Friday, January 12, 2024
Friday, January 5, 2024
Day 10, January 5, 2024
Today is a day at sea and Barb’ birthday. Her celebration started last night at 20:01am
in the casino where we started it and everyone joined in wishing her a happy birthday.
Ed was up at 7:30am and the deck was already crowed with
people sitting on or saving deck chairs.
The pool area had every deck chair occupied.
We always are on the deck above the pool and while it also was
busy at that time, we were able to get deck chairs where we wanted to be.
It was already hot and clear and stayed that way until a
very brief rainstorm of about 10 minutes happened. After the rain ended everyone got new towels,
the skies were clear and we stayed there until lunch until after lunch.
Of course we had lunch with our friends and after lunch at
2:30pm, we came in and started packing and just relaxing.
At 5:45pm, were packed, cleaned up and went down to the
foyer to sit with people, dance and just enjoy the last night before getting
off the ship.
Dinner was very good and with we probably had the best wait
staff of any cruise.
After dinner, Barb, Barbara, and Ed went to the theater to
see the comedian/magician again and he was probably the funniest we have ever
seen.
Then it was on to the casino where Ed had a great win. For the first time in 17 cruises we had a
losing cruise; however, thank goodness we ended on an up note to almost wipe
out our losses.
It is 1:00am and we get up at 6:00 am to leave the ship.
See everyone soon.
Hugs from Mom and Ed
Thursday, January 4, 2024
Day 9, January 4, 2024
Today, we arrived in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
The ship is docked a long way from the end of the pier so we
took a little Tuk-Tuk scoter from the ship to the end of the pier.
Then Puerto Plata is not a town but a made for tourist place
to visit. There were shore excursions
but you had to be taken to them by excursion staff.
We were up on the top deck in our usual spot until 1:00pm
when we joined our friends for lunch. As
we were in port, there were not very people at the restaurant or out in the sun
so that was really nice.
As Barb wanted some lip balm with sunscreen, we went into
the port taking a Tuk-Tuk after lunch.
The first spot had lip balm for sale at $17.00 so we
passed. Finally we found a place for
$10.00 so we took it. We walked around;
however this is not a town were you can walk around. This is a place with lots of shops and
probably owned by one company, maybe the cruise line. So, it is a made for the cruise industry stop.
We then came back to the ship and relaxed until it was time
to get ready for the evening.
Once again we listened and danced to music until the 7:00pm
show.
The show tonight in the theater was 3 guys called NYC3 and
will we had seen them before, we enjoyed them.
Then it was time for dinner and the service and food was
very good.
After that of course we went to the casino where Ed won a
little.
Tomorrow is a sea day and we also will be packing.
It has been a fun cruise but we miss everyone and can’t wait
to be home.
Night
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Day 8, January 3, 2024
We woke up in Tortola and the sun was really, really hot. By 9am we were baking and it didn’t get any cooler.
We went to the back deck and in the shade had lunch with our
friends.
Then we went back up on deck and by 2:30pm, we felt we
couldn’t be out there anymore – it was just too hot!! If you know us you know that our saying we
couldn’t be in the sun means it was very, very hot.
One of the things we are doing differently this trip is walking
and we are walking a lot, link all around the top deck every 30 minutes. Easily we are over 10,000 steps a day, even
when we are doing nothing!!
So, we came in early, cleaned up, relaxed a bit, and then
went to the casino to meet the Manager, Sol.
Sol was also a Casino Manger in 2018 on another ship and we
really liked her. We met her at 4 and
went and had “coffee” and just talked with each other – what delight.
Once again we listened and danced to music until the 7:00pm
show.
The show tonight in the theater was a production show titled
“Broadway Cabaret” and it was very good as then featured Broadway hits from the
past through today’s modern musicals. It
was just fun.
Tonight, for dinner we had ordered 6 Branzino whole fishes
and Jeff prepared them for us at the table.
They were wonderful.
Then it was off to the casino where Ed did not do well. The bad news is that this may be the first
losing trip in the casino in 17 trips!!
Hopefully we will be able to do some good for the last two sessions of
this trip – wish us luck.
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Day 7, January 2, 2024
We are in St Martins and the weather is as we had hoped for – sunny and in the 80’s.
This is a very busy day in port as there are two large cruise
ships, the MSC Seaside and the Carnival Magic with about 11,000 people on
them. Then there is our ship with 3,000
and another smaller ship with 2,000 so that’s 16,000 people in port today!!
As is our tradition whenever we are in St. Martins, we take
a taxi to the French side and go to one of our favorite beaches, Orient
Beach.
They have a wonderful little beach restaurant there called The
Perch and we started the morning our with a Pina Colada – just something about the
beach that says we must have that drink!
The have wonderful food there and we had a grilled tuna
lunch with salad, coleslaw, French fries, and each of had a Pina Colada
At 2:30pm we realized that we had been in the sun too long so
it was time to catch a return shuttle to go back.
As were getting ready to out for the evening, the ship left
port and it also left a couple on the port!!
So sad but it is their own fault.
They were supposed to be onboard at 5:30pm and the ship left finally at
5:45pm and they still were not on the ship.
We saw them on the dock at 5:53pm as we were 25 feet from the dock.
We had a drink and watched people and danced until it was
7pm and time for the show. The show
tonight was supposed to be a group of three singers called NYC3; however, they
couldn’t make the ship so a comedian/magician took their place as he was
onboard for a show in a couple of days.
He was amazing and probably the best cruise magician we have ever seen.
Then it was onto dinner where we all had wonderful meals. Barb, Jeff, and Vera had all ordered a special
meal of lamb chops so they delivered 6 dinners.
The rest of us didn’t want lamb so the three of them ate 6 chops
each. It was a good thing they were small
chops
After dinner it was back to the casino where Ed lost a
little
Night for tonight and tomorrow we are in Totola
Night - night
Monday, January 1, 2024
Day 6, January 1, 2024
We are in St Thomas and the weather is partly cloudy but still nice to lay out on the deck.
First, we went into the port to see if they had the part to
load our pictures from the iPhone, and they didn’t so we will look for a computer
store tomorrow.
Lunch of course was on the back of the ship with our
friends. The highlight of lunch was a
huge tower of cold boiled shrimp, pealed and they were really very good. Couple that with a chocolate tower to dip marshmallows,
etc. in the fountain and that was a great way to have lunch.
When we finally made it back to the top deck, we had sun for
an hour or so and then a light rain so we came into the cabin to shower, change
and get ready for the evening.
We had a drink and watched people until it was 7pm and time
for the show. The show tonight was a
production show by the Celebrity singers and dancers called Broken Strings and
it was very good. It was a musical with
no plot, just fun singing, and dancing by the ship’s entertainers
After the show we went to the casino for an early session
where Ed won and Barb did not play
Then it was onto dinner where we all had wonderful meals. The waiter and assistant waiters are probably
the best we have ever had.
After dinner it was back to the casino where Ed won for a
huge win today and is ahead. Barb has decided that she
doesn’t like the slot machines that they have and will probably not be planning.
Night for tonight and tomorrow we are in St. Martins and we
will be going to the beach.
Night - night
The first days - catch up pictures from New Years Eve and before
Vera and Jeff
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