Caribbean 2025

 Today was turnaround day and it actually turned out to be a fairly busy day. We had to be out of our room by 8:15 AM and so our alarms went off at 7 AM and we finished the last-minute packing and went up to the Lido for one final breakfast on this leg.  The Lido Marketplace was extremely busy and we finally found a seat and enjoyed a nice breakfast. We didn't need to be in the Pinnacle bar until 9 AM to do the immigration inspection. This week's cruise is a full charter cruise meaning that the sponsor of this cruise chartered the entire ship and they control the programming.  The casino is closed, alcohol promotion is eliminated, there are very few public announcements by Stephanie, our Cruise & Travel Director, there are no events scheduled by HAL except shore excursions, the casino is closed, and the charter group provides all the Main Stage and Rolling Stone lounge programming.  All of the restaurants are open as well as the shops and photo studio.  ...

 On this last voyage day of the cruise, it was a pretty full day with all sorts of varied activities. After waking up at around 8 o'clock, we prepared for our day and went to the Lido for our customary breakfast. Our first event of the day was the Mariner recognition ceremony in the Tamarind bar. It was a pretty small event and only one person was recognized. However, all participants got to have a photo taken with the Captain and the assistant hotel general manager (the hotel GM was on personal leave). We chatted with another longtime cruiser and got some tips about the charter cruise, which for us starts tomorrow on the ship. The big issue is that except for earning cruise days and the ability to use CCL stock credit We then went down to the World Stage for the City on a Sea presentation by Stephanie, Cruise & Travel Director. It honors all the people who live and work on the ship and gives a little bit of background about their functions and what happens behind the scenes. A...

 It was another early morning getting up at 7 o'clock to have some breakfast before boarding a tender just after 8 AM. with our five star status we were the first to board what I believe was the second tender to the cruise board at Georgetown. Of course, being first on means you have to wait for the rest of the passengers to be boarded about 2025 minutes. Also, there was an a medical evacuation of a man and another person lost a cap overboard in the breeze. A crewmember retrieved it with a pole with a hook. Once inside the port area, we quickly found a taxi vendor who was filling mini buses with transportation out to the seven Mile beach and other beaches that direction. The cost was six dollars per person. We could've taken the public bus for $2.50 per person, but this was convenient so we took the last two seats on the bus. It was a short drive out to the beach area and we ate our fair and walked down to the beach. We decided to rent a beach chair for the day and that was $25...

 Our arrival into Cozumel (Puerta Maya) wasn't until 11 o'clock so we were able to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely morning before watching the sail in. There were seven ships in port and we were the seventh to arrive and also the last to leave. Those ships were.: Carnival Firenze, & Liberty, Miracle; RCCL HARMONY of the Seas; Celebrity Constellation; Norwegian Getaway; HAL Nieuw Amsterdam. Docking today was the most challenging that I've ever witnessed in all of the cruises that we've ever taken. There was quite a bit of variable wind, and we were moving into a berth that was sandwiched between the Harmony of the Seas and the Carnival Liberty. This gave little room for error. Six attempts at approaching the dock were made. For the first five, it would get very close and then suddenly the thrusters would come on and the ship would move back out about 20 feet away from the dock before attempting the maneuver once again. And finally on the sixth try, it nestled up again...

 When our alarms went off at seven this morning, the ship was slowly making its way into Montego Bay. After enjoying a nice breakfast, we gathered up our gear and waited for the announcement that we could go ashore. This came shortly after 8 AM and we scanned off the ship using facial recognition. We walked across the dock and entered the large terminal building which was vacant. All of the tour groups were assigned various areas, and we all formed single lines. Just after 9 AM we were escorted out to our tour bus and 51 of us joined bus number one. There were four buses in total going out to the Dunn's Falls. it was about a 2 Hour drive        out there. About 1/2 hour before reaching the final destination we made a rest stop and it was the last chance to purchase water, shoes and snacks or protective cases for telephones. Once at the Falls, the parking lot was extremely crowded, but we eventually made it our way to a parking place and exited the bus. This part...

 While this was a sea day and we could have slept in, we elected to get up at 8am so we could enjoy a coffee chat with the Cruise & Travel Director, Stephanie and her guests: the female ship's officers.  So after a quick breakfast, we joined the coffee chat in the Rolling Stone lounge. Stephanie was joined by the Media Manager, Food & Beverage Director (only female one in HAL's fleet), Shore Excursions Manager, and Guest Relations Director. All of them have been with HAL well over 10 years and the Food & Beverage Director has been with the company over 20 years. At 10am Angela watched the cooking demo while I sat in on the Shore Excursions presentation on the World Stage.  Following this Stephanie gave a canned talk on undersea life in the Caribbean.  It actually was pretty interesting. The Lido Marketplace was absolutely jammed for lunch.  We finally found a table and had a light lunch before doing some laps on the outside promenade deck.  At 2...

 It was nice to sleep in as we did not have a projected arrival until 10:30 in the morning. Despite doing 23 kn on the sale from Fort Lauderdale the ride was very smooth.While eating breakfast, we arrived at the Cay. Since we have priority tender boarding, we took our time to gather our things, and then made our way down to deck one and joined the line to board a tender. At this private island they use larger tenders that are based at the island. They seat around 500 passengers. We tendered to shore and then made our way to the pavilion area where the barbecue was to be served. We had decided that we would eat first and then go snorkeling. It was about 40 minute wait for the barbecue to start and we found a table under a shaded cover to wait. The barbecue was the same as we've experienced previously and it was quite good. They served a number of different kinds of salads along with your choice of cooked fish, chicken or beef & rice, and there are fruit choices as well. Fruit dr...