Kteacher

Today was our stop in St Maarten. I booked an excursion through the ship, Small Group: Dutch Blonde Beach Bar: French Wine and Cheese Tasting. The excursion included round trip water taxi fare, 5 good size pours with cheese pairings and details about what we were tasting. The owner was funny and very entertaining. We ended up staying for lunch, then spent about an hour at the beach in front of the restaurant (chairs and an umbrella were also included). Tonight we have reservations for Le Petit Chef, and tomorrow I was able to get a dinner reservation for the Lawn Club Grill, which had been showing no availability. Photos from the excursion-

Thank you!

So Luminae was slammed again tonight 😑. Plus the ship had an inspection today 😑. So courses were a bit slow to arrive, but we get it. There’s a function for some crew tonight in preparation for next week’s first visit to Coco Cay, so we said just give us whatever desserts you have left and we’ll take them to go because we’re good and y’all go and have fun and enjoy. Please remember to acknowledge the hard work of the crew ❤️

I met with the Future Cruise Consultant and was able to book a Signature Suite for April of 2026. I know there was a thread on here a few weeks ago about what comes with that suite and I was told the same as the higher end suites- bottles of spirits for the cabin, specialty dining, and free laundry service. We’re hoping to get a peek on turn around day.

Today was a beautiful beach day at Magens Bay. Taxi fare is 15.00 pp and there is a 7.00 entrance fee. Two chairs and an umbrella will cost you 40.00. It was quiet when we arrived around 10 but was pretty busy by around noon.

Now that I’m a little more awake I can add a bit more description to our experience at Marmalade last night. It’s a 5 course tasting menu with an addition of their signature dish, the white bean soup, for everyone. These are the descriptions of our selections from Marmalade’s website:

We were able to talk to the speaker for about 10 minutes prior to the start of his presentation, so well worth it to attend in person.

If you enjoy thoughtfully prepared food done by a passionate chef I would recommend Marmalade. We were lucky enough to have the chef stop by our table twice to talk about his food and wine pairings and inspirations. Here’s a few photos from our meal

Our TA contacted Celebrity to have our anniversary noted by the ship

Tonight was our 3rd time dining at Marmalade. It’s located on Calle Fortaleza, reservations recommended. I reserved on Open Table and noted our anniversary. The restaurant had rose petals waiting for us in our table ❤️. They do a 5 course meal which you can add a wine pairing with and I would suggest a good 3 hours for this meal. My husband started with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, a Hendricks and tonic concoction with cucumber and jalapeño.

We are now docked in San Juan. Unfortunately the Sail In on the helipad was cancelled, so we watched the sail in from our balcony. Tonight we are off to one of our favorite restaurants, Marmalade. I’ll review when we get back, but may not take photos so I don’t disturb other diners.

The Beyond the Podium speaker wasn’t listed in today’s schedule so wasn’t as well attended as yesterday’s. It was just as informative. He’ll be back tomorrow afternoon and again on the last sea day. We still had a bunch of OBC so decided to use some in Persian Garden passes for the remainder of the cruise. We don’t dock until 4 pm in San Juan so will put the passes to good use this afternoon before we head out to dinner at Marmalade. We are trying to save room for this dinner but I still managed to eat most of the peach French toast at breakfast-

We got back to our cabin and the Moet mystery from yesterday was solved. It made a reappearance along with a decorated room, cake, lovely note, and a bottle of wine from the Marketing Director. Happy Anniversary to us- 45 years together, and 40 years married ❤️

Michael’s Club was packed for the Officer’s Soirée 😳. We were able to get some info about next sailing, which will be the first time a Celebrity ship stops at Coco Cay (stay tuned). We then went to the show, which was a magician, and a very entertaining one at that. Luminae dinner service was a bit off. It looked like they got slammed and we arrived at the tail end (8:00). Courses were very slow to arrive, and before our main courses we were served a plate of desserts - macarons, cookies, and chocolates 🙃.

Recap of the first sea day- Relaxing afternoon reading, packed Michael’s Club for the Officer’s Soirée, great magician in the theatre, crazy busy Luminae for dinner, and a mystery solved.