RV travels around the USA
One of our vacations from a strenuous retirement, is to take a cruise while we are already in Florida for the winter. This year I found a 6-day cruise on Royal Caribbean aboard the Jewel of the Seas. It was a good deal at less than $100 a day each for an inside cabin and it sailed out about 45 days from when I booked it. It was a beautiful warm week in late February and we had a surprise waiting for us on board! On to the Western Caribbean!
While we are on the “bonus day” Saturday of our cancelled cruise, I will attempt to provide an update from one of our favorite islands so far. The island of Tortola, one of the British Virgin Islands has the best mountain views that we have seen while on this cruise. Here is a quick update and a few photos.
Perhaps a couple of red flags have gone up as warning signs. First it was the shutdown of the Crystal cruise operations after our ship returned to the port in Miami on Saturday morning. Today, Friday 1/21, the captain made an announcement that due to “non-technical operational issues” our ship would not be ending the cruise at the Miami port. What’s up now?
Continue reading “Crystal Symphony – Arrest Warrant Issued!!”
The US territory of Puerto Rico marks the 8th day of our 21 day cruise. I still wonder at what we were thinking during a spike in the pandemic. But, I have to tell you, except for a couple of schedule adjustments, everything has been great. The Crystal cruise line has lived up to its reputation as a high end ultra luxury adventure. And I still feel safe. On Sunday, we took a walkabout tour of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
This tiny island on the border between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea has two different languages and is ruled by two different nations. At just 37 square miles, the southern half is Sint Maarten and ruled by the Dutch, while the northern half, St. Martin is French ruled. We took the air conditioned bus tour around both sides.
Our itinerary has had a small change by removing the planned stop at Gustavia, St. Barts and extending our stay in Antigua. The St. Barts authorities did not allow our ship to stop due to one covid case aboard with a crew member. An abundance of caution again. So, we got to explore Antigua a second day.
So far, so good! In fact, the luxury cruise of a lifetime has been great. How often does one have a 50th anniversary? All around, the vessel, the staff, entertainment, and obviously the chow have been great. And on top of that I feel very safe aboard. Actually, as a guy said yesterday, we feel safer here than going to a local Walmart. More on that later. St. John USVI was our first stop.
We made it through some more hurdles finally getting aboard the Crystal Cruise line’s ship the Symphony. Actually, it was a little more stressful than planned but it all worked out. We made it! All aboard!
We found a small motel to spend the night near Miami. A five hour drive yesterday through some congested areas. Not too bad, but I am certainly glad that we chose to drive it on Friday instead the day of the cruise. Nothing like being stuck in standstill traffic while watching the cruise ship leave the port. At least that was my concern. But staying the night here will make a lower stress one hour drive to the port just after noon.
It is just three days until we board the cruise ship Symphony, one of the Crystal Cruise lines floating palaces. And of course the new Omnicron has taken off like crazy all over the world. Well, we knew that cruising during a pandemic could be a risk, but all reports at the time that we booked were that ships were operating as normal, ports were open, and covid cases were minimal due to all the mitigating actions in place. How will Omnicron affect our cruise?