03-23-2007
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#1 (permalink) |
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life=playa
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SSP, MN
Posts: 892
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Trip Report - Tlyn & Family's Cruise
Here goes my first trip report – ever! First of all, a BIG thank you to Pamplemoose for all of your help and patience with me with posting pictures! Many pm’s transpired and you were very patient and kind to me.
 We decided last Spring after returning from an adult-only trip to Playa that we wanted to bring our two daughters (ages 11 & 9) next time. For months, I looked at and read a ton of info on hotels and condos in PDC. Because air was high in the fall, we decided to look for a last minute deal after x-mas. I remembered from the previous year that air dropped right after the holidays. Long story short here is that we decided on Xaman-Ha but couldn’t get the air worked out. So now, after putting all our eggs in one basket, we were desperate to book something. All along my husband and kids mentioned taking a cruise. None of us had ever been on a cruise but I wasn’t as enthusiastic. I worried that a cruise would be too scheduled for us. But we found a great last minute deal and decided to go. Day One: We had an early flight out of Mpls so after sleeping 2 hours, we were up by 2 a.m. and out of the house by 3:30 on our way to the airport. The girls were great about being up in the middle of the night and we were all excited. Lost my Avon Skin So Soft in security since it was 4 oz instead of 3. Oh well. We met some people waiting in the airport who told us that had been on many cruises and that we were going to love it. I realized that neither my husband nor I had brought a watch – big mistake!! Although neither of us wears a watch – it drove us crazy all week. Here we are looking rather chipper at 4:30 a.m.!  I sat with the girls on the plane and our oldest Madeline kept asking me, “Are we there yet?” “Mom, where do you think we are right now?” “I’m bored,” yadda, yadda . . . All I could think was that Bob was going to be sitting next to them on the way home. We landed in San Juan and made our way to the luggage and transfer to the ship. I ran quickly to the bathroom before getting on the bus and when I came back, the bus was gone and I couldn’t find my family. I panicked!!!  I asked someone outside if the bus left and she told me to walk all the way down to the end of the terminal to look. Luckily, while on my way, my husband found me – thank goodness. Quick trip on the bus to the terminal. It didn’t take us too long to get on board – maybe an hour but since we were standing outside in the warm sunshine, we didn’t mind. Did I mention it was well below zero when we left Minnesota? We were all immediately impressed with the size of the ship. It had 14 floors!!  The first thing I learned is that they give you a sea pass card and that’s the card we use for everything – room key, purchases, etc. No cash (except the casinos) is used on board. We found our way to the Windjammer (buffet restaurant) and had a bite and then explored the ship. Our oldest, Madeline, wanted to try out the rock wall first. She rock climbs at home and loves it.  The girls swam in the pool (which is saltwater) and we had our a few beers. We made our way back to our rooms – both inside cabins next door to each other and cleaned up for dinner. Because our luggage hadn’t been delivered yet, we decided to skip the dining room and go back to Windjammer for dinner. After dinner, we had our muster drill. We all put on our life jackets and headed to the assigned deck to be counted. We were crowded and hot, but we explained to the girls that it’s required on all ships. Here’s a picture of the girls in their life jackets:  Although I get up early at home everyday, I love sleeping in on vacation. However, my husband decided that we should get up each morning to watch the sunrise. Although I grumbled a bit each morning, it really was worth it. The first day on board was an “at sea” day. Unfortunately I woke up to feeling sick. I thought I was just overtired but I felt dizzy, too. Since I’ve been exercising at home pretty regularly, I thought maybe I’d hit the gym and sweat it out. Big mistake!! First, let me say the gym is sooooo nice on the ship - lots of equipment and panoramic views of the sea. I was only on the elliptical about 15 minutes when I felt lightheaded and had to get off. I made my way back to find Bob (the girls were in kids’ club) and he thought I should try and eat something. Sitting back at the Windjammer Café almost made me feel worse and at this point, I was in tears. What a baby I was! One of the wait staff saw that I was upset and said that I was probably seasick. I figured this. I have chronic ear infections and in fact, have had to have tubes in my ears. I thought I was prepared for this trip by wearing the ear patch and taking Dramamine, but apparently it wasn’t enough. The waiter said to go to the ship store and buy sea bands – they look like tight bracelets but little flat balls on the inside that are supposed to hit pressure points on the wrist. He also told me to go up on deck and make sure I could see the horizon and most importantly, drink a pina colada. Hmmm, I was skeptical but desperate to feel better so off we went. The combination seemed to work – maybe it was the pina colada. In any case, I felt better. We picked up the girls mid afternoon and played in the pool. Monday was formal night in the dining room. I was slightly apprehensive about formal night since we don’t really have formal clothes. My long sun dress sufficed and the girls looked beautiful. Insert girls in formal wear with bob and near room We did see a lot of people in fancy gowns and men in tuxes. Off to our first dinner in the dining room. Wow, it was huge – it’s basically a large dining room spread over three floors. We met our tablemates – two couples from Toronto who were a lot of fun. I think I had them convinced by the end of the week to try a trip to Playa sometime. Dinner was great – can’t remember what we had but the food was wonderful every night. And the service was amazing. We headed off to bed shortly after dinner to watch a movie with the girls and dreamed of waking up in Aruba.
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03-23-2007
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#4 (permalink) | |
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life=playa
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SSP, MN
Posts: 892
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Here's the pic I wanted in that post.
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03-23-2007
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#6 (permalink) |
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lost on fifth
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Great Lake State
Posts: 24
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My husband and I took our first cruise two years ago and absolutley (sp?) loved it. The size of the ships are amazing!
Now we want to take our three teenagers on a cruise. But first I'm headed to Playa with my 19 year old son and some friends.
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03-23-2007
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#10 (permalink) |
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lost on fifth
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Great Lake State
Posts: 24
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I love just about anywhere where it is warm, has a beach, and a nice cold drink.
But yes, St. Marten was beautiful. I'm trying to fiqure out how to add photos...not have much luck. How did you do it? I tried a search, but came up empty. |
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03-23-2007
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#11 (permalink) | |
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life=playa
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SSP, MN
Posts: 892
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03-23-2007
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#12 (permalink) |
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life=playa
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SSP, MN
Posts: 892
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Aruba
Mr. Drill Sergeant (aka Bob) woke us at 5:30 and we went up on deck to see the beautiful sunrise coming into Aruba. And wow was it windy!! I'm not fond of this photo of me, but it does show how windy it was.     Every night when the room steward came in (while we are at dinner) to turn down the bed and leave chocolates on the pillow, he would leave a Cruise Compass, which was basically like a newspaper of all of the ship activities along with shore excursions for the next day. We had heard (well Mr. Cheap read it) that if we explored on our own, it would be a lot more fun and of course cheaper. I am usually a compulsive planner but since this trip was so last minute, I didn’t get in my usual minute-by-minute over planning. It was a good thing. (See honey, I learned something on this vacation!) Here's some towel art in our room:  After breakfast, we got off the boat and through Aruba’s terminal and greeted by several people offering to take us on tours, etc. One guy (wish I could remember his name) offered to take us on a tour all around the island and then drop us off at a beach. Sounded good to us, so off we went. He took us all over, well, the island is basically very small – only 20 miles long and 7 miles wide. He was very entertaining and great with the girls. He commented several times about how there is a lot of cactus (or is it cacti?) on Aruba. They apparently hate cactus and try all they can to kill it. He found it funny that Americans like cactus. I guess he didn’t know where Minnesota was.      I wanted to go to Baby Beach and snorkel, but couldn’t talk Bob and Kam into it. Kam was nervous about snorkeling and we thought we’d try it on another island. Since the kids just wanted to be on a beach, we ended up at Palm Beach, which was breathtaking.   We rented a palapa and chairs and played in the sand and water. The water was even more crystal clear than what I’ve seen in Playa. There was a little beach bar close by and Bob walked up to get us snacks and beers. We tried a local beer, Balashi – it was wonderful!! In fact, I tried to find this beer in Minnesota for Bob’s b-day two weeks ago and found out there isn’t a distributor in our area. Here’s a shout out to anyone on the Board who may have seen this beer in their area? We had lunch and stayed on the beach for a few hours and then took a bus back to the ship. We changed and headed back out to do a little shopping. Aruba is not only beautiful, but it is incredibly clean – never saw any garbage or debris on the road or around, and the shop owners were so friendly. We stopped at a bar/restaurant in town a friend of mine had mentioned. My girlfriend and her husband owned a bar in Minnesota by the same name, so I was glad we came across it. Here was our view from the deck of the Paddock:  We had our souvenirs and headed back to the ship. Had to make a stop for ice cream before going to our room. This would become our routine all week. The ship had several ice cream (soft serve) machines on board. We quickly figured out where they all were. On the last day, our youngest daughter Kam, told us she was visiting the ice cream machine four times a day. The girls also had a Cruise Compass of their own for kids’ club and wanted to go tonight. So, we got them a bite to eat at the buffet and dropped them off. When we went back to get them before going to the dining room, they begged to stay. The kids’ program on our ship was great. Our oldest, who is too quickly approaching the teenage stage, was never bored at kids’ club – they had so many fun activities. So, off to dinner we went sans kids. Here’s where dinner got interesting . . . when the waiter asked Bob what he wanted for dinner, he couldn’t decide since four (yes, four) of the appetizers looked good but he was also interested in one of the entrees. The waiter told him “Why not get it all?” I don’t think I’ve ever seen my husband happier. This would become the joke with our tablemates all week – what (and how much) would Bob order tonight? Since kids’ club closed at 10, I went to get the girls to bring them back for dessert with us.  We explored the ship a little more and eventually headed off to bed. I was excited about waking up in Curacao tomorrow. |
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03-23-2007
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#15 (permalink) | |
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life=playa
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: SSP, MN
Posts: 892
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