Day 9--Last Sea Day

Thanks to zyrtec (for me) and benedryl (for Lily), everyone in our room woke feeling much better than the night before. We grabbed a quick breakfast at Cabanas and then headed up to Nemo’s Reef for some time in the splash area. For most of the morning, we just wandered around, making sure that Lily got a good morning nap. We grabbed a little bit of lunch and took Lily over to Small World nursery. Today we were going back to Palo, but this time for afternoon tea.

The tea, sandwiches, and pastries were wonderful, but mostly we just enjoyed sitting up there for the view. It was hard to believe that tomorrow was the last day of the cruise and that we’d have to return to real life. A very bittersweet moment to say the least. Add to that, the tea at Palo won’t be offered after this fall, so this was our only time that we’d be able to try it.

Tea lasted about an hour, which meant we had a little time before we needed to pick Lily up. We did our last-minute shopping and then picked her up a few minutes early. I think she was a little tired, because she was happy to see us.

At some point during the day we took Lily to the open house at the Oceaneer's Club (the kid activity place for the potty trained kids). We showed her around and she was astonished at how much fun stuff there was to do. We explained to her that she had to be potty trained before she could stay there to play, and even showed her where the potty was to prove that potty training was a must. From that point on, she was determined she was going to be potty trained, telling everyone who would listen that she was "potty training." She even tried to use the potty the next morning, and was mad when her body wouldn't do what she wanted. Great incentive program, and once back on land it has helped encourage the process.

Dinner that night was back at Animator’s Palate, and this was the dining experience I was excited about. At the beginning of the meal, you’re given a placemat for you to draw in a stick figure template. The placemats are collected, scanned, and animated for a grand finale show that you have to see to believe. The menu was also really good, including the very odd “popcorn soup”. Sadly, the servers seemed to be a bit off their game, with orders getting mixed up, trays crashing to the ground in the kitchen, and so on. I can imagine by this point in the rotation they’re getting pretty exhausted, and out of all the restaurants, this is probably the most challenging.

Oh, I should mention our servers, as I haven’t done that yet. Our main server was Stanislav from Bulgaria. He was an absolute delight and kept saying “if anything isn’t to your liking, let me know and I can help.” That man knows the meaning of the word hustle, too! Our assistant (drink) server was Franzisca from Germany. It was really clear that she was new to all this and that they’re new working together, as they never really quite had the groove down that I’ve seen in serving partners that have worked together for a longer time. She was pleasant, but a little shy at times, and didn’t seem quite sure about how to handle some of the quirky needs of kids, but she did an exceptional job nonetheless. The other two people we had contact with on a regular basis were the head server, Nenad (who did great with the kids but seemed a little nervous around the adults sometimes) and our stateroom attendant Leroy. Although we didn’t see Leroy much, his presence was always noted as our room was kept amazingly immaculate and always well prepared. If I could have hired him to swing by the house every once in a while, I’d do it in a heartbeat! He did such a great job with everything. Of course he made the towel animals—my favorite was the monkey hanging from the curtain rod and the dog that was being ridden by one of Lily’s toys and wearing her sunglasses. We kept both of those around for the duration of the cruise after he made them. The dog came early in the stay, and ended up moving around the room. One night he was on the bed. Another day he was in the porthole window. That dog really explored our whole room.

Anyhow, back to the day. After dinner, we headed back to the room. This was the only night that Lily was really fussy at dinner. I think the whole week had finally caught up with her. The good news is that they showed snippets of cartoons on the screens during the meal, which kept her somewhat entertained, and this was the shortest of our meal sittings (just over an hour), so we were able to duck out early.

We again decided in lieu of going to the show in the theater in person, we’d just watch it on in-room TV. This one was called Believe, and was MUCH better than Wishes earlier in the week. Because it’s the story of a man dealing with his daughter growing up and trying to find magic in his life (but then realizing that his daughter is the best magic there can be), there were some non-sinus-related sniffles in the room. The Genie is wonderful in that, too. (One thing to mention, though…the “I’ve Got No Strings” number from Wishes is incredible, but like I said, overall Believe is much better than Wishes.)

One other thing…remember how I mentioned the rough seas the night before and the elevator swaying? Yeah, apparently somewhere along the line it did knock something loose, as the elevator was out of service for the rest of the trip. (No harm done, but it probably involved a part that they didn’t have on board the ship. I’m wondering if it was a stabilizer thing that was gone which is why it had sway to it when I was using it. Not unsafe, but not comfortable!)

Busy day planned for tomorrow morning. We decided to do a 5K. Yeah. Not sure what we were thinking with that, but that meant getting a good rest.

Animator's Workshop Sampler: Garlic and Herb Shrimp,
Prosciutto with Melon, Sesame-crusted Tuna Sashimi

"Corn Three Ways": Buttered Popcorn
Soup topped with caramelized
Popcorn and Spiced Cornbread

Pan-Seared Venison Medallions with
marinaded Red Cabbage, Potato Croquettes,
and a Port Wine and Juniper Reduction

Fettuccine with Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Kid's Cupcake Plate (no, Lily didn't eat any of it)

Trio of Amaretto Cheesecake, Banana Creme
Brûlée, and Apple Pie

Day 8--St. Thomas

The day started off very rainy but Ray, our cruise director from South Africa (so it is pronounced DIE-rec-tor) said that it typically rains for about a half hour and then clears up. Sure enough, like clockwork, the rain was turned off so that we all could begin the day.

We had breakfast at Cabanas again, and I must admit that I really really was enjoying their muesli during the trip. I have no idea if I’ve had muesli before, but this stuff was really tasty. I still felt pretty stuffed up, but we had a morning tour that I didn’t want to miss—a trip out to Coral World and then a stop at a butterfly garden.

We got our tickets and headed on down to get on the shuttles for the 20-minute journey to the other side of the island. The shuttle busses were quite something to see. Think about if you took an old VW bus and cut away everything that wasn’t roof or floor and a couple pieces of metal to support the roof—that’s what these were like. Thank goodness it wasn’t raining or we would have been soaked!

Our driver was a man named Jabba (like the Hutt, he said). He pointed out that even though St. Thomas is part of the U.S., they drive European style (i.e., on the “wrong” side of the road). What’s amusing is that their cars are American-style. He mentioned we’d be going on some very narrow roads, but realistically it wasn’t as bad as he suggested, mostly because we stuck to the main roads. We did go up some pretty steep cliffs, but that gave some great views of the island on the way up.

Coral World is a small tourist attraction on the far side of the island. For the most part, the big draw is some of the extras you can pay for, like wading with stingrays or swimming with sea lions. Because we had Lily with us, we didn’t do any of those offerings, but just spent our time wandering around and looking at the exhibits, which meant lots of fish. We were scheduled to be there an hour and a half, and that was plenty of time to see the whole place. About an hour into it, Lily had a total meltdown: screaming, kicking, the works. Yes, she turned two that day. Part of it was that it was incredibly humid, but she also was starting to come down with the “cruise crud” that I was dealing with.

The good news about her having a meltdown was that our tablemates from dinner were there and got to see that Lily does act like a toddler from time to time, so the “perfect angel” at dinner isn’t the sum total of her being.

We got back to the shuttle at the appropriate time, but some of the folks were missing. Jabba explained that he needed people to give their names and stateroom numbers in case his boss asked questions, and people were very happy to do so to head on back.

One great thing about the way Jabba did his tour guide bit is that he didn’t pull punches about what life on the island was like. Down at the docks, it was what you would expect from a tourist trap. Think outlet shopping type of experience in very small specialty stores and you’ve got the Havensight shopping district. Once you drive a few miles inland, things change a lot, and suddenly paradise is a second-world country—not as bad as Haiti or Jamaica or whatever, but shocking to some people on board. Given that I lived in one of the least desirable parts of the DC suburbs for a few years, it wasn’t that unnerving to me. We got stared down by day laborers, got to see a superfund sight that has not been cleaned up yet (but hopefully will be cleaned up soon—according to the sign, stimulus money will fund it), and we saw what Jabba referred to as the ghettos. If you take the back of a semi trailer and divide it in half, put some windows in it, you’ve got one of the ghetto duplexes. What was interesting to see is that the federally funded low-income housing all had solar panels on top, and it looked like they had a water tank on top.

Jabba explained that part of the challenge that the USVI has is that, like DC, they have to pay federal taxes but get no voting representation in Congress, so things can become very bad very quickly there. What happens a lot is that people will come into St. Thomas from countries like Haiti or Jamaica and try to find a bride. If they can get married and stay married for 3 years, they can apply and become a full-fledged U.S. citizen and then move freely to the U.S. Backdoor citizenship marriages are very common, and so while the day laborers are waiting out on the roadsides for jobs, they are also willing to look for a wife among tourists driving by if the opportunity would present itself. I think Jabba’s honesty unnerved some of the people on the shuttle—he didn’t get tipped as well as some of the other transportation services that we saw.

Back near the port, we visited the butterfly gardens. Out front they had a bird show with a half dozen parrots and cockatiels. Lily thought the birds were hilarious, especially the cockatiel that loved to go around and around and around on a stick. After the brief show, we went inside the butterfly garden. We opted not to do the tour part of it, but just wandered on our own. I think that we could have stayed there for hours and Lily would have been happy. She was fascinated by butterflies and loved looking around for the very rare blue butterflies. Unfortunately because it had rained that morning, the ground was pretty muddy and daddy had to carry her, so we only stayed about a half hour. By that point she was getting pretty tired, too.

We went back on board ship, grabbed a bite to eat, and then (since again she was not looking like she needed to nap), took a trip into Havensight to buy liquor (Rum Jumbie…more for the bottle than the rum in it) and drugs (zyrtec for my now fully blown head cold). Thankfully there was a Medicine Shoppe in Havensight, so was able to show my ID and get the meds. The price was certainly a bit of sticker shock. We also hit a few other stores, got the rum, and got some neat food stuff at a gourmet store. Lily fell asleep in the stroller while we walked, and we headed back on board the ship.

Shopping in Havensight was less fun than it was in St. Maarten, partially because there was a second cruise ship in port—one of the Royal Caribbean ones. While we were walking back, we heard the ship do seven short blasts and one long blast of the ship’s horn. From our muster drill when we first got on board, we knew that meant for people to get to muster stations. I don’t know if they were doing a drill (maybe after picking up new people in St. Thomas?), but it didn’t seem that there was an emergency. No clue what the captain of that ship had in mind, but I guarantee that our ship’s horn could totally outdo his horn. I had hoped there’d be a ship horn dual, but no such luck.

That night we were assigned to go back to the Royal Court, but I wasn’t really that hungry. I asked Erwin to go down and take a look at the menu real quick to see if anything was of appeal. He did, and none of it sounded “must have”, so we let Lily sleep as much as she wanted and then headed up to deck 11.

We were too early for Cabanas dinner service, and we really didn’t feel like sitting through a table service meal anyhow, so we grabbed burgers from Flo’s. Although the food on board was amazing, about halfway through it was a good idea to take a break from it. Later on we decided to order room service (the cheese plate) just to see how the experience was. Let me tell you, having free (well, aside from gratuity) 24-hour room service…good grief, that’s awesome.

Room service--Yay!

That night after dinner, we did a bit of wandering around the ship but opted to call it an early night. After we put Lily to bed, Erwin and I each took some time to wander around on top of the ship. By the time it was my turn to go out, we had run into some rough seas. That was the only time on the ship I felt a little weird about the motion (aside from the learning curve the first night). I took the elevator up to deck 11 to get some tea, and it seemed like the elevator was rocking a little too much for my enjoyment. I decided that if I made it up to deck 11 in one piece, I’d walk down the stairs. That was a lot of fun for me because I got to check out some of the great Enchanted Art in the midship hallways. I came back with some chocolate chip cookies, and we got ready for bed. The next day was a sea day, and I wanted to rest up to hopefully feel better in the morning.

Day 7--St. Maarten

We weren’t really sure how Lily would handle back-to-back days of shore excursions, so we opted to do one on St. Thomas and just wing it for St. Maarten. That morning, we decided to try the buffet at Enchanted Garden for breakfast. Pretty much the same food, but much better tea and a much more relaxed atmosphere than Cabanas. It really is a must-do in the future.

During breakfast we got the announcement that the ship had been cleared for people to disembark. We grabbed our day supplies and headed off the ship—and into the wind. It was crazy windy on the dock, and we saw lots of people lose important things, including one guy having his driver’s license and Key to the World card blown away. Thankfully we were able to catch it for him, or he might have stayed stuck in St. Maarten!

We were on the Dutch side of the island, and since we didn’t want to rent a car or use a taxi service, we decided to walk it. To get from the dock to the main shopping district, we took a water taxi, however. They were incredibly friendly and mentioned how much they love tourists since tourism is really the only source of income for the island. Sailing on that little boat, it was amazing how blue the water was, but also how unnatural a shade of blue it looked. It was blue in the same way that antifreeze is green, but having that very unnatural color to it. It was also amazingly clear, and we could see large fish swimming around the docks.

Heeeeere fishy fishy fishy fishy!

Once we got past a certain point on the dock at the shopping district, vendors were all around, selling everything from clothes and bags that they carried on their person to people handing out fliers for the different stores around town. As long as you didn’t make eye contact, they pretty much left you alone. Another part of the tourism economy is the selling of beach chairs with a bucket of beer for the day. Needless to say, that’s not something we had interest in. Although the water out in the bay was amazingly beautiful, the beaches themselves were on par with what you’d find in the states. (Truth be told, I prefer the sand on Sanibel Island!)

We wandered down the beach side of the island for a while and then cut over to Front Street—one of the two shopping streets (the other being Back Street). We did some quick shopping in a couple stores that we wanted to see, buying some linens in one of the tablecloth stores and buying some jewelry in one of the jewelry stores. Because we were the only ship in port for that day, the merchants weren’t very enthusiastic about things, and let us browse. We bought a couple trinkets in Del Sol (a color changing merchandise location) and looked at the prices on bamboo sheets in a bamboo cloth store. Those were far more than you would pay in the states. By the time we got down to the other end of Front Street, Lily was a bit cranky and we had a bag full of stuff. A quick stop at the Guavaberry liqueur store, and then we opted to walk back to the ship on one of the back roads (but a main traveled road filled with other people who wanted to skip the water taxi). On the way, we bought some gouda and some rum cakes (which we found out later were VERY potent rum cakes!) and headed back on board.

We dropped everything off on the ship and then headed back to the water taxi and into town to try a restaurant called Taloula Mango. I had been really impressed with the menu when I saw it online, so we decided to try the “local flavor”. In particular, we wanted to try the gouda sticks (think mozzarella sticks, but with gouda). We ordered a grilled cheese for Lily and some local stew preparations (a mild curry for me and a creole dish for Erwin). Ironically, Lily didn’t touch her grilled cheese, but was content to eat the gouda sticks and the rice with my curry dish. The food was excellent, and we had a couple of great foo-foo drinks with the meal. One surprising thing was that the restaurant, although one that caters to kids with a decent kids’ menu, didn’t have milk. Thankfully we had brought some with us, and we all left quite full and happy. During the meal, as we were sitting outside, we did have a couple vendors come to the table to sell us things. A quick “no thanks” and they left, however.

Lily was looking pretty exhausted at that point. We had tried to get her to take a nap when we first got back to the ship, but she wasn’t going for it. Now that she was full, she was very sleepy, but she wanted to see the beach. We walked a bit on the shore, and then put her in the stroller to head along back to the ship. She protested mightily, but before we were on the water taxi, she was sound asleep. We got back aboard (getting lots of awwws about how cute she was being so dead-to-the-world tired) and put her into bed. We took it easy that afternoon playing Plants vs. Zombies on the iPad and being mellow.

Thankfully Lily woke up so that we could try and get some dinner into her before our reservation at the adults' only venue, Palo. We dropped Lily at Small World, dressed, and headed upstairs. We were there a few minutes early so we had some drinks in the Meridian lounge. I had a rum-based martini that was fantastic, and Erwin tempted fate with a drink largely based with balsamic vinegar. Way too strong for my taste, but I guess he enjoyed it!

Left: Balsamic Grande (Grey Goose Vodka, 5 Year
Balsamic, Vinegar, Fresh Muddled Strawberry)
Right: Chambord Mojito Martini (Bacardi Limon,
Chamboard, Fresh Muddled Lime and Mint Leaves)

Dinner at Palo (which is a $25 up charge per person from the regular dining rooms) was exceptional. We had great timing as we were able to watch the ship pull out of port during dinner. I got to try AquaPanna water for the water selection (yes, there is a water selection at no additional charge), and I see what all the fuss is about. That was probably the most tasty water I've ever had, which is odd because being really pure water, it didn't have a flavor per se...it was just uber refreshing.

The meal was wonderful, and of course we had to finish with the signature chocolate soufflé. That is happiness in a bowl, it is! Our server, Marianne, was simply delightful. It was well worth the price, and we'd gladly do it again. One of the great surprises for me was the wonderful flavor of the parmesan on the antipasto tray. I like cheese, and that was some really awesome cheese. It was nice to be able to do the adult thing for a night, and Lily had an exceptionally good time at the nursery.

By the time the meal was finishing up, I was starting to get a bit of a headache from sinus pressure. I hadn't brought any sort of cold medicines (except for Benedryl) on board because I didn't plan to get sick and figured I could get stuff on ship. After dinner, we hit the stores to try and find something for me (ala zyrtec), but no luck. I had forgotten that it is a controlled substance, so I probably could have gotten some if I had gone to the ship's sick bay, but I figured I'd just get something in port the next day. Needless to say, I did a lot of tossing and turning that night.

That evening was Pirate's night, but because we had been at Palo and had a very sleepy girl and I wasn't feeling my best, we went back to the room and I pretty much sacked out in bed. Erwin went topside to catch the fireworks show and videotaped it for me. In the future I'd love to do the pirate deck party...it sounded like it was a lot of fun. The fireworks really show what the ship's soundproofing is like, however. I couldn't hear the fireworks from our cabin. That's pretty impressive to say the least!

The next morning was St. Thomas and our first (and only) shore excursion. It is a fairly short trip from St. Maarten to St. Thomas, so the ship moved pretty slow all night, even though the weather was less than ideal the closer we got in to port. But that's a story for another post...

Antipasto Plate

Bread Service

Grilled Portobello Mushroom and Polenta

Sampler: Calamari, Pesto Marinaded Shrimp, and
Portobello Mushroom with Polenta

Intermezzo (lemon sorbet)

Grilled Tuna with Truffle-Infused Potatoes,
Marinaded Artichokes, and Black Truffles

Pan-Seared Turbot on Roasted Potatoes,
Porcini Mushrooms, Pancetta, and Fennel

Palo's Signature Chocolate Souffle

Day 6--Lily's birthday, sea day

With such a late night, no surprise that we got up closer to 8 AM. Breakfast was at Cabanas again, although I think we may start mixing it up tomorrow. As today was Lily's birthday, most of the focus was on making her happy. After breakfast, we went back to the room and Lily and daddy changed for time in Nemo's Reef. Lily had a fantastic time splashing around in the water fountains. Because it was a mildly stormy morning (some rain and wind, but you really couldn't feel it), it was also a bit cold (read: in the low 70s) up top, so after a half hour she was shivering a bit and so we went downstairs. She did go down her first waterslide, though! Maybe next time it will be the big Mickey slides...and then the Aquaduck!

Three inches too short (and two years too young!)

Kid's slide or no, you pick up some speed!

After Lily and Erwin changed, we went to the AllEars trading card meet. Lily headed back to the room with Erwin for a pre-lunch nap, and I was able to complete the set of cards so far, plus talk with Beci about prebooking our next cruise rate. I then came back to the room, got our door ready for the decorating contest (complete with battery LEDs), and Erwin and I got lunch in shifts (as Lily was sleeping). We brought food to the room for her and she had just enough time to snarf down food before we took her to the nursery.

There was one kid checking in ahead of her, and when the gate was opened for him to go back but she wasn't allowed in, she was hysterical. After we explained that we had to check her in, she was okay. When the gate opened, she walked right in without a hug or kiss goodbye. We called after her "Bye Lily!" She turned around, yelled "Bye!" and that was that.

Erwin and I stopped by the room and grabbed stuff for the afternoon to work on the scavenger hunt. We explored a lot of the top of the ship, fighting 40 mph winds on deck 12 (although it was sunny by now). Needless to say we didn't stay up there long. We then started work on the Midship Detective Agency Muppet case. It is a whodunit where you roam the ship, interacting with the enchanted art. Very cool, and we didn't solve our case, so we will need to be back again for more. We then did a little shopping and went back for Lily. She had a great time at the nursery but was glad to see us.

We went back to the room, freshened up, and met for the group photo. Then a quick change and time for Animator's Palate. Tonight was the Crush show, and it was neat seeing all the screens alive with animated fish--especially for the fish-obsessed birthday girl! She also really enjoyed the menu: chicken noodle soup, Mickey pasta, and fries. Our food was probably my fave thus far as well.

Lily almost fell asleep during dinner, so we were a little unsure about doing the show tonight. While we were looking for cartoon shorts on the TV to decide if she looked like she would do okay with the show, we found a recording of it on in-room TV. This proved a much better option, so we watched it on TV, gave Lily a bath, and put her to bed. Erwin did one more trivia stop in the nightclub district and grabbed some coffee and I grabbed a drink before bed.

Tomorrow morning, we arrive in St. Maarten for shopping and Lily becomes an international traveler!

Wild Mushroom Risotto
and Porcini Twist

Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes

Kid's Mickey Pasta, No Sauce

Animator's Trio of Veal
Grilled Tenderloin, Pulled Shank,
and Tortellacci Pasta with
A Sun-dried Tomato and
Sage Reduction

Lemon-Thyme Marinated All
Natural Chicken Breast
on top of Sour Cream
Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Root
Vegetables, and Grain Mustard Jus

White Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake

Crunchy Walnut Cake, Dark
Chocolate Mousse,
and Raspberry Coulis