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Royal Caribbean Day 7: Day at Sea
Our final day on the Adventure of the Seas was upon us. We set sail from Barbados knowing it was going to be a long 36 hours aboard the ship. We also knew our day at sea was going to be an enjoyable one with our new friends. As usual, our day started with breakfast. Thankfully, it wasn’t as early as the past five days and we were able to sleep in just a little. Darren and I had ONE thing we had on our list for the day and that was the pool Pool Day At this point, I hadn’t spent much time around the pools. Majority of our…
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Royal Caribbean Day 6: Barbados
Bridgetown, Barbados Date: 26 April 2018Port: Bridgetown, BarbadosTime on Island: 8am-4:30pmDistance between St. Lucia to Barbados: 174.60 km or 94.28 nautical miles (5108.49 miles) Barbados, our final island and final port before our return to Puerto Rico. Also, the day I have been dreading. It means our Southern Caribbean Cruise is coming to an end. It’s been such an amazing past five day that I’m not ready for it to end. But, at the same time, I’m ready to explore another new island in the Caribbean! The Tour Like many of the other islands, I didn’t know much about Barbados, except that there was a popular cave attraction. We weren’t totally sure if we…
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Royal Caribbean Day 5: St. Lucia
Castries, St. Lucia Date: 25 April 2018Port: Pointe Seraphine, Castries, St. LuciaTime on Island: 9am-5:30pmDistance between Antigua to St. Lucia: 363.65 km or 196.36 nautical miles (225.96 miles) The morning started just like every other morning on Royal Caribbean. We got up, showered, got ready, and then headed to the buffet for breakfast. Following breakfast, Darren and I headed to the deck and take in the beautiful scene of the island of St. Lucia. Standing on the deck every morning was one of my favorite things to do on the ship. That first glance of this island and the others is something I’m never going to forget. We would do it every morning, but…
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Royal Caribbean Day 4: Antigua
St. John’s, Antigua Date: 24 April 2018 Port: St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda Time on Island: 8am-4:30pm Distance between St. Kitts and Antigua: 104.17 km or 56.25 nautical miles (64.73 miles) Antigua was our only port that we didn’t prebook any tours. We were ready for a relaxing, anything can happen sort of day. The more time we spent talking with people on our cruise, the more we realized how easy it was going to be to see the island without a guided tour. Thankfully, Karen and Richard also didn’t prebook anything, so we decided to spend the entire day together. We started our morning with the usual buffet breakfast and coffee before…
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Royal Caribbean Day 3: St. Kitts
Our next port was St. Kitts and Nevis, capital and port city, Basseterre. I honestly didn't know much about St. Kitts, so I was quite excited for this port. Darren had pre-booked another half day tour excursion of the island that would take us around majority of the island with several stops. One reason we decided for tours, was for the history aspect. I love learning and having a tour guide who has in-depth knowledge of a place makes experience the islands that much better. One of the things I was most excited about with St. Kitts
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Royal Caribbean Day 2: Sint Maarten/St Martin
Date: 22 April 2018 Port: Philipsburg, St. Maarten (Dutch side) Time on Island: 8am-4:30pm Distance between San Juan and St. Maarten: 372.04 km or 200.75 nautical miles (231.17 miles) St. Maarten was the first port of the trip. Darren and I were eager to start our pre-booked tour through Viator. We decided against booking directly through Royal Caribbean strictly because of our budget. We also knew that by doing so, we’d need to be aware of the time restrictions in order to NOT miss the boat. Darren and I also decided separate each post on who will book or decide on the tour. St. Maarten was my port to book.…
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Cruising with Royal Caribbean Day 1: Embarkment
The start of the school year didn't go as planned. I mean, how many people in this world can say that their first day of school consisted of boarding up their windows in preparation of the upcoming hurricane. It has been quite the adventure to say the least, but one thing was for certain...I was not going to leave St. Thomas without experiencing more of the Caribbean islands. After several Facebook posts asking if anyone wanted to join me on a Royal Caribbean Cruise during my "Spring Break" week in April,
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What Life Was Like Post Two Hurricanes
I honestly have struggled putting words to paper. I've attempted multiple times and it's just been so difficult. Finding the right words, finding the initiative to write, finding the motivation. Every ounce of energy and focus it takes me to write a blog post had been depleted since Irma and Maria.
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Life After Hurricane Irma
It took 3 hours of hard labor and some neighborly support to finally clear our drive. However, it didn’t really matter. The island was still under a 24 hour curfew, for good reason, of course. We were just annihilated by Hurricane Irma about 15 hours prior, so the day afterwards wasn’t much fun. We were safe, little damage to our apartment itself, and thankfully we still have phone service (which was a rarity and quite frankly didn’t really matter since only about 1/8th of the island had it- if that). It took about 36 hours before we risked leaving the comfort of our apartment. Though none of us wanted to…
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What It’s Like Experiencing Hurricane Irma
September 6th, 2017 will be a day I’ll never forget. Something I never could have prepared myself for or every something I ever thought I’d experience happened, Hurricane Irma. I mean, I have heard of major storms and I have seen the aftermath of things like Sandy and Katrina and most recently, Harvey. But experiencing Hurricane Irma was something I was NOT prepared for nor was I ready. I’m a desert girl raised in Arizona. The worst storms I experienced growing up was a haboob or a bad monsoon. Sometimes the occasional thunderstorms when visiting family in Minnesota/Iowa or the occasional snow storms during college and graduate school, but those…
