2011 HAL 7nt Eastern Caribbean

2011 Nov. Eurodam cruise do-over Eastern Caribbean: Grand Turk; San Juan, St. Thomas, Half Moon Cay

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!  

2011-11  Eurodam

2011-11-5  Embarkation day

2011-11-6  Sea day  

2011-11-7  Grand Turk

2011-11-8  San Juan

2011-11-9 St. Thomas

2011-11-10  Sea day

2011-11-11 Halfmoon Cay

Too quickly it was time to disembark the ship.  We hopped in a taxi and took the $14 ride to the airport.  Angie lucked out and was able to fly standby on an earlier flight and made it home to Atlanta before our flight even took off from Fort Lauderdale. 
 

It was another fantastic vacation.  Made even more special by Angie joining us.  It definitely won't be our last cruise!

2011-11-11 Halfmoon Cay:

We spent the 7th day at HAL's private island, Halfmoon Cay.   It's a beautiful island with lots of white sandy beach and turquoise water.  We did a little snorkeling right by the main beach and were surprised to find a huge barracuda out there.  Actually I was surprised to find as many fish as we did.  Last year there were hardly any.  It was a gorgeous day and ended too soon.

Angie making a partial rainbow

Angie with a big smile

 Barry, the barracuda

Holland America served a very nice free bar b q buffet lunch on the island.

 I think I ate too much!

After lunch, we walked around the island a bit.  There's a lagoon on the island where they have a stingray encounter---for a fee.  It didn't look nearly as impressive as the one Angie and I did on Grand Cayman.

All too soon it was time to catch the tender back to the ship.  Was a perfect day until the evening when Angie spent a couple hours throwing up.  We had planned to take her to the Pinnacle Restaurant for a special dinner ($25/person extra), but we ended up staying with her and having room service in the room again.  Fortunately she was feeling better in a few hours.

2011-11-10  Sea Day:

Thurs. the 11th was another sea day.   In the morning we took in a floral arranging demonstration.  Having worked as a florist for about 3 years, I was particularly interested in this.  HAL is also known for all it's live floral arrangements.   Turns out it's all done by these 2 young men. 

Then we headed to the acclaimed Tamerind Pan-Asian restaurant for lunch.  Ordinarily Ken and I aren't big fans of Asian food, but we tried it and actually liked most of it.

Not a big pot sticker fan, but I liked the rest of it.

We also took advantage of the opportunity to have "high tea" on our balcony--another perk of being in a Deluxe Suite.  We even had a rainbow accompany us for the whole time.

We didn't feel like dressing up for the 2nd formal night, so we elected to have our fillets, lobsters, and other special dinner items delivered to our room.  It was a nice change of pace.  We also downed our complimentary bottle of wine then (for being in a SA suite).

Even dessert!

With an almost full moon, we enjoyed lounging on our balcony until the wee hours of the morning.

It was a nice break from all the running at the ports.  Maybe I'll learn to like sea days more and more the more we cruise.

2011-11-9  St. Thomas:

Wed., Nov. 9th, was St. Thomas day.  I had rented a car so we could hit several beaches.  Again our snorkeling plans were foiled, but we did get to snorkel a couple hours at Cowpet Bay between lightening storms.  Angie had stayed at the Wyndham Elysian resort at Cowpet Bay not long before and told us the snorkeling there was great.  She was right!  I never would have picked this beach if she hadn't told us about it.  You can't find much of anything about it online.  Seems Coki and Megan's Bay are the only places the cruise ships go.  The sun never did really come out so I was disappointed I didn't get to see the gorgeous beaches as seen in pictures, but we still had a great time.

                                         note the lobsters under the rock

                                                 here is a school of squid

During the lightening storm, we drove over to Sapphire Beach to check it out. Unfortunately lightening and water don't mix, so I just got to look at it longingly.  That's another place the internet says to go to for snorkeling.

To wait out the storm awhile longer, we went to Duffy's Love Shack in Red Hook and had lunch. My teriyaki burger was phenomenal, as were the fru fru drinks Angie and I got that come in take home ceramic containers.

 The lightening stopped while we were eating lunch, so we hurried up and ate and were then headed back to Cowpet Bay by the Elysian for another hour of snorkeling before having to head back to the ship.

So it wasn't the greatest day weatherwise, but we weren't going to let that dampen our spirits.  It just made us more anxious to come back there---for a land vacation!

2011-11-8 San Juan:

We sailed into San Juan on Tues., Nov. 8th at about 1pm. As we were coming into the bay, Ken and I went to the observation deck and listened to a commentary by the travel guide. She gave a 20 minute or so history of the city. Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico ("port of the riches" because of the abundant gold ore in the riverbed) in 1493. One of his lieutenants (Ponce de Leon) returned in 1508 and claimed the island---declared himself governor and established the city. Reminders of him are prominent throughout old town. It wasn't until the 19th century that the island was granted independence from Spain, at which time American troops landed on the island. Residents of the island were granted US citizenship in 1917 and in 1993 they voted to remain a US territory.

Sailing into the port we got a great view of El Morro Fort, 1 of 2 forts in Old Town. Construction on it started in 1539 and continued for 200 years. The City WAll dates from the 1630s and follows the shore. The old city is a masterpiece of antique architecture.

 sailing around to the port

We were anxiously waiting for Angie to join us here. We weren't sure how her embarkation was going to go. Our first priority was to get her registered on the ship and then see what she wanted to do.

 

Turned out the procedure for her embarking here was pretty simple.  She had to wait at the security gate, noodles in tow,  until a ship manifest was brought out showing she was boarding here.  Then she waited at the bottom of the gangway until we got there.  We then fought our way against traffic to get back onto the ship.  At first they were telling us we couldn't go against traffic.  Then when they found out we were in a Deluxe Suite, their tone abruptly changed!  So nice not to be a peon for once!  They checked her name, sent us to the Neptune Lounge to get her room card and that was it.  We went and got lunch at the Lido, then headed off to explore San Juan.

Last year when Ken and I were here we discovered a free bus that traveled through Old Town.  So we jumped on the bus and headed up towards the fort.  We were going to just ride the bus all around Old Town, but up by the fort it met up with another bus coming the other direction and neither would back up for the other.  Did I mention it was very humid?  The fogginess of this picture is because the lens on my little point and shoot camera fogged up.

 

 After about a 20 minute stand off, we decided to get off and walk back through Old Town.  At least it had quit raining by then and it was a nice easy walk. 

 First we went down one of the adoquine stone paved streets to an old cemetary.  There's always interesting architecture in and around cemeteries.

As we walked back down to the ship, we passed an old church, quaint little shops, and even stopped in at a Don Q rum visitor's center to sample the goods

Angie and me enjoying some spirits at the distillery---coconut run in pineapple juice and passion fruit rum in Sprite---yummm! .

 This artwork in the bar really caught my eye.  She looks like my Mom!

 my Mom

Ken with his new friend.

 It was a fun-cheap day. 

2011-11-7  Grand Turk:

 the 3rd day of our cruise we were in Grand Turk.  It is known for the "wall", a 7,000' drop off of the ocean floor, as close as 1/2 mile from the beach.   The diving and snorkeling here is suppose to be first class.  I've been wanting to snorkel here for years!  We weren't able to port here last year due to Hurricane Tomas.  That was one of the reasons why we took the same cruise this year.  Unfortunately, our plans were foiled again due to an ocean storm surge from the north.  We took a $27 rt taxi ride to Pillory beach where the snorkeling was suppose to be the best, but the waves were too rough.
 View along the way to Pillory

 Pillory Beach---really didn't look rough in this picture, but pictures can be deceiving.

  We ended up back at the port and hung out at the beach there.

 They even had free loungers

Surprisingly enough, the snorkeling by the ship wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. There was even a mini drop off at the edge of the roped off swimming area.

At least the weather was beautiful so we thoroughly enjoyed our time near the port---snorkeling, sunbathing, walking the beach,  

And we hung out at the Margaritaville pool right by the Grand Turk port.

huge pool at Margaritaville---and free.

 Back on the ship and waiting for the shove off.

Beautiful water!

This can be a really nice cheap port---free loungers, free pool, right off the dock!  The snorkeling is even decent right by the port.