MITSUGIRLY has a JEWEL of a time on my 1st RC cruise in years!

[mitsugirly]

We enjoyed our day and hanging out here as well. Any day is a good day at the beach.

 

(My camera fogging up of course).

 

 

We packed up our things a few minutes after 1pm and decided to head out. The sun was blaring and hot and there really wasn't any shade here.

 

I took one last picture of the beach area.

 

 

Then we were on the road again.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We decided we were all a little hungry at this point. Kia and Michaela were throwing out ideas about places to eat. I was game for just about anything.

 

Then all of a sudden....

 

 

Mr Iggy decided we needed to wait for him to cross the road...why? To get to the other side of course.

 

 

 

I'm not sure how the palm trees in this area did not get a beating by the hurricane, but they looked gorgeous!

 

 

But yet just down the road...

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Back into town and we decided that we would head to a beach bar located on Simpson Bay.

 

 

 

A new beach coming??? If it's opening soon, they sure don't have a head start on it yet.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

This seems like a good place for me to take a break.

 

I have a 3 hour final to take for my class so that I can finish up this semester. I will return after that and carry on with where we stopped for lunch at a beautiful little beach restaurant and bar.

 

Hopefully you all are still enjoying the review. :)

[Thrilled2012]

It just so difficult to look at your "before" and "after" pics :(. Now THAT's the Le Galion that I remember so well (the web pics that you posted). The pool was super neat!

[SenatorsFan]

It's so terrible to see all of the devastation caused by the hurricane. My DH and I were in St. Maarten in March 2017 and we did a tour of the French side, since we had not been there before, with Bernard's Tours. I'm very glad we did that since I don't know when we'll be back and how long it will take to rebuild from all of this.

 

I also wanted to tell you our liquor store carries your Poggio Moscato so I bought a bottle and I really like it. So not only do I learn from your great reviews, but now I found another wine I like. :D

Heather

[Rogueperson]

Did you actually make it into Marigot? I love that town, but I heard it was closer to the epicenter of Irma than the rest of the island, which considering the size of Irma, really didn't matter. I got engaged there, so that town has a special place in our hearts.

[mitsugirly]

Ok, time to resume.

 

All of my work is in for this class and my 120 point final exam was completed in 1 hr 15 minutes instead of the 3 hours it said it would take. I missed 1. So...I'm happy. I can finally say I have completed my next class and I now get a 10 weeks out of school (if I decide to go ahead and take my summer class I'm signed up for).

 

So back to the review I go!

 

 

[mitsugirly]

During our trip, around the Chez Raymond area, Kia said that the brake light was on in the car. We must have came up with every scenario that could go wrong for this light to be on. Brake check on a few mountains/hills here and there, but nothing went wrong. The hubs was in the back saying it was fine and so were the brakes, but we just couldn't put it out of our mind what could potentially happen.

 

There were a lot of bumps in the roads here and there and especially the parking lots and I swear it felt like we had a flat tire. At one point I noticed that Kia's hands were shaking and it wasn't because she was nervous but because the wheel of the car was shaking back and forth. YIKES! I mentioned it to her and she said "Oh, it's been like this from the beginning". Hmmm, ok. But she would later comment how it felt like it was getting worse! Along with a tire that felt flat. Oh boy.

 

Going up the huge hills it was like the little engine that could(n't) at times and we wondered if we'd make it.

 

We had the black plastic piece that goes under the bumper now hanging from the "rock" that caught us in the parking lot at the look out point. (To our defense, someone else has done the same thing to this van because it had been strapped on with a zip tie). We tried pushing it back up in there to secure it after stopping at Le Galion. I think we were all afraid to look because we didn't even bother to check on it until we were leaving the parking lot at Le Galion.

 

Then all of the lights in the dash decided it was time to show their presence. Did we get a beat up car or what?

 

 

But everything held up and we did eventually make it back to the rental company in 1 piece...well 2 if you include the hanging bumper piece.

 

So we arrived at the Buccaneer Beach Bar. Michaela had said they had the best hamburgers there and that sounded great about now. What's better than enjoying a hamburger while sitting on a beach right?

 

 

We pulled into a parking spot with our tail hanging out. This had to be the smallest parking spot ever along the road. We made jokes about someone coming along and taking the back bumper off to match the front. See the red car behind the sign pulled in? The van beside it was ours...hanging out in the road.

 

 

This looked like a cool place to hang out at. You had the bar or the picnic tables or even the lounge chairs on the beach.

 

 

I don't know what these goofs are doing posing like that. LOL

 

 

The beach is at Simpson Bay and this would be the Kim Sha area. This is where a lot of cruisers are going to after the hurricane and one of the beaches that seems to be back to normal. Like I think I had previously said, RC had a beach excursion to this place.

 

I read an article that said the government gave out licenses to vendors (maybe it was 8, but I don't remember) for a period of 1 year, so that they could set up for chair rental and food for the cruisers to have a place to go to post Irma. If this becomes successful, then their license could be extended.

 

I thought the beach was really pretty and it was a very nice area. I could see myself hanging out here in the future.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

The menu...

 

 

 

 

I ordered the cheeseburger with bacon, because good bacon is the theme of this whole cruise, and fries. If Michaela said it was the best, then I was going to have it!

 

We just hung for awhile and Sakari and Xander played in the water.

 

When our food came, it was just as Michaela said...YUMMY and cooked perfect...including the bacon and fries.

 

 

 

 

 

There was a pizza place too, but they were only open from 5-10pm.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

At some point Sakari found a lobster head in the water. It would be her friend for the rest of the day.

 

 

 

Here are the bathrooms:

 

 

 

 

It was almost 3:30pm and we decided it was time to head out and take the rental car back.

 

One last look at Buccaneer Bay. We really enjoyed our time here and would have loved to stay longer and enjoy the beach, but...we didn't want any close calls like the day before. No pier running for me!

 

 

A look over the bay from our parking spot.

 

 

Beautiful flowers/trees everywhere.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We headed back toward Philipsburg at 3:27pm.

 

 

"We sell...Kitchens, Bathrooms & Tiles" But what about roofs? Roofs would be good about now because they were also missing theirs.

 

 

 

We were passing the cruise port at 3:52pm and I was happy that the traffic was not really that bad. Well, either traffic was not back or Kia was driving like Jeff Gordan.

 

 

We made it to the car rental place and he immediately looked at the bumper. Ohhhhh gosh. He looked at me. He looked at the bumper. I said "well it fell down when driving. Someone has messed it up to begin with because they have a zip tie on it! But, I'm sure you already know that" and he nodded that he did. Whew!

 

We got back into the car and he took us to the port to be dropped off. Oops, we didn't fill up the tank. Kia and I had made the executive decision to just pay the inflated price for the gas because we would rather make it back to the port in time than have to locate a gas station and stop to put gas in it. He said "just give me $20 for the gas" and I did just that. It was definitely worth it to me and I thought that wasn't a bad price. Hey, we drove the ENTIRE island that day!

 

We were walking down the dock to the ship by 4:07pm.

 

 

Obviously the hubs and Kia and family were in no hurry to get back on the ship.

 

 

 

[Kiwifromkiev]

Ok, time to resume.

 

 

 

All of my work is in for this class and my 120 point final exam was completed in 1 hr 15 minutes instead of the 3 hours it said it would take. I missed 1. So...I'm happy. I can finally say I have completed my next class and I now get a 10 weeks out of school (if I decide to go ahead and take my summer class I'm signed up for).

 

 

 

So back to the review I go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kim, forgive me , but for some time I had an urge to ask you a question, and now it seems a really good time (even if a bit off top). You have four children, with the youngest being only 10, and a couple of grand children. You are a nurse and are taking the course to advance your degree. You and hubby are a running a couple of businesses. You take a couple of cruises a year and you are writing these superb detailed reviews with many a great picture included! You seem to be an ultimate supermum! How on Earth do you find time and energy to do all these??? Have you ever thought of doing motivational speaking to young mothers? [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

 

 

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[mitsugirly]

However, I heard a loud noise ahead and I needed to investigate.

 

 

The Equinox was in port with us and they brought along some interesting things with them...

 

Check out this video of what was waiting to get back on their ship.

 

JJ4aW84Gaao

 

and another...

 

hYQxsCeSa7A

I sent this video to my daughter after getting back on the ship and her and her fiancé and all their bike riding friends just got super excited and now want to find out about taking their bikes with them on vacation.

 

I can only imagine how fun that would be to just ride all over the island at each port.

We were back on the ship and we all headed straight up to the pool area to hang out for awhile.

Sakari pulled out her collection of shells from the day.

 

Now take a close look at the weird looking blue-green item that is now curled up. Anyone want to try to guess what it is???

 

I'll give a hint...remember the hubby commenting on those fish with teeth?

[rs45thompson]

Subscribing

 

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[mitsugirly]

Although Sakari wanted to go to the pool, we decided we would head to the "munchkin pool" because heaven forbid you called it a "baby pool" because she would refuse to go saying "I'm not a baby and I'm turning 10!"

 

Notice the lifeguard here at the pool? They were at EVERY pool, even the adult pool. I thought it was interesting since there have been so many drownings, especially with kids, over the years and the talk has always been that they would never have lifeguards on any of the cruise ships (except Disney) because that would then increase the chance of being sued if anything ever happened, not to mention parents watching their kids even less because they feel the need to let the lifeguards do it.

 

 

But...here they are. I personally think it's a good thing. An extra set of eyes on the swimmers is always a good thing. I will find myself watching other kids when I'm sitting by a pool. It's just the right thing to do no matter if the parents are there or not. It doesn't release the parents of their duties, but decreases the risks of drowning. I know this is a very controversial issue with cruisers, but if there's a chance to save a life, why not contribute? Just my personal opinion of course. Maybe it's the nurse in me.

 

Sakari decides to try out the slide.

 

 

These slides remind me of some of NCL's older slides...very slow and hard to move.

 

lGEeOyf2flw

 

I decided to take this opportunity to get a few more pictures.

 

Here's the climbing wall in the daylight.

 

 

When I seen these containers, I couldn't help but think of all the pictures that were posted online after the hurricane of the containers everywhere in this area. It was sad.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Kia and Xander going down the slide (because they wouldn't let Sakari take him down and said it had to be a parent).

 

 

I took this video of Kia and Xander coming down the slide and Sakari couldn't understand what I was doing. But, I was silently laughing because I could hear Kia screaming on the way down. LOL It was pretty loud in the area with the kids and hard to hear on the video, but it still amused me.

 

1O5njW1fxms

 

 

Another thing that amused me was this sign! RC has humor! Now remember...no catapulting, pole vaulting or teleportation in the pool area!

 

 

I told Sakari how Mermazing she looks and I needed a picture of her. She HATES wearing a shirt but she got a little red the day before at Buck Island and I made her wear her shirt all day. She just doesn't believe that mermaids should ever wear a shirt and it covers up her bathing suit and .....blah blah blah. It's a never ending argument with her when swimming. I told her mermaids also don't look good in red...unless it's their hair or bathing suit!

 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

 

I told Sakari how Mermazing she looks and I needed a picture of her. She HATES wearing a shirt but she got a little red the day before at Buck Island and I made her wear her shirt all day. She just doesn't believe that mermaids should ever wear a shirt and it covers up her bathing suit and .....blah blah blah. It's a never ending argument with her when swimming. I told her mermaids also don't look good in red...unless it's their hair or bathing suit!

 

 

I burn super easy, so I always have to watch my sun time and make sure to apply and reapply sunscreen to avoid the "badge of shame". LOL. I'm seriously thinking I'll invest in a rash guard with built in SPF for my Feb cruise (and beyond).

[mitsugirly]

The munchkin area closed at 6pm and we all headed to the pool to hang out a bit more.

 

Then back to the room to shower and change for dinner. I decided I wanted to go to the MDR tonight.

 

The elevators reminded us of what day it was:

 

 

 

They sat us with a waiter named Aleksandr and his assistant was Marcos. Both were VERY attentive...but I had no idea just how much.

 

 

 

Our menus for the night:

 

 

 

I was real happy to see they had cheesecake.

 

Sakari's menu:

 

 

Now let's just talk about my pop addiction again for a moment. Anyhow, whoever has read any of my reviews knows...this is truly an addiction and I hate water. Any ship we have ever been on, they immediately came over and tried to pour us water and we immediately told them "no water" and present our soda card. We always get the strangest looks and honestly, sometimes it feels uncomfortable. I mean we can't be the only people out there that drink pop with our meal. I've had people on here agree with me after all.

 

Tonight, they ask us what we wanted to drink instead and I showed them our cards. They were very pleasant about it and actually ask us if we wanted water. Usually it takes FOREVER to return with pop on other ships and I feel like they must have to run up to the pool deck bar to get it. So, this time I changed things up and said "yes to the water" just in case it took awhile.

 

They came back with our pop within 2 minutes and would you look at this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

We got a twofer deal! Well I'm definitely impressed! I heart Royal if not only for this reason! LOL

 

Our rolls were served and I also noticed that Royal still puts the dining table cloths on their tables (a big debate over at Carnival). I personally could care less if I'm eating on a table or a cloth on the table, but thought I would mention it to those that care. I mean I don't put a table cloth on my table at home when we eat, so it doesn't bother me if they don't have one on the ships. Some people, it does.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I ordered the Creamy Roasted Garlic Soup and my oh my it was yummy! Aleksandr said that it was pretty potent with garlic, but I love garlic and I'm glad I went with that choice.

 

 

Sakari is a big soup eater and she got the chicken and noodle soup and was very happy.

 

 

My main was the Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli. It was yummy also.

 

 

 

The hubby had the Spaghetti Bolognese and said it was good as well.

 

 

Sakari played it safe with pizza (although she's not a big fries eater).

 

 

Then on to desert!! Cheesecake but hold the strawberry topping! It was amazing!

 

(Never mind that child in the background who is licking her banana split sundae...I don't know who she is with such manners. Definitely not any child of mine!)

 

 

 

[micmacmissy]

Okay I would have been freaking out too in St. Croix - cutting it that close to all-aboard time! Yikes! I am the same as you- I would've been thinking about that all day, too.

 

Celebrity has several cruises where passengers can bring motorcycles on board. I'm pretty sure the Captain of the Equinox (if I'm not mistaken) has his own bike onboard as well and rides it while in port!

[NemoCrownie]

Th8s is the most amazing review. I am loving it, and your pictures are absolutely wonderful!

 

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[mitsugirly]

The hubby ordered the Apple Pie A La Mode and said it was very good. As stuffed as I was...I had to try it and it was amazing!!! The apples were cooked just right!

 

 

After dinner, Sakari was off to the kids club to spend time with her own people and we were off to the casino for a bit. I won $32 and called it a night walking out a winner. LOL

 

We picked up the munchkin and headed back to the room where I wouldn't have homework tonight because I had planned ahead and did my test for the week last night. Go me!

 

Here was our towel animal.

 

 

The hubby would watch a little t.v (I might add that EVERY commercial was in Spanish for some reason) and I wanted to check in with my son...to see if the dog and fish were still alive. You see this pattern of non-trust here?

 

Our dog, Loki, does not like Kolin for some reason. From the minute we brought him home last year he has never liked Kolin. Kolin has never done anything to him but I can only speculate that he must have been abused by someone that either looked like Kolin or something. (Trust me, there's a story behind me thinking he was abused).

 

He loves his mini-human though and has a fit when she's out of his site (at least according to my blinds that I've had to replace several times).

 

 

Kolin has a hard time with him as far as getting him to come inside from going potty or anything else. He pretty much has to hide for Loki to walk past the door and into the house or go get my neighbor to call him in. It gets frustrating. He's a Husky...so he's a runner too and can not be caught.

 

 

But we love him just the same and Sakari would have a fit if anything would ever happen to him. She takes good care of him and she says "He's my brother too". So I guess I actually have 5 kids. :o

 

So far...Loki was doing just fine.

[mitsugirly]

These St Maarten pictures are heartbreaking. Hopefully they will be able to come back better than ever from the devastation. Thanks so much for sharing.

 

Yes, very heartbreaking.

 

 

It just so difficult to look at your "before" and "after" pics :(. Now THAT's the Le Galion that I remember so well (the web pics that you posted). The pool was super neat!

 

I even pulled out some of my old pictures from some of the areas we had been in before and compared. I was really shocked.

 

 

 

It's so terrible to see all of the devastation caused by the hurricane. My DH and I were in St. Maarten in March 2017 and we did a tour of the French side, since we had not been there before, with Bernard's Tours. I'm very glad we did that since I don't know when we'll be back and how long it will take to rebuild from all of this.

 

I also wanted to tell you our liquor store carries your Poggio Moscato so I bought a bottle and I really like it. So not only do I learn from your great reviews, but now I found another wine I like.

Heather

 

It definitely seems like it's going to be awhile before they can get rebuilt, but looking at the devastation online right after it hit, they have actually made a lot of progress with the clean up.

 

 

Woo hoo! You found another wine that you like. Isn't it awesome?

 

Did you actually make it into Marigot? I love that town, but I heard it was closer to the epicenter of Irma than the rest of the island, which considering the size of Irma, really didn't matter. I got engaged there, so that town has a special place in our hearts.

 

Yes, we drove through there...actually twice. Kia reminded me that it was one of the popular places that cruisers go to because it was the shopping district and marina area with places to eat. I'm not really a shopper, so it didn't really interest me. I did take a few pictures while going down the street but once I got home, I really didn't like the pictures and it really didn't show much so I opted not to use them in the review. It looked like, for the most part, there wasn't much damage in the area but most of the places weren't even open when we passed by them. It's also an area that we kinda got turned around in and thought we would have to back track. Kia mentioned that they are always trying to reroute traffic to make things better and it just messes things up. We went way out of the way (one way streets), when you use to be able to just go straight. So it was a little confusing.

 

Kim, forgive me , but for some time I had an urge to ask you a question, and now it seems a really good time (even if a bit off top). You have four children, with the youngest being only 10, and a couple of grand children. You are a nurse and are taking the course to advance your degree. You and hubby are a running a couple of businesses. You take a couple of cruises a year and you are writing these superb detailed reviews with many a great picture included! You seem to be an ultimate supermum! How on Earth do you find time and energy to do all these??? Have you ever thought of doing motivational speaking to young mothers? [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

Aww, thank you so much for that comment. I've always been a non-stop person. Even when we are on a cruise it's usually non-stop go for me and not much relaxation. I did "stay put" a little more this cruise because it was fun hanging out with Kia and her family and sitting for long periods of time just chatting. I don't think we ever stopped talking and never a dull moment.

 

 

Energy...well honestly I don't have much...ever. But I just carry on no matter what. I'm sure some day it will catch up with me but for now, I'm not slowing down knowing that there will be a day that I can't do the things that I do or get around the way that I do now.

 

 

Motivational speaking? No, not me. I have never liked getting up in front of an audience, even though I'm a big talker, I just can't. Not to mention...who has the time.

 

 

 

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Thanks and hope you enjoy

 

I burn super easy, so I always have to watch my sun time and make sure to apply and reapply sunscreen to avoid the "badge of shame". LOL. I'm seriously thinking I'll invest in a rash guard with built in SPF for my Feb cruise (and beyond).

 

Sakari and I don't burn easy at all. When we do, it usually immediately turns into a tan. But, that Caribbean sun location does it to us every time on the first day. We even have 100 spf.

 

 

Okay I would have been freaking out too in St. Croix - cutting it that close to all-aboard time! Yikes! I am the same as you- I would've been thinking about that all day, too.

 

Celebrity has several cruises where passengers can bring motorcycles on board. I'm pretty sure the Captain of the Equinox (if I'm not mistaken) has his own bike onboard as well and rides it while in port!

 

That's so cool about Celebrity and the Captain!

 

 

Th8s is the most amazing review. I am loving it, and your pictures are absolutely wonderful!

 

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Aww thanks!

[suesnake2002]

I had a dog named named loki. That was thors brother. Loki was the god of mischief and strife

 

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