Sunshine comprehensive trip report 7/7/18 Eastern Caribbean

So we had a good breakfast and headed out for the day. Here we are arriving in Grand Turk

I had read here on CC that some people enjoy renting a golf cart to drive around Grand Turk. It is a small island and the golf carts are fun and easy to drive.

We made a reservation with the company called Wet Money to rent two golf carts at a cost of $100 each for the day.

We got off the ship around 8:45 and found Wet Money easily near the taxi stand. Waited in line for about half an hour and watched them rent a cart to the people in line in front of us. When it was our turn they told us they only had one golf cart left. I said I had reserved two, almost three months in advance.

Eventually they found us another cart. Finally by about 9:30 we were off, with the six of us sharing two 4-seat golf carts. My sister, her husband and I took the lead. My husband and 2 kids were in the second cart following behind us.

Paul said he had his gas pedal to the floor but barely putt-putted along. Every few minutes we would have to pull over to let him catch up to us. After about half an hour of this, we pulled over once again to let them catch up, but this time when we tried to take off our cart was dead. We tried everything but could not get it to budge.

Here we are pondering what to do.

So there we are on the side of the road wondering what to do. Finally we decided to try to pile all six of us on the one barely working cart and head back to the cruise terminal. It was quite the comedy. We aren't small people. We also had four sets of snorkels/fins/masks and 6 of those big Carnival beach towels, plus a backpack with water and other sundries.

We felt like we were doing a clown car routine.

So we slowly putt-putted back to the terminal where we approached the Wet Money guy, told him what happened and asked for our money back. He said he had to talk to his boss. They also wanted one of our guys to ride over to show them where we left the dead cart. So 5 of us just hung around the taxi stand area waiting for the sixth to do this.

Finally he got back and the Wet Money guy announced that he would only refund us $100 for the one cart that died. He said we still had another cart and he would not refund us for that one. He offered instead to give us a small car.

We did not want one cart that would barely go, plus a car. We had a reservation and agreement to rent two golf carts. That agreement had not been fulfilled

and I was adamant that we be refunded the full $200.

It was quite a standoff with the Wet Money guy refusing. He got on his phone a couple of times. I was very persistent. Eventually he pulled two $100 bills out of his pocket and handed them to me.

So needless to say, I suggest you avoid Wet Money.

Meanwhile, as all this was happening my sister had been talking to a lady at the taxi stand. She recommened that we take a cab to Pillory Beach, which is exactly what we did once the golf cart fiasco was resolved. Most of our morning had been wasted, but the taxi driver was friendly and gave us some history about the island as we drove. We decided to spend a couple of hours at the beach and arranged for her to come back to pick us up at a predetermined time.

We really liked Pillory Beach. Beautiful white sand, clear blue water, and not at all crowded. There were also bathrooms available and a bar. Of course you can just walk off the ship to the beach in Grand Turk but the beach there is very crowded.

Our taxi driver picked us up as we had arranged and drove us back to the cruise ship terminal. A couple of us got back on the ship, and couple others did a little shopping, and my husband I briefly checked out Margaritaville and walked down the beach to Jack's Shack. As mentioned, it was VERY crowded here. But if you like a party scene, Margaritaville was rocking and everyone looked like they were having a great time.

Sorry, I was sure I took some pics of Margaritaville including a conga line happening in the pool, but now those pics seem to have disappeared.

Here we are outside Jack's. Didn't see their famous dogs.

The next two photos are of the beach right by the pier. These were taken as the beaches were already beginning to clear out with lots of people heading back on board.

The water was beautiful in Grand Turk. Sorry to say goodbye so soon!

Back in May, two months before our cruise, I tried to get Steakhouse reservations. The only time they would offer us was 5:30pm. I tried 3 different dates, always asking if they could give us a 6:30, 7:00, or 7:30 reservation. Each time they emailed back and said the only time available was 5:30. We really didn't want to eat quite that early but since it was all we could get I said we would take the 5:30 reservation on July 9.

Once we got onboard on the first day, I went to the Steakhouse to see if we could push our reservation a little later. They said they could move us to 6:00, that was the best they could do. Ok, we'll take it.

We arrived promptly and very few people were there. It never did fill up. There were a number of tables that remained empty the entire evening. In fact, I never saw the Steakhouse full on any night so I'm not sure why they could not give us our preferred dining time.

A couple of days later, we had a notice in our room that we had the Steakhouse reserved for that night. This was an error and we cancelled it. Two days later, the same thing happened again! Apparently during our email exchange, they just kept making more reservations for us at 5:30 pm. We did not want multiple reservations. We just wanted ONE reservation at a later time. I thought I had made this clear in my emails but it must have been lost in translation.

When I went to cancel the third reservation, I mentioned this to the maître d'. When I said I had tried to get reservations two months in advance, he said "madame, we have people who make reservations two YEARS in advance." That may be true, but the place never seemed fully booked to me. Anyway....

Our meal was outstanding. We all loved it. Service was very attentive.

Here it is when we arrived at 6pm.

Alright, I know there have been dozens (hundreds) of posts about tablecloths. But I'm going to go there. This is a fine dining experience. A tablecloth does lend a sense of elegance to a table and would have been appropriate here. That's all I'm gonna say about that. ;)

French onion soup

I'm not sure what this next picture is...I think the grilled Portobello mushroom?

Escargot

Crab cake

Spinach salad

New York Strip

The chef came by our table and introduced himself. We told him we particularly liked the amuse-bouche which they described as a "chicken biscuit." It was a heavenly chicken salad of some kind served sandwiched between some very delicate wafers. Wonderful. He said they do a different one every night for 7 nights. On an 8 night or longer cruise something will be repeated.

Oddly, when we ordered a drink they immediately brought us the ticket to sign. No other restaurant did this. The others just brought us all the tickets at the end. But here, we hadn't even gotten our apps yet and they were bringing us a ticket. Not a big deal, but it sort of interrupted the flow or ambiance of the meal and just seemed odd. Imagine if you went to any restaurant and they kept making you sign the check after every course.

The chocolate sampler was to die for. I couldn't eat it all so I asked if I could take the tiramisu with me. They made me one to go!

It took us a couple of hours to get through dinner. Then we spent some time in the casino. This was a Premier cruise and the casino host was running a lot of promotions. Honestly, it was annoying. She had a shrill voice and spent a lot of time yelling into a microphone. My sister's cabin was just above the casino, and I was just above the sports bar. One day my sister thought she could hear someone fighting in a nearby cabin. Then she realized it was the casino host yelling into her mike one deck down. Another time I also heard the host while I was in my cabin. It was really loud and annoying when we were in the casino to hear her shouting out promotions.

I sat on my balcony very late watching a pretty impressive light show. There was a thunderstorm with lightning far off in the distance. Perhaps this was remnants of Hurricane Beryl? It did not affect our travels, though.

I'll be back later to tell you about our next stop, Puerto Rico!

Wonderful review and great photos!

Awesome - thank you so much for this!

I am so loving this review!! Thank you so much for all the menu pics-it's helping me budget :)

Tuesday July 10 San Juan

Guests ashore time was 1:15pm so we slept late and then went up to the lido deck for a big late breakfast/ early lunch. I had another omelet from the mongolian wok area in the back by the Havana bar. Really loved the fresh made to order omelets!

We didn't plan an excursion here. We just got off the ship and walked to the castle on our own. There was another ship disembarking around the same time and the port area was very crowded and chaotic. Finally we made our way out and walked about half an hour (almost all uphill) to the Castillo San Felipe del Morro. We spent a good hour or so here. It was fascinating. We also spent a little time strolling through the adjacent cemetery.

Then we took our time walking back through old town San Juan. We went into the beautiful Cathedral de San Juan Bautista where a wedding was in progress.

By now we had been on our feet for awhile. All of us were hot and tired, so we made our way to the restaurant Chocobar which I had read about online. It was awesome! Our waiter was great. I asked for his recommendation for a refreshing cold adult beverage. The chocolada was spot on! So good!

We ordered the grilled cheese made with cheddar and dark chocolate butter (amazing!), croquettes, and cheese plate. We shared all of these for an afternoon snack and it was all exceptionally good. We enjoyed taking the time to cool off in the air conditioning before heading out again.

Croquettes

Cheese plate

The most amazing grilled cheese ever:

If you are in old town San Juan, you really must make a stop at Chocobar. You'll thank me. :)

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We started making our way back to the ship, and stumbled across this spot where people were feeding the pigeons. It was a little creepy. Reminded me of Hitchcock's The Birds. LOL.

Here's our ship in port at San Juan

The ladies wanted to do a little shopping, but the guys were tired. So they headed back to the ship while my sister, daughter and I picked up a few souvenirs.

We all showered and then headed up to Cucina del Capitano for supper. I can't remember exactly when I made our reservation here. It was not far in advance, maybe last night or even the same day. The restaurant was not full by any means so you may be able to get last minute reservations.

Our dinner was outstanding. Everyone loved it, even my son who has Asperger's syndrome and eats a very limited variety of foods. Sorry most of my pictures turned out dark and don't show the food at its best. But believe me, everything was delicious. Portion sizes were huge. Service was outstanding. It was worth every cent of the $15 per person charge.

Bread with garlic butter

Salad

Arancini

Lamb chop?

Was it the old or new Cucina menu?

Carbonara was much creamier than the version served in the dining room. Definitely not the same preparation. Delicious!

Below is the chicken parmigiana. It may be hard to see the portion size from the picture, but it was huge. It was the size of a dinner plate. Served on a platter. We loved it!

We had a side of the roasted vegetables (broccoli and cauliflower). My picture does not do it justice. It was fantastic!

Meatballs and spaghetti

I don't even know what the picture below is, but trust me, everything was just fantastic.

Other than one experience in the Steakhouse on the Breeze several years ago, this was the first cruise that we did any specialty dining. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I'm kinda opposed to the concept, just on principle. I like the idea of cruising being all inclusive. On the other hand, our specialty dining experiences on this ship were just amazing. Very much worth the cost -- and also the convenience compared to the wait times and slow service in the dining room. Service was always exceptional in the specialty restaurants.

Was it the old or new Cucina menu?

I'm sorry, I don't know. But everything we ate was just amazing.

Definitely one advantage of going to the specialty restaurants is that you just show up at your reservation time and you are seated immediately. None of that check-in and get a pager nonsense.

We met an older couple on one of our excursions later in the cruise who have been on 50+ cruises. They said they think the main dining room is on the way out. They think it is just going to be the buffet and specialty fee-based restaurants. I don't know if they are right or not. Lots of people loved the dining room. It was always busy. I think it would be very hard for cruise lines to eliminate the "free" dining. But after our experience on this cruise, I can definitely see the appeal of the specialty restaurants.

Definitely one advantage of going to the specialty restaurants is that you just show up at your reservation time and you are seated immediately. None of that check-in and get a pager nonsense.

 

We met an older couple on one of our excursions later in the cruise who have been on 50+ cruises. They said they think the main dining room is on the way out. They think it is just going to be the buffet and specialty fee-based restaurants. I don't know if they are right or not. Lots of people loved the dining room. It was always busy. I think it would be very hard for cruise lines to eliminate the "free" dining. But after our experience on this cruise, I can definitely see the appeal of the specialty restaurants.

I always do early assigned dining. I never have to wait for a table. The table is always there waiting for me. No pager needed.

If they get rid of the "free" dining room, they would have to lower the price of the cruise quite a bit to compensate for the extra costs that will be incurred for specialty dining. I can't see any cruise line giving up that money.

Was it the old or new Cucina menu?

If Carbonara was on the menu, it was the old one. I really hate that they took it off the new menu.

I always do early assigned dining. I never have to wait for a table. The table is always there waiting for me. No pager needed.

 

 

If they get rid of the "free" dining room, they would have to lower the price of the cruise quite a bit to compensate for the extra costs that will be incurred for specialty dining. I can't see any cruise line giving up that money.

We have always done Your Time dining because we never know exactly what we will be doing or when we will be ready to eat. But we usually end up eating at roughly the same time each evening, so I think on our next cruise we will do assigned dining like you do, for exactly the reason you listed. The waiting and slow service was really a problem on this cruise.

Wednesday July 11 St Kitts

We had put out our room serice breakfast tag the night before, but today the service never arrived. Not sure what happened. We gave up waiting for it and went up to grab a quick bite on the lido deck before debarking.

I had reserved a tour with Thenford Grey way back on March 1. We went on "The Grand Tour of St. Kitts" with Grey's Island Excursions. I absolutely recommend this tour. It cost only $55 for a 6 hour tour. This is a very affordable price. We had no trouble meeting up with our tour group upon disembarking the ship. There was someone holding up a sign, easy to find.

They promptly led us to our bus. We had a group of 16 people. This is one reason I love privately booked tours: you can get much smaller, more personal experiences at better prices than the ship tours. I do not like being herded onto a huge tour bus with 40 or 50 other passengers.

So our driver was the company owner, Mr. Grey. He drove us through the narrow streets of Basseterre and pointed out some city landmarks. He was charming. Gave a very informative narrative.

We arrived at Romney Manor where our guide gave us a tour of the beautiful, lush garden, describing many of the plants and the history of the manor. We went to the batik studio and bought a slice of the most amazing homemade rum cake.

Next we went to the Brimstone Hill Fortress. I guarantee that a standard tour bus would not be able to take you here. The road and stone entry gates were narrow and it required a great deal of skill from our driver to get us to the top. We saw a few monkeys in the trees along the way. The fortress was fascinating.