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NCC Caribbean Cruise 2008
by Tish Goscicki
The National Council of 56 Clubs hosted their
third cruise. There were 50 club members aboard ship. The cruise began
Friday, February 8th and ended Monday, February 18th and departed from
Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The ship was named The
Constellation and is the flagship for the Celebrity Cruise Line. This
was my first cruise and first trip to the Caribbean.
Bob and I flew from Detroit Metro airport to Fort Lauderdale's airport.
We were excited to leave and had great expectations of the upcoming
cruise. Our flight was scheduled for 6:45 a.m. but did not leave until
7:15 a.m. due to weather conditions of snow and ice along with an
overbooked flight. We landed around 10:10 a.m. at the Fort Lauderdale
airport and had to wait for the walkway attendant to arrive and operate
the equipment. We did not disembark the plane until 10:30 a.m. The
baggage carousel was not clearly marked so we waited at the wrong stile
before realizing our luggage was at the opposite end. We found the
correct stile and only one piece of our luggage had arrived. In all of
my years of travel, I never had a lost piece of luggage. I was hoping
that this trip was not off to a bad start. Fortunately the missing piece
of luggage arrived on the next flight from Detroit.
It was a short taxi ride to the pier where we checked in our luggage and
went through customs. After their inspection and detection, we boarded
the ship about 1:45 p.m. with the customary boarding photo taken by the
ship's photography crew. As we entered the ship, we were greeted with a
glass of champagne and escorted to our stateroom. The stateroom was
average size and was nice and clean with a large porthole to view the
water. With a twinkle in our eye Bob and I began to investigate the
ship. We met with the rest of the NCC group at 3 p.m. at the Bar at the
End of the Earth for a quick debrief. At 3:45 p.m. all passengers were
required to attend the muster drill. After the drill, we ended up on
deck 11 for the traditional bon voyage and we were off to the high seas
of the Caribbean. Once we were aboard the ship, my luck changed and
everything went smoothly.
Dinner was served nightly at 6:00 p.m. in the main dining room. There
were three formal, four informal, and three casual nights scheduled. The
menu changed nightly and offered a variety of classic fare. We dined at
table 539 with four other couples from California, New Jersey and South
Carolina. We looked forward to dinner and the exhilarating conversations
we had. By the end of the cruise, we created new friendships. Jan Cook
provided a daily gift on our dinner chairs. We attended some of the
shows after dinner and enjoyed with some truly interesting
entertainment.
Every night our stateroom attendant turned down our bed, placed a
chocolate on the pillow and left a daily newsletter. The newsletter
provided interesting facts about the ship, ports of call and daily
activities on board.
On Saturday February 9th, our first full day at sea, we booked our
on-shore excursions, walked through the ship's gift shops and attended a
shopping in St. Thomas and St. Maarten presentation. When we picked our
on-shore excursions, we decided we really wanted to “see” the island
that way we could decide if we wanted to return at a later time. The
first NCC make-and-take took place in the morning. We made a
commemorative ornament for the NCC cruise. The weather was perfect,
around 80 degrees, so we took advantage of the lounge chairs and the
view of the water. After dinner we decided to play the slots and
blackjack in the Fortune's Casino. I'm beginning to think the casino got
its name because the passengers spend a fortune.
On Monday, February 11th we reached our first port of call, Charlotte
Amalie in St. Thomas. It was beautiful to watch the sun rise over the
island mountain ranges. We left the ship and took a taxi into downtown
to do some shopping. We also saw Blackbeard's hill and castle (which was
the same as the Best of St. Thomas tour). In the afternoon we went to
Coral Land and Coral Sea to ride a floating sub to view sea life. What a
busy day!! We did not have enough time to take The Skyride to Paradise
Point to view the island from a cable car, which we were looking forward
to doing. Oh well. We were back aboard ship around 5:00 p.m. and we
got ready for dinner. After dinner, we went swimming in the therapeutic
pool on the ship.
Our second port of call was Basseterre, St. Kitts. Our day on the island
started with The Essential St. Kitts tour at 8:50 a.m. We visited the
Romney Manor, which is an old plantation that is now a batik factory.
The island was absolutely beautiful. We also toured the Brimstone
Fortress and St. George Castle; which is located some 500 ft above sea
level. After the tour we walked through the port shops. We thought St.
Kitts was a very pretty island.
The third port of call was Bridgetown, Barbados. We disembarked for our
tour "A flavor of Barbados". We visited a mahogany studio, where they
make many items from the root of mahogany trees. Next on the tour was a
visit to the Sudbury plantation and the final stop was at a rum factory,
where we learned how they made rum. After the tour we walked around the
downtown shopping area. We were very disappointed L in this island and
decided to return to the ship where we went swimming.
On Valentine's Day, we were in our fourth port of call, Castries, St.
Lucia. Our Island Delights tour began at 8:00 a.m. and finished shortly
before 3:00 p.m. St. Lucia is a very scenic island and was formed by
several volcanic eruptions. Several highlights of our tour included
driving through a tropical jungle and rain forest, visiting a small
fishing village for shopping, walking in a potentially active volcano
crater, visiting the botanical gardens and the Pitons. The Pitons are
two large mountain peaks along the islands southern shoreline; which
were created by several volcanic eruptions. The tour include lunch at a
local hotel in the town of Soufrie`re. After the tour, we went shopping
in the duty free area. The ladies received a complimentary single red
rose at dinner.
Our fifth and final port of call was Philipsburg, St. Maarten. The St.
Maarten Island Tour began at 9:45 a.m. We enjoyed the island tour, which
allowed us to see the highlights of the Dutch and French sides of the
island. After the tour we stayed in the downtown area to do some
shopping area. Since we were in the Caribbean and never put our feet in
the warm crystal aqua blue water yet, we stopped at the beach in
Philipsburg and did just that.
Saturday was a full day at sea. The NCC group, wearing our commemorative
cruise t-shirts, met for a photo on the stairs of the grand foyer. One
of our dinner companions played a joke on us the night before and told
us they gave their t-shirts to their cabin steward because they didn’t
think they needed them. Of course, everyone at the table believed them.
What a surprise, when we saw them in the t-shirts ready to take the
picture. I heard it cost them $5 a shirt to get them back. J After the
photo, we headed off to a meeting room for the second make-and-take,
which was a tree with a Snowbaby head as a tree topper. A group of us
participated in a slots tournament. Yvonne and I made it to the final
round! Bob participated in a blackjack tournament, but was eliminated
after the third round of play. After the tournaments, we went for some
comfort food - ice cream!! Then we were off to meet the NCC group for
the scavenger hunt drawing. Tonight was the captain's formal dinner.
After dinner Bob and I strolled outside on deck 11. What a beautiful
night. The moon and stars seemed so close like you could reach out and
touch them!
Sunday February 17th was our final day at sea L. I attended a
disembarking seminar in the morning and finished packing. I had brought
an "extra" suitcase so we could bring back our purchases. So much for
that idea, I had to purchase a Celebrity tote bag to bring the large
amount of prizes and purchases home. We spent the afternoon at the
poolside. Although we were sad to think the cruise was coming to an end;
Bob's credit card was happy. He thought the magnetic strip was smok'n!!
We arrive in Port Everglades, Florida on Monday, February 18th. The
weather was cool and rainy in the morning. We packed our remaining
carry-on items and headed to our disembarking station. At 10:10 a.m. our
color was announced and we headed off the ship. We grabbed our luggage
and went through customs and immigration. We took a taxi to the airport
and dropped off our luggage and hit the Fort Lauderdale beach. Boy,
could you tell the difference from the beach in Florida to those in the
Caribbean! Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:15 p.m., but was
delayed about 30 minutes. We finally arrived in Detroit about 11:30 p.m.
and had temperature shock to the body.
This was the first vacation that I took where I was not ready to go
home. I told Bob I wanted to go through customs and board the ship for
another trip. What a wonderful time we both had!! We can't wait to do it
again soon!!
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