So Fascinating--Southern Caribbean (plus 3 days in PR) with Kids

[lolavix]

We returned and went to dinner. Since we had the early dinner in the Imagination dining room, we decided to visit the Sensation since we otherwise wouldn't see it. Tonight was open seating, and our steward (Al) had told us that we should aim to be done with dinner by 8:15, since they would be closing then.

 

We were seated at a table for six.

 

This is the side that stays constant throughout the week, so I'll just include it here in this post.

 

 

Sorry for the quality. It's tougher than you think to photograph the menu (especially when you have a prime lens with you and can't back up far enough to focus).

 

Here is the side just for tonight:

 

 

 

 

I also have the kids menu, but I will need to scan it and include it in a later post.

 

I started with the tropical fruits. DS1 also got them, and made a big deal out of the tequila. He told me he could taste it. Um, no.

 

 

and the Sweet and Sour Shrimp for my main.

 

I devoured it.

 

Time for dessert:

 

Despite the raves about the warm chocolate melting cake, I figured it would be there again. I chose the Black Forest Gateau (and so did DS1, and again with the liquor comments).

 

[mabones]

We visited the Fort in 2014. We had free admission because it was Veterans Day. We had a great time.

[lolavix]

Just because I didn't order the warm chocolate melting cake, DS2 did.

 

 

DH got the orange cake:

 

We weren't disappointed with our choices.

 

When we left dinner, it was after 8:15, and people were still entering. It looked like the dining room would be open past the desired closing time.

 

The kids wanted to swim, so they got on their suits and hit the hot tub.

 

 

 

Unfortunately for my kids, they closed the pool before they had a chance to get in.

 

The muster drill was scheduled to start at 9, and our station was F, which was right where we were. We were told to stand off to the side...and we stood, and we stood. For what seemed like forever. I had forgotten what I had read about the muster drill, and how not to show up right at 9.

 

Does anyone know why it's done with everyone standing for an hour? I know we only have one prior cruise experience, but on that cruise, we were allowed to sit in one of the MDRs and watch. I think what bugged us the most is that people could stroll in 30-40 minutes late. There were toddlers sleeping in their parents' arms, I'm guessing due to the time. I understand the importance of safety, but there seems like there should be a better way.

 

Anyway, we survived the muster drill and by then, it was just about time for sail away.

[lolavix]

I had been looking forward to the night time sail away, and I wasn't disappointed.

 

 

 

 

My attempt to get some photo of El Morro:

 

We watched until OSJ faded away. We were pretty tired, although DD begged to go Circle C since their party was scheduled for midnight, I think (I have the schedule which I will have to scan as well as the kids' menu). We let her, but warned her that we had a very early tour scheduled in the morning. She also had to check in with us when she got back. I didn't expect that drill would happen at age 12.5, but I think things are different on cruises. Next time, we won't be surprised.

 

All in all, a pretty good Day 4. We enjoyed the fort we did see, and the cruise was off to a pretty good start, muster drill notwithstanding.

 

Edited to add: Here is our towel animal for the first day.

 

Edited September 1, 2016 by lolavix

[ontheweb]

Ontheweb--Glad you found us. Thanks for the nice words about my kids. :) We did not go to Harrison Caves. It'll be something for next time. I know you were looking forward to it, so it sounds like it lived up to your expectations.

 

Well, thank you for having such cute kids that they were easily recognizable. <G> Wouldn't it have been strange if those were someone else's really cute kids and I had said what I did?

 

Yes, we were impressed by the Harrison Cave. And though we paid the inflated Carnival price, we did get an OBC of $35+ by using their 110% guarantee making the price a lot more reasonable.

 

I'm waiting to hear your reaction when you first try the chocolate melting cake. <G>

 

How did the first day of school go for your children? DW also had to go in that day for a conference day. She has another one right after Labor Day, and then the students return the next day, the Wednesday after Labor Day.

[lolavix]

Mabones--That is nice that they give free admission on Veterans' Day. DH is a veteran and always has to work, while the kids and I have it off.

 

Ontheweb--:) at the idea of saying hello to random kids. Next time, we'll have to check out the Harrison Caves. I'm glad you could get the price match, too. You're going to have to wait a few more days for my reaction. My kids were a bit tired on Monday, but excited to be back at school. In particular, my DD really enjoys school and is happier when it's in session. She was especially anxious to get home since her class schedule was only available by mail, and they were sent home the day after we departed.

 

___________________________________________________________

 

Some housekeeping items I had forgotten to scan.

 

 

The most important part of the kids' menu. DS2 started out here, but by the end of the week, you'll see he got more adventurous. DS1 didn't even bother with this menu, except for one night when he and his brother both got banana splits.

 

I regret that I don't have the kids' club schedule for the 9-11 year olds, although some of the big events will be published in the Fun Times, which I do have. I have this flyer:

 

As well as these:

 

 

We did not participate in the babysitting, but I figured I'd put it here in case anyone was interested.

 

I do have more information about Circle C:

 

 

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[lolavix]

And the detailed schedule:

 

 

 

 

I also forgot to post this:

 

On our other cruise, we didn't do the embarkation photo, and then we were kicking ourselves because Norwegian offers a package where you can get 10 prints and the electronic version of those prints for about $12/print. We bought the package, but didn't have the embarkation photo to include. Of course on Carnival, they don't have a package, so I didn't want to go too crazy with the photos, but I did get a couple of things that I couldn't photograph myself. So this is one of those photos.

 

I now think I'm ready to move on. ;)

 

Sorry for the size of these. Flickr seems to have done something to the application and I can't select the size I want to use. I tried to scale them down as I was posting, but evidently, I didn't scale enough and now I can't see the actual photos in the editing screen to adjust them. I'll try to get it right as we go on.

Edited September 2, 2016 by lolavix

[lolavix]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first of the five ports, not including San Juan--St. Thomas.

 

I will mention here that we arranged for a private, independent guide for all five ports. This was our first time for all of the islands, and we wanted to get an overview of each. When I started doing my research, I realized that Carnival's tours were probably going to be cost prohibitive for five of us, and probably a little limiting as we'd be at the mercy of a group tour. The independent operators offered less expensive options, but the same held true in that we wouldn't be able to go at our own pace. We decided to just hire a guide for a private, independent tour and it worked out very well for us. For one thing, once you have five people in your group, the price for a private tour isn't that far off from the group rate. And we liked the idea of having the freedom to move at our own pace...this would work for both our wanting to take longer than a big group at a particular spot and if we didn't want to linger at whatever the group wanted.

 

 

We had a wake-up call for 6 AM. Not exactly what you want on your first full day of your cruise, but we had a good reason. We had a pick up time of 7:30. I deliberately picked that time with our tour operator because we were going to have a tour for a few hours and then we wanted to go snorkeling. Since we heard that Coki Beach had some of the best snorkeling around, we wanted to be sure to get enough time at the beach. I didn't think anyone would complain (much). ;)

 

I think we opened up the breakfast buffet today. It opened at 7 and we were there a few minutes before. No lines!

 

We ate quickly and went back to the rooms to get our gear. We each had our own set of snorkel gear to carry, as well as the usual beach items. We got off the ship and found our guide, Dean Chinnery, without any trouble. Dean came recommended here on a thread on the St. Thomas board and he was great. He is a retired police officer and had some interesting stories to tell of his time as a policeman/security officer. We had his entire taxi (large van) to ourselves, which was nice.

[lolavix]

One more post for today.

 

The first place we went was Paradise Point. You can do this on your own quite easily, or you can even purchase the tickets as a Carnival Excursion.

 

All the way up we went!

 

You can really get some lovely views.

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I knew that the Bushwacker is the drink that Paradise Point touts. Dean had also suggested that we buy something while we were up, although he mentioned "water". Although DH and I really aren't huge drinkers at all, I figured "when in Rome" or in this case Paradise Point, and I followed directions.

 

If you like Kahlua and Bailey's, this is the drink for you to try. DH and I shared it and it was delicious. It was also 8 AM and we were the only folks at Paradise Point at that time, so it really did feel a bit indulgent.

 

Yes, proof that we were there.

 

I will have to continue this tomorrow. I'm out of pictures for this post and need to end for now. Good night.

[perfect match]

We had planned to ride the Paradise Point Tram when we were docked in St Thomas this past June, but ended up opting for a private snorkeling and sailing excursion instead. We probably could have done Paradise Point too, as we had plenty of time after we got off of our ship before the excursion started. Do you recall how long it took you to ride the tram up, time spent at the top, then back down again? I do want to get up there one of these days. It looks like an awesome view!

[ontheweb]

One minor point about the Paradise Sky Ride. I thought of booking it on Carnival, but saw you could just walk to it (right across from the dock) and figured it would be cheaper to just do it ourselves. But, it turns out that the opposite is true. If you just go yourself it is $21, while the Carnival excursion is $19.99. Not a big difference, but I had never before seen a cruise excursion that was actually cheaper than just doing it yourself.

 

In St. Thomas, we went to a Butterfly Farm and then the Paradise Point sky ride. When we got off, there was a cab driver with a van offering rides to a beach (IIRC Megan Bay), and we took that offer.

[lolavix]

Riclop--You are very welcome. Thanks for reading along.

 

Perfect Match--I don't think I was clear. Our tour guide drove us up to the top in his van, so we didn't ride the tram. I don't think the tram ride itself is all that long, and you can spend however long you'd like up top. I would imagine that if we were there sans kids and later in the day, we'd sit and have our own (e.g. not shared) drink or two. There are a few small stalls with vendors selling things as well. Where did you snorkel?

 

Ontheweb--Someone else reported that to be true (the Carnival Excursion was cheaper), which I also found strange. How did you like the Butterfly Farm? Did you pass on the one in St. Martin? How was the beach? I'm getting to my recap here.

 

____________________________________________________________

 

Some more views from Paradise Point:

 

Ah...I wish I was there right now.

 

Getting some information from Dean.

 

We stayed at Paradise Point for approximately 20 minutes. Then we piled in the van and did a tour of Charlotte Amalie.

 

It's always interesting to me to see familiar icons in foreign destinations.

 

 

The Fascination from the port side.

 

This is the Legislature building. I will mention that I don't remember the specifics of what we were told about many of the structures, and with five ports plus SJ, it's all starting to run together. But the architecture is nice to look at.

 

I think this is a random building. I'm enchanted with the pastels and palm trees, so I snapped a lot of photos as we were driven around.

[lolavix]

More pastel:

 

 

A view of the front from my vantage point.

 

 

Next stop--the 99 steps.

 

Must work off that Bushwhacker!

 

Some lovely flowers to look at as you climb.

 

Ah, made it.

[lolavix]

 

 

Next up: Three Queens

 

 

 

 

These three women were essentially feminists in the 1800s. They fought for better working and living conditions.

 

 

 

 

 

[ontheweb]

You asked how the butterfly farm was in St. Thomas. We really enjoyed it, and it was only $10 apiece as opposed to the one in St. Martin which the Carnival excursion was IIRC $52. Judging from the reaction of some children who were there, your adorable children would have probably loved it.

 

You asked about Megan's Bay--I'm not really a beach person, but DW who is said it was wonderful.

 

Since you jumped ahead to St. Maarten/St. Martin with your question about did we see the butterfly farm there---no we did not. We had signed up for the City Clickers excursion there which was a scavenger hunt taking photos. DW thought it would really be fun. It turned out not only were there not enough signed up, but we were the only ones. So, our second choice was a eco-hike. But we found out that no one had signed up. Our third choice was a short tour of the island. That one had only 4 signed up, not enough even if we joined. We finally took the longer tour of both countries. (And one of the couples was someone we had met on the Harrison Caves tour who were 2 of the 4 who had signed up for the shorter excursion that was cancelled. They said their tour was cancelled for "operational reasons" which is what they and we were sent, but we explained it meant not enough signed up for the tour operator to run the excursion.) The one we finally went on was a little long, but there were a few really worthwhile things included, the planes that seemed to be only a few feet over your head as they landed or took off at Maho Beach and a carousel.

 

Looking back, it's a wonder that the kayak excursion that DW really wanted in Pigeon Island in St. Lucia actually was not cancelled. There were only 6 including her.

[cmp03]

Thanks for posting a review. I am going to some of these ports in December and then doing a cruise out of SJ in May - both with my daughter. Its great to read about things your kids liked for when we try to pick things to do :)

 

The cruise in December stops at SJ as one of the ports - what would you recommend doing during the hours that you stop in port there that day versus waiting to do when we stay a few nights before the cruise in May? We will probably only have one full day in SJ (so whatever we can see the day we land, one full day, then during the day before the cruise).

[hawgtuf]

We sail to these same ports on September 11. Counting down the days.

 

Hope you finish the review before we sail:p

[perfect match]

Riclop--You are very welcome. Thanks for reading along.

 

Perfect Match--I don't think I was clear. Our tour guide drove us up to the top in his van, so we didn't ride the tram. I don't think the tram ride itself is all that long, and you can spend however long you'd like up top. I would imagine that if we were there sans kids and later in the day, we'd sit and have our own (e.g. not shared) drink or two. There are a few small stalls with vendors selling things as well. Where did you snorkel?

 

Ontheweb--Someone else reported that to be true (the Carnival Excursion was cheaper), which I also found strange. How did you like the Butterfly Farm? Did you pass on the one in St. Martin? How was the beach? I'm getting to my recap here.

____________________________________________________________

 

Oh, that does make sense that your guide drove you up to Paradise Point. Duh! :D

 

We really want to do the tram ride. DH loves tram rides, and we would both enjoy the view. As to the price for the tram, it was cheaper to book directly with the RCI ship we were on, too. I had heard that myself, and checked out the prices when were still planning to do it.

 

We did our snorkeling trip with Fury Charters. They picked us up in the marina right where we docked, just a few minutes walk from the ship, at a restaurant/bar called the Fat Turtle. The sail was a lot of fun, but then I love sailing. We went to Buck Island to snorkel with turtles. We saw more pirate ships full of cruise passengers there than we saw turtles! :eek: There were 4 pirate ships, about 5 or 6 catamarans, and a few other boats there with us, so it was very crowded. The water was stirred up, and the vast majority of the marine life we did see were very tiny juveniles. I do have to qualify my assessment of the snorkeling experience by saying that I am very spoiled by some of the awesome snorkeling and diving that I have been fortunate enough to do, so I'm a bit hard to please. I thought the crew handled themselves and their boat very well. For me, the sailing alone was worth it!

Edited September 3, 2016 by perfect match

[lolavix]

on the web--I was interested in the Butterfly Farm in either place, but it wasn't at the top of the lists, and as I mentioned earlier, when we are actually doing our traveling, I realize that my lists are sometimes a bit 'overzealous' and things further down on the list go by the wayside. I'm keeping it on my 'next time' list...the City Clickers tour sounds like it would have been fun. We also went to Maho Beach as part of our St. Maarten tour. I will get to it someday, at this rate. :rolleyes: Six on an organized tour sounds great!

 

cmp03--If I knew I were going back to SJ for more days a few months after my first cruise, I'd probably just stick to SJ proper when I'm there for one of my ports. I'd make sure I did both forts and did my walking around the streets, and then you could do some of the further things when you have more time in May. There are also supposed to be some very good restaurants in SJ, although we didn't hit any of them.

 

hawgtuf--Lucky! I wish we could go again. I hope to get the bulk of the review done by next week. If you have any specific questions, just ask.

 

perfect match--I just need to ask...where have you done such terrific snorkeling? My DH in particular would be perfectly content to have an entire vacation of just snorkeling. He said his favorite day of this vacation was St. Thomas, which I would have predicted based on what I knew about the islands and his preferences.

 

_____________________________________________________________

 

I haven't forgotten this review. I figure I'll do one more bit of St. Thomas before bed, and hopefully will have more time tomorrow to do a bit more. I teach college and my very long summer vacation is ending this week, so it's been a bit crazy on my end.

 

But enough excuses...

 

 

Dean waited for us at the bottom of the 99 steps. I don't know what he and DH are discussing, but I am including this photo so you can see the van. It was plenty roomy for all of us.

 

Another lovely pastel building

 

This sort of reminded me of the view from the caves.

 

We stopped at another lookout point. There was no bar or shops, but there was a man with "Lady Gaga", a donkey that kids could ride. We declined, so there are no photos of Lady Gaga in all of her glory.

 

I do have a photo of this dude, though. He was almost hidden in the brush below us.

[lolavix]

OK, I lied. I have just enough photos of this stop to fill a post, so it makes sense to continue so tomorrow (later today) I can continue from a new locale.

 

I can't get enough of the views!

 

 

I think this is the tram to Paradise Point.

 

A wider perspective

 

I love all these little swaths of land popping out of the water.

 

Yes, we are here.

 

I will be back tomorrow/later today.

[ontheweb]

I thought it might be good to add something about the ship to this thread.

 

There are things that are not on this ship that seem to be on all other ships. One is having alternate pay extra restaurants. Since there was plenty of choices of wonderful food, we did not miss this at all. I am surprised that they did not add this when the ship had its upgrade since it seems to be a money maker for the cruise lines. The other thing I noticed that was missing was a big screen by the pool. DW said she would have liked watching Good Morning America by the pool. Also they could have had movies at night. But, again no big deal. Movies might have been nice, but then we would not have done the things we did do at night, mostly listen to music and dance (or watch the really good dancers) at th<script id="gpt-impl-0.4184146742724211" src="http://partner.googleadservices.com/gpt/pubads_impl_94.js"></script>e Latin Band.

 

There were always crew members cleaning especially the railings to the stairs. The crew members from the lowest level to the highest always had a smile and a hello as you passed by. To me this always sets the tone for the cruise.

 

It was odd that there was no hair dryer in the room. (I had previously read about this on these boards, but when I inquired about this to our TA, he said that he had never heard of a cruise without hair dryers in the room.) Since DW said she needed one, I called housekeeping, and one was immediately delivered. Still strange.

 

There was also no refrigerator. We needed new ice daily for the 12 pack of water we had pre-ordered and the 2 larger bottles of water that Carnival gifted us as returning passengers.

 

But, these quibbles are minor. The ship was in good shape. I also liked the size as it was easy to learn one's way around the ship. To my way of thinking the new huge ships are just too large for my taste. JMHO

 

Shows--we did not make it to the welcome aboard show that was actually on the second night. The next show was the comedic juggler. I loved it, but it was a little too silly for DW's taste. Next was the Motown show. DW loved it; I liked it, but not as much as she did. Finally there was the magician. I saw him do a few tricks aboard the ship before that show, and was astounded. I looked forward to this show. But, I was disappointed. The tricks did not live up to the earlier ones I had seen. Also, it started with a pointless laser show that caused DW to leave because she was afraid it would cause her to have heart palpitations. The theater was well set up, and unlike Princess, you did not have to get there at least a half hour early to make sure you could get seats.

 

lolavix---I'm waiting to hear your reaction to when you finally ordered the chocolate melting cake and took your first taste.

[ontheweb]

I have no idea how that script got in my previous post, and it will no longer allow me to edit.

 

One other thing I thought of. Anytime dining was a little different than on other ships. Instead of asking did we want a table for two or to eat with others, we were as a party of two just given a table for two each time we went there. There was never a wait, and there seemed always to be tables available both for two and for larger parties. We generally went there around 6:30 to 6:45.

 

Actually, since sail away was at the same time each day 5 PM, having anytime was not as important as on some cruises in which you might have a much later sail away time at some ports.

[lolavix]

ontheweb--This information will probably be very helpful to hawgtuf, since I am on a snail's pace with this review. I would have preferred anytime dining and gone around 6:30 or 7 rather than 6, but I didn't trust that we'd be seated then with 5 of us, which was often the case on Norwegian. When I walked by the sensation (albeit later--around 8 or so), there was usually a fairly long line. For us, even though it was a speck earlier than I would have liked, having the 6 PM set dinner time got us there and done and on to the next activity in a reasonable amount of time.

____________________________________________________________

 

Maybe I'll finally get us to Coki Beach right now.

 

Next stop, the famous Mountaintop. Complete with more views of the othr islands and this:

 

After the Bushwhacker, we passed on the banana daiquiri. Maybe if it had been later...

 

DS2 loves being a ham, so this was the pose he immediately struck when he saw this guy.

 

 

In addition to views, there is a HUGE gift shop.

We don't do a ton of shopping, but we usually pick up a magnet at each place we visit. So we did that here.

 

If you walk through the gift shop and past the bar, you get rewarded with this:

 

To help orient you to what you are about to view.

 

[lolavix]

Similar views to the previous photo, with more of the islands in the first one.

 

This is where Dean and I had a nice conversation, where he told me that when he worked with the police force, he had been assigned to cover President Clinton when he visited. He said he also had met Michael Jackson.

 

We stayed here for about 20 minutes. The trinkets in the shop held the kids' attention more than the view, but I count that as a win since it allowed us to enjoy the view for longer than we probably would have.

 

I noticed this on the way back to the van. I had seen this is others' photos, so I took my own photo.

 

 

As we traveled to Coki, we saw Drake's seat, another tourist spot.

 

We continued to travel to Coki, and arrived just around 10 AM. This is what I was hoping for--we got our tour of the highlights, and then still had 4.5 hours for beach time. Dean suggested he pick us up at 2:30, and that sounded good to us.

 

We walked down to the beach and decided to keep walking as far as we could, to create our own private spot. (Well, private for now. We had some visitors later, as you'll see.)

 

Yes, we brought a small tent that the boys earned by selling cub scout popcorn. It worked well for our day at Coki, although we didn't use it for the rest of the trip for various reasons. We kept our bags and dry things in the tent. We did not rent chairs here, as we had a large, roll up blanket to use. No one seemed to care that we popped the tent. Later on, those chairs would be used as well.

 

We spent a lot of time in the water, checking out the fish. I am very nearsighted, and DD has corrective lenses as well. Prior to our trip, I purchased snorkel masks with corrective lenses for us from Promate. They worked so well and we were thrilled that we could see underwater. It was a bit foreign to me to be able to do that.

 

So nice and so quiet right now.

 

The fish were everywhere...and so very close to the shore. Even young kids would be able to see them without having to venture too far out.