Sail along with us - Indy 8-day Caribbean Report (Picture heavy)

[Paulette3028]

Every day I am one day closer to boarding Indy on Valentine's Day!

[CruisinCJ]

Thank you for sharing your Indy experience with us!

 

We are on count down.

 

Carol

[americ0621]

Sailing in March 2015, I will read every word! Terrific pictures!

[M&JfromSDL]

I haven't forgotten about you all! Another update is brewing! Work has been busy...

[M&JfromSDL]

January 6, 2015 Cont.

St. Maarten

 

Again, tonight's main dining room dress code was "Casual / Tropical so I ended up wearing a Guayabera shirt and slacks.

 

Nothing inspired me tonight for dinner. My wife of course started with the escargot and I opted for a Caesar salad. I forget what the Mrs. ordered but I went with the broiled salmon. It was good, just nothing special. Didn't even garner a photo. lol

 

 

Dessert on the other hand, was very good!

 

 

But we had other priorities for the evening. We needed to score good seats for the Love and Marriage Show!

 

 

Mrs. M&JfromSDL insisted we try and be one of the couples on stage. Last time I volunteered to be apart of a show on a cruise ship I found myself dressed as Prince acting like an idiot on stage.

 

The couples were all very nice but the material was kind of tame and the show seemed to go on forever.

 

Once it was over we were ready to walk around and have some fun. Mrs. M&JfromSDL had her eye on a ring for sale on the Promenade so we went back and purchased it.

 

 

Afterwards, we made a pitstop at you guessed it...Sorrento's. I mean who can resist a hot slice of pizza at midnight while on vacation?

 

Edited January 20, 2015 by M&JfromSDL

[paladinpride]

My husband, mom and I were on the same sailing for mom's 60th birthday! Awesome ship and awesome time!! :)

Edited January 20, 2015 by paladinpride
Add pictures

[M&JfromSDL]

January 7, 2015

St. Kitts

 

We began our morning by sleeping in a bit. As a matter of fact we were docked and folks were disembarking when we put our feet on the floor and made the trek up to the Windjammer.

 

For some reason we both didn't have much of an appetite. This was probably a precursor for the day as I think we stuck to fruit and a few light items.

 

Our plan was to walk into town and scout out a pharmacy for an essential item or two. Then jump in a cab and head to Cockleshell Beach.

 

It was hot in St. Kitts and not nearly as breezy as St. Maarten. My wife has an issue where her body has a difficult time regulating her core temperature and basically dehydrates itself as it tries to cool down. She has to be sure to stay well hydrated and avoid intense heat like Las Vegas, Arizona and the Caribbean...the three places we love to travel to. So we grabbed a large bottle of Evian from the Cafe Promenade, drank it and off we went.

 

We grabbed what we needed to in the downtown area and jumped in a cab. I could tell she wasn't feeling 100% but we figured an air conditioned car ride would help.

 

The cab ride over to Cockleshell was LONG. You climb large hills, drop a few hundred feet, climb another hill, lots of poorly maintained windy roads and add in the cement mixer we got stuck behind it took us nearly an hour to get there.

 

The island of St. Kitts is absolutely stunning. It reminded me of Hawaii. We eventually arrived at Cockleshell beach. There are 3 or 4 different restaurants offering food, libations and lounge chairs. We ended up at the Spice Mill restaurant. Note to readers: they take credit cards! Caribs were $4 a bottle and the chairs were $20 for 2 I believe.

 

Unfortunately, due to my wife not feeling well we never made it to the beach. I could tell as we got out of the cab that her body was not cooling itself down. She looked flush, dizzy and overheated. She tried to stick with the beach day even going to so far as changing into her swimsuit but it was quickly apparent that we needed to get her back to the ship, hydrated and in cooler air.

 

So off we went on another island tour. Luckily this time, the cab had great air conditioning and it took about 35 minutes to return to the port.

 

I made sure she drank more water, cooled down in the room and then tucked her in for a nap. I went and sat out by the pool and enjoyed the largely empty ship.

 

 

Edited January 20, 2015 by M&JfromSDL

[M&JfromSDL]

 

 

I'm a bit of an aviation nerd so I enjoyed watching this American Airlines Boeing 737 come in for a landing at St. Kitts airport.

 

 

My sleeping beauty awoke from her nap feeling as good as new and joined me out by the pool for a turkey burger from the Windjammer and a virgin frozen drink. I stuck with a Pina Colada.

 

 

And what to my wondering aviation geek eyes had appeared, but one British Airways Boeing 777 on approach to St. Kitts.

 

 

So I ran to the forward part of Deck 12 and captured this video:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21203547@N07/16081238310/in/set-72157647943679013

 

Soon enough it was time to sail away.

 

[M&JfromSDL]

[

[M&JfromSDL]

 

Off we go!

[M&JfromSDL]

After sailaway we returned to our cabin to get ready for dinner. Dress code tonight was smart casual. I stuck to my signature button down and slacks. The Mrs. had a lovely black dress for the evening.

 

We started off at Vintages (of course!) where Jayesh suggested a lovely French Rose for the Mrs.

 

 

He even went so far as to prepare a small tapas plate to hold us over until dinner.

 

 

We had great tablemates at dinner tonight so no photos from dinner. We were too busy chatting!

 

After dinner we took to the casino for a quick try at Kitty Glitter then it was up to the Dog and Badger pub to grab a beer.

 

 

Tonight's beer of choice was Grolsch!

 

Edited January 20, 2015 by M&JfromSDL

[M&JfromSDL]

Thursday, January 8, 2015

San Juan

We had an early arrival in San Juan. 7:00am to be precise. By now I'd given up on my normal tradition of waking early to watch us pull into port. We were docked and disembarking by the time I pulled the curtains back.

 

We were both eager to get out and explore Old San Juan. I visited Puerto Rico back in 2005 and wanted to explore Old San Juan on a more indepth level. Plus I was craving good Puerto Rican food. The docking of the Carnival Breeze suspended gangway operations for about 15 or 20 minutes so it gave us some time to run up to the Windjammer and grab some food.

 

Not looking to repeat the day before we made sure to get to bed at a reasonable hour and stay hydrated. But nevertheless San Juan was stagnant and super hot. So we ended up depositing Mrs. M&JfromSDL back at the cabin pretty early in the morning.

 

Eager to explore and not wanting to keep her awake by fidgeting in the cabin I set out on my own to explore Old San Juan.

 

 

I came across this awesome band playing in one of the parks. Below is a photo and a link to a video I took of them.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21203547@N07/16242728966/in/set-72157647943679013

 

 

 

 

Edited January 20, 2015 by M&JfromSDL

[M&JfromSDL]

Old San Juan is beautiful. It's what I imagine Havana was like pre-revolution when my grandparents were growing up. By now I was getting hungry and wanted to take advantage of the cell signal to check in on work.

 

I bookmarked some places to eat on Yelp before leaving home and decided to check out Cafe Manolin.

 

 

Let's just say I was not disappointed.

 

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Here are some more shots I took while walking around Old San Juan:

 

[M&JfromSDL]

It's a shame the San Juan call was such a short day. All Aboard was at 1:30pm. I arrived back at the pier around 12:30 and waited on a LONG line. It took almost 30 minutes to get back on the ship. I'm glad my wife's heat issues presented earlier in the day because she most likely would have had an issue waiting on the line in the direct sun.

 

By the time I made it back to the cabin she was up and feeling much better. I was disappointed she missed the 2 ports of call we were most excited for, but glad she was feeling okay and in good spirits.

 

She was hungry (I was not) so we headed up to the Windjammer to grab lunch before sail away.

 

I ate again of course.

 

And she had another turkey burger. She said they were great so what the hey!

 

We went up to deck 12 for sail away. It was nice and breezy up there so we enjoyed the sites and sounds out on deck. There were a bunch of ships in port with us today.

 

 

Great views of Isla Verde airport. Got to watch this helicopter and a Blackhawk practice landings.

 

 

Away we go!

 

Edited January 20, 2015 by M&JfromSDL

[M&JfromSDL]

[M&JfromSDL]

I honestly cannot remember what we did inbetween sailaway and getting ready for dinner. If I had to guess it involved Vintages, Boleros, the casino, walking around the promenade and maybe a quick nap.

 

Nevertheless tonight was our 2nd formal night. So we showered and got all fancified and headed up to the Promenade. We started out at Vintages and enjoyed a nice glass of white wine.

 

 

But I was in the mood for a Martini and we wanted a change of scenery so we relocated to the Schooner Bar.

 

The bartender (whose name escapes me) makes easily one of the best Grey goose martinis I've ever had. I'm not a martini snob but I've had a few in my life to be able to discern a good one from a bad one and a great one from a good one.

 

Bond...

 

After our cocktail hour we headed into dinner. Again, we had great dinner mates tonight. Actually, we had great dinner mates the entire week. We pretty much sat in the same section each night which was good because we enjoyed having Fernando as our server. It seemed we dined with the same pool of folks each night too!

 

Keeping with my forgettable culinary experience on this cruise, I cannot tell you what I ate for dinner. No photos either. I have the menus downloaded but can't remember which one was in effect tonight.

 

We took another set of formal photos after dinner. The first evening's set were taken on the lighted bridge near guest services. The background seemed really dark. The lighting there is tough. For the 2nd set we took our photos on the stairs leading down to the On-Air club across from Boleros.

 

These came out much better except for the shots that showed the wear in the carpet. It was kind of awkward. I'm surprised they don't replace this area of carpet more frequently. But I digress.

 

The sounds from the band playing at Boleros were too good to pass up. But it was far too warm to dance in my tux. So we jammed back to the cabin, put on more comfortable clothes and returned to dance.

 

 

And after a few martinis my salsa and merengue skills are actually halfway decent. So we danced for a good hour or so. I enjoyed a couple of Lorenzo's AWESOME mojitos too!

 

We shot up to Olive and Twist where we caught the tail end of the Jazz Cabaret band. I have to say the music on this cruise was awesome. We're not big into the production shows but we enjoy live music and dancing. It's not something we do at home so being able to go from a latin lounge to another where a jazz band is playing within 5 minutes or so is pretty neat. It's one of those things that makes cruising so special. It affords the opportunity to break out of the norm and try new things.

 

 

Unfortunately the jazz band stopped playing just before midnight. In search of something to do we took a stroll through the casino where we promptly won $130 playing Pelican Pete! Woot! Not looking to try our luck any more we headed towards On-Air to check out karaoke. The karaoke crowd was going pretty strong so we stopped and watched for a bit.

 

[M&JfromSDL]

Soon enough it was midnight and that meant my lovely, now only slightly younger other half could start her birthday celebration! So we headed back up to see Jayesh to take advantage of our Moet and Chandon privilege for a little birthday toast!

 

 

While Jayesh poured the bubbly I ran down to the Cafe Promenade to grab a sweet little dessert to sing happy birthday with! The sweet dessert was soon replaced by Sorrento's. LOL

 

 

After enjoying late-night pizza we returned to our cabin, tucked in our towel bat and fell asleep. I had a birthday surprise instore for my Mrs. and I needed her to be in top condition to enjoy it.

 

Thank you all for reading. Good night!

 

[Suzcruz57]

Soon enough it was midnight and that meant my lovely, now only slightly younger other half could start her birthday celebration! So we headed back up to see Jayesh to take advantage of our Moet and Chandon privilege for a little birthday toast!

 

 

While Jayesh poured the bubbly I ran down to the Cafe Promenade to grab a sweet little dessert to sing happy birthday with! The sweet dessert was soon replaced by Sorrento's. LOL

 

 

After enjoying late-night pizza we returned to our cabin, tucked in our towel bat and fell asleep. I had a birthday surprise instore for my Mrs. and I needed her to be in top condition to enjoy it.

 

Thank you all for reading. Good night!

 

Thanks for your pics and report. Good reading

[mickev99]

After sailaway we returned to our cabin to get ready for dinner. Dress code tonight was smart casual. I stuck to my signature button down and slacks. The Mrs. had a lovely black dress for the evening.

 

We started off at Vintages (of course!) where Jayesh suggested a lovely French Rose for the Mrs.

 

 

 

He even went so far as to prepare a small tapas plate to hold us over until dinner.

 

 

 

 

Were the tapas at Vintages an extra charge? I'm sad to say we never made it to Vintages on our Freedom cruise, we pretty much hung out at the pub, but after reading your review, we will definitely spend some time there when we're on Indy in July!

[M&JfromSDL]

Were the tapas at Vintages an extra charge? I'm sad to say we never made it to Vintages on our Freedom cruise, we pretty much hung out at the pub, but after reading your review, we will definitely spend some time there when we're on Indy in July!

 

 

Yes they were free. Each night they had a different selection. Some night it was ham and a couple of different cheeses.

[chellecruise12]

Was the beach in St Kitts nice? Cockelshell? We are taking a tour with Thenford Grey & will be stopping there in March..

[Folk Singer]

Thank you for the Photos. They brought back a lot of happy Memoires.:):)

Edited January 20, 2015 by Folk Singer

[M&JfromSDL]

Was the beach in St Kitts nice? Cockelshell? We are taking a tour with Thenford Grey & will be stopping there in March..

 

Beach was really nice. I wish we could have stayed longer. If we can repeat this itinerary again we will. We love the combo of eastern caribbean with a stop in Labadee.

 

Thank you for the Photos. They brought back a lot of happy Memoires.:):)

 

Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment!

[WarEagleLady]

I think my question got lost in the comments.. but was Moet included in the drink package? Enjoying your review!

Edited January 21, 2015 by WarEagleLady

[At Sea 4Ever]

I haven't forgotten about you all! Another update is brewing! Work has been busy...

 

 

Where in north jersey are you from? We are in Bergen county!

 

 

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