My fabulous boss took our whole staff and our spouses for reaching a 5yr production goal. This was a first cruise for myself (40) and my Hubby (42) We traveled by air from Oregon all day Fri 1/28, stayed at the Comfort Inn after a late arrival. We arrived fairly early for embarkation and processed thru without any delays. Pretty good for all 24 of us. We found our rooms dropped off our carry-on luggage, and headed out for some celebrational cocktails.
We right away met Theuns our lobby bar attendant. Theuns was just the ticket for getting the party started! He was fun,entertaining, and efficient! We all had the late (8:30 PM) Trad. seating in the Island dining room. Hubby and I ate there every night except two, one night we went to The Sterling Steakhouse, the other we went to the Caribe Cafe buffet so we could got to see "Let's Rock" in the Princess Theater. We felt all the food with few exceptions was very good. Besides, I didn't have to cook!! ;) The few other shows we made it to were okay. Some funny comedians. Let's Rock-didn't. The main complaint was that in order to see any show you had to arrive 30 mins or more to get a seat. It was really tricky having the later dining time. I think the Wheelhouse was too small a venue for most of the entertainers. Our steward was Joel, who was always smiling, friendly and called by name. He made it so nice- I didn't have to clean or make -up the beds for a week too! The next early am I was literally rocked awake by the ocean. We had some rough swells, that made me a bit sea-sick during the week. I never got sick but kept the motion sickness med onboard, and fresh air on the deck helped too.
The eastern Caribbean ports we visited were St Thomas, St Maarten, and we were supposed to visit Princess Cays but the water was too rough to tender-in. In St Thomas we took a taxi to the main shopping area. We shopped around some but didn't find much since we weren't in the market for jewelry, electronics etc. We did the Helicopter Odyssey excursion in the afternoon-It was AWESOME- got to see the islands from above and the gorgeous caribbean blue waters! It was worth every penny! In St Maarten, I went to shop a bit with another couple, hubby was down with a sinus cold. They tried to call home with a calling card at the docks near the beach where the water taxi drops you off, but the lines were apparently down. We went back to the ship and had lunch with my rested up hubby, then all four of us rented a taxi to give an island tour. Later we did some more shopping and found it to be much more enjoyable and clean. We stopped at Orient Beach (clothing optional) and saw a little old couple walking hand in hand in their birthday suits. We were there during our tour for only 15 mins. Looked like it would have been a fun place to spend the day. Hubby really liked St Maarten, the people were very friendly, and it was so pretty.