Posted by Waterlily on December 20, 2003, at 23:05:17
I posted a few weeks ago that I was going on a cruise and some of you asked me to let you know how it went, so here goes.
It went GREAT! This was my fourth cruise, the third on Royal Caribbean. In the past I've taken Celebrity's Mercury to the Western Caribbean (Key West, Cancun, Cozumel, and Grand Cayman), Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas to the Bahamas, and Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas to the Western Caribbean (Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Labadee).
This time it was Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas to the Eastern Caribbean. She is a beautiful, elegant ship. A bit smaller than the Voyager, but then again, the Voyager is humongous so the Radiance was still big. We set sail from Fort Lauderdale on December 7, spent a beautiful day at sea on Monday, and arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Tuesday. We only walked around in the old part of San Juan. It had some really beautiful buildings, but the streets were really narrow and not well marked so half the time I didn't know where we were. I, for whatever reason, have been appointed 'travel agent' in my family and I feel guilty if whatever I choose for us to do is not great. The stores in San Juan are okay. No real big bargains and lots of the standard stores you find in cruise ports of call.
Wednesday we were in St.Maarten (Dutch) and St.Martin (French). We rented a car, per the advice of two guide books, and drove around the island. The island has a lot of natural beauty, but also a lot of poverty, goats, and it stinks in places. The guy who rented us the car told us that we couldn't get lost because there's only one road that goes around the entire island. Well, he was wrong. You can get lost, but fortunately you cannot get hopelessly lost. The roads are not well marked on this island either. We wanted to go to the butterfly farm. There was a sign on the road that pointed where to go. Then there was a fork in the road and there was no indication where to go. We took the wrong road and ended up at at the Orient Bay Beach Club. This is a well known n*dist resort and something we did not wish our kids to see. We finally did find the butterfly farm and it was the highlight of the day. Very beautiful. We later drove around the rest of the island. It rained and we got in a big traffic jam in the middle of Phillipsburg so we didn't get around to shopping. Oh well, it was an adventure. Driving is on the right side of the road in on this island, which is not what you'd expect for a European country.
Thursday we spent a day shopping in St.Thomas. Beautiful day and beautiful island, although we need to get back there some day to see more. I wanted to go to Sapphire Beach, but we did not get around to it. Driving here is on the left, which is odd because this is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Go figure.
Friday was another at sea day, which we needed after three days of being in different ports. I went to a class in the spa about taking care of the skin around your eyes. Turned out to be a big joke and I wish I'd had the nerve to speak up and tell the lady she was giving us a load of bull. I am up on most things medical and I mentally poked holes in all of this stuff she was telling us about how this cream was going to help. Your fluids around your eyes do NOT drain through your tear drainage ducts. It's not possible to get loads of Vaseline accumulating inside your skin under your eyes so that it has to be surgically removed. At the end she told us this small jar of eye cream costs $75. I don't like it when they turn these things that are supposed to be informative into sales presentations.
Saturday was Nassau, Bahamas. There were seven ships in port that day, so it was very crowded. We've been here before and so we knew the shopping was no good. We took an excursion to a private island instead and enjoyed the beach. It was a nice day. As I say, a bad day on a cruise is better than a good day at home.
I think with cruises the ship is really the destination. Ports are secondary. If the ship is beautiful and the service good, you'll have a good cruise no matter where you go. Our waiters, Teo and Rowena, provided impeccable service. Every evening they would pull out the chairs for us, place our napkins in our laps, and hand us the menues. They learned what we liked to drink and when, so I always received coffee right before dessert was served without asking for it. The food was beautifully presented and delicious. I went to the midnight chocolate buffet one night. The shows were all good. The first night there was a comedian who was hilarious. Every night they had dancing lessons with each night being a different dance. I enjoyed watching the people learn to dance. I didn't muster up the nerve to do it myself. We were constantly complimented on our daughters' behavior. Our daughters are 9 and 11 and they were good all week, even through the hour and a half dinners. I usually worry about things a lot. Last week all I had to think about was what fun thing to do next. I didn't have to worry that I was doing a lousy job keeping up the house, that I wasn't cooking a balanced meal, that my kitchen was dirty, that my cat was jumping up on the table, that my dog was going to eat everything off the table, etc. This week we're back to reality. I think I can hack it.
poster:Waterlily
thread:292032
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20031217/msgs/292032.html