Caribbean Queen

Getting ready to board:

I found this sign in Bermuda very amusing:


The start of our St. Maarten adventure:

Stunningly beautiful. Our niece got her hair braided right as we got off the water taxi in St. Maarten, so me, DH and his brother sat down with a bucket of beer and it started to pour. It rained for about 2 minutes and the rest of our day there was gorgeous.Our ship from the beach... ummm... I think this was from the beach though it seems like we were much farther away than this. hmmm... anyway, this is our ship parked beside another Royal Caribbean ship.


Funny story about St. Maarten. We went to a shopping show on the ship. The cruise Director, Allan, gave the rundown on where to shop in St. Maarten, St. Thomas and San Juan. Then he sold these books (Savvy Traveler) for $25. I spontaneously bought one not knowing if SIL was getting one or not (she was across the auditorium). Well as it turns out, she bought one too. After the show we were wondering if we just wasted $25. We looked through and looked at all the pages that said "free gift". Lots of them. So we decided we made a good decision in buying the books. So anyway, we're walking down the streets of St. Maarten and I'm looking in my purse. Along the sidewalks they have these little poles that are about thigh high and they're cone shaped on the top with holes in them (I'm guessing to rope off the sidewalks). So I'm strolling along, looking in my purse to get the Savvy Traveler out to find out where our next stop should be for our next free gift. Well. I ran into this pole. SLAMMED my thighs right into it. Now remember I said that they're about thigh high but with the cone-shape on top. So I try to catch myself so I didn't get a cone up my tootoo and momentum is wanting to flip me over but I'm trying my damnedest to stay upright or at least to not get raped by this post/pole thingy. Anyway, I feel my feet flying up in the air and I do this somersault (complete 360) and land on my purse. THANK GOD I carry a giant purse because it cushioned my elbow and my face. I landed on my free antique map of St. Maarten. :( This local guy helps me up. My SIL screams. My husband tisks (and I know without seeing him that he's rolling his eyes at me). My nephew gasps and him and my niece and BIL run to my side to make sure I'm okay. As I'm standing up trying not to bury my face in my purse or to find sand to bury my head in, I see this lady that was walking toward us. She has her hands over her mouth and she says, "Are you okay?!?!" I said "yes". And she says, "Oh thank God because that was THE most graceful fall I've ever seen! You looked like a gymnast!" I said "heh. It certainly didn't feel graceful." She put her hand on my shoulder and said she was glad I was okay.

Anyway. After shopping, we went to the beach for a little while.

Wednesday was St. Thomas. We decided to go do our shopping (for free gifts) and then take a bus tour of the island. The guy who gave the tour is a fireman (Raymond). He was a really good tour guide. After touring a bit, he drove us to the beach. We could either stay at the beach for two hours or tour the rest of the island. We opted for the beach. He said, "So you know I'll come back for you, you pay me when I take you back to your ship." Fair enough.

He took this picture of us:


Isn't my DH adorable building his sand castle?
This is a not that great picture of us at dinner that I'm sharing for some bizarre reason.
This picture was an accident but I really like it. (I have great legs.)

Packing up the suitcases. I was determined to not have more bags than we came with.



Oh yeah! Our nephew is a monkey. He wanted to try the rock wall. Never did it before. He climbed to the top in like a nanosecond.

One of the pictures we bought. I had to crop it and resize it and it got all dark and stuff. One of the picture guys was trying to talk me into buying more pictures. I told him I really couldn't afford to buy that many and he was all, "That's a shame because there are some really good ones here. You are so saucy." I liked so many of them and that is almost unheard of. There were a few that I looked really sexy (saucy) in but alas, I only got the two. As it turned out, we were never even charged for the two we did purchase. Wonder if that will hit the hubby's account later.

So I'll give a brief rundown and let you go. heh. We drove to New Jersey on Thursday and spent the night at the Holiday Inn by Newark Airport. Friday we drove to the port in Cape Liberty. The ship took sail at 5. We got to Bermuda on Sunday morning. The shops and whatnot were all closed except for this little mall on the pier so we went there and bought souveniers. Tuesday was St. Maarten. Wednesday was St. Thomas and Thursday was San Juan. Just me, SIL and niece got off the ship in San Juan. The ship left San Juan at 2 on Thursday afternoon and Friday and Saturday were sail days. I was very ready to be back home by Saturday afternoon. We got back to our house on Sunday night at about 8:30. Our babies were happy to see us.