2014 Caribbean cruise Jan 12-24 2014

Jan 12 2014. We, along with my parents, booked a cruise with Bonnie Buchanan at Cruise one in November 2012 to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. The day finally arrived! We flew American to Dallas to Fort Lauderdale. All flights were on time. We flew first class…which we booked on AA points. After waiting an hour, we caught the shuttle to home wood suites which we booked on points. We got room 110. It was a decent room but there were no nearby restaurants so we skipped dinner. I did not sleep well. Yellow

Jan 13 we got up and had breakfast. It was simple but filling. We took the bus to the ship at 10. We checked in very quickly and went to the bar. I had purchased the premium liquor package on line so we started drinking to break the boat. The servers are very friendly.

We got our room 6090 at 12:46. We are disappointed. The room is small and cheaply appointed. We are learning that we need to book a one bedroom suite. Our room steward is precious. The ship was built in 1995. It holds 2100 guests but only 1800 are on board. There is about 700 staff.

Mom and dad arrived about 2:30. We went to lunch at the buffet. Our luggage arrived about 3:30. We had our fire drill at 4:00 and the ship took off about 4:30. Mom and dad’s room is decorated and they got their anniversary cake. Daddy sure likes ice cream...plain out vanilla...lol He must have eaten four Ice cream cones. We bought an internet package $99 for 208 minutes. The service is decent but the minute’s sure tick by quickly.
We had dinner at 6:15. The service was so slow and the food mediocre. We left dinner at 8:30. We got our picture taken. When we got back to the room Mom and dad's luggage had arrived. We said goodnight. I did not sleep well. Green

Jan. 14 Tuesday is formal night. We got up at 7 showered and went to breakfast. We ate in the Romeo and Juliet dining room. We had lunch at the buffet. We took a nap then got ready for formal night. We pre booked a tuxedo rental for $89. We got our picture taken at all 5 venues. We had dinner at Romeo and Juliet. The food tonight was excellent and the service was better. We got back to the room about 8:30...took two sleeping pills and went to bed. I slept great! Black

Jan. 15 Wednesday the time changed forwards an hour. We got up at 7, showered and knocked on mom and dad's door but they were in bed. So we waited for them then went to breakfast. We looked in the shops. Steve's sunglasses got broken so he got a new pair of tommy hilfinger for $69. We had lunch at the buffet. We went to the photo place and looked at all of our pictures. I pre booked buying the disk for $260. It started raining about 3:00. We took a nap. We had dinner at 6. They sang happy anniversary to mom and dad. We went to the show absolutely fab. It was good. These ship sure rock and rolls. It is hard to walk. We went to bed at 10. Turquoise

Jan 16 Thursday. Red. We got up at 7 and had breakfast. We came into port in Aruba at 9:30. We booked the best of Aruba tour. We got off the ship at 10 and boarded our bus for our tour. Aruba is a flat island with aqua water and white sand beaches. We toured the city of Oranjestad. We stopped at the aloe factory. We passed the gold mills. We went to the baby natural bridge. We went to the California lighthouse. We got back to the ship about 3. We had dinner at 6. We came back to the room about 9 and went to bed.

Jan 17 Friday brown kralendijk Bonaire. We got up at 6 to go to breakfast at the buffet so we could go on our excursion at 8. We went in a land rover to the south coast, to the salt flats and saw the flamingos. We saw the slave huts. We went to sorobon beach. We saw lots of donkeys and goats and dogs and cactus. We got back to the ship at 11 and went to the pool. We had dinner at 6.

Jan 18 Saturday purple we got up at 8 and had breakfast. We went shopping on the ship. Today we docked at St. George Grenada. We got off the ship at 2 to take the east coast tour to the villages of marquis and doubles and the national park nature Centre at Grande tang. We went to the fort. We got back to the ship at 6. We had dinner at chops grill at 7. Cost was $30 p.p. extra.

Jan 19 Sunday pink. We got up at 6 showered and ate breakfast at the buffet. We boarded the bus for the best of Barbados tour. We were supposed to go to orchid world and instead went to flower forest. It was a hike through vegetation and while nice...very disappointing. We went to St. John's church and cemetery. Instead of Tyrol cot sugar estate plantation house...we went to gun hill signal station. We got back about 12:30. We had dinner at 6. We went to the show swing city. They gave us a 50% refund for the mix-up on our tour.

Jan 20 Monday yellow we got up at 7, showered and went to breakfast. We docked in St. Lucia today. We did a little shopping to kill time before our 11:30 excursion. We took a jeep safari into the rainforest. Then we went to the beach. We had dinner at 6. We changed the clock back an hour.

Jan 21 Tuesday blue. Today is a day at sea and formal night. We got our pictures, had lobster for dinner and went to bed at 9.

Jan 22 Wednesday green today we docked in Labadie Haiti royal Caribbean's own private beach. It looks a lot like the Disney Island. We rented an umbrella for the day. About 2:00, it started storming and blew our umbrella away. So we came back to the ship. Dinner was at 6. One more day left of our beautiful Caribbean cruise. We have learned a lot. Last year this ship was renovated. Deck six had no balconies...so new balconies were put on. In order to do this the room space was made smaller, the refrigerators removed, and drawer space was alleviated. This is the smallest and oldest ship in the royal Caribbean family. It goes everywhere because it can go to smaller ports of call. We certainly know now to sail on larger ships than this one. We also know to book a one bedroom suite, midship, on the port side with an unobstructed balcony. We know to prebook tuxedos, liquor packages, photo packages, internet packages, and excursions. Since this is our third cruise ...Disney, princess, and royal Caribbean...we are learning the ropes. I will actively pursue a cruise for next year on celebrity. I have also learned the Steve can get by with fewer slacks. He wears them two hours for dinner. The staff on this crew has been wonderful. They have been friendly and courteous...though sometimes a bit slow. The ship is not as clean as the other two we have been on. There have been bathroom flooding issues and bad smells. Our balcony is always dirty. After dinner we went to Beatle maniacs.

Jan 23 Thursday purple. Today is a day at sea. I packed, settled the accounts, and got ready to leave. There were several bar charges that had to be removed. Sometimes the bar tenders did not pay attention to the PP sticker on our sea pass cards…however; we did not have to sign for one single drink! I am not sure we drank up our $1200 worth, but the convenience was great. We certainly got our monies worth on pictures. For an additional $100 we got every picture they printed. So we paid $360 for the complete disk and 184 prints. I also bought a scrapbook and scrapbook kit for $70.

Jan 24 Friday today we disembark and fly home. Orange. I so hate for this to be over. We have had a wonderful time. Steve is relaxed and happy. We are counting the days until our beloved St. Martin. We bought the transfer package to the airport for about $30. This trip cost us about $7500 without air.

May I ask what the colors denote?

I am also curious.

we have a color code of the day...no big deal

Hi Cathy, I enjoyed your cruise review and have been on about 15 Royal Caribbean cruises and have had similar experiences. You will absolutely love cruising on Celebrity. Its really an upgrade for adults over Royal. If possible schedule yourself on a Solstice Class ship. We loved it so much we went twice, I bet you will love it too.

thanks for the advice coachie...we are learning...lol