MITSUGIRLY lets the BREEZE flow through her hair-Spring Break Review/Pictorial

[mitsugirly]

We headed back to the room to do a little of this...

 

 

I always hate that last day and packing. It was a sign that your wonderful week of being served, not cleaning your room, no cooking or cleaning and fun filled days were coming to an end. The one good thing I can say about this cruise is with it being our first 8 day cruise it ROCKED! It definitely felt longer than any 7 day cruise (of course it was obviously) but it felt L-O-N-G-E-R! Like much longer and I loved it. I found a couple years ago that going on a 7 day cruise then getting on another cruise for 5 days was just too long for us. We couldn't wait to get home. I knew that anything between 7-10 days would be perfect. Well now I know that 8 days is great.

 

I kept finding myself looking this way while packing:

 

 

 

 

I just couldn't help myself:

 

 

 

Before long I had wandered out onto the balcony and was dreaming of how great the cruise had been...even with Sakari not wanting to hang out at the kids club as much as we'd liked her to and even after not having dinner as expected, it was still a great cruise.

 

 

 

I noticed we had company in the near distance:

 

 

 

The Dr Seuss door decorations came down and were neatly packed away in their storage container...then out came our final sign for the cruise:

 

[mitsugirly]

Since I had given up on packing, I figured we might as well go have some more fun. I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing and off we went to the Ocean Plaza/Reg Frog Pub area.

 

Sakari noticed the Foosball tables were taken. She stood around watching a few much older girls playing. Before long, they let her join in and they played teams. I thought that was really nice of them to allow her to play. But honestly, she was doing just as good as they were with hitting the ball and scoring. I guess they were lucky to have her on their team.

 

Then I noticed she wasn't at the table. (We were sitting outside by the glass watching her) I went running in to find that she had a new friend and they were sitting up against the glass at a table right in front of the Foosball tables doing this...

 

 

Although the girl was much older, Sakari had met her match...

 

Sakari left, other girl on the right

 

 

They had several things they had decided to draw, each with their own style, but the same animal. I could tell they were having a good time. She would much rather do this than play. It's funny how they can come up with things when they are limited with supplies (like the napkins to draw on).

 

Me and the hubby stood around playing a game (not sure what it was called, I think the ring and hook game) and it took awhile to win. Sakari tried and was actually able to do it a few times too.

 

Once it was getting close to 6pm, we told her she had to tell her friend goodbye and she was heading up to get a real dinner with her friends.

[mitsugirly]

We hit up the local casino in hopes to spend a little more, win a little more. Last chance for the Breeze to make things right with us.

 

I went all out and bet $1.60 on my spins hoping to win big. You see how big I won right? It's down to 0 now. Sigh

 

 

 

 

$27.51 made up for it a little I guess (another game)

 

 

 

We ended up cashing out about 1 hour into being there and figured we'd call it a night.

 

We headed to Pixels to see if they had our Dr Seuss pictures processed so that we could get them before the night was over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made our purchases and headed to dinner. I was not about to miss dinner tonight!

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I had a feast tonight. I guess I was making up for not eating dinner all week. There was just so much that I couldn't decide!

 

 

 

Then we headed outside and found that we still had another visitor outside, only it was family this time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it was time to pick Sakari up, we ran into a bit of trouble. We couldn't find many of the elevators working. They were all taken up by the staff getting luggage. Ugh!

 

Every elevator we went to had a sign on it.

 

 

 

We were a little late picking up Sakari and I dared them to say anything. The elevators in the forward and aft also had a few out being used for luggage and of course that meant an entire ship was left with maybe 3 elevators for all the passengers...so they were not moving fast at all. I can walk down steps, but going up is a no-no with my cracking knees these days.

 

When we went to pick Sakari up, she BEGGED us to let her stay. Are you fricken serious child? We have ask you to stay late all week long and the one night that you can't stay late, you beg to. She had a little friend in the kids club that ended up hanging out with her in port at the beaches a few times and they became close. That friend was staying late and wanted her to. Now I know that the friend has stayed late on the other nights, but the counselors told us that she falls asleep. So, maybe this happens before it's time for us to pick Sakari up and that's why she hasn't wanted to stay later? I'm really not sure. But this was not the time. We had to finish packing (and that meant stripping everyone's clothes off to pack except what we had planned on wearing off the ship). We needed to be in bed early so that we could get up early. So, it's a definite no this time.

 

We returned to our room to find this...

 

 

 

See the little stingray in the picture above? Well, he's turned upside down, but they gave all the kids one of these rubber stingrays on the last night as they left the kids club. I thought that was so cool. They also gave them cookies to take with them and they got to pick their usual toy out of the box. I thought that was really neat. NCL doesn't give you any parting gifts on the last night. The Stingray isn't just a stingray either, it has Carnival's name on it too!

 

We finished our packing, I put our luggage out and I headed for the shower. Sakari had fallen asleep and the hubby was watching tv.

 

After my shower, I checked outside of the rooms and seen that the luggage was picked up already. I looked around the room one last time and then discovered it.....!!!!!!

 

Son of a gun )*^$$%$(&)*&^??<<!!!! Sakari's clothes had been packed and she has nothing to wear tomorrow other than the underwear she has on!!! What the heck was I thinking??? Well, I'll tell you what I was thinking. I wasn't sure exactly what to leave out...for anyone actually. I knew it was going to be hot out and we should keep shorts out. But, we were going home to Ohio where it's cold out and we needed pants. However, we were spending the entire day in FLL after getting off the ship and it would be hot out. Sigh. I remember I couldn't make up my mind what to leave out and then I started day dreaming out the window and then would later drift my way out to the balcony and completely forgot about it. Sigh!

 

I got dressed, ran down the hall, yelled for the luggage guys and frantically explained the situation. I spotted two of our luggage and begged to please look in them for something for my daughter to wear. I can only imagine what they were saying about me. They started talking to each other in another language. Just like any other circumstance, when you are looking for something frantically, you'll never find it. I swear I looked in both luggage and couldn't find one thing for her to wear, whether it be dirty or clean.

 

I kept searching and found the other luggage going down on the elevator and stopped him. Grabbed the luggage, threw it down on the ground and started looking. I was desperate! Of course the only thing I could find was probably the dirtiest outfit from the entire week. A dress that had chocolate ice cream stains on it all up and down the front. Now Sakari is not a messy eater and this would be the one day that her ice cream melted on her dress because she made it too big for her little mouth and it was just so hot outside that she couldn't keep up with it melting. Ugh! Well, it will have to do. She's not going to be happy about it in the morning. But, tis life.

 

I held my head down in shame and went back to the room, took my melatonin and told the hubby I didn't want to talk about it. Off to bed we went.

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I'm not sure when I will be able to be back and finish up this review. I still have our final day getting off the ship and I was going to also include our day in FLL and what we did since we didn't have a flight out of Florida until after 9pm that night.

 

Tomorrow I'm having an extreme eye exam to have surgery on one of my eyes. So, I can not wear my glasses or contacts at all tomorrow so that my eyes will not be adjusted to that vision and I will end up with dilation of my eyes as well. Since this appointment is in the afternoon, I'm not sure how long it will be before they return to normal. I know in the past just during dilation, they say it should be back in about a hour or so, but mine have always lasted for hours and hours.

 

If I'm not back tomorrow, I'll finish on Tuesday. :)

[mitsugirly]

One of my most lasting memories as a nurse was taking care of a genleman towards the end , he had neve read Green Eggs and Ham so I found a copy (this was way before I had kids) and read it to him, he wanted to hear this over and over and I obliged, for days,,, I always have had a soft spot for this book.

 

Aww, what a nice story. :)

 

Kim,

When you orginally posted about missing the breakfast the day before, I really hoped that you had been correct about the date for your breakfast that you had reserved. YAY!!! So glad you were! Your family seems to be having such a wonderful time. Thank you for sharing.

I want to be your best friend and go on a cruise with you. You seem to have such fun : )

 

I guess I shouldn't have doubted myself, but thought the excitement of getting on a ship that I had wanted to sail for so many years might have had my hearing off a little while I was trying to take everything in. I'm glad I was right and we didn't miss it.

 

Come on along bff. We'll have a good old time! :D

[mykindaparty]

Kim,

 

I too avoid the chocolate buffet like the plague....lol. I really wish carnival would understand that everyone eats at different times and have a variety of choices available until midnight. Next time try the blt, and fried pbj, from room service, omg they are great midnight snacks and they are free! Great review, good luck on your eye surgery.

[amandajean06]

Kim,

 

It's a real-life cruise tragedy right now! You see, I FORCE myself to stay away from your reviews all day long so I'll have something of interest to read when I'm up all night feeding my 3 week old son. But, yesterday I cheated and read all of St. Maarten, the 4-1 sea day, (my sons birthday) and the Suess Breakfast! Now it's 1 a.m. and I've got nothing!

 

Sad. So so so sad!

 

;)

 

I'm doing whatever I can to get me through until next May, when we sail the Pride for my 30th birthday! Your reviews help so much.

 

Thank you!

[tilocke88]

Which week? We are on the 18-25th :)

 

We'll be leaving as you're arriving, Sept 11-18! We promise to take good care of her for ya :p

[perfect match]

Thanks for the info about Little Divi, Kim. I'm not sure when we might do a land based trip to St Maarten, but it is good to have some first hand info on Little Divi in case we do. I mught even try to spend a port day there at some point from a cruise ship like you did. I know they sell day passes, but you guys just went there and rented beach chairs, right?

 

I hated that the beach chair guy crowded you in after pepole started arriving. I didn't think the beach looked that full of people for that to be necessary. :confused: I would not have been happy with him.

 

Glad you finally got to do the ropes course, even if it wasn't as good as the ones on the NCL ships.

 

I am always afraid I will forget to keep clothes for disembarkation morning, but so far I haven't. I do have a carry on bag I keep for the last minute stuff, so I usually put an extra outfit in there - just in case! I'm glad I haven't needed the extra outfit yet, but I've heard some pretty funny stories about things people have ended up wearing to get off the ship. :eek:

 

Hope your eye tests go well tomorrow, well actually later today. We will be here whenever you are able to get back. Take care of yourself. Don't worry about us, we'll be fine. :D

[crewsweeper]

Kim,

 

Thanks for sharing your wonderful cruise with us. I appreciate your pictures and thoughts on both St Kitts (we'll avoid Miz Liz) and Little Divi Bay (still seems like a spot for us as DW says it's too cold to snorkel up at Dawn's Beach and she doesn't want to go to Hilma's Windor Castle--really a rusty pink trailer, LOL--again, once was enough).

[Kfamilycruise]

Good luck with your eye exam!

 

Thanks again for this amazing review! One of my biggest stresses is that I will forget to leave clothes out for disembarking!

[latin princess]

These guys have guts. I can't even imagine cycling around some of these hills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the chap at the front is wearing cycling shorts with the Costa cruise Logo. I noticed that they are doing a lot of cycle tours as well as bus tours

[angela12345]

That's all I have for you now. I have to gather up my next days pictures (San Juan) before continuing with the review. This might not happen until tomorrow or so. I need a break. I have been at this since getting up this morning, then again after returning home from work. I haven't even done my charting yet.

 

I hope everyone is enjoying the review.

 

We had a wonderful day in Grand Turk. The water there is just gorgeous. I have seen the island now and can say I been there, done that. When I return, I will probably opt to stay at the cruise port and explore a little more toward the Conch Graveyard and a little more toward Jacks Shack.

 

If I had to pick a beach to go to...it would definitely be Governors Beach again. Or, I would have to search for others I haven't explored yet.

 

Grand Turk is a definite must do on a cruise. Very pretty. :)

In Grand Turk there is a place that is walking distance from the port with coral reef and snorkeling you can walk in from the beach called Boaby Rock Point.

 

Go to the right when you get off the ship dock, pass the whale statue on the beach, go thru the "conch graveyard", and around the "point" of the island. This is only 1/3 mile. Once you go around the point, there are 3 sections of reef ... If you keep walking, maybe the length of 2 football fields at the most, you will come to a few permanent umbrellas in the sand, I'm pretty sure that is the left-hand edge of the last reef, so the 3 reefs are between the point and the umbrellas.

 

If you look in toward the land from the umbrella, you will see the location of the helicopter tours landing pad. When we walked back to the ship, we went thru the helicopter area to the dirt road and eventually back in the main entrance where you rented your golf cart. It's an easier walk than around the point because the walk around the tip of the point is very rocky with large stones (small boulders really) that you have to walk over. I don't know if it was high tide when we were there and at low tide maybe there is sand ?

 

There may also be a way to stay on the land to come around the point rather than walking by the water or going thru the main entrance to the port, but we did not explore that option. I know there is fence around the main entrance into the port and I'm not sure how far that fencing goes for accessing Boaby a different way by land. We went TO the snorkeling by way of the point because we weren't confident we would be able to find which dirt path/road would be the one leading to the snorkeling.

 

We plopped our stuff under the first umbrella and snorkeled on the left side of that last reef. Lots of "fancy fish" to see, coral, large purple sea fan, and etc. As you are facing the water, directly in front of the umbrella is a lot of sea grass growing in the water, just a little to the right of the grass is an area that you can see is a sandy entrance (no grass) as you go out into the water. We entered here, go out just a little ways, you will be swimming alongside the coral on your right.

 

There are no facilities here that I saw for food drinks bathrooms etc. And there is a lot of sea grass on the beach. But, it's free, lots of stuff to see when snorkeling, and walking distance from the ship. If we ever come back to Grand Turk, I would definitely come here again for the gorgeous snorkeling. Did I mention it was free ? :) I will send you an email with a map of the area. Also, did you get my email about fixing your computer ?

 

https://www.visittci.com/grand-turk/boaby-rock-point

[eml30fan]

I'm not sure when I will be able to be back and finish up this review. I still have our final day getting off the ship and I was going to also include our day in FLL and what we did since we didn't have a flight out of Florida until after 9pm that night.

 

Tomorrow I'm having an extreme eye exam to have surgery on one of my eyes. So, I can not wear my glasses or contacts at all tomorrow so that my eyes will not be adjusted to that vision and I will end up with dilation of my eyes as well. Since this appointment is in the afternoon, I'm not sure how long it will be before they return to normal. I know in the past just during dilation, they say it should be back in about a hour or so, but mine have always lasted for hours and hours.

 

If I'm not back tomorrow, I'll finish on Tuesday. :)

Love the review. I have the same problem when they dilate my eyes. Can't focus for 8 hours and I get a terrible headache. Last time I went to the eye doctor I told them, so they tried one drop in each eye. It worked fine for the doctor to see and I could see again in about 2 hours with no headache!

[Cinders411]

I enjoyed the same thing on the Miracle to Hawaii. Really, people, don't be a sofa hog.

 

 

 

If chair hogs = Chogs. Are sofa hogs, Sogs? :p

[brookie848]

the chap at the front is wearing cycling shorts with the Costa cruise Logo. I noticed that they are doing a lot of cycle tours as well as bus tours

 

When we were in Tortola in February, there was a Costa ship in port with us. A bunch of people from the ship were on their bikes in full gear getting ready for their tour to start. After all I had read about the roads in Tortola, I wasn't certain that would be the best place to take a bike tour!

[mitsugirly]

Kim,

 

I too avoid the chocolate buffet like the plague....lol. I really wish carnival would understand that everyone eats at different times and have a variety of choices available until midnight. Next time try the blt, and fried pbj, from room service, omg they are great midnight snacks and they are free! Great review, good luck on your eye surgery.

 

I wish they would come up with something too. Not everyone wants to eat pizza or hotdogs/sandwiches every day during the off hours. It was just so frustrating. I will definitely plan accordingly on our next Carnival cruise that's for sure. I had no idea about the room service snacks being free or I would have been ordering that. "Fried" pbj? Really? Never heard of that.

 

Kim,

 

It's a real-life cruise tragedy right now! You see, I FORCE myself to stay away from your reviews all day long so I'll have something of interest to read when I'm up all night feeding my 3 week old son. But, yesterday I cheated and read all of St. Maarten, the 4-1 sea day, (my sons birthday) and the Suess Breakfast! Now it's 1 a.m. and I've got nothing!

 

Sad. So so so sad!

 

;)

 

I'm doing whatever I can to get me through until next May, when we sail the Pride for my 30th birthday! Your reviews help so much.

 

Thank you!

 

 

LOL you poor thang. :) Have you read Gambee or Jammans recent reviews? That might give you more to do.

[mitsugirly]

Thanks for the info about Little Divi, Kim. I'm not sure when we might do a land based trip to St Maarten, but it is good to have some first hand info on Little Divi in case we do. I mught even try to spend a port day there at some point from a cruise ship like you did. I know they sell day passes, but you guys just went there and rented beach chairs, right?

 

I hated that the beach chair guy crowded you in after pepole started arriving. I didn't think the beach looked that full of people for that to be necessary. :confused: I would not have been happy with him.

 

Glad you finally got to do the ropes course, even if it wasn't as good as the ones on the NCL ships.

 

I am always afraid I will forget to keep clothes for disembarkation morning, but so far I haven't. I do have a carry on bag I keep for the last minute stuff, so I usually put an extra outfit in there - just in case! I'm glad I haven't needed the extra outfit yet, but I've heard some pretty funny stories about things people have ended up wearing to get off the ship. :eek:

 

Hope your eye tests go well tomorrow, well actually later today. We will be here whenever you are able to get back. Take care of yourself. Don't worry about us, we'll be fine. :D

 

We keep saying we want to do a land based vacation and it's so hard to pick where to go because I love them all. lol Then I just end up back on another cruise instead. :eek:

 

By mid-day, it was very crowded and I think that's why they kept pushing everyone in together. Another thought might be because of the wedding that was going on. Maybe they didn't want chairs on the other side of them. Our chairs on the side we were on went all the way down to where the wedding was at and no chairs past that. So that might have been the reason.

 

I didn't know about the day passes. We just walked in and rented 2 chairs with no issue. What does the day pass include? Food and drinks?

 

Eye test went great today and things are just a little still dilated but not as bad now. I just hate the headache I now have and just took something for it. I have my surgery on Thursday...it's time to start to freak out now. :eek:

 

Kim,

 

Thanks for sharing your wonderful cruise with us. I appreciate your pictures and thoughts on both St Kitts (we'll avoid Miz Liz) and Little Divi Bay (still seems like a spot for us as DW says it's too cold to snorkel up at Dawn's Beach and she doesn't want to go to Hilma's Windor Castle--really a rusty pink trailer, LOL--again, once was enough).

 

You are very welcome. Why is it too cold at Dawn's Beach? Wouldn't the water be the same as Divi?

[mitsugirly]

Good luck with your eye exam!

 

Thanks again for this amazing review! One of my biggest stresses is that I will forget to leave clothes out for disembarking!

 

Thanks. Eye exam went well and surgery on Thursday.

 

I have never stressed about leaving clothes out (or forgetting to) until it has happened now. Now I know I will be checking and double checking from now on. :p

 

the chap at the front is wearing cycling shorts with the Costa cruise Logo. I noticed that they are doing a lot of cycle tours as well as bus tours

 

 

Oh yea, I see that now. So this was probably a ship excursion tour then?

[mitsugirly]

In Grand Turk there is a place that is walking distance from the port with coral reef and snorkeling you can walk in from the beach called Boaby Rock Point.

 

Go to the right when you get off the ship dock, pass the whale statue on the beach, go thru the "conch graveyard", and around the "point" of the island. This is only 1/3 mile. Once you go around the point, there are 3 sections of reef ... If you keep walking, maybe the length of 2 football fields at the most, you will come to a few permanent umbrellas in the sand, I'm pretty sure that is the left-hand edge of the last reef, so the 3 reefs are between the point and the umbrellas.

 

If you look in toward the land from the umbrella, you will see the location of the helicopter tours landing pad. When we walked back to the ship, we went thru the helicopter area to the dirt road and eventually back in the main entrance where you rented your golf cart. It's an easier walk than around the point because the walk around the tip of the point is very rocky with large stones (small boulders really) that you have to walk over. I don't know if it was high tide when we were there and at low tide maybe there is sand ?

 

There may also be a way to stay on the land to come around the point rather than walking by the water or going thru the main entrance to the port, but we did not explore that option. I know there is fence around the main entrance into the port and I'm not sure how far that fencing goes for accessing Boaby a different way by land. We went TO the snorkeling by way of the point because we weren't confident we would be able to find which dirt path/road would be the one leading to the snorkeling.

 

We plopped our stuff under the first umbrella and snorkeled on the left side of that last reef. Lots of "fancy fish" to see, coral, large purple sea fan, and etc. As you are facing the water, directly in front of the umbrella is a lot of sea grass growing in the water, just a little to the right of the grass is an area that you can see is a sandy entrance (no grass) as you go out into the water. We entered here, go out just a little ways, you will be swimming alongside the coral on your right.

 

There are no facilities here that I saw for food drinks bathrooms etc. And there is a lot of sea grass on the beach. But, it's free, lots of stuff to see when snorkeling, and walking distance from the ship. If we ever come back to Grand Turk, I would definitely come here again for the gorgeous snorkeling. Did I mention it was free ? :) I will send you an email with a map of the area. Also, did you get my email about fixing your computer ?

 

https://www.visittci.com/grand-turk/boaby-rock-point

 

Yep, know all about the place. We just haven't went down that far yet. We had actually planned on taking the golf cart over there this past time, but we decided we wanted to spend a little time in the port at the pool prior to getting back on the ship and headed back instead. Maybe next time we'll give it a shot. Thanks for your experience and directions. I have to refer back to it next time. :)

 

Love the review. I have the same problem when they dilate my eyes. Can't focus for 8 hours and I get a terrible headache. Last time I went to the eye doctor I told them, so they tried one drop in each eye. It worked fine for the doctor to see and I could see again in about 2 hours with no headache!

 

I have to admit, this time wasn't as bad. My vision is better now and it's wearing off quicker than it normally does. It's been about 4 hours now. I do have the headache though and just took something for it, but things aren't as "bright" for me now as it was. LOL

[mitsugirly]

If chair hogs = Chogs. Are sofa hogs, Sogs? :p

 

lol Seriously! :p

 

When we were in Tortola in February, there was a Costa ship in port with us. A bunch of people from the ship were on their bikes in full gear getting ready for their tour to start. After all I had read about the roads in Tortola, I wasn't certain that would be the best place to take a bike tour!

 

 

More power to them. I could never do it and especially in a foreign country that I don't know the area or the roads. Nah, I'll pass.

[mitsugirly]

Well back from the eye doctor, test performed, eyes dilated and I'm scheduled for surgery on Thursday morning. :eek:

 

I have a slight headache, but eyes are returning back to normal and things are "dimming" down a little now and I can see again. I'm going to work on my remaining pictures and hopefully come back in a little bit to do some more. I just want this thing done with. LOL :p

[Singer4Him]

The cab lady that was driving us was NOT friendly at all and was really snotty with her replies and remarks. She obviously rolled out of bed on the wrong side...well guess what, I rolled out of bed to clanging pots and pans being throw at my ceiling and I wasn't rude, so there's no excuse for the way you are talking to people and the "attitude". I guess that caused you your tip money. Here's $15 and I hope you aren't the one to pick us up. Good day. I seriously hate rude people, especially if you job is customer service.

 

This sounds like the lady that we had there in 2014. She was a bit older and seemed so unhappy...with everything! If I recall correctly, she didn't get a tip from us either.

 

I love how it was all open like this but always wonder what happens when a hurricane comes?

 

I've wondered the exact same thing about Sunset Beach in Montego Bay, Jamaica. I love how open and breezy it is, but I'd hate to have to be there during or even after a hurricane. :eek:

[I'manewbie]

Funny you mentioned a land vacation...you know how when you read reviews on CC you feel like you know the family - my family and I went to Akumal Mexico in January. I found a beautiful 2bed/2bath condo at tao inspired living resort for $100 a night on vrbo. We flew into Cancun (southwest flies there) rented a car and it was about an 1 hour 15 min drive to the resort. We stopped in Playa on the way to go to Walmart to load up on some supplies. Tao is part of the Grand Bahia Principe Resort - so we had access to all of their facilities - except their food - that would have been extra. The beach at Akumal is supposed to have excellent snorkling (we're not snorklers or spellers!) and the condo had an infinity pool. We ate breakfast in the condo but ate lunch and dinner out at the very inexpensive restaurants in the town of akumal. one place we ate at several times - 3 shrimp and avocado tacos, rice and beans and a coke - $3.50. Anyway - I thought of your family when I was on this trip. It was different than a cruise but it was a good different. Just something to think about...