Caribbean Getaway

What a wonderful trip, I'm pretty sure it helped me regain my sanity! hahaha I'm going to attempt to keep this at a "not too long" length, but I tend to be pretty windy in my blogging, so we'll see.

1/2/10 Travel to Puerto Rico
Our trip started at 5:00 on a Saturday morning. The trip through the San Diego airport went without any hitches as did our flight to Atlanta. We entertained ourselves with the onboard trivia game for a good portion of the flight. Atlanta gave us a special treat in that it was 32 degrees farenheit when we arrived. We had lunch, and somehow convinced airport officials to let me relieve Valencia out on the tarmack...something that has not been allowed since 9/11. Go figure. From Atlanta we finished our flying and arrived in much warmer and much more humid,, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

My parents had planned for us to stay the night in San Juan and have Sunday morning and afternoon to explore the city before boarding the ship. We stayed at the Isla Verde Marriott. (Isla Verde is a part of San Juan). The hotel was still decorated quite festively for the Christmas season (all Hispanic countries have a major celebration on Jan 6 for Epiphany, or "3 King's Day" as they call it). There was a live band playing in one of the hotel's bars and there were people dacning EVERYWHERE, including the main lobby, haha It was quite the party!

Upon checking in we were given coupons for free drinks from one of the bars, so we dropped off our luggage in our rooms and went to go get dinner and our drinks. My mom and I both enjoyed a mojito, pretty good and not too much alcohol. The atlantic ocean serenaded us as we ate our dinner out on one of the patios. By the time we finished eating, we were all plenty ready for bed.

1/3/10 San Juan and the Caribbean Princess
Sunday morning la familia arose at a decent hour, ate breakfast at the hotel buffet, and set off for our adventure around the city. Our cab driver Eric took us through the districts in New San Juan and dropped us off at El Morro fort. El Morro dates back to the 16th/17th centuries when Puerto Rico was a part of Spain. It is also where some of the Die Another Day James Bond movie was filmed. After leaving El Morro, we had a thorough walking exploration of Old San Juan before meeting up again with Eric and heading to the ship.

Our check in time before boarding was expedited thanks to having Valencia and in no time we were up eating lunch at the buffet.

Our fabulous room steward Ariel helped us get setted, and sent us in the right direction to find Valencia's potty station for the trip. That's seriously been the most frequent question I've been asked "how did she go potty on the ship". They had several small wood boxes with woodchips int hem, basicay like a giant litter box.

And then it was time to get ready for dinner. We had first seating in the Palm Dining Room. Our table was right by a window, which gave us great views on a couple of the evenings. Our servers were wonderful, Anya (from Ukraine) and Borche (from Macedonia). Highlight from dinner #1: prime rib. Following dinner I went with my parents to a flamenco and classical guitar show by Juan Carlos and then to the Sail Away party with my dad and Steve.

1/4/10 St Thomas
The ship docked bright and early Monday morning in St Thomas, thus we arose bright and early to eat breakfast in the Coral dining room, change into our swim gear, and head ashore for our "Champagne Cruise". The tour company bused us across the island in an open air bus, to the dock where we met our crew for the excursion: Johnny, Eric, and Joe of The Adventurer (who informed us they weren't classy enough to call their trip a "champagne cruise" but instead a "booze cruise" lol).

This catamaran ride was I think Valencia's favorite part of the entire trip. We let her sit on deck with us and watch the water go by. She was in doggy heaven. Our guides took us from St. Thomas to St. John's, another of the US Virgin Islands, where we had time to snorkel, swim, or hang out ont he beach. I did a little of all 3, but mostly hung out on the beach.

On our trip back to St. Thomas is when the party really started. Our crew broke out the fruit platters, mimosas, and rum punch, and we rocked out to classic rock and Bob Marley all the way back to shore.

Before getting back on the ship, my mom and I did a bit of shopping. We bought a pair of sterling and larimar (a local stone) earrings from a native lady named Mandla. Once back aboard we grabbed some pizza from the pool deck, and had a nap.

Monday was the first of our formal nights, so all of us got snazzed up and headed down for night #2 of amazing food. Highlight of dinner #2: nutella icecream. We took a family portrait in the Mezzanine, watched the champagne fountain get kicked off, and went to a comedian show. After the show, my dad and I played Jeopardy trivia with several Canadian ladies on our team.

1/5/10 Dominica
Another delicious breakfast was made more fun by our server with the sweets tray "Sugar, for my honey?" (directed to Dave, lol). The island of Dominica gave us our sudden Caribbean rain shower experience, as we dashed to the shoppping warehouse by the dock. I bought a woven straw hot pad type mat and several kinds of spices.

I had a nap back on ship, then lunch with the family in the dining room. After gazpacho, half a cheeseburger, and some delicious Italian icecream, we set off for snorkeling trip #2. This was also a champagne snorkel, but champagne in this case referred to bubbles int he water due to volcanic activity. It was pretty neat, plus we got to see the site of some of the Pirates of the Caribbean filming.

Highlight of dinner #3: key lime pie

We opted for the hypnotist show Tuesday evening and then did some shopping out int he mezzanine.

1/6/10 Grenada
Unfortunately, by the time we got to Grenada, it was evident I had caught a cold and an ear infection. I seem to have this habit of getting sick on family vacations now. I still enjoyed the day, but was a little sleepier throughout it.

Our tour for the day was a driving tour of the island. Our tour guide Luther took us to Fort Frederick, a volcanic crater lake, to see a local lady who is very knowledgeable about spices, and to a beautiful waterfall. Grenada has a very old timey Dutch look and feel to it, which makes it a very cute place, and very very green.

The ship was in port shorter Wednesday because we had quite a ways to go to get to our next port. We were back aboard for lunch (pizza again) and icecream from the pool deck, and then (you guessed it) nap time.

Wednesday was Italian night for dinner, including proscuto, nippy peach soup (favorite soup of the trip), veel scalopini, and tiramisu.

1/7/10 Bonaire
Bonaire is another Dutch West Indies island. We explored some shops in the town nearest the dock and then took a taxi over to the best snorkeling beach I have ever seen. The water was so incredibly clear I couldn't believe it. If you waded out to about waist deep, and looked down, there were your feet, and TONS of fish. We had lunch on the beach before returning to the ship for a nap.

Highlights of dinner #5: lemon strawberry sorbet, and I tried ratatouille

The show Thursday was my favorite of the comedians on this trip. Afterwards we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding in our stateroom.

1/8/10 Aruba
The fifth and final port on our cruise was Aruba. Aruba and Bonaire were my favorites of the ports. We took a bus from Oranjstad to Palm Beach. Palm Beach is along where mos tof the main resorts in Aruba are. After we'd had our fill of beach time for the day, we explored one of the nearby resorts, and went back to the ship to shower, change, and have lunch

I went back into town with my parents to do some shopping. While there, my dad and I picked up soem phrases in Papmiento (the language of the island, a mix of French, Dutch, Spanish, and a few others). My mom and I got matching necklaces from a jewelry shop on the way back to ship.

Friday was our second formal night. Highlight of dinner #6: feasant with challots.

We took a second family portrait, and had a Lindsey/Valencia photoshoot, which made a lot of people in line very happy.
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In lieu of a show, my parents and I went to the "newlywed/Not so Newlywed" game, amusing, but slightly awkward at times.1

1/9/10 At sea
The finald ay of our voyage was spent entirely at sea (making our way back across the Caribbean from Aruba to San Juan). We arose a bit late and got breakfast from the buffet. Down in one of the dining rooms was an "outlet sale". Basically they put on sale stuff that has been in inventory for a looong time, lol. I did get a cute shirt from it though.

Then came an activity I'd never done on a cruise before. I went to the ship doctor (for my ear). They gave me some antibiotics and ear drops fo the infection.

I then joined my dad and Steve for morning trivia, which we won! We went to the Crown Dining Room for the "Pub Lunch" I got cottage pie, basically like shepherd's pie. After lunch it was time for a nap, and then more trivia, which was a lot harder, but still fun.

My mom, Dave, and I went for afternoon tea. I love afternoon tea, my favorite part is the scones with jam and cream. Mmm

Our final dinner was "American Night". I had a Caesar salad and New York strip steak. Teh highlight of the evening was the "Baked Alaska Parade" and then of course, eating the baked Alaska, yum! And our final show of the trip was a variety show. Two different comedians and a hypnotist, lots of fun :)

It was a great trip, very relaxing. Plus, we met some great people. Like the deaf couple who also have a service dog (but didn't bring it) and the Romanian waitress at the table next to us in the dining room.

Can't wait for our next family adventure :D