vacationlady

They don't take pictures, you to have your own camera.

Normandie was great for fine dining. The food was excellent. I just enjoyed Qsine because it was so different. I will have to ask for the discount the next time. They only offered the discount at the end of the cruise in Qsine Restaurant. Have you received discounts just for asking in the other speciality restaurants?

We tried the Qsine Restaurant on the Celebrity Summit during our cruise in November. We did not book any specialty restaurant ahead of time. They offered a 20% off during our sea day and we tried it. We ate at the Normandie Restaurant a couple of days before with no discount. I would take the Qsine over the Normandie if you only had to choose one. You can see my review with pictures here.

http://winenchocolate.com/qsine-restaurant-on-celebrity-summit/

We use a Cannon D10 Power Shot. We also bought a floating wrist strap from Amazon to attach to the camera so we don't lose it. If it falls off the wrist, it goes to the surface. We have never had any problems.

When we went in Nov, the taxi wanted $80 round trip to take us to Screws. I thought that was way to expensive. Ended up taking a tour for $30 with another guy and they dropped us off at another place. It was ok, but when we went back to the ship we passed right by Screws Spa, so the taxi lied to us. I think he must have gotten a kick back from where he took us.

I did a post on my blog if you want to see pictures of taking the ferry from St Thomas to Water Island.

http://winenchocolate.com/our-day-trip-to-water-island-from-st-thomas/

Captain Mike was great to deal with. I would definitely use his services again.

There is a great bar (Rhythms) located at Rainbow beach, the last two pictures on my post. And of course if you go to Cruzan Rum you will get two drinks there:):) Remember Cruzan Rum only takes credit cards.

We use a GPS when we travel and have no problems. The roads seem in better condition than St Thomas. We did not have any traffic (but we were there on a Sunday). It's a very pretty island to explore. You get used to driving on the left once you do it, but that is easy for me to say as I am the passenger:):):)

I did a post on my blog for our day trip to Water Island. There are plenty of pictures if you would like to see what to expect.

Definitely order lunch early from Heidi, as everything is made fresh and she gets very busy.

http://winenchocolate.com/our-day-trip-to-water-island-from-st-thomas/

I just did a post on my blog about our half day sail with Fury Charters. It was a great tour that we were able to walk to our pickup point from the cruise ship. We were able to swim with the turtles and see plenty of fish. Captain Mike was great to deal with and we still had the afternoon to enjoy St Thomas.

http://winenchocolate.com/our-half-day-sail-with-fury-charters/

The person sitting beside us brought his own snorkeling gear and went out snorkeling from the beach but said it was not that great. Maybe someone else can comment about it.

I just did a post on my blog with pictures about spending the day on Grand Anse Beach using Lazy Days. Jonathan set us up with a chair and umbrella and Mary got our drinks/food, they were fantastic. We took the water taxi over and just kept walking down the beach until we found Lazy Days. You could not ask for nicer people. The other vendors were really pushy trying to get us to rent from them as we walked down the beach. I am glad we found Lazy Days, I wish more vendors would be like them. It is a beautiful beach to spend the day and an easy DIY from the cruise ship.

http://winenchocolate.com/our-day-on-grenada/

I'm glad you enjoy it. Have fun in the ports, we really enjoyed them. By getting out and exploring on your own, it will help you decide if it is a place you want to return...

I found Athens a very easy DIY port if you get out early to beat the crowds. The subway was very easy to use. It was an easy walk from the ship to the subway. You can read about my day here along with pictures.

http://winenchocolate.com/our-day-in-athens-greece/

This is a post on our DIY for Corfu. We rented a car which was close to where the ship docked and drove around.

http://winenchocolate.com/corfu-greece/

We took the Rum Tour on our own, when we rented the car for the day on the island. It is definitely a fun tour as it was only $8 per person and it included two drinks. Where else can you go and get two drinks for $8. You can see my post with pictures from the tour. This was a great island to visit with beautiful beaches. Very easy to drive around. Get out and explore, totally different than from St Thomas.

http://winenchocolate.com/our-day-in-st-croix/

I just posted about our day on Dominica with pictures. We waited until we got to the island to book a tour. Lesson learned: Make sure everyone is paying the same price for the tour and you all agree to what is expected before leaving for the tour. You can read about my day here:

http://winenchocolate.com/our-day-on-dominica/

This was our first time visiting St Croix. We rented a car and drove around the island. I would highly recommend renting a car as we got to see and do a lot more. This island was easy to get around and totally different from St Thomas. You can see pictures and read about our day on my blog at

http://winenchocolate.com/our-day-in-st-croix/

We spent time in Capri and Positano this past August/September and used the ferry system from Naples to Capri and from Capri to Positano. The ferry from Capri went to Amalfi before going to Positano. We went to Sorrento for the day from Positano using the bus system and tried to take the ferry back but we missed the last ferry. The ferry system is easy to use, but you will have to look at the schedule. Remember the ferries do not run if the weather is bad so make sure you have a back up plan. The ferry only takes cash, so keep that in mind in your planning. If you would like to see pictures check out my site

winenchocolate dot com

We stayed in Riomaggiore for a couple of day at the end of August. We really enjoyed all the towns but felt we made the right choice for us in staying in Riomaggiore. We were only able to hike from Monterosso to Vernazza and Vernazza to Corniglia. The other trails were closed. We did both trails in one day but started early. If you go to the town of Vernazza walk to the top of the hill for the view. You will get good pictures from this vantage point without going on the trail. Monterosso is the largest town, it has an old section and new section to explore. Manarola is the smallest town, but you can get great pictures of the town and the harbor if you take the beginning of the trail, you can not go very far, but you will get some pretty pictures from this point. Do your research on all the towns to see which one suits you, as they are all different. Enjoy the food and take time to relax and enjoy the views. Cinque Terre is a beautiful place to spend time. Keep in mind that if you want to use the ferry, they do not run if in bad weather so have a backup plan. If you ride the train, they are very crowded. Make sure you have a train ticket and are going in the right direction. The conductor was on all the trains we rode in Cinque Terre checking tickets and fining people for not having the right ticket.

If you want to see pictures of our time in Cinque Terre and what each village looks like along with our hikes you can see them on my web site at

winenchocolate dot com

Enjoy Cinque Terre its worth the visit.

As everyone has said Capri is a very easy port to DIY. Cash is required to pay for ferry tickets. Try to get the first boat out and purchase your return tickets when you arrive. I did a post along with pictures about 5 Things to do in Capri for the day to help people DIY the island of Capri, which you can see at

winenchocolate dot com.

Capri is one of my favorite islands to visit.

I meant to say Hotel Berna in Milan Sorry.....

I am a big DIY person. You can go at your own pace and your are not tied to an expensive tour. For Rome, you could take the train and then take the hop off hop on bus to get around Rome. Naples - you could take the ferry to Capri and get around on the local bus, and La Spezia, you can take the train to the 5 villages and wonder around or if the ferry is running, you could take the ferry. It was only running one of the days we were there, but the train is very easy to use. You will not be able to hike the trails with a stroller, but you could walk some of the trail before having to turn around just to get some get pictures but you can take the train from town to town. For more info, you can see my write ups. If if you are not familiar on how to ride the trains in Italy I did a write up on that also. Doing your homework before you go will help you get around with ease. Have a great trip we love Italy.

winenchocolate dot com

I would stay at Hotel Milano, which is 30 min train ride to the airport. You can see my write up along with the free wonderful breakfast they serve in the morning. It is only a couple of blocks to the train station from the hotel. You can also walk through the tunnel from the metro station to get to the train station and the metro is only a block from the hotel. They serve everything at the breakfast you could possible ask for.

winenchocolate dot com