Do-over?---Well, we did the same cruise last year, but Hurricane Tomas decided to go with us. So weather was rainy, water was rough, one port was skipped. Although we had a good time, we wanted to snorkel Grand Turk and St. Thomas---didn't even make it to Grand Turk on that cruise. So, we're trying it again.
The "suite life"! Originally I booked the same category room that we had last year (a VD veranda), but when the lowest suite came available for about $60/person more, I jumped on it and booked a SZ guarantee. We had never had a suite before, so I was really looking forward to that.
It just so happened that our daughter, Angie, and her husband, Josh, were going to be in Puerto Rico on vacation with some friends and scheduled to fly home the day we were in port there. After joking around with her about continuing on the cruise with us instead of flying home, we decided it wasn't a joke! I managed to get approval for her to board in San Juan for the last 4 nights of our cruise. She was even eligible for a special 3rd person add on fare of $49 + about $90 in taxes and fees (only charged for the ports she would actually be going to). It took some doing, but persistence paid off. I had to call 5 or 6 times and work out everything from: does the Jone's Act apply here; to sending a letter to get approval for "late embarkation"; to getting a room assigned (called the Inventory department directly and went from the SZ guarantee to an SS cabin) ---- before she was finally approved. So instead of flying home, Angie was able to join us for the last 4 nights of the cruise.
About 2 weeks before our cruise, I even got an email from HAL offering us an upsell to an SA suite (next category down from the penthouse) for another $398 total. I immediately called them and jumped on the offer. Not only did we have a suite, but the SA, SB, and SC suites had a lot of added benefits over the SS, SY, and SZ suites, like breakfast in the Pinnacle restaurant, a private lounge and concierge, larger pull out bed for Angie; much larger room and balcony, flowers for formal night, free laundry service, and a few other things. We very much enjoyed the SA cabin. It may be hard to go back to any other cabin now!
It was another fantastic vacation. Made even more special by Angie joining us. It definitely won't be our last cruise!
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