Tortola

Again, we had plans here and were headed to the Baths so we were up at 6am having an early breakfast on our deck and getting those early photos. One of the interesting things today was the fact that they backed the ship into the pier before docking. Last year they pulled straight in the same way they do most places. It was interesting to watch this giant ship make this 180 degree turn and then back it’s way in.

We had to meet to go to the Baths at 8:15 on the pier and were down by 8. We highly recommend doing this. I can’t wait to get the photos posted that I took of the rock formations, the caves and Devil’s bay. We took a guided tour through the caves and our one forewarning is to wear water shoes. We did and it made climbing the rocks and steps and the water and sand much easier to handle. We ended up at Devil’s bay at the beach where we spent about an hour and a half and the water felt so great. Some people snorkeled, some swam, and some just relaxed. We headed back to the ferry around 11:30. We will definitely go here again. We did go through the ship for this because the ferries that you have to take to get there can be unpredictable if you go independently. In fact, several people have had them break down. This way we are guaranteed getting back to the ship on time since we leave early from Tortola (2pm). We had lunch at Horatio’s which was extremely busy since everyone was coming back onboard early. We decided to get all our food and drinks and eat lunch on our deck since finding seats was almost impossible. One area of frustration we saw with some people was when 1 person would hold a table that could seat 6 saying they were saving it for their family and then you’d see them at this same table for 6 eating with their spouse and young child but not allowing anyone else to share the table. We saw one or 2 heated exchanges. We took pictures as we left port and then relaxed a little after a busy morning.

Tonight was the past guest party so we had to be ready and in the Phantom lounge at 5pm. They didn’t give out past guest presents this time although I still use the beautiful bag I got last year. They only gave out the Carnival Miracle past guest label pins with your invitations. So we swung in for a free drink but didn’t eat much since tonight is our Nick & Nora’s reservations at 7pm.

We got to Nick and Nora’s and had our table for 2 upstairs looking down on the dance floor. It was wonderful as usual. We had the shrimp cocktail, porterhouse steak, baked potatoes, sautéed mushrooms and onions, bread and these great fruit cups with sorbet. We also ordered a bottle of wine, white to have with our dinner. We also took some time to have about 5 dances while we were there. Quite a few of our roll call had all made reservations on the same night for Nick & Nora’s and everyone looked very nice and seemed to enjoy the experience. After dinner, we met up with Lee & Ann to have a more formal picture taken at one of the photography areas. After this we changed and went to Frankie and Johnny’s for about an hour.

3rd Sea Day

Today was the Walk for the Cure day which is $10 a person and you sign up at the Formalities shop on board. You get a t-shirt and the money goes to breast cancer research. We slept in today since we didn’t have to be up at 6am and had breakfast in our cabin. Then we took more pictures and decided to check out some shops on the ship. They had some decent sales so we picked up a few things as presents and then had lunch of those great burgers from the grill. We spent the afternoon enjoying our balcony. It had started to get a little cooler as we headed back up the east coast and the water was slightly choppy which was affecting some people again. Tonight was the second formal night so we made sure we were in our long gowns and ready for some formal pictures before dinner.

Since we had decided to make this trip like a second honeymoon, my husband surprised me with a beautiful bracelet and then a dozen chocolate covered strawberries he had delivered to our stateroom while we were having dinner to be there waiting when I walked back in. Then we had room service bring us some frozen drinks.