MITSUGIRLY sails off into the HORIZON-review & pictorial

[mitsugirly]

Ok, so that's all of the ship review. 

 

I will try to continue some later today. I will pick up on Day 2 on the ship, which is a sea day.

 

Thanks to everyone here checking out my review. I hope you continue to enjoy it.

[apcci2]

Ship looks nice. Enjoying your review. 

[blarko]

2 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

SKYCOURT BASKETBALL

 

We always love to play a few games during our cruise however...we found that they LOCK this place up after a certain time (after dark) for some reason. WHY???? We have never encountered this on past cruises. It's hot during the day and we prefer to go up and play during the evening when it's cooler and every night it would be locked and closed. During the day there's just too many people there playing or the kids club would have it making it unusable to everyone else. It sucked!

 

Well that’s super irritating. My (adult) son likes to play basketball late night on the ships. For the same reasons that you’ve stated, too hot and too crowded during the day. And he’s never been the only one up there late night, so I’m sure plenty of others have the same idea as you (and him). 

[pghsteelerfan]

I am so happy I decided to take some time and log in for a bit today...found your review in progress and got all caught up!  I am going through serious cruise withdrawal.  The closest I got to a cruise this year was seeing Carnival Dream sailing back up the Mississippi River from our hotel window while we were in NOLA in May one morning & Carnival Triumph the next morning.  The largest ship(s) we've been on are Carnival's Conquest class (Glory, Valor, & Liberty x2) & I know you were on Conquest not too long ago.  Does the Horizon seem a LOT bigger and does it "feel" crowded?  I've seen mixed comments on that.  On one of our Liberty cruises out of Miami, Breeze sailed in behind us and she looked huge in comparison.  But Horizon really looks beautiful, and big, from your pictures.  We got a little familiar with those kinds of elevators last year in Hawaii.  We were at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and the building we were in had 30 floors.  So it was the same thing, you pressed what floor you were going to and you'd be assigned an elevator.  It seemed to work most of the time, but in non-busy times, the waits were ridiculous! 

Congrats with your school work and that's awesome that you've only got one more to go!!!  Celebrating with a cruise?  I am looking forward to following along for this one. 

[smurfm69]

 Enjoying your pics and review and anticipating the ports!  Your reviews keep me coming back to cruise critic more often than usual.

[nybumpkin]

On 12/30/2018 at 11:55 AM, mitsugirly said:

SKYCOURT BASKETBALL

 

We always love to play a few games during our cruise however...we found that they LOCK this place up after a certain time (after dark) for some reason. WHY???? We have never encountered this on past cruises. It's hot during the day and we prefer to go up and play during the evening when it's cooler and every night it would be locked and closed. During the day there's just too many people there playing or the kids club would have it making it unusable to everyone else. It sucked!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My son loves the basketball court and he'd play at night if he could. Unfortunately, the court is directly above Cucina and JiJI's, and the noise of thumping basketballs and running feet is very noticeable in the restaurants. I experienced it firsthand having lunch in JiJI's. Hence, they close the court when the restaurants open for (fee charged) dinner.  This happens on Conquest-class ships as well, since the court is above the steakhouse.

 

Love reading your reviews - thanks for all the details!

[mitsugirly]

On 12/30/2018 at 2:16 PM, apcci2 said:

Ship looks nice. Enjoying your review. 

 

 

It is very nice. Thanks and glad you are enjoying the review. 

 

On 12/30/2018 at 2:41 PM, blarko said:

 

Well that’s super irritating. My (adult) son likes to play basketball late night on the ships. For the same reasons that you’ve stated, too hot and too crowded during the day. And he’s never been the only one up there late night, so I’m sure plenty of others have the same idea as you (and him). 

 

 

Right us too. It really sucked. 

 

23 hours ago, pghsteelerfan said:

I am so happy I decided to take some time and log in for a bit today...found your review in progress and got all caught up!  I am going through serious cruise withdrawal.  The closest I got to a cruise this year was seeing Carnival Dream sailing back up the Mississippi River from our hotel window while we were in NOLA in May one morning & Carnival Triumph the next morning.  The largest ship(s) we've been on are Carnival's Conquest class (Glory, Valor, & Liberty x2) & I know you were on Conquest not too long ago.  Does the Horizon seem a LOT bigger and does it "feel" crowded?  I've seen mixed comments on that.  On one of our Liberty cruises out of Miami, Breeze sailed in behind us and she looked huge in comparison.  But Horizon really looks beautiful, and big, from your pictures.  We got a little familiar with those kinds of elevators last year in Hawaii.  We were at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and the building we were in had 30 floors.  So it was the same thing, you pressed what floor you were going to and you'd be assigned an elevator.  It seemed to work most of the time, but in non-busy times, the waits were ridiculous! 

Congrats with your school work and that's awesome that you've only got one more to go!!!  Celebrating with a cruise?  I am looking forward to following along for this one. 

 

 

Well hiya! Glad you found me and my review. 

 

Yes, the Horizon is A LOT bigger for sure and feels it. However, I didn't feel like it felt overly crowded and honestly, there was a lot of talk amongst the cruisers on our week about how big the ship was and how it just didn't feel that crowded. We barely waited in line for anything from food to any lines (other than the adult comedy show). <--that was the only exception. It was great!

 

It's still out for debate on whether or not I like these elevators! LOL

 

Yep, I'm sure I'll celebrate with a cruise since Spring Break will be shortly after I graduate. hehe

 

5 hours ago, fyree39 said:

We've been on the Vista, sister to Horizon, and I found I disliked the main floor of the theater with the chairs that can be moved around.  I much prefer the standard theater seating with the tables in front.

 

I wasn't in the theater very often but I guess I didn't even notice the moveable chairs on the main floor. The time we sat down there, we were on the side and the only thing I noticed was the cup holders built into the chairs were only every other one. So, you only had a choice of putting it on one side of you and if you happen to be sitting next to someone who left their arm hanging over it, you had none. 😞

 

 

3 hours ago, smurfm69 said:

 Enjoying your pics and review and anticipating the ports!  Your reviews keep me coming back to cruise critic more often than usual.

 

 

Aww thanks for the kind words. 

 

1 hour ago, nybumpkin said:

My son loves the basketball court and he'd play at night if he could. Unfortunately, the court is directly above Cucina and JiJI's, and the noise of thumping basketballs and running feet is very noticeable in the restaurants. I experienced it firsthand having lunch in JiJI's. Hence, they close the court when the restaurants open for (fee charged) dinner.  This happens on Conquest-class ships as well, since the court is above the steakhouse.

 

Love reading your reviews - thanks for all the details!

 

That's true. We were in there once to eat for lunch and could hear them upstairs playing basketball. Bad placement for sure!

[mitsugirly]

SUNDAY DECEMBER 16: SEA DAY

 

So today was our first full sea day and my intentions were to sleep in. I made it until 9am and then I was wide awake and bushy-haired. Kendra was already awake and I mentioned to her that I wanted to go to the Michaels Crafts at 9:30am. She said she'd wake her troop up and meet me there. 

 

Sakari woke up to find that her elf on the shelf and reindeer had escaped the jar they came in during transport from the house to the ship...and Trixie was just hanging out in the bathroom (literally) and Cookie the deer was plugging the glass jar so she wouldn't go back in it. 

 

 

 

 

 

We raced to get dressed and headed off to Ocean Plaza for the crafts event. 

 

 

 

We arrived and it was a full house. But, there were still plenty of seats....and the best part...they were serving breakfast! SCORE! They had a mini buffet set up with plenty of eggs, breakfast meats and fruit. Yummy!

 

 

They started us out with wooden picture frames and some ink. We were going to make Christmas frames. I was hoping for a scrapbooking page of some sort (I'm not sure why I thought that's what they were going to be doing here). 

 

 

 

Nothing like greasy breakfast fingers and ink mixed together. 

 

 

Kendra and fam was doing their own thing...and Brayden was a little more interested in eating than crafting and Kendra kept having to remind him that we were only here for a little bit with the supplies. 

 

 

 

They gave us 2 ideas for decorations on our frames: one was light bulbs and the other was reindeer. As you can see, Sakari had her own ideas and broke all the rules with some fancy snowflakes instead. 

 

 

 

 

 

Brayden finally finished his Christmas light frame.

 

 

 

Kam said Kari was doing her own thing so she wanted to do her own design as well....such rule breakers these girls!

 

 

 

Kendra's reindeer frame:

 

 

Mine and Sakari's frames:

 

 

We were there a little longer than they had for the event because not only is my family late to show up to everything but obviously we are late to leave as well. Such is life. 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

After the crafts, the kids wanted to head up to the sports court and ride the skyride and do the ropes course. We headed back to the room to change into tennis shoes because they won't let you on it without them. 

 

The line at the skyride wasn't really that long. However, the small line stated it was an hour wait from "here". Within 5 minutes we were to the "45 minute wait from here" and within about another 5 minutes we had progressed to the "30 minute wait from here" sign. Hmmm....not bad. However, the 30 minute sign was probably accurate on the time. 

 

They do have 4 carts running total and the timing all depends on just how fast your little legs can take you around the course. 

 

 

 

There's that tongue again....

 

 

 

Sakari got on and you could tell by the look on her face that she was immediately nervous! I'm not sure what's gotten into her lately. She's been scared to go on any zip lines or anything high lately and she used to be my fearless child that would do anything. I guess she's getting more aware of what "danger" means. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hubby and I were going to race but I made it a point to tell him to stay with me at the beginning because I knew they had a camera up there that takes your picture. 

 

 

 

Well later after looking at the pics, they didn't even take mine (at either location) and the hubby had several. Blah

 

At least Kendra was able to capture a photo to prove I did it!

 

 

They did capture a photo of Sakari and by the looks of it, she had a good time. 

 

 

 

This ride is fun and I'm glad that it was open while we were on the cruise. I had heard, prior to the cruise, that it was closed a lot but this wasn't the case on our cruise. 

 

If you take the outer course then when you get down to the end your cart takes off and goes down a small hill, which gives you a lot of momentum and puts you under the other cart. The other cart doesn't catch up for a while. It's fun to watch the faces of those on the carts as the other one zooms past them and they are left behind until they get to the other side. LOL It's so unexpected. 

Edited December 31, 2018 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

 

After the skycarts, it was time for a little bit of rope course-test your skills ability. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sakari was super scared on the last cruise when we did the ropes course, but this time she was a little more confident. She did do the easy course first and the second time around she did the harder course. By the end of the cruise, she was doing great and wasn't scared anymore. 

 

 

 

 

 

Kendra always has some type of pose to do. It's just her thing! LOL

 

 

 

 

And that tongue again....

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the 3rd or 4th time around, Sakari was striking poses just like her big sissy. I'd say she got confident with it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

It was pretty hot outside at this point and we all decided it was time for a little bit of swimming fun. We headed down to the room and changed and back up to the pool only to find that they were having some contests there and we decided it would probably be less crowded to go to the back of the ship to swim. 

 

Sakari morphed into a mermaid and with a little aid from her dad, she wasn't a fish out of the water for long...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice there wasn't many in the pool and at certain times, she had the pool to herself. I won't let her swim with her fin on if there's a lot of people. She knows no splashing or wiggling the fin in or out of the pool with people around. I don't want anyone complaining and her not get to wear it anymore. So far, we have never had a problem with her having it in the pools. 

 

 

 

 

Kendra and fam showed up a little later.

 

 

 

After a few hours, we had worked up an appetite and headed to Guys Burgers for some lunch. 

 

 

 

 

[Cruiser 4 Life 66]

Thanks for your review. I'm enjoying it and can't wait for more. I love your whole style of telling it like it is and not sugar coating things. I also love all the pics. Sorry about the bad start with the Uber ride going the wrong way and the annoying hotel staff saying they don't police the pool when they did police the pool. Also I refuse to stay at a hotel if there's not free breakfast. So I understand you not wanting to pay an arm and a leg for what they wanted to charge.

 

I can't believe Carnival is not only charging you money if you want to watch a movie indoors, but is also charging you for the popcorn. Every ship I've ever been on with an indoor theater offered both the movie and popcorn for free. Carnival really seems to be nickel and diming people lately, but then I guess all lines are doing this. The elevators also seem like a nightmare. Can you imagine if you are a little tipsy trying to figure it out? You get in the elevator and there are no buttons to press. Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

 

Anyway, looking forward to more review and pics!

Edited December 31, 2018 by Cruiser 4 Life 66

[mitsugirly]

 

After lunch, the kids wanted to go to the waterpark and who was I to stop them on this extremely hot day right?

 

Last time Kam cruised it took her until the last day of the cruise to get the nerve to go down the kiddie water slide. Well, it took a little bit to convince her that she'd have fun and thank goodness there was a slight issue with one of the water outlets that pours water down on you when you sit down to go down the slide and that small little opening of water not working allowed her to squeeze her head, unscathed any water to the face, and she would finally go down it with some coaxing from Kari. 

 

 

 

Kendra being the big kid she is...had to go down the kiddie slide too.

 

 

 

Only to get yelled at by the employee at the bottom of it. She's too big and you are supposed to be a certain "size" to go down it. He says "you must be a child to use these slides". Of course my reply is "She is a child, my child, don't that count? I'll watch her and make sure she behaves". LOL  He laughed of course, but that excuse still didn't work out too good. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really miss the water guns that you can point at the unexpected people and soak them. Instead, you have these now. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

After a while, it was time to try out the water slides. Sakari and Brayden had already went several times and said it was a lot of fun. One was closed and has clear places within the tube to let in light and the other is open and you go down on a tube. Both fun. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sakari, being the creative self she is, discovered that you can open your mouth in the middle of this waterspout and water won't go in it. Such a proud momma moment. #rollseyesatthestuffkidsdo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hubby is a professional chiller...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During our fun water play time, the main pool (just below) was about to have another contest. It was a singing contest and the contestants were to sing a different song each time, with no hesitation, and the more audience participation, the better. There were 3 kids in this contest to begin with. Well, one kid was AWESOME and did a great job, on command, coming up with songs and the crowd went wild. Then another one of the kids...disappeared, came back with GUYS fries and jumped back in the contest line with his fries midway during the competition...like nothing had even happened. Well Mike, the CD, caught on. It was a funny moment. He made jokes about it. Then told him to have a seat. It wasn't too much longer, the kid finished his fries and JUMPED BACK IN THE LINE! Um...ok. Mike told him to sit back down, he was out of the game. 

 

We were waterlogged and decided it was time to go back to the room and get some dry clothes on and head for more games and fun. We were going to make the most of this sea day. 

[mitsugirly]

Up at the FourSquare area, we decided to play Sky Billiards. This is pool, but in a big version with balls and you use your feet. It's not as easy as you would think. LOL But A LOT of fun!

 

 

 

 

Notice we played until it was dark out!

 

 

 

 

Then a little bit of ping-pong fun. Sakari absolutely loves playing this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then off for a little bit of a workout...because, we hadn't "worked out" enough during the day, right?

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

And if all this wasn't enough for the day, Sakari and B went off to play pool and the hubby and I decided on a more slower-paced event such as putt putt. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Putt putt has several holes on the same floor and then you go upstairs for 4 more holes and back down. And I thought this was going to be a non-work out time for us...psshhh, I'm still climbing steps. My legs got one heck of a workout today!

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Ok, we had worked up an appetite. I had no energy to go get dressed up and we decided to head to the buffet. The food was good. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took the kids to the kids club and decided to convince Kam that it was "school". She started preschool this year and it was touch and go in the beginning with Kendra having to stay with her for hours before sneaking out. She has gotten used to it and now enjoys school. So, this cruise we had planned on doing some scuba diving. Well, without Kendra's fiance coming along, that meant one of two things. 1) Kendra would not be able to go diving at all because there's no one to watch Kam. 2) She would be able to talk her into going to the kids club for the day and get to dive. So, we decided to tell her that while she's on the cruise, she still had to go to school (and that was the kids club). 

 

We went there and dropped the kids off (Sakari wasn't really into it but agreed to go anyhow). She ended up having to go to the kids area, 2-5 year olds, with Kam for a while before she was able to sneak off and go to her own section. 

 

We headed to the comedy club for some stress relief. 

 

 

 

It was funny, but it was the PG version. The Limelight lounge is just not big enough for this event. Everyone was trying to get into it. Once the show was over, they told everyone they had to empty the room and then come back in if you wanted to stay for the adult show. Well.....that line went all the way down the hall! Like forever long! There was no way you were getting back in. This should tell them they need to be holding this somewhere else! It was ridiculous! 

 

We picked up the kids and headed back to the room for the night. Sakari complained about not wanting to go to the kids club anymore and she was bored. However, they did have "free play" and she was able to make a necklace/choker out of rubber bands and she did enjoy that. 

 

Our first port day was tomorrow and it was an early day. 

 

We would find a towel elephant friend when we got back to the room. 

 

 

 

Sakari played on her phone and created this:

 

 

 

We had a little bit of wine, watched some t.v. with Spanish commercials and headed to bed around 11pm. 

[mitsugirly]

4 hours ago, Cruiser 4 Life 66 said:

Thanks for your review. I'm enjoying it and can't wait for more. I love your whole style of telling it like it is and not sugar coating things. I also love all the pics. Sorry about the bad start with the Uber ride going the wrong way and the annoying hotel staff saying they don't police the pool when they did police the pool. Also I refuse to stay at a hotel if there's not free breakfast. So I understand you not wanting to pay an arm and a leg for what they wanted to charge.

 

I can't believe Carnival is not only charging you money if you want to watch a movie indoors, but is also charging you for the popcorn. Every ship I've ever been on with an indoor theater offered both the movie and popcorn for free. Carnival really seems to be nickel and diming people lately, but then I guess all lines are doing this. The elevators also seem like a nightmare. Can you imagine if you are a little tipsy trying to figure it out? You get in the elevator and there are no buttons to press. Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

 

Anyway, looking forward to more review and pics!

 

Thanks so much for the comments. I really appreciate it and glad you are enjoying it.

 

We usually only stay in the hotels if breakfast is included as well but since our original place we tried to book didn't seem to be responding, it was a last minute thing.

 

You would think they would have a popcorn popper there at the theater like they do out on the deck and serve it. The popcorn you had to buy was in the bag like you would buy at the store.

 

The elevators...the whole beginning of the cruise you didn't even have to be tipsy to get in and be like whaaaaat? LOL A lot of people were confused. hehe

 

 

3 hours ago, singinalot said:

Kim, for some reason I am just now seeing this so have 5 pages to catch up on, but I’m happy to follow along. Congrats on all the huge life events this year!

 

 

Thanks so much and glad you found the review.

[mitsugirly]

Ok, I have the pictures for our first day ready to post tomorrow. It's New Years Eve and we are heading out with Kendra and the gang for a night on the town to celebrate.

 

HAPPY 2019 EVERYONE! STAY SAFE AND HEALTHY.

 

See you all on the flip side...in 2019!

[CoasterGuy]

Happy New Year Kim, really enjoying the review so far.

 

Sky Billiards looks neat. 

[splash_in_the_water]

great review! I've seen  your reviews over the years, but this is the first one i've read. Happy new year!

[300dtc]

I can't believe that yesterday I just suddenly thought...hmm, haven't seen a review from Kim in a while...and I searched and here this is! It's a Christmas miracle😂

[mitsugirly]

12 hours ago, CoasterGuy said:

Happy New Year Kim, really enjoying the review so far.

 

Sky Billiards looks neat. 

 

Same to you and thanks for the comments. Sky Billards was a blast.

 

10 hours ago, splash_in_the_water said:

great review! I've seen  your reviews over the years, but this is the first one i've read. Happy new year!

Well glad to have you here. Happy New Year to you too.

[mitsugirly]

1 minute ago, 300dtc said:

I can't believe that yesterday I just suddenly thought...hmm, haven't seen a review from Kim in a while...and I searched and here this is! It's a Christmas miracle😂

Haha, glad you found me. I was overdue. LOL

[mitsugirly]

MONDAY DECEMBER 17: GRAND TURK!!

 

While we have been here multiple times, it's always nice to have a "free" day. This is a super easy port where you can go and not have to spend any money unless you want to eat and drink here. (We brought our own drinks) The beach and chairs (for the most part) are free at the cruise center and the pool is free to use with the beach chairs around it. They do have cabanas that you can rent but for the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would. They are located right there by the pool with all the other people and no seclusion. We are just active people and don't stay put very long and it would be a waste of money for anyone like us to ever rent anything like that...especially at this location where there's really no benefits to renting one and you definitely don't get away from the crowd here.

 

Since we were planning on doing activities that cost in the other ports, we decided to just make this a free day and forego going to any of the other beaches or renting a golf cart. Had Kendra's fiance been with us, we might have considered getting golf carts and exploring because it's always more fun with a group of people...especially my group. 😉

 

Grand Turk is one of those early to rise open you eyes ports. We would be in port from 7-2pm (I hate those hours).

 

We were up by 6am and immediately headed to breakfast at the buffet.

 

I got my normal runny eggs and pieces of crisp bacon from the bacon police and I was satisfied enough for the day knowing that it wouldn't be long before we were back on the ship and could get lunch. I did notice that this cruise, the eggs seemed to get runnier and runnier as the cruise went on. I'm not sure what's going on. I spent my mornings going from buffet station to buffet station trying to locate non-runny eggs. HOWEVER, I did discover that on this cruise they would have shredded cheese out and that was an added plus! I always want cheese on my eggs and that has been one of my gripes in the past. 

 

The bacon police are still in full force on Carnival and you have beg and promise your first born son to them to get more than 3 pieces. I did notice, the entire cruise, when people would go up and ask for bacon, they'd say "crispy". Well, crispy usually meant the popo was digging around in the tub of pig to locate those fully cooked pieces and you'd end up with chopped up small pieces. It was ok...it all goes down the same.

 

 

 

Kendra and her crew were late to breakfast and didn't show up until 7:30am. I guess it's a good thing we didn't have anything planned. Her excuse? Her alarm went off and she laid back down. But, it was ok seeing how they had made an announcement that we couldn't even get off yet because there was another ship coming in and docking beside us and we needed to make sure that they were docked before they'd allow us off. I want to speak to the docking manager about this discrepancy please! Who did the scheduling?

 

We waited and waited and waited. IT WAS AFTER 9AM WHEN THEY FINALLY TURNED US LOOSE! 9AM!!! That's 2 hours of missed beach time for us. Now normally when this happens, they extend your time in port but not this time. This would be a first for us. This was also the first time we have ever been here with another ship too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we were standing in line, Sakari has her mermaid tail with her and a couple in front of us started talking to her. This lady was a real mermaid as well! Like a real one! She's in a group of mermaids who travel and do parties and shows and so on. Sakari knows the group well and asks about some of the people by name in it and this lady knew them all. Mermaid Melissa has always been Sakari's favorite and this lady informed us that Melissa had sold off all of her tails and quit the business recently and moved away. Sakari was sad although I can't find anything online to indicate that this has really happened. She's probably the most famous known mermaid. We discussed her "profession" and I guess there's hope for Sakari yet. They really do make a lot of money and hey, Sakari already has the mermaid swim down pat and she can hold her breath forever. (Melissa holds her breath for over 5 minutes at a time). Her husband was really into it as well and told us about the cost of the real tails and it would be beneficial to wait until she's done growing to get one (she's been begging for one for years). He also does a lot of the photography for the mermaids (in and out of water). They were excited to show us. It made the long wait for them to release us in port tolerable and I'm sure those around us listening in thought we were bat sh*t crazy at this point.

 

So off we went and stopped to take our picture by the paparazzi.

 

 

 

 

When we were in Aruba last time, we spent a day hanging out with our awesome Arubian friend and she took us to the National Park (desert) that was full of cactus plants. She told us about the flowers blooming on them and how often it occurs. You can eat these flowers. Sakari and her were on a mission the entire vacation to find a cactus with the flower on the top that you can eat. Sakari wanted to try it so bad but we were at the end of the blooming season and she was disappointed even though she managed to step on a few during her search, having thorns in her foot wasn't a good enough souvenir for her. Whodda thought? However, the first thing Sakari noticed, after arriving in port, was several cacti with blooms! She squealed with excitement and tried to talk me into going over to "taste" them. Well, I didn't want to be the weirdo eating cactus and I told her we couldn't just go over and start plucking the cactus blooms. Honestly, I didn't feel comfortable without our Arubian friend with us to confirm this was the same type of cactus. Sakari was a little upset with me but hey...

 

 

 

We headed into the port shopping area (which is the only way you can get to the beach area) and around to the beach and picked our spot. Now I know in the past that all the chairs there at the beach in front of the cruise compound have always been free until you hit the sign that said: "You are leaving the cruise port area". Well, recent reports had stated that the locals have managed to steal a lot of the chairs and claim them as their own. They put their chairs in front of the cruisers chairs (usually 1st-2nd rows) and charge you for them. They managed to sucker in quite a few newbies that day at $50 A POP FOR 2 CHAIRS AND UMBRELLA!!!!  Outrageous for something that is free. Just pay attention and don't fall for their scam!

 

Here's where we sat