samiam0403

Next up: San Juan, Puerto Rico - 0700-1600. All aboard seemed very early 1500, maybe?

We had a leisurely breakfast, and had planned to have lunch on shore with another absolutely wonderful couple we had met early on (hi John and Dianne!). Francesca, the chief purser also joined us. We met up at around 1200 to get off the ship and grab a taxi. $35 total for the 5 of us for a ride to the Fairmont el San Juan Hotel. The hotel is absolutely gorgeous, and we had a lunch reservation at Caña by Juliana Gonzales. One bottle of wine, delicious lunch, and a tad bit of gambling in the attached casino, and it was time to head back to the ship. Really wish we'd had more time in San Juan, but I suppose if we hadn't slept in we'd have had plenty of time! For those interested, the ship docked at Dock 4 in San Juan. 

St Barts - cont. I finally cooled off, and started getting ready for dinner when hubs made it back to the ship with time to spare. He had climbed dang near every hilly street in Gustavia, and had a great time. I was pleasantly surprised when he showed up with an orange bag for me. This one's a keeper, ladies!

No specialty dining tonight - it's Thanksgiving! A turkey dinner was available in all dining venues, so no worries there. We went to dinner in the GDR with a lovely couple we met earlier in the cruise. O did a fine job with Thanksgiving dinner!

St Barts - cont. We walked for quite a while, and decided to head back to the main strip. Found a great little shop, Les Canebiers, where hubs found a few linen button-down shirts and I snagged a great beachy dress. At that point, we were melting from the heat, and found a small juice bar/smoothie shop/cafe called Kaz á Juice for some smoothies. Absolutely delightful! Finally we headed back down to the main shopping area to do some damage to my credit cards at Hermès. But quelle horreur! We had waited too long, and they were closed for lunch from 1400-1630. Drying my tears with the money I saved, I headed back to the ship to get cooled off in some A/C. Hubs stayed ashore to do more walking and wandering as he usually does. All aboard was 1730, so imagine my surprise when ship's security called our cabin at 1645 asking where my husband was. I let them know he was still on shore and that was that. 

Once in downtown Gustavia, we walked around the port area, and down the main street. Had to check out which shops were there and do some planning! But first, lunch. We stopped at Cantina on Rue du Bord de Mer. We had heard horror stories about a quick lunch and 2 sodas costing over 100 euro, but we had 2 mains (a sort of duck shepherds pie and a burger and fries that were AMAZING), a large bottle of Evian, and a pina colada, and the total was around 55 euro. Not bad at all. Would definitely recommend Cantina! After that, we just wandered the town. 

Next up: St Barts. This is the port I was most looking forward to. And we had an incredible time. No excursions planned, just wandering and shopping. And eating. St Barts was a tender port, and we headed ashore as soon as excursions were all shuttled off. The process was super easy - head to the Sirena Lounge and get a tender ticket. We waited maybe 10 minutes and were off. Seas were a bit rough, but the crew did an incredible job of safely getting people off and on the tender. Tenders were the ship's life boats and it was a quick ride over to Gustavia. 

Ok, back to it. Day 6 was Roseau, Dominica. Beautiful day, but I spent the day basically being a potato. Finished another book, chit-chatted with folks on the ship, and ate too much. We've been to Dominica previously, and I had no desire to go awandering. Hubs got off the ship and walked around town for quite a while. Beautiful day, but I wasn't feeling it. We had our second reservation at Tuscan Steak this night, and it was definitely better than the first night. Only one minor mishap - hubs ordered the Caprese Salad after his starter, and it never came. My salad came, and after quite a wait, we flagged down our server and asked where his was. After a look of sheer panic, and an approximate 10 minute wait, he had his salad. On the upside, he said it was amazing. I don't even like tomatoes, and I thought it looked fabulous! I had the pasta trio, and it was delicious, but so much food! Tuscan Steak is still in last place for us amongst all of O's specialty restaurants. Seems they had too many tables, and not enough staff. 

Hi all! Sorry to have dropped off on posting! We were just having such a lovely time with some folks we met on board, and galavanting about the islands. I'll do my best to go back and fill in gaps, answer questions, and post pics. We are back at home and counting down the days until our next O cruise in April!

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

Sorry to hear that

 I would have  a chat with the GM  about  the perpetrators ...there is no need for that kind of behavior

JMO

 

Thank you for taking the time to post photos  etc.. We have not been on Sirena & I know she is  a bit different than the other R ships

Hope the rest of the cruise is better

I like to think it won't happen again - at least from the same people. Not wanting to rock the boat (pun intended) too terribly much, I politely and succinctly let them know that I would not tolerate it. Obviously, I won't change minds, but I can rest a little easier knowing I at least said something.

You're very welcome for the posts/pics - I know I found so little updated information on Sirena on the boards, so I thought someone else might at least appreciate my pics. If not my ramblings. 🤣

St Vincent from the ship.

Martinis' cocktail menu.

St Vincent pics.

Bow of Sirena.

Sorry for missing posting yesterday - I was in a bit of a mood. I'm not sure what it is that makes people think it's ok to randomly spew bigoted/racist nonsense to perfect strangers, but it happened FIVE TIMES yesterday. Clearly some people's mothers never taught them the old 'if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all' maxim. We've discovered that the smaller ship size of Sirena means you consistently see the same people everywhere you go - which is both a blessing and a curse!

Anywho, day before yesterday was an unscheduled sea day. Lazed about the ship, ordered room service, and attended a veterans' gathering in Martinis in the afternoon. It wasn't printed in the Currents, but one gentleman approached Dottie about setting something up. Et voila. Around 15 or 20 people showed up and it was a lovely gathering.

Yesterday was St Vincent as a port stop, and we had an O excursion booked for 1230. Unfortunately, due to missing St Kitts, we arrived in St V much earlier than planned, so they bumped our tour to 0830. Have I mentioned I'm not a morning person? Also, there were expected thunderstorms in the morning, and it was raining off and on, so we skipped it. I had no desire to spend 6.5 hours in the rain on a beach. Later in the day, hubs and I just got off the ship and wandered the downtown areas. Everyone was so friendly in town! 

Lunch yesterday was at Waves - cuban sandwich and fries for me, wagyu hamburger and fries for hubs. As always, it hit the spot. Dinner in the Grand Dining Room was Taste of India, and everything was incredible. Maybe one of the best meals we've had on the ship - but when they're all great (except for you, Tuscan Steak!), it's hard to tell. 

Spent a little time in the casino, and as usual, finished up the evening in Horizons with new friends. We've met so many lovely people on the ship, that they mostly counterbalance the cranks. 

I finished my book from the library yesterday and so am off to the library to find another, and then snag some lunch. Meanwhile, here are some pics from yesterday. First up, the coffee machine/pastry selections in Horizons in the morning...

5 minutes ago, ORV said:

They have the same style in that spot on Regatta. I believe that's outside Martinis right before the casino. 

You are correct! 

Room service menu, cont.

Room service menus, cont.

Room service menus (swiped from the television, so apologies for the poor quality): 

Baristas menu:

Horizon's bar pics: 

Next up: drink menus for anyone who's curious. First - Horizons menus.

Ok, so I saw the apple almond dessert at lunch today (Taste of Greece day for lunch), but by the time we exited the GDR, the menu was already replaced by the dinner menu. Ditto for the menus on the television! I'll try to find someone to ask at dinner tonight.

2 minutes ago, ToxM said:

Westbound or eastbound TA in 2024? We are doing westbound in Nov, with two friends from the March TA this year, so we’ll see you in the smoking section if so as we will be there socialising lots (it is the best place on the ship to make friends!).

 

 

We're on the westbound TA from Amsterdam to New York. We'll see you there!

Hey, I think I finally got the hang of this picture adding thingamajig! Hallelujah!