Breakaway 14 Day Southern Caribbean Review with lots of pictures (and the Haven)

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You can't tell from the previous pictures, but there were some serious hills on this drive. I have to admit I was a little nervous. The driver was driving really fast and chatting away about St Maarten and pointing things out in all different directions. I just wanted him to pay attention to the road!

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We arrived safely and were led to the dock and onboard the boat.

 

Once onboard and seated, we were on our way out towards two reefs.

 

This is the dock.

 

The water was beautiful.

 

That was our destination in the distance. We would be going between the two reefs. Once we were in a good spot, we would go below deck and see under the water.

 

Heading below

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[MizDemeanor]

Really enjoying your travel review!!!

[ncklhaus]

Really enjoying your travel review!!!

 

Thank you! More to come. :D

[3Fluffies]

This is a marvelous review and great pictures! Looking forward to more!

[ncklhaus]

This is a marvelous review and great pictures! Looking forward to more!

 

Aww thanks! I still can't believe that all of my pictures were taken with my phone.

I'll be writing more tonight.

[ncklhaus]

Let me go back just a bit. Remember I had asked where we were supposed to meet our excursion group and I was told the wrong information? If I were smart, I would have looked at all 3 of our excursion tickets, not just one. Because on mine it was clearly marked where to meet. See for yourself.

 

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Now back to the review. As you can see, the name of the excursion was "Seaworld Explorer". Once we went below deck we all had a seat that flipped down from the wall. It was amazing because the fish are used to this boat and they would come right up to the windows. That's because they know they are about to be fed. Yep. Once we are in position, a diver goes off the boat and had food for the fish. They eat out of his hands and he makes sure we can all see.

 

Under the sea. Look how blue!

 

A video clip

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Another clip

 

And another

 

Yet another clip

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If you don't normally click on the videos, these next two are really cool and I suggest you check them out. All together, they are 43 seconds long, and it is the diver feeding the fish.

 

 

 

 

These next 3 just give you a good idea of how many fish you can see. They are a total of 42 seconds.

 

 

 

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A few more underwater shots

 

 

We went back up on deck and enjoyed the ride back to the dock. Would I do this excursion again? I think so.

 

Then it was a quick walk back to our bus for some more white knuckle driving and a bunch of interesting information.

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Our driver was telling us all about the island. It is actually 2 separate countries. It has a French side and a Dutch side. This is a foot bridge that divides them. So as you are crossing it, you can have one foot in each country. Pretty cool.

 

 

 

Flags from both countries

 

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There is also a great disparity in wealth. Most people are living in poverty. At one point the driver asked the group if any of us were police or politicians. We were not. That's when he pointed out the haves and the have nots. He said most of the government is corrupt and that is why the police live in mansions and everyone else lives in run down homes or even shacks.

 

Once we were getting close to the port he let some people that wanted to go shopping off before we would be driving into the secure port area. After he let them off, he advised the rest of us that we were going to be boarded and checked by the police. We should stay quiet, have our cruise cards in one hand and have both hands up on the head rest in front of us so the police can see them. Umm, holy crap. That made me very nervous, but everyone did as they were told and the police officer was on and back off our bus in just a few minutes. Phew.

 

The driver then brought us back to the entrance to the pier and off we went.

 

Here's a picture of St Maarten decorated for Christmas still. Very pretty.

 

We decided to just get back on the ship after that.

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It was around noon and we were getting hungry so we went to.....O'Sheehan's for lunch. I bet you thought I was going to say the Haven.

 

Blurry photos of the menu

 

Mike and I had burgers and Melissa had a hot dog. I knkw, shocking.

 

As we were in port and it was lunch time, we were able to see a group of children that were participating in the Port Play lunch. There may have been 6 children and 2 counselors. The counselors bring activities for the kids to do while they eat, like coloring pages and crayons and they also played verbal games. If I were to ever leave Melissa onboard during one of these times (I haven't), I would be very comfortable with it after seeing how it was handled.

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I'm pretty sure I haven't posted this yet, but this is the Shore Excursion Order Form

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After we eat in O'Sheehan's, we dropped Melissa off at Splash Academy for a bit. They were going to do a craft and she really wanted to go. Mike and I had a few drinks before heading back to the room. Mid-afternoon snacks were there again.

Mozzarella sticks

 

Vanilla and chocolate pound cake

 

Assorted little snacks

 

We noticed that we were unable to connect to the Internet and when we did connect it was so slow or would disconnect. This had not been the case the whole cruise so far, so I went down to the Internet Cafe Manager's desk, but he was not there. So I went to Guest Services and asked if there was an issue with the Internet that she knew of. She said that where we were docked in St Maarten was the issue. We were in a valley, surrounded by volcanoes and the satellite was having trouble reaching and giving us a poor signal. But as soon as we left the port, it should start working again. She was so helpful that I had to take a selfie with her.

Actually, I used one of my Sneaky Cards on her. #PlayItForward

What are sneaky cards? They are a deck of cards that have you do different things like take a selfie with a stranger and then give them the card. Then they will use the card. There are other cards like hold the door for 10 people and then give the card to the 10th person. Interested? Look it up and get a set for yourself. We brought 6 decks with us and gave 5 decks to some Splash Academy counselors. They loved them.

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She was right. As soon as we got just a little bit out on the water, the Internet signal was nice and strong again.

 

Melissa being silly. See the bracelet she made in Splash Academy. She was very proud of herself.

[Viva_la_Vida]

I just want to say thank you so so much for telling your beautiful story and giving all of us such a wonderful review! Thank you so much for your bravery. It gives me so much strength :-)

Edited February 21, 2016 by Viva_la_Vida

[ncklhaus]

I just want to say thank you so so much for telling your beautiful story and giving all of us such a wonderful review! Thank you so much for your bravery. It gives me so much strength :-)

 

Thank you. It really is my pleasure.

I'm really enjoying writing it.

 

I'm feeling great! I go back to the plastic surgeon in around 2 weeks so he can make sure things are looking better. I've got some swelling in weird places that he says is normal. The boobs look good, but the areas where the Lipo was done is lumpy. :eek:

And I only have to go to the oncologist every 4 months now. I can't believe it's already been 2 months since my last treatment. Yay!!