Day Six ~ St. Maarten

I woke up first, again!  But sitting on the balcony in the morning all alone is so peaceful.  After Doug woke up, we ordered breakfast.  We had the same room service guy each day.  Sudeer.  He was a sweet kid.

We pulled into port as we were finishing up breakfast.

Waiting to go ashore.  We had plans to meet up with Steve and Michaela and head over to Orient Beach and then to Front Street to do some shopping (and buy rum :) ).

 Hi St. Maarten......we're glad to be here :)

 After taking some welcome pictures we headed to the taxi area to get a ride to Orient Beach.  The taxi ride is wild.....I close my eyes and hope to make it there in one piece.  Michaela thought it was awesome!

The taxi driver dropped us by Club Orient (the clothes optional beach) and we headed left toward Orange Fever.  We parked ourselves at Orange Fever last time, and we liked it, so that was the plan this time, too.  Only the beach was gone.  There was room right in front of the restaurant for a single row of chairs, and then a steep drop off.  So we kept going.  We decided to settle in at The Sun Beach Clubber.  It was a good time there, too.  It was $15 for 2 chairs and the umbrella, a welcome drink and a complimentary shot when we ordered lunch.  The lunch was huge.  Doug and I split a burger and fries.  It was yummy.  Their drinks were yummy.  We had a frozen colada of some sort and I had an El Presidente beer.  We spent time in the ocean and walking along the beach.  I love the beach.

 I love squishing my toes in the Caribbean sand.

 There was a French man at the restaurant with a pug.  Doug just had to go see him.  He didn't respond to anything Doug had to say.  The owner said he only understands French.  I told Doug he was cheating on his girlie!

 About 1:30 or so we decided to find a cab and head to Front Street and the Guavaberry Emporium for some rum sampling (and purchasing).  We walked behind the bars looking for a cab.  It was really hot back there.  We did find a lady to take us to Front Street.

So we sampled several flavors of rum at Guavaberry Emporium, and we bought 3, and a rum punch to go (for me :) ).  Then we wandered across the street to another liquor store for a 6 pack of beer and some limoncello.  We sampled there too and bought a white chocolate liqueur.   It was REALLY good!

We then decided to take a water taxi back to the port and do some shopping there.  So we wandered around looking for that.  Find it.  Get on and realize we could have just walked back.  Oh well....it was fun.

Steve and Michaela split up from us and did some shopping and headed back to the ship.  Doug rested in the shade while I shopped.  I bought a few things and then we headed back to the ship, too.

 We weren't here long enough.  One day I'd love to spend a week here.

 We checked in our alcohol and headed to the room to shower and rest until dinner.  We ordered some snacks from room service and got ready for dinner.

So we head down to deck 3 for pre-dinner pictures, only since we are in port, pictures are 7:30 to 9 (we are at dinner) and 10-11.  So upstairs for drinks and appetizers and talking.  Steve and Michaela were there, so I sat and talked to them while Doug worked the room.  He knew everybody by then.  I asked Dillon to surprise me with something not too sweet and maybe tart.  He made me some kind of lemon something, which was very good.

After about 1 1/2 hours it was time to head to dinner.  Kenyata (the MDR host) told us, "You know your table, go on in".  So we did.

The dining room was busy tonight!  We still had excellent service.  The food was really good tonight.  I had clam chowder and Doug had shrimp cocktail for a starter.  Dinner was ricotta and spinach stuffed shells for me and a Caesar salad for Doug.  Coffee and dessert and dinner shots.  Dessert was pavlova for the both of us.  So Yum!  The table had a chocolate lava cake with ice cream, which was really good, too.  The shooter was French Kiss.....a favorite!  The shot glass color this night was red.  We have all 7 of them now.

So we had an hour between dinner and pictures, so we came back to the room to freshen up and rest.  We found an elephant on our bed.  Adorable!

 And then we head for pictures. Helen was a favorite photographer, so we hit her up first.  I love the dress I'm wearing this night, and am hoping for a new after picture for work, but the backgrounds are just.....blah or overwhelming or something.  I didn't like the way any of the ones of just me turned out.

After picture taking we headed to deck 3 and the photo gallery to collect pictures.  I'm glad we stayed on top of this, because 261 is a lot to round up if we would have waited until the last day!

Doug and I decided we wanted to take a stroll on the pool deck this evening.  It was a gorgeous night, and we were just drifting along since St. Maarten and Antigua are only 86 notical miles apart.  We strolled and talked and gazed at the sea.  And we grabbed pool towels on our way back to the room to use the next day.

We got to the room and decided we wanted snacks and drinks.  Doug ordered drinks from room service, while I ran to the Cafe for some sandwiches (and cookies......).

We sat on the balcony having snack and drink.  It was so peaceful, and pretty romantic.  It was tomorrow by this point, and we had an early excursion in Antigua, so we put in for a wake up call and turned in for the night. This was one of my favorite days of the trip.

Day Seven ~ Antigua

The days are really running together now!  I woke up about 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I headed out to the balcony....surprised, aren't ya?  I watched the sun come up and wrote in the journal.  I woke Doug about 6:15.  He ordered breakfast.  We ate and got things together for our excursion today with Steve and Michaela.  We're going on a 6 hour catamaran sail with 2 beach breaks and a lobster lunch.  It's a gorgeous day and promises to be a great time!

Chillin' while we pull into port!

Some of the views while docking.

View of the bridge wing from our balcony.

Our excursion was pretty early, so we gathered up our towels and sunscreen and headed to the pier to wait.

Hi Antigua....nice to meet you :)

We sailed on the Mystic II.

It was just a short walk from the pier to the catamaran.  We boarded and waited to set sail.

Before long we were on our way.  We sailed past Explorer.  So long Explorer.....see you in 6 hours :)

We sailed for about 20 minutes before hitting the first small beach.  As we went, the crew would point out interesting things.

We arrived at the first stop and they beached the boat.  We spent an hour at this small beach.  I was surprised to find people there selling their wares.  They were rather pushy.  That is the only negative I have about this excursion.  It wasn't cheap, and I didn't apperciate spending an hour dodging these pushy people.

The beach was gorgeous.  We walked until we found a bit of shade.  There was a swing in the trees.  Perfect photo op.

We swam for a while.  The water was clear and warm and just fabulous!  Doug didn't remember his rag in his pocket until we were already in the water.  Not much use now, huh?  

The beach was really pretty.  I love watching the waves wash up onshore.  And the little flowers were pretty.  And the views were gorgeous.

We left the beach after an hour or so, and sailed around the island for a couple hours.  As we pulled away, we noticed goats up on the hill.

So pretty!  And people playing in the water.

And the rum punch started flowing.  I learned my lesson last time and limited myself to one cup (for real) now and 1/2 of one after lunch.

The wake is pretty!

Before long they fired up the grill, set up the buffet and brought out tables for our lunch.  They grilled lobster tails and jerk chicken.  The buffet had roast potatoes, black eyed peas and rice, steamed veggies and a salad.  It was yummy.  Champagne was also served with lunch.

They let down the ladder so you could swim while waiting for lunch.

After lunch they sailed to the 2nd beach.  It was too rough to beach the boat, so they dropped whomever wanted to be on the beach there, told them they had an hour, and sailed out a bit to anchor and let whomever wanted swim off the boat.  Doug, Steve and Michaela did that.  I was tired, and it was hot and the sun is wearing me out, so I rested in the shade.

And then it was time to sail back to the port.  The crew put on music and passed out drinks and I was waiting for the party to start....only....it didn't.  This group was pretty much a dud on the party on the way back front.  Michele, Doug and I decided it was the excursion for the assisted living ..... or something.  Maybe 6 hours in the sun is too long and everybody was exhausted?

We arrived back at the port a little before 3.  We had heard of some awesome ice cream, and the crew pointed us in the right direction.  Australian Ice Cream.  It was DIVINE!

Then we thought we'd do a little shopping.  But it was hot, and stinky, so we went back to the ship to have a snack, a shower and a nap.  I napped a whole lot on this trip.  This drummer greeted us on our way back to the ship.

After we rested, we got ready for dinner.  And since we were in port, pictures weren't until 7:30.  This night we planned to have dinner on our balcony.  Doug placed our order before we headed upstairs for pre-dinner drinks.

Dinner on the balcony is nice, and relaxing, and romantic and so much faster than if we were in the MDR since they bring everything all at once.  Sudeer set the table with a white table cloth and set out our appetizers on the balcony.  We asked him to leave the tray with the rest of the food on the bar and we'd serve it ourselves.

This is how above and beyond he went in his service to us, and why we requested him each time we called room service, although halfway through we'd give our room number, and they would say, "Oh, Sudeer's room."  He noticed we didn't order any beverages, so he brought us each a glass of ice tea and cranberry juice.  He also brought a couple snack size bags of potato chips for a snack later.  He did the same at breakfast when I didn't order coffee.  He'd bring coffee anyway.  He noticed the little things.

So what did we order for dinner?  I had jalapeno potato soup, asparagus quiche and chocolate sensation.  Doug had meatballs, tortellini and creme brulee.  They also brought a plate with several cheese rolls and savory bites.  But no butter...strange.  We also opened a bottle of champagne.

We had asked Anil the night before how to get the dinner shooter.  He said to leave that up to him.  And he knew that Sudeer is our room service guy, so he made arrangements with him to bring our shooters to us about half an hour after we had dinner.  Great Service!  So we didn't miss out.  And Anil made sure our shot glass color was the same as Steve and Michaela.

Since we were finished with dinner before 9, we headed out for pictures and then came back for our shots.

We were on Deck 5 having our pictures taken (they set up outside the dining rooms) when the gang walked by on their way to dinner.  Greg saw us having our pictures taken and photo bombed us.

This morning Helen told us our pictures were looking pretty much the same and we should tell Misha that we'd like to use props.  And this is what he came up with......

And without the purple crayon.......

Tonight is the pool party!  And the reason I laid off the rum punch.....I didn't want to miss it.  It was So. Dang. Much. Fun!  Steve and Michaela joined us for a bit, but they had a really early excursion in the morning.  And we had decided to change our plans and were going to sleep in, so we didn't care how late we stayed out.

So Joe and Sue and Ron and Tammy were standing by the railing in our reserved pool seats, so we joined them.  They were making yummy frozen drinks in hallowed out pineapples.  Yes Please!  We had pina colada in there.  We were dancing and having a good old time.

Lots of people were dancing and having a great time!  

So there was a row of chairs right below where we were standing.  Doug, accidentally, dropped the top of his pineapple on the people below us.  That guy did not think it was funny.....not at all.  He was OK after Doug apologized.  We had drank enough by that point....to think it was a little funny.  See how his pineapple is kind of hanging over their heads.....oops......

They set up a huge buffet that serves at 11pm at the pool party.  We did not eat anything.  The band played for a good long while, and then DJ Savio took over.  We left about 12:15 and headed to the room.  I took my pineapple with me.  I don't know why....we tossed it in the morning.  But there you go. 

And I was hungry since we didn't have any food at the buffet, so Doug stopped for paninis and cookies at the Cafe.  We sat on the balcony and laughed and ate and made plans for the next day.  

This was a really fun, fun day.  A six hour excursion is a little long for me, and I had had way too much sun, and St. Kitts was stop 5 in a row and I was tired.  So we headed to bed with not many plans for the morning.