When we arrived we took the budget shuttle that took us to budget where we took our car for the next 4 days.
First we had breakfast at bagels Einstein or something like this. Then was to visit fort Lauderdale. They said it was the Venice of Florida, and it is quite a Venice (huge extensions though).
We went to the river side, to the beach, where we had lunch, and then at around 6pm to Miami beach to check in at our new hotel: Indian Creek, no so centric, but with swimming pool and bigger rooms.
In our second time in Nassau we decided to go and spend the day at Paradise Island, 15 minutes by boat from Nassau. There you have the Atlantis hotel where we wanted to stay for the day and visit all the aquariums.
We realized that last time we did not see anything. Atlantis is huge! and you can spend a full day without managing to see it all. It is a sort of disneyland but in aquarium, with all sort of fish and sea life. To get it is 35 usd, but you can go around. We had a nice day there.
From Road Town to Nassau you have a full day of navigation. We spend the day in the MSC Poesia, in the pool area, having cocktails, having a swim, sun, … and in our nice balcony, reading… chilling out. There are plenty of activities to do, so you never get bored.
We arrived early to Road town. We took it easy though. Had breakfast and then left. The nice thing of cruising in the Caribbean and I guess is the same in the Greek islands and other small towns, is that with a day you have more than enough to visit them. I guess it is not the same in a Mediterranean cruise stopping in Rome, Barcelona and so, which deserve a dedicated trip.
Road town again was a nice colonial town. Small.
We did not take any of the excursions suggested in the MSC Poesia.Normally it works this way: they are expensive. When you go down to the harbor, you have a pile of tour operators offering you the same thing cheaper. If you go out of the port, there you find the good deals, so this is what we did. We took a tour around the island. It took us to several places and it was fun and nice.
We stopped at a rum distillery, very very crappy but I bought some old rum. See the photo, it looks like a dirty place anywhere in Africa… but the rum, that I tasted yesterday, was not bad. Not great either but a nice souvenir.
The tour took us also to a beach crowded by the cruise people. We were there only for 15 minutes, but we soon continued our tour. There we met a couple from texas. The guy had big land where a farmer was growing cotton and where had some oil excavations. They were nice people. We also went to a hill (not a lot in these islands) where we could see the tons of little islands that are part of the Virgin Islands (american, british…), and of course the harbor with our “little boat”.
All these little islands had to accommodate their ports to this big cruises. Now they are digging even more in order to be able to have the “oasis of the seas” from Royal Caribbean. Road Town, Virgin Islands EveryTrail – Find the best
We did not get to Philipsburg until 1pm (ship time). During the trip some places had different time zones, but in order to avoid problems the cruise always referred to the ship time (Miami time). The night before they let you a print out of the activities for next day. The time you get to port, the local time and the time you should be back to the ship. Also a list of all the ton of activities organised through the day in the ship. Specially for those who decide to stay on board.
Philipsburg was a very cute place. A long and narrow town, small and with the ocean at both sides.
The weather was variable. When the sun went out it was terribly hot, but when cloudy it was OK. It rained for a while.
When a ship of the caliber of the MSC Poesia arrives to a city like this, the town feels crowded and I am guessing that during the rest of the week, when no ships are there (normally they all go on the same day) it is a dead city.
We are now at San Juan de Puerto Rico. The ship leaves at 10pm (ship time) and we head towards Philipsburg. I found free wifi here and I managed to upload all previous posts. From the ship it is impossible to upload photos…
I did not have the time and the occasion to take the photos of the big camera out, so no photos now, but I will update this same post later on.
San Juan is a beautiful place. I wouldn’t mind staying here a couple of days. Honestly.
I am now editing the post again, from home. I am adding a couple of photos from the iPhone.
Puerto Rico was very nice. The old town beautiful and full of life. So far and now with the perspective of being back home, I can say that Key West and San Juan (both US) are probably the destinations we liked the most. San Juan de Puerto Rico
EveryTrail – Find the best
Navigation day. Puerto Rico is far from Florida. The day started rainy and a bit cold but as the day was progressing the sun took over and the temperatures raised.
We spent most of the day in the pool area. I am reading “the Help”, from Kathryn Stockett which is about maids in Louisiana on the 60’s.
It was the gala day, with the captain and the nice dinner. Everybody (except me) with suits, ties….
Before I went to have a hair cut here at the ship’s hair dresser. Wow, beautiful with great views over the sunset.
After the captain’s cocktail we went to listen jazz for a while and then to the theatre. It was Island, a story with dancers, magicians and more. Very nice.
Half way. For most of the people the cruise is over, but we continued. We discussed weather it was worth to go down and visit Fort Lauderdale and we concluded that we will be here next Saturday and with a rental car, so it was the best day to enjoy the ship, which was again by the oasis of the seas. We had most of it for us. We spend most of the day in the pool area. We had a bath at the Jacuzzis with Kai. It was nice.
We arrived to Nassau this morning. now in an hour we will be leaving to For Lauderdale to start the second part of the cruise.
In Nassau we had a great day. The temperature is great, it is sunny… mmm…
We went down and after us 4 more cruises arrived. We are all here. the last one in the biggest cruise ever build, and I encourage you to Google it or to look in a previous post in my blog. It is called “oasis of the seas” from Royal Caribbean. It is amazing. Huge! Ours, the MSC poesia is the second biggest and it is noticeable smaller.
Anyway, we went down and met the a couple with a kid that we know who live in Brazil. We all took an island tour with a very nice chap who explained everything and kept us entertained for nearly 3 hours. First we went to the Atlantis hotel, a 900 million dollar hotel, with an incredible aquarium. We just saw part of it but as we are coming back to Nassau in a couple of days, we will take the whole tour, which has tunnels with sharks and other fishes. The suit of this famous hotel costs 25.000 usd per night. It is a nice hotel, but I was not that impressed.
After that we visited several places and when we were done, we had a walk around town, had lunch (seafood, of course) and went to the beach. Now the sun is going down and from the balcony of our room I catch several wifi (paid) so I am going to pay for one in order to post all the blog entries. By the way in the last photo you can see all the cruises from the beach. The one of the left is the Oasis of the seas.
ps; I did not succeed with the wifi in the balcony…. I try once more from the ship.
From Montego Bay to Nassau you have quite a long distance. The day was all day navigation. The ship is packed with activities: in the pool area, theatres, etc… and it was a gala night. Everybody with suits and ties… I did not bring any… like in the titanic.
We spent most of the day in the pool area, reading. Nuria had a massage before the theatre and gala night.
This morning we arrived at Montego Bay in Jamaica. The previous two days have been a bit of miss organization from the side of MSC. First it was supposed to stop in Playa del Carmen and not in Cozumel. Petty because playa del Carmen is a nice place and the place where it stopped in Cozumel was not nearby anything (beach or city) so you had to take a taxi, and honestly, with a baby and in an island, you might find enough taxis where the cruise stops, but if you go to a beach, who guarantees you that you will find a taxi then, specially when there were 2 cruises and both dropping 3000 people in such a small place? Well, a solution could have been to hire a car, but just to go to the beach and for a couple of hours it is a petty. We felt people were not happy about it. Specially those who had booked excursions and where cancelled.
Then in Cayman island (Georgetown) again. They claimed bad weather, so the cruise could not properly stop. It took like 4 hours to take everybody in little boats to Georgetown.
Today, the cruise stopped at the port, we went down and were surprised that all the buses downstairs (a lot of them) where charging people to get them to town. Strange, but OK we are happy to pay 5 dollars each for that.
We went to downtown and you could see that Montego Bay is like any other place in Africa. Underdeveloped, dirty and not safe. Before, and when I go on mission, I don’t care, but with a baby…. it is a different story.
We walked a bit around downtown and were stopped several times by locals saying that we should now go beyond the couple of streets in downtown, as it is not safe. We decided to take a city tour with one of the tons of authorized drivers (JTB, Jamaica Tourism Board) who took us for an hour around Montego Bay, a very ugly city with NOTHING to see, a part from a nice old hotel on top of a hill with nice views. Plus the guy had no idea of anything. Anyway,the weather was not good either so no point in taking a taxi to the beaches so we decided to go to the ship. We had lunch in the 13 floor (buffet) in a table in the pool area with incredible views over the bay, and then we stayed until now in the pool area. Now I moved again to another table (facing the other side) and decided to write today’s and yesterday’s posts, even if I don’t se how and when I am going to be able to publish them, as the satellite internet is pretty slow, specially when uploading photos.
Now Nuria and Kai went to the room (Kai is hungry) and when they come we will enjoy a cocktail and try to connect to internet in order to try to check in with Iberia and the the right seats… which I doubt we will.
When we reached Georgetown in the Grand Cayman, we were supposed to leave the ship by 10 with boats. There were 2 other cruises and the sea was a bit moved. In fact the captain could not properly anchor and had to stay all day in the same spot using the engine. Plus the boats used to go to land were the ones of the cruise, little boats for 150 people, all packed.
They distributed numbers and were calling. I think our turn came at 1.30pm and at 3pm was the last boat back to the cruise. Goood. Pretty bad organized. People complaining a lot. Probably they had local boats to help but with the other 2 big cruises there was not enough for all. Anyway, it was quite an experience to go in such a boat, with such a sea (it moved a lot) and with Kai. I would say it was interesting. Poor Kai did not complain at all. It was not very sunny but it was very hot.
One thing I did not like from MSC (our cruise organizer) is that they don’t care about babies or disable people. You cue like anybody else, and in our way back it was killing us to cue under the sun. Kai was suffering so we kindly asked to go to the front of the cue.
Well, in Georgetown there was not much to see either. It is packed of shops with jewelry, diamonds and watches. When I say packed is packed. We walked around but of course we did not have much time to do more due to the disembarking problems. I could not buy rum because they don’t allow you to buy food or drinks outside the ship… maybe I should ask if they can keep it at least until the last day.
All this places we are stopping by are great for diving. What a petty. We would have loved to dive, but looks like it won’t be this time.
Well so we stayed most of the day on board, which honestly is not bad. Judge by the photos… it is better than a super hotel. George Town, Cayman Islands, GPS Garmin Oregon 300. Mouse over the grey squares for more info.
Early this morning they announced that instead of stopping close by Playa del Carmen and take boats to the port (that was the plan), we were going to go to the island in front, Cozumel and stop in the port. We did, and we went down but seeing that to go anywhere we should take a cab, we decided to go back to the ship and spend the day in the swimming pool area, which is great and is where I am now.
I bought a wi-fi connection at the ship, it costs 20usd for 60 minutes, but it is so slow, that I tried to upload the posts and I did not succeed, so I will try later using the web interface instead of this Windows Live Writer. I cannot access to my email at norai because uses port 8080….
We spent most of the day at the MSC poesia. It was good. We went to the deck 13 and took a seat on a table near the pool. Relaxing with amazing views. Nuria had a swim and I took some time to write on the laptop. With visits and all the activities they plan on board, you have little time to actually relax and type or read a book. I don’t know how many restaurants, bars, shops, disco and so are onboard. I am starting to know the ship now. I went to smoke a pipe to the Hitchcock room and to read a book while Kai and Nuria were having a siesta. We have walkie talkies to be in touch (of course… you know me…). Now there was a concert in the central area, there is the theatre later today and there is a huge screen in the pool area where there will be a film at 10pm. I have to check but I think there was a jazz concert in the zebra bar. Every morning they leave you a paper with the activities and offers. You can buy excursions, but we did not buy any, basically because we don’t feel we can do the sort of things they do with Kai: catamarans, snorkeling, etc… which is a real pity. Today for instance we would have gone diving, but… even if we do one dive each, I think it is too much to take a 11 week old baby in a small boat.
Tomorrow we’ll be arriving at Cayman Islands. Now, we are going to go to have a cocktail in the pool mohito bar probably and see the sun going down. I don’t know when I am going to be able to publish all these posts because the internet is not good enough for that.
Now for instance we are leaving Cozumel and I am in the balcony with the laptop. The sun is still up, a bit cloudy but the temperature is just perfect. It is a great experience to be outside in your own balcony with the sea by your side, the sun going down.
Just a quick note from MSC Poesia. We are in Key West. We arrieved this morning and we are leaving now to Playa del Carmen. I am writing from my iPhone using edge in roaming so no photos. I will write more as soon as I find wifi somewhere.
We continue from the previous post, but now from the MSC Poesia. We woke up early. We decided to leave the curtains open so in the mornings we could see the sun rising in the sea. We had our shower and went to the 13th floor where the breakfast buffet is. Incredible choice and views. The restaurant is all surrounded by windows so we sat close to one that felt like being in the edge to the sea. Beautiful.
After a full breakfast (eggs, sausages, bacon, pancakes,…) we went down to deck 4 and left the ship. We spent the day in Key West, a beautiful small town at the end of Florida Keys.
We had buses organized driving everybody to town (5 min). We spent the day walking around that beautiful city, full of nice cars, nice Harleys and old people. We visited Hemmingway’s house and went to a small beach.
Houses in Key West are all colonial style. Beautiful lovely small town.
At 1.30 we went back to the ship and started our trip to Mexico. Nuria had a bit of sea sickness. Yes, this huge ship moves quite a bit…
It was the Captain’s cocktail and gala dinner. I did not bring any suit or any tie, but I went with a shirt. Everybody had their best dresses….
After the captain’s speech, there was the daily show but it is too loud for Kai so we left. Nuria rested for a while in the room and then we went for dinner. We always sit in the same table. The gala dinner was too much. I think we are going to put (more!!) on weight here.
Back at MSC poesia, we did the ritual of getting ready, have our cocktail and go to the theatre. Take a look at the video… the theatre is inside the ship, yes…
In our second time in Nassau we decided to go and spend the day at Paradise Island, 15 minutes by boat from Nassau. There you have the Atlantis hotel where we wanted to stay for the day and visit all the aquariums.
Recent Comments