Our original plans for a honeymoon was a trip to Bermuda. But 2 days before the wedding, a large hurricane was headed directly for that island. It was predicted to arrive about an hour after we did. There was also a 2nd one in its wake.
Neither the airline nor the resort was willing to cancel ahead of time but if they did cancel at the last minute, we would get our money back.
Since we didn't want to live through a hurricane and its aftermath, John spent 4 hours on the phone, the night before the wedding, looking for an alternate honeymoon.
After 3 hours of no luck, he spoke with a wonderful woman at Expedia Cruises. She spent an hour looking at every cruise leaving that week. She found a 7-day Carnival cruise from Miami to the Eastern Caribean (south of the huricane). Cruise and airfare for both of us was less than the airfare to Bermuda had been!
Not only were we able to salvage our honeymoon, but we both think we ended up with a better one than originally planned.
In St Thomas, we wandered thru the shopping area (lots of jewelery stores) and then took a tour around the island. Lots of lush greenery & beautiful ocean beaches. But a stark contrast between toursit areas & some towns on the far side of island.
We called John's cousin Martita the night before & arranged to meet her and her mother, Marta, for lunch.
At lunch, we had fried plantain cups filled with meat & chicken. And wonderful, refreshing fruit flavored smoothies to drink.
Although with the heat and humidity they had in early September, I think we’d pick another time of year!
The temperature during our visit was in the high 90’s with the humidity about the same.
By the time we walked the mile or so from the ship to the old fort, it felt like we’d run a marathon… we had trouble breathing and could barely put one foot in front of the other…
Yes, definitely, our next visit will be at another time of the year!
Once we finally did get to the old fort, the view of the city was breathtaking.
Our room steward knew it was our honeymoon, so he left us 2 kissing swans made out of towels.
The cruise stopped at Half Moon Cay which is a private island owned by the cruise line.
Ann had a little trouble controlling the jet ski at first. Wherever her eyes went, the jet ski went!
John tilted his head up a little too much and lost his favorite hat. He had to double-back to fish it out of the water.
That was a lot of fun. We’d do that again.
We took dance classes in Swing & Hustle taught by the ship's show dancers. We found there is a major difference in how a show dancer teaches choreography. We found ourselves doing a 10-count Swing with alternating backstep foot.
After the lesson, the stage band kept playing & we went back up on stage & dance our version of Swing for about 30 minutes. It was so much fun dancing to a live band. And most of the time we had the stage to ourselves.
One evening there was a Calypso band on deck by the pool. We were dancing salsa and Ann had to ditch her flip-flops and dance barefoot. Since we were the only ones dancing, the band invited us to dance on the stage for about 20 minutes. Afterwards, the singer presented us with our first ever dance metals!
Grand Turk
The island is in beginning of a development boom. Dock area was all new. Not a lot to do but lots of signs for new buildings. We took a dune buggy tour around the island. John had a lot of fun kicking up dirt while Ann had both feet and hands brace to stay in the seat.
John made sure we were near the front of the line of dune buggies so we didn’t eat too much of anyone else’s dirt. Even at that, we were covered with a layer of dirt by the time we were done!
That was a lot of fun and came with stylish helmets too!
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