Cruise end
Hopefully everyone got home safely. We had an adventure getting back to Boston, and now have plenty of snow shoveling to do. We had to board our flight and sit for 90 minutes while Logan Airport had a ground stop, then got to hold in the air for another 30 minutes before landing. There is snow everywhere here in New England. I want to get back on the nude ship!
We are on the fence for next year, and will wait to see if BN does an upgrade to open up more interior cabins.
We decided to fly back to Club O on St Martins and pick up where the cruise left off. We had a great time on the ship but were not big fans of Guadeloupe (hope they decided to take this off the itinerary next year) - dirty industrial part of town with no shops to speak of...and it looks like one of the cruises passengers was mugged there (very unfortunate). We did like the disco and the dancing out on the decks at night as well as the Sci Fi costume night. We will be back in 2016 to meet and see all our old and new friends. J&J
We had a great time and learned a lot being this was a virgin cruise of any kind for us. Of course getting home was a challenge for many and us too. Thats ok as long as everyone made it safe. Our personal experience with the Cruise line was great. I know some had some bumps with the Cruise line as ours was with the BN excursions. For us we will not use BN excursions in the future and do our own excursion planning. We know there is a certain amount of risk that goes with that, however the ones we did on our own this trip was fantastic. BN's excursions that we took part of was pretty disappointing if not awful.
We met some great new friends and had some good times.
Most likely if Guadalupe and Puerto Rico are Ports of call for 2016 we will not book the 2016 cruise. We would love to meet up once again with those friends but it just may not be in the cards next year.
We had a great time and learned a lot being this was a virgin cruise of any kind for us. Of course getting home was a challenge for many and us too. Thats ok as long as everyone made it safe. Our personal experience with the Cruise line was great. I know some had some bumps with the Cruise line as ours was with the BN excursions. For us we will not use BN excursions in the future and do our own excursion planning. We know there is a certain amount of risk that goes with that, however the ones we did on our own this trip was fantastic. BN's excursions that we took part of was pretty disappointing if not awful. We met some great new friends and had some good times. Most likely if Guadalupe and Puerto Rico are Ports of call for 2016 we will not book the 2016 cruise. We would love to meet up once again with those friends but it just may not be in the cards next year.
Well, PR and Guadeloupe are the first two ports for next year, so that's not a good omen. Guadeloupe was the only stop we did a ship tour, due to it being Carnaval and not wanting a traffic jam to cause us to miss the ship. The tour operators took dollars, although we had Euros as well. It was a vanilla see the highlights of our island tour, which we have done countless times on past cruises all over the Caribbean. Next year they stay until 1am, so you could actually go to the Carnaval parade in Basse-Terre and get back to the ship.
We are mixed on going next year. We loved not being in Boston for 3 out of the 5 big storms, but Mrs. J&C did a lot of worrying about the house and the dogs, since Internet connectivity was really bad -- even by cruise ship standards. And of course I strained my back digging out all of the accumulated snow yesterday.
Since interior staterooms are sold out, we will wait for the inevitable upgrades to make some interior rooms available again before making our decision. That leaves time to see what the 2017 cruise will be.
Any pictures form the trip? Looking at the ones on here it looks like a fun cruise. Maybe one day! :-)
I can add the BN group picture once we scan it, and the Haulover one once we get our copy via email (Marc & Susan, did you get yours yet? My spam folder was so full I just emptied it without looking through it first). We have pictures from a taxi tour around St. Barth's and a regular shore excursion around Guadeloupe that we have to download. We were having too much fun while naked to take any pictures at Coco Cay or St. Martin.
We got home well, and surprisingly to very little snow for Alberta. I have to agree about Guadeloupe...what a terrible stop that was. And to top off the old, run-down, graffiti-riddled slum of a country, we also had to deal with a cab driver that wouldn't take us to the nude beach, but felt just fine following our cab the entire way there (an hour one way) just to get naked on the beach and jerk off towards my wife! Not discreet either....RIGHT in front of us. Seriously! Then we walked to the other side of the beach, and he followed, and started again. Not being sure if he was now actually our ride back, my wife prevented what I very much wanted to do and we just left....only to find our ACTUAL driver was still there. What a BRUTAL part of our cruise. Everything else, we loved.
To be fair, only Pointe-A-Pitre was a graffiti covered slum. Our tour to Basse-Terre (the island, not the city) was filled with very nice towns. The main highway to Basse-Terre (the city) was a clogged mess due to Carnaval, but our driver knew back roads to avoid most of it that went through banana and sugar cane fields and small towns that looked very well kept. It reminded me of the Panama stop in 2013. Colon is a horrible slum, but once you leave that Panama is very nice.
To be fair, only Pointe-A-Pitre was a graffiti covered slum. Our tour to Basse-Terre (the island, not the city) was filled with very nice towns. The main highway to Basse-Terre (the city) was a clogged mess due to Carnaval, but our driver knew back roads to avoid most of it that went through banana and sugar cane fields and small towns that looked very well kept. It reminded me of the Panama stop in 2013. Colon is a horrible slum, but once you leave that Panama is very nice.
Seems like we will need to signup for an excursion for the Carnaval to Basse-Terre in 2016 and just avoid Pointe-A-Pitre completely....not interested in revisiting those streets next year. We have traveled a lot and know that we cannot always be guaranteed a safe journey but hope a safe bus trip can be organized for those of us who would like to see Carnaval. JJ
Seems like we will need to signup for an excursion for the Carnaval to Basse-Terre in 2016 and just avoid Pointe-A-Pitre completely....not interested in revisiting those streets next year. We have traveled a lot and know that we cannot always be guaranteed a safe journey but hope a safe bus trip can be organized for those of us who would like to see Carnaval. JJ
I would. I don't remember anything that even remotely interested us to venture back out to even the dock area once our tour ended. We just stayed on the ship, even though we were docked and had to stay clothed. While waiting on deck for the inevitable late returners, we heard what sounded like gunshots or fireworks. It turned out to be a group of kids across the street playing with two bullwhips. Not something I would have wanted to have to walk by trying to get back to the ship.
I know they like the simplicity of docking and that tendering at night probably has a whole new set of problems, but it would be nicer to stop at Basse-Terre and tender than stop at Point-A-Pitre again.
Just returned home to St lou, weather not too bad here. I sent several days in Fort Lauderdale vising with friends & got a chance to hit Haulover before returning home. I'm not sure about 2016 as of yet , I'm not crazy about the ports and all the clothed day at port.
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