We arrived in Charleston, SC on Saturday and got settled into our hotel and then headed to King Street to meet a friend of Eric’s for dinner. We met up at Basil Thai and had some amazing Thai food. Since we’ve moved to Blacksburg we don’t have a lot of the ethnic type restaurants that we’ve come to love. So when we travel now, we try and scope out some of our favorite foods we’ve come to love.
We strolled along King Street for a bit and ended up at Cupcake as I had recently learned about them in my search for places to eat and things to do in Charleston.
I found that they had a “fan” page on Facebook and joined their page. They recently started a birthday club and knowing that I wasn’t going to be here for my birthday I thought I’d inquire as to whether I could get my birthday cupcake early or not. They were so awesome in allowing me to do so, so we popped in and I got a black & white. Not as big as the ones I’ve grown accustom to at Bubblecake or Crumbs, but very moist and the perfect dessert.
I got a low country favorite of Shrimp and Grits with an Andouille Sausage gravy. It was INCREDIBLE!!!! Eric got the seafood omelets, which was made of crab, shrimp and grouper with onions, tomatoes and pepperjack cheese. Everything was so delicious and well prepared.
Charleston currently has their restaurant week going on and we’ll be going to Old Village Post House for dinner. The Old Village Post House is a beautiful old home which has been converted into a restaurant. There are several small dining rooms and we dined right outside of the open kitchen. For restaurant week they have 3 courses for $30.00. You choose an appetizer, entrée and dessert. I had the smoked fish dip for an appetizer and it was wonderful. They smoke the fish in-house and it was just right. For my entrée I had the salmon with a mustard glaze and garlic mash and chocolate cake for dessert. The dessert was just….okay. Eric and our friend both had the steak for dinner. We headed down to Shem’s Creek to take some pictures and hung out for a bit and then decided we needed more dessert. We ended up at Crave which is a very cool little place in Mt. Pleasant. I had the tempura French toast bites and Eric had blueberry cobbler.
Our final day at sea and our final day on board the beautiful Carnival Dream. We didn't do a lot today (again, I sadly cannot remember much of our sea days).
I remember not feeling well today, partly due to a late night on Thursday, sadness from our dream coming to an end and slightly rougher seas.
We dined as usual in the main dining room with our friends. It was an amazing night and the perfect way to end an awesome week.
We had such an amazing waitstaff. Here is Eric and I with 2 of our servers. Nazan, our head server who is from Turkey. Miroslav, who was the 2nd server who is from Croatia.
After dinner we went back to our room to change, pack and get our luggage set out for the morning. After we were all packed we headed down to meet up with Janie and David for drinks at our favorite place, Ocean's Plaza and the Lanai.
We disembarked from the ship somewhere around 8am. Grabbed a shuttle to pick up our rental car and then returned to where we started our trip for breakfast. We had such a great breakfast that first day of our cruise at Simply Delicious that we decided to return. We mentioned to our server that we would see her next year and told her that we had just returned from a cruise. She gave us a little goodie bag for our travels home. So sweet of her.
We were so not ready to leave Port Canaveral or our Dream behind. We circled into port for a final glimpse at her before heading to Orlando.
There is nothing like cruising. Nothing at all. From being able to see God's beautiful work first thing in the morning. To the beautiful Atlantis resort in Nassau at Sunrise, the amazing clear blue waters of St. Thomas to the breathtaking views of St. Martin. To be able to pay one price and visit anywhere from 2 - 6 or more ports of calls (countries) in as little as 5 - 7 days. I feel blessed to have been able to experience this and look forward to many cruises in the future.
To close out this series, here are a few of my favorite memories.
I have to take a minute here and say that I absolutely looked forward to the daily announcements from our Captain (Carlo Queirolo). The Italians have a funny way in putting an A after a lot of their words. On our first full sea day (Monday), Eric and I were at a shopping seminar and Captain Queirolo came across the PA system to give us our position, weather, etc. To this day, Eric and I still giggle and announce sunny days the way Captain Queirolo would. He was giving us the current weather and continues with it is a.....then has this long pause like he is literally looking out the window and trying to determine if it is dark because of the tinted windows or if it is truly overcast and then he says...a sunny daya. We just laughed and laughed and it just tickled us.
It's the little things you take away from the cruise or any vacation for that matter that makes it truly memorable.
So back to the day at hand.
I am thinking I really need to journal while on the ship because I truly can't remember most of our sea days. I have strong memories of our days in port because it's well photographed and the experiences we had were truly unforgettable.
If I remember correctly, today is the day that Eric and I had a couples massage done. It was heavenly. I could so do without them hammering us at the end by trying to get us to purchase their spa products as that truly deflates the bubble of bliss you are currently floating in.
Sea days are very much days of nothingness. Time to wander the ship and find hidden gems to later share with your friends on Cruise Critic. The perfect time to take advantage of on board activities (trivia, ice carving demonstrations). The perfect time to just grab a book and find a little slice of heaven out on the deck to just lay back and soak it all in.
Sea days are also Tea Party days. And what's a tea party without your royal family.
Sadly I cannot remember the name of the lady to my left (when looking at the picture), however to my right is my dear friend Sheryl and behind us is the ever fabulous and amazing Jw. All of us met through our roll call on Cruise Critic and we are so blessed to have them as friends.
We opted to not dine in the main dining room tonight as we had made reservations prior to the cruise to Chef's Art Steakhouse. We were very much looking forward to this as all of the reviews we had read said that the food was absolutely amazing. We made our way past the whale tail and around to the aft section of the ship.
The service however was less than stellar. We received better service in the main dining room where it is a faster pace than in the steakhouse where it is more intimate. It was very disappointing and we made sure to let everyone know who we felt needed to know (employee wise). The jury is still out as to whether we will do the steakhouse again as you do pay extra for the privilege to dine there. We did not let it completely damper our spirits though.
After dinner, we headed down to the promenade area and had some professional pictures of us taken. Sadly none of these turned out very well as the photographers pose you and we looked so uncomfortable and unnatural. We opted not to purchase any.
We headed back to our cabin to change into some more comfortable clothes and headed down to the comedy club to meet up with our friends. We saw two comedians again tonight and hands down we all felt that Michael Macy was the best. He had us in tears from laughter. As we had every other night for the comedy shows, we sat in the front row and while most people tend to steer away from the front we loved it and loved that the comedians would use us as material (in a good way).
We ended the night as most in Ocean's Plaza with our dear friends Janie and David. After a couple of drinks, we headed to Dreamland and rested up for our final day at sea and aboard the Carnival Dream.
As morning approaches, I no longer feel like I am on vacation, but more like I have settled nicely into life and am truly enjoying this sense of peace that follows me around. We woke this morning and ventured outside to say good morning to the beautiful island of St. Maarten. Once we were settled into port we made our way down to the first deck of the ship to meet up with our crew for our tour of St. Maarten.
Our first stop was at a small pull off with amazing views of the French side of the island which is St. Martin.
After a few photo ops and just being able to take in the beauty that is St. Martin we boarded back on to the bus and headed for Orient Beach. For those who do not know, Orient Beach is a clothing optional beach. Nudity is permitted on the French side of the island, however if you bare it all on the Dutch side, you will be taken to jail....as is. So make sure you know which side of the island you are on. Lol.
Here's Eric and I at Orient Beach...fully clothed. ;)
Most of us in our group were under the impression that we were only going to be at Orient Beach for a short time, however our driver had a different agenda and had us in nude paradise for 2 hours. After much grumbling and discussion amongst the crew, we voted to wrap things up and head back to the Dutch side and the much anticipated Maho Beach.
Maho Beach was what made Eric and I decide to take this tour. Ever since we heard about this little slice of heaven we have wanted to visit. For those of you who have not seen the youtube videos or are aware of what Maho Beach is, I highly recommend this video:
There is a surf board that has all the days flights so you know when they are arriving and departing.
You will also see when people riding the fence when planes take off. We had a few in our group do that.
We saw a few puddle jumpers arrive while we were there but were extremely disappointed to find out that the 747's arrived while we were at Orient Beach and then right after we left.
However, this picture pretty much sums up the whole cruising experience.
We had dinner in the main dining room and opted to just dine alone tonight. It was nice to just be with Eric and reconnect after such a long day.
We called it an early night and retreated to our cabin for some peace and quiet. Nothing but relaxation from here on out as we have 2 sea days before we return to Port Canaveral and reality.
We opted to join them on a private sail boat excursion which would take us to St. John for a day of snorkeling and relaxation. I have never snorkeled and was somewhat nervous about it since I can't swim without plugging my nose. lol. The sail boat that we sailed on was called the Fantasy and it was a perfect day for sailing. We met our captain for the day and rode in the dingy out to the boat. Once we were all on board we set sail for St. John. We ended up anchoring in Caneel Bay which is a very popular resort to the famous. The resort was currently closed and under going renovations so we had the entire bay and beach to ourselves.
Eric took to the lighter side of relaxation and enjoyed wading in the water and just enjoying the serenity of the beach.
After what seemed like only 10 minutes but might have been an hour or so, we rode back to the sail boat for lunch and then to head back to shore.
After we returned to shore we grabbed a taxi back to port and called it a day on St. Thomas.
Back on board we just relaxed and enjoyed the company of friends before dinner.
After dinner we headed to the Dancin' in the Street show. This is a very good show, however I did find myself dozing off a couple of times but not because of the show, just because I was so tired from the events of the day.
Before we knew it, the night was quickly coming to a close and it was off to bed as we had St. Maarten to look forward in the morning.
** October 11, 2010 - Sea Day aboard the Carnival Dream **
Sadly I cannot remember much of this day...and no, it wasn't due to the copious amounts of alcohol that was consumed...kidding, slightly. :P
I remember going to a talk about shopping in port and man was it just a waste of time. sadness.
We participated in a Glee Trivia Challenge in which we took home the grand prize...the coveted Ship on a Stick. lol.
The main highlight of the day was in the evening and the Chef' Table experience. This is probably, by far the most amazing culinary experience we have ever had. It was to say the least incredible. Take 12 cruisers, one amazing kitchen staff and the head executive chef. Throw in h'or devours, unlimited champagne, 7 courses and unlimited wine and you have a night to remember.
After dinner, we headed to the comedy club again with our usual crew and had one crazy fun night.
Off to bed now as we are headed to St. Thomas tomorrow.
