I am back from my Cruise....

Sathya,
A poem from the great IL poet for my trip. I am flattered. Thanks a lot.
Jothi.


Mohana,

Thanks. Jothi.

Vandhana,

Thanks. I have started working on the report dont know when I will finish it, may be this weekend. I have loads of laundry to do after the trip. I will find time inbetween.. the laundry

Jothi.

 

Thanks Sunitha.

will post the detailed information soon.

Jothi.

 

Thanks Vidya. You should definitely try this. Very relaxing.

Regards,
Jothi.

 

Ladies,

Vandhana, Sunitha, Vidya,

All of you who wanted more information on my trip, here it is and I hope you dont regret asking for the information seeing how long the detailed report is.
In between the loads of laundry and having to cook for the family after the wonderful trip I found time to pen down my experiences before it all went down the memory drain. But then again I dont think I will ever forget this trip.

Pls see the attachment for the details. Sorry that it is three pages, got excited in writingmg:. Hope y'all wont mind.
(Jothi, I have posted this as a next message - Induslady)

Regards,
Jo.

 

Dear Friends,

Here are the details of my vacation.

We booked our tickets for the cruise thru Orbitz in Royal Caribbean, Explorer of the seas. The ship is 7 yrs old, but definitely does not look that old. Everything in the ship was in great condition. I have heard stories about people getting sick in cruises. I traveled with my kids. None of us experienced any sort of illness. The ship was beautifully maintained and kept impeccably clean.

Sunday
We flew from CT to Miami, Florida on Sunday morning. We reached the airport at 10.30. We did not initially pay for transportation from the airport to the port. But found Royal Caribbean officials arranging for the same at the airport itself. It was very easy to hand them our luggage and take their shuttle bus to the port rather than get a taxi and carry the luggage ourselves to the port.

I might as well talk about the luggage that I packed for the whole week. I have to say I surprised myself when I packed the things needed for my whole family for almost 10 days in two large suitcases and a small carry on suitcase.
The things packed included 2-3 sets of swimsuits for all of us, outfits for the day, and outfits for the dinner at night. We had 2 formal dinners, so that includes 2 formal dresses and the rest were casual. So I had to pack dress shoes, beach shoes, regular sandals and sneakers. (If you are wondering why sneakers, I was planning to go to the gym everyday of the trip but managed to go 4 days to the gym and walk on the deck one day, not bad huh…) For the kids I bought crocs which were easy as they go from pool to beach and outside, and I also took dress shoes for them. Hubby had three pairs of shoes too. Of course underwear for the whole trip, forget about doing laundry and there is no self laundry service in most of the ships. But they do have laundry service like a hotel but it is way too expensive. It costs about 1.50 to launder underwear thru their laundry service. No way Jose.. I rather pack 10 for each of us.

We got to the port in the shuttle and got into the ship around 12.30 pm. There were immigration checks and security checks of course, which did not take that long. We were given a seapass card which is directly connected to the credit card that we give. So any purchases we make on the ship directly go to the seapass card. At the end of the cruise our credit card is billed. We don’t have to carry money or credit card around. Meals are provided in both the formal dining area and in the buffet which is pretty informal but also good. The formal dining food can be compared to the 5 star gourmet foods, which was beautiful and delicious. Drinks that come in the package are water, lemonade and iced tea, orange juice, apple juice, milk, coffee, tea. These are all on the house. If we need anything other than these, we have to buy them. They do have unlimited soda package, that costs about 20 bucks for the whole trip. The pool bars had exotic tropical drinks.
Our room was not ready until 1.30 that afternoon. So directly went to check out the ship. What a sight. It was beautiful. I was awestruck seeing the size of the ship. There were 15 floors or decks as they call it which included a huge spa, a huge fitness center, a rock climbing wall, a basketball court, mini golf, chapel, library, three levels of formal dinning area, 3 restaurants and an informal buffet area, child care center, video games arcade, a movie screening room, a theater, ice skating rink, jogging track, 3 swimming pools, 6 hot tubs, a casino, 3 bars, water slide for the kids., 12 elevators.
We went to our room around 1.45 after lunch which was provided on board. Changed and went to the pool and spent couple of hrs there and then returned to the room and got dressed for dinner. The room was very small with bunk beds for the kids. Considering that we spent very little time in the room the small size was manageable. We had the pleasure of dining with another American family because we shared a table with them. You don’t have a choice with that. After dinner we walked around a while and then retired to our rooms because we were tired.

Monday
We were at sea whole of Monday. We spent the whole day at the pool, exploring the ship and just relaxing... Monday was a formal dinner night. Our dinner time was 6.00 pm. Cocktail dresses for ladies, suit and tie for gentlemen. They had professional photographers to take portraits of everyone. There is no obligation to have our picture taken or to buy the pictures that they take. But you know what happens when these people take pictures, we end up buying all of them. We spent about 200 dollars on portraits. They were really exquisite. Food was amazing. We had four course meals. Our waiter was Indian; he was nice enough to arrange for Indian food for us. For the rest of the week we had Indian meal. There were more than 150 Indian employees spread out in different areas, including dinning, after dinner, we went to see a juggling show. Awesome show

Tuesday
Reached in Belize. The port was too shallow for the ship to dock so they tendered the ship about 5 miles away from the shore. We were taken to the shore in small tender boats. People book a lot of different excursions from snorkeling to beach break and city tours and lot of other things. We went to a beautiful whit sand beach spent the whole day there and came back to the ship around 4pm. The ship sailed away at 5pm. Dinner again at 6. We left our children in the kid’s age appropriate adventure ocean. They spent three hrs there while hubby and I had some time off for ourselves watching the shows and walking on the deck looking at the stars. We did this pretty much everyday. Kids had so much fun there at the center and they made lots of friends.

Wednesday
Reached Costa Maya. We spent the whole day just window shopping and kids had fun at the pool in the market place. The pool was surrounded by the stores selling diamonds, gemstones, t-shits and local arts and crafts. Back in the ship that night we saw the most amazing ice skating show. Could not believe that in the middle of the ocean these people were able to skate on a moving ship. It was truly extraordinary and professional.

Thursday

Reached Cozumel, Mexico. We had booked for the infamous dolphin encounter. My daughter and I did this where there was an age limit for 6 and over. We spent an hour with the most incredible creature the bottlenose dolphin. The dolphin is made to kiss everyone’s cheeks. Amazing opportunity. Husband and son did more advanced program where they swam with the dolphins. We bought DVDs of both these. They sell DVDs and pictures. We were not able to take pics or video since we were in the water. Experience of a lifetime for sure.

Friday
Reached Grand Cayman. We did island tour and under water boat tour. We saw beautiful fishes and stingrays. Grand Cayman is the most beautiful island of all the four that we saw.
Friday was another formal night. We all dressed in Indian attire. Chudidhar for me, Sherwani for son and GagraCholi for daughter, suit and tie for hubby. Our outfits were praised by our dinner counterparts.

Saturday
At sea again. It was pretty much like Monday. We started packing all our stuff. We had about three hrs after dinner to pack and leave the luggage outside our rooms. They were taken care of.

Sunday
Reached Miami. Our luggage was waiting for us. The departure was very nicely organized. No hassles and no delays. We were out of the ship by 9AM.

Took the flight back home on Monday.

The whole trip cost us about $ 5500 including airfare. It seems expensive but, the trip was worth every dollar we spent. If you all need any more specific info let me know. This is one vacation worth taking.

 

Dear Vivbass,

Thanks. I will definitely go on another one in a year. Already started thinking about that. Surely I will write another report like this one next yr.

Regards,
Jo.