Busy day in St. Maarten, 4 ships in port. Our ship, the Summit, is the one on the far left.
On Thursday, we docked in St. Maarten, a place where we visited on our honeymoon 6 years prior. We took the water taxi to town and roamed through the various stores looking for souvenirs and gifts. The one thing that really stands out at every port is the number of jewelry stores at each stop. There were at least two dozen at this stop and possibly more. I have no clue how they all stay in business, nothing that they sold seemed to be a “bargain,” at least not the items that the CFO liked. Luckily for her, I had already bought her jewelry for an anniversary gift, so I didn’t feel obligated to make a purchase. In fact, we didn’t buy much over the entire trip, just picking up the zip line t-shirt, a license plate (I collect them when ever I can find them when we travel), and a few Christmas ornaments. (We try to get an ornament from every new city/country that we visit)
On Friday, our last port of call was in St. Thomas, another
island that we visited on our honeymoon. We
did a little shopping, including the purchase of an SPF rated swim shirt for
me, and went to the beach. This beach
was in a more picturesque location, but the feel wasn’t as nice as the beach in
Barbados. We spent a few hours in the water
and sitting under the shade of some trees that lined the beach. Then the reality sunk in… this was our last
stop and we would have to get off the ship tomorrow. A 7 day cruise sounds like a long trip, until
you actually go on one…. Then you end up wishing you had booked the next week
too, so you could do a two week, back to back cruise.
Our ship in port at St. Thomas, taken while riding in the taxi
Several people have asked how we liked Celebrity compared to
Royal Caribbean. Both cruise lines are
owned by the same company, so there were a lot of similarities. The crew and staff were very similar and the
way that they wait on you was also the same.
The food was amazing, however I would say it
was a notch higher on the fru-fru meter on Celebrity. There were several items on each night’s menu
that required additional explanations from the waiter… but what do you expect
when the head chef is a Frenchman? May be I'm just to simple of an eater, there weren't any chicken fingers on the menu! That
being said, every dinner meal was amazing and no one ordered anything that they
didn’t like.
Our ship... yes, she is "small" compared to some of the newer vessels.
What did we eat at night?
The dinner menu has two sides, the left side that is the same every
night and the right side that changes daily.
At dinner, you would order an appetizer, salad or soup, the meal itself
and then dessert. Every night was like
this. At times people ordered two
appetizers, or two entries, or even two desserts. On the last night, I had this amazing
chocolate cake with a chocolate gnocchi on it… after eating it, I flagged down
our waiter, Nelson, and said, “There was a problem with my dessert.” He responded, “Oh no, did I bring you an
empty plate?” I responded, “Yes, I think you did.” He then disappeared and came back a few
minutes later with another slice, which I managed to inhale as quickly as the
first.
The part of her SECOND lobster tail that she couldn't finish because she was full.
I am going to start taking pictures of the menus and meals
each night because I can’t remember what we ate. Over the week I know that I had prime rib,
grilled chicken, new York strip, turkey with gravy (on thanksgiving), beef
wellington, turkey parmesan, ribeye and who knows what else. The CFO hit the seafood pretty hard, having
shrimp pasta, tuna, salmon, and lobster tails to name a few. I know that other people at our table had
veal, duck, pheasant, and many other things…. And that was just the main entries
at dinner!
Overall, it was a great trip, I can't wait for the next one.
Sounds like you had an amazing time. Although the sunburn looks just awful. You didn't mention getting sick from it. I hope you didn't, the pictures were really beautiful!
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