LIVE from Summit - 1/5/19 - 12nt Lesser Antilles Caribbean - Penthouse

[wrk2cruise]

2 hours ago, jagoffee said:

You should go back and reread what Adam posted.  The letter outlining the Elite cocktail menu and lounge clearly states the drinks in the Lounge are unlimited from the menu.  You are correct that the drinks loaded on the card are not good in the dining venues.  Unless I am the one that is not correctly understanding what it is stating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are correct.  After re-reading the first paragraph it does state unlimited drinks off the CC menu in the Elite cocktail lounge plus 3 drinks loaded on your card.  I'm going to have to start bringing my lawyer with me to use my perks

 

[WonderMan3]

On Monday we were in St. Maarten. We woke up a bit early at 6am so we could leave the ship right away when it arrived at 8am. Mike, Tina and I all had a great night’s sleep this time; the updates they made to our beds definitely worked. The three of us did room service breakfast again. I tried a ham and cheese omelette this time while Tina had a fried egg and English muffin to make her own sandwich while Mike stuck with his scrambled eggs. Everything was good again. While Chip was in the room delivering the breakfast we asked him to show us how to use the hot tub on the balcony as we could not figure it out. 

 

 

[WonderMan3]

error post

Edited January 8, 2019 by WonderMan3

[sdnich]

 I am enjoying your review that balcony looks  amazing !!!  I look forward to reading the rest  of the review and I’m also enjoying your pictures ! I hope you have a fabulous  rest of your cruise !

[WonderMan3]

Continuing with Monday’s adventures...

We left the ship right at 8am meeting up with Cindy and John on the pier. There were only two ships in St. Maarten on this day, us and the Star Pride which only has a few hundred passengers. This was the quietest I’d ever seen this port. While waiting for Cindy and John we met the cruise director who was standing outside. He advised us to book a return trip with our taxi on the way out to our destination as cabs were not waiting around in great numbers like in the past before the hurricane. We headed to the taxi stand and had no waiting. We had the cab take us to Orient Beach with a fare of $8pp. Mike and I had been to Orient twice before but not since 2011. We were shocked at how different it looked with very few palm trees remaining and most buildings gone or in the process of being rebuilt. We had the driver drop us off at a beach club called Bikini Beach. They had an array of nice cushioned loungers with umbrellas plus a bar & restaurant with restrooms and changing facilities. 2 chairs and an umbrella cost $15. I have included photos of their drink and food menus. We spent about 3 hours at the beach just swimming and lounging. The wind is strong at this beach and it creates high surf as a result. I went in the water briefly one time but it was too rough for me and Tina didn’t get past her knees but the rest of our group enjoyed the waves. We arranged for our cab to pick us up at 12. He was right on time and we got back to the port about 20 minutes later. With only two ships in port traffic was light. In fact the beach was very lightly populated too which was nice. 

[WonderMan3]

After returning to the ship from our Orient Bay visit we showered and changed and then headed to Oceanview for lunch. This was the first visit here on this cruise for Tina, Mike and I. I was a little disappointed in the selection of food; definitely not as diverse as S-class. There also were multiple stations serving Indian food; I didn’t realize it was so popular. Food quality was good, no complaints there. I do have a complaint about the design of Oceanview. It’s very strange that the aft elevators empty you out into the middle of the buffet when you exit at Deck 10. But you can only enter into the buffet on one side. I also don’t like the circular design of food stations forcing you to go around the whole loop to see everything being offered. After eating,  all of us except Tina walked off the ship to visit some of the ships at the end of the pier. There is a chocolate shop there that I love to visit. I picked up my favorite chocolate-dipped stroopwaffles. Cindy and John bought a couple t-shirts and we all stopped at the guavaberry stand to get some guavaberry coladas. While out shopping we talked to one of the local shop workers who told us how hard the hurricane recovery has been for the island. She said that there have been very few days where the port is filled with 5-6 ships at a time like it used to be. Now it’s usually 1 or 2. She also said that the tourist terminal was still closed at the airport because most hotels on the island are still not open. Because of this limited tourist flow the local businesses are struggling. She said that landlords are not decreasing their rents to the businesses despite their decrease in tourist traffic. She expected that a number of the businesses will close soon which was sad to hear. So if there are businesses in St. Maarten that you really like, make sure you give them your tourist dollars the next time you visit!

 

After our shopping time we returned to the ship to relax for a bit and then John came down to join us for sailaway on our cabin while Cindy was taking a nap in their room. We had been invited to a helipad sailaway but decided to skip it as we didn’t want to be standing out in the full sun. It was a very lovely sailaway.

[WonderMan3]

Finishing off from Monday...

 

After sailaway we dressed for dinner and then made a stop at the Martini Bar for some pre-dinner cocktails. John told us that Cindy would not be joining us for dinner as she was feeling tired from the sun. We did dinner at Luminae with Fauzi as our server again. We had another great dinner. Photos show the chef’s treat fried artichoke, braised beef gnocchi, French onion soup from the MDR menu, Moroccan Chicken, Veal Cannoloni, Chocolate Napoleon and Cherries Jubilee and Lava Cake from the MDR menu. On our way out of dinner we advised Charles that we planned on eating at Qsine for the following night. He asked if we had reservations and since we didn’t he called it in for us which was nice. After dinner was our normal casino routine. Mike had some nice wins but no luck for me.

[danalea1980]

Do you have to pay for entry into this beach area? Also are kids allowed?

[Lisamn]

Would you mind posting a photo of your multi outlet connector (or brand info) that *is* allowed through security?

[sdnich]

 Can you please tell me where you bought the chocolate dipped  Stroopwaffles my mom is Dutch Indo and that might be a great thing to bring home for her and of course a few for myself 😁

[WonderMan3]

8 hours ago, danalea1980 said:

Do you have to pay for entry into this beach area? Also are kids allowed?

 

If you mean the Bikini Beach Club I was talking about on St. Martin, there is no fee to go there, but there is a charge to rent a chair and umbrella which was 2 chairs and umbrella for $15. Food and drink are extra. I assume kids would be allowed. There weren’t any present while we were there but I don’t think there was a restriction.

[WonderMan3]

6 hours ago, Lisamn said:

Would you mind posting a photo of your multi outlet connector (or brand info) that *is* allowed through security?

 

This is what we have always used. It has the name Yung printed on it. Not sure if that is the brand name.

[WonderMan3]

5 hours ago, sdnich said:

 Can you please tell me where you bought the chocolate dipped  Stroopwaffles my mom is Dutch Indo and that might be a great thing to bring home for her and of course a few for myself 😁

 

The Belgian Chocolate Box. They had two locations, the main store in downtown Phillipsburg and the smaller outlet by the pier. We bought ours at the pier shop. We were told that the main store has now closed. 

[WonderMan3]

Here is the Daily from Tuesday.

[WonderMan3]

Tuesday morning we arrived in Martinique to beautiful blue skies. The day looked like it might not go well initially as Mike woke up with his sinuses all inflamed. We showered and dressed and headed down to Luminae for breakfast, but as soon as we arrived Mike started talking about visiting the infirmary to take a look at his sinuses. I told him to go right away if he felt it was needed as we were meeting our guide as soon as we got off the ship when it arrived at 10am. So Mike left without eating breakfast and went straight to the infirmary. Tina and I continued with breakfast. This was our first one at Luminae for this cruise. The food was served quickly and the quality was fine, but really not much different than the room service we had been having the past few days. Tina got the eggs Benedict while I had strawberry pancakes. After breakfast we headed back to the cabin to pack for the day and to wait for Mike. Our server at Luminae was kind enough to wrap up some pastries for Mike to have once he returned from the infirmary. He was down there around 45 minutes. The doctor thought he might have a sinus infection and gave him a steroid shot right away and also did a blood test to determine if there was indeed an infection. The results were inconclusive but the doctor gave Mike an antibiotic anyway. He got back to the cabin about 5 minutes before we were to leave the ship and was already noticing the swelling in his sinuses going down so the steroid shot must’ve helped. The ship had actually given the all clear for debarking early at 9:15 and our guide had emailed me saying she saw the early arrival and was ready for us but since we were waiting for Mike we couldn’t take advantage of that.

[nunuc2000]

Enjoying your review - we'll be doing the same itinerary at the end of the month, Jan 29th, and seeing your posts is is quite exciting! 🙂

[ScubaDo]

Here is the extension cord:https://www.amazon.com/Way-Power-Splitter-Pronged-Extension/dp/B07L5Q87YD/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=lamps-light&ie=UTF8&qid=1547132389&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=3+cord+extension&psc=1

[WonderMan3]

Falling behind on updates so now to play catch up...continuing with Tuesday’s adventures...

 

We exited the ship in Martinique just after 10. The walk down the pier is pretty lengthy but they have a pedicab that can take you to the exit if you don’t want to walk. We met our guide Meri just outside the pier gates. Meri is an independent tour operator with her own company called Anoli Tours. I found her when doing a google search on Martinique private tours after not being satisfied with what Celebrity had to offer. I set up a customized itinerary of the southern half of Martinique with her that pieced together several locations that she visited on tours listed on her website. Originally our day in Martinique was on January 12th but then Celebrity changed the itinerary less than a week before departure. On the original we were in port from 8am to 6pm, but that had been reduced to 10am to 6pm for this rescheduled date. The tour I reserved was originally 7 hours from 8:30 to 3:30. When I found out about the date change I emailed Meri right away and thankfully she was available on the 8th. But our tour time had to be reduced to 6 hours which meant reduced time at a few of our stops.

 

Upon meeting Meri she walked us over to her private van. She functioned as both guide and driver and even had a microphone and speaker equipped in her vehicle so there was no issues with hearing her. When trying to drive out of the parking lot near the pier though we hit a snag. All exits to the lot were blocked by taxi cabs. Meri got out to find out what was going on as there were police present. She came back a few minutes later and explained that there was a taxi strike going on. The taxis were trying to prevent unlicensed tour guides from picking up tourists near the pier. Meri went over to where some of the taxi drivers and police were congregated and showed them her tour license and that she had proof of her passengers having pre-reserved a tour. Upon showing this a taxi driver came over and moved his vehicle and allowed us to leave. This lost us about 15 minutes but was certainly a memorable experience and a very typical French experience, lol. (Martinique is part of France not independent) We lost some more time sitting in traffic trying to get out of Fort de France the island’s capital. Along the way, Meri pointed out some sights and gave us some historical background of the island.

 

Our first stop on our tour was at the town of Les Trois-Îslets where we visited an artisan and pottery village where we did some quick shopping and bought some handmade pottery from a local vendor. Then it was on to a scenic photo stop at Anse à l’ane, a picturesque beach across the bay from where our ship was docked. Then we drove on to Les Anses d’Arlet, a cute little town with its beautiful church and a nice beach where we had about 90 minutes to snorkel and swim. We had hoped to grab something to eat for lunch here but none of the little food options near the beach enticed us so we asked Meri if there was a place to stop during the remainder of our drive and she said there would be. The rest of our drive was pulling over at scenic viewpoints including at another beach popular with fishermen, a viewpoint to sea the island’s iconic Diamond Rock, a visit to a colorful little artist’s shack, a stop at the Anse Cafard slave memorial (dedicated to the memory of a slave ship that sunk in that area) and finally a visit to the Diamond Rock beach with its spectacular shoreline and more views of that giant rock in the ocean. It was here that we grabbed something to eat at a local bakery and sat by the beach while we ate. After that Meri drove us back to the pier. All in all it was a wonderful day and we were surprised at the beauty of Martinique. It has a lot to offer and is very modern compared to most of the other Caribbean islands. I highly recommend a visit here but you should be aware that the currency used here is the Euro and most people we encountered spoke little to no English so booking a guide is advised. I would highly recommend our guide Meri. Our 6 hour tour cost us 290 Euro and she provided water and juice during the trip. You can find her company Anoli Tours at this link http://www.anolitours.com/

 

[WonderMan3]

After returning to the ship from our Martinique day we showered and relaxed in our cabin until sail away, enjoying some of the snacks that the butler dropped off. It was a simple but still pretty sunset. For dinner we had made reservations at Qsine. It is not our favorite restaurant on Celebrity but since they are beginning to remove it from the ships we figured it might be our last time to try it. Our server was Errol who was nice enough but who spoke far too quickly and had the first part of the meal paced too fast so that courses were coming out before we’d had a chance to finish the previous. There were also some service issues where John was brought the wrong drink a few times. The food was good but not great. The only really outstanding item was the Lava Crab. I’m sharing photos below of some of the items we ordered including the crab, BBQ spring rolls, giant meatballs, Disco Shrimp, sliders, Chinese food sampler, tacos, mini filet mignons, chicken kebab and a few of the dessert selections. After dinner we did our nightly visit to the casino but with no luck this time.

[WonderMan3]

Here is the Daily from Wednesday.

[WonderMan3]

Just wanted to also give a quick shout out to those fellow Cruise Critic members who have contacted me onboard this sailing. Hello Gary! And hello to the other couple who introduced themselves to me at the casino but whose name escapes me right now. (Sorry!) And hello to fellow Cape Codders Kelly and Bob! I got your note today. It was nice to have contact on the other side of Cruise Critic. Thank you to all of the above and all of you still reading for following along with me! 🙂

[Zigster]

Adam, love your Martinique photos!

 

Edited January 10, 2019 by Zigster

[WonderMan3]

Wednesday morning started off right with another nice breakfast on our balcony after sailing in to St. Vincent. Including a copy of the breakfast room service menu for suites. I believe this is the same one we had on Edge a few weeks ago. I’m disappointed that they removed the Crab Cakes Benedict from the specialty items list as that was always one of my favorites.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Can you share the story of the stone statutes on Martinique?  That's one island I've never been to.  Thanks.  And it sounds very French--complete with a strike!

[WonderMan3]

For our day in St. Vincent on Wednesday we booked a Celebrity excursion called Dark Waterfall and Coastal Tour. Our tickets said to meet at the theater at 8:45am for a 9am departure. We arrived a few minutes late at 8:48 only to find our tour already leaving. There were probably at least 80-90 people on this excursion so we were split into two groups. Our group did the land portion first followed by the boat cruise. While we were at the front of the second group in line we were split into three buses and our bus left last. This bus portion was the worst part of the tour. 3 of us were stuck in the back of our bus. The guide had no microphone and we could barely hear him at the back. I asked him to speak up at one point and he did for a minute or two but then he went back to a normal volume, so 3 of us basically missed the 

most of what he was saying on this 2hr 15min drive which was a lot about the island’s history and culture. He would have the driver pull over several times to grab local plants and fruits for us to see and smell. Each of these little stops, while appreciated for cultural learning, kept putting us further behind the other buses until we were about 15 minutes behind the rest. Most of the drive was winding through tight often bumpy roads going up and down hillsides through poor villages but with some gorgeous vistas. Unfortunately there were no stops at any of these dramatic viewpoints. We did make one 15 minute stop at a Cove where there were set pieces from Pirates of the Caribbean. Our destination for the bus ride was Dark Waterfall. The waterfall was gorgeous, accessible by walking across a bamboo bridge. There was limited swimming possible in the pools at the bottom of the falls but water shoes were needed due to the rocks. Tina and I decided to be brave and walk under the falls for a good soaking. It was little cold but felt refreshing. There were only two others from our group who decided to also go under the falls. We were supposed to have 45 minutes at the falls but that was cut down to maybe 25-30 minutes at the most since we were so behind the other groups. They were all leaving the falls as we were entering even though we all left the port at the same time which shows how far behind we had fallen. 

 

After the falls we had we had a short drive to a beachside restaurant for lunch. Lunch was a small buffet with one drink (beer, juice or water). The buffet had salad, local fruits, chicken, fish, rice and local beans. As we were in line they started running out of everything. They would come out to replenish items by bringing 3 or 4 pieces of fish or chicken, which meant they would run out again a few minutes later causing people to have to wait. The food tasted fine although my fish had bones in it. We had to rush through our meal though as some other groups were already finishing when we sat down and started lining up to wait for the bus. We didn’t want to be stuck at the back again to wind up last on the boat. So we finished eating quickly and waited for the bus. The bus this time left third instead of last and then it was kind of a mob scene at the catamaran boarding at the beach. We managed to get some seats inside with shade. Note that you have to board the catamaran in the water up a skinny ladder with small waves splashing, so those with mobility issues might have a problem.

 

Thr boat ride itself was the highlight of the day. We had three hours to sail including 1 hour for a swim and snorkel stop at a private beach. It was a black sand beach which gets very hot, but the water was very nice with soft sand and moderate waves. There was unlimited rum punch on board the cat and an upbeat vibe from the crew. We sailed past the coast of St. Vincent which was quite beautiful from the water. Overall we had a great day but that bus ride was really a drag.