Cool Breeze Cruiser

We stopped long enough at the French Market at Marigot for a restroom break & to get pastries & possible shopping.

I copied & pasted this from a review I read & I have to agree.

"When we left Orient we had 1/2 hour at Marigot and we spent the entire time trying to get lunch at Sarafina's. It is world famous for their French pastries but honestly I think it was overrated and the service is HORRIBLE! Very slow!! We wasted the whole time there."

Next we headed to Maho Beach. It was really interesting watching the planes take off & land & people struggling to stand up & not get blown away by the force. I am sure they were cleaning sand out of crevices for awhile! :eek: Sorry, probably WTMI! :D Of course I had to keep my distance for fear of falling over again! :p

Sorry. There are much better pics out there than I have of Maho Beach & there are some great youtube videos. Glad we got to experience it though!

'Sexy' stopped at Rimas where we bought some souvenirs. I bought a cute bathing suit cover up & JR got a cap. The store is huge & they had great prices.

We were given the option of getting off in Phillipsburg & shopping but I was 'DONE' so we just went back to the ship.

St. Maarten

We had been to St. Maarten once before (should have been twice but the first time our cruise ship could not dock there) & we went to Orient Beach that time & REALLY enjoyed our day there (with our Miracle Misfits roll call group :D) but we wanted to explore more of the island this time so we booked the SXM Island Tour II with Bernard's Tours from 9:00 am-2:30 PM

This is what it included from their website:

Beach, Sightseeing and Shopping - $40/pp

All tours depart from the Cruise Information Center

• Pickup at the cruise pier
  
• Iguana Farm (getting off the bus is optional) [5-10 mins]
  
• Stop at the French and Dutch border [2 mins]
  
• Brief stop at Oyster Pond over looking the island of St Barths [5-10 mins]
  
• Orient Beach where you'll be able to swim and have lunch [90-120 mins]
  
• Marigot - open market (French Capital) [30 mins]
  
• Maho Beach [40 mins]
  
• Drive through Simpson Bay marina
  
• Harold Jack Hill (View of Simpson Marina,Airport & Anguilla)
  
• Return to Philipsburg depends on tour departure time; all guests will be returned in time to meet their ship's sail time.
  

Upon return to Philipsburg, transfer back to the ship will be provided free of charge, or you may choose to remain in Philipsburg to shop or sightsee at your own leisure. Walking back to the ship takes between 12 and 15 minutes, or a taxi may take you for approximately $3.

We boarded a van with several of our Cruise Critic friends. :) Everyone was so patient & helpful that day holding my crutches, etc. while I hopped up the stairs to get in the van.

We had 'Sexy' for a driver. He was 'nice' but I think most of us that had read the reviews of Bernard’s Tour wanted the ‘Mailman’. We met him at Orient Beach & I can see why he gets such great reviews! Very personable & he has a lot of 'energy'!

Our 1st stop was at the Iguana Farm & 'Sexy' was telling us on the way there that the only way the iguanas would bite you was if you stuck your finger in their mouth. Apparently the iguana our friend, Paul touched did not get that memo because it turned around & took a plug out of his finger. :eek: It would not let go & the tour guides had to lure him away from Paul’s finger by tempting the iguana with lettuce. (hopefully pics to follow when Stephanie gets time to add them). I was kind of glad I stayed on the bus for that stop! 'Sexy' brought one of the iguanas on the van for me to touch but I took one look at Paul’s hand & declined! :eek:

We enjoyed going to Orient Beach again. J.R. & I started to walk down the beach as usually walking the beach is one of our favorite things to do but I soon found out I was not making much progress walking on crutches in the sand so I turned back & sent JR in search of Orange Fever where we hung out & ate at the last time we were there. It was to far away for me to make it so we just got a rum punch & some fries to snack on.

We love Orient Beach!

Patrice & Manon, J.R & I, and Jill & Kevin at Orient Beach

You are way more macho than I am and your great attitude should be a lesson for the rest of us. Thanks for the great review and hope you are truly on the mend!

Thanks! If I could 'do' a 'do-over' right now even knowing about my subsequent injury & catching this stupid cold I definitely would!!!

We were in the Caribbean for 10 days, we cruised with & met AMAZING friends, we experienced wonderful ports of calls, & we were on a beautiful ship with an incredible staff!

Life is GOOD! :):):)

Juli

You all look lovely, and you can't tell from the pics that you were injured !

 

I have a couple of photos with ''that guy'' too, we had fun with him !

If you saw a woman take weird poses with the guy in her formal dress that was me lollll

Sorry to hear your cold's gotten worse. I came down with a cold something like 2 days after we got home.

 

reading your review, I wish I had taken more pictures. Well, next time...

Thanks Manon! Obviously you & Patrone had to help 'move' me around so you know better! :D Glad I was able to hide it for pics sometimes!

We also have some photos with 'that guy' that obviously I will not post on CC! :p I know you know we (how confusing), especially with J.R. around that I can not post a LOT of the pics we took! :D We ALWAYS have fun though!

I sooo hope you did not catch your cold from me. I 'tried' so hard not to breathe on anybody. Unfortunately I was the one on the plane going home that nobody wanted to sit next to with all my coughing & sneezing! :eek:

Again, life happens, we are making memories! Years from now we will look back & say how did we catch a cold in the Caribbean but you are lucky because I will also have to say 'How did I end up in a wheelchair for our whole cruise?" :D We had a TON of fun anyway & I am sooo glad we did not give up & fly home after I fell!

I scrapbook so I take TONS of photos. Just ask my family! They get so aggravated with me at the time but love reliving the memories through my scrapbooks.

I am so happy you are hooked on cruising & there will be a next time for y'all! Hopefully it will be with us! :)

Hugs, Juli

The Captain's Welcome Aboard Reception was held in the Royal Promenade from 7:30-8:15. We did not go though. I wish we had watched it from our Promenade cabin but I think we were at dinner or taking 'tons' of Formal Night pics! :D.

The show on Formal night was the Production Showtime, "Jackpot", "A Tribute To The Best of Las Vegas" in the Lyric Theatre held at 9:00 & 10:45.

I was surprised at how empty the theatre was most nights.

I was always able to find a 'seat'! :D

A few photos from Formal Night

If you notice in all the Formal Night pics I am 'standing' or 'almost standing'! :D J.R. (or Robin or John) wheeled me up to the photo op place & stood me up. Notice I am never standing on my left leg. Glad they always remembered not to go off & leave me because I would have fallen over!

We had a bunch of pics made by the ship's photographers but then we went around the ship & took some with our cameras.

Plenty of great photo ops on the ship!

Everybody 'has' to get a picture with 'this guy'!

Ok. Enough Formal Night photos. We did take a ton though!

Another pic from St. Croix

Good Friends, Good Times!!!

All good days must come to an end & we caught a cab back to the port & went to get ready for Formal night.

Hi Juli! It's getting ready to snow here, too. Blah! I hate not having a cruise to look forward to for this winter. I'll just have to spend more time on here figuring out next years cruise.

I was reading on another thread about making sure you get an agriculture stamp or you get sent back. Can you tell me what this is? It's the first I've heard of this and I want to make sure and let my group know about it. Is is at the airport or at the cruise terminal?

Can't wait to hear about all your other adventures. Makes us feel like we're there!

Take Care

Robin

I did not go with J.R. to Gatlinburg so I guess no snow for me. I actually love snow & love Tennessee because we have four seasons.

The Agriculture inspection line is on the left as soon as you go in to the airport. They have to scan & put a sticker on every bag including your purse. It is really very easy. The first time we flew home from San Juan we knew we had to go through USDA but we got in the wrong line & waited for a good while before we realized it! :eek: It was packed that day though but we got through it all pretty quickly.

This time we knew what to do but we got a porter right outside the airport since I was on crutches & he had me sit & wait while he & J.R. took our bags through USDA & then on to Delta. He even entered all our info for our boarding pass. Well worth what ever J.R. tipped him! :D

More review coming up soon. I slept most of the day after I got home from the doctor. Fully awake now!

Thanks for the review, love the pictures, keep'em coming !

You can post my pics from St-Lucia if you'd like since your camera batteries died, I wish mine were better !

Hope you don't get too much snow !

Thanks Manon. Your pics were great! I also 'borrowed' a ton from Robin today. Besides my camera battery dying in St. Lucia I had a hard enough time getting around with out trying to take pics too & J.R. had his hands full keeping up with me! :D

I did not go to Gatlinburg (where it was supposed to snow) because I coughed all night & finally 'broke down ' (literally I think :eek: ) & went to the doctor today & got a shot & some cold meds. Nothing like coming back from the Caribbean with a cold! Maybe J.R. will be able to get some sleep tonight anyway without me coughing all night! Miss you & Patrice!

I'm hoping to cruise one day with them too:D

Thanks. We are always up for a cruise & love to make new friends! :D

Hi Juli,

First off hope you're feeling better and healing. Your attitude and the way you dealt with this is refreshing. I try to face life with the same way of thinking. No one can choose my mood for me, it's my decision; therefore I choose to be happy!

 

I have had the unfortunate experience of wearing an immobilizer for an MCL tear. It sucks, sorry. I wore a lot of flip flops and slides so I didn't have to try and get a real shoe on but I also live on the Gulf coast of Fl. not Tn in the winter. The up side to my tale is I followed all instructions, wore the #&%!*ing thing like I was told and I didn't have to have surgery! Hopefully the same holds true for you. Again, fast healing and thank you for a refreshing outlook here on the boards. Take care, Jim

Thanks so much for the words of wisdom from someone in the 'know'! :D Luckily for me it is exceptionally warm in Tennessee right now so I am still flip flopping it too!

I am supposed to go to Gatlinburg with my husband for a conference tomorrow & it is supposed to snow on Friday so obviously no flip flops! :eek:

We rented a wheelchair with a leg lift today because Gatlinburg is definitely not a walkable town on crutches & I can not even sit in a chair with this immobilizer on since I can not bend my leg but I am still undecided if I am going or not. J.R. is getting an award & I would love to be there but I will be stuck in the hotel room for three days while he is in meetings. :eek: I do not sit still well! Guess I will be hanging out on CC a lot if I go! :D

Glad you healed well! I will 'try' to 'behave' so hopefully I will also have good results too!

It looks like i've picked a good cabin!

I tend to suffer from panic attacks when i'm in crowded places so like the idea of being able to watch the parades from my own space

I think you will love your Promenade cabin. Enjoy your cruise!

Thanks so much for your great review, positive attitude, and excellent photos!

 

We will be on the Adventure in May, and we have a Promenade View cabin on Deck 7.

 

Your photos of your cabin and the view from your window were extremely helpful to us!

 

Hope you are feeling better and wishing you a speedy recovery!!

Thanks!!! :)

Hope you have a great time on your cruise! We loved our Promenade cabin!

Glad I can be of help to somebody right now since I can not do a lot besides sit here on the computer!

Thanks again! Just went for the MRI on my foot. Hoping for good results but if not I am already on crutches/in a wheelchair for six weeks so surely anything else could heal in that amount of time?!? :D

Juli

Thanks so much for getting back so quickly. I'll look into those you mentioned. I've found going with recommendations from this board has never dissappointed but unfortunately there isn't much traffic on the Ports board so if it weren't for you lovely soles posting reviews of your cruises I might miss out on something fabulous!!!!!

 

This next cruise is our first not getting a Promenade room. We love them. We aren't in the room much but it's nice to look out and watch whats going on below. We are trying our first balcony room next February. We'll see how it is looking out at the water. This cruise we booked was actually cheaper getting the balcony then our Freedom Promenade room last February.

 

Can't wait to see your review of excursions!

 

Hoping you're getting to enjoy your day and again thanks for the excursion ideas!

Robin

I live on CC right before a cruise! :eek: Have I mentioned that St. Lucia is my favorite island? :p We have been there three times & I am already looking forward to going back!

We are rarely in our cabin either & J.R. always wants a balcony but the Promenade cabin was fun for a change. Plus we found a great deal on it! :)

Thanks for the report!

You are welcome. I will try to post more later today. Unfortunately I have to get ready to go have that other MRI on my foot & I am moving much slower than usual.

Thanks for this photo we are in a cabin a couple along from you and have been trying to find out what is below us and what we can see from the window!!

Did you view any of the parades from your cabin?

Louise

We loved the location of our cabin. It was very convenient to everything. I posted this pic earlier in the review that was taken from our cabin window.

We did watch a parade from our window & tried to take pics. Unfortunately we got a new camera right before our cruise & it had a mind of its own sometimes & changed settings when it wanted to so this is the best pic I have of the parade. :(

Juli

I started walking down the pier to St. Croix until I realized we could catch this tram. Usually we are 'walkers'! We stopped to chat with some of our roll call friends.

Rainbow Beach was a short cab ride from the pier.

Being a 'watcher'!

J.R. at the bar trying out the seven kinds of rum drink! Yummy!

Just another day in paradise!

Juli

St. Croix

We had never been to St. Croix before so we booked the ATVing/jet-skiing/beach time at Rainbow Beach through Gecko & West End Watersports. Unfortunately the ship’s doctor said absolutely not! :(

Gecko's has a 7 day cancellation period as they only take out five ATVs per time slot but I called them the night before we arrived in St. Croix & explained my situation & I was able to cancel. We were really looking forward to exploring St. Croix on ATVs & Gecko gets wonderful reviews. We will definitely book with them next time we go to St. Croix.

We got off the ship & caught a cab to Rainbow Beach since I did not really have a backup plan for our Gecko tour. It turned out to be a great choice for us!

We rented 2 beach chairs & an umbrella for (I think) $20 from a really nice young couple. We parked them close to the beach bar (& the restroom) for obvious reasons. Walking on crutches in deep sand is NOT easy! :eek:

We had a wonderful relaxing day there. The bartender made us a rum drink that I cannot remember the name of but it had seven kinds of rum. OMG was it good!!! :D

We really enjoyed watching a toddler playing in the surf (with his mom & grandmother supervising). He was FEARLESS! He would run out in to the water & the tide would have him doing somersaults all the way back in. He would readjust his goggles & run right back out. I wish we had taken a video. He was adorable!

We also watched a local policeman training his dogs in the ocean. One was older & so well trained. The younger dog was very smart too but lacked the patience of the older one. It was interesting to watch.

Everything happens for a reason & as much as we wanted to go ATVing in St. Croix we would have missed out on a great beach day if we had. Our friends Robin & John joined us there later in the day because their Buck Island Snorkeling excursion was cancelled due to the tide so we got to enjoy hanging out with them too. :)

Another lesson learned from this cruise. If you have on a short dress you have to be VERY careful when taking photos while sitting in a wheelchair or they will not be G rated! :eek:

Glad I brought shoes that matched my wheelchair! :D

Juli

We loved the Promenade!

Our Promenade cabin was the one in the middle, 4th from the left with the light on & the curtains open. You have to be careful when you open your curtains because your 'neighbor' can see directly in to your room!

This was what was directly across from our cabin.

Always working on the ship! :D

This guy playing in the Promenade was REALLY good! As I said earlier we could hear some noise in our cabin, mainly music but it did not bother us at all. We are not early to bed people though.

Love your positive attitude and your wonderful review. Best wishes on a full and speedy recovery. Loving your pictures, too

Thanks! I am adjusting to this stupid stabilizer! :(:D At least I have a legit reason not to work out for the next six weeks! :p

This was my first cruise, and my first time meeting Juli (and JR) and I can't say enough how much I found Juli to have such a positive attitude. Definitely you are delightful travel buddies and I really hope we can cruise again with you someday.

I agree with Juli, the food was good, not really outstanding, but I did love the Lobster and our dinner at the Portofino was worht the 20$. We chose MTD and got the same table every night, overlooking the captain's table and great waitstaff.

Thanks Manon! We really enjoyed getting to know you & Patrice & are very thankful that you shared our amazing day in St. Lucia with us! I definitely want a do-over of that day!!! Of all places for my camera battery to die! Thanks again for the pics.

Glad y'all are hooked on cruising now & hopefully we will cruise together again! J.R. liked the Canada idea!

Goodmorning!

So glad you are on the mend! My new motto for this year is don't sweat the small stuff and after reading your review it makes me realize how glad I am to have this motto this year.

You said you loved Antiqua and I'm looking into what we will be doing for our cruise next February 2014 and wondered what you did there. Any good info from anyone else on fun things in the other ports would be much appreciated!

I'm booking a private tour with Bernards for St. Martaan and wondered if there were any great ideas to have included in the tour. We do want to go to the French side but I'm just now looking into what to add to the tour.

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this for us!

Hoping you mend quickly and are back to dancing and having a great time very soon!

Robin

Thanks!

Antigua is GORGEOUS & we had a ton of fun there. We did the See by the Sea excursion through RCCL on the Excellence catamaran.

We also did Bernard's tour in St. Maarten.

Our FAVORITE day by far was in St. Lucia where we booked the Eco Adventure tour through Mysic Man Tours! :):):)

We went on the Black Pearl Party Cruise aboard the Jolly Roger 1 in Barbados. Aaaargh Matey! It is a pirate ship!!!

I spent yesterday writing about our excursions in word. I will try to add our ports today.

Juli

I was on the same sailing and yes we had the new menus. Some of the new stuff was very good , best lobster I've had on a cruise, other stuff was meh. This chef was a little heavy on the salt for my taste. The pasta dishes were always good.

Sounds like you and J.R. had the same praise about the lobster! :D Unfortunately for me I do not eat seafood and it seemed like a lot of the 'wow' items (or maybe it was just my cold coming on) on the menu were seafood. Maybe I need to expand my food horizons to include seafood! :p Not going to happen! :eek:

Sorry we never got a chance to get to visit with you & Jodi besides meeting for the first few minutes at the informal M&G. We did not get to stay because the infirmary was calling my name. :eek::eek: & due to unforseen circumstances we could not make it to the M&M.

Oh my goodness. So sorry for your injury!!! Glad you are listening to the doctor.

I know what you mean about the Comfort Inn but unfortunately that is where we are staying AGAIN next month before our two weeks on the Adventure. Glad you encountered friendly front desk staff. I sure hope we don't have the musty smell.

Glad to be reading your review and comments...we can't wait to get on board

Thanks!

The Comfort Inn was not horrible & the staff really was an asset to the hotel. If you get a room that is really 'smelly' ask to be changed & the staff will try to accomodate you.

If I had it to do over again I would try bidding on Priceline & hope for the best especially after my fall walking down the hill to the Comfort Inn.

Have tons of fun on your B2B. I am envious! We had a ton a great cruise on the AOS! As soon as my leg heals I will be looking forward to cruisng again!

We are thinking of booking Adventure next Feb 2014. Just wondering if Adventure is due to have any renovations done? We sail Mariner in 3 weeks. I can't wait to see Mariner's new upgrades, hoping Adventure will get them too..:D

Sorry, can't help you there. We thought the AOS was in great shape just like she is though!

Thanks for the info on Insure My Trip / Travel Guard Gold. I'm impressed that they called you while on the cruise. I hope your knee heals quickly and the foot MRI doesn't show any more problems.

 

I agree with Kevin's girl, beside following the doctor's advice, that you should post to get your mind on other things, like cruising. And planning the next trip is a great way to do that too. By the end of 6 weeks you should have everything nailed down. I really like the planning phase - all the possibilities!

I have been very impressed with the customer service through Insure My Trip/ Travel Guard Gold. Unfortunately their insurance ended when we got home. It would have covered the MRIs if I had them done on one of the islands. Luckily I have good health insurance. MRIs are not cheap. :eek:

I agree. Planning the trip & building up anticipation is a big part of the whole cruise experience! I love Cruise Critic! There is such a wealth of information on here that really allows you to make the most of your cruise!

Hi

 

Glad you managed to have an enjoyable cruise even with your accident.

We're on Adventure in September, i was wondering whether you had the new menus on your sailing and what you thought of them?

Love the photos so far, hoping you have some more :)

Louise

I can not imagine any cruise not being enjoyable. This one was just a little 'different'. We still had an incredible time!

We have not cruised RCCL in a long time so I don't know if the menus were new or not. As I said my husband LOVED the escargot & the lobster. I loved the salad bar in the windjammer. Other than that I have to say I was not that impressed with the food. Nothing was bad but nothing really stood out as being great to me either. Maybe that was because I was catching this cold (that I still have :() & my taste buds were off. We definitely did not go hungry though!

I actually have more photos than I thought I did, just not as many as I usually take. I have a LOT from our excursions.

That ship and itinerary are my absolute favorites! I hope you're feeling better soon.

I agree the ship was beautiful & although we have cruised to the southern Caribbean on the Victory we had never been to St. Croix or Antigua. Loved them both especially Antigua! Thanks for the well wishes!

What a great, positive outlook you have! Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Thank you!!!:) My philosopy is you can have a great day or not, the choice is yours. I choose to enjoy life!

Thanks for info. What happaned to you can happen to any of us. Makes me think for future. No one thinks about twisting an ankle and what the implecations would be.

Alex

Actually it was my knee & foot. For some reason the doctor did an MRI on my ankle instead of my foot though. :confused: I was happy to have travel insurance when I encountered that man eating sidewalk! :D

The Ice Skating Show was INCREDIBLE, the Love & Marriage Show was funny & the Quest was HILARIOUS!

We enjoyed the shows we went to but did not make it to all of them this time like we usually do. We never had a problem finding seats even if we got there as the show was starting. The Ice Skating Show, the Love & Marriage Show & the Quest were the most crowded shows.

Obviously I could not dance so this cruise we did not even check out those venues. I went wherever I was pushed! :D We did check out the Piano Bar.

The ice skating rink & the rock climbing wall looked like a lot of fun on AOS (of course I was a ‘watcher’) & the miniature golf & basketball courts were top notch.

There were a lot of really nice ‘quiet’ areas to get away from it all.

The pools & hot tubs looked great. A lot of the hot tubs were undercover which was nice if it was raining or you had too much sun. With my injury & such a port intensive cruise we never got a chance to try them out though.

Our friends did the Behind the Scenes tour at $150 pp & thoroughly enjoyed it. They also purchased the photo package for $300 that included all the photos taken on-board. I thought that was a great deal. They said it was only $250 if they had bought it online pre-cruise. INCREDIBLE deal! I would definitely do that next time as I scrapbook & love to have the photos taken on each island with the dates.

The safes on the AOS open with a number code you enter.I like that a lot better than the ones that open with a credit card since we are not always in the cabin at the same time.

We met a broad range of friends from Canada, Portugal, Ireland, the UK & of course the US. People make the cruise & this cruise was no exception!

We really enjoy Breezes & we were there in January, September & October of last year. There is plenty of room on the beach to find a quiet spot if you want to get away from the activities & there were people of all ages having a good time. I think it would probably get pretty rowdy during spring break though.

The staff on the AOS was ABSOLUTELY amazing & they were all so helpful & always smiling. They seemed to be having a good time too & it made our cruise much more enjoyable. Every staff member we encountered offered extra assistance with me being in a wheelchair.

Our cabin steward Dwayne Ainsley from Jamaica was BEYOND amazing. In addition to keeping our cabin spotless, our ice bucket full & always calling us by name he won me over when I asked for an extra pillow the first day because the doctor had said to sleep with one under my knee & every night after that when he turned down the bed for the night he placed the pillow under the blankets where it would be right under my left knee. I know the cabin stewards have a lot of cabins to clean & a lot of people to take care of but I really appreciated his taking the time to do that for me. It made me feel special & he seemed like such a genuine person.

Here is my 'specially made up' bed!

The 1st night we got home after our cruise I got in bed & realized I did not have a pillow under my leg. My DH, J.R. had to take over for Dwayne. :D

We had MTD & never had to wait more than a few minutes for a table. We always had the same wait staff, Taylan Subasi & Marija & they were very good.

This was ‘our’ table. We had a little too much fun at dinner & we laughed so hard some nights I am sure our waiters thought we were crazy!

There was one dessert that got us tickled. It tasted good we just thought it was ‘funny’ looking!

The hostess in the dining room always greeted us by name & told us our friends were waiting on us at our table (it took me longer to get ready while balancing on one foot). I do not eat seafood but my husband raved about the escargot & the lobster.

We ate at Johnny Rockets once when we got back on-board after our excursion in Barbados. There was no line & we were able to get a table outside & enjoy the view. The cost was $4.95 per person.

We ordered room service almost every morning for breakfast as we had an excursion planned every day & it was much faster since my husband had to get two plates while I sat & watched. Our breakfast arrived promptly. We usually ordered a bacon (we asked for crispy bacon) or sausage plate that came with eggs, potatoes & toast & we ordered a fruit plate. The Danish plate was also good. The orange juice was delish!

I have to say at this point I LOVE Insure My Trip. :) We bought the Travel Guard Gold policy & they have been wonderful up to now. In 14 cruises this is the first time we have ever had to use trip insurance but I am so glad we had it as I was not sure if we would have to cancel when I fell plus we had no idea how much the medical could run. Trip insurance is such a small price to pay for that protection!

We called them before we headed to the hospital in San Juan & they were so nice & polite. They called us several times during our cruise to see how I was doing & to see if there was anything else we needed. I was so impressed. Of course we paid the medical bills & have not settled with them yet but I am sure there will be no problem & if there is I will definitely post about it! lol!

Juli

Being a nurse and an avid cruiser I have a couple of suggestions.

1) Follow all of your doctor's instructions. It will help to achieve a much better outcome.

2) Take all prescribed pain meds as this will also aid in healing.

3) (now the cruiser in me comes out) Gather all of the photos you were able to take given your injured condition and to your review.

4) Post a very long and detailed review here on CC to keep your mind off the fact that you are in an immobilizer.

5) Allow us; your CC friends' date=' to ask questions and keep you occupied for hours answering our questions. Again to keep your mind off of the injury.

We promise to do our best in keeping you busy so that you can heal and not go crazy with the mobility issues.

I hope that things heal well and you do not need surgery.[/quote']

 

Thanks for the advice! I am in a much better frame of mind today. I just hate to be dependent on others. It is very humbling!

 

I am very involved in a Christmas charity where I put in craziness hours in Nov/Dec so if I have to be 'down' now is a much better time for me. It will also give me time to research our next cruise! :D:D:D There is always a silver lining to every cloud!

 

Juli

Thanks for the well wishes. :)

Just returned from the orthopedic doctor. I was hoping for better news but I have a torn MCL & bruising on my knee & have to be in a stabilizer & use crutches 24/7 for 6 weeks & can not put any weight on my leg & then therapy. Hopefully no surgery! :)

They have to redo the MRI on my foot because although I told them a dozen times it was my foot that was hurt not my ankle they did the MRI on my ankle.

OK, for anyone that has ever worn a leg stabilizer how do you deal with it? :eek: It is making me crazy not being able to bend my leg!

I am DEFINITELY a Type A personality & very independent so sitting still for any length of time is very difficult! However now I can not even put on my own shoe & going to the bathroom is a major ordeal! :eek::eek:

I am going to allow myself another few minutes to be whiny & then I will move on! :D I realize that some people deal with way more on a daily basis & I am very appreciative of good health so this is a minor inconvenience!

I will add more to the review tomorrow & we really did have a great cruise in spite of my injury! Our day in St. Lucia, the friends we cruised with & met, visiting the wonderful islands & getting to spend some down time with my wonderful hubby made it all worthwhile!

Juli

OMG.

 

Do hope you intend to give us more information on what happened and how you are doing now....

I had an MRI done on my knee & foot. I go back to the orthopedic doctor today for the results. Trying to use the power of positive thinking that it is just a sprain! :)

I really enjoyed your review before we left for our cruise. Your pics were great & it was like being there before we ever saw the ship! Unfortunately I do not have a lot of pics this time but I can look at yours when I want to remember the ship! :D

Oh my goodness...I do hope you are recovering! My hubby injured himself on one of our cruises when he tried to imitate James Brown during a contest. He pulled his hamstring and was bedridden the rest of the cruise. I think we had 2 1/2 days left, but it was not enjoyable. Take care and feel better!

How funny! Not the part about him getting hurt! At least he was doing something interesting when he injured himself! A much better story to tell! I just sound clumsy when I tell people I fell walking down a hill! :eek:

Thanks for the review, especially with the photos.

You are welcome. Writing this is good therapy for me right now as I have way to much idle time with my injury. I don't sit still well at best so at least I am doing something! As I said I do not have a lot of photos of the ship since I did not have the best advantage for taking them from a wheelchair but I do have quite a few from our excursions that I will post.

Juli

I hobbled up to the Windjammer & had a WONDERFUL salad. They have the best salad bar. I also like that on RCCL the waiters bring you your drinks once you are seated.

Our informal get together with our roll call group was at 4 at the Sky Bar so we went by for a few minutes before going to the infirmary. It was great to put faces with names! I did not get to meet everyone because I stayed seated & we only stayed a few minutes. :(

Next we visited one place on the ship that I have never visited before & hope never to again, the infirmary. The staff there was great though. The X-ray technician was funny & the ship’s doctor was an absolute hoot. Unfortunately he said I had tendon damage & a possible cartilage tear in my knee & said I had to be in a wheelchair for the rest of the trip. He wanted me to see an orthopedic doctor in Antigua but I chose to wait until we got home. He said whiskey was the best medicine! :) I asked him if rum punch would work & he agreed that it would! :D:D

The photo nobody wants to have taken!

I was shocked at how inexpensive the infirmary visit was. They told us it would be $150 plus X-rays but when we got our bill it was only $125 altogether. They gave us a wheelchair to use for the week & we went back down & got crutches to use on the islands since they do not allow you to take the wheelchair off the ship. I was not sure if we were renting or buying the crutches so my husband called back down to the infirmary inquiring about it since I needed a way to get around San Juan post-cruise & the airport & they told him to take the crutches with us.