We went along with a group of seven other couples. We only knew one other couple before the cruise, and they knew several of the other couples, but it was easy to get to know them and jump right into their activities. I'm glad we were with a group. Doug and I had lots of time to do whatever we wanted on our own, but it was fun to have familiar faces to tour the islands with and have dinner with.
The ship was basically like a Las Vegas hotel/casino, floating around the Carribbean. I got a little irritated 
with all the sensless smokers, and we tried to avoid the areas where they liked to hang out (eg. bars and casinos on the ship), but once in a while we'd be lounging in the sun on deck, and they'd light up right next to my pregnant self. If there were smokers in the cabins next to ours, though, I didn't notice. That was something to be grateful for.It was great to spend a week without having to cook one meal or clean up after myself or anyone else. Twice a day, they would clean our cabin for us. Every night we found a different towel animal waiting for us on our bed. Cute and clever, but Doug and I would rather snuggle with pillows than towel creations.
THE FOOD
There were constant buffets. We didn't have time to get hungry between meals. In the mornings, I liked to visit the omlette chef. Most days we had a late lunch because we were on the islands wandering around most of the time. So we would come back in the late afternoon and have a sandwich from the grill or something from the buffet. We had a late dinner in the dining room every night, and that was definitely the best meal of every day. The menu was different every night, and it was often hard to decide on just one starter and one entree---so we pigged out and sometimes ordered 2 of each! Most nights, we didn't finish dinner until almost 10:00, and then
there was often a midnight buffet. One night it was a Mexican buffet, another night it was a fancy food-that-looks-too-pretty-to-eat buffet. By the midnight buffets, though, we were already waddling around the ship with over-stuffed bellies, so we just looked, but didn't really touch. I know there was also a chocolate buffet one day, but we were busy snorkeling and missed it. One treat, however, we had at least once a day: soft serve. They had self-serve soft ice cream and frozen yogurt machines 24-hours-a-day, and we topped off several meals that way, including breakfasts.The one thing I missed about experiencing all of those islands in one week was the local cuisine. We ate all of our meals on the ship. So, our last day of vacation in Puerto Rico, I was determined to eat some authentic local food. Luckily, we found a little restaurant down the street from our hotel where we got some chicken and rice & beans and fried plantains. Good stuff.
HOW WE SPENT THE DAYS
Saturday night we left home and flew all night. We finally landed in Puerto Rico on Sunday afternoon.
And guess what: It was RAINING!!! Our taxi driver was telling us how unusual this rain was for them. I didn't tell her that it was my fault, even though I knew it myself. The rain follows me wherever I go. It's true. But it didn't last long, and after checking into our cruise ship and having a bite to eat, we had time to wander the streets of Old San Juan before our ship left port that night. There was apparently some sort of festival going on. ("festival" = streets full of people drinking and being loud)Sunday night we slept while the ship sailed to St. Thomas. When we woke up in the morning, I looked out our
window to see that we were already docked, and....it was POURING DOWN RAIN! This was pretty disappointing, since our traveling group had chartered a catamaran that was going to take us sailing and snorkeling around St. Thomas and St. John that day. It was cancelled. :( We decided to take a taxi to the beach, despite the rain. We swam around in the water, in the rain. We hung out under picnic shelters on the beach. I think there might have been 5 or 6 other people on the beach that day. After a couple of hours, we went back to the ship to dry off. 
During a break in the rain that afternoon, we went back into port to do a little shopping. On our way back to the ship, it was another downpour, and we got soaked to the skin, once again. It was comical, by then.
That evening and the next were pretty rocky ones at sea. That night I wasn't too bothered by it, but the next evening, I was feeling pretty dizzy and sick. People who have cruised before said that this voyage was more rocky than others they remember. When I was sleeping at night, the rocking didn't bother me. But when I was trying to eat dinner and walk around the ship, it was really bugging me. And I still feel like I'm rocking today, even though I've been on land for three days now.
Tuesday: We docked at Dominica.
We hired a taxi driver to take us on a four-hour tour of the island.
It was raining again, but not so hard, and besides, we were driving through a rain forest, so it wasn't that unusual to have some rain. We stopped at a roadside stand and sampled some fruit, went on a hike to a waterfall, and saw lots of beautiful views of the island. Did a little more shopping at the end of the day--there was no shortage of shopping on this trip. Lots of chances to bargain.Wednesday: Barbados. Our first truly sunny day. The best weather of the week, and not the most beautiful island to tour around, so we spent the day at the beach.
It was wonderful! The beach was huge and beautiful, and the water was warm and clear. Doug and I did some snorkeling (our own snorkel equipment purchased at Costco before we left came in really handy!), and the most exciting thing we saw was a sea ray. I spotted these two bulging eyes, almost hidden in the sand. Doug dove down to check it out, and as he reached out to poke the sand, this ray came shimmying out of the sand and darted away from us. My back got a bit sunburnt that day, but it was worth it.
Thursday: We arrived at the island of St. Kitts. We woke up and could see it outside the window. But then the captain came on the PA system and announced that we wouldn't be able to port there because of "unfavorable wind conditions." That was disappointing. Instead, we headed directly to our last stop: Dominican Republic.
Doug and I spent that day on deck, reading and sleeping on lounge chairs, and soaking in the sun. It was a nice way to relax.On Friday we arrived in the Dominican Republic and went on a sail & snorkel excursion.
It was ok, but the water was pretty murky and the beach was littered with trash. I also swallowed 3 gulps of sea water, because the waves were a bit choppy, and that made me sick to my stomach. On the sail back to shore, lots of people on our tour were drinking Coke & rum, and doing a little dirty dancing with our tour guide. It was really classy, let me tell you. I tried not to think about how nice it would have been if we had been able to do our private sail & snorkel back on St. Thomas.We stayed in that port overnight, and the next morning we had hoped to go to Santo Domingo to see more of
the island, and visit the temple there.
However, we found out it was going to take longer than we thought and cost more money than we had been told to do that, so we ended up there in the port city of La Romana, doing some shopping again. I'm actually glad for the way it turned out, because La Romana was a busy enough place to make me nervous in the streets, and Santo Domingo is much bigger and probably scarier. Even though it made me somewhat nervous, I enjoyed the chance to feel like we were seeing the real D.R., and not just a sheltered tourist site. We shopped around a little market set up in the park, and also a few small shops in the town, and then we ended up at a Jumbo supermarket, buying candy and treats to bring home to the kids.EVENING ENTERTAINMENT
After dinner each night, we found something to keep us busy until midnight (which was 8:00 pm back home). A couple of nights, we went to shows. There was some singing and dancing, a comedian, a juggler, and an illusionist. There were two formal evenings, and after dinner one of those evenings, we all went dancing.
It was pretty fun, because our group were the only dancers on the floor. The mood reminded me of church youth dances I attended, except we weren't so young anymore. (Doug and I were the youngest couple in our group, by about 5-10 years.) There was also a "Destiny Idol" show (Gerb--if only you had been there. It was a perfect chance for you to liven things up, because let me tell you, after 3 contestants, we walked out, it was so boring.), and one night we just ate frozen yogurt and played games with our group.THE END
Sunday morning we got back to Puerto Rico, and our cruise ended. However, we couldn't fly home until Monday, so Doug and I and our friends, the Litchfields, had one more day to vacation. We checked into a hotel, and then walked to a nearby beach. Actually, instead of the beach, we borrowed a couple of lounge chairs at a really nice hotel on the beach, and sat in the sun by their pool, which was right next to the beach. It was a lovely place, and the weather was perfect. It was nice that our vacation ended with a day of perfect weather.
BACK AT THE HOME FRONT...
Grandma Davies had more than her fair share of challenges with taking care of our home and children: they spent two days without heat when the furnace broke down; electrical shortages when they tried to use space heaters to keep warm; and Hannah got the flu. We're so grateful to her for all that she did, while we were spending a week without cares. My kids are still slipping up and calling me "Grandma"!
P.S. I can't figure out why sometimes you can, and sometimes (like in this particular post), you can't click on the pictures to see them enlarged. Sorry!
