DDaley

Just set sail a bit ago and recently returned to the cabin with a final cocktail for the night as we are running on about 1-1.5 hours sleep since 6am PST Saturday. Hopefully sleeping early tonight will reset my internal alarm for early natural rising on AST! 


The clouds here are unreal

Aft port panorama

You guuuuuys! You could see her upon arrival waiting for us! ?

Greetings from Miami! 
IT’S CRUISE DAY! 
Leaving for San Juan in an hour. Zero days till we go on the cruuuiiiseee ✈️??  and I am so excited!! 

 
Leaving Miami time-lapse

IMG_9749.mov

I posted this image on my instagram story with a caption about it not being a good idea to dangle children out such an obvious window and so many people wrote me back shocked that that's what it looked like / how high it was. I guess the lawyer's story about it being down at the deck level and in a play area was widespread. ?
Staying on a Windows Of Freedom theme, this was our only dinner time that was before sunset! I loved being able to see the ocean roll by - note to self - early dinners next time. 

Day Seven
Our first and only sea day! Today made me feel more at ease about my upcoming Holland America cruise that has - gasp - THREE sea days on our way to and from Mexico. I was worried HAL didn't have as many activities for a sea day but it turns out we just hung out entirely between the main pool area, solarium and solarium bar.
We got two chairs around 9am after Windjammer breakfast in a very back corner of the main pool deck, as close to the Solarium doors as you can get. Turns out it was a great spot! We could see the big screen, were protected partially overhead in a brief rain shower and were quickly in the shade in the afternoon, safe from the heat of the day. We would get out of the pool and sit on our chairs and need to go back in not 5 minutes later.
We used our towels and towel clips and they were there all day! We only abandoned them briefly for collecting Windjammer lunch and checking our stateroom for our gift from Bern for having won the Question of the Day on Friday. Bern in his PARTY POLICE electric yellow regalia happened to pass in front of our chairs and promised the prize would be in there today! He was right. ?



We watched the Belly Flop Competition from a particularly advantageous spot where we starred in the replay footage on RCTV. haha 
ALSO! It was the first competition Katy and Bern had presided over that included a woman competitor - and there were two!

IMG_0391.mov

Finally back to regular life today! Was supposed to have a full day off at home to relax yesterday but we didn't make it home till late afternoon. American Airlines - never again. Now back to the blog:
Day Five
Castries, St. Lucia - AND MY BIRTHDAY! 
Today we woke up early again (as usual) to see the ship pulling into port - St. Lucia is the prettiest island we visited in my opinion! Passing the airport was just beautiful. Then we did a 180 in the basin and got to see both sides which was nice. 



Today we had an excursion with St. Lucia Rainforest Adventures which included travel to the rainforest (Castries Waterworks Forest Reserve), 25-min aerial tram ride with narration, 8 canopy zip lines and an excruciatingly hot hike back to the aerial tram for the 25 min ride back down the mountain. Our group really blew through the hike, you could tell that our guide was used to stopping for guests to rest more often but we wanted to get it over with. Be ready to sweat! Saw so many iguanas and birds but not a lot of other forest critters. 
The zip lines themselves were spectacular! 40-70ft above ground in the dense trees and with no way back down once you start. Loved our guide Kenny. His partner that assisted on the back half of the zips was not as engaging but Derek was still fun - he was in a competition with Kenny to see who could do the craziest zip crossings on their turns before and after us. 
Loved seeing St. Lucia neighborhoods on our way to and from the jungle, too. This is another island that reminded me a lot of Hawaii. 




IMG_0172.mov

 
Back in Castries we were exhausted and chose to head back to the ship early for some Solarium time before dinner. Got to watch the whale tail Fascination leave before us at 5 and then enjoyed sail away at 6. Saw the pitons before it got too dark as well! Really think I will be heading back to St. Lucia one day just to land vacation there. Gorgeous! 
 




 

I posted this image on my instagram story with a caption about it not being a good idea to dangle children out such an obvious window and so many people wrote me back shocked that that's what it looked like / how high it was. I guess the lawyer's story about it being down at the deck level and in a play area was widespread. ?
Staying on a Windows Of Freedom theme, this was our only dinner time that was before sunset! I loved being able to see the ocean roll by - note to self - early dinners next time. 

Day Six
Barbados!
On this morning we WON a prize after answering a question CD Katy and AM Bern asked on RCTV. It ended up being a RC metal water bottle, and pretty cool to get the shoutout! LOVED Katy by the way, she has such great stage presence (not to mention a fun accent). Bern was funny too, we loved their awful attempts at jokes every morning. Oh and then we would get the Wash Your Hands song stuck in our heads for the rest of the day. It's easy when you only have two! Now I finally understand @Twangster's rcblog signature. haha
Today we did another third party excursion through El Tigre Catamaran Tours to Carlisle Bay for snorkeling with turtles and up to Folkstone Marine Park to see the shipwrecks and coral reef.  We had a fantastic time! Made friends with 2 other similarly aged couples on the catamaran and of course a couple of the boat employees as well. Swimming with the turtles was a little crowded because a bunch of other catamarans and glass bottom boats had rolled up to the area at the same time but we still got to see and touch a couple!


After a 35 minute stop in Carlisle we sailed up the coast 45 or so minutes to Folkstone. Seeing sunken ships was awesome, I loved diving down to swim with the fish. We had some lunch on deck after that - very similar to the lunch in Antigua. Fantastic fried fish again, too! 



Sailed right by our cabin on the way back! 

 
After returning to the room we still had about 5 hours till sail away so we decided to pop over to the closest beach, Brandon's a $10 cab/few minutes ride from the port. Brought our floats and sheet and left everything on the beach. There were a few families BBQing and playing soccer but it was otherwise empty! Had our same cabbie come back for us after an hour or so and he did. 

 
After dinner we were in the right place at the right time to see Freedom Ice. No I will not put the damn URL in the name! hahaha It was interesting for sure.. some of the ice skaters were better on stage than the others simply skating through the moves (however complicated - hit me with a smile or something!) My favorite was San Diegan Elaina, she was bright and bubbly on stage (ice!). The freedom theme was strange though, free-loving 60s, an Asian section followed by pirates? The pirates were free to do whatever they wanted I guess? The zoot suit section was super cool, visually. 



Overall pretty entertaining! Hard to stay up for the late shows when you've been sunning and drinking all day so I did not make it to very many. 

Oh wait! Forgot to note that we had told the Head Waiter Catherine about our birthdays on the 22nd and 24th during dinner on night 1 and she notated it - ended up with nothing at all, even after mentioning the birthdays to our waitress Theresa on both occasions. My thoughts on our MDR waitstaff later but thought it was weird when I know I have seen birthday desserts for others in the past! 
We did enjoy some post-dinner mini golf. CBF did NOT let me win for my birthday! haha 

Finally back to regular life today! Was supposed to have a full day off at home to relax yesterday but we didn't make it home till late afternoon. American Airlines - never again. Now back to the blog:
Day Five
Castries, St. Lucia - AND MY BIRTHDAY! 
Today we woke up early again (as usual) to see the ship pulling into port - St. Lucia is the prettiest island we visited in my opinion! Passing the airport was just beautiful. Then we did a 180 in the basin and got to see both sides which was nice. 



Today we had an excursion with St. Lucia Rainforest Adventures which included travel to the rainforest (Castries Waterworks Forest Reserve), 25-min aerial tram ride with narration, 8 canopy zip lines and an excruciatingly hot hike back to the aerial tram for the 25 min ride back down the mountain. Our group really blew through the hike, you could tell that our guide was used to stopping for guests to rest more often but we wanted to get it over with. Be ready to sweat! Saw so many iguanas and birds but not a lot of other forest critters. 
The zip lines themselves were spectacular! 40-70ft above ground in the dense trees and with no way back down once you start. Loved our guide Kenny. His partner that assisted on the back half of the zips was not as engaging but Derek was still fun - he was in a competition with Kenny to see who could do the craziest zip crossings on their turns before and after us. 
Loved seeing St. Lucia neighborhoods on our way to and from the jungle, too. This is another island that reminded me a lot of Hawaii. 




IMG_0172.mov

 
Back in Castries we were exhausted and chose to head back to the ship early for some Solarium time before dinner. Got to watch the whale tail Fascination leave before us at 5 and then enjoyed sail away at 6. Saw the pitons before it got too dark as well! Really think I will be heading back to St. Lucia one day just to land vacation there. Gorgeous! 
 




 

Day Six
Barbados!
On this morning we WON a prize after answering a question CD Katy and AM Bern asked on RCTV. It ended up being a RC metal water bottle, and pretty cool to get the shoutout! LOVED Katy by the way, she has such great stage presence (not to mention a fun accent). Bern was funny too, we loved their awful attempts at jokes every morning. Oh and then we would get the Wash Your Hands song stuck in our heads for the rest of the day. It's easy when you only have two! Now I finally understand @Twangster's rcblog signature. haha
Today we did another third party excursion through El Tigre Catamaran Tours to Carlisle Bay for snorkeling with turtles and up to Folkstone Marine Park to see the shipwrecks and coral reef.  We had a fantastic time! Made friends with 2 other similarly aged couples on the catamaran and of course a couple of the boat employees as well. Swimming with the turtles was a little crowded because a bunch of other catamarans and glass bottom boats had rolled up to the area at the same time but we still got to see and touch a couple!


After a 35 minute stop in Carlisle we sailed up the coast 45 or so minutes to Folkstone. Seeing sunken ships was awesome, I loved diving down to swim with the fish. We had some lunch on deck after that - very similar to the lunch in Antigua. Fantastic fried fish again, too! 



Sailed right by our cabin on the way back! 

 
After returning to the room we still had about 5 hours till sail away so we decided to pop over to the closest beach, Brandon's a $10 cab/few minutes ride from the port. Brought our floats and sheet and left everything on the beach. There were a few families BBQing and playing soccer but it was otherwise empty! Had our same cabbie come back for us after an hour or so and he did. 

 
After dinner we were in the right place at the right time to see Freedom Ice. No I will not put the damn URL in the name! hahaha It was interesting for sure.. some of the ice skaters were better on stage than the others simply skating through the moves (however complicated - hit me with a smile or something!) My favorite was San Diegan Elaina, she was bright and bubbly on stage (ice!). The freedom theme was strange though, free-loving 60s, an Asian section followed by pirates? The pirates were free to do whatever they wanted I guess? The zoot suit section was super cool, visually. 



Overall pretty entertaining! Hard to stay up for the late shows when you've been sunning and drinking all day so I did not make it to very many. 

Oh wait! Forgot to note that we had told the Head Waiter Catherine about our birthdays on the 22nd and 24th during dinner on night 1 and she notated it - ended up with nothing at all, even after mentioning the birthdays to our waitress Theresa on both occasions. My thoughts on our MDR waitstaff later but thought it was weird when I know I have seen birthday desserts for others in the past! 
We did enjoy some post-dinner mini golf. CBF did NOT let me win for my birthday! haha 

Finally back to regular life today! Was supposed to have a full day off at home to relax yesterday but we didn't make it home till late afternoon. American Airlines - never again. Now back to the blog:
Day Five
Castries, St. Lucia - AND MY BIRTHDAY! 
Today we woke up early again (as usual) to see the ship pulling into port - St. Lucia is the prettiest island we visited in my opinion! Passing the airport was just beautiful. Then we did a 180 in the basin and got to see both sides which was nice. 



Today we had an excursion with St. Lucia Rainforest Adventures which included travel to the rainforest (Castries Waterworks Forest Reserve), 25-min aerial tram ride with narration, 8 canopy zip lines and an excruciatingly hot hike back to the aerial tram for the 25 min ride back down the mountain. Our group really blew through the hike, you could tell that our guide was used to stopping for guests to rest more often but we wanted to get it over with. Be ready to sweat! Saw so many iguanas and birds but not a lot of other forest critters. 
The zip lines themselves were spectacular! 40-70ft above ground in the dense trees and with no way back down once you start. Loved our guide Kenny. His partner that assisted on the back half of the zips was not as engaging but Derek was still fun - he was in a competition with Kenny to see who could do the craziest zip crossings on their turns before and after us. 
Loved seeing St. Lucia neighborhoods on our way to and from the jungle, too. This is another island that reminded me a lot of Hawaii. 




IMG_0172.mov

 
Back in Castries we were exhausted and chose to head back to the ship early for some Solarium time before dinner. Got to watch the whale tail Fascination leave before us at 5 and then enjoyed sail away at 6. Saw the pitons before it got too dark as well! Really think I will be heading back to St. Lucia one day just to land vacation there. Gorgeous! 
 




 

Day Six
Barbados!
On this morning we WON a prize after answering a question CD Katy and AM Bern asked on RCTV. It ended up being a RC metal water bottle, and pretty cool to get the shoutout! LOVED Katy by the way, she has such great stage presence (not to mention a fun accent). Bern was funny too, we loved their awful attempts at jokes every morning. Oh and then we would get the Wash Your Hands song stuck in our heads for the rest of the day. It's easy when you only have two! Now I finally understand @Twangster's rcblog signature. haha
Today we did another third party excursion through El Tigre Catamaran Tours to Carlisle Bay for snorkeling with turtles and up to Folkstone Marine Park to see the shipwrecks and coral reef.  We had a fantastic time! Made friends with 2 other similarly aged couples on the catamaran and of course a couple of the boat employees as well. Swimming with the turtles was a little crowded because a bunch of other catamarans and glass bottom boats had rolled up to the area at the same time but we still got to see and touch a couple!


After a 35 minute stop in Carlisle we sailed up the coast 45 or so minutes to Folkstone. Seeing sunken ships was awesome, I loved diving down to swim with the fish. We had some lunch on deck after that - very similar to the lunch in Antigua. Fantastic fried fish again, too! 



Sailed right by our cabin on the way back! 

 
After returning to the room we still had about 5 hours till sail away so we decided to pop over to the closest beach, Brandon's a $10 cab/few minutes ride from the port. Brought our floats and sheet and left everything on the beach. There were a few families BBQing and playing soccer but it was otherwise empty! Had our same cabbie come back for us after an hour or so and he did. 

 
After dinner we were in the right place at the right time to see Freedom Ice. No I will not put the damn URL in the name! hahaha It was interesting for sure.. some of the ice skaters were better on stage than the others simply skating through the moves (however complicated - hit me with a smile or something!) My favorite was San Diegan Elaina, she was bright and bubbly on stage (ice!). The freedom theme was strange though, free-loving 60s, an Asian section followed by pirates? The pirates were free to do whatever they wanted I guess? The zoot suit section was super cool, visually. 



Overall pretty entertaining! Hard to stay up for the late shows when you've been sunning and drinking all day so I did not make it to very many. 

Day Six
Barbados!
On this morning we WON a prize after answering a question CD Katy and AM Bern asked on RCTV. It ended up being a RC metal water bottle, and pretty cool to get the shoutout! LOVED Katy by the way, she has such great stage presence (not to mention a fun accent). Bern was funny too, we loved their awful attempts at jokes every morning. Oh and then we would get the Wash Your Hands song stuck in our heads for the rest of the day. It's easy when you only have two! Now I finally understand @Twangster's rcblog signature. haha
Today we did another third party excursion through El Tigre Catamaran Tours to Carlisle Bay for snorkeling with turtles and up to Folkstone Marine Park to see the shipwrecks and coral reef.  We had a fantastic time! Made friends with 2 other similarly aged couples on the catamaran and of course a couple of the boat employees as well. Swimming with the turtles was a little crowded because a bunch of other catamarans and glass bottom boats had rolled up to the area at the same time but we still got to see and touch a couple!


After a 35 minute stop in Carlisle we sailed up the coast 45 or so minutes to Folkstone. Seeing sunken ships was awesome, I loved diving down to swim with the fish. We had some lunch on deck after that - very similar to the lunch in Antigua. Fantastic fried fish again, too! 



Sailed right by our cabin on the way back! 

 
After returning to the room we still had about 5 hours till sail away so we decided to pop over to the closest beach, Brandon's a $10 cab/few minutes ride from the port. Brought our floats and sheet and left everything on the beach. There were a few families BBQing and playing soccer but it was otherwise empty! Had our same cabbie come back for us after an hour or so and he did. 

 
After dinner we were in the right place at the right time to see Freedom Ice. No I will not put the damn URL in the name! hahaha It was interesting for sure.. some of the ice skaters were better on stage than the others simply skating through the moves (however complicated - hit me with a smile or something!) My favorite was San Diegan Elaina, she was bright and bubbly on stage (ice!). The freedom theme was strange though, free-loving 60s, an Asian section followed by pirates? The pirates were free to do whatever they wanted I guess? The zoot suit section was super cool, visually. 



Overall pretty entertaining! Hard to stay up for the late shows when you've been sunning and drinking all day so I did not make it to very many. 

Oh wait! Forgot to note that we had told the Head Waiter Catherine about our birthdays on the 22nd and 24th during dinner on night 1 and she notated it - ended up with nothing at all, even after mentioning the birthdays to our waitress Theresa on both occasions. My thoughts on our MDR waitstaff later but thought it was weird when I know I have seen birthday desserts for others in the past! 
We did enjoy some post-dinner mini golf. CBF did NOT let me win for my birthday! haha 

Oh wait! Forgot to note that we had told the Head Waiter Catherine about our birthdays on the 22nd and 24th during dinner on night 1 and she notated it - ended up with nothing at all, even after mentioning the birthdays to our waitress Theresa on both occasions. My thoughts on our MDR waitstaff later but thought it was weird when I know I have seen birthday desserts for others in the past! 
We did enjoy some post-dinner mini golf. CBF did NOT let me win for my birthday! haha 

Finally back to regular life today! Was supposed to have a full day off at home to relax yesterday but we didn't make it home till late afternoon. American Airlines - never again. Now back to the blog:
Day Five
Castries, St. Lucia - AND MY BIRTHDAY! 
Today we woke up early again (as usual) to see the ship pulling into port - St. Lucia is the prettiest island we visited in my opinion! Passing the airport was just beautiful. Then we did a 180 in the basin and got to see both sides which was nice. 



Today we had an excursion with St. Lucia Rainforest Adventures which included travel to the rainforest (Castries Waterworks Forest Reserve), 25-min aerial tram ride with narration, 8 canopy zip lines and an excruciatingly hot hike back to the aerial tram for the 25 min ride back down the mountain. Our group really blew through the hike, you could tell that our guide was used to stopping for guests to rest more often but we wanted to get it over with. Be ready to sweat! Saw so many iguanas and birds but not a lot of other forest critters. 
The zip lines themselves were spectacular! 40-70ft above ground in the dense trees and with no way back down once you start. Loved our guide Kenny. His partner that assisted on the back half of the zips was not as engaging but Derek was still fun - he was in a competition with Kenny to see who could do the craziest zip crossings on their turns before and after us. 
Loved seeing St. Lucia neighborhoods on our way to and from the jungle, too. This is another island that reminded me a lot of Hawaii. 




IMG_0172.mov

 
Back in Castries we were exhausted and chose to head back to the ship early for some Solarium time before dinner. Got to watch the whale tail Fascination leave before us at 5 and then enjoyed sail away at 6. Saw the pitons before it got too dark as well! Really think I will be heading back to St. Lucia one day just to land vacation there. Gorgeous! 
 




 

Day Four
Antigua and Barbuda ?? 
Today was our first and only excursion through RC. I do like that you get to meet on board before disembarking! People on vacation have no sense of urgency.. walking into a 9:00 meet time at 9:20 with no apologies?! hahah ruthless. Same for the muster, twenty minutes late and the whole Star Lounge is waiting on you! 
Loved the excursion: See Antigua by Sea. About 50-100 people on the motorized catamaran Excellence, circumnavigating the entire island. We stopped to pick people up at Dickenson bay and for lunch on Green Island!
We also got to snorkel the reef and had beach time after lunch. It poooured while we were snorkeling so we turned back slightly earlier than usual. The rain didn't really effect the quality of the snorkeling as you could only slightly feel it on your back. Saw two eels and lobster among lots of colorful fish. One of the guides said it hadn’t rained like that in 6 months!
There was grilled chicken, rice, pasta salad and salad for lunch and rum punches all around. We started a jumping/diving off the back of the boat trend that escalated to a three-person simultaneous back flip! There was a large family reunion on the boat with us, maybe 20-30 people? And they were a lot of fun, encouraging each other to do crazier off-boat jumps. 
Leaving Port
 
Dickenson Bay

Off the coast of Long Island


From the lunch/snorkel stop on Green Island

Trusty Springfloat in action

Back in Port



After we were back on board we took yet another trip to the Solarium pool for swimming and cocktails! 

Leaving Antigua


 

Back in San Juan post best-cruise-EVER and sad to see my sweet angel waiting in port to set off again WITHOUT ME! Booo! ???
Will finish off this blog in the following days! 


In other news, the Caribe Hilton is amaaazing! Had a great day exploring El Yunque and Luquillo post disembarkation. (10 minutes from room to cab with self assist!! ?) More on PR later! 

Oops forgot the closeup! Also, bye to that ugly whale tail that followed us all week. 

Oops forgot the closeup! Also, bye to that ugly whale tail that followed us all week. 

Day Four
Antigua and Barbuda ?? 
Today was our first and only excursion through RC. I do like that you get to meet on board before disembarking! People on vacation have no sense of urgency.. walking into a 9:00 meet time at 9:20 with no apologies?! hahah ruthless. Same for the muster, twenty minutes late and the whole Star Lounge is waiting on you! 
Loved the excursion: See Antigua by Sea. About 50-100 people on the motorized catamaran Excellence, circumnavigating the entire island. We stopped to pick people up at Dickenson bay and for lunch on Green Island!
We also got to snorkel the reef and had beach time after lunch. It poooured while we were snorkeling so we turned back slightly earlier than usual. The rain didn't really effect the quality of the snorkeling as you could only slightly feel it on your back. Saw two eels and lobster among lots of colorful fish. One of the guides said it hadn’t rained like that in 6 months!
There was grilled chicken, rice, pasta salad and salad for lunch and rum punches all around. We started a jumping/diving off the back of the boat trend that escalated to a three-person simultaneous back flip! There was a large family reunion on the boat with us, maybe 20-30 people? And they were a lot of fun, encouraging each other to do crazier off-boat jumps. 
Leaving Port
 
Dickenson Bay

Off the coast of Long Island


From the lunch/snorkel stop on Green Island

Trusty Springfloat in action

Back in Port



After we were back on board we took yet another trip to the Solarium pool for swimming and cocktails! 

Leaving Antigua


 

Oops forgot the closeup! Also, bye to that ugly whale tail that followed us all week. 

Back in San Juan post best-cruise-EVER and sad to see my sweet angel waiting in port to set off again WITHOUT ME! Booo! ???
Will finish off this blog in the following days! 


In other news, the Caribe Hilton is amaaazing! Had a great day exploring El Yunque and Luquillo post disembarkation. (10 minutes from room to cab with self assist!! ?) More on PR later!