Honeymooners REVIEW of the SUMMIT in the S Caribbean on 22Feb in AQ AFT w DIETARY Req

[casandbliz]

We have also done the Riedel class. It is amazing how different the same wine can taste out of different glasses!!

[petersonwith3]

Where is the rest of the review....I was so enjoying it????

[Scarlet and grey]

Great review!!!!! Thank you for sharing!

[hulamoon]

It's pretty awesome, hope she can make it back.

[Seatbelt_Bag_LOVE]

I am anxiously awaiting the rest of your trip report. I hope that all is well with you!!!

[theopup]

I am so enjoying your review. The massage at Sugar Beach Resort sounded amazing. We will have to consider this when on St Lucia

[olemissreb]

I have to go back and reread your review as we are now doing this itinerary! I had to change from our March 28th cruise to March 7th (better for us because we'll actually get to celebrate our anniversary in Barbados!) because our youngest has a swim meet the weekend of March 28th - can't burden my in-laws with sitting through one of his 2 required meets.

 

Anyway - now I have to rethink all of our excursions. We've done this route before, but all of our excursions except Barbados were cancelled (well and Grenada, but that's on the other itinerary now). St. Maarten is the only port we haven't been to and I too want to see the planes!

[Xcitdcruiser]

I have to apologise for the break in the review. Mum deteriorated, was hospitalised, admitted into ICU & now back at home again. Amongst all the confusion, there were a handful of interstate trips & has a result DH & I have decided to move closer to my family. I have been getting notifications of when comments have been made - it’s a sweet reminder that I must get back to reminiscing our cruise with anyone who enjoys reading.

St Marteen here we come!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Xcitdcruiser]

Today we had two items on the agenda: purchasing my birthday present (yeah!) and plane watching. We had always received those chain emails with Photoshopped images of planes flying over a crowded beach but didn’t realise they were actually real. Maho Beach here we come!

 

 

Port was very busy today

 

 

 

 

After a little research, we discovered that ‘peak’ flying time for the larger aircraft was between 12 – 2pm so we knew we had plenty of time at our leisure. We had a lazy start, leaving the ship at about 10am. We wanted to head ‘downtown’ as it was the capital of shopping and had some business to take care of. There were two options to get to downtown – catching the ferry ($7 for all day travel) or a 20 minute walk. We opted to walk. There were many ships in port today so we just followed the crowd. In about 5 minutes we were thinking twice as to whether this was a good idea. The footpath was very narrow & it was a very busy road with cars flying past. There were plenty of people around & at times we were walking at snail’s pace – it was literally ‘bumper to bumper’. There was foot traffic. 10am was peak hour. Oddly enough the same path on the way back was a breeze, it may have been due to the cocktails we were walking off or simply because we were walking at a comfortable pace. Should I return, I would probably catch the ferry, I imagine it would be more scenic & less stressful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we finally arrive downtown we first walked along the esplanade – it was enormous with so much going on! There was the beach, plenty of beach chairs with the view of the ships in port, bars & restaurants. We found it quite funny that the further along you walked, the cheaper the prices were *mental note* There was also plenty of free wifi around if you had a drink at any of the bars. The only place we stopped here was at the Hard Rock Cafe –we have a family member who enjoys collecting shot glasses so thought bringing them back one would be the least we could do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, apologies if this offends anyone, but we thought this was hilarious!

 

 

[Xcitdcruiser]

Now - as luck would have it, I have the day typed up & ready to go but my images aren't loading - and what good is a picture review without images??

 

It's getting late now but I will take my hard drive to work tomorrow & upload the remainder of the day. I will also reply to all of the kind messages & comments that I've missed out on.

 

Enjoy your day!

[upwarduk]

Hope you Mum is improving.

Good to see St Marteen in the sun, last time we were there we saw a very wet beach from a bar. One of the locals was even using a beach umbrella to protect himself from the rain!

It meant that the planned trip to see the planes was aborted.

[Xcitdcruiser]

We cut through one of the many little alley ways which looked like this (sorry not sure what happened to this image!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is where the ‘shopping area’ was - which was one main steet. We had one thing in mind. Ok. Two. My birthday present and alcohol. We browsed. Selected, and decided to make the purchases on the way back to the ship so we didn’t have to carry them. Although we did find what we were looking for, the strip was very repetitive. I’m glad we waited until the last port days to do some shopping – otherwise we may have not enjoyed it as much.

 

 

 

It was time to head to Maho Beach. We went to the closest taxi rank and wanted to head out but the driver wanted to fill a van. We stood there awkwardly for about 15 minutes whilst he tried convincing every tourist to head to Maho. It was clear that no one at that point wanted to go. We were becoming unsettled. Embarrassed & bored. Much to our delight he flagged another taxi who was willing to drive just the two of us. We arrived about 30 minutes later and $20 poorer.

 

Maho beach was much bigger and busier than we imagined. There were SO MANY people out it was worthy just to sit there and people watch. We saw the infamous sign & found some prime seats. Sunset Bar was also a lot bigger than expected, for some reason I had envisioned a little shack serving cocktails – this was a much more sophisticated operation. They have a detailed food, wine & cocktail menu. We were happy. The only negative was the lack of shade / umbrellas. We become very hot very quickly. We had some lunch, DH feasted on a burger & I had the most delicious tuna steak – highly recommended! We plane spotted, had a couple of cocktails & declared this excursion a success!

Now to some images...

 

 

The only take off we saw - watching people getting blasted was quite a sight!

 

 

 

 

[Xcitdcruiser]

Some more...

 

 

 

 

 

And now for some of the big guns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Xcitdcruiser]

I really like this image

 

 

 

 

Just as we decided to head off it started raining! We saw this colourful van, not sure who or what it was for but it looked like fun! We made our way to the car park where vans were parked awaiting to be filled. Luckily we didn’t have to wait long as people were rushing to get in this time J $9 each & we made it back downtown with the bluest of skies & not a rain drop to be seen.

 

 

 

 

First up on the shopping agenda, my birthday present. After much research, many different watches sat on my wrist, but this one stood out. The IWC Portofino. Just look at this beauty. I am definitely spoilt & it is certainly a 30th birthday gift that holds many memories that I will treasure for the years to come.

 

 

 

 

 

With a grin from ear to ear we our next item was purchase of alcohol. We could not believe how cheap the alcohol was!! A fraction of the price! We certainly made the most of our duty free limit! In this little store the lovely man encouraged us to taste some of his absinthe – much to his entertainment & other shoppers, it did taste it & were still feeling it at the back of our throats hours later!

 

 

We decided to try & overcome the taste by enjoying some cocktails at one of the beach bars & caught up on a little wifi to let the families back home know that all was still going well.

On the way back to the ship, I took a couple of shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Xcitdcruiser]

 

 

 

 

 

We were welcomed once again with cool towels & made our way to Cafe Al Bacio. We enjoyed our coffees and were noticing that many guests were already dressed up having pre-dinner drinks. All of the ladies looked beautiful all glammed up. It was at this point that I decided that I simply did not have the energy to attempt beauty. Tonight was the night we decided on room service!

 

It was about 5 pm at this stage so we headed to Blu to speak to the wonderful Mazy to enquire as to whether room service from Blu was a possibility. He was more than accommodating – the only request he had was that we have the food delivered outside of their peak period, so either 6pm or after 8pm – reasonable enough. We selected 6pm & headed upstairs to get ourselves some drinks, showered, robed & awaited our room service. I was surprised by how much food had arrived! Very impressed that it was all brought at once, using one hand!! We tipped & were very grateful for the service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are moments in life where you feel that time has literally stopped. That moment is then etched into your memory & each time it reappears it takes you to a happy place and makes you smile without even realising it. This was one of the moments. We both sat on our balcony wearing our fluffy white robes, oversized slippers watching the world go by whilst enjoying a sparkling wine & eating lobster.

 

 

Some images taken whilst sailing away

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ended the night by attempting to watch some a movie on the TV entertainment system. It was an ultimate fail. We found the screen to be too small, the image was very blurry (although we did select a new release) & the sound was neither clear nor consistent between scenes. We thought it may have been the film itself, it was so bad that we only tried to watch 20 minutes or so & decided to try another film. It was equally as bad & just as disappointing.

 

 

Apart from that, we loved tonight. It was magnificent in every way. Romantic, memorable. It was also the point where we really did appreciate having the privacy of a balcony. We never got to have breakfast there, but happy that we did enjoy a meal. I would recommend that anyone with a balcony to enjoy room service at least once! :)

[QE2_Fan]

Thanks for your awesome review. Congrats on both your marriage and your lovely 30th Birthday present - nice watch!! Loving all the pics and review - but love that shot showing the cheap grog - OMG just didn't realise it was so cheap there. The ports look surreal and the people and atmosphere memorable.

 

We are from Melbourne and have thought of doing a Carribbean cruise and visit to Disneyworld...just the loooooong flight over and back put us off. Maybe if we save really well we could cruise at least one way :D:D

 

P.S. Glad to hear your Mum is doing better. Thought that might be the reason for your absence from the thread (rightly so!).

[Xcitdcruiser]

I am counting down the days! It's our 20th anniversary shortly after.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317

 

How exciting! Time will fly by, & you won't know where it's gone!

 

Thank you for your reviews! We are booked on the Summit with our group of 86 next Feb 2015.

 

Thanks again for your time and talents!

Regards,

Maria

 

It's my pleasure, I'm happy to hear that you are enjoying it. Feb 2015 is just around the corner. I have to ask, a group of 86 people?? That is amazing! Is that a private group or through CC roll call?

[Xcitdcruiser]

Oh my goodness, what a fantastic idea!!!! You just totally sold me on what we'll do the next time we're in St. Lucia. :D

 

Congratulations on your marriage and enjoy! You guys are off to a fantastic start with this honeymoon. We've sailed the Southern Caribbean three times (on Royal), but we're sailing the Summit next year and can't wait. You really gave us some new ideas for our time post-cruise. Thank you so much for sharing :)

 

I'm so glad that I've given you a new idea on how you can fill your time in St Lucia! I remembered reading every post on a port looking for things that stood out ;)

 

Thank you for the wishes - we love married life! (It's actually no different to before, except an excuse for diamonds :p)

 

You are so lucky that you have been able to cruise the Caribbean as many time as you have - I wish it was on our doorstep. I'd love to hear how you find the Summit after RCI - RCI are a major player here in Oz & am yet o bite the bullet.

 

Keep checking in because we also stayed in OSJ post cruise and continued exploring new things - also have lots of pictures!

 

I just wanted to tell you that I am loving your review! We just booked this itinerary for March 2015!

 

I'm happy to hear that you are enjoying our adventures! I couldn't think of a better way to fill the time in before a cruise - read about other people's cruises! (somehow it helped!) Hope you enjoy the remainder :D

[Xcitdcruiser]

What an outstanding review. Such a great job. I know that this takes a lot of time to do. Thanks for sharing.:)

 

Thank you for your kind words, I'm touched. I hope you enjoy the rest of it!

 

We've eaten in Hemingways. It was really good. Funny thing too - 2 of our tablemates had gone "missing" from dinner for a couple of nights. DH and I got seated at Hemingways and we noticed the other couple. Found out that the gentleman had gotten a little sick, so they stayed in the cabin together. That night, they were back at the table with us and we all enjoyed a good chuckle over us "busting" them. :)

 

Once you leave the 'gated area' you can't really miss it, can you?!

Haha at the couple - guilt must have kicked in! Were conversations awkward after that??

The world truly is small :)

[olemissreb]

Once you leave the 'gated area' you can't really miss it, can you?!

Haha at the couple - guilt must have kicked in! Were conversations awkward after that??

The world truly is small :)

 

No - conversations were great. We had so much fun on that cruise. Our tablemates were great and we kept our waiters on their toes.

 

Can't wait to read more of your review.

[Us Two]

Hi, missed you wonderful review, so captivating!! Had a suspicion you mum may have gotten worse,, sure hope she's doing better now.

So loving of you and hubbie to move closer to your mum, and unselfish!

 

Looking forward to the continuation........Joan

[tlria510]

Hope your mother is improving each day!

Thank you for all your time in doing this great review!