Day 4 Antigua

Kelly was up and gone again by 06:40 to Cafe Promenade for her morning coffee and Facebook fix. Our 250 minutes of pre-paid internet is pretty much down to the last hour. It’s 40 cents a minute and... well put your clock on next you checking in with friends... and see how quickly time vanishes:-)

We arrived at the pier a bit late today due to numerous ships docking in port. Adventure of the Seas, Celebrity Summit, Grand Princess and Carnival Freedom all took the four parking spots in St Johns.  We loaded up the gear (code for “filled beach bag with crap”) and lathered on the sunscreen as the docking process finished.

We quickly found our excursion and in no time we were loaded on a bus and on our way.  A gorgeous facility greeted us and we loaded onto separate 24 foot boats for a 5 minute cruise up the lagoon to our paddle area. The kayaks were tandem sit on top type units and they worked well for our paddle around the lagoon in amongst the mangroves. Our guide did some stops and explained the local vegetation and then showed us star fish and sea cucumbers. As we have seen these before we stayed back and let the others get close.

After the paddle we reloaded the boats and it was a 10 minute rip out to our snorkeling site.The small island the locals call Gilligan’s Island was our launch spot and we took a little land tour of the blow holes and views.

View from Gilligan’s Island.

As there are snakes in the area Kelly decided to hold the beach down. I was back in 10 minutes after taking some pictures and did not see any slithering creatures during the walk:-) Back at the boats we moved over to the snorkel site and in we went. Saw numerous small fish etc and the local pelican nesting area. Back at the main launch site we had some obligatory rum punch and then drove back to the ship.

As much as the water was very clear and deep blue, the kayak site was a bit boring for us after seeing gorgeous rock formations etc with Mark & Robyn at Duke point in Nanaimo. Fun but different.

Back at the ship for lunch and then Kelly went on a little sightseeing adventure to the shops by the ship. Our Cruise Critic friends Dan & Vicki got engaged today at Shirley Heights so we bought them a round of drinks to celebrate! Congratulations!

Another great dinner this evening followed by the Love & Marriage show. Absolutely hilarious... just glad we weren't picked out of the audience!

Tomorrow id St Lucia and our Zip Line adventure... hang on!

Day 3 St. Maarten

A nice healthy breakfast this morning and we were off on the days   adventure.  Couple things have come up that have changed our plans. Turns out that there are five ships in today!  With this many people in town we felt that Moho Beach, where the Sunset Beach Bar is located, is going to be a zoo. So we headed off towards the French side of the island to the Orient Beach area. A quick side trip to Oyster Pond to see the sites (code for not taking the right turn off) and then off through Quartier N-Orleans to some shops at Summit Ridge. We stopped here last cruise and Kelly picked up some items. Very reasonable pricing... So I was happy:-)

Kelly haggling...:-)

Next area was the Villiage De Grand Case and then we decided to do some geocaching. Last time we went to Happy Beach and there was a cache we could not find.  So not to be foiled this time we easily found the gravel road that took us to the cache area and Friar's Beach.

After a QEF which means "quick easy  find" in geo speak, we settled on the beach in nice comfortable lounge chairs. Hey only 3 bucks each for the day!  There were only a handful of people here now but we expected more as the morning went on. Sure enough the beach quickly started to fill.... Still lots of room for everyone.

Some snorkeling with the GoPro and then it was time for lunch at the local bar/restaurant. I was driving so no alcohol for me.

A nice lunch followed by more tan time then it was back towards the shops & ships. With traffic the way it was we avoided the bridges so once through Marigot, we stayed left and went through Bellevue and Cole Bay.

On up the hill we tried to find Fort William but missed the turn and ended up in the shopping district. "That's a shame." Kelly said:-)

Tried to buy gas for the rental but they only took cash on this island.  So after some schmoozing with the Hertz rental guy he tacked on 10 bucks to our bill and says " have a great vacation!" 

Onboard for cocktails and a walkabout before prepping for dinner. Tonight is our mystery theater dinner in the Portofino specialty restaurant.  We met on the 14th floor Blue Moon Lounge and the show began as the characters were introduced and they started playing various roles until... Yep you guessed it, someone died! We went down to the restaurant and the show continued as we enjoyed a delicious meal.  We met some nice fellow cruisers and had a great time.

Off to the 70's show on the Grand Promenade  with John Travolta and friends.  We topped off the night with a comedy show in the Lyric Theater.

Off to bed with Antigua on the radar. Kayaking and snorkeling is on the agenda.

Day 2 St. Croix

I awoke to Kelly’s alarm clock at 06:30... that in itself is just wrong while on holidays! Anyway we wanted an early start as or excursion to Buck Island was set to depart at 08:30. This provided lots of time to get our coffee, check emails and then head up to the Windjammer Buffet for breakfast.  It featured a huge assortment of items that catered to everyones needs.

We headed down and hopped on our excursion bus with little difficulty. Unfortunately 3 people had no-showed and, as we were the last bus, delayed us until finally leaving them behind... see this in our aviation business from time to time.

Off we went and our driver Reese gave us the oral highlights as we past important land marks along the way... like the huge Captain Morgan Rum distillery!  (Why did we not know this on our last trip when we had a car?) Oh well! The trip wound it’s way across St Croix via HWY 70 and into Christiansted.

They quickly loaded our boat and away we went. We exited Christiansted Harbor around Protestant Island and got a great view of Fort Christiansvaem.

The trip took about 30 minutes and as we cruised the crew had us all outfitted with snorkel gear & fins. On arrival at Buck Island they gave us a brief safety run down on where to and where not to go, stay in pairs etc. all common sense stuff.   The water was a fabulous turquoise!  Albeit very choppy.

I stayed with Kelly (as she is not a confident swimmer ) even though the safety vest was securely attached to her... or maybe she had a death grip on it... not sure which actually :-)  She did great and we explored the reef down below together. Great views of numerous fish with brilliant colors and I even spotted a small shark at one point. I had my son’s GoPro camera with me and I took lots of shots.

We returned to the boat and after taking off the gear, enjoyed a great rum punch on the trip back to Christiansted. This brought back both old and new memories:-) One of the folks on the boat yelled..”Look there’s a turtle!” and Moose our deck hand replied “That’s a buoy sir”...”Oh!”

Back to the ship and we took a stroll around the shops and kiosks near the dock. Standard stuff when traveling with Kelly but I am used to it. Once on board we headed to the official Cruise Critic “Meet & Greet” up in the Blue Moon Lounge. Everyone had a good visit although we had already met most folks the day before. Appetizers and prizes were given away and we then watched the ship depart Frederikstad.
Off to dinner next and once again we were not disappointed. Tonight was “Formal Night” and most everyone was dressed very nicely.There was the odd outfit that made us ponder a bit:-)

We have decided to give up gambling and spend the money on ourselves as losing does not seem optional. No luck this trip.

Tomorrow is St. Maarten and the famous Sunset Beach where we plan to watch silly people get exfoliated :-)

Sail Away #1

Another lazy morning as our excitement starts to grow.  Weather is cloudy with some breaks to the blue but to be honest we don't really care:-) Kelly is bouncing off the ceiling and she hasn't even had her coffee yet! Conveniently Starbucks is right across the street from the resort so that is our first stop.We tried for breakfast but decided to wait until on the ship to eat... as we were going early:-)

We drove out of Condado and went past the super yacht Serene which belongs to Greg Norman... incredible is all I can say.   Arrived at the ship at 11:30 a.m. and we quickly joined the short line to drop off baggage and then a quick security check. Once cleared we were ushered to the counter and our sailpass cards were generated. We will use these to buy anything on the ship. We waited about 15 minutes before they started letting on the passengers.

We met up with Jim  & Peter of AA fame... no not Alcoholics Anonymous but American Airlines whom they both work for. We joined them for lunch, had a good chat about cruising as they are on #36 or so,  and then headed our separate ways to check out the ship.

We toured around and eventually ended up at the Sky Bar for our impromptu meet & greet with the Cruise Critic gang that Kelly has been chatting with on the forums. We met a whole bunch of great folks and enjoyed putting faces to names.  Folks from as far away as England trekked here just to meet us :-) We have an official Meet & Greet on Monday afternoon but hey we all wanted to get the party started.

Our bags arrived and we headed back to put things away before the Muster Drill at 6 pm. Dinner followed and I have to say it was the best prime rib I have ever had... amazing. Great service!
Next stop was the upper deck as we watched the sail away out of San Juan. This is a shot of the full moon above the ship.

We got our internet organized and walked the huge Royal Promenade with it’s many shops and bars. Several of which we will partake at a later date :-)
 

A bit of no luck casino action was next (see a trend here?) and after watching our funds pour into the RCL coffers we headed back to our cabin. Tomorrow it’s St Croix and our Buck Island snorkel adventure.

Adios Rincon, Hola San Juan

Today we got up at 8 a.m.... sadly the rooster next door got up at 4 a.m! Hey we are out in the country here.. it's a rustic setting and that, I told Kelly, was what makes this such a special place. Besides I chided, "When was the last time we were woken by a rooster?" In a very flat tone and a blank stare  she replied... "Yesterday morning."

We packed up our bags and I hauled the load down the stairs, up the next stairs, and finally down the last stairs to the car. It was not a big deal... in fact a good workout:-) We turned in our key and said "adios" to the friendly people at the Lazy Parrot

We departed at 10:20 and drove through Rincon, out the 115, to the #2 main highway. Kelly wanted to go this way so we could see the southern parts of the Island. We were through Mayaguez in what felt like record time and on our way south east towards Ponce.  A quick gas stop at Hormigueros to top up the tank and we were off to San Juan. The highway started to smooth out and we went through Ponce and by a huge wind farm at Santa Isabel.

Once past Salinas, Kelly was looking hard for a possible bathroom stop. "There!" she pointed at a small town on the left of the highway telling me, heck... demanding me to "take the next exit!".  As all dutiful husbands would do at this "critical juncture" I took the next exit... which just happened to be the exit to Guayma... mmm  this took us to the right, away from the town Kelly had spotted. Now a toll booth came into view.. darn this pit stop was going to cost us :-)  After the toll booth we turned around and found our way back to the #52 and, yep you guest it, another toll booth! Arghhh Oh well it was only $1.75 and the fee was automatically added to your rental bill. Very convenient! Luckily they had a rest stop there and "everything" return to normal.  See I could have just said we had a nice drive to San Juan... what fun would that be?

Funny thing though.. Hwy 52 takes you right past the Plaza Las Americas, mmmm... I looked at Kelly and she just smiled. "I just need one item", she claimed. I laughed and we quickly found a parking spot. She bolted while I programed the GPS for our final stop today at the Marriot Resort & Stellaris Casino .

I double checked the map and was all set when something happened that, well never happens! Kelly was back with her item in less that 8 minutes! I was dumbfounded & speechless.

Off we went and after taking our planned route, drove right up the entrance at the Resort. Dropped the bags and then returned the rental to Enterprise. The rental girl said I had put too much gas in and gave me a $15 credit.. I was dumbfounded & speechless, again!

Our room wasn't ready so we walked down to the area we had visited on our trip in 2011. Had a great lunch of shrimp tacos at Tijuana's Bar. It looks right across the street at UmmO Argentinean Grill where we reserved dinner for this evening. We had great memories of this place with our friend's Mark and Robyn so it was a "must" for this trip.

We checked into our room and enjoyed the afternoon with drinks and a nice relaxing view from our balcony. We even watch a wedding take place from our vantage point. Very nice!

Off to dinner as it was just a short walk from the resort down Ashford Avenue to UmmO. It was everything we expected! Great atmosphere and food. Loved it. The Volcano cake desert erupted and Kelly was swept away in the molten chocolate flow. She was done :-)

Back to the resort for some gaming action as we played some roulette and bet our favorite numbers. We quickly added our cash to the Puerto Rican economy and we then called it a night.

Tomorrow we head to the ship and meet up with the Cruise Critic gang that have become part of Kelly's life since September. Looking forward to meeting my new "relatives" :-)

Surf's up!

With Kelly suffering apparent insomnia (maybe cruise excitement!.. I don't know) at five a.m. we watched the mens semi-final at the Aussie Open before falling back to sleep. Low and behold it was still on when we "officially" woke up a couple hours later!

We had a huge game changer today as we went next door the Banana Dang coffee shop for our a.m. coffee. We decided that we will stay close to the Rincon area today as we want to return and get some pool time downstairs...it looks so inviting.

We drove off in search of some local beaches as this was supposed to be a great surfing day according to the bongo playing surfer dude we met on the first evening.  As I mentioned previously, every road down leads to the beach so off we went. We quickly found the 413 which parallels the beach down below the resort. We stopped and looked through some shops then parked at Casa Islena Inn and claimed a small stretch of Sandy beach.... and that is the name :-)  We were able to use some chairs from the Lazy Parrot and enjoyed the big rollers crashing in. Numerous surfers of all levels showed their stuff.... for a second I thought I should try it.... then I woke up:-)

Sandy Beach looking West

Hunger pangs started to creep in so we walked back and took a look at the menu at Casa Islena Inn...  the pound of peeled shrimp was all that Kelly needed to see! Lunch was great!

Sandy Beach

We headed over to both Dome and Maria's Beach and watched a huge crowd of surfers doing their thing. What a difference a day makes as these places were deserted the day before. Now they were jammed full and the folks were enjoying the surfing conditions which to my untrained eye, looked perfect.

We headed back to the Lazy Parrot and some pool time... with a cool drink I might add. We are now stretched out in those loungers you see in the top picture!

Dinner was in the upstairs restaurant at the Parrot and was very good. We then wandered down to the Rum Shack in a fitting tribute to the end of our stay in Rincon. We will head back to San Juan in the morning via the southern route through Ponce. We want to see as much of the island as possible and we are told this is a very good road and a bit quicker... not that we are in a rush.

Rum Punch.... ouch!

My eyes slowly opened this morning and I was in my bed…… this was a good sign :-)

We had some coffee and a light breakfast before loading up the car and heading out to explore. As all roads down lead to the beach we headed off to see the famous Rincon Lighthouse.  Grabbed a geocache on the way and enjoyed the great views.  Just down the road is a huge blue dome... that is home to a Nuclear Plant! Well a retired one actually..

Rincon Lighthouse

We then headed south along the coast and drove through numerous beach towns.  We  travelled through Mayaguez, Cabo Rojo and down through the Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge to our destination Cabo Rojo Los Morrillos Lighthouse on the south west corner of the island.

A few stops along the way for caches and some viewpoints with pictures of the local wildlife.

A long lunch stop at Bahia Salinas Resort and then we headed back toward home. It was a nice relaxing day of exploring. We have decided to not explore the rum punch tonight though :-)

Off to Rincon

Up at 8 am local and over to Starbucks for the obligatory morning java.  Picked up the rental car and headed back to the hotel to grab our bags.

We loaded up our Hyundai Tuscon and carefully studied the map to plan our route out of the city... yep missed our first turn :-) but after topping up with gas we quickly jumped on #2 highway and then the #22 which takes you most of the way to Rincon before magically changing back into #2.

Arrived at exit 55 and the mega outlet mall that Kelly has been dreaming about since she booked the cruise!  Very relaxed outdoor mall with the usual high end stores. Kelly was in her glory. Grabbed a bite to eat and then continued our journey towards the Lazy Parrot.

Following the directions of our hosts and the GPS we easily found our way to the resort. Other than the stairs (no elevator here) and the fact that Kelly's bag weighs 44 pounds, we settled in and decided it was time to visit the Rum Shack. This little bar was down by the pool and we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon and evening from our perch there.  We met lots of friendly people and enjoyed the atmosphere and the fabulous sunset

We got the scoop on the local beaches and surfing areas from this very nice "surfer dude"... ya that pretty much describes this wavy blond haired fellow. He even played bongos in the band! He advised that there would be no surfing Thursday.  Why I asked? Well it turns out that calm seas combined with no major weather systems approaching makes for poor waves. Poor waves makes for a surfer's day off but he pointed out that Friday was going to be great! So we plan to explore the surfing beach on Friday.

The place started to fill up and the live band played a variety of tunes. Sadly the rum punch caused the death of numerous cells in the "memory" area of my brain :-) and that's about all I can remember before hitting the rack.

Travel Day

Our DH8-400 loads up in the clag.

We had a 45 minute delay due fog in Victoria but eventually made it to Seattle with 90 minutes to spare for our next flight to Dallas, TX.  Lineups at customs and security ate up another hour and they had just started boarding our AA 737 flight when we arrived at the gate. Just time for a bathroom break!

Departure time came and went as we waited to spray and push back.. Just when I thought it  was safe Kelly found this in the seat pocket!

Finally airborne at 0922  we quickly flew out of the low cloud and into the sunshine.  Great views of Mt Rainier, Adams,  St Helens and Hood in the distance. The iPad (s) came out and we entertained ourselves with movies etc.  I watched "The Way" about an unintended journey along the  El Camino De Santiago.  Very interesting soul search.

Arrival in Dallas was uneventful and we managed to find our gate and a Margarita Bar.. mmm how convenient:-) Let the holidays begin I say.

Our trip to San Juan was straight forward and after collecting the heavy and light bags:-), we caught a van to our hotel  in Condado. A quick walk about to relieve the hunger pangs and have a cold beer.  Ah the memories! Quick stop at Walgreens and it was rack time.

It begins....

That whirling dervish of a wife of mine is finally done! Says "it's a wrap" as she plods up to bed worn out from shear excitement. Her bag is packed and weighs in at 44 lbs and she's not happy! Says that's only 6 pounds of shopping she can bring back... poor dear she is just beside herself.

My bag on the other hand was only 36 lbs because I vowed not to bring so much stuff on this trip.... so you all know what that means.... yep she now has 20 pounds available! Now she can sleep.

We are battling the fog out on the west coast as both Victoria, Seattle and Vancouver have low visibilty for aircraft operations. Lots of flights cancelled today but tomorrow is looking more promising as our plane is already here in Victoria... lower takeoff limits etc. should equal a departure... but hey what do I know ;-)

I managed to get my IMAC and GPS to actually communicate and have install various maps, geocaches & waypoints on to the trusty E-Trex Vista C. Of course I had to set our first waypoint which is the Lazy Parrot.

Hopefully the next update should come from Seattle as we work our way across North America to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I am off to bed myself as the alarm clock (Kelly's) goes off very early.