12.29.16 St Bart's

12.29.16

Today we arrived in St Bart's. We as a great room service breakfast on the balcony and saw a rainbow. We took the tender into port. We had to weave around multi million dollar yachts since all the rich and famous spend the new year in St Bart's. We took a catamaran excursion that was a bit disappointing. We expected a much nicer boat and more time sailing. We still had a beautiful swim and enjoyed checking out all the huge yachts.

We came back and spent a relaxing afternoon by the pool. We headed to trivia at 4 pm, paired up with some trivia pros, and won cruise line logo trivia. We weren't quite as successful at 5 pm trivia. We enjoyed a pre-dinner cocktail and piano music in the Living Room - a beautiful lounge on the top deck. Dinner was good again. After dinner, we went to the show Garin Bader. He plays the piano and does magic. It's an odd mix. After dinner, we headed to the casino bar to listen to some more piano and chat with the bartender.

12.28.16 St Martin

12.28.16

We had a leisurely start to the day.  Buffet breakfast was simple but tasty. We enjoyed relaxing on deck and then headed to Marigot around noon. We tendered over in life boats. We walked around a little before having decadent ham and cheese sandwiches and macarons at Sarafina's. We took a taxi to Sonesta Maho Bay where I did a site inspection and then we enjoyed the pools and watching the planes land. Our driver on the way back had a lot of passion for Trump. Hearing international cab drivers chat about US politics is a great benefit of traveling abroad. We attended the Distinctive Voyages cocktail party and met a fun couple who'd been on 12 Azamara cruises and are booked the same Croatia cruise for next year.

Dinner went so much better tonight. Mauricio and Mickey were fantastic. The head waiter and maitre'd checked on numerous times. Glenn had a good veal chop and I like the Norwegian salmon. They brought Glenn out his happy birthday cake. We had a night cap in the living room listening to the guitar player. R was a little more Branson than acoustic, but I still enjoyed it. We called it an early night since we have a early excursion in St Bart's tomorrow.

12.27.16 Welcome to the Azamara Quest

12.27.16

We started the day with breakfast at the Cafe American in the hotel. It plays Casablanca as you eat. Both our meals were good. For mine, I had a breakfast sandwich that used shredded fried plantains as the bread. Glenn had poached eggs with smoked salmon and bleu cheese in a fried plantation shell.

We walked down to the port to see the new Viking Ocean cruise ship. We relaxed a little more on the hotel roof and then grabbed a taxi to the port. It took a out 30 minutes to get a taxi so leave plenty of time.

Embarkation was very easy and quick. We were surprised we had to walk outside and up a set of stairs instead of a ramp.  We stopped by the Land Discoveries desk to finish booking our shore excursions. Lunch at the buffet was good. For the first 24 hours, they had staff serve all the food to help cut down on illnesses. We had great beverage service. The cabins opened at 1:45 pm. Our luggage arrived around 3 pm so it was great to be unpacked. We took the ship tour at 4 pm. It took 20 minutes. One good tip was that all the elevators empty facing forward and all the restaurants are at the back of the ship. We tried to make Chef's Table reservations, but they were all booked. The muster drill was at 5 pm
We really liked that it was not in the middle of dinner. At 5:45 pm, we went to the Cruise Critic meet and greet. We were impressed several of the ship's officers attended and the cruise director.

We had dinner in the included restaurant. We chose a table with other people and had a lively conversation. Our dinner was very slow and all of us got a little agitated when all the tables around us had come and gone and we still didn't have entrees. The best part was that the maitre'd tried to blame us for sitting at a large table. My response was, "You did this - not us. We don't know each other. If you can't handle a large table - don't sit people at one." We left before dessert to get to the show so we didn't get the cake I had arranged for Glenn. We should get it tonight. (As I'm writing this Wednesday morning by the pool, the pool butler just came by with a cold towel. Nice touch.)

The welcome aboard show featured two vocalists, a piano player and two dancers.  If you like cabert entertainment, I think you'd like the shows. We stayed up late chatting with other guests.

12.26.16 San Juan

12.26.16

Our first day was great! We had a little bumpy start. in the past, we always arrived in San Juan very early in the morning. This time I decided to give ourselves a break and take a flight that got in around 2:30 pm. We faced a little line for taxis, but the issue was the traffic. It was crazy!! Even our driver got frustrated.

We were happy to make it to the hotel. We chose a cute boutique hotel: The Casablanca. It's in a great location. It had a Moroccan theme with accents from the movie. The rooftop deck has a great view of the harbor and the fort. The deck has four big tubs the guests can use.

We headed out to find a beer bar we had heard,  about from the brewer on the Carnival Vista. It's a craft beer bar and it had a pretty good beer selection. It's definitely a place to avoid if you are in a hurry. We had a great time. Their chicken wrap and steak burrito were very good.

Then we headed back toward our hotel to check out a rooftop bar we could see from our room. It was a long wait, but they had great coconut mojitos. The food was really good. Glenn had the skirt steak and I had the mofongo with shrimp and a garlic cream sauce.

After dinner, we enjoyed the beautiful night from our hotel's rooftop.