It was awesome. Probably, the most relaxing time we've had in a long time. Our stops were: St. Maarten, San Juan, and Labadee.
Our flight to Miami left from Lubbock at 5AM on Saturday, Aug. 15. Tom and Kathy drove us to Lubbock at 2AM. Flight got to Miami just fine - that was my biggest concern. We sailed at 4:30PM and sailed for 2 days.
The ship activities were so varied and so many that we spent those 2 days just relaxing and visiting all the activities. There were, at least 3 swimming pools and 5 jacuzzis, a rock climing wall (no, I didn't try it) a flow rider (that's like surfing on boogie boards - I didn't try that, either. Didn't want to be laughed at so I watched and laughed), a casino, of course, a water zone for kids that had all the sprays, buckets that filled and tipped, spray guns, climbing stuff, etc.
Our ship was “Liberty of the Seas”. This is the largest cruise ship on the water at this time. Once the Oasis of the Seas is launched, it will be the largest. Liberty’s capacity is 4,400 passengers and 1,400 crew. I think it was fully occupied. Oasis will be about 5,400 passengers and more crew. Of the fellow passengers we met, many had been on this ship previously and said they preferred this cruise line and this ship to any other.
The Royal Promenade had shops, cafes, artists, vendors galore, and always, sales everyday. Every evening there were shows.
We went to the Ice Show (they had a real ice rink where guests could ice skate), a variety show, an audience scavenger hunt (called Quest) and much more.
During the trip, we again, tried our luck at Bingo to win another cruise. No, we didn’t win it. A guy, who was also on the cruise won in a bingo game, won this one. I thought, for some reason I don’t know, we were unique on this cruise. Guess what? Several other guests were on their “won” cruise. And, they were all trying to win another one.
Anyway, I digress.
After sailing 2 days our first stop was Tuesday in St. Maarten.
There were many things to do, but we just decided to walk around the town a bit, do a little window shopping and picked up a few "freebies". Before returning to the ship we looked for a place to eat, and because it was so very warm and humid (you know how we don’t like humidity), we ended up in an air conditioned BURGER KING! No comment.
There are 2 sections to St. Maarten, the Dutch and the French. We were on the Dutch side, but some guests went to the beach on the French side. They said it was beautiful (and they had nude bathing on that side ).
Our next stop, Wednesday, San Juan.
This is the capitol of Puerto Rico. We toured the “old and new” San Juan. We stopped at the capitol building
and the San Cristobal Fortress,
drove down very narrow brick paved streets, and viewed the old buildings in the area.
Thursday was our last stop. Labadee is an Island resort developed by Royal Caribbean. Our day consisted of relaxing on the beach, and an outdoor feast provided by the staff on the ship. We toured only part of the resort and spent most of the time on a lounge under the trees by the water.
Wow! I could (should) do that more often.
The resort had water activities like a water park with ice bergs to climb and jump into the water, water trampolines, a huge water slide,
jet ski tours, a zip line across the water,
and, of course, the shopping ( we didn’t even go there). It was a fab day!
Friday we sailed all day and docked back in Miami at 7am Sat. Our flight home was uneventful and we arrived in Lubbock where Tom and Kathy and Marcello were waiting. It was a perfect weeks vacation.
Back in the “real world” again for the last week and my “relaxed” mode is still working.
