Next week we will fly to Bordeaux, France and will stay in a hotel for a night before boarding the Uniworld S.S. Joie de Vivre for the first week of our three week trip. We will be on three different river boats, each for a week, as we make our way around the different regions of France. After we disembark in Arles, we will travel to Marseille for two days before heading back to LBI in New Jersey. Here’s a map of the trip.
As always, I will be adding posts each day. Bon Voyage to us!
December 26, 2024
It is always sad for us after enjoying time with family and also the special journey we have taken on cruises – when it is time to pack. We are pretty organized already this afternoon and enjoying the last relaxing sea day on the way to Miami.
I had a second cooking class this morning. it was called Brunch Around the World, and again, everything we made was delicious. We started with a muesli, originally a Swiss dish. This one had oats, almond milk, blueberries, bananas and strawberries, orange juice and honey.
Next we made scones and we ate them with clotted cream and raspberry jam.
Our final dish was a Persian frittata served with a yogurt topping combined with spices, dried cherries and nuts.
The frittata was served with Prosecco and a ginger liqueur. Mark, Ramsay and Norm joined at the end to tase the dishes. All got a thumbs up.
For some reason, the blackjack tournament was not listed in the daily Currents newsletter so less than half of yesterday’s players showed up. We had to have 4 qualifying games yesterday and only 2 today. No chance for me today with many bad hands but somehow it was better than losing by one chip! The same woman, Lois, who won yesterday was lucky again today!
Our final trivia was a good one. Then the prize redemption ensued. We saved our points from the spring cruise and gave them to Adam, Mark and Ramsay.
We had dinner at the final specialty restaurant, Ember, tonight. Delicious as always.
Our final show was Craig Diamond. Adam, Mark and Ramsay spent time with him during the cruise and had a lot of fun. We couldn’t figure out how he did some of his tricks.
I am writing this from back home in West Palm Beach where we are fully unpacked and settled in. Mark and Ramsay’s flight just landed and Adam’s is still in the air. Miss them so much already and are very happy we could all have this time together.
Ending this with just a few more pictures of the amazing gingerbread village!
December 25, 2024
We are cruising the Atlantic Ocean on our two day sail back to Miami. The ship is very festive and Santa, Mrs. Claus and the elves made an appearance this morning. The cookie and goodie table was full and hot chocolate was available to all.
The Grinch even showed up! We did have a one year old on board and just a few other young people too. Simon announced that there were some small elves hidden around the ship and that a small Santa holding 50 Big O points was also hidden. Mark and Ramsay had an idea where that might be but were just a moment too late to find it before two kids got it!
After doing yesterday’s blog I headed for my cooking class – La Cocina Mexican. Noelle was our instructor. We took classes with her last year and also on Marina before that. She’s really a great person and instructor. We caught her appearance on the Today show a couple of months ago.
We made Carne Asada, Pan roasted snapper en papillote with spicy pepita yogurt, Mexican chocolate pepita shortbreads and Paloma cartuja.
Mark, Ramsay and Norm came at the end to do some tasting. I would make all of them again at home.
For Christmas, everyone who played trivia got 3 big O points today. They can be traded in for merchandise tomorrow. We give all of ours to our kids, but I did have some for socks at the end of our last cruise in the spring. Love those socks!
In the afternoon blackjack tournament, I survived four rounds to make it to the finals where I placed second, only one chip behind the winner! And Norm had his second relaxing massage.
Craig, the guest magician on board, did a close up show in Horizons before dinner. We all enjoyed it.
After that, since Hanukkah falls on Christmas this year, we went to a Hanukkah candle lighting in the Vista lounge. We were surprised at the large number of guests who were there. One of the guests led it. We were given a printed program and they served wine, latkes, mini challah and jelly doughnuts. It was really beautifully done.
We had dinner in the Terrace Cafe with our favorite server, Melissa and our favorite sommelier, Tina. Afterwards, we did the 8:30 trivia and went to the show – Headliners, which was the talented entertainment team’s last performance.
It is our last day on the way to Miami tomorrow. I have one more cooking class and will post about the day probably when we get home.
It has been a wonderful family time and Oceania remains a favorite for us.
December 24, 2024
We arrived into St. John’s in cloudy weather, and when we walked out to our excursion, the skies opened up and it poured! For about 15 minutes, then it cleared up for a beautiful day.
Antigua is the larger of the two main islands which make up the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua is known for its 365 beautiful beaches, one for each day of the year.
Our excursion today is that catamaran champagne and lobster catamaran cruise that was booked up last year when we tried to go. The boat is the Explorer and the crew was fun.
We went on a long cruise around many of the beaches and heard a lot about the island. We could see Barbuda in the distance but didn’t go there. One of the beach areas is restricted to yachts costing 500 million dollars or more. It is also the beach where season six of Below Deck was filmed. We also cruised into neighborhoods of condos and homes, many that are rented out or are second vacation homes.
We arrived at our first beach. Norm stayed on the boat but I went swimming in the beautiful clear water and then took a walk on the beach and collected many shells.
Of course, the crew served us rum punch.
This tiny shell had a tiny crab inside! You can see it is on one of my fingers. It is only about 1/2 inch long.
After that beach, the crew had set up tables and served us a wonderful lobster lunch. Norm is enjoying it!
We were almost ready to leave for the second beach when a passenger sitting right next to us had a medical emergency, he stopped breathing and turned blue. His wife is a nurse and was right there. He recovered but it happened a second time, so the crew called an ambulance and they went to the hospital. I didn’t hear the outcome but will check in with the general manager, as of course we were concerned.
We moved on to the second beach and again, Norm stayed on with the rum punch and I went swimming and walking.
Vendors had stands selling all kinds of dresses, etc. They didn’t follow us around on the beach. Beautiful spot.
This is one of the two forts we saw on the way back to the ship.
Mark and Ramsay did the sting ray experience and Mark took lots of pictures. We did that on a previous trip here and really enjoyed it.
Our Christmas Eve plan was to have a cocktail party in our room with the family. Our butler, Atanu, brought all kinds of goodies. I arranged to have a cake to represent many wonderful things in all of our lives.
75 is for both Norm’s birthday in November and mine coming up in January. 50 represents Adam completing 50 marathons, one in each US state, and 17598 represents the altitude at Mt. Everest base camp, the trek that Mark and Ramsay completed in November. We toasted with champagne to a remarkable year for all.
We went to the terrace for dinner, and our favorite server, Melissa, made it fun as she always does.
The entertainment staff presented a special holiday show tonight and at the end many of the ship’s staff came on stage and sang with us. Afterward, they lined the hall as we left the theater and clapped for us!
Some of the ship’s departments use their imaginations to create Christmas trees. Here they are on display.
I forgot to mention that last night’s dinner at Polo, I had the most amazing gigantic shrimp that tasted just like lobster. And the mini Baked Alaska for dessert. Delicious.
Tomorrow and Thursday we are at sea on the way back to Miami. I will be taking a cooking class each day and of course there are the blackjack tournaments and many more fun things to take advantage of, but the best is being with our family.
December 23, 2024
St. Lucia is one of the islands we visited last year. It is a small island in the Eastern Caribbean and is only 27 miles long and 14 miles wide. It was long believed that Columbus discovered St. Lucia in 1502 but recent evidence suggests that he merely sailed by. There was really no European presence on the island until its settlement in the 1550s by Francois le Clerc, a notorious buccaneer.
We sailed into the port of Castries early to arrive at 7 am.
After breakfast, we headed out to our snorkeling boat, a catamaran called Carnival. Our crew was very entertaining!
The snorkeling was nice. I haven’t had a chance to look at the pictures but I didn’t really get any good ones. The sea bed was rocky, no pretty coral and the fish were all pretty far down.
We snorkeled for about an hour and then headed back on the boat where the crew entertained us with music and delicious rum punch!
There are 3 Sandals resorts on the island. Here’s a shot of one of them.
Lots of beautiful homes in the hills too.
Norm took a little nap!
When we returned to our cabin, we found this invitation waiting for us. It was a tour of the bridge!
Vendata, the chief concierge, took us up to the bridge and Dymtra, one of the staff, gave us the tour. Of course, you couldn’t take pictures of the instruments, but we did get some good pictures.
I had to take some pictures of the roofs of the gingerbread village structures. Very inventive! I really like the one made of matzoh! And the cookie table is kept completely stocked 24 hours a day. I try not to pass it too often.
Tonight we have another Oceania party and dinner in Polo.
Tomorrow we will be in Antigua. Our excursion is a lobster and champagne catamaran cruise. We wanted to do that last year and it was sold out. It is our last port day before the two sea days on the way back to Miami.
December 22, 2024
Last night, it was dark when we left St. Barts and it was fun to see all the yachts in the harbor beautifully lit up. Of course, the Bezos yacht was there. Is it following us?
It has been many years since we have been to Guadeloupe, an island in the French West Indies. Pointe-a-Pitre is the largest city in Guadeloupe.
Here are some pictures of our arrival.
Pointe a Pitre was founded in the late 17th century. It’s on the island of Grande-Terre, the easternmost of the country’s two main islands. Basse Terre is the western island and together they form a butterfly shape. Basse Terre is a volcanic island while Grand Terre is a coral island which makes the terrain very different on each.The population is 400,000.
Our tour today was a snorkeling excursion at the marine park. We walked to the boat and went through the Salted River which is covered with mangrove trees on both sides. Our guide, Tom told us a lot about the mangroves which really protect the environment in many ways. The ones here are the red mangroves. If you look closely you can see what look like pods hanging from the branches. These separate and are able to float for a year before they take root and grow. When the leaves turn yellow, it means they are filled with salt – it is the way the trees get rid of salt.
No wildlife to see, they do not have snakes, alligators or crocodiles here. There are lots of birds, though.
We enjoyed the boat trip through the Salted River and on to our snorkeling spot. The weather was perfect, not too hot, and the waters were calm.
There were many conch shells in the waters here and lots of beautiful fish. Unfortunately we left the underwater camera on the ship! The fish move pretty fast anyway and I have never had a lot of luck getting good pictures. The coral is not colorful at all here. We snorkel tomorrow again so maybe I will get some pictures then….
I did see a huge barracuda just before getting back on the boat.
We also went to another very small island that people may not go onto. It used to be 6 times bigger than it now is so no one is allowed on it so it can hopefully get bigger again. We could take a swim around it or snorkel, but there were not a lot of fish here.
On the way back to the ship we went past 2 bird islands. The trees were full of birds. Snowy egrets, herons and many pelicans. There were also lots of pelicans just off the islands diving for fish. You would think the fish would be smart enough to go somewhere else!
We got back to the ship, had lunch and I tried to write the blog but the internet was very erratic and I couldn’t get service.
We finished first in trivia today!
We all went to the Oceania Club party and after that, Norm and I were invited to the private dining area – Privee – for a dinner with three other couples, Dominique, our general manager, and Silas, our cruise director. It was a wonderful dinner and the wine certainly flowed.
Norm went to the show with Adam and Mark, Linda Gentile’s second, and I went to the casino where I had a winning night.
Tomorrow is St. Lucia where we will be snorkeling again.
December 21, 2024
St. Barts never fails to amaze! We are at anchor here and need to take the tenders to shore. The lifeboats are used as tenders. There are many huge yachts in the waters surrounding our ship. While I was on the balcony watching, a helicopter landed on one of the service boats belonging to one of the yachts! Ah, the good life.
We have been here several times, the most recent was last Christmas. Our plan is to go ashore once those on organized tours are off the ship, explore, shop and find a nice place for lunch.
I have written other blogs about St. Barts (officially St. Barthelemy) so will just add a few comments here. St. Barts is truly “a little piece of France” – a French island in the Caribbean. Gustavia is the capital city. The island has over 300 days of sun each year and it seems to be a getaway for the rich to take their getaways from the rest of the world!
The tender ride to shore was quite bumpy – we were warned ahead of time – and everyone was helped into the tender by the crew members since is was bobbing quite heavily. On the 20 minute ride to shore, I got drenched by a wave that came in one of the windows. No worries, it was warm enough on shore (about 85) to dry quickly.
We had a nice walk around the town, went into the shop where we bought our Panama hats last year, and searched the internet to find a good restaurant. We ended up at Cantina. It was an open air place overlooking lots of yachts. We were surprised to find that the town wasn’t at all crowded. It was fun to explore a place we have been to several times.
We both had lobster rolls and French fries. The lobster rolls were on some type of thick French roll. Unfortunately I ate before remembering to take a picture! Trust me, they were delicious;
Tonight the Terrace is featuring a Caribbean Market Dinner. We always enjoy these market dinners so may go there if the rest of the family agrees.
Back on board and will relax, read and possibly watch a movie. The one showing in the theater is Thelma, which we saw at the Lighthouse Film Festival – loved it. But I will look for something new on the room TV. Or I might just chill on the balcony. Choices, choices!
Tomorrow we will be in Guadaloupe. We have been there before but it was quite a few years ago. We have a snorkeling trip planned.
We enjoyed our Moet and Chandon champagne tasting, and particularly loved the one called Nectar Imperial. We tasted three and had food pairings with each of them. I think the one we loved is $105 on the ship but I see it for $76 on the web. Just delicious.
We arrived back from our tour yesterday in time for trivia but the rest of the family didn’t get back in time. We did need them as we didn’t place in the top three. Today is another day and we will all be here.
We arrived in San Juan at the time scheduled, 11 AM. None of us had specific plans here. I had thought we might try to go to the Hyatt Vacation Club here just to check it out, but we discovered that it is over an hour away so it wasn’t that important. Everyone went their own way, Norm got a massage and didn’t get off the ship (we have been here many times). I went out for a long walk and will share pictures. I also had a pamper day with massage, facial and collagen eye treatment so got back in time for that. It was wonderful!
Here is the view of our arrival this morning. The ship waiting for us in the forefront is an Oceania sister ship, the Nautica. It carries the same number of passengers as the Insignia on which we did all of our world cruises (650) but half of the capacity of the Vista that we are on now (1250).
Many of the blog readers have been to Puerto Rico before. If you haven’t, here is some info about the island. San Juan is the second oldest European settlement in the Americas and the entire city is still enclosed by the original fortress walls dating back to the early 1500’s. There is a lot of original colonial architecture here and it is fun to wander through the cobblestone streets.
All Puerto Ricans are US citizens since 1927. Puerto Rico is a self governing commonwealth of the US. They do have an elected delegate to the house who can vote in committees but not the full house. The number of Puerto Ricans living on the island is roughly equivalent to those living in the states (approximately 4 million each). Those living in the states can vote in US elections. There have been three votes regarding statehood for the island and each time Puerto Ricans voted to maintain their status as a commonwealth.
One of the first things I saw on my walk was this fountain, and a very entertaining dog trying to cool off. He walked through the fountain and found a spot to lie in the water!
Here are some other photos of the fort, one of the many iguanas I spotted and some holiday signs.
And near us is the Jeff Bezos boat with its accompanying service vessel. The boat was the one he wanted to have a bridge removed so he could get the tall sails out of the harbor where it was built. That request was refused so I guess he had to make accommodations to sail it out. I didn’t spot him.
Tonight we have a reservation in Red Ginger which is one of my favorite restaurants in the Oceania fleet.
The food in Red Ginger was wonderful. Here are some of the selections!
And tomorrow we arrive in St Barts.
December 19, 2024
The sail away from Miami was beautiful.
We had a casual dinner on the terrace at sailaway.
After leaving from Miami on Tuesday, we had a sea day yesterday and enjoyed it! The weather was just a bit windy but it didn’t affect us at all. Ramsay and I had massages and we assembled our trivia team – the Peanut Gallery – and finished in third place. We had a lovely dinner in Toscana and enjoyed the first of the entertainment team shows – “Into the Night”. We saw that one with a different team last year and it was just as spectacular with this talented team.
The ship is beautifully decorated for the holidays and there is a very impressive gingerbread village in the main atrium.
Our cruise director is Silas Cook. He is relatively new to Oceania and we had never met him before. He’s doing a great job.
Today, our port was Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. It has been a long time since we were here, and we had never been to this city. Puerto Plata is on the north side of the island on the Atlantic Ocean. There are 62 miles of beaches on this side alone. Columbus was one of the early explorers of the area. He called the shoreline “the Silver Port” and settled at La Isabela with a mixed community of Taino’s (original inhabitants) and Spaniards. They built the first church and his first home in the Americas. Eventually gold deposits were found here. The area where the ship docks is called Taino Bay. It can accommodate 3 cruise ships and the port in the north can accommodate 2. Our guide said that 4 ships are here today. We shared the dock with the Celebrity Apex.
The Dominican Republic shares the island with Haiti and our guide mentioned what a terrible time they are having in that country right now.
Our tour today was to Ocean World. It was a short bus ride away. We noticed many of our ship tours were headed there with various options to choose from so we anticipated a very crowded place. We were delightfully surprised.
The park offers a snorkeling area (we were prepared to do it but it was a very underwhelming manmade pool and you could see all of the fish from the glass sides). There are dolphin, sea lion and shark shows and a nice bird sanctuary. The dance here is the meringue and some dancers performed on an outdoor stage.
We enjoyed all of the shows and then relaxed at the buffet lunch which featured Dominican food. After lunch we went to the beach (it is a manmade beach because the waves are so rough here that you cannot access the beach over the rock walls that protect the land.)
Here are some pictures of the shows. The trainers were funny and just amazing with the way they work with the animals and they treat them very well.
We really enjoyed the bird sanctuary, especially the lovebirds who ate out of our hands and landed on our hats!
Mark, Ramsay and Adam had a trip to a coffee plantation, which they enjoyed.
Norm and I were invited to a Moet and Chandon champagne tasting which we enjoyed very much. Our entertainer tonight is Linda Gentille. We have seen her many times but as always, I will go to the show again.
Tomorrow we will be in San Juan. We arrive at 11 and don’t have tours scheduled so will be doing some walks around town.
We are so excited to cruise with our family again this Christmas holiday. We will be heading out from Miami to the Caribbean. Many islands are not new for us but there is always something new to explore. Here’s the map of our journey. Stay tuned for comments from the ship and each port.
Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures 