Southern Caribbean Cruise - March 2012 - Off the Grid Again!

After enjoying our cruise last year so much, we decided to do it once again this year on the NCL Dawn. This time it was a 10-day cruise, with the additional port of St. Maarten. About a month before we were to leave, NCL called and asked if we would be interested in upselling/upgrading to a 2-bedroom/2-bathroom suite for a very low additional cost. Of course, we said yes, which meant that we would have a butler again along with many other great suite perks. We couldn't believe that we had been fortunate to get another upsell call for this cruise.


The itinerary of our the 10-day cruise.

We flew to Fort Lauderdale the day before the cruise (St. Patrick's Day) and stayed at the Embassy Suites Hotel. Great hotel, with a beautiful pool. The weather in FL was sunny and warm!! We enjoyed some quiet time by the pool to enjoy being on vacation.


Chris at the Providence airport. You can tell he needs a vacation!!


The Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale - Even though it was sold out for the night, it was a great place to stay pre-cruise. Great breakfast and happy hour included!


The pool at the Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale. Great place to begin a vacation!!


A view of downtown Miami as we sailed away.

Our dining room and bedroom in the suite.

The living room was pretty comfortable for the two of us! It was nice having a second bathroom and an extra bedroom to store our luggage. We sure got spoiled!







View of our balcony from the living room.





View of NCL's Pearl from the jacuzzi tub!


Nothing like a beautiful Caribbean sunset from your own balcony!

Our first stop was Samana, Dominican Republic. This is the Cayo Levantado Beach on a island off the coast. We spent the day there just swimming in the water and lounging in the sun!






View of the Dawn from Cayo Levantado Beach.


We pre-arranged a taxi to go to Smugglers Cove Beach in Tortola. It was quite a bumpy ride, but worth the trip.

Chris enjoying a litle sun at Smuggler's Cove.


It started to cloud over a bit so we decided to have something to eat at Patricia's. We had read on the internet how great her potato salad was, so we had to try it. We also had some of Patricia's jerk chicken. Wonder if the chickens were wild? Even so, it was all very good!!

We were not due to dock in St Kitts until 1pm, so we made no plans. We docked a little early and the sun was shining, so we decided to take a taxi to the beach. We ended up sharing a taxi with a couple from Brazil and asked the driver to take us to a nice beach. He brought us to the Carambola Beach Club on South Friars. Although it was a bit pricey for the umbrella and lounge rentals, we could not have been happier. They even bring your food and drinks to you on the beach!





Chris snorkeled around a reef the entire afternoon! It ended up being one of our favorites on the cruise.

After a great afternoon at the Beach Club, we stopped to have a refreshing beverage in the port. It never came! Not wanting to miss the ship, we decided to be on our way!!

While in Barbados, we arranged a day pass at the Almond Casaurina Beach Hotel.






Deb's happy feet in Barbados!!




Chris loves swimming in Barbados!



Deb couldn't do that with both hands holding the basket!!


Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas made the Dawn look like a row boat! Allure sure is huge!

Deb just checking to be sure that they tied us up securely!

We took a morning NCL excursion over to the French side of St. Maarten. We walked around an open aire market for a while and explored!




What does it take to own a yacht like this? This is the Serene and is owned by Yuri Scheffler the Russian CEO of Stoli Vodka.


Or this one?? This is the Katara and is owned by Sheikh Hamid bin Khalifa, the Emir of Qatar.


Chris says he doesn't nap...don't let that book fool you....he is napping behind it....I checked!!

One of the perks of being in a suite is that you get invited to the Chocolate Buffet before it opens up to the rest of the passengers! Of course, we go to check it out.



We snagged a few goodies and dropped them off at our cabin to enjoy after dinner!


Waiting for dinner in the main dining room.

On this night, we finally got to sit in the area of the main dining room where you overlook the stern (back) of the ship, but by the time we got there it was dark so we couldn't see much!

Every evening our room steward, Rudy, would leave us a little friend for the night!


This guy is wearing Deb's Versace sunglasses!


This one was our favorite!


Several times throughout the cruise, NCL offered laundry service. It was $24.99 for all one could stuff into this bag. They wash, dry and press! Deb brings duct tape with her to reinforce the seams, and she has gotten quite good at stuffing a lot of clothes in the bag!

Dawn's pool! It can get quite crowded at times.

Some of our favorite food on the ship:

Coq au vin at Le Bistro!

Escargots!

Yummy cheesecake!

Crème Brûlée

One of Deb's favorites at Le Bistro - the tenderloin!


Chris loves the lamb with mint jelly.


Shrimp cocktail for lunch at Cagney's Steakhouse. Having breakfast and lunch at Cagney's is a great suite perk.


As all good things must come to end....so did this vacation! You can see that Chris looks very rested!

Deb looks pretty relaxed as well! But she is already deep in plans for our next cruise: We leave for Venice, Italy at the end of August to cruise the Greek Islands and then spend a week in Tuscany and Chianti!