Day 1 – Embarkation was a breeze! We checked in on the app and that was pretty much it. The only line we stood in was waiting for the port to open its doors at 11am. The rest of the day we spent exploring the ship – even though we have been on the Summit numerous times, it was renovated last year and we were excited to see all the updates. After muster we hung out on the sunset deck and ate dinner from the buffet. (With a buffet like that, there’s little motivation to dress up to go to the dining room.)

PS – Pamela is our stateroom attendant and she seems to be a spitfire! I think we’re going to get along just fine. (And we really did. She was/is amazing!!)

Day 2 – St. Thomas

We grabbed a taxi to Coki Point Beach this morning. Coki is in a little cove with a reef on either side that’s home to lots of fish so it’s great walk into the water and snorkel place. We didn’t snorkel at all on our last cruise so we were really looking forward to it this time. There are little bars and beach service but since it was Sunday some of them were closed and the selection was more limited. There was a local family sitting behind us burning joints most of the day. It was bad. Getting a whiff every now and then is one thing. But nearly constantly? (I told a friend about this and she said, “And you got that for free!!” LOL – different perspectives.) We actually ended up leaving early because I was just over it.

Came back to get ready for the big game! Super Bowl! Kansas City Chiefs vs San Francisco 49ers. The game was being played all over the ship (rooftop terrace, casino, staterooms and the main theater). Initially we wanted to watch it up on the rooftop terrace but the seating was so limited we could tell it just wasn’t going to happen. So we settled for the theater. There was all kinds of football food – wings, dogs, burgers, nachos, cookies, cakes, etc. We had a great time – about 75% of the theater was rooting for the Chiefs, as were we. It was a great game with a tight finish. What a fun way to spend Super Bowl!! Chief won 31 – 20!!

Day 3 – Sint Maarten

We booked an excursion through the ship to take us to Kimsha Beach on Simpson Bay. It was nice, not too crowded, service was good, food was good, beach was okay. But what’s to complain about being carted around, fed, waited on and being able to bob in that awesome water for the day?

Tonight we ate in La Petite Chef and it was every bit as wonderful as it was on the Silhouette in December. Unfortunately the guys on the Summit are not as willing to negotiate prices on the specialty restaurants so it’s unlikely we’ll eat there again this cruise.

Day 4 – Dominica

We decided to do something different this time on Dominica. There was a river tubing excursion through the ship that caught our eye. (We typically don’t book excursions through the ship simply because there are always so many people. It’s very impersonal. But when you have a lot of onboard credit you may as well – so we did.) There were at least five vans filled with ten people each taking us to our destination. It was about an hour drive. On a mostly really winding S curve road. Our driver was awesome though (most of the time they are). By the time we arrived at the river we all needed some ginger for our stomachs.

It didn’t take long for the few instructions and suiting up with life jackets and helmets (I think it’s been a while since those suckers have had a chance to dry out too … whew!) before we were flopping our butts in the tubes to start our journey. They told us the river was a little low before we entered. LOL they weren’t kidding. There were times our guides were little more than ankle deep. We did go through a few “rapids” (and I use that word loosely) following the “bums up!” command. In between the “rapids” were areas where we just floated. Between a low river and wimpy current these guys were pushing/dragging us to keep us going. People left and right got stuck on the bank or on rocks and had to wait to be dragged off. “Link up” was another command they used during these floating areas. That way when they pulled/pushed a group everyone moved. And there were SO MANY of us. It was goat screw. But these guys! They worked so hard to make this a fun time for everyone. They were awesome! Most everyone just went with it and made it fun for what it was. We booked this months out and know they have no control over the rainfall or how high or low the river is. So we appreciated their efforts and tipped accordingly.

By the time we took the same road back down the mountain to the ship we were done. We showered and had some downtime this afternoon before hitting the Sunset Bar. A little shower shifted some people around and we ended up with a group of cruisers (there are about 65 of them) who adopted us. Sheila and Walter from Alabama are two of the originals. Hearing their stories of previous cruises, how everyone met (cruisecritics.com) and life on their farm kept us entertained until they headed off for dinner. (Especially the story about Foot, Foot Foot and Foot Foot Foot!) We loved it! Hoping to run into them again. (We did get to say goodbye the morning of disembarkation and exchanged numbers. And now we’re friends on Facebook. :))Another wonderful dinner from the buffet tonight – stir fry. Mmmmmm

The show in the theater tonight is a wonderful vocal artist who we’ve seen before so we elected to skip it and hang out for a while in Al Bacio. Looking forward to the beach tomorrow.

Day 5 – Barbados

Brandon/Brighton Beach – we found this little gem on our last cruise. It’s a beautiful, quiet, calm beach that doesn’t get a ton of traffic. There’s one little bar/restaurant called Rascals that has good food, drinks and a restroom. What more could you want? So we accomplished our goals for the day – bobbing and pruning.

Back on the ship we cleaned up and had a little chill time (had to recover from all that bobbing and pruning dontchaknow) until the Sunset Deck called our names for the evening. Sitting our there feeling the cool breeze with a glass of wine and just enjoying the moment … awesome. The show tonight was a typical Celebrity broadway type and we typically don’t do them, which meant we had more time to hang out on the Sunset Deck.

Day 6 – Grenada

Grand Anse Beach – this morning started dark and cloudy but since we know how quickly the weather changes down here on the islands it did not deter us from our beach plans. After our back to back 9am meeting this morning we picked up our bags and headed to the water taxi. We’ve done this several times so it’s quite comical watching the horror and confusion of first timers. They pack you in like sardines on these little shuttle boats. We’re used to it by now – newbies aren’t. And Lord have mercy some people are drama kings/queens. One lady this morning kept talking about throwing up if they put any more people on the boat. Quite a few would only pay for the one way shuttle instead of round trip. Hysterical. Also hysterical watching all the people pay for the one way trip back to the ship in the afternoon. Honestly, this is what these guys do – all day, every day. It’s their livelihood. They aren’t going to jeopardize that. People need to just take a chill pill. (The first time we went to Grand Anse Beach they guy started our water taxi by hot wiring it. #truth)

About the time we got settled in our chairs the sky darkened even more and before long the wind was whipping and the drops started falling. Really didn’t matter. We were under our umbrella and were going to get in the water and get wet anyway. Plus we knew (hoped) it would blow over. And it did. Eventually. But before the sun came out for the day those drops got fatter and the wind about tore that umbrella up. All in all it ended up being a great beach day – we bobbed and got a little pruned.

We met quite a few people on the water taxi back to the ship. Judy and Paul from New Hampshire. Judy is a trip! She told us all about their harrowing taxi ride to get to the beach – over an hour! – and anything else we wanted to know. LOL They vacationed in Va. Beach for years and knew all the local golf courses. I should’ve got a picture of them but hopefully we’ll run into each other again before Saturday. (We didn’t. Honestly, she probably wouldn’t have remembered us anyway. LOL)

Duran Howard was the comedian in the theater tonight. He was one of the best we’ve seen. According to him he comes from the hood in Memphis and grew up in a country church with a pastor for a father. Loved his comedy and stories!

Day 7 – Sea Day

Slug day. I finished book #4 since leaving a week ago and Bob finally finished his book. We’re rocking a little bit tonight and I love it. One lady on the elevator yesterday commented on this little bit of rocking and how she didn’t like it. I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, “Lady you’re on a ship. This ain’t rocking anyway. We had a wave pool before from rocking.” (#truth) People. What are ya gonna do?

All McCartney Live was the show tonight and they rocked the house. Tight band. Lead singer had a great Paul McCartney sound alike voice. Was a lot of fun. Interesting point – the captain greeted everyone before the show early in the cruise. Not too unusual. But tonight before the show he came out on stage to thank everyone for sailing with him, hoped everyone had a wonderful time and to have a safe journey back home. We’ve never seen that before and thought it was very cool. After the amazing show we came back to the cabin to pack up our stuff (for moving to our sunset veranda tomorrow) and ended the evening at Bacio with a wee piece of dessert. Tomorrow will be interesting with the changing of the guard so to speak. I guess most people who book back to back cruise stay in the same stateroom but we booked the second week first, then booked the first week when a great deal came along. Pretty excited about that sunset veranda.

Pamela ended up being one of the best stateroom attendants we’ve ever had. She has a great down to earth personality, is a hard worker, very organized and sweet on top of all that. As much as we’re looking forward to the next room we wish we could take her with us. But we’ll come back to see her next week.