So I Tried the Cruise Thing

We embarked out of NYC in the midst of bitter February. It was a ten day cruise through the Eastern Caribbean on the Norwegian Gem. Since it was our honeymoon, we decided to splurge and get a room with a balcony and I'm so glad we did. There is no experience like waking up every morning to the sight of a new island.

We enjoyed the "Freestyle Cruising" option. Basically, we got to eat wherever and whenever we wanted to. The food was included and the portions were small, but soon we learned that we were allowed to order as many things off the menu as we wanted (my husband has a big appetite).

During the first two days of sailing down the Arctic Atlantic we found many things on the ship to entertain us. There was a Casino, shopping, and the nightly shows were surprisingly entertaining. By the end of the 2nd day we were ready for our first port of call: San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Since we arrived in the late afternoon we decided to skip the beach scene and take an excursion touring the island. The tour was interesting, but it felt good to get off the tour bus and explore Old San Juan by ourselves. We had an amazing dinner at a Mexican restaurant and attempted to walk off our meal by checking out all the little shops, which somehow turned into a rum-punch pub crawl.  Luckily, we were able to stumble our way back to the ship just in the nick of time to hit the hay, since the next excursion was scheduled bright and early in St. Thomas.

We chose the downtown shopping and beach excursion.  We began the day shopping in Charlotte Amalie where I was able to find some cute beach gear, but after a couple hours experiencing the pushy jewelery store sales people, we were ready to hit the beach. We took an open air safari bus to Magen's Bay. Echoing songs from Jimmy Buffet and Zack Brown, this beach made me feel like I was in the heart of the Caribbean.

The third island we visited was Antigua.  We booked an excursion that consisted of a day at the beach and BBQ lunch cooked by the locals. Again, this beach was amazing. My husband had a ball on his rental jet-ski while I worked on my Irish tan.  They began cooking the BBQ lunch mid-morning and the delicious aroma tortured all of us waiting patiently for food on the beach. The curry chicken was amazing. With sunburned skin and full bellies we slept good that night on the ship.

Our next stop: St. Maarten. We arrived on the dutch side of the island, but didn't spend much time there. We were anxious to get to the world famous beach Orient Bay, considered to be the French Riviera of the Caribbean. There was a lot going on at this beach, many restaurants, wind-surfing, jet ski rentals, but most important the people watching (this is a topless beach after all). After enjoying some fun in the sun we took a taxi to Marigot - the famous shopping district. Most things were out of our price range, but it sure was fun being able to practice the little french I remembered from high school.

The following day we arrived at our final destination: Tortola. Located in the British Virgin Islands, it is probably the most beautiful that we had seen. With its lush greenery and mountains, it made for the most impressive photographs. We only had a few hours here, and soaked up every last bit of the Caribbean on Brewer's Bay Beach.

  

Before we knew it we were on our way out of the Caribbean and heading North through the Arctic Atlantic.  Every port of call seemed too short and left us wanting more, but we would have never been able to see so many islands unless we were on a cruise.