Week 2

Day 8 – Faux Sea Day

Since we had to be out of our cabin by 8am we went to the meeting place for back to back cruisers after breakfast and hung out. There was a little lag time but the entire process was pretty painless. We were done and in our new cabin unpacking by 10:30 – nothing to complain about there! The deck is amazing! (In retrospect we wouldn’t book it again. Noise from the Sunset Deck below was mostly nominal. But on the deck above us was the big screen TV playing movies constantly that kept us from enjoying having our veranda door open. We really missed be able to do that. We would consider a sunset veranda on other ships but not on the Summit again.) We were completely unpacked before going to lunch in the dining room – then just hung around and watched the new cruisers come aboard.

Went to our first dinner in Blu and it was amazing! It always is. Been a while since we have been in Aqua Class. Then came back and listened to the sounds of the sunset deck below us. And the movie screen above us.

Day 9 – St. Thomas

We booked an excursion to go to St. John so we could snorkel Trunk Bay. We have been wanting to do that for years. It won’t give us as much time as we’d like but at least it will give us enough information to know whether or not we’ll want to go back. The ferry ride from the pier was about 45 minutes to Cruz Bay. Then a 15 minute taxi ride to the beach. The sights along the way were amazing. The beach looked incredible, and the water? We’ve never seen water that clear before. It really looked like pool water. But the snorkeling itself left a bit more to be desired. We did see some fish. Some. But not tons. There was no colorful coral and really no colorful fish. Most of the ones I did see were a silver/white with a small stripe. It wasn’t even worth taking any pictures. So I took some of the water and the beach and we just enjoyed the moment. We would come back to the area for the beach, but not necessarily for the snorkeling. Good to know. On the ferry on the way to St. John and back our guide kept us entertained with local histories and stories of both St. John and St. Thomas. I’m sure he could’ve gone on and on for days. (Need to look up Dr. Libby and the dolphin house … )

We got back to the ship around 4:00 which gave us just enough time to catch our breaths and get cleaned up for dinner at 6:30. We passed on the theater show tonight so just came back to our cabin to chill.

Day 10 – St. Kitts / Nevis

We had an excursion to Nevis planned but neither one of us was feeling it this morning so we talked ourselves out of it pretty quickly. Since we booked it with On Board Credit we weren’t really losing out on real money (at least that’s what we told ourselves). For whatever reason both of us were just dragging this morning. So we took our time and caught a taxi to Frigate Bay Beach after breakfast. It’s pretty close to the pier and we’ve heard mixed reviews. You never really know until you try it. The beach itself feels kind of dirty. The sand is not pretty soft white sand. It’s darker and coarse. The beach is lined with shacks. To be honest, it kind of felt like the hood. It was windy and a little cooler and all of the combined factors made us not have any desire to even get in the water – that’s pretty big for me. Our biggest entertainment today was our topless sunbather. Keep in mind this beach is crowded and every other woman has a top on. Not this chick – nope, she was proud of those headlights she bought. Obviously she didn’t want tan lines. While it wasn’t known for being a topless beach I guess it was allowed. (Smh) One of the things that really jumped out at me while we were grabbing lunch at the bar was how unhappy everybody was. No one smiled. At all. The were not motivated or concerned about any kind of decent customer service. That’s just unusual on the islands, especially in a tourist spot. Note to self. We hung out for a few hours and caught the 3:00 taxi back to the ship.

After our awesome dinner at Blu we putzed around waiting for the 9pm All McCartney Live show to start. Saw it last week and it is phenomenal! They played to a full house tonight and the house LOVED them!

Right after the show the stage was being broken down and re set up for the Live Laugh Love game – their version of the Newlywed Game, or Love and Marriage. We’ve seen it many time before and it’s one of our favorites! Eddy absolutely, hands down, made this one. The couples were typical but the way he handled them and the smart ass comebacks he threw out totally stole the show. The man is so quick he could be on Who’s Line is it Anyway. Fantastic!

Day 11 – Antigua

So we booked this excursion through the ship (the OBC again). It was beach getaway with a lobster lunch. Keep in mind we have a beach on Antigua we love – Ffyres Beach – we just wanted to try something different, since there are 365 beaches on this island. This excursion is marketed at being on a white sand secluded beach and great snorkeling. In reality it was a wade pool with a few fish around the rock barrier. The freshly grilled lobster lunch was also a joke. Oh we had lobster alright but it was not freshly grilled. It tasted like it had been cooked previously and heated up on a grill (we’ve had that before too). The rock barrier on this part of the “beach” kept the water level at about 3-1/2′ maximum. The building we had lunch in was a vacant building they just used for this event. It appeared there was not even electricity. While it looked like it a had a nice place in its day it certainly was not in use currently. The company running this operation was not professional at all. From the drivers to those handling the food, chairs, umbrellas, etc. Beach chairs were provided but we had to rent an umbrella. Not unusual and we didn’t have an issue with that. But the umbrella set up they had was not your normal rental quality – it was more like what we’d get at Walmart. The winds were pretty strong that day and not something a Walmart umbrella can successfully withstand. They were flying on the beach and in the water with a gust of wind. We were holding on to it while we were sitting there to keep it from blowing away. When we were called up to eat lunch Bob told one of the girls it wasn’t secured well enough to be left there unattended and asked if someone could at least close it. They didn’t. It blew away. Lunch was mediocre at best. Drama continued when Bob asked for another umbrella or a refund. She called her boss. No refund. We should’ve taken the winds into consideration when we rented it, so if we sat under it at all, no refund. For real. They ended up finding us another umbrella and digging another hole. While we squatting in the water so we could get our shoulders wet our umbrella was blown inside out. We gave up for the rest of the time and left a not so satisfying review. Lesson learned. It’s disappointing but not important enough to let it ruin our day – although it did get into Bob’s head. LOL

Tonight’s show was called Synergy – twin brothers performing high energy numbers on their electric rock fiddles. They were amazing. They opened with Charlie Daniel’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and it was awesome! I didn’t take any video but look them up on YouTube if you want to see what they’re all about. Synergy Twins

Day 12 – St. Lucia

We tried a new beach today (excursion through the ship) to Reduit Beach. St. Lucia isn’t known for its beaches so we’re still searching for our favorite. This one gets varying reviews so we had to try it for ourselves. We walked away liking it enough to be our default when there wasn’t anything else going on we wanted to do. It’s crowded but you do get service on the beach if you want and I can bob and prune so I’m good.

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After dinner we were hanging out in Cafe al Bacio (before for 9pm show) and the Synergy Brothers did a nearly full impromptu performance right in the middle of Decks 3 & 4. It was mentioned last night they were going to do a mini performance on Deck 3 but I had forgotten about it and was delightfully surprised! They played for about 45 minutes! So cool!

The show tonight was called NYC3 – basically a boy band. Totally not Bob’s thing, but he suffered through it for me. LOL They were good but nothing special – typical boy band stuff.

Day 13 – Barbados

We had considered trying Carlyle Beach this time but ended up back at Brighton Beach just because it was a known thing. It’s a quiet, no frills (but does have a bar and restrooms) beach to simply be and soak it in. Since it was our last day to be able to do that we chose what we know. Our taxi driver on the way back to the ship told us his favorite beach is a little further down called Batts Rock Beach. Says there are more choices for food and the restrooms are cleaner. Another group we met went to Holetown Beach and loved that so we’ll check that one out too.

Comedian for the show tonight. He was really good. My mascara was all messed up by the time we got out of there.

Day 14 – Sea Day

Valentine’s Day – the main event today was complimentary renewal of vowels performed by Captain Matt. Wednesday night there were about 70 couples signed up – cut off was noon yesterday. I don’t know what the final count was but there was a ton of people. That was held at 11am in the main foyer on Deck 3 – with lots of spectators.

Before there our Cruise Director, Eddy Jenkins, had a talk in the theater at 10:15 entitled “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Ship Life.” Eddy is quite entertaining and I was looking forward to all of his stories. Bob claimed a spot up on Deck 12 and finished his book – #2!!! I thoroughly enjoyed Eddy and hearing all about ship life and the family these guys have together.

At 1:45 the Officers vs. Guests Volleyball game was held. That’s always great fun to watch and even more so when Captain Matt showed up to participate. We have never had a captain so accessible before. He was everywhere and seemed to enjoy mingling with the passengers. Eddy had clips of an interview each day on his channel that showed the captain’s humor and wit. The guy seems genuine, caring and personable.

The people in Blu who took care of us this week were amazing. Elvis and Edi made sure our dinners were superb! JoJo made the best pomegranate mojito I’ve ever had. Iva (from Croatia) was the most delightful hostess ever.

After lunch we went back to the cabin to pack up most everything before dinner and the last show. You’d think by now we’d be ready to get off the ship. We really weren’t. We were ready to go to different islands but not necessarily ready to get off the ship. But it was time.

We were awake by 5:15am the next morning. Had breakfast and was off the ship by 7:20 and at the airport by 7:40, with about 4-1/2 hours to kill. It was a pretty uneventful flight, thankfully, and we were home a little after 8pm.

That’s it for this one!