
We were up at 7:00am this morning. Got dressed and went down to the main dining room for breakfast. After breakfast we relaxed a bit before heading down to the pier. We had booked day passes at the Jolly Beach Resort and arranged for a driver to pick us up at 10:30am to take us there and bring us back later in the afternoon. The driver met us early (at 10:15am) and we headed out of town to the beach area. He gave an excellent narrative tour on the way and we learned a lot from him about the island. He told us that Jolly Beach would not disappoint us and he was right. It was the most beautiful beach either of us had ever seen. It was exactly like what you would see on a postcard! The water was turquoise blue and very calm and the sand was so white and so soft. We dropped our stuff on a couple of lounge chairs, took some photos and then headed into the water. The water was so warm. We swam in the ocean for a while and then lounged on the lounge chairs for a while more. Later we decided to move to one of the pools where the barbeque and bar were located. We dropped our stuff and headed into the pool. After swimming for a while, we got out, dried off and went to the grill to grab some lunch. We both had the jerk chicken with fries (very yummy!). Lorne had a local beer and I had a margarita. After lunch we swam a while more until it was time to pack up. Our driver planned to meet us about 3:00pm and he was there waiting promptly at 2:45pm. As he drove us back to the pier we listened intently as he talked more about the island and the people who live there. Jolly Beach was so amazing that we decided we definitely have to return again in the future!
Back on the ship, we showered and relaxed until it was time to go for dinner.
Shari: pumpkin soup, salmon, key lime pie
Lorne: onion soup, gnocchi, s/f key lime pie
After dinner we walked around the ship then headed to the Safari Lounge to catch the game “Finish the Lyric” and then “The Quest”. The Quest was hysterically funny! We turned in around midnight.
Friday September 16th – Saint Maarten / Saint Martin
We were very tired this morning when room service arrived at 7:00am. Lorne headed up to the buffet to grab some breakfast to bring back to the room, while I drank almost the whole pot of coffee hoping to wake up! We watched our ship dock in Philipsburg while we had breakfast. We had a 9:00am tour for the Best of St. Maarten’s Resort/Shopping adventure. We met our group on the pier and were escorted down the long, long pier in the hot, hot sun to the waiting motor coach. Our tour guide was funny and informative. We stopped at a couple of spots for photos and then on to Marigot on the French side (St. Martin) for about 1 ½ hours. We wandered up and down the streets, taking in the sights of this cute little French town. We stopped at a little French pastry shop and had a Diet Coke and found an air conditioned shopping centre to wander through for a while to cool off. We boarded the bus again and drove past Orient Beach and stopped at the Dawn Beach Resort. The resort was very beautiful. We were escorted to the beach area and were shown our lounge chairs for the day and advised us that we could use the pool, but not the chairs around the pool as they were for guests. We inquired about the beach umbrellas that were supposed to be included but they said it was too windy for umbrellas and they are not included in the tour. We were very disappointed as we had been in the sun a lot the past couple of days and did not want to spend the three hours we would be at the resort in the full sun on the beach. We asked if there was a lobby we could hang out in but since this was not a “hotel” but rather a “time share” there was no lobby. Lorne inquired about the cabanas near the pool and they said they could perhaps let us rent one for half price seeing that we would only be there three hours. We agreed on a price of $35, paid for it and headed up to the cabana. Lunch was included in our tour (choice of sandwich and bag of chips). Lorne had the steak quesadilla and I had the West Indies wrap (yummy!) and we both had pina coladas from the “all you can drink” bar! We swam in the beautiful pool and relaxed in the cabana till it was time to leave again. (When we were back on the ship we checked the description of the tour again and it definitely said it included beach umbrellas. We did have a really good time at the resort but we did mention our disappointment regarding this part of the tour on our comment card at the end of the cruise).
Tonight was the second formal night in the dining room which meant lobster night! We dressed up and headed down to dinner.
Shari: mushrooms in puff pastry, prime rib, s/f red berry tart
Lorne: mushrooms in puff pastry, prime rib, s/f red berry tart
We originally had decided to skip the lobster and have the prime rib (knowing we could have had both if we wanted to) but when the head waiter came around with a large platter of additional lobster tails for the table, we caved and each had one as well. It was so good! After dinner we said goodbye to our table mates as we would not be in the dining room the next night. We played in the casino for a while (didn’t win much this day) and turned in around midnight.
Saturday September 17th – Saint Croix (US Virgin Island)
Up at 8:00am after a great nights sleep. Dressed and headed to the buffet for breakfast then packed up and headed off the ship into Frederiksted. There was a shuttle taking people from the ship to the end of the pier as it was a very long walk and the sun was quite hot already. We had booked an ATV tour with Gecko’s ATV Adventures, so we followed the directions they gave us and found it in no time at all. We checked in, signed the waiver, got our helmets then waited outside until everyone arrived so we could go. Since we were in a US Territory we now had email access on our iPhones so while we were waiting I sent an email off to the kids to check in and see if everything was alright. Arlin (our guide) came out and said it was time to go, so I started walking while still typing and missed the little 2” step and fell on the ground. My sunglasses went flying in one direction while my phone went flying in the other! Everyone stopped to help me up and inquire if I was okay. I wasn’t bleeding so I was more or less fine. I soon discovered my left knee was all scraped up and my right knee was swollen and bruised. But I carried on with the adventure. We took a van to the ATV’s. Once there, Arlin gave us some instruction and safety tips and we were on our way. The ATV’s were two seaters so Lorne drove and I hung on behind him for dear life. We started out driving on the roads (kind of weird as they drive on the left side of the road in St. Croix) and then turned up into the hills. We drove through the rain forest, up the mountain side, through lots of puddles, over rocks and tree roots. We had a blast, it was so much fun! After our ATV tour we wandered around the town area, peeked in some of the shops and checked out the vendors on Strand Street then caught the shuttle back to the ship. Once onboard we showered and headed up to the buffet for some lunch. After lunch we went back to our cabin to relax with my knee up as it was still quite swollen.
At 5:30pm we headed up to the Consecutive Cruisers meeting where we were given the instructions regarding what we would need to do the next day in San Juan. We talked a while with Miriam (from Montreal) who we met at the Cruise Critics Meet and Mingle on our first sea day. After the meeting we went back to our cabin to put my knee up for a while and we read and relaxed until it was time to get ready for dinner. This evening we had a reservation at the specialty restaurant Chops Grill for 8:30pm. We shared a basket of bread with butter and a cream cheese spread. I had the crab cake to start and the bone-in veal chop for my entree. Lorne had the oysters duo for his starter and the 10oz filet for his entree. Our meal came with a baked potato (which they warned us was quite large and enough to share, and they weren’t kidding… we could have shared it with two other people as well!), mushrooms and leeks in a cream sauce plus green beans in a mustard feta sauce. We split a slice of red velvet cake for dessert. Again… we were quite impressed that all this for only $30 each. It was well worth it. The food was delicious and the service impeccable. As was to be expected we were very full, so we walked around the ship for a while then stopped by the Centrum to watch the 70’s Rock & Roll show that Cruise Director Ricky Matthews was putting on with his cruise staff. It was a great show! After the show we headed upstairs and turned in about midnight.
Sunday September 18th – San Juan, Puerto Rico
Woke up at 7:30am and headed to Guest Services right away as we noticed our final statement that had been delivered overnight had mistakenly been charged for two towels, so we went down to have them reverse the $50 charge. They did, so we were happy. Afterwards we went up to the Ambassador’s Desk to pick up our new SeaPass cards for the next week of our adventure. Once we had our cards, we headed up to the buffet to grab a quick breakfast then back to our cabin. They had advised us at the meeting the day before that we were free to wander around the ship today except between 10:30am and 11:30am when they were conducting their safety checks around the ship and automatic doors would be opening and closing so we had to stay put during that time. We stayed in our cabin as instructed then at 11:30am we went down to the main dining room to attend the Consecutive Cruisers Luncheon they were holding for us. We ran into Miriam again, so we invited her to sit with us. We had shrimp cocktail to start, chicken picatta for the main course and ice cream with strawberries for dessert. While we were talking the next table overheard us say something about “Vancouver” and they asked if we were from Vancouver. We said yes and then they asked which part. We replied Richmond and they told us they were from Burnaby! Quite a small world! From then on whenever we would see them we would shout out “Hey Burnaby Friends” or if they saw us they would shout out “Hey Richmond Friends” for the rest of the cruise. Funny… we never did get their names!!
After the lunch, we went back to the room to relax. It was our first day in almost a week where we didn’t have to do anything so we welcomed the time to just do nothing! It rained most of the day so we just read and napped for most of the afternoon. At 6:00pm we headed down to the dining room for dinner and to meet our new table mates. There was a nice couple from Dallas, two couples travelling together from Bermuda and Eric and Leslie from Georgia. Everyone was very nice and we had a great time getting to know one another.
Shari: onion tart, caesar salad, linguini with wild mushrooms, pavlova
Lorne: hot and sour soup, pork medallions, chocolate cherry cake
After dinner we went down to the shops as they had a liquor tasting event going on. We sampled a couple of liqueurs, and then headed off to the Schooner Bar to have a drink and listen to the music. We ran into Miriam and chatted for a while. We found out that our new bartender for the upcoming week is named Kenrick (from Dominica) and he laughed when he discovered our last name was McKendrick. At 9:00pm we went to the theatre to watch the comedian Greg Otto. He was quite funny. When it was over we headed back to our room and turned in about 11:30pm.
Monday September 19th – Saint Thomas (US Virgin Island)
Room service arrived at 7:00am as requested. Lorne headed up to the buffet to grab some breakfast to bring back to the room, while I enjoyed my room service breakfast out on our balcony watching us dock in Charlotte Amalie. We had a 9:00am tour for The Best of St. Thomas adventure. We met our group on the pier and were escorted to the waiting safari style bus. We drove up to Beacon Hill to take some photos of the amazing view, then on to St. Peter’s Greathouse Botanical Gardens. There were many nature trails to walk through and a huge aviary. In one cage there were three giant cockatoos and four huge macaws. They were very playful and managed to persuade Lorne to rub their heads and entertaining them. We walked through the garden area then felt a couple of rain drops. The drops started coming down harder so we ran back up the stairs to the bus. As soon as we were on the bus, the sky opened up and the rain poured down so hard. We waited about ten minutes and the rain let up a bit so we were able to continue our tour. The next stop was the “Top of the Mountain” which was home of the famous Banana Daiquiri (which by the way, were VERY good!). We spent some time wandering through the souvenir store and checking out the view from the balcony in the back. Soon we were on the bus and heading back into town. We chose to get off in the town area to look around instead of going directly back to the ship. We wandered in and out of some of the stores and headed over to the Greenhouse Restaurant for lunch. We had read some good reviews online about this place and they didn’t disappoint! We shared an order of conch fritters and then I had the Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wrap (very good!) and Lorne had the mushroom swiss burger. We took our time having lunch and enjoyed watching the people go by as well as the great view of the bay. When we finished our lunch we caught a taxi back to the ship and once onboard we showered and napped until it was time for dinner.
It was formal night in the dining room so we dressed up and headed down for 6:00pm.
Shari: escargot, filet of beef, cherry bake
Lorne: caesar salad, filet of beef, (no room for dessert!)
After dinner we went back to our cabin to change and ended up sitting on our balcony for a couple of hours enjoying the lightning storm. It was funny watching all the lightning in the sky but it wasn’t raining where we were. About 10:00pm we went down to the Schooner Bar to listen to the music and have a drink, then crashed into bed about midnight.
Tuesday September 20th – Saint Kitts
Room service arrived at 7:00am as requested. Lorne headed up to the buffet to grab some breakfast to bring back to the room, while I enjoyed my room service breakfast out on our balcony watching us dock in Basseterre. We had an 8:30am tour for the Caribbean Scenic Rail and Sail adventure. We met our group on the pier and boarded the bus that would take us to the train station. The train was a 30” narrow gauge train that was originally built over a century ago to haul sugar cane from the fields to Basseterre. Since they no longer produce sugar cane, the train is now used for touring the island. As we travelled around the island, we were offered complementary beverages (the rum punch was flowing again!), tasted their traditional “sugar cake”, listened to a very interesting narrative about the history of the island and the people and were treated to three lovely ladies singing for us. The scenery was amazing. We traveled through fields and villages, over bridges and through rain forest, saw miles of sandy beaches as well as the meeting place of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. This was a great way to see this beautiful island. After two hours on the train, we pulled into our stop and quickly got off the train and back onto the bus. The bus then took us to the marina where we boarded our catamaran. There was a little drizzle and threat of more rain when we boarded but it thankfully let up and we enjoyed our sail back to the pier. About half way through our sailing adventure they passed out sack lunches which included a sandwich (seasoned chicken with grilled onions and peppers) along with a bag of chips and a piece of cake (very yummy!). There was an open bar on the boat as well. We arrived back at the pier, grabbed our shoes (the boat practices “barefoot elegance”!), headed back to the ship, up to our cabin to shower and relax a while.
At 6:00pm we headed down to dinner.
Shari: beef and veal stuffed pasta, beef shoulder, BBB (Bailey’s Banana Brule)
Lorne: beef and veal stuffed pasta, beef shoulder, choco-tastic sampler
Eric and Leslie were heading to the past cruisers reception. Since we had completed one cruise already, we should have received an invitation but for some reason we didn’t. Eric suggested we just tag along with them so we basically “crashed” the party! We all grabbed a drink and headed onto the dance floor to be the first ones dancing. After a few songs, the Captain said a few words, then Ricky the Cruise Director spoke and then the music started again. After a few more songs, the music ended, the drinks ended and everyone started leaving. On our way out, Eric noticed the self-leveling pool table so asked Lorne if he wanted to play a game. Lorne and Eric played pool, Leslie headed back to her cabin and I headed into the Schooner Bar to listen to the music. When the pool game ended (Lorne won!) Eric headed back to his cabin and Lorne and I went to the theatre to catch the first half of the “Screen to Stage” show that we missed the week before. When the show ended, we wandered back to the Safari Lounge for the “Majority Wins” game. We managed to answer about five out of the ten questions right!! When the game was over, we walked around the ship for a while, enjoying the evening breeze up on deck then ended up at the Sea View Café for a midnight snack. When we finished, we went back to our room and turned in about 1:00am!
Wednesday September 21st – Day at Sea
It was our first morning to actually sleep in and we made the best of it. We eventually got up, got dressed and managed to get to the buffet just at the tail end of the breakfast service, which was okay because we only planned on having a light breakfast anyway. After breakfast we went up to the Crown and Anchor office to have our SeaPass cards upgraded to “Gold” status, then headed over to the Vortex Lounge for the Cruise Critic’s Meet and Mingle meeting at noon. We saw a few familiar faces from the past meeting, people who were also consecutive cruisers. We chatted with a few people then had to rush off in time to meet Eric and Leslie for lunch in the dining room. Leslie had been raving about the salad bar in the dining room so we had to try it. She was right to rave about it! It was amazing! You build your own salad and they add the dressing of your choice, then they chop it all up using a pizza cutter right in the bowl! The salad was so big; I hardly had room for my main course or for dessert! It was really delicious and we planned to do the salad bar again on the next sea day later that week. After lunch we went to the casino as we all had a free coupon for a free pull to try and win $5,000. Eric won a tee-shirt and Lorne won a keychain. None of us won the $5,000! We left the casino and headed to the Safari Lounge in order to play the game “Split the Difference”. This was quite fun, as we all had to stand on the dance floor, they read a question out and we each had to choose if the answer was the A answer or the B answer. If we picked the A answer we had to physically move across the floor to the right, if we picked the B answer we had to move across the floor to the left. When they gave the correct answer, the people who did not get it right had to go sit down and the ones who did get it right started with another question. It was quite fun, however we never seemed to last more than two questions in each round. The questions they asked were really out there!!!
We went back to our cabins to get ready for dinner. Lorne and I would not be eating in the dining room as we had reservations for dinner at Chop’s Grill at 7:00pm. As before, we shared a basket of bread with butter and a cream cheese spread. I had the mushroom soup to start and the 10oz filet for my entree. Lorne had the onion soup to start and the braised short rib for his entree. We skipped the humongous baked potato this time and opted for the roasted potatoes with prosciutto and parmesan (very, very yummy!) along with some asparagus. I had the passion berry duo for dessert and Lorne had the chocolate mud pie. They were amazing!! Again… we were quite impressed and felt it was well worth it. The food was delicious and the service once again, impeccable. After dinner we went back to our cabin to change, then off to the theatre to met Eric and Leslie and watch the magician/comedian Chad Chesnak. It was a great show. When the show was over, we all headed back to our cabins and turned in for the night.
Thursday September 22nd – Aruba
We were able to sleep in this morning as our shore excursion wasn’t until later in the afternoon, so it was nice not to have to wake up to an alarm clock today. Once we were awake, we got dressed, grabbed a quick bite at the buffet, took some photos of Oranjestad from around the ship, then grabbed our things and into town we went. We wandered though some of the shops and took in the sights until it was time to meet Eric and Leslie for lunch at Iguana Joe’s. I was looking forward to trying their famous drink…The Pink Iguana! It consists of crushed strawberries, pineapple juice, coconut cream and rum. Both Eric and I ordered one and it was quite delicious, but would have been better had there actually been some alcohol in them! There was supposed to be… but we could not taste it!! We had lunch (quite tasty!) then Eric and Leslie headed off to find a beach and Lorne and I wandered some more through town. We found a casino and since it was air conditioned inside, decided to stay a while and play a bit. We ended up $90 richer! Wandered through town some more, then back to the ship to shower and relax until it was time to leave for our shore excursion.
At 4:30pm we met our group on the pier for our Sunset Catamaran adventure. Once we were all assembled, we walked to the marina to board our catamaran. We sailed out about an hour then turned around to sail back, sailing closer to the shore on our return trip. The sun was setting on our way back and the breeze was light and refreshing. There was an open bar and lots of music making a fun party atmosphere. When we passed our ship on the way back into the marina I stood up and waved hoping our table mates, who would be having dinner about this time would see us go by. Sure enough, Leslie said later that they saw us waving when we went by.
Back on board we showered and changed and got ready for our 7:30pm dinner reservation at Portofino’s. The meal was once again amazing. We had a basket of assorted bread with olive oil/balsamic vinegar for dipping. I couldn’t decide between the minestrone and the tuna carpaccio so our waiter suggested both, as the tuna appetizer was quite small. They were both delicious. Lorne started with the prawn risotto, as he really liked it that last time he had it. I had the pesto linguine for my entrée and Lorne had the lamb chops. The presentation of the food was beautiful and delicious. After our meal they again brought out a “dessert appetizer” with two cookies and two chocolate dipped strawberries. Lorne opted for the Tartufo (chocolate mousse with brandied cherries) for dessert and I was way too full but our waiter insisted I try the dessert sampler as he said it was very, very small. I finally agreed and yes, it was small… but there were four small desserts in the one sampler! I could only manage to have a bite of each. They were so very good and I wished I had of saved room to finish them!
After dinner we met Eric and Leslie in the Safari Room to watch the “Finish the Lyric” game in order to have good seats to watch “The Quest” game. Eric and Leslie had never seen The Quest so we were excited for them to see it. We had so much fun and laughed so hard. Eric was helping “Team 4” that was seated next to us and they came in third place! When the show was over, we all headed to our cabins to crash for the night.
Friday September 23rd – Curaçao
We didn’t have anything specific planned for this port so we were able to sleep in again and actually didn’t wake up until noon! We got dressed and headed to the buffet for some lunch. After lunch we grabbed our things and wandered out into the town to look around. We walked through a beautiful resort, then over a floating bridge and through the small streets of Willemstad. There were many quaint little shops with lots of handicrafts for sale, along with all the touristy things too. We meandered our way through the town for a while and about 4:00pm headed back to ship to read and relax.
Tonight was the second formal night in the dining room which meant lobster night! We dressed up and headed down to dinner.
Shari: eggplant & olive tartare, steak and lobster, key lime pie (thanks to Eric and his “connections”!)
Lorne: double duck consommé, prime rib and lobster, s/f red berry tart
Dinner was so delicious! After dinner we changed our clothes and we decided to go play our match play coupons in the casino. Lorne and I each bet $5 on roulette and we both won! We kept playing it until we had $70 in winnings! We wandered back to the Schooner Bar to have a drink and listen to the music. About 9:00pm we headed down to the theatre to meet up with Eric and Leslie to catch the show “El Gaucho”. He was very funny! We stayed for the “Love and Marriage” show which is always very funny, and it was. After the shows, Eric and Leslie turned in and Lorne and I headed back to the Schooner Bar to listen to some more music. We turned in about 1:30am.
Saturday September 24th – Day at Sea
Woke up about 9:30am, got dressed and wandered up to the buffet for a light breakfast. After breakfast we checked out our formal night photos in the photo gallery and walked around the ship for a while and about noon, we met up with Eric and Leslie for lunch in the dining room. I ordered mushroom soup and the fantastic salad bar, and Lorne had the chicken soup and salad bar. It was delicious! We splurged on the warm rum cake for dessert, but none of us could taste the rum at all!! After lunch, I headed back to our cabin to start packing and Lorne wandered around the ship to take some additional photos. Later in the afternoon, we met up with Leslie and we took the “Behind the Scenes Galley Tour” through the dining room kitchen area. It was very interesting. We could only imagine how busy it gets in there during dinner service. After the tour we relaxed in our cabin until it was time for dinner. At 6:00pm we headed down to the dining room for our last dinner on the cruise.
Shari: caprese salad, scallop risotto, sirloin steak (no room for dessert!)
Lorne: scallop risotto, lamb shank, s/f mint chocolate cake
After dinner we changed our clothes and finished our last minute errands then headed to the Schooner Bar. Eric and Leslie met us there and we sat and talked for a while until the 70’s Rock and Roll show that Ricky Matthews and his cruise staff puts on, was about to start in the Centrum. The show was once again very funny and we all enjoyed it. When it was over, we said our goodbyes to Eric and Leslie and headed off to print our boarding passes for our flight in the morning (just in case our iPhone passes weren’t working again!). We chatted with our cabin steward for a while (Anthony was a great cabin steward; he took very good care of us for both weeks!). Later in the evening we headed back to the Schooner Bar to say goodbye to our friends there and have the last couple “Bacardi Torched” for the road. About midnight we ended up in the Sea View café for a midnight snack, and then turned in about 1:30am.
Sunday September 25th – Departure Day
Woke up at 6:30am to get ready and finish packing. After a quick breakfast in our cabin (we had brought some munchies down from the buffet the night before so we wouldn’t have to fight the crowds on the last day in the buffet line) we headed to the Tropical Theater about 7:50am to wait with our departure group. After a short wait, we exited the ship, hopped in a taxi and headed to the airport.
American Airlines left San Juan on time at 11:05am and we landed in Miami about 2:45pm. We had about an hour wait, then boarded American Airlines for our flight to Orlando. About an hour later we arrived in Orlando and we were lucky that we didn’t have to change terminals to catch our Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle. Boarding was on time and we left Orlando about 6:20pm. The fight was long and we were quite tired from being up so early but we finally arrived in Seattle about 9:30pm local Seattle time (which of course felt like 12:30am to us!) We called for the shuttle to the car park place, picked up our car and drove north to Everett and to the Tulalip Resort. We checked in about 11:30pm (2:30am to us!), headed up to our room and we were sound asleep in no time.
Monday September 26th – Arrive Home
We woke up about 8:00am Monday morning after a great night sleep. We packed up and jumped into the car, grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonalds then headed north along I-5. We made a few stops in Burlington and Bellingham for some shopping, then crossed the border about 5:00pm and were home about 6:00pm. We unloaded the car, unpacked and headed out to grab some dinner.
We both agreed it was the most amazing vacation ever! We saw and experienced so many new things and met some wonderful people along the way. We initially wondered if doing two seven day cruises back to back would be too much, but it wasn’t. We achieved our goal of seeing and doing as much as we possibly could in the time we had to do it in. Would we do it again? In a heartbeat!!!
The Top 5 Highlights of our Trip….
1. Jolly Beach – Antigua
2. Sunset Catamaran Tour – Aruba
3. Gecko ATV Adventure – St. Croix
4. St. Peters Greathouse – St. Thomas
5. Meeting all our new friends on the Serenade of the Seas
