Day Five ~ St. Martin

We woke up to sunny skies and hot temps.  I was so happy about that. I was worried it was going to rain. Rain was predicted.  I was happy to not pay for rain, since I live in rain most of the time...when it's not snowing lol.

Another beautiful sunrise!!  I just love eating breakfast on the balcony.

I was surprised to see a sailboat after not seeing anything for days and days.  I knew we were getting closer to land.

Our first view of St. Martin.  I was getting very excited now!  I didn't know what to expect.  So many firsts.  How to get off the ship and then back on.  I think I triple checked to make sure I had our ID with me.  It had been living in the room safe.

The Celebrity Silhouette was also in port with us.  She was docked on the other side of the pier from us.  It is a beautiful ship.  New to the line in July.  We met some of her passengers at the beach.

I'm getting ready to go ashore.  The crew calls it outside.  We'd talk to them that evening and they'd ask us, "Did you go outside today?"  I was thinking....I went outside every day lol.  It took me a few times to realize they meant did we go ashore.

I just have to say, the crew was wonderful.  Always friendly and helpful.  The Explorer has a great, hardworking crew.  We only had one disappointment, and I'll talk about that later.

They take your picture as you walk off.  Doug was joking in the elevator with some people and said, "I really just don't want to look like a tourist."  People he'd not talked to before didn't quite know how to take his sense of humor.  One lady thought he was serious and told him, "I don't think you succeeded!"  LOL

We planned to shop and then go to Orient Beach.  It was early, though, and the shops weren't open.

The Explorer is on the left; Silhouette is on the right.  It was fun to stand on deck and wave to the people on the other ship.

Since the shops were closed, we decided to go to the beach first.  So we headed over to the taxi stand.  It was a long stand with benches for different beaches.  You sit on the bench for the beach you want to go to and wait for others to join you.  It is $9 per person for 2 people, $7 for 4 and $6 for 6.  We waited for one other couple.  He was an interesting character, but his wife was really nice.

It was about a 20 min. drive to the beach down windy, narrow streets.  These people drive like maniacs!  I was VERY happy to be in the back of the minivan.  I closed my eyes and did my best not to look out the windows.  I felt like I was on Amazing Race lol.

We were dropped off near Club Orient, which is a clothing option beach.  We turned left and headed away from there.  We were planning to go to Andy and Cheryl's, but kept walking once we got there.  There were numerous little restaurant/shack type places very close together with chairs and umbrellas to rent, all the way down the 1 1/2 miles of beach.  We didn't go far, maybe 6 places down from where we were dropped off.

It was only 9:30 about this time, so the beach was relatively empty.  We decided to stop at Orange Fever.  We rented 2 chairs, an umbrella and 2 drinks for $14.  This place got my business because they advertised clean restrooms.  And it was clean at 10 am, not so much when we left at 2ish.  I can't believe we didn't get a picture of the restaurant, but we did of the orange chairs.

This was a really nice place to plant our rears.  We were right on the shoreline.  We were also right there were the people were walking up and down the beach.  This is a topless beach, and we were prepared for topless women walking around.  We weren't so much prepared for the interesting things the men wore.  We also weren't prepared for how many people would be hacking their wares.  We needed a sign that said no thank you to hold up, because I think we said that every other second.

So we settled in.  I was in awe.  It is the first time I've been to the beach on an ocean.  It was amazing!  I lotioned up (again) with SPF 50 because I really burn. I was very careful the entire trip to always lotion up, and I came home nicely tanned with no burn.  Doug, not so much, but that's a story for a different day.

Gorgeous!!  I really enjoyed swimming in the ocean.  I was surprised at how the water tasted.  My only experience with swimming in something other than a swimming pool is Mosquito Lake (and other lakes like that).  So nasty!  This was salty, which I expected.  But it was only salty...clean and salty.  I loved riding in the waves.  I was surprised at being pulled back out.  And when the tide was coming in, I was very surprised at how hard it was to get out of the water.  It was simply awesome.  I could have stayed here all day.

I rolled over on my belly and took a nap.  When I went to sleep we were the only people in this area.  When I woke up there was a nice crowd and Doug was talking with the man beside us (surprised, huh?)  Roger and Cathy were on the Silhouette and hanging at Orient Beach for the day.  It was nice that Doug made friends with them because they watched our stuff while we swam, and he took our picture for us.

We ordered lunch and ate in our chairs.  We had the best burgers ever!  I had one with grilled mushrooms and onions and goat cheese with the best fries.  Doug had an American cheeseburger.  We had drinks.  The guavaberry colada was divine!  We bought some guavaberry rum to bring home, and now just need to find a recipe to make that frozen drink.

Roger and Cathy caught a taxi back with us, and another couple, so it was $6 pp, which is nice.  Again it was a crazy drive.  And these taxi drivers are aggressive, which I wasn't prepared for.

We browsed the shops by the pier.  Doug bought a shirt (which you will see later on in this post) and made friends with the shop owners.  Sweet ladies.  They were dancing in the street with Doug.  I bought a pool cover up here, and we bought a few little trinkets and some alcohol.  We didnt' do much shopping at any of the ports, except for rum.  St. Thomas we did the most shopping.  I came home wishing we would have bought more souvenirs for people, but what can ya do.

Not looking touristy at all.......

Love the shirt.  It clashed a little with his sunburned face.  The photographer from the Ukraine told him to use some sunblock tomorrow......He did use sunblock.  He was nicely tanned by morning though.

Back on the ship we grabbed a snack and headed to deck 12 for sail away.  I was wanting to watch people running for the ship, but everybody was good and came back on time.  Captain Olav is very timely, so as soon as the last person boarded, we set sail even if it was early.  We watched the Silhouette leave, waved at the people, and then we left.  

We went to get ready for dinner and the evening after that.  We had dinner with Steve and Connie and Ken and MaryLou again.  This is the night we all decided to try and eat together every night.  And we succeeded.  I'd love to try traditional dining next time, except for the times aren't convenient.  Six is too early and I'd feel rushed.  8:30 is too late.  I don't want to finish dinner at 10 or later.  So we'll do MTD and hopefully find great tablemates like this trip.

The Love and Marriage show was this night.  It was HILARIOUS!!  The newlywed couple was married 5 days; they got married the first day on the ship.  The second couple was 27 years and the longest married couple was 51 years.  This show was SO funny!  Not to be missed for sure.

I don't know what we did after that. Probably wander around, try to dance, get drinks and most definitely sit on the balcony.  We probably stopped in the Cafe Promenade and got snacks and talked to people we met.  It was a fun hangout in the late night.

We went to bed relatively early because we were going to be up early the next day for St. Thomas.  We had an early morning excursion here.  

Day Four

Day Three

Day Two

Day One Cont

Day One

Day Zero

Day Four ~ At Sea

It's our 3rd full sea day.  I love sea days....so relaxing and peaceful.  

I didn't sleep well the night before and woke up about 6:30 this day.  We sat on the balcony and watched the sun come up.  We've seen several beautiful sunrises, but not any sunsets yet.  Not until the last night actually.  We're usually getting ready for dinner at sunset time.

It is getting warmer and more humid and is very, very windy!  It was pretty cloudy most of the day, too.  But it didn't stop us from sitting by the pool and soaking it all up.

 We ordered room service for breakfast.  The guy came to the room, spread a white tablecloth on the table and set out all of the food.  We were feeling pampered and spoiled.  Breakfast on the balcony is the best part of the day...well drinks on the balcony before bed is pretty lovely, too.  If at all possible, get a balcony when you cruise!  We had oatmeal, pastries and fruit most days.  Oatmeal is much tastier when somebody delivers it to you.

 So after breakfast we went up to deck 12 to walk.  Five laps is a mile.  I planned to do 10 or 15 laps.  But oh my gosh it was SO windy!  I was either struggling to walk through the strong winds or was being pushed by the wind, so I did 5 or 6 laps and quit.

So we headed back to the room to shower and get ready for the day.  We headed to deck 3 and the photo gallery to see our pictures from the night before.  We spent a lot of time down in the photo gallery.  They printed all of the photos from the day before and displayed them.  By the end of the cruise we had a huge pile of pictures.

We had a couple favorite photographers, Camila and Chavonne.  We enjoyed talking with them every day, and having them take our picture.

We went to the casino to play the penny slots.  We had no idea what the heck we were doing, so we spent our allotted money and left.  The casino was visually and audibly overwhelming for me.  The floor was pretty cool, but it took several times for me to walk on it without flinching.

 So we went to Boleros lounge to sit and read.  Doug made friends with all the other people there, so he talked and talked.  About 11:30 we headed to the pool to listen to the music and then had lunch in the dining room, the lovely salad bar again.  They had an awesome chocolate peanut butter pie, too.

After lunch we went back to the pool to read and listen to the band and have drinks.  It was windy and cloudy, but that didn't stop us.  It was warm and not winter.  I think it was snowing at home about this time in our trip.  We had Miami Vice and Mudslides.  Yummy.

You can tell we're at the beginning of the trip by the paleness of our skin lol.

It was about to rain, so we went back to the room.  Today we found a gorgeous cheese and fruit tray waiting for us.  So we took a nap and then ordered room service for dinner.  Dinner on our balcony was awesome.  We also renewed our vows this evening.  We wrote vows and had a private little ceremony in our room.  It was so romantic and precious.  Doug surprised me with a very pretty ring. I need to get that sized so I can start wearing it now.

After dinner we went to have our pictures taken (surprised, aren't you?)

We went to the theater for a magic show.  This magician was also a comedian and very entertaining.  There was a 70s party on the royal promenade.  It was very crowded.  So we headed down to the Chamber.  It was empty.  We had drinks and talked with Vijay and DJ Savio.  I really enjoyed getting to know the crew. The Explorer has the friendliest, hardest working crew.  As soon as the 70s party was over, the people wandered down to the Chamber.  It was Michael Jackson tribute night, so we were able to stay and dance for a while.  We saw Sue and Lynn from the roll call thread, and also "The Gang", Greg and Amy, Annette and Mike.

After that we headed to the Cafe for sandwiches and cookies and chatted with people down there and then headed to the room for the night.

I can't remember what all we had for dinner.  I had some kind of spinach ricotta pasta, which was fabulous.  Doug had a steak.  But dessert...that I remember.  It was awesome.

Berry'misu

 Lemon meringue tart

 We had a towel animal tonight....a penguin.  He was adorable.  I moved him to the bar.  The bulldog was on the end table.  These towel animals make my night.

Tomorrow is our first port day....St. Martin.  Woo Hoo!!

Day Three
Day Two
Day One Cont
Day One
Day Zero

Day 3 ~ At Sea

What a difference a day makes.  We woke up to sunshine, warmth and smooth seas.  It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day.

I woke up at 7 and Doug was gone.  He had gotten me coffee and left it for me and went to find people to talk to.  This is the last day that I tried to have morning coffee.  I sat on the balcony and wrote in my journal.  We did so much, and I didn't want to forget anything, although I couldn't possibly get it all written down.  

 We went to Portofinos for breakfast, which is a perk of having a suite.  It is such a beautiful restaurant.  You order from a menu, but they also have a small buffet with pastries, fresh fruit and meat and cheese.  I ordered eggs Benedict.  It was delicious!  Doug had an omelet and potatoes.  He said it was really good.  It became our standard breakfast.

After breakfast we went up to deck 12 to lie in the sun.  I didn't realize how warm it was.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  It got warm, so we headed down to the pool deck, 11, and found some shade.

 We also found Berry, one of the finest bar servers around!  The drink of the day was a Miami Vice (which is a strawberry pina colada).  So of course we needed a couple of those!  Berry added the rum, told Doug to drink the drinks, topped it off with more rum and then every time he walked by filled our glasses with rum.  They were very generous with the rum!

 They were very, very tasty drinks and became a favorite!

 The Calypso band played for a while.  I really enjoyed listening to them by the pool most days.

 Dwayne, he is the other fabulous bar server.  They took care of us at the pool and in the theater.  They knew what we wanted and often had them made and to us before we even found a seat.  They work hard and are very good at what they do!!

 Doug lounging in the shade.

It's tiring to lounge by the pool....so we headed to the room for a nap.  Well, I napped and Doug tried his hand at the penny slots. He came out $2 ahead :)

 We had dinner reservations at Portofinos this night.  It is a really intimate, gorgeous restaurant.  The gang (Tina Faye et., al) were also there.  Anyway, dinner was really good.  I had some sort of apple-mozzarella-prosciutto appetizer.  Interesting and not bad.  Doug had a prosciutto-mozzarella-artichoke something or other for an appetizer.  I had grilled tuna with eggplant.  It was EXCELLENT!!!  Doug had veal with mushroom risotto....also excellent.  For dessert I had a dessert sampler which had fresh berries and cream, tiramisu, some kind of chocolate cake,  and white chocolate mousse.  It was good.  I only ate half of all of this food.  I also had an awesome coffee cocktail, Royal Delight.

Doug didn't caer for the dessert selections, so our waiter went to the WJ and got him ice cream and sponge cake.  Great service!

Our professional picture for the night and one of me on the steps that Doug took.

 After dinner we came back to the room to change and head to the 50s & 60s sock hop party in the Maharajah Lounge.

Marvin

The sock hop was a great time.  Lots of people dancing.  Marvin, the activities director, organized a twist dance challenge.  The crew handed out key chains to people they thought were great dancers.  Those people were asked to be part of the twist challenge.

So there were 5 teams and a lady that needed a partner.  This other lady encouraged her husband to go dance with her.  So he did.  So these 6 teams each took turns doing the twist and then the audience was going to vote with applause.

Tragically, during the voting part, the guy who danced with the gal that needed a partner fell over.  Nurses from the audience ran over to him and immediately called for the paddles.  It wasn't good.  His wife was sitting in the middle of the floor hysterical.  The nurses were calling for the doctor.  They were doing CPR.  People were hovering all around.  

Finally the crew got control and cleared the room.  They worked on him for a good long time, but he didn't make it.  My heart was broken for his wife.  It was such a tragic, tragic thing.

We ended up going up to the pool deck for air.  It was very windy.  I was queasy and the sea was rough.  So we went to the room so I could take ginger.  It was about an hour after we left the Maharajah Lounge that Doug went to the Cafe Promenade to get a sandwich.  He happened to be there just as they were wheeling this man's body out on a covered gurney.  Very, very sad :(

So we sat on our balcony for a while, watched the late night early morning show on tv and went to bed.  It was turn the clocks ahead an hour night.  My heart was heavy and I just laid in bed and prayed for that dear lady.  What a tragic end to a fabulous day.

Day Two

Day One Cont.

Day One

Day Zero

Day Two ~ At Sea

We woke up nice and early on day 2.....5:30ish I think.  The ship was ROCKING!!  Although from what we learned later, we slept through an awful storm and a very rocky ship.  I was feeling dizzy, but not too bad.  I took a lot of ginger tablets and used some kind of homeopathic something that you squeeze behind your ear.  Doug took Dramamine.  He was having a harder time than I was.  I think dealing with vertigo on a regular basis was helpful to me lol.

Doug went to the Cafe Promenade to get me coffee.  I was really trying to find good coffee, even palatable coffee, somewhere.  I gave up on day 3 I think.  Royal Caribbean does a lot of things fabulously, but making coffee would not be one of them!!

We had room service for breakfast.  I had oatmeal with raisins, Doug had eggs potatoes and turkey sausage, and we shared pastries and fresh fruit.  We watched the sun come up.  It was simply beautiful.  We really, really enjoyed sitting on the balcony in our bathrobes and watching the world go by.

 Ten this morning is the Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle.  125 people signed up.  I think about 75 showed up. There were crew members that talked and gave away prizes.  I won a $200 internet certificate, which I never used and should have just given away.  There were too many other things to do than hang around online.

After the official things were over, we had a gift exchange.  Sue, a gal from our roll call, organized lots of activities.  After the gift exchange, we gathered for a cabin crawl and also a poker run.  We each anted up $5 and at each cabin we got a card.  There were prizes for best, worst and something else.  We didn't win anything.

It was really interesting to see all the different cabin categories.  We saw an inside, ocean view, balcony, aft balcony, handicapped accessible, promenade, junior suite and ended in Sue's grand suite.  She had goodies and champagne for us.  Ken announced the winners of the poker run.  After doing the cabin crawl, we were very happy to have upgraded to our suite from the balcony we originally had booked when we were going to cruise in April.

View from the aft balcony from the cabin crawl.

 We went to lunch in the main dining room.  They have a BEAUTIFUL salad bar.  You walk down the bar, tell the server what you want, they toss and chop it for you right there.  There were several kinds of lettuce, tuna, chicken, beef, smoked salmon, shrimp, and so much more.  It was my favorite place to eat lunch on sea days.  We also had dessert.  This was Doug's.  It was a meringue something wrapped with lemon mousse.  It was delicious!!

We met two really nice couples from PA at lunch this day.  The one lady reminded me of Tina Faye, and we called her Tina for most of the week.  Really her name was Amy, and Annette, Greg and Mike.  Great people that we enjoyed talking with all through the trip.

 The elevator reminded you what day of the week it was.  The days really do run together.

We shopped on the Royal Promenade and bought a Christmas tree ornament.  We napped.  Ahhh....I love vacation!  I did wake up before Doug and was feeling quite dizzy.  I went to find coffee (I really tried lol) and then sat in the Solarium and read a book for a while.  I watched a bird play in a puddle.  The birds fascinated me.  Where did they come from?  I guess they lived on the ship.

 It was the first formal night.  Doug was having tuxedo issues, so he opted to wear his suit.  So I opted to wear a cocktail dress instead of my black gown.  We headed down to have pictures taken.  We had lots and lots and lots of pictures taken, like 140.  I bought the CD that gives us all of the professional pictures, so I drug Doug to every single photo op there was lol.

This is my favorite first night professional photo.  It got to be a routine of dressing for dinner, getting pictures at all available photo ops, going to the champagne bar for before dinner drinks, going to dinner, going to a show or some other entertainment, going to the chamber for drinks and sitting on our balcony.  Many nights we went to the Cafe Promenade for cookies or sandwiches to take to our balcony.

 I'll add a professional photo for each day.  I forgot to add them to day one.  This is the first photo they take right after you check in at the terminal.

Towel animals were one of my favorite things.  We didn't get one every night since the cruise was so long, but we did get one every other day except the last night.  Here I am with the bull dog Dee made for us.  He was a fabulous room steward.

 We also got a yummy treat of chocolate covered strawberries after dinner. It was just sitting on our bar waiting for us.  I didn't realize we'd get little treats, but we did, every other night.

More gorgeous fruit sculptures.

 We went to the first production show Wild, Cool and Swinging after dinner.  I really, really enjoyed it.

Dinner in the dining room was such a great experience.  They hold your chair for you.  Put your napkin in your lap.  They learn your names and the things you like and remember that for next time.  Even though we had my time dining, we ended up eating at the same time every night.  When we'd go to sit, we'd make a reservation for the next night.  And we asked to be seated in Maria's section.  She and Ursulino were fabulous!!  

Two other couples also were sitting in this same area.  There were 3 tables for 2 in a row right by the railing overlooking the other dining room floors.  After a while we all decided to have dinner together every night. It was a really great experience.  Ken and MaryLou celebrated their 49th anniversary one night.  It was fun to sit and talk about what we did that day and things about our lives at home.  It was a great time!!

Ursulino, Kelly, Doug and Maria

 Florentina made our reservations every night and kept the MTD running as smoothly as possible.  I enjoyed getting to know her.  She's from Romania and after this next cruise she gets to go home and visit her husband.  She's been gone for 7 months.  I just cannot imagine!

 Ken and Mary Lou

Our first dinner in the dining room was fabulous.  I had papaya pineapple soup with yogurt, filet of beef with mashed potatoes and asparagus and for dessert strawberry cheesecake and coffee (I kept trying lol).  Doug had shrimp cocktail, the beef and a sugar-free coconut cake.  It was divine!

We tried to go to the 9pm show but were late and there were no seats; we went to the 10:45 show.  So in the meantime we went to the WJ for dessert.  It was almost time for the WJ to close, so it was mostly empty.  We had strawberry pavlova...divine!!  

We sat in the Royal Promenade with drinks until it was time for the show.  Mai Tai was the drink of the day....it was yummy.  They make a great drink on the ship.

After the show we went to the Chamber to visit our favorite bar tender, Vijay.

We got drinks to take back to the balcony.  I had a frozen mudslide....yummy!  Doug had sex on the beach, which is his usual, although he branched out and tried new things as the week went on.

It was a great first day at sea.  It was windy and cold, although it was getting warmer as the day went on.  It was choppy and we dealt with dizziness and queasiness.  But it was fabulous!!

Day one continued

Day one

Day zero