MountainHubby

Day 6 - Sea Day

The Promenade was deserted this morning around 8.  I think everyone had a lot of fun, and a lot of sun yesterday!

Our morning routine has been to grab coffee and a light breakfast (pastry and the yogurt parfaits are pretty good) from Cafe Promenade then head up to the flowriders. Then we grab a second breakfast or early lunch somewhere. There is always less line in the morning. 

We mostly just spent the day wandering between flowriding, eating, and wandering the ship. It was a nice day!

Grabbed dinner at the Pork Side BBQ. This is a must for anyone that likes BBQ!!  A 2 or 3 cut meat platter can easily be shared by two people (we got a 3 cut meat and couldn’t finish it between the two of us!).  Definitely get the ribs and the turkey!  I heard the burnt ends are pretty tasty too.  Tonight was formal night and lobster tails in the main dining. 

Tonight we lucked into a private one hour flowrider session with Rey and Nico. A friend that James made invited us to join them (so nice!).  The boys had a blast and were getting some pretty good tricks! 

Playing in the flowriders and watching a gorgeous sunset. Does it get much better?

After that James went to the teen club again. I had reservations for the Adult Comedy show. They were fun!  If you sit in front you definitely risk being used and abused for everyone’s entertainment!  They certainly like picking on Carnival Cruises. 🤣

I was able to get a seat at the Aqua show again. Still good the second time!  If you can get seats in the center section. They have taken out every other row of seats so you don’t have anyones head in your view.  If you can’t sit in the center, try not to be under the overhangs at the back. There are some things you might miss up high. They did have to stop the show for 5-10 minutes for “unforeseen difficulties”.  We were guessing it was because of the rocking of the boat. The dives and gymnastics they are doing are hard enough on a stable surface, I can’t imagine doing it on a rocking ship!

We had a cute elephant waiting for us back in our room!

Day 5 - St. Maarten

Another beautiful day!  There were a few short rain showers, a couple in the morning and a couple in the evening, but otherwise it was lovely.
Hot!!  There were two other ships in port with us, Marella Discovery (which I learned is an old Royal Voyager class ship), and Royal’s Grandeur of the Seas.

We got off the ship around 11:30 headed out to do some snorkeling. We caught a taxi (go past the water taxi stand and take a right) to Little Bay Beach. There is a resort there, Divi Little Bay, which is where they dropped us off.  

The ride was $6/person. There is a place there to rent snorkeling equipment for pretty cheap (mask and snorkel $5, fins $5). They do warn you about fire coral and sea urchins. Don’t touch things if you don’t know what it is!  The water was warm and clear and we saw some fish and sea urchins. I read that there is a little snorkeling park there, with a sunken helicopter and things, but I think it was around the rock point to the left (if you are standing on the beach looking out) and J didn’t want to go explore that far with the little fins he had. 

We grabbed lunch at a place right there on the beach called The Shack. The food was great, decent portions, with some nice tables in the shade. Service was a little slow but we were just relaxing so it was ok!

We played in the beach a little more and then met our taxi driver. He was a nice guy and when I asked if it was easy to find a taxi back to the ship he said he would come pick us up and asked what time we wanted to meet. If anyone ever needs a taxi in St. Maarten you can give Claudius a call 1-721-554-8593, Taxi 149.  There were some nice views from the cab!

For any Star Wars fans out there, there is supposed to be an amazing museum that has been set up by one of the special effects artists from the original trilogy. I wish I had remembered it was there and we had gone, I guess it’s just awesome!

One thing of note, we got a message from Royal that there was some kind of “civil unrest” on the French side of the island and they recommended everyone stay on the Dutch side so that we were guaranteed to be able to return to the ship. Interesting. 

Back on the ship around 3:30. We went to the Park Cafe and got one of the kümmelweck sandwiches (fresh sliced roast beef, mustard, and they put some kind of au jus on the bun). Super tasty!  It’s a little hard to eat, might be smart to get a fork and knife but worth it. 

Some evening rain made worth it by beautiful rainbows!

Caught some of the evening flowriding and then went to the Solarium Bistro for dinner. It is one of the vaccinated guests only places, so you have to have you wrist band on. The service was a little different, they have a buffet style set up for salad bar, appetizers, and desserts and they cook your entrees to order. I got the salmon and James got the filet mignon.  Both were excellent!  Definitely try the hazelnut chocolate cake too!  We heard that the lamb is exceptional as well. Definitely a fun upscale dining experience. Not crowded at all!

We rode the water slides for a bit tonight. They are nothing like on Coco Cay, but they are pretty fun!  Two tips; the joints on the clear sections of the slide seem to pinch a little so wearing a swim shirt is nice (it’s not awful, just noticeable), and you definitely go underwater at the bottom!  We soaked in the hot tubs a while and James swam some in the salt water pool. It was a nice end to the day. 

There was a piano guy set up by the aft elevators on deck 6, just inside from the Boardwalk. He was good!

James spent some more time at the teen club and I wandered the decks for a while enjoying to warm night and then went back down to the jazz club. There was a good horn group (alto and tenor saxes, trumpet, piano, guitar, and set). 

Day 4 - St. Thomas

Today we were at St. Thomas. There was a little rain that morning, but the rest of the day was clear.

We weren’t scheduled to be in port until 12, but somehow got slightly delayed and weren’t in until more like 12:30, and could get off at 1. we grabbed a quick lunch at El Loco Fresh before getting off. Definitely worth checking out! 
 

The port was nice, lots of iguanas sitting on the pier and rocks!  

It was definitely hot and humid, which wouldn’t have been bad except they wanted you to wear your mask all the time, even outdoors. We cheated a bit when no one was around but I talked to some other guests and that definitely discouraged them from staying on shore long. 

We caught an open air taxi to downtown ($4/person). They are some crazy drivers down here!  Wandered downtown for a bit and walked up the 99 steps. It’s not well marked, none of the streets are either, so have an idea of where it is before you’re on shore. We tried to go check out Black Beard’s castle but it was closed for repairs. 

There are lots of chickens everywhere!

The main street area is mostly jewelry/watch stores, but the people are nice (one lady let James try on a $7000 watch!). Without taking an excursion there wasn’t much else to do in the time we had (at least not that we knew of). All aboard was 6:30, but the sunsets at around 4:45 so we headed back early. 

There is some interesting architecture to look at and we stumbled upon a few neat things. Probably worth taking a tour if you’ve never been and actually want to see the island.
 

Dinner at the main dining again. More great food (we will do some food posts later).  James and I found the secret entrance to the teen club and he disappeared!  I wandered down and found the Jazz club (Jazz on 4). It’s tucked down with Blaze, and Studio B. If you get into the Casino you can go through the art gallery on the port side and it takes you there. Good music and intimate feel. I’m a lot younger than most who were there but have always been a jazz lover!

Back to some reviews!

Day 3 - Sea day

I gotta say, sea days are some of my favorites!  

We ate breakfast at the main dining. It was good (but the OJ glasses at Johnny Rockets are bigger 😝).  Then we headed up to the flow riders for a bit. The kid is getting pretty good, and we’ll known by the crew!  We explored the ship a bit more, got lunch at the Wind Jammer, followed by a little more flowriding. 

We got on the rock wall after lunch.

There was almost no one there, a few small kids, so we just hung out with Casey (staff) and played around for a bit. The routes go from super easy to fairly challenging. we both made it up what they said was the hardest, but it definitely wasn’t easy!  Make sure you bring socks with you for the climbing shoes and you can’t be in wet clothes. The staff was fun and encouraging!  There are two walls but we have only seen one open. They stage some of the aqua show from the second so maybe are keeping it closed since we are only at half capacity?  We will try to look in the last couple sea days. Tip: make sure to only go to the rock climbing when the wall is in the shade. It gets too hot in the direct sun. My wife and other son said they nearly blistered their hands climbing in the sun on another trip!

We got seats for the 80’s Aqua show and it was awesome!!  The cast was amazing, the music was great (especially for a child of the 80’s), and it was just so fun!  I won’t spoil any of it for you, but it’s a must see. I will say that it was pretty loud, 80’s rock concert loud. If that’s not your thing, or you have small kids, you might consider some earplugs. 

Grabbed some pizza at Sorrento’s, which was pretty good! 

There are two large hot tubs just outside the Solarium. These are a great spot to relax, and usually weren’t to busy. If one he too many people in it, the second one was almost always available. 

Day 7 Daily

Day 6 Daily

Day 5 Daily

I know they did a big retrofit of the ship in 2019 (someone please correct me if I’m wrong). It’s possible they removed laser tag then. 

On 11/10/2021 at 2:53 PM, canadian girl 77 said:

Still no laser tag?

Best I can tell there is no laser tag on this ship. It’s not in the app anywhere and I haven’t run across it on board. If That changes I’ll let you know. 

Quick tip on using the Roy app. We have noticed, at least for the flowrider, that not all the times are shown in the Daily Planner section of the app (under the calendar). If you click on the ship icon (top left), and find things there you can see the schedules for the entire week. These seem to be pretty complete from what we can tell. 

Ok, I know I’m behind in the daily reviews, please accept my apologies!  I wanted to get some of the daily’s up though for those that are planning. 
 

Day 4 Daily

The ship is fun to wander at night.
The upper decks are pretty deserted, most people are catching shows, dinner, and doing some shopping in the Promenade. The casino was packed every time I walked through there too. The park is nice at night!

We have done the Ultimate Abyss a couple times. It’s fun, but not as fast as it looks in the videos. It’s easy for anyone to do though, and not at all scary so don’t let anyone in your group be intimidated!

Sorry for the random pics at the end of that last post.  I wasn’t paying attention!  The one is breakfast at Johnny Rockets (the “Works” and pancakes), the other is from South Beach. 

Perfect Day at Coco Cay?  Yes it was!  

It rains a bit just as we were getting ready to go, but stopped quickly.

Started with a good breakfast at Johnny Rockets (big OJ’s alone are worth it!), got ready for Coco Cay. We got the water park passes ($70) and I think if you really enjoy water slides it is totally worth it. We lost count but probably rode out two favorites, Devils Peak and Dueling Demons, around 10 times each (plus a bunch of others)!  With 128 steps up to Dueling Demons and 231 steps to the top of Devil’s Peak, we figured we got in around 4,000+ steps today. When the teenager has to take them two at a time he whole day, it was a decent workout!  There were almost no lines, especially at the beginning, and at most 6 people toward the end. We were on shore around 9 and were done by about 2:30.

Tip: don’t carry your key card in your back pocket on the slides, even if it Velcro’s!  I lost mine a few times before I got smart and left it in our pack. You really only need it to get in and out of the water park area so don’t need to carry it around. We didn’t get a locker, just put our things on a lounger near the wave pool and they were fine. The water in the slides was nice and warm. The wave pool was definitely cooler, but ok once you got in. The ocean was pretty nice, and warmer than the wave pool. There are nice hammocks all around the island and plenty of lounge chairs on the beaches.

If only I could have gotten him to stay still here for an hour, maybe 2!

The food was decent, not great, but it was free and convenient (and let’s face it, we were there for the slides!).  They had burgers, cheese steak sandwiches, a taco bar, fruit, salads, bbq chicken, grilled corn, and of course, soft serve!  Funnel cakes at the snack shack (inside the water park) and pineapples were excellent!  
 

If you want to swim in the ocean, go across to South beach, or over to Chill Island (left as you get off the ship).  Better beaches and nicer water!  The little lagoon next to the lunch place was a bit murky and definitely more crowded.  

Chill Island area

South Beach was the busiest beach, with the floating bar, but was still mellow. 
 

Plenty of empty chairs at the wave pool. They got a little more filled as the day went on but not bad at all. 
 

There are beach wheelchairs and strollers for those that need. James wanted to ride in these!

Back on board we got a couple more hours of flowriding, then went to the main dining room for dinner. Our time on our cards was 5:30, but we showed up around 6 and our table was available. James had an amazing New York strip and I got the tuna. Both were excellent and the service was great!  After dinner James went to the teen club karaoke and I got a drink and relaxed in the Solarium. Almost no one there!!  

(James)Teen club karaoke, kinda lame. Only a few people went, the songs weren’t good, and people couldn’t sing. After the karaoke finishes, then you can go back to the main club area, and Play around. 

We then caught the late night (9-10) flowriding (you might be sensing a recurring theme here…) and it was so fun!  We almost had the whole hour to ourselves!  The flowriding staff (Christy, Gale, Marko, Charlise, Stephanie, Juan, and so many others I haven’t gotten their names yet) has been just spectacular!  They are so patient, helpful, and fun. 

(James) The late night flowrideing was awesome, the people were nice, and kept egging me on to do stupid things!

We grabbed some snacks from Park Cafe and headed back to the room to play some dice and to get ready for bed.

11 hours ago, Cruise a holic said:

Who is the concierge in the Suite and Diamond lounges?

 

Thanks

Not sure, but I’ll see if I can find out for you!

8 hours ago, tlund said:

If you still have Day 2's Compass, would you mind posting.  Trying to plan entertainment/dining for our upcoming cruise.  I see you posted Day 1 and Day 3, but not Day 2.  Thanks for posting all the good information. 

Sorry I missed this!  Here you go. 

According to one of the crew we are sailing with 3,499 guests. I didn’t think to ask how many crew. For the most part it feels very open and uncrowned. The lunch lines at El Loco Fresh and Pork Side BBQ have been getting long though. 

Day 3 Daily

10 hours ago, 4everAfamily said:

Hi MountainHubby,

Did your DS tell you about the secret door to the Teen Club? It’s cool. 

He mentioned something about it yesterday but we haven’t found it yet. We will have to do some exploring today. Thanks!

8 hours ago, kmorg1234 said:

Have you asked the crew about next week’s charter cruise?  Would love to hear their comments.

 

I heard about it from one of the guests that is going to be on it!  I haven’t asked any of the crew, but I’ll see if I can today. Should be interesting!

Gotta love the towel animals!

Room pics

There were a few goodies that you wouldn’t have seen a couple years ago.

Here we go!  So I broke down and got the Wi-Fi plan. Mostly so I could talk to my wonderful wife back home, but you all get the bonus of a more “live” report. 
 

We had a boarding time of 2:30, but with nothing to do around our hotel decided to try and get there a little early. We headed down to the port ($23 Uber ride) at about 11:45 and arrived down near Terminal F at just after 12. Our plan was to stop at the Seaman’s Cafe for a quick lunch, but it was closed. Thank goodness for backup granola bars!  We decided to just walk the length of the pier (about a 25 min walk). It was a hike for sure, but we got to check out all the ships in port, including Virgin’s Scarlet Lady!

When we got to Terminal A there was already a decent line. They have 4 lines for the various boarding time (1-1:30, 2-2:30, etc.). The back of the line kind of morphed into one long line and then people started splitting apart in the middle. 

12:35 Arrived in line

1:45 Through first screening (vaccination cards and Covid test results)

1:57 Through second checkpoint (last showing of vaccination/test results, passport, got wrist bands. If you didn’t upload a photo in the online checkin they will take one here)

2:00 In line for metal detectors

2:14 Boarding!

2:15 In our room (deck 6 room 278, right behind Playmakers)

Unobstructed water view!  That’s all I need!

Walked around a little to get our bearings (and most importantly, find the flow riders!).  

The muster check in was super easy. That said, there were still people that took nearly until sail away to complete it!  We hit the flow rider at about 3 and had an hour on the boogie board side almost to ourselves!  The instructors can’t hold your hands to help anymore but they give great instructions and had both of us doing spins in no time!

After sail away, with the obligatory soft serve, we grabbed a quick bite at the WindJammer so J could get the the Teen Club meet and greet. 

(James)

The teen club meet and greet was pretty cool. Twin juke boxes,one for outside and one for inside. There was a pretty wide selection of music. There were a ton of cool things to play around with, including two table top game consoles, 3 PS4 and I think 3 Nintendo Switches? Decently wide selection of games, Need for Speed, Super Smash, and tons others. Besides the video games there is a fooseball table, and ping pong. Don’t play pool on the first day when the ship is rocking, the balls roll around and it’s REALLY annoying.

Ran into some decent waves in the Straights of Florida and you could definitely feel the ship rocking!

Day 1 Daily

Pushing off!  Talk to everyone in a week with some great reviews!

Just did the two safety videos for “muster”.  Super easy on the app!  Now just have to stop by our muster station when we get on board.