Dave and I started planning our cruise from Minnesota last May. I was so excited because I had never been on a cruise and was looking forward to this one, with my awesome husband.

We started our trip by going to a pot luck, bonfire evening with Denny and Meg’s friend Marilyn. This was meant to be a time to drop Boo off with Denny and Meg, but Marilyn had invited us over and we had to eat before leaving for the airport.

We drove to a hotel in Phoenix that allowed air travelers to park their vehicles. It cost $35 for 8 days! The free shuttle took us to Sky Harbor Airport for our 11:55 PM flight to San Juan, via Newark, NJ. Being so late at night, we literally floated through TSA.

There was 1 hour 15 minutes layover in Newark but our plane was an hour late leaving Phoenix. When we finally landed in New Jersey, we had to wait for a medical emergency to be taken off the plane. We RAN to our next gate (we had been told it had not changed and did not take time to check the boards) but the doors to the plane were closed. We were sent to Customer Service where we found it was a different gate and they were waiting for us. Those doors were closed too but they opened up for us. Then, everyone had to wait for some additional cargo — our luggage!

The rest of the trip to San Juan was uneventful except we were both already tired. A cruise line transfer got us to our ship, Vision of the Seas where we checked into our state room then went to look for food. It was 2 PM Saturday and we had not eaten since supper the night before.

Our first afternoon and evening were spent exploring the ship and relaxing. We met a couple of gentlemen on the top deck and they took our picture as we headed out to the Caribbean. There was also a mandatory lifeboat drill for all passengers.

Day 2 brought us to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. We were not able to dock close so had to take a tender (small craft) to the island. This was interesting… the step up to the dock on the island was so high that I needed help getting off. Returning to the ship later, we had to wait for the right motion of the waves to jump off.

We were greeted on the island by locals singers, dancers and stunt men. We roamed for a bit and I bought a lovely pinky ring and pair of Larimar earrings. Unfortunately, the ring slipped off my finger later that evening and was lost.

After checking our more shops and before heading back to the ship, we stopped at a bar for some local beer because they had free WiFi. It was our first of two times to connect to the world while on the trip.

After returning to the ship, we put on suits and headed to one of the two pools before going to supper. For the entire cruise, our schedule consisted of buffet breakfast, island time, buffet lunch mid afternoon, pool time on the ship, beverage time then supper followed by more beverage time. It was so lazy and relaxing!

Our steward Raj liked to make animals out of towels. On returning to our room, we found his first creation.

Our favorite places on the ship were the Windjammer for buffets, the Schooner bar for beverages with server Sonde, and the Aquarius dining room. Our state room steward was Raj.

Day 3 brought us to Charotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI. We rented a taxi along with 6 other people for a tour of the island. We found it was less expensive to arrange our own excursions rather than pay for the ones sponsored by the cruise line, Royal Caribbean. (In case I don’t mention it later, I would never cruise with any other cruise line in the future). Our ship was built in 1997 and was the larges cruise ship at the time. It is not the largest now, was passenger load of 2400 but we thought it was a beautiful ship and perfect size).

Our taxi driver told us so much about the island. The most extraordinary was the way the runway for large planes was lengthened by removing part of the mountain and using that material as base for the new runway extending into the ocean. Another interesting fact was the hurricane history. There have been 4 in the last 20 years. Two, Irma and Marie were 10 days apart in 2017. Only one of the major hotels has been reopened since then and they expect a delay of 2-3 more years to open the rest.

One of the stops was a scenic view for photo op. The vendors there were so aggressive that people weren’t even off the taxi before being approached. We did not buy anything! We were treated here to a demonstration and explanation of the steel drum guitar. Interesting! Every note including sharps and flats have a spot in the drum. The depths of the drum determines if it is tenor, base, soprano or alto.

We also made a stop at the Top of the Mountain for more photos and a little shopping. The theme was pirates since 12 pirates had made their home on St. Thomas. Black Beard’s castle had been damaged in a hurricane so we were not able to tour it.

Day 4 was in Fort de France, Martinique. We had decided not to take a tour but just to pack our suits and find a beach. There was one within walking distance of the pier. (Also before I forget, we only had to “tender” in DR; the rest of the time we could walk off the ship onto the pier). We had expected a restroom for changing but there weren’t any. This was the first time either of us had changed into swim suits in broad daylight in public. We helped each other by holding towels around each other for the change and no one had any idea what we were up to. However, when it was time to leave the beach, we slipped clothes back on over our suits.

We walked the streets a bit more and had a beer at a local bar. This was our second chance for WiFi. While enjoying the beer we watched a woman who I think was a high class hooker. One will never know! As we were leaving, a local gentleman asked if it was our first visit to this French speaking island. He told us he loves it but it is very expensive. I suspect he was right but we did not do any shopping.

On Day 5, we found ourselves in Castries, St. Lucia. We took another taxi tour that included a trip to a banana plantation. Each tree grows only one bunch of bananas and dies after one year. The farmer has to remove all blossoms after the bananas form and cover each bunch to keep out rodents and insects. We purchased some banana ketchup and some spicy coconut sauce. Bananas are the main export of St. Lucia. We also bought some spiced rum and a banana rum liquor.

Day 6 took us to Bridgetown, Barbados. We took a taxi to the Batts Rock beach where we enjoyed a couple of hours on the sand and in the water. We had a local beer while waiting for our taxi driver to return. This was one of the most scenic spots on the entire trip and there were so many! The taxi driver was a native of Barbados but had spent 34 years in Canada working as an economist for the government. He is retired now but works part time as a taxi driver when it is cold in Canada. On the way back to the pier, a monkey jumped onto the road in front of us. It scampered back into the brush and the picture we got was not very good. You have to look very carefully to see it.

Our last day was a sailing day. It took 36 hours to return to San Juan. We spent most of the day at the pool. In the afternoon, the activities director talked Dave into entering the World’s Sexiest Man on the Ship contest. One guy was in his late teens. The rest were in their 30’s and early 40’s. The director announced that Dave as 68 (almost). They had to dance for the audience and also for each of the 3 female judges. Dave won the contest. I was not surprised!!!! We were stopped by many people that afternoon and evening who had nice comments for Dave.

On our last day back in San Juan, we had to be up at 6:30 and off the ship by shortly after 8. There really was no time to tour San Juan so we took the cruise transit to the airport. Not seeing San Juan was disappointing but who knows…. maybe we will return one day.

This flight brought us back to Phoenix via Houston, TX. There we had 1 hour and 10 minutes layover. That was barely time to get from Terminal C to Terminal E for our next flight but we made it this time. This flight was also uneventful.

On landing, we were mainly interested in retrieving our truck, then Boo and getting home. It was 10:30 PM, 3 time zones later that so our waking time made it a long day. It was good to be home but the cruise was one of the most fun experiences we have shared.

Our final souvenir of the trip was our sea passes which were our state room keys, access on and off the ship and used to get meals, drinks, etc on the ship.

Boo enjoyed her sleep over at Denny and Meg’s.

THING also enjoyed it’s trip to the Caribbean.