Bchgrl33

My husband and I watch what we eat all year long so on a cruise/vacation (2x per year) we pretty much eat whatever we want, including drinks. For workouts we always say we are going to workout every morning (cardio/weights) but seems like around the 3-4th day that falls by the wayside and we end up feeling guilty. That being said we always take stairs, our idea of eating a lot is considerably less than the average american, and we walk everywhere. For our upcoming cruise which is 3 ports and 3 sea days we have decided to go with the flow and accept that we will only workout on the sea days. We'll see how that works out. We do quite a few Beachbody workouts so i usually find a small corner of the fitness center or even just do the workout in our room. 

I need this! I've got 15 weeks until my next cruise and I'm in major workout/diet mode! I'm a beachbody coach so it makes it easier but the holidays did a real number on me! Anyone doing Beachbody workouts?

27 minutes ago, Seminole1975 said:

We were on the 9:15 Rebel Yell excursion with Captain Claudia as well. Totally agree with you. We had a blast and highly recommend this trip. Interestingly, this was only the 1st or 2nd time she had been out since the hurricane. We were sitting up top with her during the first part of the trip. She said that several boats ended up on top of the Rebel Yell and it took this long to get everything fixed. So happy they are up and running! Awesome day!  Had my first Painkiller too at the Soggy Dollar Bar-Delicious!

I had heard this was one of the first charters Rebel Yell did. 

8 minutes ago, Seminole1975 said:

 

Yes! Glad we weren't the only ones who noticed this!

My husband and I LOVE Capt Kate! Very engaging with the staff and guests, a huge presence on social media which is walking and talking advertising for the cruise line, and as my husband says "she's very easy on the eyes" 🙂

Thank you everyone for your replies! This is why I love cruises so much! everyone can find a line, a ship, a space, that meets their vacation needs! Just because it wasn't our cup of tea doesn't mean it won't work for someone else!

18 hours ago, ludicrous_speed said:

I know the feeling- we picked the exact same excursions. Loved both- but White Bay was incredible. Already looking into a trip to spend more time there. We took the 7:15 Rebel Yell.

We were on the 9:15 Rebel Yell

18 hours ago, ludicrous_speed said:

I know the feeling- we picked the exact same excursions. Loved both- but White Bay was incredible. Already looking into a trip to spend more time there. We took the 7:15 Rebel Yell.

We were on the 9:15 Rebel Yell

1 hour ago, Just Jo said:

 

Thanks for sharing your review.

I'm sure there are many who appreciated the sharps containers. Just something I had never seen before. 

1 hour ago, Warm Breezes said:

I was on this sailing with you guys and the one thing I didn't notice that you all remarked upon were the photographers.  Since we weren't looking to have any pictures done on this cruise I completely ignored them.  I kind of wishing I was paying attention to them now.  Sounds like some fun people watching 😁.

You definitely missed out on entertainment!

1 minute ago, PATRLR said:

And this adds to CC and this thread how?    Your post is totally inappropriate.

 

To the OP, I was surprised to read your review of the fitness center.  While I agree it was small, I found that I was able to get pretty close to my full workout in each day with the dumbbells, weights and machines they had.  I too was up very early and as I recall was there before posted open time (And it was open).  I actually liked the fitness center on the Getaway.  As for the lack of 10# dumbbells, bad on NCL to not have any (did you check the room they do classes in?).  One thing I recall was the guy doing the classes was a bit of a jerk, throwing me out of the class room even though there were only a couple people in his "class".  There was no reason I couldn't have kept doing my workout in the back of the room.

I considered going into that TRX room when it wasn't in use but figured I'd get kicked out. My experience with cruise fitness centers is mainly on Celebrity and they are head and shoulders above what the Getaway had. 

16 hours ago, luvcruzing said:

By the way, the steward would have given you bathrobes had you asked.

I didn't know that! I should have asked! Thanks for the tip 🙂

Norovirus595,

Since I pretty clearly put in my posts that what is important to me isn't necessarily important to others, your comment is not necessary. Plus you don't really have all the information such as time differences etc. Maybe if you have nothing worthwhile to contribute you shouldn't bother. 

Ludicrous_Speed, here's what we did in ports. I warn you it isn't too exciting. We go on cruises pretty much to exclusively chill on a beach:

St Thomas - Magen's Bay. 

Tortola - Rebel Yell excursion to White Bay, Jost van Dyke. I HIGHLY recommend everyone that has a chance do this!

Now onto the dislikes.

Things we disliked about the Getaway and NCL:

Music in the restaurants was almost always inappropriate. the Italian restaurant didn't play Italian music (even Olive Garden can do that!), rock or pop type music in the main dining rooms clashed with the sedateness of the meals etc. 

NEVER have I been on a boat that had so much smoking and smoke! I am not a smoker and don't like to be assaulted by it everywhere I go. I don't know if it was not enforcing rules or what. Walking through the casino didn't help at all. The boardwalk often was unusable because of it. The Sunset bar had the cigar room open right into so every time someone came in or out you got the stench of that. 

Photographers were laughable. So funny we made a nightly game of watching them. The poses they put people in were ridiculous! We called one Smash your wife's face into a wall. Horribly uncomfortable and awkward looking. 

Food was blah throughout the cruise. Very few highlights. This helped with maintaining our weight though so I could go either way on this. Breakfast in the main dining room was best. The Italian restaurant we thought was blah at best. The bread tasted biscuity. I just wanted some basic spaghetti and couldn't get that. Teppenyaki was good but all depends on the table and crowd you get put with. Cagneys was ok but if we didn't have the package we could have been just as happy with a steak in the main dining rooms. 

Drinks were terrible. I never had a single good drink on the boat other than the wine at night. I didn't even realize I was picky about my drinks since I've never had that issue before. 

Pool area is entirely too small for a ship this size. Little to no seating around the pool except upstairs. But since you never once could have found room to dip a toe in the pool it was ok to be that far from it. If they could have put a pool in Vibe or Spice H20 that would have helped tremendously. I never saw attendents walking around the pool area taking drink orders. But the ship has lots of bars so I never thought the wait was long for a drink. They make up for the pool area by having tons of sun deck space. I just like to be able to cool off in thepool. 

Lots of activities but hard to plan around reservations for dinner. Every day we had to seriously plan out our next day and it was stressful. I prefer the traditional 6 or 8 dinner, show before or after dinner, smaller activities sprinkled around the ship. 

Vibe was nice but the lounge chairs that were behind the cabanas (waste of money IMO) had no view and very little breeze because the cabanas blocked it. 

Shanghai Noodles was great but I don't want to eat dinner in the middle of a smokey and loud casino. It would have been easy to add a wall to block that out. 

NCL/Getaway seems to be trying to cater to too many types of people: adults, kids, Haven class people, young, old etc. Instead they should focus on a few things and do those well. They're spread too thin.

Very few announcements. Good and bad of course. Since I thought our cruise director was very unentertaining not having announcements was fine. Just unusual. 

Why is O'SHehans so large? I would have preferred the restaurant space and then something else in the gaming/bar area. 

I don't like the dispensary type toiletries. 

No bathrobes!!!!

Sharps containers? I've never seen that before and they were everywhere! How many people are using needles in all the bathrooms? Maybe this is an important thing and I just am unaware?

Our biggest complaint? The fitness center is a complete joke. Small, dark, dingy, ill-equipped. It was the smallest fitness center we've ever seen on a boat and yet this was the biggest boat we've been on. We were getting up at 530 just have space to workout. They had very few dumbbells, no 10#s at all which was an easy fix. Send someone to a place next port you go to. You surely can afford the cost of it. It stank like a locker room bc it was so humid and small. It was the most unpleasant experience we had on the boat and a real shame. I don't know if NCL clientele aren't big into fitness or what. The center had a dedicated spinning room which is not efficient use of space at all. A whole room for 1 class a day that lasts 1 hour? Use that space for other things by pushing the bikes aside like other ships do. Also a dedicated space for TRX and training. Rarely used. 

Ok that's it. Please take my complaints with a grain of salt. We enjoyed our vacation but NCL is not the line for us. 

Now onto the dislikes.

Things we disliked about the Getaway and NCL:

Music in the restaurants was almost always inappropriate. the Italian restaurant didn't play Italian music (even Olive Garden can do that!), rock or pop type music in the main dining rooms clashed with the sedateness of the meals etc. 

NEVER have I been on a boat that had so much smoking and smoke! I am not a smoker and don't like to be assaulted by it everywhere I go. I don't know if it was not enforcing rules or what. Walking through the casino didn't help at all. The boardwalk often was unusable because of it. The Sunset bar had the cigar room open right into so every time someone came in or out you got the stench of that. 

Photographers were laughable. So funny we made a nightly game of watching them. The poses they put people in were ridiculous! We called one Smash your wife's face into a wall. Horribly uncomfortable and awkward looking. 

Food was blah throughout the cruise. Very few highlights. This helped with maintaining our weight though so I could go either way on this. Breakfast in the main dining room was best. The Italian restaurant we thought was blah at best. The bread tasted biscuity. I just wanted some basic spaghetti and couldn't get that. Teppenyaki was good but all depends on the table and crowd you get put with. Cagneys was ok but if we didn't have the package we could have been just as happy with a steak in the main dining rooms. 

Drinks were terrible. I never had a single good drink on the boat other than the wine at night. I didn't even realize I was picky about my drinks since I've never had that issue before. 

Pool area is entirely too small for a ship this size. Little to no seating around the pool except upstairs. But since you never once could have found room to dip a toe in the pool it was ok to be that far from it. If they could have put a pool in Vibe or Spice H20 that would have helped tremendously. I never saw attendents walking around the pool area taking drink orders. But the ship has lots of bars so I never thought the wait was long for a drink. They make up for the pool area by having tons of sun deck space. I just like to be able to cool off in thepool. 

Lots of activities but hard to plan around reservations for dinner. Every day we had to seriously plan out our next day and it was stressful. I prefer the traditional 6 or 8 dinner, show before or after dinner, smaller activities sprinkled around the ship. 

Vibe was nice but the lounge chairs that were behind the cabanas (waste of money IMO) had no view and very little breeze because the cabanas blocked it. 

Shanghai Noodles was great but I don't want to eat dinner in the middle of a smokey and loud casino. It would have been easy to add a wall to block that out. 

NCL/Getaway seems to be trying to cater to too many types of people: adults, kids, Haven class people, young, old etc. Instead they should focus on a few things and do those well. They're spread too thin.

Very few announcements. Good and bad of course. Since I thought our cruise director was very unentertaining not having announcements was fine. Just unusual. 

Why is O'SHehans so large? I would have preferred the restaurant space and then something else in the gaming/bar area. 

I don't like the dispensary type toiletries. 

No bathrobes!!!!

Sharps containers? I've never seen that before and they were everywhere! How many people are using needles in all the bathrooms? Maybe this is an important thing and I just am unaware?

Our biggest complaint? The fitness center is a complete joke. Small, dark, dingy, ill-equipped. It was the smallest fitness center we've ever seen on a boat and yet this was the biggest boat we've been on. We were getting up at 530 just have space to workout. They had very few dumbbells, no 10#s at all which was an easy fix. Send someone to a place next port you go to. You surely can afford the cost of it. It stank like a locker room bc it was so humid and small. It was the most unpleasant experience we had on the boat and a real shame. I don't know if NCL clientele aren't big into fitness or what. The center had a dedicated spinning room which is not efficient use of space at all. A whole room for 1 class a day that lasts 1 hour? Use that space for other things by pushing the bikes aside like other ships do. Also a dedicated space for TRX and training. Rarely used. 

Ok that's it. Please take my complaints with a grain of salt. We enjoyed our vacation but NCL is not the line for us. 

Ok so now to get into the details of the cruise and what we liked and didn't like. This was our second NCL cruise, our first with the kids was a Western Caribbean on the Pearl. Our preference is Celebrity but I believe we got a good deal on this one? Can't really even remember why we booked it. 

Cabin: we booked an angled balcony and tried to upgrade to a Haven but got rejected. Probably a good thing in the end. The cabin we had was perfectly wonderful. The balcony was a little larger due to the angle, we were on deck 14 which was very convenient. Having a coffee maker in the room was awesome and unexpected! Our routine in the morning consists of waking up before almost everyone else (usually no later than 5), gulping down some coffee, and hitting the gym. Not having to go to the garden cafe or coffee place made it so much easier. On my husband. He's the coffee fetcher 🙂 The rooms are a little lacking in storage but we made it work ok. The bed was comfortable and the bathroom was great although we had a small toilet issue. So small I wasn't even aware of it. Supposedly it didn't flush all the time. Never happened to me though. Our cabin steward was very accommodating and pleasant. The tv channel options were very limited but since we don't go on a cruise to sit in the room and watch tv it's not that big of a deal. Why is it that every single cruise we've been on the remote desperately needs batteries?

Vibe: as you saw in the picture above we snagged the last 2 spots in Vibe. Never having been on a boat with Vibe we weren't sure what we had gotten into and at first I was thinking we had wasted our money. More on that later. 

Well, now i see why so many do a review one day at a time on the boat but we don't ever get the wifi so that wasn't an option for us. I'll be all over the place on this one trying to remember things. 

Things we liked about the Getaway and NCL:

Coffee maker in the cabin

Boardwalk

Beds

Vibe (nice quality loungers with padding and towels provided which was nice since they terrified me with the charging if you lost your towel thing. Attentive staff. Peaceful and quiet for the most part, adults only)

Spice H20 (nice alternative to the pool for adults)

Gorgeous chandelier that changed colors

General decor of ship

You'll notice the "liked" list is somewhat short. Next post I will focus on the "disliked" list.

First I'd like to say that this is my 8th? cruise but my first review so please bear with me. I took notes throughout the cruise on things that were important to us. Everyone is different though so what we deemed noteworthy might not be that big of a deal to you. The other caveat I'd like to make is this review will likely come off as negative and while mostly that is what I will talk about, a vacation to a tropical location on a cruise boat is always good! So we enjoyed ourselves tremendously despite my gripes 🙂

We left Boise, ID Saturday early morning and our flights were UA through Houston. This was a new itinerary for us and we were pleasantly surprised at how easy and quick it was. Also, Houston has a great airport! Traveling to the east coast from Idaho is always a pain it seems but not this time! Sadly we were on United and we had 3 bags and no allowable carry-on. So we paid the fees and went about our way. I will say traveling without a carry-on or two was quite freeing. It's always a hassle to bring bags into a restaurant or store. 

We arrived around 330, got our bags, ordered a Lyft and by 430 we were at our hotel. We chose the YVE downtown. It was one of the least expensive options and turned out to be fine. Not my favorite choice but for a couple of hours and a view of the port it worked really well. We walked to Bayside and strolled around before settling on a Cuban restaurant for dinner. Food was ok. Nothing to brag about, not the greatest mojito I've ever had (a theme throughout the week actually). This was our first time in Bayside too. It was a decent way to kill some time but I could live without going again. 

Sunday morning came around  and we strained to find out ship in port. It was way in back so hard to see. We did a quick workout in the gym's fitness room, my husband jogged over to Illy's the Marriott (our fave coffee place in  Miami) and then headed to lobby for the shuttle to the port. We were the only ones in the shuttle and the driver had her boss's brand new Suburban which was very nice. 

Embarkation was fine. No better or worse than any other experience we've had. We fretted and hemmed and hawed about should we or shouldn't we attempt to get Vibe passes. We decided we'd make the attempt but if we didn't get them it wouldn't ruin the week. We got to port around 10am and were on the ship by 1145. 

Ok from here on out I will just list likes and dislikes we experienced. I'll try to add some pics too. As a reminder this is my first review so if I don't do this right please forgive me!A picture from the plane of the Mississippi dumping into the Gulf. I think the muddy waters of the river and clear blue of the Gulf are so cool together!

View from our hotel room of the MSC that was docked. I believe it was the Seaside. Mojitos at the Cuban restaurant in BaysideView of the port Sunday morning earlyMy husband trying to peer through the fogged up windows to get a look at the port Sunday morningOur first day in Vibe.

Mikeerdas,

Wow. Your comments about alcohol are incredibly offensive. First of all, your not so subtle tone deriding people who drink alcohol is unwarranted. It's not illegal, and people are of legal age to drink. Secondly, to imply that you have to be drunk to like Coki is ridiculous. Or maybe to imply that the locals will only be nice to you if you buy "mixed drinks and buckets of beer" from them. I've been to Coki many times and sat on a towel and never bought anything and no one bothers me.

This happened to me as well. Since I wasn't having a good time, I wanted to leave early. The gentleman, and I use that word loosely, who took it upon himself to "take care of us" tracked me and my wife leaving and tried to detain us. Hence my "Welcome to Hell" / "This is a prison" type comments and experience.

 

I told him I was leaving early and that's that. I walked briskly past him and went directly to a taxi driver who happened to be waiting. Seemed menacing to me. I'm not at all surprised that the beach workers were close to getting violent. All smiles if you're buying things from them. If you want to leave prematurely, well, I guess they don't get any more cash?

 

Those who love Coki beach are welcome to it. When no vendors will let you get out of the pouring rain, unless you're buying their liquor, well, that's just not any form of customer service or hospitality I'm aware of. It's a lack of customer service. You're right about the complete lack of ambiance at Coki; that counts for something. Another "data point" for people to consider. I'm on a cruise and I want ambiance. And thanks for pointing out that St. John's isn't a resort.

 

I'm guessing the people who like Coki beach are the ones buying mixed drinks and buckets of beer. Am I right? Any non-drinkers who were pleased with the ambiance and treatment from staff? How about anyone who didn't as much as even rent a beach chair? Did you have a warm fuzzy feeling at Coki?

 

It was an incredible relief to get on that taxi and get away from that place as fast as the taxi could take us. I've learned my lesson.

Ibamie, I can appreciate your issues. Growing up in Asia and from the Caribbean that kind of thing is so familiar to me it doesn't bother me. My response was really directed more to the OP than to you.

It makes me sad to see all the negativity about Coki Beach. I was born in the VI and we spent many weekends at Coki plus I have gone back on several cruises. I've never felt unsafe there. If you have an issue with pot, I'd suggest staying away from almost any Caribbean island and Hawaii too. Especially Jamaica. And while you're at it, some US states too. I don't see anything wrong with it. No more than anything wrong with seeing someone drink a Painkiller on the beach. Also, about the "dirty" "rundown" look of Coki. The truth is, the Caribbean locals are mostly quite poor and simple people who may not have much but love life and their natural surroundings. If you want manicured beauty and never see a dirty kid, or a homeless person, then stick to resorts and the cruise boat.

I've been wanting to do this excursion for years! Booked the second sailing for our NCL Oct 14 sailing. I go to the Soggy Dollar webcam almost daily and have already told friends to check it out the day we are there!

My first review! I'll make it short and sweet since I'm still learning. My husband and I recently got back from a cruise on Celebrity Summit out of San Juan. It was by far the best cruise we've taken so far!

We flew to San Juan early to enjoy a few days there pre-cruise. We stayed in the Tres Palmas hotel on the outskirts of the Carolina area. It was a GREAT hotel! Our room was as on the beach as you can get and we slept with the windows open to enjoy the surf. The tiny pool was adorable and refreshing. The bed was comfy and the staff were very accommodating. We would definitely stay there again. We flew in on a red eye from Idaho so we arrived about 3pm. Despite being exhausted we knew we needed to find someplace that sold beer etc. so we walked about 15 mins away to a Walgreens. We didn't take the best route we later discovered. Since we were also looking for a place for dinner we did a search on Yelp and discovered Porilo was about a block away. This was the BEST food we had on the entire trip (and that's high praise since we had no issues with the food on our cruise). The ambience was perfect (open air), the pizza was some of the best I've ever had (and I consider myself a pizza connoisseur) and our drinks were perfection. I ordered some sort of mojito that I later discovered was a Barbados Cherry (aka acerola cherry). My husband had a pina colada that was so fresh we could see the shaved coconut. With tummies full, we made our way back to our hotel via a more scenic route, picking out houses we liked along the way. The next day we woke up and got ready for our daily workout, in this case a run/walk. One thing I noticed right away about San Juan was that EVERYONE runs/bikes. All ages, sexes, shapes. It was phenomenal. Our 1 hour workout turned into a 6 hour walk to the Hilton Caribe and back 6 miles away. We had stayed at the Hilton on our honeymoon cruise and it was fun to see it again. We got sorely tempted to change our hotel reservations for the return trip but decided to stay true to our plan.

The next morning was cruise day! We always get beyond excited to get to the port and that first glimpse of the boat. We reorganized our stuff, made sure we had swimsuits in our bag/purse so we could lay out right away by the pool, and off we headed. The boat does not disappoint when you first see it! I was slightly concerned about the age of the ship and had read about some issues of wear and tear but I never saw any evidence of that. Embarkation was a breeze, maybe 15 mins? Once on the ship our first stop was the Martini Bar for a drink and then onto the exploration! We had the premium beverage package (I highly recommend!), as well as the gratuities paid and onboard credit. Next stop, Cafe Baglio so my hubby could have a tres leches cake and coffee, his first of many. The ship is, in my opinion, the perfect size and it didn't take us too long to see everything. The Luminae dining room looked gorgeous, too rich for us though, and the Blu restaurant I'm hoping we get to use on our next cruise in 2016 (currently reserved a veranda and hoping to upgrade to Aqua). We grabbed some food and settled into one of the beds by the pool for a few hours. The Ocean View cafe was lovely and had a wide variety of foods, including carved meats for all 3 meals, pizza, Asian offerings at breakfast, and croissants to my heart's content. No complaints. Once our cabin was ready I insisted we head down to unpack. Our cabin was gorgeous, comfy bed, and everything seemed bigger than previous cruises. We were able to stuff our luggage on the bed which was great and there was storage everywhere we looked! Back up to the deck for the party! There was a group of women dancing away by the band and one Jerry Garcia look alike. We had a great time watching them! Then it was muster time (which would have been more pleasant if people would just be quiet and do as told. It's 15 mins out of your one week vacation and one day you may be glad you listened. Lecture over). We had the late seating dinner which was great. Our table mates were fantastic for the most part. Again, never any complaints about the food at dinner. I'm super picky about my food but I don't need the fanciest stuff in the world. I worked up a reputation of getting my creme brulee to go each night and they always remembered.

Second day was Tortola. To start off, we are beach/pool people and almost always that's all we do so don't expect much excitement on port reviews. For Tortola we chose to go to Cane Garden Bay and took a taxi there. My husband did not care much for the windy road! I found it to be very USVI like. The beach was nice but nothing special. In fact, I found Tortola to be my least favorite island of the itinerary. In hindsight, we should have gone to Jost Van Dyke I think. We stayed for a few hours and then hiked back a few hundred feet to the Calloway Distillery that is 400 years old. It had 4 shots for $1 (not real sized shots) and we had a good time trying them. Back in a cab to the boat just in time to miss the storm that hit. Eat, pool, show, dinner followed. THat night I believe was one of two comedians. This guy was not terribly funny and I felt embarrassed for him the whole time.

Third day was a sea day which we love since they are so relaxing. We were poolside all day. End of story.

Martinique followed and while we had chosen this cruise based on this island over the months we started to get concerned about Martinique based on what we were reading. Fort de France is a MAJOR city and getting out of it is a hassle. We wanted to go to a beach south of the city but finally concluded it would take too long and we don't like to worry about missing the boat. We decided instead to take the ferry to Pointe de Bout. Martinique is stunning and was nice to take the ferry across and take our time seeing the city from afar. The first beach did not meet our high standards so we hiked to the next one passing quaint french stores along the way. Everything is in French which I loved. We personally prefer the french islands, or maybe its the topless beaches. The second beach was adequate although not the best we've been to. However, we had a blast watching aFrench woman sell her bikinis by trying them on and modeling them in front of us (no nudity), the Framboise Mojito was the second best drink of the trip, and I enjoyed doing my topless thing. Another afternoon storm approached so we did a little shopping and then back to the beach. Dinner, show, bed.

Dominica came next. I wasn't too thrilled with this island originally based on the fact that its not known for its beaches (read: there are basically none). We decided very last minute to sign up for the Champagne "Beach" snorkeling trip that left in the afternoon. We hit a few stores in the morning (cute old stone buildings) and then hung by the pool for a bit before heading off. We boated over on a catameran and I got to lounge on the netting portion. I've never snorkeled oddly enough and I was slightly nervous but more because I had forgotten to bring contacts on our trip and knew I wouldn't be able to see much without glasses on. The guides were hilarious (Sherman especially) and pointed out where Pirates of the Caribbean had filmed some scenes. The water was murky so combined with no glasses/contacts I didn't see much but there is indeed bubbles in the water from the fissures and there are some really hot spots from the volcanic activity! One girl lost her wedding ring and one of the guides donned scuba gear and valiantly tried to find it but couldn't. It was a nice gesture though. That evening we went to Qsine which was quite a fun experience of WAY too much food in a neat presentation. Definitely would do it again. The show for the night was the Unexpected Boys. I had seen them on the NCL a few years back and was excited to see them again. Little did I know they would choose me to get up on stage with them! I'm hopelessly shy about such things but secretly loved it! I would have put more effort into how I looked had I known though LOL. This is a highlight of our cruise as well! I hope to see them many more times on cruises.

St. Kitts was the next stop and once again, the beach is king! Off we went to Carabola Beach Club, a beautiful club that suited us perfectly! Highly recommend. The Carib beer buckets weren't overly expensive and tasted great! We got the beach beds and umbrella and frankly, I never wanted to leave.

Our last island on the cruise was St Thomas. This is a special island for me because I was born here. Why I don't still live there I have no idea although my husband has pinky sworn that I will be able to live there again one day. I'm holding him to it. We rented a jeep (Budget is right at the port and super easy) and off we went to visit a few places such as the church my parents worked at, Zoras sandals (really really want a pair but at $250 each they are expensive! Handmade so getting them done while in port is next to impossible too), Mafolie Hotel/Restaurant (closed though), attempted to find our old house (failed), then Magen's Bay! We love this beach and could easily stay there every day for weeks on end but we had other things on our agenda this time. We stuck around for a couple of hours and then headed to Coki Beach. I was hoping for some pasties for lunch (aka cornish pies) but apparently they no longer sell them there. After some tears on the beach (I get emotional about the Caribbean and having to leave and this was our last day), we drove along the coast back to the boat.

We docked in San Juan early and were one of the first off the boat since we were just heading to a hotel. We stayed one night at the Courtyard by Marriot in Carolina and loved it. Surprisingly beautiful and much better beach and walking area than Condada I think.

We took advantage of the benefits of booking your next cruise on board and are going to be on the Celebrity Silhouette Eastern Caribbean Dec. 4. We're already talking and planning!

Overall, we thought the food, people, workers and boat in general were perfect. I have no complaints. Husband thought Captain Kate was a hottie. Celebrity has now moved up to our favorite cruise line (we've been on NCL, RCCL, and Carnival).

We were on this same sailing and had the time of our lives! I've loved reading your reviews and reliving it all again. We've already signed up for our next one in 2016 and I'm going to make it a point to be active on cruise critics this time beforehand.