The best picture!!

This is one of the best pictures that we have ever had taken on a cruise!!

Day 10

Barb with the monkeys

Well the last day is here. We got up early because we docked at St. Kitts at 7:00 am and are leaving at 4:00 pm heading for San Juan.

We forgot to mention that early on in the cruise, Sara, one of the photographers recognized us from a Carnival cruise that we took a couple of years ago. She shared stories and laughs with us. It is fun getting to know the staff on ship and then running into them again.

We were out into the port and only real town by 9 and looked at a couple of tourist shops before hiring a cab to take us to the north part of town to the Batik factory. This is a company that makes very elaborate designs on island cotton using a wax dye process. Ed bought several shirts and Barb bought a blouse.

At the Batik factory

After the Batik factory we went to the St. Kitts Marriott – wow what a place. It has a casino and maybe will be a destination some year.

We were back on by 3pm and packed for the trip back. Tomorrow we plan to get off the ship fairly early and go to the San Juan Marriott and leave our bags with the bell man and stay on the beach until it is time to go to the airport.

The nice thing is that we were both up in the casinos – that really makes for a nice trip.

This will be the last entry until we get home – thanks for following our joys of traveling.

Barb is packed but not ready to go home!



Our Casino Hosts

 A special thanks to all of you who allow us to do this.

Day 9



Main Street - notice the ships in the background

 Well yesterday we made the mistake of staying in bed too long, just because we were in the casino late. We stayed late last night but got up at 8:00 to get out early in Antigua.

We were really impressed with the island – it is very clean and nice.

This was the first island that Barb found a really wonderful clothing shop and she bought a new dress.

After shopping, we headed for what turned out to be the best beach that we have been to so far. We stayed on the beach right next to the Sandals resort and snuck in and walked around it. It was a typical Sandals and we finally left the beach at 2pm. This sun is so hot that we can only spend 2 – 3 hours in the direct sun on the beach.

The casino - no we didn't gamble there!!

The ship departed at 6 for St. Kitts and we had a fun dinner, a magic show and then the casino.

Ed won the Blackjack with another ship’s trophy and $500!!!! That’s two for two on this cruise. Ed tied another player at the end of the regular play and there was a three hand playoff. On the last hand, the other player made a betting mistake and bet too many chips – and Ed won.

Again it is tomorrow so we will leave you and wake up in St. Kitts for our last full day on the cruise.

Lunch on the beach

The beach

Day 8

The Market

We slept late and finally made it off the ship at 10:00 am. We have been to St. Lucia three times now so we were only interested in shopping for a little while and then going to a beach.

The shopping was you typical island fare except they did have some beautiful dishes that were had made and painted. Barb bought a small square plate.

While shopping, we found a wonderful St. Lucian local fruit and vegetable market that we wandered thru. While there we found a lunch stand and had lunch. We do not know what we ate except we told them no fish. We ate with a couple of casino dealers from another ship that was in port. They told us that this was the best local place to eat in town.

Where we ate lunch

Following lunch, we told a taxi to a beautiful palm-lined beach, Marigot Bay. After a ½ hour taxi ride, we came to the bay but first had to take a short ferry across the bay to the actual beach.

After a couple of hours it was back to the ship for a little rest and we got ready for the second formal night.

The night was fun – we had a really good dinner and the casino sent us another bottle of wine. Since Barb doesn’t drink wine and I only drink a little, our table mates enjoyed most of the bottle.

The show in the lounge was their big production called “Zoom” and it was fantastic.

What did we eat for lunch???

Then on to the casino where we did very well and are calling it a night and it is already tomorrow.







On the beach

Day 7

Welcome to Barbados

 The day began in beautiful Barbados. The temperature is about 80 and we are setting out for the town and go shopping - who would think that.
We have been here before so we don’t need to tour so we decided to go downtown to the capital’s main shopping area and then go to the beach.

Shopping proved to be nothing of any interest so by 10:00 am we were at this real nice “local” beach. A bottle of water was only 90 cents and sandwiches were only $5.00!!

Barb on the beach - lots of coral

We stayed there until 2:00 pm when our taxi came to pick us up and take us back to the ship. Was the sun ever hot – we are a long ways south of Merna.
After dinner we both played in the slot tournament and Ed qualified. In the finals, out of 6 players, Ed came in last, but did win a teddy bear for last place!!



Well it is tomorrow so pretty soon we will land in St. Lucia so we better get to bed.

Our lunch shack



Part of the beach on Barbados



Day 6

Dominica as we were docking

We were able to sleep in this morning as we didn’t dock at Dominica until 10:00 am. We have never been here so we decided to hire a guide to take us around the island.

We found someone off the dock and away we went exploring. The high light was a ride up into the mountains and then a 10 minute hike to see Trafalgar Falls. The island is called the emerald isle of the windward because it has a lot of mountains and almost the entire island is rain forest or close to it. The entire island consists almost entirely of volcanic peaks and it is very impressive to see. The mountains rise right out of the ocean.

They are keeping the island very laid back as they are not allowing any major hotel to build a resort or even letting a major restaurant chain to build.

At the falls

Trafalgar Falls is actually two separate falls, one 125 feet tall and the other on 75 feet and they are virtually right together.

After our 2 ½ hour tour, we returned to the ship for lunch and then back out to go shopping. Not really anything else on the island to see so we were back on the ship by a little after 3 to get ready for the Captains party tonight and our first formal night which is always fun.

Formal night was fun. We always try to sit for awhile and just watch the people; you would be amazed what some people wear.

Our dinner partners showed up – they are newly weds, but not their first marriage and they are from Boston.

A crab along the walkway

We saw the show went to the casino and did just fine and now it is tomorrow and we dock in Barbados soon.

Ready for the first formal night

Day 5

St. Thomas as we docked

Today we were docked in St. Thomas when we woke up. Our cabin was on the bay side so we saw all the sailboats and yachts that were docked in the harbor. There was only one other big ship docked with us so we knew that the streets of St. Thomas would not be crowed.



Barb's new ring

St. Thomas is the shopping paradise of the Caribbean and on Barb’s birthday she made out just fine. The first thing that we purchased was a bottle of Kahlua that we had never seen. Instead of the regular 20% alcohol by volume, this bottle was 35% making it 70 proof and was it every good!!!

Anyway, after spending a couple of hours going to most of the stores, we then went to our favorite store in St. Thomas and Barb bought a beautiful ring. The center stone is Blue Topaz, surrounded by diamonds and black opals – it is really pretty. We also bought her a couple of bangles for her wrist – she needed them.

We were back on ship at 3:30 for a 5:00 departure and on our way to Dominica.

At dinner we were the only ones at our table – the other people must have been eating elsewhere.



Ed with his winning trophy and other goodies in the bag

After the show, Barb played slots and won $330 and Ed won the blackjack tournament and won another “ship on a stick” trophy and $500!!! That puts us up for the trip so far – wish us luck.
It is now tomorrow so we better get to bed.

Day 4



Our ship from our hotel balcony



We got up early (8am) and did most of our packing and then went to the beach from 9:30 until 12:30. By this time, Ed had a red forehead and Barb was also a little red. The hotel and casino took care of the entire bill – what a nice treat!

At 1:30pm we left the room and took a cab to the ship. Since we had VIP check-in, we were in our cabin within 15 minutes of reaching the dock. What service.





Barb from our room on the 19th floor

 In our room were two liter bottles of water, a liter bottle of Kahlua and some other items, gifts from the casino. They also said that a fresh fruit basket would be delivered tomorrow when they receive their fresh fruit in St. Thomas.

Waiting for a taxi

The ship sails at 10:00 pm so after walking around and finding everything, we took a Jacuzzi and then went to dinner. The Carnival Victory is a nice ship. It is a little smaller than the last two cruises that we were on, but we like the layout of this class of ship.

We didn’t have assigned seating tonight since the ship sails late so we ate with people we probably will never see again and just had fun.



Barb in our cabin with gifts

The ship sailed at 10 and then we visited the shops which are not open when the ship is in port. Then it was on to the casino to meet our hosts and the manager. We just spent a little time in the casino because it was already late and we have a big day shopping in St. Thomas tomorrow.
Night for now

Day 3 - January 3, 2009

The day started out with a lot of sun but by noon the clouds rolled in and so did the rain. For the rest of the day it rained off and on we cleaned up and off we went.

The pictures are:
. . . Drinks at the market
. . . People we met at the market
. . . Old San Juan

We first went to the biggest local market and it was fun. At night they close down the market and open up lots of bars all around this square that the market is in. We ate some food that we have no idea what it was except one item was called soup, but we don’t really know what was in it. Everybody behind the counter spoke Spanish – no English!

We sat with a couple from San Juan who were in the service and that was fun.

Then we took a cab to Old San Juan which is the big shopping area. Just picked up some little items. There were four cruise ships in port, so the city was full.

We had read about a little Puerto Rican restaurant in town so we found it and ate dinner outside on the street – the food was very good.

Back to the hotel and on to the casino where Ed finally won and Barb only lost a little and she is still on the plus side for the trip.

It is supposed to rain tomorrow and if it does, we will leave for the ship early, if not, we will stay on the beach till about 3pm, pack and go to the ship.

Night for now.

Day 2 – January 2, 2009

Well the day started out early without us – we slept in and did we need it.

The pictures are:

. . Barb getting ready for the first day at the beach.

. . Barb with some white skin and tan lines.

. . The casino host sent Barb a bottle of Kahlua and I got the cookies!

. . This was a plate of the food we ate - who knows what it was

While Ed went for breakfast, Barb slept to get extra sleep and we both left the room for the beach at 10:00am and it was wonderful to relax like that.

The beach was perfect and we stayed out until a little after 1. It was a good thing that we came in when we did because we were close to burning and Barb might have!!

We made our first trip to the casino and met our host who invited us to a dinner and a comedy show tonight – free food, why not.

The Governor was sworn into and a lot of stars are on the island, including Jay Lo and Marc Anthony but they weren’t at our hotel. Lots of police on the street and we saw some escorted limos whizzing by us.

The evening started by our attending a VIP casino party in the ballroom. Catered food for about 600 people and we were taken to a front table. The only trouble was that everything was in Spanish!! When we finished eating and the music stopped, that’s when the comedian came on and we snuck out.

The casino staff and Senior Management Host, Jose Luis Soto and his staff do an outstanding job. We wish we could stay here more ofter because this casino staff is THE BEST and this Marriott is the best resort hotel we have every stayed at.

We then went to the casino where Barb did fine and Ed didn’t – oh well, it happens.

We went for a walk outside before gong to bed – another nice day in the warm sunshine.

Day 1 - January 1, 2009

Well we were up at 4:15 am on New Year’s Day and on the plane heading for San Juan at 6:30 am.

The pictures are:
. . Barb clothes as she was packing last night.
. . The pool from our room.
. . The beach from our room.
. . Just on of our two outside patios.

Nice flight to Atlanta and then right on our plane for 3 more hours to San Juan.

When we arrived the weather was 85 degrees and beautiful. We checked right in and they upgraded us to the exact same room we had last March. Room 1909, a huge corner room with two patios. One looking east down the beach and the other looking out at the Atlantic.

We did not gamble at the casino because we were so tired so we walked up and down the beach and the stores on the street.

We had a great Pizza at a local restaurant that we had been to before and are back to the room at 9pm, ready to go to sleep.

The next two and one-half days are just going to be relaxing, sun and the casino. Barb really deserves the time off after the past three months.

Bye for now.