FINALLY! My really long Victory review 1/17-1/24/10 with MEGA pix!!

[kelz66]

Thanks for the review, it's getting me extremely excited for my upcoming trip. :)

 

I know...did you see her turtle pictures??? :D

[aggieastrosfan]

I know...did you see her turtle pictures??? :D

 

Yep! :D I'm going to show those and Wilbur to Ryan tonight, he's going to be so excited.

[kelz66]

Yep! :D I'm going to show those and Wilbur to Ryan tonight, he's going to be so excited.

 

cool!!!

 

:D

[mooveebuff]

Your pictures of St Kitts stand out as the best I have ever seen on these boards. I had to go back up in the thread once or twice just to make sure I read the port correctly. Now I can't wait to visit yet another island on our up come itinerary.

Thank You for posting! It's been wonderful!

[scraphappylady]

Do you think we should get a bit in euros before heading here? We were planning a pretty light day at Maho beach to check out planes, but I don't want to pay any more for drinks than I have to!

 

Thanks for the review, it's getting me extremely excited for my upcoming trip. :)

 

I think you'll be ok. When we were dealing with euros, we were on the French side of the island. Maho is located really close to the airport, which is on the Dutch side of the island, and their official currency is the Netherlands Antilles guilder (although all the shops, etc we went into used US money.)

[scraphappylady]

Again, thanks to everyone who has come on here with such nice comments!

 

 

 

And now, to finish up with St. Martin:

 

We found out where to catch a taxi back to town and the shopping area (the bulk of the shopping was roughly on the other side of the harbor from the dock), and again had enough people coming back with us for it to cost $6 pp. The people who help keep the taxis running smoothly try their best to fill one up, before putting you in another one, and thus the cost was kept down. Even with just the Victory in port, there never seemed to be a problem filling the taxis.

 

This was my second favorite port to shop in. Having been here once before, I knew roughly what the shops carried, and didn’t feel the need to hit every single one. I felt like I had more time to browse and pick just those things I really wanted.

 

For example, as we begin to cruise the Caribbean more, I’ve been trying to collect license plates from the various countries. Many governments allow the selling of used plates, and they usually sell for around $6 apiece. Very affordable! Last time I was on St. Martin, I managed to find one of the long, European style (French side of the island) plates, and this time bought a Dutch St. Martin one as well.

 

Just a quick note here about eating in town: if I had remembered how inexpensive the food in town was, we might have just waited to come back to eat. While we enjoyed eating on the beach, I think we would have spent less and found more variety in town. Just depends on how you want to structure your day, I guess. At the beach, we were a captive audience.

 

After shopping, we caught the water taxi back over to the port area. We could have walked, as it would have taken maybe 15-20 min., but we were again feeling lazy and the sun was hot. For only $6 pp one way, (round trip tickets were cheaper), we gave our feet a rest, and got some nice photos from the water.

 

 

 

 

 

[scraphappylady]

Victory off in the distance

 

 

Water taxi drop-off area

 

 

We made it back on board a little earlier this day

 

 

so we dropped our packages off in the room and wandered up to the Lido for a light snack.

[scraphappylady]

This time, we watched sailaway from our balcony, trying to take full advantage of it before having to leave it the next day.

 

 

 

Very empty docks next to us!

 

 

Oooh, is that the captain on the bridge?

 

Truly on our way home now

[scraphappylady]

Heading away from the harbor.

 

 

 

We ended up taking another nap, this time before the sun had set. It was a little confusing to go to sleep when it was light out and we still saw land, and wake up to dark and the open ocean.

 

After getting ready for dinner, we still had time to kill, so we went and bought the photos we had picked out earlier in the week, and hung out a little bit in the Adriatic Lounge right above our dining room. It was a nice spot to wait, since we only saw one other couple in the entire huge space.

 

It also gave me a nice vantage point to take a picture of one of our favorite pieces of sculpture, hanging above the entrance to the Pacific Dining Room.

 

[scraphappylady]

We didn’t want to miss dinner this night, though, as it would be our last with our new friends.

 

We also wanted to make sure we gave our wonderful servers an extra tip for all their hard work.

 

And while we also ended up leaving a little extra for our room stewardess and her assistant, we felt we hardly saw our matire d enough to warrant anything extra.

 

This was the other night I had forgotten to write down what we ate, but I believe I can remember most of our meal. Jon started with the lobster bisque and a Caesar salad, while I went with my favorite, lobster/crab cake and lobster bisque as well. Never can get enough seafood is my motto! I then picked the salmon with dill sauce, while Jon went the red meat route again, and got his favorite prime rib. Both were nicely done. We rounded off our meals with the grand Marnier soufflé for Jon, and the cappacino pie for me.

[scraphappylady]

We finished up earlier tonight, since we wanted to catch a few of the activities planned in the Caribbean Lounge. After promising to keep in touch and a final good-bye to our wonderful dinner companions, we headed over to the Lounge, with just enough time to get our tickets for the $10,000 bingo round.

 

It wasn’t quite as glamorous as it sounded, but was fun to indulge. It was full card bingo, so you had to fill in all the spaces. If you were the first person to do it in less than 30 numbers called you would get the $10K. Then it went to 40 numbers or less for $5K, 50 numbers or less for $2K, and finally a guarantee of at least $1,000 for bingo. Of course, the person who won only got the $1,000, because over 50 numbers were called. DH was disappointed when we lost, since we only had one number left to be called on one of our cards.

 

Next, they had the cruise raffle drawing, to see who would win a free cruise. We bought tickets on the night of the past guest party, when they were selling them 20 for $20. The price went up later. As soon as the first number was called, though, we were done. I could have used a free cruise!

 

Finally, the main show began. It was the ever popular Legends show, where Carnival picks several passengers throughout the week to imitate popular singers, such as James Brown, Madonna and Frank Sinatra. People auditioned through Karaoke in one of the bars each night, and from what we saw, those who made it did a great job.

 

We only stayed through four acts, since we had to pack and put our luggage out in the hallway by 11:30pm. As it turned out, we never made that deadline. As we tried to access our safe one more time, it failed to open. It took us the next hour and a half to try and find someone who had the authority to come and open it for us. So we missed the luggage collection and ended up inadvertently doing self-assist.

 

By the time we finally made it to bed, it was after 1 am, and we hoped that our experience was not a sign of what we would have to go through the following day for disembarkation.

 

 

Tomorrow: a much better day back in San Juan. Plus highlights from our Segway Tour

[Mypapaya]

Does that mean this tour is coming to an end? Now I'm sad!:( What will I have to look forward to everyday, if not your pics? Oh yeah! My cruise!:p

[scraphappylady]

Does that mean this tour is coming to an end? Now I'm sad!:( What will I have to look forward to everyday, if not your pics? Oh yeah! My cruise!:p

 

Afraid so! Hey, at least you've still got the cruise to look forward to . . . for me, it's like I'm getting off the ship all over again. :(:rolleyes: But I've been so thoroughly enjoying writing this!

[scraphappylady]

Disembarkation Day – back in San Juan

 

(Not many pictures at first, but hang in there! I have over 40 more yet to show you!! :D)

 

With no need to rush today, since we weren’t flying out until Monday, we lounged in bed until almost 8 am, then had a final breakfast on the Lido deck. Since it was later than we normally ate breakfast, the Lido was a bit busier this morning, and I had to stand in line for awhile to get my last made-to-order omelet. :eek:

 

Sigh. It would have been nice to bring one of those Carnival dining room employees home to cook for us, but I think he would have put us over the weight limit on our luggage!

 

We spent some last minutes savoring our large balcony, then headed out, luggage in tow. Since we only had three small bags and one large one (we actually ended up having to buy an extra bag to carry all of those souvenirs :o), it wasn’t really hard to navigate the hallways. We were given luggage tag number 16, which I believe was called around 9:30 am, but since we now considered ourselves self-assist, we hung around a bit longer and enjoyed a last cup of coffee.

 

One last doink of our s&s cards through the card reader and we were once again landlubbers. :( We breezed through customs, with the officials giving our forms and passports barely a second glance, and not even ten minutes after stepping off Deck 0 were back in old San Juan.

 

For this last leg of the trip, we had booked a room online at the Sheraton Old San Juan. From where we exited the dock area, it was a short three minute walk to the hotel. Getting into the hotel, however was anything but easy.

[scraphappylady]

In hindsight, we should have gotten to the hotel as soon as we could disembark. Upon arriving, we knew we were in for a wait. The lobby, which is very small to begin with, was crowded with mostly cruise ship passengers, both arriving and checking out. Apparently, the hotel was telling embarking passengers that they couldn’t get on the ship until around 2:30pm, so most were just hanging out until then.

 

With dogged determination, we pushed through those just waiting around. I sent Jon over to far right side of the desk (out of the way) with the luggage, and stood in the long line to talk to someone. Luckily, the Sheraton was doing what they called pre-check in, since their official check-in time doesn’t start until 3pm. After confirming my reservation, they put me into their system and told me to come back with some form of id, after 3:30 pm.

 

While I had been doing this, Jon was lucky enough to snag a porter and get our bags held, off in a side room. If you are staying the night, the Sheraton will hold your bags for you and have a porter then drop them off to your room later after you have truly checked in. We had known about this service ahead of time, but were worried that we wouldn’t be able to do it, with such a press of people there.

 

By 11:15am, we were free of the mob. We had scheduled a Segway Tour of Old San Juan for today, but weren’t expected until noon. After strolling down past several of the piers, we found a quiet shaded area (I think it was called Plaza Darsenas) to sit down in, and called home – now that we were back in cell phone range. The kids were doing just fine, but vegging out on too much tv, and not really that interested in talking to us at that moment. You know how permissive those grandparents can be! :rolleyes: At least, all was well on the homefront.

 

Shortly before noon, we strolled over to the Segway office, located on one of the nearby piers, not too far from where the Victory was docked and met up with our tour guide, Natalie.

 

Not our ship anymore :( but still gorgeous to look at!

[jpg1747]

I know the dining room isn't normally open for lunch on port days, but with a port-intensive cruise like this one, did you notice if one was open for lunch at all?

 

Also, afternoon tea is usually only on sea days - did they schedule any on this cruise?

 

Thanks.

[NMCruiser55]

Really enjoyed your review. I felt like I was there with you. When we go in April it may feel like deja vu. :)

[da brickhouse]

Many governments allow the selling of used plates, and they usually sell for around $6 apiece. Very affordable! Last time I was on St. Martin, I managed to find one of the long, European style (French side of the island) plates, and this time bought a Dutch St. Martin one as well.

 

Scraphappylady - I don't remember you mentioning in your earlier postings if you were able to find used licensed plates at the other ports. If so can you share where you were able to get those. This will be our first cruise without our daughter and I think she would like those as a surprise souvenir.

[sc_cruizer]

What a wonderful review. I really enjoyed this one. My DH and I will be on the Victory in May and after reading this I can't wait. The pictures you posted were wonderful. I wasn't sure with some of these ports if I wanted to do anything but after seeing your pictures I definately want to do the tour in St. Kitts. It was absolutely gorgeous. How was the Sheraton? We are staying there 1 night pre-cruise.

Thanks again for the very informative review!!

[Momto2PrncChrmgs]

Thanks so much for the review (and especially the pictures). I think you've convinced me to do the Cat tour in Barbados to swim with the turtles. I showed my 7yr old son your pics and he (tentatively) said he'd do it if I was right there with him...he's a bit...uh...non-adventurous! I'm a little nervous about the 3 yr old though. I'm not too concerned about him going in the water-if he does, great, if not, that's ok, too. I just hope he's not too whiney and B-O-O-R-R-R-R-R-E-D-D-D and make the other passengers miserable!

[scraphappylady]

San Juan (cont'd)

 

While I had been on this tour once before, Jon never had been and was a little apprehensive. By the end of the tour, though, he was joking around that he should try and find a used Segway on Ebay. I would say that he enjoyed his experience!

 

Both Natalie and Jose (the other owner) are very good about getting you comfortable with your Segway, and really it’s a very easy machine to master. You are given a ten to fifteen minute lesson before you head out, and you really do start feeling comfortable in just that short time. Even though I had been on one less than a year prior to this, I wanted to get back on, too, to take a few practice spins before we headed out.

 

 

Up the ramp . . .

 

Down the ramp

 

 

This is certainly the way to see a lot of the old city, but be warned. You will get quite a few stares and pointed fingers, as other people see you coast by. I just gave them my best celebrity wave as we went by!

 

Because she considered me the most accomplished rider (hmm, not so sure on that!), Natalie put me at the end of our little line as we headed out onto the streets of the old city. It did offer me the chance to get some great pictures, though, as we headed down the Paseo de La Princesa (the very scenic nearby boulevard).

 

 

[scraphappylady]

We stopped first at the Roots fountain, if you remember my picture from way back on page 3,

 

 

and Natalie took some nice shots of each couple on the tour. She told us to do some different poses, and it wasn't nearly as hard as it looked.

 

 

 

Okay, maybe the kissing one was little tricky!

[scraphappylady]

Next we headed along the massive outer wall of the city,

 

 

 

 

up to the Puerta de San Juan, or old wooden city gate. It is the only one out of six original gates to still be standing, and used to be closed at sundown, to protect the city.

 

 

[scraphappylady]

From there, we went through the gate and up one of those somewhat steep, cobblestone streets. It can be a little nerve-wracking to think about doing, but the Segways handle that sort of terrain with ease.

 

 

 

We stopped for a rest at the top, near the la Rogativa sculpture and the governor’s residence.

 

 

 

 

 

Outside governor's residence

[scraphappylady]

From there we continued on slowly toward El Morro fort, pausing here and there for more interesting sights.

 

Birds nest in the niches.

 

Parrot having dinner at a termite nest

 

One member of a nearby feral cat community . . . can you find it? They are taken care of by a community group that makes sure they are fed, watered and spayed.