Escape: May 6 - 13: My first big ship cruise...hopefully not my last

[FitchburgWIFamily]

Background:

 

This was my 5th cruise with NCL, my first on a big ship. I have always cruised with my mother (in her 80s), and mostly with my family (DH, DS 16 and DD 15) and often my niece (22). I am a planner: I pick the cruise, research the ports, and study the ship. We plan months and months in advance. So, last month, I was sitting on my sofa surfing Facebook on my Kindle and I saw a post from my best friend from college “Only 1 more month till my cruise on the NCL Escape!” And I said to myself: “What? She’s going on a cruise on my line? Why aren’t I going on a cruise?” So I called her up to find out whom she was cruising with (her sister and mother) and I said “Hey, what if I got a room and came along?” I looked at the prices, I could afford it and I booked it just that fast. Kaboom! I was going on a cruise!

 

Reaction from my kids: What, you are going a cruise? Why can’t we come with you? Well, dears, two reasons: you are both in school and track and more importantly, it wouldn’t really be a vacation for me then.

 

Reaction from my husband: What you are going on a cruise? Why can’t I come with you? Well, dear, two reasons: your 16 year-old son and your 15 year-old daughter cannot be left alone.

 

I thought about taking my octogenarian mother to hang out with my friend's octogenarian mother, but again, not as much of a vacation for me, and Jan and Jean despite being the same age and having similar names do not have a lot else in common.

 

I told my husband I was really looking forward to a vacation vacation: from work and people. I told him I couldn’t wait to get my own room, do my own thing, snorkel all day long,etc. And, Debbie Downer that he is, he brings up that it probably isn’t safe for me to snorkel all day long by myself. You know the whole don't swim without a buddy thing. So, I look at him, I look at my son, I look at my daughter, and…. I call my niece! Hey niece, what are you doing next month? Want to take a week off of work?

 

And, just that fast, we were both booked on the Escape. When it was just me I booked a balcony GTY because by myself, I can’t make money on the drink plan and none of the other benefits tripped my trigger.

 

When I added my niece, I kept the Balcony GTY but changed to the rate with promotions and we picked up the drink package and the internet minutes. My first booking was 300.00 cheaper for the room. So, the drink package + internet minutes cost $300.00 + service charge for me + service charge for Niece, or about $500.00. 7 day cruise, 2 women, average price of a drink, 10.00. 50 drinks per cruise, 25 per person more than 3 per day. While we can't make money at that rate, we can certainly make sure we don't lose money.

 

About two weeks after I booked, I got assigned to my balcony cabin 10768: which was a lovely room, but while NCL called it an upgrade because it is mid-ship (sort of) it quashed my dreams of being assigned a mini-suite or haven cabin just because.

 

Before we sailed, I did get an email offering us an upgrade, but since I was already paying quite a bit for this, I bid on only a few upgrades and the absolute lowest bids possible. $400.00 per person for some of the smaller havens, $25.00 per person for the mini-suite. Nothing got rejected right away, but by the end of the day Thursday before I sailed, everything got rejected.

 

I joined our roll call (thank you Caperduo for everything you did) and signed us up for the slot pull. My girlfriend logged in and reserved specialty dining (we passed) and the Brat Pack and After Midnight show (so I logged in and reserved the show on the same nights). My girlfriend and her sister planned shore excursions at each port. Zipline in St. Thomas. Jost VanDyke on Tortola. Submarine thing in Nassau. I planned nothing.

 

I did not: do any research, make any plans, buy any special cruise clothes, or make a binder with all our everything in it so I would remember what we were supposed to do each day.

 

I did manage to get my summer clothes out of storage so I could pack something besides the blue jeans sweaters and sweat shirts I had been living in since fall.

 

Pre-Cruise

 

Flew in on Friday evening and met up with part of my party at the Courtyard by Marriott Miami Downtown/Brickell Area: 200SE 2nd Ave, Miami, FL 33131. Uber from airport to hotel was quick and cheap: $14.00 (I tipped $10 because I thought that was way too little for the distance and the tolls). We had 4 people sharing a room meant for three, but we made it work. No free breakfast in hotel, but we had some leftovers from dinner the night before and picked up a few things to eat in an emergency run to the CVS down the block (the emergency run was for hair ties, small hair spray, tooth brush, stuff like that...the breakfast sandwiches and chocolate were for sustenance).

 

Hotel arranges a shuttle to the port the next day: a long van with a cargo trailer for the luggage. Lots of fellow cruisers at this hotel. Shuttle costs $5.00 per person. Since there were 4 of us, a cab probably would have been cheaper. Live and learn. But the shuttle was easy and convenient.

 

Embarkation and Day One:

 

There were two entrances for the NCL Escape: B and C. Read your documents to see what door you need to use. Friend, friend’s mom and friend's sister all had Door B. I had Door C. I sent them in and went down the dock a bit to wait for my niece at the other door.

 

I had flown in the night before, but niece found a cheaper flight coming in the day of the cruise. Even though I told her:you’ll be fine, no worries…I worried. I worried so much that when NCL offered the limited insurance that included trip interruption insurance, I bought it in case I needed my niece to meet me in St.Thomas if she missed a connection or something else that made her miss the boat. But all my worries were for naught: she remembered to wake up at 5:00 am to head to the airport to catch her flight, she made her super short connection in DTW, and she landed just a little early in MIA. She got an Uber to the port and showed up only about 25 minutes past when I had left the rest of the group in the queue at door B so I could wait at door C.

 

She arrived and came over with her luggage, which we wanted to check curbside. So we crossed back over to where she had been dropped off and found a porter to leave the bags with. We went back across the streat again and got in line to check in. I am pretty sure the entire purpose of door C is for the latitudes priority boarding….since we had priority boarding and there was only one line. From the moment we left her bag at the curb to when our first drink was served was 45 minutes. Once we got up the counter and had our ID card pictures taken and were assigned our key cards, we just walked on the boat, with a quick stop for our All Aboard portrait. There was no waiting for our number to be called. We walked in on deck 7, and found our way up to the Sugar Cane Mojito bar. We had just finished our first Mojitos when the gang from Door B joined us. We managed three rounds of Mojitos before our rooms were ready, and we all made plans to meet at the Manhattan for dinner, and split off to find our rooms. The other three had a mini-suite on deck 11.

 

Our balcony room was very close to the forward elevators, and on deck 10. The first day, the elevators were ridiculous: no one had figured out how to use them yet and everyone thought they wanted to. We only had two decks to go, so we just hoofed it (or, if you hear me do it, huffed it). Which would have been the best plan ever if: our cards had worked. We tried them fast, we tried them slow, we tried them in-between, but we could not get the door to our room open. (sigh). So we walked down the 4 flights of stairs to guest services and got new cards. I don’t know if he saw it in my face or heard it in my semi-asthmatic breathing, but the clerk at guest services did say that if the new cards did not work, we should use the phones by the elevators and they would send someone up to us.

 

We fought the crowds to ride the elevators back up (4 flights of stairs on 3 Mojitos: no sirree). These keys did work, and our room was ready and wonderful. Our balcony faced port, so we could look down and see people arriving.

 

Our muster station was in the atrium. I had always mustered in a theatre before which is nice because it is a room full of chairs. Our station in the Atrium was in a hallway by the art gallery and we had no place to sit. Many people gracefully sat down in neat compact yoga poses. I could not do that: one, I may be able to get down, but there is no way you would get me up and two: there is not a single way for me to sit on a floor and be comfortable. Standing would not have been bad if it had been the usual quick muster, but it was not, it took a looooonnnng time before they actually started the speech and the life jacket demonstration. Oh well, at least I had a wall to lean on. It is very surprising to me how many times you can tell people to stop talking and how often they will just keep talking. That might have been why it took so long to start.

 

Because there was no hope of getting an elevator ride in the next hour after muster and because we were hungry, we tried to head up to O’Sheehans for food, but they were not open yet. We did a little exploring trying to orient ourselves (we were hopelessly lost that first day on the boat) until they were ready to seat us. Niece had the chicken fajitas, I had the fish and chips. Oh, and we both had a drink. But we had some water, too.

 

We headed back up to our room and found our bags had been delivered. I unpacked mine and got a few things organized. Our balcony state room had the sofa by the window. We had no problem finding room for all our stuff: bathroom had lots of shelves and places to put things, closet was more than large enough, and there were lots of cabinets and cubbies.

 

I hung a shoe organizer over the bathroom door so we could put our shoes up off the floor and store some other miscellaneous items. I stuck magnet clips to the walls so we could hang (and find) our freestyle daily.

 

We had two letters in our room when we arrived, telling us that our reserved shows had been moved to different days. I think they switched the order of Brat Pack and After Midnight.

 

Dear niece, who had been up since the wee hours of the morning took a little bit of a nap while I unpacked.

 

We had arranged to meet later for dinner at the Manhattan,and since they didn’t take reservations, I was sure we would have a wait for a party of 5. Nope! We walked right up, got a great table just off the dance floor right away. Two of us had the pork which was excellent. One ordered the prime rib, one ordered the steak, and the last one had some sort of sea food. Our appetizers all came as they should but when the entrees came, we had two prime ribs and no steak. My friend tried to get them to just leave it, she would eat the prime rib, no problem. But they insisted on bringing her her steak too. So, she had two dinners.

 

The musical entertainment was a Latin duo (very talented,very entertaining). There was a large group of young women (in their teens) traveling who knew all the songs and sang along. They were having a blast and it was fun to watch them have so much fun. Although I have a feeling they never did get dinner because they did not leave the dance floor even when the entertainment went on break.

 

After dinner, niece and I headed up to 5:00 o’clock somewhere for a Margarita or two. We headed back to our room and crashed between midnight and 1:00am…one of our earliest nights on the cruise.

 

 

Our plans for tomorrow were to conquer the ship!

[beachys]

Enjoying your review!

[QueenOfZoom]

I was on Escape the week before you, looking forward to the rest of your review!

[easyboy]

Great start! Will be following along.

 

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[Still Dreaming]

I can relate with the planning!!! Love that you just took off and left the family! I had to read that to my husband, lol.

[Clarea]

Nice start.:)

[pixiedust777]

Following

 

 

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[SquishTheWhale]

Enjoying it and looking forward to the rest!

[goldens4ever]

We are on the Escape next spring break...loving your review...thanks so much for sharing!!!!

[Dart17]

Following! Great start!

[tropical83]

Thanks for posting, I'm enjoying your review!

[moonbmn53]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. I am on the Escape on July 15th.

[FitchburgWIFamily]

Two at sea days: a great way to start a cruise

 

We were glad to have a few days at sea to get used to the ship. Our plan for the first day was to conquer the ship: learn our way around, take advantage of all there was to offer.

 

I woke up at about 6:30 am, the sun was shining, the sound of the waves, it was so wonderful. Dear niece was still asleep, so I grabbed the book I had brought with me and started to read. And there I was three hours later. Book finished: check. Ship conquered: not so much. But hey, as a mother of two, I don’t know the last time I got to read a book in bed until that hour of the morning. By the time we did manage to roll our sorry selves out of bed, my friend and her group had finished eating breakfast at Taste (or Savor) and my niece and I had a choice of the buffet or O’Sheehans. We picked O’Sheehans. Niece had an omelet, I had scrambled eggs,and we both fought over the chocolate croissant in the basket of pastries.

 

I had pulled out the freestyle daily, and got out my trusty highlighter. I made it down to “Sun Rise Trivia” (which we missed) before I just got over whelmed: huge boat, tons and tons of activitities, small type. This is one area I think NCL could improve: they could either highlight with color cruise staff vs spa vs other activities so you could more quickly find what you are looking for, or they could list the hours that things were open separate from the activities.

 

Niece and I had the CC Meet and Greet, so we went off to the District Brewhouse. We were a little worried when we got there because there was no danishes/pastries/coffee/juice and we were both a bit hungry. You know,because it had been 30 minutes since we last ate. However, we were wonderfully surprised when the brought around all sorts of sample beer flights and real appetizers. How cool is that? We got a chance to talk to the head chef of the Manhattan and told him what a wonderful dinner we had. We asked him if he were only going to pay for one restaurant on the ship, which would it be, and he recommended Food Republic.

 

We met back up with the rest of our gang and went on an explore of the upper decks of the ship: we found Vibe right away but it took us a bit longer to find Spice H20. We found Margaritaville first and had a huge plate of Nachos and some Conch fritters. Well, and some margaritas, of course. Margaritaville was not crowded at all. For whatever reason, our server decided not to bill us for the food, and the margaritas were covered by our drink package,so that was a wonderful little repast.

 

We finally made it to Spice H2O late in the afternoon, and we were able to find 4 chairs next to each other. The weather was not perfect, which is probably why we were able to get chairs, but it was a lot better than home, so we were ok with that. We met Marcos(Papi) the wonderful bartender on Spice H2O who would become one of our favorites. I loved the grotto, I loved the adults only,but I thought a little bit of quiet music and a picture of what was actually off the back of the boat instead of the slide show of pretty pictures would have been better.

 

A quick note here before I forget: on the next day, to make up for staying in bed until 9:30 reading a book, I got up at 6:00 and went up on deck to walk around. And sure enough,there were all sorts of people coming up and reserving chairs. There is a huge monitor on the pool deck telling people that there is a policy against reserving chairs, in letters that have to be 6 ft tall, and there they are, throwing their flip flops on individual chairs.

 

Now, in my defense as I write this, I worked really hard to make sure NCL did not make a profit off of selling me the drink package, so when I try to remember what we did on what day…I might be a little bit off. So: between the two at sea days we did the following:

 

We ate at the Garden Café for a seafood buffet. Food was OK, it was easy to find a table, but buffets are just not my thing. I had heard other people say you could never get a seat at the Garden Café and that was not at all our experience. We ate one dinner and two breakfasts there and never had an issue getting a table for 5. We also got a few bites of finger food from there to take to Spice H2O and we never had anything that was awful. On Seafood night, I got a crepe, but they were out of Nutella until St. Thomas,and I never made it back for another one. :(

 

We ate at Savor (or Taste)….they should just call them both "Savor or Taste" for a wonderful dinner: I tried the steak that my friend had had the night before and it really was wonderful, I had a roasted cauliflower soup that was to die for. Desserts: I always go for the crème brule type offerings, and I am never disappointed.

 

I didn’t figure this out until later, but if you are use to the Dawn class ships or others in their size: The Manhattan Room with the live music and the dance floor is the equivalent of the main dining room on the smaller ships. Savor (or Taste) are two identical dining rooms with identical menus on either side of the ship that are the equivalent of Aqua, Alizar, Azule or whatever the smaller more modern dining room is on the smaller ships.

 

We played Bing Bang trivia with Andre in the atrium: Andre our cruise director is delightful and embraces his inner nerd. My friend’s sister was a powerhouse, but we fell a few correct answers short of winning.

 

We played Movie Soundtrack trivia in the District Brewhouse: I am not a beer drinker, so after one hard cider, I switched to mixed drinks. I was pleased that the brewhouse was a full service bar. We again fell just a correct answer or two short..maybe because it was a full service bar?

 

We walked through the stores on the ship: the duty free was huge with a LaCoste section, a Clinique area, etc. Lots and lots of stuff I could not afford. There is also a store with some great Guy Harvey (the artist who did the designs for the front of the boat) and the regular t-shirts, sundries, etc. While I was there they were doing the “2-hour only $10.00 items sale in the hallways outside the stores, and people were digging through the piles of stuff like crazy. I did not buy any thing on the ship…but the shopping area reminded me much more of what I used to see on ships years ago, much larger than what I had seen on the Dawn class ships.

 

We participated in the slot pull organized by our wonderful Meet and Greet host and had a blast! I won a little bit for the team, but my friend and my friend’s mom were on fire! Everyone who participated put in$21.00 and we all had 7 spins. At the end, we had enough money to cash out and take $12.00 profit. We decided to spin the profit, so we each took 4 more spins. We didn’t exactly make it rich, but we turned our 12.00 into 15.00. So all of us put $21 in and all of us got $36 out. Not too shabby! My friend won the high roller spin for her$200.00 dollar spin. There were three teams of about 12 people, and our team was the only team to walk away with any money…let alone winnings.

 

We went to the Lattitudes party in the bar off the Casino. Latin Duo, the group that had impressed us in the Manhattan club entertained us, and we enjoyed a few drinks and munched on the cheese and fruit plate while we listened to them pitch cruise next certificates. Maybe it was the drinks, but I think it was because I really was liking the larger ship, but I bought cruise next certificates for the first time. You have to read the fine print, but as long as we book at least 6 months out, we can use two certificates per stateroom. So if I ever sail with my family again, I can book two balcony state rooms, put$500.00 deposits down on each room. Since I only paid $250.00 for each deposit combo, I am coming out ahead. I wanted to win the raffle: notthe jewelry or the wine, but I really wanted a laundry certificate. But, alas, I was denied.

 

My dear friend and her mother went up to the casino one night, dear friend got pretty lucky in black jack and her mother broke even on the slot machines. If they would have stopped that night, between the two of them, they would have left the ship about $300 richer than when they go on, but they went back a few more nights and managed to lose it all.

 

We discovered the Wine Bar on the waterfront where the most excellent bar tender made the Long Island Iced Teas by hand instead of a mix. Since I discovered more than one of those, and had an opportunity to compare it to ones made from a mix, you can perhaps be sympathetic to my inability to remember on which day I did what.

 

We caught the dueling piano act, and as everyone has reported, it is very very entertaining. Fun to sing along to all those songs. We were able to get a drink from the bar and stand in the back of the room for about 15 minutes before some people in front of us left and we could sit down.

 

We found Tito the cowboy at the 5 O’Clock somewhere bar, and he made us most excellent margaritas. But the bar stools at his bar were engineered to cut off my circulation, so we carried our drinks just inside and sat in the comfy chairs at Tobacco Road.

 

We never had a hard time getting a drink or finding a place to sit on this boat, and we got plenty of drinks. The Mixx bar outside the dining rooms was almost always empty, our Cellar bar up on the waterfront was seldom busy, even the bar at the H2O Spice deck was easy to get a drink from. We always tip a dollar a drink, and if we walked up to the bar and were able to make eye contact with Papi or Shane, they always waited on us right away. There was one time at the Sugar Cane Mojito bar when we couldn’t all get seats, but that was one time out of four. We only had one bad experience at a bar, but that didn’t occur until our last sea day, so you’ll just have to wait for that.

 

We went up to Spice H2O to dance the night away on the Dress Up or Not Night, and we had a blast. I am amazed at how loud the music is out on the deck and how silent it is as you leave the area and the glass doors close behind you.

 

We all sat (slept) on a great big comfy lounger not too far from the wine bar. I love the waterfront, I really do, and when all five of us were together, those large sofa areas were just great. But a lot of times as I walked by the big sofas, I would see just one couple on them, dozing on their separate corners. I did not see anyone try to reserve any seating down on this deck. We never ate outside at any of the restaurants on the waterfront, but we did enjoy a few cocktails from the bars.

 

The Waterfront is one of the reasons I think I can get my mom to come sailing on a big ship, she would love the quiet sitting areas with the view of the ocean and just enough people watching to keep you entertained.

 

On my early morning walk, I found big urns of coffee and danishes set up on the 5 O’Clock Somewhere waterfront bar and on one across the ship..so if you are an early riser who doesn’t want to have to go all the way up to 16 to get a cup of coffee…this would be a great option.

 

On day three, we figured out how the elevators work. I don’t know if I can adequately describe it, but I will try. There are four elevator doors on each side, for a total of eight elevators on almost every deck (the higher decks don’t always have both banks of elevators).

 

There are elevator buttons (four of them) between sets of elevators. Pushing the down or the up button on one of those sets activates the down or the up button across the hall:four elevators in pairs of two facing each other are working together. But pushing the down or up button on one of those sets does NOTHING for the other four elevators that have their own controls just farther down the hall. So, every time you push a button, walk a few elevator doors down and push the same button on that bank.

 

My friend and her sister went down the water slides a couple of times and gave them rave reviews. My niece and I promised to do it on another day.

 

All in all, when I write it all down, it looks like we did quite a bit, but really we just kind of ate and drank.

 

I did after two at sea days know that a LOT of things I had read about this ship were not true. We had no reservations for dinner and never waited more than a minute or two for a table. We never had a problem getting a drink, and according to our Mojito bartender, there were 2900 passengers on our sailing with the drink package. We never had an issue with the elevators after our first day on the boat. We made a lot of “friends” we kept seeing over and over on the boat and could say high to. Staff was extremely quick at learning our names and remembered our drink orders…and where we ate dinner last time (there was a little friendly completion between Savor and Taste for our patronage).

 

 

Next up: St. Thomas without a plan!

[Bruce 89188]

Great review

[Faulkh]

Love your review, going on Escape in Aug with another couple and 2 teenagers. I am arranging the meet and greet do you know how your group arranged the slot pull. This will be my first NCL and only 2 others before. Not exactly sure what I am doing. Any advice welcome.

 

Can't wait to read more

[Shayhooper]

Yes - A booze filled Mom away from kids and hubby trip! Love those! Keep em coming.

[Two_UW_Badgers]

Enjoying your review!

 

Roughly how many singles did you bring for tipping?

 

Thanks for the tip on coffee at the 5 o'clock somewhere bar!

 

 

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[Still Dreaming]

Loving (lol) your review!!!!

[Mellylucy]

Following and enjoying.

Fantastic review.

[LSKC]

Really enjoying your review.

[FitchburgWIFamily]

Thanks for the feed back!

 

Quick answers to questions from above.

 

I brought $100.00 in ones. No, I did not spend them all, and I was tipping for two: me and my niece. But we did manage to burn through 3/4ths of them.

 

Slot pull: I didn't organize, but this is how it was done: One one of our sea days at 11:00, we arranged to meet in the casino. Originally, we were going to meet by the Wheel of Fortune machines, but they weren't all the same...so we met instead by the Quick Hit machines. There were about 36 of us, so we divided into three teams. Each person brought $21.00 in cash, as the max bet on the machines we were using was $3.00. Each team had a leader, who wrote down everyone's name. In order, each of us went up to the machine and put in our $21.00...so the machine had a bank of about $252 dollars. Then, one by one, we sat down and spun 7 times. Sometimes there was more money in the pool when you stood up, sometimes there was less. After each team went through all 12 people, you voted as a team what to do, let it ride or cash out. It was a good time for all of us, cheering each other on.

 

I'll do the St. Thomas day next. I might even get some pictures loaded.

[MacCruising2018]

Love it! Can't wait for more!

 

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[LeesaB]

Following! Very entertaining.

 

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[2Low4u]

Going On this Ship in Feb 2018!, Can't Wait to hear the rest of your Review!:D

[FitchburgWIFamily]

St. Thomas

 

Woke up this morning to a gorgeous day already in port. Went out on our balcony to take pictures, and my camera lens steamed up so fast all my pictures look like I was in Portland. It was 8:00 am and hot and humid already.

 

My friend and her sister had scheduled through NCL to take a zip line excursion. My niece and myself were going to wing it.

We all had breakfast together at Savor (or Taste). I had the eggs Benedict which did not disappoint. Niece had the biscuit and gravy, which was literally a biscuit. Not biscuits, which did disappoint. Friends mom had an omelet and prune compote (yes, for that). Friend and her sister both had the bagel with salmon, which looked lovely. Neice and I asked if we could get two chocolate croissants so we wouldn't have to fight over the one in the pastry basket, so they brought us a basket full of chocolate croissants. We could hear all the announcements about being cleared for disembarking, so we pushed ourselves away from the table (for God's sake, put the fork down!) and headed back up to our room. We were facing the port, so we looked out and saw all the people scurrying off down below.

 

We packed a beach bag: towels from the ship, our snorkels and masks, my water proof camera and our sun screen and off we went on our adventure.

 

 

My niece asked me as we walked on the dock “Where are we going again?” and I said “I don’t know.” She said “What do you mean?” I said “I think we can just figure it out.” She looked at me like I was an alien being in the body of her beloved aunt, and in some sense I was. Miss plan plan plan was just going to wing it. At the end of the pier (which was just at the front of the boat, not a long walk at all) there was a sign that pointed to where the taxis were. At the end of the block, there was a man who looked like he might know what was going on. As we walked up, he said “Where are you going?” and we said “We don’t know, some place we can sit on a beach and snorkel” and he said “Get on that bus over there.” And we did. Just like that. My niece asked me “Where are we going?” again. And I said “Where this bus goes.” She said “How do you know it is going in the right place?” and I said “Any place here is the right place, we’ll figure it out.”

 

 

The “bus” was one of the infamous open-air taxis, which are quite a bit higher off the ground than my Corolla and a bit challenging to get into, but we managed. The bus started to fill up, and we were joined on our bench seat by a mother with two young sons,one maybe 2 or 3 in her lap, and another maybe 5 or 6 who sat next to her. So mom is trying to hold onto her son and not fall out of this open air contraption. The little boy has a small transformer toy (Megatron) clutched in one hand and a small T-Rex in the other, all ready to do battles on the beach. The bus stops at a stop light, and just as the light turns green, the boy drops his T-Rex and it falls out onto the street. We all look back at it as we pull away. The little boy looks at his mom, who has to tell him it is gone now. And then we could just watch the awful truth sink into his little head. He just collapsed. And his poor older brother was saying “Let me put Megatron away in the bag so he doesn’t fall out” “Don’t let go of Megatron”. And the poor mom is trying to console her crying child just as the bus starts to go up down over around up these terribly steep roads. She is on the cliff side as we go up hill, practically dodging vegetation that is trying to creep into the cab as we huddle close to one side to avoid oncoming traffic.

 

In retrospect, if I had any idea what that ride would be like, as soon as she boarded the bus I would have had her switch places with us. She and I were both worried she was going to topple out at any moment. So,anyone else: if you are not able to hold on tight with both hands, don’t sit on the outside.

 

 

After about a half hour of hair raising driving, we pulled into a gas station, and the driver told us that those of us who wanted to get off to take the ferry should get off here. OK, hm. Here is a problem. I don’t know if I am supposed to get off and take a ferry somewhere, because I don’t know where I am going. I ask the family where they are going, and they said a beach (doy!), so I figure we’ll stay on the ferry and end up at a beach. Maybe it will be good for snorkeling maybe not. The mom and her sons move to the bench behind us and way away from the open side, and we head off again.

 

 

Just a few more minutes, and we are there! Where? Coki Beach! Woot woot! We pay our driver (oh, yeah, we had no idea how much the ride would cost, either, but it was $10.00 pp, $25.00 with tip)and he says we need to wait by the bus for our “guide”. Our guide is Dena, who will help us do whatever we need to do and will arrange for a taxi when we are done. Dena is one of the many women who work the beach area in a fairly competitive fashion, but she is also remarkably efficient. “You want chairs? Umbrella?” Yes, we say. So she flags down one of the chair/umbrella men and he sets us up with two chairs ($5.00 pp) and an umbrella ($10.00). Dena asks us if we want anything to eat or drink, but we don’t yet, so she says she’ll check back with us.

 

 

We are hot, so we spray each other down with sun tan lotion and I head into the water to see if we are going to have any luck snorkeling. I am pretty sure the taxi guy was right, because there were a LOT of snorkels in the water already. Even without my mask just above the sand not near the rocks at all there are all sorts of fish: little swordfish looking fish, swarms of really small fish…I am going to love it here.

 

 

I head back up, get my mask and snorkel and my under water camera and go back in. So many fish…so wonderful…especially over by the rocks. Snorkeling is the “sport” made for fluffy girls like me: I float for days. With my mask and snorkel on, I don’t even have to exert myself to keep my face out of water, so it is like someone invented a sport that is as hard as laying face down in a bed. I stay in for about an hour and go back and sit in the quiet shade of our umbrella. Dena comes and sees if we are ready for a rum punch (we are). And, while we are waiting for that to come,we see a woman carrying a basket of bread somethings offering to sell them on the beach. Wow…does that look good.

 

 

She makes it over to our chair and we ask what she has and she says Empenadas. We don’t even ask what is in them, we just get out some money and enjoy. She is from Simply Delicious, one of the food vendors on the beach, she has been in St. Thomas for 20 years, but was in NY before that. She puts peace, love and blessings in everything she makes. I could have eaten 4 of those empenadas, a $5.00 a piece they were a bargain. Oh, and we figured out by eating them they were filled with seasoned beef.

 

 

A few chickens pecked in the sand around our chairs, and the longer we were there, the more people who came, but it was never really crowded. But there were definitely more people than chickens. The life guard was a retired postal worker who spent as much time trying to keep the beach clean as he did guarding lives. His stance in his lifeguard stand was a little more relaxed (almost sleeping?) than what I am used to, but he did tell us he promised us we would not drown while he was on duty.

 

 

I kept going back in to see all my fish. Highlight of the day was when a small shark came close enough for me to get a picture. I have never been that close to a shark in the wild before. It was very very fast…so even the picture I got shows him half leaving the frame. The fish are very very plentiful. The stores sell dog treats for people to bring in the water to feed the fish, and some people brought fruit loops from the ship. I didn't have any food, and I was still surrounded by fish. They even got between me and my view finder when I was trying to take pictures of fish. You ever hear a startled scream through a snorkel? Well you would have if you were with me.

 

A few vendors came by and offered to sell us jewelry or scarves, but they were by no means pesky. We had a slight issue when Dena came to bring my niece a rum punch, and some women in a neighboring chair asked Dena to get them some too. Well….Christina was the woman who was “helping” them, and she kind of scolded my niece and the other woman for going around her. So it was a little awkward.

 

 

At some point, it rained, but our umbrella kept us comfortable…and a good portion of us dry. Sometimes it was sunny, sometimes it was cloudy. But the water was always clear and the visibility good.

 

 

We asked Dena to get us Jerk Chicken, Conch Fritters and Beans and Rice from Simply Delicious, which she did. There is no doubt in my mind that she surcharged the food and drinks a bit…if we would have gotten up out of our chairs and walked to the buildings just behind us on the beach we could have done it a bit cheaper, but there was something so wonderfully decadent about having stuff brought to you on the beach. We cashed out after our food (3 rum punch $7.00 each, $15 for jerk chicken with beans and rice, $9.00 for the conch fritters, $2 for a really cold bottle of water, $55.00 with tip). We packed back up our stuff and asked Dena to get us a cab, which really was her just telling us to go up there and tell someone we need a cab.

 

 

Cab ride back up and over the mountain was just as hair raising as it was on the way there. We stopped at Sapphire Beach to pick up a few more passengers, and then were brought back to port. Ride home was$9.00 per person, $22.00 with tip.

 

 

All told: $127 for the two of us. And, except for getting more empanadas, I wouldn’t change a thing. If I was a starving college student, I could skip the chairs (not the umbrella...shade and rain protection are a must) and the food and drinks from Dena and cut that price in half.

 

 

We really didn’t want to shop for anything close to the port, so we just walked back, stopping to listen to the school steel drum band for a few minutes. We get back to the entrance of the port, and we are behind someone who didn’t get the message about bringing photo id onshore. We got out our drivers licenses and our room keys, and waited our turn in line while the person in front of us tried to explain why they shouldn’t need to show ID here when they didn’t need to any of the other ports they had been too. Anyway, they finally got pulled aside because the gate guard would need to make a call, so we did eventually get to pass through the gates.

 

 

By the time I was walking back to my room, I started to feel with certainty that one coat of sunscreen and four hours face down in the water were not a good mix. A cool shower in our stateroom, a dose of Aloe Vera, a few Tylenol a pledge never to make that mistake again, and I was ready to hit the ship for a little night life (yeah, I will totally break that pledge).

 

 

We make sure my friend and her sister got back on the boat,they did: they loved their zip line excursion. My friend and her crew have reservations for Moderno, so my niece and I hit the Manhattan again. This time, our table is not anywhere near the dance floor (we couldn’t even hear the musical entertainment) but the food was good. We make the rounds visiting some of our favorite bartenders, and try to luck out again at Howling at the Moon, but this time, seats are more scarce (we are a little earlier this time than the other time...maybe that is it). Singing along is fun…but more fun sitting down than standing up.

We catch some of the Celebrity Dance Off in the Atrium,which was very entertaining, especially the cutaways to the losers in the loser lounge.

 

Finally, 11:00 pm arrives, and we can head to the theatre for the comedy show. We went early to get good seats, but it never really did get very crowded, and I was surprised. It was a pretty good performance, especially by the host, Mike Burton and the last comic Gary Caouette. Not that Warren B. Hall wasn’t funny, he just wasn’t as funny.

 

 

We go up to Spice H2O to close out our night, but we danced in our chairs a bit more than we did on the floor while we sipped our vodka cranberries. A note here on the “watered down” drinks people complain about. The first time we got Vodka Cranberries, they were poured so strong, the cranberry was like vermouth in a dry martini. They were a shade of pink so light Crayola doesn’t make that crayon. I had to start to order a vodka cranberry and a half a glass of cranberry so I could dilute it. We never ever felt like our drinks were substandard. Even though we didn’t order brand name, our vodka cranberries were made with Grey Goose. During the day, when bars were not as crowded, we indulged in frozen concoctions like mudslides, BBCs, Pain Killers,etc. and never had a bad drink. Mojitos were top notch, and margaritas on the rocks always rule. Dear niece, who has a more refined palate than I do, never complained about a drink. I had one Moscow Mule I thought tasted a bit bitter, but that might have been because I probably did something stupid like follow a pineapple coconut mojito sugar bomb with a less sweet drink. So all you crabby naysayers who get bad drinks need to sail with me and my niece and we will get you the good stuff.

 

Next up: Tortola: which means Turtle Dove, not Turtle. Who knew?