GottaKnowWhen

I am browsing back through some of our photos from the trip. In this shot, taken from the road along the Virgin Gorda heights we traversed on our way to The Baths, you can see the Star Pride below. The prow of the ship is pointed directly at the Prickly Pear beach where the bbq is held. Stan

We took a tender ashore on Virgin Gorda (two tenders to accommodate the number of persons doing the excursion). When we got back from the Baths, we took the tenders over to the small island where the Prickly pear Beach is located, the bbq site. At that point tenders were running from the bbq site back and forth to the ship. So, I am just speculating, but I don't know that there was any option for you to tender ashore to the main island, (other than as a member of the excursion crowd) and if you could get there, not sure you would have a way to get to Prickly Pear Beach or back to the ship. I would book the excursion, then ask aboard whether your do-it-yourself option is feasible. If so, then cancel your excursion reservation and do your own thing! Stan

Yes. B2B share with Concierge Class passengers on embarkation/turnaround days. In the MDR has always been my experience.

A few final details because inquiring minds want to know. I shoulda/coulda done this at the start, but posting the original note had been on my mind since I unboxed my Mixbook and saw the quality of the work. And then I did the post last night when the details were not at hand. Sorry! The offer from Celebrity Captains Club was for a Free 21 page 8.5 x 8.5" hard cover photo book [valued at $31.38] or a $31.00 credit on any photo book of your choice... My invoice showed that I purchased an 8.5x8.5" Classic Square Matte Hardcover - 21 pages at a price of $41.78 Discount of $36.78 for a net charge of $5.00 plus shipping and tax for a total cost of $14.83. The Blurb books I have done with less than 50-60 pages I have done with a softcover so I don't have a direct comparison as far as the hardcover binding on this skinny Mixbook sample. But I would probably choose a softcover binding option for something like this. For those who are totally new to this idea, note that a 21 page book is only 11 sheets of paper, printed front and back. Or of course you could do a layout with just the front sides printed. I have gravitated to a style which uses the front side of the page for larger more important images, the backside for 2, 3, 4 or a larger collage of smaller less important images. Try it! It is a fun way to share your photos. Stan

Also note that (depending on itinerary and ship) you probably have one or two Captains Club receptions for Elite and higher that include servers circulating with trays of the wines that are on the Elite menu.

Sorry, I don’t have the invoice handy. Maybe $1-2.00 per page? The prices vary according to size of the book (e.g. 10x10 vs. 11x14) and the number of pages. As I recall, the Offer was for a 20 page book basically free plus cost of shipping. Add more pages, get a larger size, pay more. I am sure the Mixbook website would have the details. Edit to add additional comment… The Layout process can be as simple or complex as you like. Simple: upload a bunch of images, push the button to have their software assemble those into a book. Complex: layout each page, using their preset page layouts and/or customizing each page. The layout creation and editing is different from Blurb’s. Better or worse? I am not sure, just different from what I am used to. At some point Adobe Lightroom added a Book module using Blurb as publisher but using Lightroom Print processes for layout. Better or worse? For me, different enough that I stuck with the Blurb software rather than Adobe. I will probably not switch to Mixbook for future projects, but if I get another $30 or $40 offer, I will take advantage.

Not long after we returned from an early December Mexican cruise, I got an email from Celebrity with a Special Discount offer and a link to Mixbook. I have no idea why I got this, maybe everyone does? I vaguely recall having seen this once before… The offer was time limited, and in any case I was time limited. I spent a few hours pulling together, editing, formatting and arranging some of my photos from the Mexico trip, submitted the book for processing. For comparison, I have previously done 12 or so photo books via Blurb. Those have all been much longer, have included text as well as photos, and took me several weeks each to assemble. The result from Mixbook: - the photo reproduction was superb! Good color rendition, true to my submitted .jpg files. - I am not so impressed with the binder but I am used to 100 page Blurb productions, and a skinny 20 page Mixbook probably isn’t a fair comparison. It is solid enough, just not as flexible. My conclusion, if you get such a discount offer, take advantage! Next time I will not do a quickie simple book, but rather will use the discount towards a larger book using some of my archived images. Stan

On our recent trip, of the 250 or so passengers on board, about 120 of us went to the Baths. We were grouped, split among several buses, well spread out along the trail, and so it worked out. And we got back to the BBQ around 12:00-12:30, in plenty of time, with a few stops going and returning to take in the views. We returned to the ship early rather than hanging on the beach and then swam for a bit off the ship. A good day! But I would be very surprised if you were able to explore Virgin Gorda and the Baths on your own. Stan

And this is not unusual. No stops in Monserrat yet this season.

Easy smooth debarkation in San Juan yesterday. A nice farewell conversation with the Captain Ricardo and Hotel Director Richard on the way off. A wild day in Old San Juan, the 3rd day of SANSE, the celebration of SAN SEbastian. Hundreds/thousands of people. Four music stages, dozens/hundreds of food stalls, hundreds of artisans at their booths. Spread all over Old San Juan. A great vibe, music and dancing in the streets until late night. Going back out for more shortly (our hotel is right on the edge of the action.) Meanwhile, I did upload some more photos from the cruise as well as from SANSE. The site linked below is reasonably up to date and complete for this trip. Let's say 98% complete...

We chose Tuesday. Monday was the on-deck barbecue, Wednesday (Pigeon Island) one week was beach bbq, Friday (Virgin Gorda) was beach bbq the other week. But except for Monday, I think any night is good.

Ok, I’ll buy that definition. Yesterday was calm enough that they planned to deploy the platform and swim toys. But the small “rescue” boat wasn’t functioning. Today the platform was down! At 6:00pm the scheduled closure was delayed because the 100or so persons out there wanted to stay out. Oh, and it was a beautiful day on Jost Van Dyke! Tomorrow we’ll do an excursion to the Virgin Gordy “baths”, coastal rock formations, and then it is off to the famous Virgin Gordy Prickly Pear Beach Windstar beach bbq. Expected to have a full ship this next week, including 62 who are staying on from this week.

Hard to say. E.g., I thought our overnight last night was quite smooth, I just overheard someone at the table next to ours at breakfast, he was commenting about how rough it had been! In general, anytime on the Atlantic side, to the east, there have been noticeable swells. On the Caribbean side, not so much. But not choppy, never smooth totally even in the bays.

Note that our Sunday visit was on a day when there were no other ships in port. If there had been one or two or three or more Royal or Carnival or NCL ships in port, I think the shops etc would have been open for business.

One of the joys of sailing on a smaller ship is that they often anchor and tender into small ports that larger ships can’t handle. Downside: sometimes tendering isn’t an option. Skipping Little Bay, Monserrat today, now sailing towards St. Kitts as a back-up port of call. The wave swells were too high to allow for safe tendering… The staff and crew have made it all a very smooth transition. Stan

In Philipsburg Ste. Maarten today. The Celebrity Edge and Millennium were both also docked here and so the port was in full "welcome the cruisers and their money" mode. Unfortunately the rain started about 3:00pm, off and on at first, but now steady. Still there was plenty of time to buy stuff and support the local economy. Stan

In our 2nd week on the Pride. Deck 4, old (?) section. We have had no AC issues, haven’t heard of any. A few plumbing issues, nothing serious.

We have a relatively short acquaintance with Windstar. In August last year we had 7 nights on the Pride around Iceland. In October, 11 nights Montreal to Boston, again on the Pride. And now 7+7nights on the Pride in the Caribbean. I don’t have exact numbers for this week, last week there were 188 passengers, there was a forecast of 244 for this week (including 50 of us doing a back-to-back), but then some additional couples from last week decided to extend for another week. Maybe close to 250? Anyway, currently about double the passengers as we had in August, and quite a few more than in October. The good news is that the ship doesn’t seem crowded. In Iceland and again in Canada we had mostly cold blustery weather. So the Star Bar was rarely open. I don’t recall the Star Grill ever being open. It was mostly too cold to sit outside on the Veranda for breakfast or lunch, Candles couldn’t use the outside tables in the evenings. So, more people, but given warm Caribbean weather, we can spread out, we can take advantage of the outdoor spaces, and the net effect is that we aren’t feeling crowded. Probably the same crew as on our previous two cruises (we know many of the crew and vice versa, only one or two missing, not that many newbies.) And so maybe sometimes the bar service or food service is a touch slower. But not to the point that it is bothersome. Stan

Today was a low-key visit to St. Thomas. Apart from a few mega-yachts we were the only ship in port. And it was Sunday. So most shops didn’t bother to open, and only a few restaurants. There were a couple of ship’s excursions, good reports of fine snorkeling. Beautiful weather! Stan

Thanks for your comment. No, no signs of Covid lurking on the ship. Several stories of lost and delayed luggage, but that is a different epidemic going around right now.

The process for those of us continuing for another week was very smooth. We gathered in the lounge at 9:00am as the last of the other passengers were departing the ship. We then retrieved our passports, showed the passports to the CBP personnel, gave our passports back to the Pride purser staff, got a sticker added to our sea pass card showing that we had had the CBP check and we were cleared to continue. Done in 5-10 minutes. Stan

Yesterday we had a short day in Sint Maarten. A ship’s excursion, about 20 of us on a short bus ride to a local Skyview attraction. A quiet 30 minutes chair-lift to the top of the nearby ridge line. Some time there to take in the views, then some took a 45-second zip line to the bottom, others of us took the chair lift back down. Still working on processing photos from the last few days, here are a couple from yesterday. Speaking of “a couple”, one couple missed the 2:00pm departure. Because it was going to be a short trip back to San Juan, the Captain could wait for them. And wait. The crew was prowling the ship, looking for them or for anyone who might know where they were. Eventually a bit after 3:00pm their passports were sent ashore to the port agent and we left. Heard later that they were ok and planned to rejoin the ship here in San Juan today. Stan

I can only give partial answers and some guesses. We were on the Pride for one week around Iceland. From there to Boston we were on a Celebrity ship, late August. I don’t recall any rough seas etc, just some fog and misty rain. In Greenland, Quartatoq, we did a ship’s excursion to a lady’s home for tea/coffee and great discussion of local life. As far as temperatures, I plan to layer, I just cope with whatever the conditions are, and hardly pay attention or store any recollections. Probably 50s or maybe 60s Fahrenheit. Stan

Link…

See my ongoing discussion of all things Star Pride from San Juan. 186-188 pax this week, 244 next week including 50 continuing from this week.